Without You
I don't own Ranma ½ or the characters, however any OCs in here are mine!
"Kasumi!!!"
The yell caused the eldest Tendo sister to come to Akane's room as soon as she could, wearing a concerned expression on her face. It wasn't everyday that Akane yelled for Kasumi's assistance after all, it normally consisted of 'Ranma, you pervert!' or 'Ranma, you jerk, get out of my room!'.
"What is it Akane?" Kasumi inquired, letting her worry lace her tone.
"Read this and tell me what he means," Akane requested, handing the letter to her sister and beginning to pace about the room.
Taking the letter, Kasumi silently red over the sheet of paper slowly, taking her time to understand her Uncle's words. At the end of the letter she looked up at Akane with that sincerely happy smile but mixed with amazed eyes.
"Well?" Akane encouraged, eager to have a second understanding of the letter.
"He applied you to a college in the United States, wasn't that nice of him?" stated Kasumi with that pleasant smile of hers.
For a long while Akane gapped with the words 'you', 'college', and 'United States' echoing in her head. He applied me to college in the United States! Akane realized suddenly.
"Akane, aren't you happy?" her older sister asked as she handed back the letter.
The younger Tendo was quiet for a few more seconds before her features broke into a full fledged smile. Abruptly Akane flung herself at Kasumi and hugged her while trying to remember to breath.
"Oh my God," exclaimed Akane, hugging her sister, "I can go to college! I, me, can go to college and in America at that! Not even Nabiki pulled that off!"
"I am glad for you Akane," smiled Kasumi, returning the hug, "but do not gloat to Nabiki about it yet," she cautioned, causing her sister to pull away a bit and pout. "At least not until you are accepted!"
Both girls broke out into hysterics and began to jump, or at least Akane began to jump while Kasumi just made the little up and down movements. The girls were so excited and were not going to hold back for anything.
They did this happy-excitement hop for a good few minutes before Akane hugged her sister again and laughed into Kasumi's shoulder. She couldn't believe it, after all her failures in Japan there was a chance that she could be going to the United States for college.
"Wait a minute," Akane paused in her excitement, pulling back from Kasumi for a moment. "What about the second part? What was that about?"
"Oh, that was Uncle Shihiro offering to train you for a couple of years or while you're going to college. That is so generous of him to give you this chance to take you under his wing, so to speak," Kasumi told Akane.
For the second time that day, Akane found that she couldn't breath.
"Training…with Uncle Shihiro?" she breathed for a moment but her features broke into a smile. "Ahhhhhh!!!" The jumping and hugging started again, but this time with Akane screaming her excitement.
"I have the chance to train with Uncle Shihiro! To actually really train! To actually take my martial arts to the next level and perhaps even beyond!" she cried, completely in hysterics. "I can't believe this, someone pinch me!"
As requested, Kasumi pinched Akane's shoulder and the younger sister gave a yelp of pain.
"What was that for?" she demanded.
"You said 'someone pinch me'," answered Kasumi, laughing at her younger sister's display. "Oh my, I am so proud of you Akane, but are you really going to go?"
Any rejoicing Akane had been doing came to an abrupt halt. That was the real question, wasn't it? Was she going to go?
What would I be leaving behind? Akane questioned, her shoulders dropping a little. My family, friends, the crazies of Nerima, all the cute fiancées…
"I don't know," she finally answered. "I mean if I got accepted then of course but if not then I'm not sure. The opportunity to train with Uncle Shihiro is very tempting but I'm not quite sure if that's what I really want."
Kasumi shrugged a bit, "Well, maybe you should watch the video tape first, it may explain things more clearly than that letter of his."
In the excitement of the prospect of college, Akane had completely forgotten about the tape sitting in the box waiting to be viewed.
Surely it must contain something, she decided. "Okay. You're right, the tape first and decisions later."
The eldest Tendo smiled gently and pulled her sister into another embrace, but this time more calmly than their previous ones.
"I am so happy for you Akane, if mother were alive she would be so proud of you," Kasumi whispered into Akane's ear.
"Thank you," Akane mumbled, almost inaudibly as she pulled away from the hug, wiping the tears from her eyes. Tears of joy but tears none the less, awful things that messed up everything and just told people that something happened.
"I-is Nabiki home?" Akane inquired, Nabiki was the only Tendo with both a T.V. and VCR in her room; they were 'necessary' for her advertisement classes in college. Akane suspected it was a bunch of cleverly worded lies though.
"Yes, she is but I'm certain that she will let you use her VCR to view your tape. Now, I have to finish lunch, it will be done shortly so don't be late," Kasumi informed Akane before leaving the room.
"Well, not time like the present to bargain with Nabiki," sighed the martial artist, clicking her tongue a bit.
Above Akane's window, Ranma sat deep in thought as he contemplated the late morning events. He had not heard a word that had passed in the room below him, since he had just sat down. Still, Akane's reactions to that Shihiro-guy's name was enough to make Ranma wonder about him.
Who was this guy? What was his connection to Akane? A fiancée?
Probably, snorted Ranma, it would be about time that she had to put up with multiple fiancées!
Although on the outside Ranma was chuckling at the idea of Akane having another fiancée, he was overwhelmed with worry on the inside.
What if this guy was coming here and what if Akane truly likes him? Ranma's brain began questioning. For some reason the prospect of Akane liking someone else, especially some guy Ranma had never met, frightened Ranma, but that was crazy! Wasn't it?
What am I thinking?! laughed Ranma, shaking his head to knock out the insane ideas. What poor jerk could ever like that tomboy?
Still, with Akane's reaction to the name 'Shihiro' still fresh in his mind, not to mention the mystery package, Ranma couldn't help but suspect that maybe Akane had met and was in love with this guy.
I could always ask her about him… Ranma thought but dismissed the thought right away. Asking questions about this mystery person could possibly make Akane think that he was interested in her affairs, which he wasn't! …Well, not all the time…Okay, so he was interested, but just a bit.
Okay, he prepped, just act casually…
Flipping himself into his uncute fiancée's room, via the window-one would have thought that Akane would have learned to keep it closed by now. To Ranma's astonishment he found the room empty but, presently, he found that the package was lying open on the bed for any prying eyes to see.
Sliding towards the package, Ranma kept his eyes on anything that was not the package on the bed.
Ah, what she dun know won't kill her, or me for that matter, Ranma decided with a wave of his hand.
With that resolution in mind, Ranma peeked into the box only to find nothing in there that he had imagined being in it; there was only a tape and a brochure written in English-a language Ranma had not comprehended in high school or at that moment.
"Phew!" he sighed in relief. "And here I thought it would be some kind of idiotic-romantic gift from her boyfriend." It wasn't as though he was jealous or anything, Akane could have a boyfriend thousands of miles away and Ranma couldn't care less, seriously.
While glancing through the brochure Ranma heard footsteps outside the door. Glancing around the room for an escape, Ranma began to panic until his brain supplied, The window!
Tossing the pamphlet into the box, Ranma dashed out the window and back up onto the roof, his safety area.
Opening her door, Akane went straight to her window. "Ranma?" she called out, poking her head out of the window.
A meek 'yeah' was barely heard from above.
Uncertain if she was going to be heard from her window, Akane got onto the window sill and once situated she pulled herself onto the roof. There she found the man of the moment sitting with his legs crossed and face resting on his palm.
"Hey," she spoke up, "lunch is ready."
"Did you make it?" The words flew from Ranma's mouth before he could stop them.
Ranma could feel the ki rise from Akane, that furious blue aura that warned any person within a radius of three miles that Akane was upset and about to mallet someone to Mars.
"H-hey, I was just joking," Ranma defended lamely, "you know, kidding!"
Akane may have visibly calmed but her flared ki had not died down. "If you must know, Kasumi did all of the cook as usual. So, it's edible for you to eat whenever you're ready to join us downstairs."
With that retort, Akane was ready to make her exit, except she had completely forgotten that she was on the roof. That one step to the 'exit' put Akane on the ledge of the roof, causing her to become unbalanced.
"Whoa…whoa! Ranma…!"
Ranma quickly got to his feet and was at Akane's side, steadying her with his hand gripping her arm. Akane let out a sigh of relief and was ready to thank Ranma until he opened his big mouth.
"Stupid tomboy, can't you do anything without needing me to rescue you?" commented Ranma and that sent Akane back to her anger state of mind.
"You jerk!" Akane growled.
"H-hey now Akane, at least let me put you on the ground before you mallet me," implored Ranma knowing that he had signed his mallet warrant again. One would have thought that over the last few years Akane would have given up the weapon, but it had remained by her side ready for use.
"Then get me down," she snapped, obviously not going to calm down until she had hit Ranma into outer space.
With a resigned sigh, Ranma picked up his fiancée and jumped off the roof to the ground. Once on the ground Akane jumped out of the Ranma's arms and malleted her fiancée into the air.
"Jerk."
