A/N: I forgot to announce really important things! I'm so sorry! FrameofMind, no, you weren't hallucinating when you thought you just missed the second half of the prologue! I forgot to mention that in the last chapter. Anyway, I did announce that in my summary but deleted it soon after. Anyway, the second half of the prologue was originally a part of Chapter 1 but I just decided not to make it a separate portion.

Oh, and there's another change. Instead of the college being in Hokkaido, it's in Morioka already. I forgot to mention that too.

To justified-cord, I am so sorry for disappointing you. Maybe someday, I'll finish KMS. But here's a real promise, this story will have an ending. I have it all planned out already. It's not gonna be just rambling.

Thank you so much for reviewing, you guys. You don't know how much your reviews mean to me.

Standard disclaimers apply.

I saw fleeting yellows in your eyes.

You were waiting for autumn--

And the first morn of fall was dawning.

I knew because

You were smiling.

CHAPTER 2: Straight On 'Til Morning

The soft evening breeze blew through the open window and into Takumi's half-furnished apartment. The television hummed softly but no one was watching. A few feet from the black leather sofa and the mahogany coffee table were the kitchen and a simple wooden rectangular table with two matching chairs. Boxes and dark gray traveling bags were strewn about on the floor. The smell of cooling chicken teriyaki filled the entire room, even making it through the space under the door to the bedroom down the hall.

"So you can't cook?" he chuckled merrily.

Akane blushed and humbly chewed on an absolutely scrumptious piece of chicken. When she was done, she raised her eyes indignantly to Takumi. "Well, it's just something I haven't learned to do. No one lets me practice at home. Everytime I enter the kitchen, the house suddenly grows very quiet and then it's too late- everyone has already escaped."

Takumi laughed heartily, shaking his head in amusement. "Doesn't your mother have the patience to teach you?"

Akane paused suddenly, her eyes growing dim. "My mother died a long time ago."

A brief silence took over and the sounds of the TV seemed magnified. "I'm sorry. I just have a knack of bringing up bad memories, don't I?" he said, sincerely regretful.

"It's ok. It's not your fault. I've gotten over it. Besides, my sister, Kasumi, is kind of our mother now. It's not the same, of course, but I've learned to live with it."

"That's good. It's very brave of you… to deal with the passing of your mother in such a way. I, for one, think that death shouldn't all be about remorse and should haves and would haves and could haves. Sometimes, people get too caught up with the loss that they forget their loved ones entirely, the moments they'd shared that they couldn't have spent with anyone else. It's ironic, in that sense."

Akane smiled at him, her eyes glowing with admiration. It was like he had reached into her mind and put her abstract thoughts into real words. "Yeah, it is."

Takumi grinned at her, wiping the sides of his mouth with a napkin. "You should do that more often."

"Do what?"

"Smile."

"I smile."

"No, smile like that. For real."

"Right now, I don't think I even know how. It just happened." Ranma always made me smile like that… but he never noticed.

Takumi stood up, grabbing the dishes and heading to the sink. Akane made a move to follow him but he stopped her and insisted she remain in her seat. She headed to the couch and pretended to watch TV. Ranma. There was a cereal commercial on. Ranma. A little boy was shaking the hand of a cartoon squirrel holding a box of cornflakes. Ranma. The jingle sounded like something. Ranma…

"So." His voice startled her out of her daze. "Have you finished unpacking yet?"

"No," she said, looking emptily at him, "not yet."

He put his hands behind his head and leaned back, closing his eyes. The gesture reminded Akane so much of a certain someone that she stared at him in bewilderment, like she was wondering if the guy beside her really was a different person.

"What?" he said, eyelids fluttering to stare at her.

Blue eyes.

"Your eyes," she whispered softly. He looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"What about them?"

"They're blue." Like Ranma's, she added mentally. She made the uncanny connection even though Takumi's were a deeper shade of almost purple, although in the light, the color lightened considerably. Akane stared deeply into his eyes, not really seeing the almost child-like azure but a sort of dusty tone… Eyes that always remained the same… Girl... Boy… the same blue-gray orbs that glowed with clear speckles when they reflected sunlight, the same blue-gray orbs that looked down at her with affection she never really quite understood.

Takumi smiled at her in wonder. "Yeah, they always have been."

Akane swiftly turned back to the television and then stood up, walking over to the dinner table and grabbing her sweater.

"I have to go," she said hastily. "Thank you for dinner. And please give your aunt my thanks for letting me stay here."

"Akane-" he started, but she had already closed the door.

That night, when Ranma arrived at the Tendo dojo, the whole house was already silent. Through the open window, he crept into the room he and Genma often shared. His father wasn't around anymore and he figured Genma had already gone home to Nodoka, who was likely pissed at the man for leaving her alone for so long.

Ranma felt like a stranger in the quiet house, almost like a burglar, what with the creeping around in the dark. He never felt that way when Akane was still around. But then he realized, everywhere Akane had been was home.

Silently, he started packing. His movements were quick and soundless; he didn't want anyone to find out what he was about to do, or rather, where he was going. He didn't really have a specific destination in mind; all his senses were just telling him to leave, run away and don't return until he found himself, until he knew exactly what he wanted. Here in Nerima, there were just too many people wanting things for him and he didn't know anymore which end was up, which of those dreams were theirs and which were his.

Securing the sleeping bag to his backpack, he turned to the door and slid it open. He tiptoed down the hall and stopped in front of a very familiar-looking yellow duck. Akane's door. Akane's empty room. Before he knew what he was doing, he had stepped inside.

Everything was in place and it was hard to imagine that, just a few hours ago, a young girl had been sleeping there, as she had done for years. The room even smelled like her- strawberries and vanilla and a faint whiff of the detergent Kasumi liked to use.

Kneeling down beside her bed, his backpack still slung over his left shoulder, he ran his hand along the white sheets. In his cloudy mind, he could've sworn they were still warm from her body. He sighed softly, taking one of her pillows and burying his face in it. He inhaled long and deep, knowing it would probably be the last time he would be able to smell that sweet mix of strawberry and vanilla.

Finally, he put the pillow back in its place and half-heartedly stood up. He turned towards her desk and rummaged through her drawers for something. He found a small picture of her amongst random pieces of paper and a few old pens. Her glowing face looked up at him, shining from the sun's rays, a girlish grin on her face. She was wearing a sunhat that she pulled down by the sides with her slender fingers. Carefully, he put it in his pocket. Something obstructed its way and he shook his head with frustration.

Giving her shadowed room one last look, he approached her open window and slipped out into the night.

I watched them through the window. They didn't even notice me standing there, watching them, watching as he embraced her and she smiled at him with tears in her eyes. His shirt seemed as red as ever; even through the glass, I saw. The color made me dizzy and I felt like I was three again, watching as they carried Mom away in a white stretcher. I didn't understand then, why Kasumi and Daddy were crying, and Nabiki was hugging me close to her heaving chest, but I knew, for some reason I knew, that when the white car disappeared around the bend, it was never coming back with Mom.

Even as the sun beat down on my back, all I could feel was that seemingly endless cold, as I pressed my forehead onto the glass. A tear slid down my cheek before I started running away, away from them, away from the lies I told myself, away from my own insistent desperation. At first I tried to convince myself that I didn't care… But I did! I did!

I had assumed so many things… and I've never been so wrong. He didn't love me after all. Somehow, I knew it was bound to happen; he was going to choose someone else. But I just thought that maybe he would see me as something more than what everyone else assumed I was. I guess there really wasn't more to me in the first place. But I was so sure I was more… More than my father's daughter, more than a little girl desperate to have a mother to cling to, more than just another face in the yearbook.

But maybe that's what I had wanted to believe. Maybe I had created this entirely different person so I could go on living what I wanted life to be. Anyway, reality hurts like hell.

"What you mean airen go?" Shampoo yelled angrily at Kasumi.

"He left, Shampoo," Soun reiterated, comforting his daughter with a slight squeeze of her trembling hand.

"How you know?" the young girl hissed indignantly, suspicion gleaming from her dark eyes.

"His mother called and he wasn't home. He definitely is not in here either. No one has seen him since yesterday morning, Shampoo. And he's packed all his clothes and a sleeping bag," Soun explained patiently.

Kasumi stood and took the ramen Shampoo had delivered, making her way to the kitchen.

"Where Ranma go? Why he leave?"

"We don't know, Shampoo. We don't know when he'll be back either."

Shampoo stood up and turned to leave. Soun was sure the girl wasn't quite ready to accept the facts just yet. She was probably going to try and find Ranma.

Or hunt Akane down.

Vaguely, Soun wondered why Ukyou hadn't showed up yet.

"Where do you think he'd gone?"

"Away," she said plainly, tying her apron behind her.

"What were you doing last night anyway, stalking him?"

"I was just trying to make sure he left safely." Trying to make sure no one followed him.

"What? Why?" he sounded genuinely surprised and Ukyou remembered that no one new about her and Ranma yet. She decided it would be better if things remained that way.

"Why what?"

"Why'd you let him go?" Suspicion gleamed from his brown eyes, searching her face for any sign of discomfort.

"You don't have to know the answer to that."

He stayed silent, taking the last piece of his okonomiyaki and finally turning to go.

"You're not going to tell me where he'd gone and why, are you?" he said bitterly, his back to her.

"You're right."

He pushed the door open and stepped outside, but before he'd let his other foot touch the pavement, she gave him one last message.

"Oh, and Ryouga-honey?" He turned to look at her. "You're always welcome here."

"You're starting next week Monday. Understood?"

The woman tapped her pen on the desk impassively. Her black-framed eyeglasses hung limply around her chubby neck. She stared at the young woman in front of her with nonchalance only a person who hadn't seen enough of life could possess. Akane guessed her new boss was in her mid-forties. Everything about the woman was mid-forty- from the few strands of gray hair peeking from her ponytail to the wide glaring fingernails painted bright red.

"You mean I'm hired?"

The woman stopped tapping the pen and the buzz of the exhaust fan filled the silence. She laid two burly hands flat on the desk and pulled herself towards the ledge. Her generous bosom lay gloriously on a folder. Moving like a predator, maybe more like a widowed middle school principal, she leaned forward to stare at her new apprentice.

"Yes, lassie, you're hired. What do you think I meant?"

Akane gulped and stood up, bowing her gratefulness. The woman sort of reminded her of Nabiki, only scarier.

"Thank you, Mrs. Ebisawa."

"How was it?" Takumi stood to grin at her.

"I got my first job!"

"That's great!" he said, opening the door for her. Outside the store, the wind was chilly even though it was a little past noon. "We should celebrate. I know a good ice cream parlor near here. My treat."

Akane smiled brightly at him. Slowly, she was becoming more and more comfortable with Takumi. It was almost hard to believe they'd met only the day before. And it was getting harder to believe she's left Ranma too.

She shook her head, steering her thoughts in another direction. In a few days, she'd be in her new school. She was a bit disappointed that the university she picked had irregular schedules. She had just graduated from high school and she wouldn't even be able to enjoy even a week of relaxation.

But then again, she had wanted to move away as soon as possible. She applied for only one university, a part of her hesitant to go, and a part of her insisting she do so.

She shook her head again. She did not like where her thoughts were always leading. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, tossing and turning in her bed before finally getting too tired to cry some more.

"We're here," Takumi said. He opened the glass door for her and she stepped inside the cool shack.

Ranma never opened doors for me.

A/N: How are you guys liking it so far? I know, I know, this chapter was kinda short. The coming chapters will be more interesting, I promise. This was sort of a filler and just a build up for the more exciting events.

Mrs. Ebisawa is an original character, of course. Again, I don't know whether or not her name means anything. I, again, just picked it out from a list of Japanese surnames. Heheh. If I've got glitches in my story, you know you guys are free to tell me.