Without You

I don't own Ranma ½ or the characters, however any OCs in here are mine!

Ranma landed not far from the Tendo Dojo, which had only meant one of three things. One, it was his lucky day no matter how unlucky he felt. Two, gravity decided to kick in earlier than normal. Or three, Akane just hadn't hit him with the same force as she normally did, which also meant that she was not as angry as she let on. Whatever the reason, Ranma was just happy to be back at the dojo and in his place eating in a matter for minutes.

The moment he took his place beside Akane, Ranma began wolfing down his food while remaining a bit bitter toward Akane. Hey, he had saved her from falling! Where in the definition of 'saving' did it include 'must be hit with the over-grown mallet'?!

Ranma sat there too bitter to notice that Akane's normally flared ki had evaporated into nothingness. Now she sat there picking at her food more or less as she watched her family eat.

If I were to go, would I be willing to give this up for four years in a strange country? she wondered picking at her rice.

Glancing at Nabiki, Akane thought, She would be fine and busy with college. Besides, she could always sell pictures of Ranma-chan for money if she ever gets close to being broke. The thought caused Akane to smile a bit only because she knew that Ranma hated those pictures that Nabiki continued to take of his girl form.

"Akane, are you well?" Kasumi inquired with concern slightly tinting her voice.

Snapping away from her thoughts Akane returned her sister's stare but only found Kasumi watching Akane's chop sticks poke at the rice bowl. "Uh y-yeah," Akane assured lamely as she took a small bite of her food.

The older Tendo sister seemed to have been satisfied so Akane continued her train of thought.

Kasumi would be alright without me around. Although she may have to cook for one less but she should be alright for the most part, Akane smiled then her eyes shifted toward her dad.

Her dad was completely oblivious to Akane's observance of everyone else as he ate quietly and had a little bicker with Mr. Saotome.

Dad…oh daddy would never go for it since I would be continents away from Ranma and still unmarried, assumed Akane glancing at Genma. Mr. Saotome wouldn't handle it well either. They would both start planning our next disastrous wedding and either way I would still end up going to the United States unmarried.

Shaking her head a bit at the thought, Akane ate some more of her food.

What about Ranma? Would he miss me at all? she wondered, sneaking a glance at her fiancée.

Noticing Akane's eye on him, Ranma snapped, "What?"

Perhaps not, Akane concluded, accidentally sighing aloud.

"What? No brilliant come backs today?" Ranma teased but then he noticed Akane's thoughtful expression as she concentrated on her food. "What, cat got your tongue today Akane? You've been quiet."

The entire family turned to the youngest Tendo with eager expressions as they waited for an explanation from her.

Taking notice of all the eyes that were upon her, Akane stopped eating and stared back at everyone else. "Uh? I'm just thinking," she explained, returning to picking at her food again Akane could tell that her family wasn't buying her pathetic reason, even though it was the truth.

"You know what, I don't feel well. I think I'm going to go lay down," Akane stated as she got up and left her family to retreat to her room.

"What is her problem?" Ranma asked as Kasumi returned to eating quietly.

"Ranma," Soun began and the young man could feel another lecture coming on, "since you are her fiancée it is your duty to find out what is making Akane so upset and to set it right."

"Why do I gotta?!" protested Ranma ready for his normal arguments of how he didn't even want to be engaged. When did that become normal?

Thankfully, Nabiki saved Ranma the trouble of having to repeat his reasons. "I'll talk to her after lunch, I think I may have an idea of what's bothering her," Nabiki volunteered finishing off her meal.

Almost everyone at the table stared at Nabiki in shock, except for Kasumi who simply said, "That's a good idea Nabiki and so sweet of you."

Ranma on the other hand wasn't buying into Nabiki's 'sisterly love' for a moment. "What exactly are you hoping to gain out of this one?" he questioned, suspicion dripping in his voice as he leaned over the table a bit.

Nabiki returned the look with one of innocence and disbelief. "Why Ranma, I can't believe you would think so lowly of me after all of these years that we've known each other. I am only going to talk to Akane, sister to sister, I have no 'gain' in it," she lied. The only gain that Nabiki had was to gain information to sell to Ranma later.

Even after all these years he still was willing to pay for information when he needed it most.

"Yeah right," Ranma snorted but he let the subject drop anyway, watching Nabiki leave the table for her baby sister's room. I'll just have to ask Akane about it later.


Would it be that bad if I left? Not really, so I should at least give it a go. If I get into college great, but if I don't then I can at least train a couple of years with Uncle Shihiro. So yes, yes I shall go, Akane decided as she sat at her desk, pulling out a piece of paper.

'Dear Uncle Shihiro' was all Akane had written down before there was a knock on her door.

"Enter," Akane said absently, hiding the started letter, the one her Uncle wrote, and brochure under some books.

Nabiki entered the room and quietly closed the door behind her.

"Okay, spill. What is wrong with you?" she demanded.

The younger Tendo stood starring blankly at the floor as she debated about telling Nabiki. Should I tell her? Uncle Shihiro didn't want her knowing the contents of the package and would it really do to tell her something that I'm not certain of? questioned Akane, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"Well?" urged Nabiki. "You aren't still upset over that last rejection, are you?" Her baby sister cringed at the mention of the rejection. "Aw, come on Akane, you were never one to give up in the past so why get discouraged now?"

Still, Akane remained silent since she hadn't heard much of what her older sister was saying because her mind was still debating.

"Nabiki," she finally spoke, "may I use your T.V. and VCR?"

The advertisement student raised an eyebrow at her baby sister. Rarely, rarely, if ever did Akane ask to use the T.V. and VCR, usually it wasn't for lightly reasons either. It had to be something important because Nabiki would sometimes need to use it to record interesting commercials for a project or some exercise for her class.

"Sure, but that will be ten thousand yen for each," shrugged Nabiki, withholding the smirk that wanted to creep onto her face.

Akane rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. "You know that I have no money Nabiki," Akane pointed out. Her allowance was spent more and more on simple things like ice cream, especially on days when she was really depressed, like earlier that day.

"Well then no," smiled Nabiki even though she knew that her sister's next tactic would be a negotiation.

Sighing, Akane gave in. "Fine, how about I model for your next project and for extra photos to sell to the college boys and Kuno?" offered Akane. It was amazing how even the small trivial things, such as pictures of Akane, still drove boys to buy the pictures.

Nabiki was about to readily except but Akane felt the need to add, "But I still refuse to pose in the nude."

In the past Nabiki had always been good at allowing Akane privacy and not snapping photos of her in the nude, but since the older Tendo had entered college she had been trying numerous strategies to get Akane to pose in the buff. The younger sibling wasn't too thrilled about the idea and refused the offer all the time.

"Mmh, well if you put it like that then I guess we can just do ten shots and you've got a deal," agreed Nabiki with a disappointing sigh.

"Thank you, may I use it now?"

"Sure, I'll go get my camera and set up outside. Come down when you're done with your viewing," smiled Nabiki, leaving the room.

Once her sister was gone, Akane pulled the tape from the box and quickly went into Nabiki's room to watch it.

Going into Nabiki's room felt odd for Akane but she knelt in front of the T.V. and turned it on. Setting everything up so that she could watch the VHS, Akane popped it into the VCR and sat back.

The word 'PLAY' flashed on the blue screen only to be replaced by a snowy black screen. Suddenly that was changed to the image of a late thirties man with dark brown hair sitting on a chair, rolling up his sleeves.

"Is it on?" he asked in English to the person recording.

"Yeah," came a female's voice.

Aunt Lorain? Akane wondered, it had been a good ten years since she last heard her Aunt's voice.

"Okay." Uncle Shihiro cleared his throat and shifted on the stool. "Akane my dear, by now you've probably read my letter and you may have some questions. Well, I can't promise to answer all of them but I hope this recording will answer most of them."

His Japanese was a bit hesitant but still very well kept considering that he only spoke Japanese with his family.

"So, without further adieu, I shall explain all of this to you…"