Hi, it's finally me again, posting a new chapter to this story. I didn't get many reviews though… Hope you like it and please let me know so that I can find the strength and inspiration to go on with it. Thanks to all those who did review the first two chapters anyway.

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Studying – Chapter III

Surprisingly, Ranma did not sleep at school, the next day. Being quite happy about how his studying session with Akane had gone, he actually wanted to see if he had learned anything at all.

He didn't have to wait long: his first class was Maths. He listened to the teacher intently, watched the symbols and numbers he was writing on the blackboard. He really listened very carefully. For once, all his concentration was on the lecture.

After some minutes he gave up. He didn't have a clue as to what the teacher was doing. The symbols were somewhat familiar but they didn't make sense to him.

'But I worked really hard yesterday', he thought, 'and I actually solved some exercises by myself. Why is it that I don't have a clue about what the sensei is doing?'

He scratched his head with both hands, angry and disappointed. Then he looked at Akane, who was diligently following the teacher, actually seeming to know what he was talking about. He sighed. Maybe he was just not smart enough for Maths…

As soon as that thought crept into his consciousness he pushed it aside.

'What! Not smart enough? Me? Saotome Ranma? The one who can master any technique twice as fast as any other martial artist?' his ego protested.

He still didn't feel too well about it though.

Just then Akane sensed him watching her and turned, catching his sullen expression. She had noticed he had been following the lesson for once and was very pleased about it.

'Finally,' she had been thinking, 'I won't have to listen to everybody complaining to me about his bad behaviour in class…'

Then she had returned her concentration to the teacher and forgotten about him. Almost.

Now she saw him watching her with that sad expression and she wondered what was wrong. He reluctantly turned his gaze to the blackboard again and sighed. Akane frowned. What was there to sigh about on the blackboard? Unless…

'He doesn't understand this stuff and so he's sad?' she wondered. 'He actually cares about this?' She almost couldn't believe it, so she decided she'd ask him later, during the long break.

Ranma was feeling frustrated and angry at himself. Angry for being caught by Akane staring at her, angry for not understanding a word of the lecture even though he had tried really hard, angry to see that the next lecture wasn't any better, angry for actually caring about it at all... He was so upset he couldn't sleep even after he decided that he wouldn't try and follow the lessons any more.

Akane turned around occasionally and looked at him strangely. 'What?' he thought, making a face to her. Her eyes widened and she promptly turned away with a "Humph".

The break finally came and Ranma rushed out of the classroom, grabbing his bento. Akane followed him quickly, resolved to find out the reason for his odd behaviour. She caught him under a tree, alone.

"Hi, mind if I join you?" she asked with a small smile.

"Go ahead", he mumbled without looking up.

"Well, if I'm disturbing you, I can go away. I'm sure Ukyo or Shampoo…" Akane started, instantly annoyed, but was interrupted.

"Jeez, Akane, sit down and don't make such a fuss", he stated briefly looking at her and then continued eating. Akane decided to let it pass and sat down, careful not to get too close to him. After all, she had questions, she didn't want to be distracted by... She quickly veered her thoughts away from that direction, unpacked her lunch and started eating.

After a while, when Ranma had almost finished, she asked: "Ranma, why were you so upset in class today?"

"Uhmmm… nothing", he hesitated, his eyes on his almost empty bento.

"Come on, I saw you. You didn't even fall asleep once!" she teased.

"Well, can't a guy pay attention for once in a while?" he protested.

"Is it because you wanted to see if you could solve the exercises?" she asked quietly.

He looked at her strangely.

"I … I thought I did ok yesterday. I mean, I did understand that stuff and I solved those damned exercises… But today…" he trailed off, angry at himself again.

"You didn't understand what the sensei was talking about, right?"

He raised his head defiantly.

"Who needs Maths anyway. What good is it to Martial Arts?" he said angrily. She just shook her head.

"Ranma…"

"I tried," he interrupted. "I really tried, but it just no good, so why should I bother? I don't care about school anyway."

"So you give up," she stated plainly, her eyes fixed on his face.

He looked up, surprised. "What do you mean, give up? I never give up… if it's important!"

"But school is important. You don't want to spend the summer here, do you? We've talked about it already."

"Maybe I changed my mind. Maybe I'd rather be here alone then with a kawaiikune tomboy like you!"

There he was again. When he was confused or angry, or both, his best technique to end an argument was… an insult.

Akane looked shocked. She stood motionless for a moment, then turned away.

"Fine then, see if I care!" she just screamed and rushed away to hide the tears that were threatening to fall. But she did not turn fast enough to hide her hurt expression from him. He looked at her retreating figure, feeling sorry, sorry to have hurt her, sorry for his failure… He sighed.

She was so angry at him! She could scream with fury. She wished she had some of her bricks to pulverise. Unfortunately she had three more classes that day and she would just have to wait till she got home to vent her anger.

'He's such a jerk! There I was, worrying about him, and he just goes and insults me! And I actually thought he was being nice yesterday! Feh!' she fumed inside. She stomped into her class, sat at her desk and purposely avoided looking at him when he came inside.

'Man, she's mad…', Ranma thought, seeing how she avoided looking at him. He decided he would have to apologise, but he'd do it at home, so for the time being, he would just have to wait and avoid her if he didn't want to be malleted. Maybe she would calm down a little. Maybe.

He remembered her words from the previous evening.

'You know I'll always be here for you too, don't you?' she had said.

He had said something similar too.

Eyeing her tense shoulders, he sighed again.

Ranma was in his room, pondering what he should do. Should he go to Akane and apologise to her? Probably. Would she accept his apology? He doubted it. That was precisely why he was hesitating.

She had stomped home ignoring him completely, while he had walked on the fence as usually, occasionally stealing glances at her. At home she had rushed to her room, coming out only when Kasumi called everybody for lunch. She had avoided looking at him the whole time and he had done the same. Their parents had asked what had happened and both of them had answered "Nothing". Nabiki had sighed mumbling "As always", his father had started ranting about family honour and Mr Tendo had started crying.

Now he was still trying to decide whether or not to go to his fiancée and apologise. He finally resigned to his fate, expecting to be pounded through the window, but wanting to try to make things right nonetheless.

Again, he chose the window, not the door, trying to avoid having the whole family eavesdropping on them. He saw her at her desk, writing something. Taking a deep breath, he knocked.

Akane knew he was there. She knew he would come, eventually. He always did. She had calmed down a little, and even managed to think things through a little. So when he knocked, she decided she wouldn't mallet him right away, she would ask what he wanted first.

"I…" he fidgeted, jumping into the room, his left hand on his pigtail. Seeing her frown at his indecisiveness, he forced himself to continue. "I wanted to apologise for insulting you at school."

"Oh yeah?" she said, raising an eyebrow. She wouldn't let him go off too easily.

"Yeah, well, you know, I didn't really mean I'd rather study the whole summer here, alone, than be… with… you." He blushed, realising what he had said, and added hastily: "Not that I want to be with a t…"

Akane interrupted him with a warning look: "Ranma, are you here to apologise or to insult me some more? Because I know you don't want to be with your uncute fiancée, you don't have to shove it into my face every single time!" She looked away, hanging her head to hide her eyes behind her bangs.

He was surprised. 'I don't have to…?'

"Akane, I… Look, I do want to apologise… I don't mean what I say, you know that. And I don't prefer being alone…" he couldn't go on, it would be admitting too much. He barely could admit it to himself. But he just couldn't let her believe that he'd prefer being alone rather than with her.

"Why are you always insulting me then?" she asked, looking at him again.

"I don't know," he blushed. "Habit, perhaps… I don't mean it though, well, mostly." He thought about her cooking. But seeing her frown again, he added: "I don't… want to hurt… you… you know it, don't you?" he repeated scratching the back of his head.

"But you do," she said in a small voice.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

She sighed. She believed him.

"I'm sorry too," she said finally. "I know I have a temper…" she admitted, and for once Ranma only made a face, without opening his mouth, so Akane just smiled self-consciously instead of getting angry.

They stood there, smiling at each other for a while, not really knowing what to do next. Ranma was feeling reluctant to leave, Akane was just enjoying the peace for once.

Eventually, she remembered why she had come to him at school and decided to check if she had guessed correctly.

"Ranma," she began slowly. He just looked at her.

"Are you really quitting the studying thing?"

"Huh?" he looked puzzled.

"Back at school", she explained, "you said studying was no good. Are you quitting or are you still going to study with me?"

"You'd still do it?" he questioned, his voice full of surprise. "I mean, not that it helped any. Today I didn't get a word of what the sensei was talking about at Maths…" He was ashamed to admit it, but then he knew she already had figured it out.

"Yes, I'd still do it. It was nice yesterday, wasn't it?" she smiled, and then she continued in a more serious tone.

"Look, you can't expect to pick up everything you've managed to sleep through in the last year - or maybe even longer – in just one afternoon. Even one of your easiest techniques took longer than that to learn, right?"

"Uhmmm… I suppose so…" he fidgeted.

"So it'll take some time till you can understand what the sensei is talking about, but eventually you will. Just like when you were learning the chestnut fist technique: at first you couldn't see how it was possible to do it, but then, after some time and practice, you learned it."

Akane hoped that comparing studying to martial arts training would make Ranma think about it in a different way. It seemed that she was succeeding: Ranma was thinking about it.

"You mean I should look at it like training? Just have to try until you get it?" he summarised his thoughts after a moment.

She smiled and nodded.

"Exactly."

"So are we going to practise now?" he asked, smiling himself.

"Sure, go and bring your books, I'll bring some lemonade and cookies, ok?" she offered.

"Ok, be right back!" he replied, jumping out of the window.

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A/N I know, I know, almost no waff in here. But there'll be lots in the next chapter, I promise. It' just that this story, as the others I put down, write themselves rather than having me writing them. I don't really know what is going to happen, not in detail anyway. So just bear with my muse and let's hope that next time it will be all waffy and fluffy…

I will really appreciate any comments, even if you think there's no point in continuing this story. Thank you!!!

PS

I just edited the story and reposted it today (March 23rd 2003). A million thanks to dogbertcarroll who took the time to write down all the mistakes I made and send me a comment about them: you are incredibly nice to help me out without even being asked – I love you!