Disclaimer: The characters here, unfortunately, aren't mine and all.
Water dragon: GST- Goods and services taxes.
Sophie-chan: Ryouga hasn't seen Akane yet, so nope; he won't fall in love with her. Mousse will appear (or else Shampoo won't be able to marry anyone else) later. ---------------------+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------- -------
"What?!"
Akane panicked and stood up, slamming her hand onto the table.
"It's true," Nabiki said, raising an eyebrow at her sister. "He's walking over."
"Sit down, Akane, it's rude to leave when our master is coming," Sayuri pushed Akane back down onto her seat.
"Master? Our master? What do you think I am? Some kind of dog?" Akane shrieked.
Twice. Such a coincidence. First, he'd avoided her. Why couldn't she avoid him now?
"You're not a bitch," Sayuri said (Akane gasped at her friend's verbal abuse), "okay? Now sit."
"But it's our day off! He's not our master on days off."
"Just be silent and still, will you?"
Akane sat down, cussing the whole time.
"Yo," Ranma smiled, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
Akane glared at him heatedly, which made him melt. "Who said you were invited?"
All three (Nabiki, too, because she wanted to grab some money off Ranma) girls kicked her in the shin for being rude.
Akane yowled in pain and frowned indignantly. "Whose side are you on?" she hissed so that only her friends could hear her.
Sayuri and Yuka simply answered, "Neither."
Whereas, Nabiki simply pointed out, "Money."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Shampoo was having a hard time handling the dojo alone. Nodoka had failed in finding a substitute sensei and Shampoo had to do it herself.
Shampoo did a three hundred and sixty degree turn around the room. The children were making noise. Five of them were playing tag. Some boys were bullying a girl. A boy was sitting alone at the corner of the room. Some girls chatted loudly, causing a racket.
She had tried several attempts in settling them down but to no avail. However, there was still one more.
Taking in a deep breath, Shampoo screamed in her Chinese accent.
"Shut up!"
That did it. Everybody stared at her as if she were some kind of purple haired (okay, she IS purple haired) two headed and four-eyed monster. Shampoo put her hands on her hips and put on an indignant and frustrated look.
Immediately mutters of "how rude"s and "I don't like her"s and "who is she?" could be heard all around the room.
Shampoo sneered at the little children. She gave them an angry look this time.
"You ungrateful smites! If you think I'm going to teach annoying gossipy people like you, you're wrong! All wrong!"
Shampoo turned around, ignored their curious stares and sent to sit in the corner.
She smirked, wanting to see what the kids would do after she'd given her speech. She didn't have to wait long for one voice piped up loud and clear.
"My parents, the Lord and Lady Tsukiko, did not pay you tons of cash just for you to burst out at us and then just sit there, ignoring us."
"Right," another kid chimed in. "We're here to learn martial arts."
"Martial smartial. If you kids don't want to listen to me, then I shan't teach you!"
"You're worse than Saotome and Tendo sensei."
"What?!"
They were comparing her to that lowlife servant? That got on Shampoo's nerves.
"Fine, call me barbarous and worse than that bitch! But you'd all better watch out!"
Shampoo whirled her body around dramatically, making sure everybody saw her sashay like a ballerina out the door.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Alright, ladies, what do you want? Everything's on me, I'll pay," Ranma said, tilting his chair back.
Yuka and Sayuri shook their heads furiously, looking panicky. "No! We'll pay ourselves, my lord."
Nabiki leaned forward on the table. "Some of that wonderful blueberry cake, strawberry parfait, mango pudding, lemonade and shepherd's pie."
Akane flared at Nabiki. "Onee-chan, don't order so much!"
"That's all right, Sazara," Ranma cut in. "I can pay for it. It's not much."
Akane swirled her head towards him, a fierce expression blazing in her eyes. "Nobody said that you could call me by my first name," she spat out. "And just because you're so rich, you don't have to show off."
Ranma sat back. "Whoa, cool down, lady, relax," he waited for her to calm down. "And I'm not trying to rub in the fact that I'm rich, okay?"
Akane gave him an irate "hmph!" and folded her arms.
There was silence for a long moment before Ranma asked. "So?"
Akane frowned back at him. "So what?"
"What're you going to order?"
"I've got enough money to pay for what I want."
"I don't care."
"I don't care either," Akane stood up. "I can't take it anymore. I'm leaving earlier."
"Sazara-chan," Sayuri called out.
Akane paused and turned back, giving her a questioning face.
"Sazara," Yuka helped her friend, "please stay here. We'll all feel bored."
"Yes," Sayuri pleaded.
"Normally, I would humour you," Akane explained. "but due to certain circumstances, I've to leave," she said, using her head and motioning it towards Ranma.
Ranma was beginning to feel exasperated. He'd tried all he could to be nice but she'd taken it and returned it with hatred. No more Mr. Nice Guy, no sir, Ranma thought.
"It's not like anybody wants you here."
Akane's head twirled to face Ranma in the eye.
"And that's why I'm leaving!"
Akane grabbed her purse, stuck out her tongue and left the café.
There was silence again before Nabiki asked tiredly.
"Where's my food?"
++++++++++++++++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+++++++++++++++++
"Nabiki, tell me exactly how much you spent at that café?" Akane questioned.
Nabiki propped her chin on her elbow; she was lying on the bed. "Why do you want to know?"
"So that I can pay Ranma back."
"Ranma? You guys are on first name terms now?"
"No," Akane said.
"I really don't understand you, Akane. Ranma's a really nice guy. Why can't you just be friends with him?"
"You know why."
"No, I don't."
Akane smiled sardonically. "Yes, you do."
"No, I don't. Truthfully."
"Yes, you do!"
"Hmph," Nabiki folded her arms. "Then I bet you will never ever be friends with him."
"Definitely!"
"And if my bet is right, you'll owe me ten thousand yen every week for the rest of your life."
"What?" Akane screeched. "That's like making easy money, Nabiki, and it's called daylight robbery, you know?"
"Robbery.isn't it ironic? You're a robber and here you are talking about being robbed and acting mad over it."
"Well, this is different."
"Isn't. And you know it."
"It is."
"Anyway," Nabiki abruptly said, returning to the subject. "I bet that you won't be friends with him."
"Then I'll have to pay you forty thousand yen a month!" Akane shrieked. "There's no way I'm going to do that!"
"If you want to avoid my bet, there is only one thing you can do."
"Really? What?" Akane asked, placing her hands on her hips, looking cross.
Nabiki grinned. "You'll just have to be his friend."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Ha, ha," Akane laughed nervously as she inched her way towards Ranma, who was talking to Karika, a student.
Makoto tugged Akane's sleeve. "Why are you looking so jumpy and agitated, Tendou-sensei?"
"You won't understand it even if I explain it to you."
Makoto looked interested. "Try me."
Akane decided to see if he would really understand if she told him. "I have to," a gulp, "be Saotome-sensei's," a larger gulp and a few seconds to calm her breathing, "friend."
The last word was pronounced as if Akane had never used it before, as if it was a foreign language.
"And?"
"That's it."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"I guess you were right. I don't understand."
Akane stuck out her tongue at Makoto. "Like that makes me feel better."
"Yes?" Ranma appeared out of nowhere. "I thought I heard somebody mention my name."
"I'll help you," Makoto whispered so that only Akane could hear him. He raised his voice. "Tendou-sensei wants to be your friend."
Ranma quirked an eyebrow. "Oh?" he said, looking amused.
Akane smacked her forehead. Trust her student to make matters worse. She sat down, pulling Ranma down at the same time, which caused him to give a "What the-?"
"I have to be your friend. I've got no choice."
"Then start treating me like one, for goodness' sakes."
Akane was caught surprised by the statement. She'd never thought of it. How do you treat an enemy like a friend?
"Uh," she stuttered, her voice and body jittery, "how do you treat a friend?"
She'd twisted the question so as not to insult him. That was one way to treat an enemy like a friend! Akane was starting out good.
"The same way you treat your other friends."
Akane stared at him.
"What?" Ranma asked; he feeling irritated. She didn't have to glare at him after he'd kindly answered her question.
"How is that supposed to answer my question?"
"Okay," he cleared his throat and clasped his hands together, looking business-like, "how do you behave towards Yuka and Sayuri?"
"I ignore them when they ask stupid questions. I also-"
"Alright," Ranma stopped her from going on. "Just treat me the way you treat them. After all, they're your friends, right?"
"Who?"
"I'm going to ignore you because that's the way you behave when your friend asks silly questions," Ranma grinned sadistically.
Akane frowned. She was getting irked. He had to irritate her just when she wanted to be friends. "Really, who?"
"Who else?"
Akane kept her scowl on him.
He surrendered. "Yuka and Sayuri. Isn't it obvious?"
Akane stuck out her tongue again. "It's not when you have to be pals with someone you really hate and detest!"
She turned back to the class. "Let's get started. I've had enough of chatting with Saotome-sensei. It's tiresome."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Over the days, Akane treated Ranma nicely and barely fought with him. In return, he became closer to her and they were good friends. Although Akane could still get irritated if she was disturbed by Ranma, who loved to tease her at every opportunity.
For example, once, Ranma asked if he could see how Akane's room looked like ("I've never been to the servants' quarters before," he reasoned. What a lie). Akane said okay ("Is that what friends do?"). The minute he stepped into the well furnished room, he began prying into her stuff ("What's in this drawer? Do you have so little clothes? I really must ask Mother to give you servants some more,"). Akane got edgy and irritated, which rewarded Ranma with a scolding, "Don't push it, boy."
However, her feelings for a certain somebody remained the same: Shampoo. During their conversations and tiny quarrels, the Amazon lady would pop out of the blue and somehow find fault with Akane ("Are you trying to get close to my lord Ranma?"). Not like Ranma belongs to Shampoo in any way.
Gradually, Akane realised that she liked some of they nobility. She'd asked Nabiki for some advice and her sister, instead, gave her a riddle.
"There was a hundred yen who hated the all thousand yen. They all thought that the hundred yen was inferior to them. However, the hundred yen discovered that the thousand yen were all different. Some were new and shiny whereas others were dirty and ugly, just like the hundred yen and its siblings.
"Thus, the hundred yen realised that the thousand yen and it itself were the same. The only different thing was their quantity, but their quality were the same."
Akane took some time to think over it and found out that what Nabiki was trying to say was that the nobility were different. Some were good and kind, others were mean and bad.
It was fine to make friends with them if she wanted to. No wonder Nabiki had told her that Ranma was a nice guy.
Akane and Ranma had known more about each other (she was a little like a tomboy; he didn't like girls to grovel around him; she cooked horribly; he could change into a girl) in a short amount of time. What they didn't know was that their relationship was still growing deeper and that things would be more intense.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=+++
Akane had grown closer to the dojo and the students. She could recognise some of them now and even liked them (even if they were nobility).
"Stretching time, people!" Akane ordered and everybody instantly sat down on the mats.
Akane stared at Ranma, who was doing a kata by himself on the other end of the room. They'd decided to divide the teaching time. First they'd teach the students together, then it'd be Akane's turn. Ranma would be the instructor later, and then both of them would dismiss class.
"Tendo-sensei, are we going to play a game today?" Karika asked, pointing towards the bands sitting lazily in a basket.
"It's not really a game. I'll explain it to you all."
Everybody listened intently, pausing in the midst of their stretching.
"We put on these bands and break up into smaller groups and then we'll play a game which is similar to tag. In this game, if you want to catch a person, you'll have to tag him or her, then both of you will spar. The loser will then be out of the game."
"Can we start the game now?" Karika and Makoto exclaimed excitedly.
Akane pondered the idea for a while before agreeing to let them start. The students each took a band and then ran around exuberantly, letting out squeals of excitement. Akane herself wore a band, just to make the students feel that she was included in the game. However, she sat and watched them run around, giggling and taunting one another.
She was watching two of her best students, Natsumi and Shoki, spar when someone touched her on the shoulder. The person whispered in her ear slyly, "Tag."
Akane turned, feeling annoyed, to find out which student was so brave as to tag her. She didn't see any student.but Ranma.
"Weren't you doing a kata?" she asked, agitation creeping slowly into her voice.
"I was. But now, I've tagged you. So you have to spar with me."
"Look, this game can only be played by the students, not the sensei."
"But you have a band on," his fingers pointed at her abdomen. He picked the band on his shoulders and showed it to her, "and so do I."
"We aren't included in the game, okay?" her voice rose.
"We ARE included. Whoever has a band on gets to play."
"No, they don't!" Akane shrieked deafeningly, which grabbed everybody's attention. The students stopped their game and became the audience of their sensei's 'show'.
Akane was irked to the point that she was unaware of her surroundings; of the students enjoying the angry sparks which flew from her to Ranma; of the smirk on Ranma's irritating face.
"I challenge you, Tendou-sensei," Ranma said in a low voice, grinning. "I challenge you to spar me."
Akane stuck out her tongue. "Why do that when you know that you'd win anyway?"
"Trying to squeeze your way out of the challenge?" Ranma teased, which got Akane's anger seething.
She hollered out, to make sure he got her reply. "I accept your stinking challenge!"
"Start!" the students shouted in unison, elation flowing throughout them.
Akane took on a battle pose, waiting for Ranma to strike. He dove for her legs, attempting to trip her, and succeeded. She fell down on her back.
Akane sulked and took out a mallet. "Payback time."
"Tendou-sensei," the boys argued. "It isn't fair. No weapons should be allowed in a spar, right?"
"Tendou-sensei shall do whatever she thinks right," the girls fought back.
"What do you think, Tendou-sensei?" Ranma whispered as he sat atop her. "Go with your teachings or your instincts?"
Akane knew that rules were rules and there was a reason why there were rules. So that there would be order and peace.
"Teachings," she sighed and hid her mallet again.
Ranma cracked a smile and looked down at Akane who had just about given up.
"Why do you always have to do this?" Akane groaned.
"Do what?"
"This!"
"Have you succumbed to me already?"
"You know I'd have to in the end. I'm not invincible."
"I do?" he teased her again.
Akane thought for a moment. "Maybe I don't." Her legs were held together at the ankle and her hands were under his control. But she could still use her head.
Akane slammed her head into his, which caught him unsuspecting, and he fell down, shocked. His hands let go of her hands and she used them to hold him down.
"Ughh."
"I still have some tricks up my sleeve, soldier," Akane propped herself up on her elbow, eyeing him.
Ranma opened his eyes and moaned. She had to hit his head, didn't she?
"I guess the match has been decided, hasn't it?" Akane asked, as she smirked happily. She'd beat him! "I guess the winner is-"
"What on earth is going on here?"
Akane and Ranma (and Natsumi, Karika, Makoto and- oh, blast, everybody in the dojo) looked for the source of the voice and saw - an angry Shampoo in a seductive pink gown.
Nobody answered Shampoo's question. Akane got herself off Ranma. Darn, Shampoo had to appear just when she was going to announce the winner. The idiotic, little lady just had to pop up during the strangest of times, didn't she?
"I asked a question and I expected it to be answered."
"Nothing," Karika said in a voice deeper than her usual tone.
Shampoo leered. "I wasn't asking you."
Natsumi warned. "She was telling the truth- nothing, we were just having our lesson and we don't like interruptions."
"Oh," Shampoo held her hand up to her chin, imitating a frightened expression. "I'm so scared."
Natsumi kept her mouth shut but the glare remained glued on her face.
"Shampoo," Ranma grinned nervously. "We were just sparring."
The Amazon gave Ranma a hard look.
"If you were sparring, why was she on top of you?"
Akane opened her mouth to say something, then stopped short and closed it again.
"I told you: we were sparring. That's how she got above me."
"Really?" Shampoo asked, fluttering her eyelashes questioningly.
Ranma and Akane and the students all nodded their heads solemnly, as if they were attending a funeral.
"Are you sure?" Shampoo asked, her left eyebrow twitching. "Or was she atop you because she was being the whore she is?"
The remark took less than a second to sink in for Akane, who jumped up and threatened. "If you said what I think you said, you're history, lady."
"Oh? Which word are you so worked up about? Was it," Shampoo gave a short break to her sentence. "'whore'?"
Akane clenched and unclenched her fists. Shampoo was infuriating her. "You know very well yourself which word it is."
"I don't know," Shampoo feigned frustration. "but I have a feeling it's the word 'whore'. Why worry so much? It describes you perfectly, whore."
"If you don't stop, you're going to regret calling me that."
"Really?" Shampoo twirled her hair around her finger. "Whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore!"
Akane jumped up from her spot and marched up to Shampoo.
"I cannot just sit there and take insults from you! I'm leaving!"
"Go on and leave, you harlot!" Shampoo cursed loudly. "You just can't bear to hear the truth come out from my lips!"
Akane raised her hands to strike Shampoo, but knowing that she could be sued as Shampoo was the nobility and nobility were always right, Akane thought the better of it and simply left the room.
Ranma stared angrily from his spot. "You didn't have to do that, did you, Shampoo?"
Shampoo waltzed over to him and gingerly laid her arm on his shoulders. "I did it for you, my lord."
Ranma shrugged her hands off him and growled. "If that was meant for me, then you shouldn't have done that!"
He pushed her away and ran out after Akane.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Akane swept the tears away from her eyes. She'd kept the tears in when she was still in the dojo but once she'd left the place, they flowed freely down her face.
She shouldn't be so weak. She felt nothing when Mother died. She shouldn't feel anything now-should she?
Akane ran towards the garden behind the dojo. She'd strolled through the place a couple of times before and had found a location, which she'd love to name as hers. The location was situated among three rocks and had roses growing close by. One could also hear the rush of the miniature waterfall at that area.
Akane knew that that was where she was headed for.
She ran faster, awaiting the comfort she was seeking so sadly. She wasn't a whore, a harlot. How could that- that courtesan herself call Akane one?
Closing her eyes to rid it of tears, Akane sobbed. The insult was rude, offending, humiliating, hurting and most of all- insulting.
Reaching the grey rocks, the indignant girl sat on one and crossed her arms. She felt mad and irate for a second, then it all crumbled. Akane's strong front shattered and she didn't know why. Usually, she'd fight back at Shampoo (like she did before. But that was actually because Shampoo had issued a challenge) but this time, something stopped her.
Maybe it was the insults which was washed all over her. Or maybe it was because she hadn't wanted her students to watch on. Or perhaps it was because a certain somebody was looking.
"No." Akane's shield was destroyed and she was sure that now she was thought of with ill repute, a negative éclat.
Just then, she could hear running steps. Somebody was coming. All the more not to let him or her see her in her weakest stare. Why, that somebody could be Shampoo herself.
Akane quickly dabbed her eyes with her gi and jumped up from her hiding place, getting ready to leave. She hastily jumped onto one of the rocks, gathering the momentum together so that she could hop away.
She bent and jumped-- and was dragged down again.
"What the--?" Akane muttered.
She looked down and saw Ranma holding on to her. Oh, Ranma.
"Let me go," she warned.
Ranma shook his head seriously, trying to show that he meant business. He had to stop her at the worst of times, didn't he?
"Please?" she pleaded. She couldn't stand Ranma seeing her when she was so open and fragile. She felt like crying at that thought.
He reached out to her eyes and wiped away a forming tear. "You have been crying?" he asked but it came out more as a statement then a question.
Akane whirled her head away, out of his reach. "No," she lied. She shouldn't have lied for it was rather apparent with her tear-stained cheek and melancholy eyes.
"You're lying," he chuckled softly and traced the path of tears.
Akane nodded, not knowing why she did it.
Ranma grasped her hand in his gently. He didn't know why but it hurt him to see her weep. "Don't ever cry, okay?"
Akane frowned. What was he getting at?
"Let go of me."
"Promise me first."
"Unhand me!" she struggled this time but to no avail.
"Promise me."
Akane managed to twist her way out but got caught again. Ranma pinned her body to the rock and urged her. "Promise me that you will never cry, nor shed a tear, ever again."
Akane felt her defence melt away slowly.
"I promise," she vowed softly, feeling the familiar words cross her lips as it did more than a decade ago.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=++++
"Why, I never!" Shampoo murmured madly, rubbing her hands over and over again.
That stupid Miss. Tendou was trying to grab her lord Ranma.
After the two sensei had left the dojo, the students all glowered at her. Shampoo got angry. She didn't do anything wrong!
"What are you all looking at?" she'd scolded them a few hours ago.
The students remained silent, leaving Shampoo nothing else to do but exit the dojo and go back to the house. The reason she'd turned up in the first place was because Nabiki had told her that something major was going on at the dojo.
"Five thousand yen wasted on that brown-haired money-grubbing girl," Shampoo repeatedly said.
After she'd left the dojo, she could hear the students dismiss themselves. "I don't understand why Lady Nodoka asked that hussy to teach those students," Shampoo sneered. Then she remembered, and sighed, and went, "Oh.yes, now I remember."
"I shouldn't have whiled away the time like that, going to the dojo. I got nothing from lord Ranma," the amethyst-eyed girl sighed. "Well, what's done is done. And now I need my beauty sleep."
With that, the Amazon lady lay on the bed in her bedroom in the Lord and Lady Saotome's house.
++++++++++++++++++++---------------------------++++++++++++++++++++
A/N: Okay, I know the love part is somehow.a little hasty (not like they've told each other they love the other)?
Well, I've got nothing much to say except that I'd like to apologise for the delay because there was something wrong with the cable and I couldn't surf the Internet.
I've also kind of adapted to school life. I remember myself complaining about how tiring it all was to have to go to school and back and do homework but I've got the hang of it a little. I'm still sick and tired of school but.I can bear it.
Akane and Ranma are behaving a little childishly. Akane's acting more infantile than Ranma, though. Sticking her tongue out at him at the café. That part was saying that their relationship moved from hatred (hatred for Akane, dislike for Ranma) to immature fighting. And from there, it'd improve gradually till Akane realises that the nobility are just like them. And when Nabiki dared Akane to be friends, she'd become a nicer person to Ranma. After all, they're all humans.
If you think the romance part is a little too abrupt, tell me. I might change it.
Well, now I don't really detest school, just some of my teachers who can be really boring and annoying. But that's all. And if my story isn't that nice, sorry. Just tell me what you want and I may change it.
And.so sad! Chinese New Year is over! No more red packets to collect.
Water dragon: GST- Goods and services taxes.
Sophie-chan: Ryouga hasn't seen Akane yet, so nope; he won't fall in love with her. Mousse will appear (or else Shampoo won't be able to marry anyone else) later. ---------------------+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------- -------
"What?!"
Akane panicked and stood up, slamming her hand onto the table.
"It's true," Nabiki said, raising an eyebrow at her sister. "He's walking over."
"Sit down, Akane, it's rude to leave when our master is coming," Sayuri pushed Akane back down onto her seat.
"Master? Our master? What do you think I am? Some kind of dog?" Akane shrieked.
Twice. Such a coincidence. First, he'd avoided her. Why couldn't she avoid him now?
"You're not a bitch," Sayuri said (Akane gasped at her friend's verbal abuse), "okay? Now sit."
"But it's our day off! He's not our master on days off."
"Just be silent and still, will you?"
Akane sat down, cussing the whole time.
"Yo," Ranma smiled, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
Akane glared at him heatedly, which made him melt. "Who said you were invited?"
All three (Nabiki, too, because she wanted to grab some money off Ranma) girls kicked her in the shin for being rude.
Akane yowled in pain and frowned indignantly. "Whose side are you on?" she hissed so that only her friends could hear her.
Sayuri and Yuka simply answered, "Neither."
Whereas, Nabiki simply pointed out, "Money."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Shampoo was having a hard time handling the dojo alone. Nodoka had failed in finding a substitute sensei and Shampoo had to do it herself.
Shampoo did a three hundred and sixty degree turn around the room. The children were making noise. Five of them were playing tag. Some boys were bullying a girl. A boy was sitting alone at the corner of the room. Some girls chatted loudly, causing a racket.
She had tried several attempts in settling them down but to no avail. However, there was still one more.
Taking in a deep breath, Shampoo screamed in her Chinese accent.
"Shut up!"
That did it. Everybody stared at her as if she were some kind of purple haired (okay, she IS purple haired) two headed and four-eyed monster. Shampoo put her hands on her hips and put on an indignant and frustrated look.
Immediately mutters of "how rude"s and "I don't like her"s and "who is she?" could be heard all around the room.
Shampoo sneered at the little children. She gave them an angry look this time.
"You ungrateful smites! If you think I'm going to teach annoying gossipy people like you, you're wrong! All wrong!"
Shampoo turned around, ignored their curious stares and sent to sit in the corner.
She smirked, wanting to see what the kids would do after she'd given her speech. She didn't have to wait long for one voice piped up loud and clear.
"My parents, the Lord and Lady Tsukiko, did not pay you tons of cash just for you to burst out at us and then just sit there, ignoring us."
"Right," another kid chimed in. "We're here to learn martial arts."
"Martial smartial. If you kids don't want to listen to me, then I shan't teach you!"
"You're worse than Saotome and Tendo sensei."
"What?!"
They were comparing her to that lowlife servant? That got on Shampoo's nerves.
"Fine, call me barbarous and worse than that bitch! But you'd all better watch out!"
Shampoo whirled her body around dramatically, making sure everybody saw her sashay like a ballerina out the door.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Alright, ladies, what do you want? Everything's on me, I'll pay," Ranma said, tilting his chair back.
Yuka and Sayuri shook their heads furiously, looking panicky. "No! We'll pay ourselves, my lord."
Nabiki leaned forward on the table. "Some of that wonderful blueberry cake, strawberry parfait, mango pudding, lemonade and shepherd's pie."
Akane flared at Nabiki. "Onee-chan, don't order so much!"
"That's all right, Sazara," Ranma cut in. "I can pay for it. It's not much."
Akane swirled her head towards him, a fierce expression blazing in her eyes. "Nobody said that you could call me by my first name," she spat out. "And just because you're so rich, you don't have to show off."
Ranma sat back. "Whoa, cool down, lady, relax," he waited for her to calm down. "And I'm not trying to rub in the fact that I'm rich, okay?"
Akane gave him an irate "hmph!" and folded her arms.
There was silence for a long moment before Ranma asked. "So?"
Akane frowned back at him. "So what?"
"What're you going to order?"
"I've got enough money to pay for what I want."
"I don't care."
"I don't care either," Akane stood up. "I can't take it anymore. I'm leaving earlier."
"Sazara-chan," Sayuri called out.
Akane paused and turned back, giving her a questioning face.
"Sazara," Yuka helped her friend, "please stay here. We'll all feel bored."
"Yes," Sayuri pleaded.
"Normally, I would humour you," Akane explained. "but due to certain circumstances, I've to leave," she said, using her head and motioning it towards Ranma.
Ranma was beginning to feel exasperated. He'd tried all he could to be nice but she'd taken it and returned it with hatred. No more Mr. Nice Guy, no sir, Ranma thought.
"It's not like anybody wants you here."
Akane's head twirled to face Ranma in the eye.
"And that's why I'm leaving!"
Akane grabbed her purse, stuck out her tongue and left the café.
There was silence again before Nabiki asked tiredly.
"Where's my food?"
++++++++++++++++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+++++++++++++++++
"Nabiki, tell me exactly how much you spent at that café?" Akane questioned.
Nabiki propped her chin on her elbow; she was lying on the bed. "Why do you want to know?"
"So that I can pay Ranma back."
"Ranma? You guys are on first name terms now?"
"No," Akane said.
"I really don't understand you, Akane. Ranma's a really nice guy. Why can't you just be friends with him?"
"You know why."
"No, I don't."
Akane smiled sardonically. "Yes, you do."
"No, I don't. Truthfully."
"Yes, you do!"
"Hmph," Nabiki folded her arms. "Then I bet you will never ever be friends with him."
"Definitely!"
"And if my bet is right, you'll owe me ten thousand yen every week for the rest of your life."
"What?" Akane screeched. "That's like making easy money, Nabiki, and it's called daylight robbery, you know?"
"Robbery.isn't it ironic? You're a robber and here you are talking about being robbed and acting mad over it."
"Well, this is different."
"Isn't. And you know it."
"It is."
"Anyway," Nabiki abruptly said, returning to the subject. "I bet that you won't be friends with him."
"Then I'll have to pay you forty thousand yen a month!" Akane shrieked. "There's no way I'm going to do that!"
"If you want to avoid my bet, there is only one thing you can do."
"Really? What?" Akane asked, placing her hands on her hips, looking cross.
Nabiki grinned. "You'll just have to be his friend."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Ha, ha," Akane laughed nervously as she inched her way towards Ranma, who was talking to Karika, a student.
Makoto tugged Akane's sleeve. "Why are you looking so jumpy and agitated, Tendou-sensei?"
"You won't understand it even if I explain it to you."
Makoto looked interested. "Try me."
Akane decided to see if he would really understand if she told him. "I have to," a gulp, "be Saotome-sensei's," a larger gulp and a few seconds to calm her breathing, "friend."
The last word was pronounced as if Akane had never used it before, as if it was a foreign language.
"And?"
"That's it."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"I guess you were right. I don't understand."
Akane stuck out her tongue at Makoto. "Like that makes me feel better."
"Yes?" Ranma appeared out of nowhere. "I thought I heard somebody mention my name."
"I'll help you," Makoto whispered so that only Akane could hear him. He raised his voice. "Tendou-sensei wants to be your friend."
Ranma quirked an eyebrow. "Oh?" he said, looking amused.
Akane smacked her forehead. Trust her student to make matters worse. She sat down, pulling Ranma down at the same time, which caused him to give a "What the-?"
"I have to be your friend. I've got no choice."
"Then start treating me like one, for goodness' sakes."
Akane was caught surprised by the statement. She'd never thought of it. How do you treat an enemy like a friend?
"Uh," she stuttered, her voice and body jittery, "how do you treat a friend?"
She'd twisted the question so as not to insult him. That was one way to treat an enemy like a friend! Akane was starting out good.
"The same way you treat your other friends."
Akane stared at him.
"What?" Ranma asked; he feeling irritated. She didn't have to glare at him after he'd kindly answered her question.
"How is that supposed to answer my question?"
"Okay," he cleared his throat and clasped his hands together, looking business-like, "how do you behave towards Yuka and Sayuri?"
"I ignore them when they ask stupid questions. I also-"
"Alright," Ranma stopped her from going on. "Just treat me the way you treat them. After all, they're your friends, right?"
"Who?"
"I'm going to ignore you because that's the way you behave when your friend asks silly questions," Ranma grinned sadistically.
Akane frowned. She was getting irked. He had to irritate her just when she wanted to be friends. "Really, who?"
"Who else?"
Akane kept her scowl on him.
He surrendered. "Yuka and Sayuri. Isn't it obvious?"
Akane stuck out her tongue again. "It's not when you have to be pals with someone you really hate and detest!"
She turned back to the class. "Let's get started. I've had enough of chatting with Saotome-sensei. It's tiresome."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Over the days, Akane treated Ranma nicely and barely fought with him. In return, he became closer to her and they were good friends. Although Akane could still get irritated if she was disturbed by Ranma, who loved to tease her at every opportunity.
For example, once, Ranma asked if he could see how Akane's room looked like ("I've never been to the servants' quarters before," he reasoned. What a lie). Akane said okay ("Is that what friends do?"). The minute he stepped into the well furnished room, he began prying into her stuff ("What's in this drawer? Do you have so little clothes? I really must ask Mother to give you servants some more,"). Akane got edgy and irritated, which rewarded Ranma with a scolding, "Don't push it, boy."
However, her feelings for a certain somebody remained the same: Shampoo. During their conversations and tiny quarrels, the Amazon lady would pop out of the blue and somehow find fault with Akane ("Are you trying to get close to my lord Ranma?"). Not like Ranma belongs to Shampoo in any way.
Gradually, Akane realised that she liked some of they nobility. She'd asked Nabiki for some advice and her sister, instead, gave her a riddle.
"There was a hundred yen who hated the all thousand yen. They all thought that the hundred yen was inferior to them. However, the hundred yen discovered that the thousand yen were all different. Some were new and shiny whereas others were dirty and ugly, just like the hundred yen and its siblings.
"Thus, the hundred yen realised that the thousand yen and it itself were the same. The only different thing was their quantity, but their quality were the same."
Akane took some time to think over it and found out that what Nabiki was trying to say was that the nobility were different. Some were good and kind, others were mean and bad.
It was fine to make friends with them if she wanted to. No wonder Nabiki had told her that Ranma was a nice guy.
Akane and Ranma had known more about each other (she was a little like a tomboy; he didn't like girls to grovel around him; she cooked horribly; he could change into a girl) in a short amount of time. What they didn't know was that their relationship was still growing deeper and that things would be more intense.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=+++
Akane had grown closer to the dojo and the students. She could recognise some of them now and even liked them (even if they were nobility).
"Stretching time, people!" Akane ordered and everybody instantly sat down on the mats.
Akane stared at Ranma, who was doing a kata by himself on the other end of the room. They'd decided to divide the teaching time. First they'd teach the students together, then it'd be Akane's turn. Ranma would be the instructor later, and then both of them would dismiss class.
"Tendo-sensei, are we going to play a game today?" Karika asked, pointing towards the bands sitting lazily in a basket.
"It's not really a game. I'll explain it to you all."
Everybody listened intently, pausing in the midst of their stretching.
"We put on these bands and break up into smaller groups and then we'll play a game which is similar to tag. In this game, if you want to catch a person, you'll have to tag him or her, then both of you will spar. The loser will then be out of the game."
"Can we start the game now?" Karika and Makoto exclaimed excitedly.
Akane pondered the idea for a while before agreeing to let them start. The students each took a band and then ran around exuberantly, letting out squeals of excitement. Akane herself wore a band, just to make the students feel that she was included in the game. However, she sat and watched them run around, giggling and taunting one another.
She was watching two of her best students, Natsumi and Shoki, spar when someone touched her on the shoulder. The person whispered in her ear slyly, "Tag."
Akane turned, feeling annoyed, to find out which student was so brave as to tag her. She didn't see any student.but Ranma.
"Weren't you doing a kata?" she asked, agitation creeping slowly into her voice.
"I was. But now, I've tagged you. So you have to spar with me."
"Look, this game can only be played by the students, not the sensei."
"But you have a band on," his fingers pointed at her abdomen. He picked the band on his shoulders and showed it to her, "and so do I."
"We aren't included in the game, okay?" her voice rose.
"We ARE included. Whoever has a band on gets to play."
"No, they don't!" Akane shrieked deafeningly, which grabbed everybody's attention. The students stopped their game and became the audience of their sensei's 'show'.
Akane was irked to the point that she was unaware of her surroundings; of the students enjoying the angry sparks which flew from her to Ranma; of the smirk on Ranma's irritating face.
"I challenge you, Tendou-sensei," Ranma said in a low voice, grinning. "I challenge you to spar me."
Akane stuck out her tongue. "Why do that when you know that you'd win anyway?"
"Trying to squeeze your way out of the challenge?" Ranma teased, which got Akane's anger seething.
She hollered out, to make sure he got her reply. "I accept your stinking challenge!"
"Start!" the students shouted in unison, elation flowing throughout them.
Akane took on a battle pose, waiting for Ranma to strike. He dove for her legs, attempting to trip her, and succeeded. She fell down on her back.
Akane sulked and took out a mallet. "Payback time."
"Tendou-sensei," the boys argued. "It isn't fair. No weapons should be allowed in a spar, right?"
"Tendou-sensei shall do whatever she thinks right," the girls fought back.
"What do you think, Tendou-sensei?" Ranma whispered as he sat atop her. "Go with your teachings or your instincts?"
Akane knew that rules were rules and there was a reason why there were rules. So that there would be order and peace.
"Teachings," she sighed and hid her mallet again.
Ranma cracked a smile and looked down at Akane who had just about given up.
"Why do you always have to do this?" Akane groaned.
"Do what?"
"This!"
"Have you succumbed to me already?"
"You know I'd have to in the end. I'm not invincible."
"I do?" he teased her again.
Akane thought for a moment. "Maybe I don't." Her legs were held together at the ankle and her hands were under his control. But she could still use her head.
Akane slammed her head into his, which caught him unsuspecting, and he fell down, shocked. His hands let go of her hands and she used them to hold him down.
"Ughh."
"I still have some tricks up my sleeve, soldier," Akane propped herself up on her elbow, eyeing him.
Ranma opened his eyes and moaned. She had to hit his head, didn't she?
"I guess the match has been decided, hasn't it?" Akane asked, as she smirked happily. She'd beat him! "I guess the winner is-"
"What on earth is going on here?"
Akane and Ranma (and Natsumi, Karika, Makoto and- oh, blast, everybody in the dojo) looked for the source of the voice and saw - an angry Shampoo in a seductive pink gown.
Nobody answered Shampoo's question. Akane got herself off Ranma. Darn, Shampoo had to appear just when she was going to announce the winner. The idiotic, little lady just had to pop up during the strangest of times, didn't she?
"I asked a question and I expected it to be answered."
"Nothing," Karika said in a voice deeper than her usual tone.
Shampoo leered. "I wasn't asking you."
Natsumi warned. "She was telling the truth- nothing, we were just having our lesson and we don't like interruptions."
"Oh," Shampoo held her hand up to her chin, imitating a frightened expression. "I'm so scared."
Natsumi kept her mouth shut but the glare remained glued on her face.
"Shampoo," Ranma grinned nervously. "We were just sparring."
The Amazon gave Ranma a hard look.
"If you were sparring, why was she on top of you?"
Akane opened her mouth to say something, then stopped short and closed it again.
"I told you: we were sparring. That's how she got above me."
"Really?" Shampoo asked, fluttering her eyelashes questioningly.
Ranma and Akane and the students all nodded their heads solemnly, as if they were attending a funeral.
"Are you sure?" Shampoo asked, her left eyebrow twitching. "Or was she atop you because she was being the whore she is?"
The remark took less than a second to sink in for Akane, who jumped up and threatened. "If you said what I think you said, you're history, lady."
"Oh? Which word are you so worked up about? Was it," Shampoo gave a short break to her sentence. "'whore'?"
Akane clenched and unclenched her fists. Shampoo was infuriating her. "You know very well yourself which word it is."
"I don't know," Shampoo feigned frustration. "but I have a feeling it's the word 'whore'. Why worry so much? It describes you perfectly, whore."
"If you don't stop, you're going to regret calling me that."
"Really?" Shampoo twirled her hair around her finger. "Whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore, whore!"
Akane jumped up from her spot and marched up to Shampoo.
"I cannot just sit there and take insults from you! I'm leaving!"
"Go on and leave, you harlot!" Shampoo cursed loudly. "You just can't bear to hear the truth come out from my lips!"
Akane raised her hands to strike Shampoo, but knowing that she could be sued as Shampoo was the nobility and nobility were always right, Akane thought the better of it and simply left the room.
Ranma stared angrily from his spot. "You didn't have to do that, did you, Shampoo?"
Shampoo waltzed over to him and gingerly laid her arm on his shoulders. "I did it for you, my lord."
Ranma shrugged her hands off him and growled. "If that was meant for me, then you shouldn't have done that!"
He pushed her away and ran out after Akane.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Akane swept the tears away from her eyes. She'd kept the tears in when she was still in the dojo but once she'd left the place, they flowed freely down her face.
She shouldn't be so weak. She felt nothing when Mother died. She shouldn't feel anything now-should she?
Akane ran towards the garden behind the dojo. She'd strolled through the place a couple of times before and had found a location, which she'd love to name as hers. The location was situated among three rocks and had roses growing close by. One could also hear the rush of the miniature waterfall at that area.
Akane knew that that was where she was headed for.
She ran faster, awaiting the comfort she was seeking so sadly. She wasn't a whore, a harlot. How could that- that courtesan herself call Akane one?
Closing her eyes to rid it of tears, Akane sobbed. The insult was rude, offending, humiliating, hurting and most of all- insulting.
Reaching the grey rocks, the indignant girl sat on one and crossed her arms. She felt mad and irate for a second, then it all crumbled. Akane's strong front shattered and she didn't know why. Usually, she'd fight back at Shampoo (like she did before. But that was actually because Shampoo had issued a challenge) but this time, something stopped her.
Maybe it was the insults which was washed all over her. Or maybe it was because she hadn't wanted her students to watch on. Or perhaps it was because a certain somebody was looking.
"No." Akane's shield was destroyed and she was sure that now she was thought of with ill repute, a negative éclat.
Just then, she could hear running steps. Somebody was coming. All the more not to let him or her see her in her weakest stare. Why, that somebody could be Shampoo herself.
Akane quickly dabbed her eyes with her gi and jumped up from her hiding place, getting ready to leave. She hastily jumped onto one of the rocks, gathering the momentum together so that she could hop away.
She bent and jumped-- and was dragged down again.
"What the--?" Akane muttered.
She looked down and saw Ranma holding on to her. Oh, Ranma.
"Let me go," she warned.
Ranma shook his head seriously, trying to show that he meant business. He had to stop her at the worst of times, didn't he?
"Please?" she pleaded. She couldn't stand Ranma seeing her when she was so open and fragile. She felt like crying at that thought.
He reached out to her eyes and wiped away a forming tear. "You have been crying?" he asked but it came out more as a statement then a question.
Akane whirled her head away, out of his reach. "No," she lied. She shouldn't have lied for it was rather apparent with her tear-stained cheek and melancholy eyes.
"You're lying," he chuckled softly and traced the path of tears.
Akane nodded, not knowing why she did it.
Ranma grasped her hand in his gently. He didn't know why but it hurt him to see her weep. "Don't ever cry, okay?"
Akane frowned. What was he getting at?
"Let go of me."
"Promise me first."
"Unhand me!" she struggled this time but to no avail.
"Promise me."
Akane managed to twist her way out but got caught again. Ranma pinned her body to the rock and urged her. "Promise me that you will never cry, nor shed a tear, ever again."
Akane felt her defence melt away slowly.
"I promise," she vowed softly, feeling the familiar words cross her lips as it did more than a decade ago.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=++++
"Why, I never!" Shampoo murmured madly, rubbing her hands over and over again.
That stupid Miss. Tendou was trying to grab her lord Ranma.
After the two sensei had left the dojo, the students all glowered at her. Shampoo got angry. She didn't do anything wrong!
"What are you all looking at?" she'd scolded them a few hours ago.
The students remained silent, leaving Shampoo nothing else to do but exit the dojo and go back to the house. The reason she'd turned up in the first place was because Nabiki had told her that something major was going on at the dojo.
"Five thousand yen wasted on that brown-haired money-grubbing girl," Shampoo repeatedly said.
After she'd left the dojo, she could hear the students dismiss themselves. "I don't understand why Lady Nodoka asked that hussy to teach those students," Shampoo sneered. Then she remembered, and sighed, and went, "Oh.yes, now I remember."
"I shouldn't have whiled away the time like that, going to the dojo. I got nothing from lord Ranma," the amethyst-eyed girl sighed. "Well, what's done is done. And now I need my beauty sleep."
With that, the Amazon lady lay on the bed in her bedroom in the Lord and Lady Saotome's house.
++++++++++++++++++++---------------------------++++++++++++++++++++
A/N: Okay, I know the love part is somehow.a little hasty (not like they've told each other they love the other)?
Well, I've got nothing much to say except that I'd like to apologise for the delay because there was something wrong with the cable and I couldn't surf the Internet.
I've also kind of adapted to school life. I remember myself complaining about how tiring it all was to have to go to school and back and do homework but I've got the hang of it a little. I'm still sick and tired of school but.I can bear it.
Akane and Ranma are behaving a little childishly. Akane's acting more infantile than Ranma, though. Sticking her tongue out at him at the café. That part was saying that their relationship moved from hatred (hatred for Akane, dislike for Ranma) to immature fighting. And from there, it'd improve gradually till Akane realises that the nobility are just like them. And when Nabiki dared Akane to be friends, she'd become a nicer person to Ranma. After all, they're all humans.
If you think the romance part is a little too abrupt, tell me. I might change it.
Well, now I don't really detest school, just some of my teachers who can be really boring and annoying. But that's all. And if my story isn't that nice, sorry. Just tell me what you want and I may change it.
And.so sad! Chinese New Year is over! No more red packets to collect.