A/N: An update, FINALLY. Thank you for your patience!

Mellow
Chapter 7

She lay, curled up in the bed. There were no more tears; they had dried in the heat of the room, forming shiny tear tracks on her cheeks. Her eyes were open, dull and unfocused, but she could hear every single tick of the clock on the wall, breathe in every single old scent from her bed. She lay, unmoving.

Her eyes drifted. They fell onto the dried roses on her wall, so brittle yet so pretty. She remembered: they were the ones Ranma had given her so long ago, during the entire Nabiki fiancée fiasco. When she moved out, she left them here, not wanting to bring more emotional baggage than what was necessary.

She smiled, sort of. Those were happy times, back when she received the roses.

Pained suddenly, she turned her head away, not bearing to stare at them any longer.

It appears you are pregnant, Miss Tendou.

What?

You're pregnant.

I…

Two months after she moved into the apartment all the way across Tokyo, it occurred to Akane that her period was late. She was always a little irregular but…

She was worried. It wouldn't happen, she said. It was her first time.

She bought a home pregnancy kit. It was positive. She bought another. It was positive too.

This was wrong, she remembered thinking, half in tears. So she saw a gynecologist.

It was positive.

…It says here that you are currently single, Miss Tendou. The father…?

…We were due to get married, but he… we broke it off.

I see. Then shall I arrange for an abortion?

I…

She made a second appointment with the gynecologist. She was a woman in her thirties, old enough to have had enough experience with women caught in the lurch, and young enough not to know how to handle them in a gentle way. Perhaps she was merely being professional. Perhaps she just wasn't feeling up to dealing with yet another confused woman.

She said she would give her answer to the gynecologist when she returned on the second appointment. Then she went home, and thought about it for a while.

On the day of her appointment, she walked boldly in and took a seat. Staring at the woman straight in the eye, Akane locked her fingers and gave her answer.

"I will keep the baby."

It appears you have a son, Miss Tendou.

A son. Her first thought was: would he look like Ranma? Then she shook her head. Maybe. But one thing was for sure. Her baby wouldn't have blue eyes like Ranma. She learnt it in school before; the gene for brown eyes was dominant over the gene for blue eyes.

Akane had brown eyes.

She would have liked to see Ranma's eyes though.

She squashed that thought.

Have you thought of a name for the baby, Miss Tendou?

…I was thinking of the name 'Yasuo'.

That's nice.

Yasuo meant 'peaceful one'. Akane wanted her son to have the peace that Ranma and her didn't get.

Strange, wasn't it? The child of a man named 'wild horse' and a woman with the color red in her name, named 'peaceful one'.

The baby seems to be coming along well. Did you contact the father?

…No.

Even if she wanted to tell Ranma, she didn't think he would want to know. After all, if he did, he wouldn't have abandoned her in the first place, would he?

Well, perhaps the pregnancy has proved helpful to your health. You seem happier now, Miss Tendou.

Thank you.

So she was happier. There was something to think about now, something to laugh over, something to work on. She was focused; she didn't have to mope anymore. Her new friends marveled at her change, her neighbors chuckled and gave her friendly advice; even the cashier at the grocery store told her she looked 'radiant', in his words. She began calling her baby 'Yasuo', and somehow, that made him more real.

He became a person. He wasn't an unborn fetus. He was her future son, her baby conceived in a surge of strong emotions. Yasuo was her love child.

Perhaps that was why it hurt so much when the miscarriage happened.

—

Akane couldn't remember much about the accident. She was crossing the road; she swore the lights were green, when she looked up and saw a car braking madly. Then she was bleeding, bleeding and bleeding, and people were talking to her, asking her for her name.

"Akane," she remembered saying vaguely. There was no pain. The sky seemed awfully bright. "Tendou Akane."

Then: "My baby!"

Someone gripped her hand tightly. A female voice, calm and reassuring. "It's going to be all right, dear."

She didn't hear anything else. She didn't remember anything else.

When she woke, she saw her gynecologist at the end of her bed, staring intently at a notepad. Akane must have made a sound of some sort, because the woman looked at her with such a pitiful look that she stiffened, terrified.

Yasuo?

"You lost the baby, Miss Tendou," she said gravely. She went on, talking about how Akane was mostly all right, just a few days in the hospital and she would be fine, really, perhaps you would like to see our counselor at the hospital, they are trained to help people out of difficult times…

She heard nothing but the roar of blood in her ears.

—

In the darkness, Akane sat up. Carefully, she lifted the hem of her shirt, pulling it up until the pale white skin of her stomach was exposed. In the darkness, the scar looked almost unreal, like something that was there but wasn't. With one hand, she traced the faint scar lightly.

She had gone into shock, they said. They tried to do a caesarean on her to save the baby…

But it was too late.

She touched the scar. She had cried so long after that. And Ranma thought she was cruel and evil and…

Akane felt a surge of something then. She wasn't cruel! She tried to save him, she did, she really did, but they said it was too late, but she did try to save him, she wanted him to be saved, he was her baby—

Her eyes were growing hot and wet already.

Frantically Akane pushed herself off the bed and leapt down. Yanking the door open, she all but stumbled out blindly into the dark corridor. She had to, she had to…

She reached out for Ranma's door. She pushed. It was locked. Her eyes darted around. The keys! Kasumi kept the spare keys down in the kitchen. Drawing in a deep breath, the panicked young woman spun around on her heel and made a dash down the stairs. She must have stumbled a few times; by the time she was scrambling up the stairs once more, parts of her bare feet stung.

She tasted saltiness. Was she crying? She was doing a lot of that lately. Her eyes must be permanently red and swollen now.

Akane stuck the first key into the keyhole. It wouldn't fit. She pushed the second one in. That wouldn't fit too. Desperate now, she shoved the third one, but somehow it kept missing the keyhole…

It was in the middle of fumbling at the door that there was a sudden click and the door slid open. Akane looked up, eyes wide, as Ranma stared down, looking faintly surprised.

He barely had time to step back before she rushed into him, babbling and sobbing.

She couldn't stop. She couldn't stop.

"Akane." His voice was even and calm, as though he was used to such hysterics from people. She didn't respond. He didn't know, he didn't know…!

"Akane," he repeated, this time with a bit of concern, though his voice remained more or less flat. He reached out to her shoulders and shook her a little. "Akane."

"I didn't… I didn't…" she was mumbling, her voice rising with each syllable. He gripped her tighter and pushed her away, enough for him to see her face. In the darkness, Akane sucked in a deep frightened breath. She was terrified, and she didn't know why. Everything was just smashing into her with such intense velocity that she had in effect become a babbling nervous wreck: everything from Ranma's departure to Nodoka's anger to her own horrible tangled knot of feelings to the pregnancy and the miscarriage, and the blood, oh the blood and Soun's burial and…

And the feeling that she was going to be left dangling, unable to go up, unable to go down.

Ranma. Help me.

"Akane!" his voice was sharp now, sharp and commanding, but somewhat anxious. Her head snapped up, she gasped in. Abruptly she stilled, her breaths coming in fast and unsteady as she let her head fall forward to rest limply on his collarbone. She felt hands, large and awkward, supporting her.

"Ranma…" her voice was so soft, Akane felt her vision blurring. She squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sorry."

He stiffened. She ignored it.

"I lied to you," she admitted. It pressed on her; she was frightened. Then: "I'm sorry."

Ranma was silent. When he spoke, she felt his chest rumbling. "Then what happened?"

She let her eyes stay shut. "I had a miscarriage. There was a car accident."

Simple words, yet they held so much they the moment Akane forced them out, she felt tremendous pressure ease off her, followed by the distinct impression that she had thrown her load down a cliff and now she was staring down the cliff. She pushed away lightly, turning searching eyes to Ranma's face. He looked so blank; she wondered if he had heard her.

"It wasn't your fault," she said suddenly. The words, once locked up so tightly inside her, were now pouring out with such enthusiasm that she wondered if she had finally gone mad. It was like the dam had been brutally smashed open and now water was gushing out and nothing could stop it. "It wasn't your fault, Ranma, I'm sorry. All those things I said… I'm sorry, I'm really sorry-"

He looked down then, and she saw a strange expression in his eyes. Slowly, he touched her lips with one finger, halting her speech immediately.

It took a long time, but he swallowed and said, "I'm sorry."

Then she was crying, all over again. She was throwing her arms around him, holding him tightly, sobbing and shaking with the onslaught of it all. He stiffened, but then the next moment he was crushing her close, his chest heaving oddly.

Akane stopped, blinking back furiously. "Ranma, are you…" Are you crying?

He seemed to have caught on, because he snorted indignantly. "Of course not!" he barked defensively, and it seemed for a moment this was the Ranma Akane had known when she was much younger. She giggled, unable to help it, and before she knew it, she was reaching up to touch the corner of his eyes like she did so long ago.

She touched the finger to her lips, and then smirked up at him in the darkness. "Salty," she observed.

He might have blushed. She couldn't see. Instead, he pulled her in and touched the top of her head with his chin lightly. "Whatever," he muttered, and she felt that very same rumble from his chest. Sighing suddenly, she pressed her face into him and tightened her grip. She didn't know if she should be laughing or crying. She didn't even know what she should be doing. After all, how many people carefully planned out their reunion with the ex-fiancé, who impregnated then abandoned them, in a positive way?

He decided it for her then. In one quick movement, his fingers pushed her chin up deftly and he lowered his head to hers.

She closed her eyes. Greedy. Wanting.

Needing.

—

It wasn't Ranma's fault. Akane came to that conclusion when she awoke and found out that dawn had come a long time ago. Ranma was still asleep, judging by the steady slow movements of his chest. she tried to sit up, but found that Ranma had effectively tangled his arms around her.

She smiled briefly. Oh yes, Ranma was always one for possessiveness. "Touch her and die!" she remembered him saying angrily, and that had been barely a few months into their engagement. Then there was his almost territorial attitude towards his food…

She had been so tired after that hell of an emotional roller coaster that she had just taken that she fell asleep right in his futon. She supposed he had decided to let her sleep there for the night. She was glad.

It wasn't his fault, something insisted stubbornly. She sighed to herself. Yes, it wasn't his fault.

All these years she tried to blame him, wanting to place blame on somebody, anybody. But what did Ranma ever do, anyway? He was disorientated, angry and hurt. The powder has obviously messed up his senses. Of course he had reacted the way he did.

It wasn't her fault either. All she did was try to deal with such a strange situation.

Maybe it was Kodachi's fault. Or Shampoo. Or even Ukyou. Akane shook her head mentally. She had seen their faces, so pale and so sad that she knew if they were at fault, they had already received more than what they deserved as punishment. Even Kodachi, brash delusional Kodachi who had been the start of the whole business, had been wide-eyed and silent for days after.

If there had to be someone at fault, then perhaps they all shared a little bit of it.

Ranma stirred. She watched, mildly amused, as Ranma blinked awake at her. "Hey," he said quietly, like what he said so long ago.

Akane smiled a wobbly smile. "Good morning," she answered.

He smiled, and absent-mindedly threaded his fingers through her dark hair. She laughed, for the sheer fun of it.

The hurt was over. This was where the healing began.

—

Nabiki walked down the stairs. Then she stopped.

Well, this was an interesting turn in the situation. Despite herself, she allowed a tiny satisfied smile to form. Raising one perfectly manicured hand in greeting, she nodded to everyone at the table and took a seat.

"Good morning, Nabiki-chan," Kasumi greeted. She spared a careful look at her sister. The older woman seemed rather drawn, but she looked much better now. She glanced at the food; it looked normal. It appeared Kasumi had regained some resemblance of normality to return to her chores.

Nabiki took her seat, before turning her gaze to what really caught her attention. She was discreet, of course. Nabiki loved all things discreet.

She observed.

What was so interesting, one might ask. Well, nothing really, unless you consider the fact that Ranma and Akane were seated next to each other, and willingly too as it seemed. She felt growing amusement as she watched Akane dropped her chopstick accidentally and Ranma pick it up for her. The younger woman turned a pensive gaze to the utensil, before accepting it with a faint smile.

Nabiki started to eat. By then, her grin was positively cat-like. "It's a good day, isn't it?" she remarked suddenly, watching with lidded eyes.

Akane seemed momentarily confused, but Ranma caught on. To Nabiki's pleasant surprise, he gave her a smirk, something so remarkably boyish and playful that she could not help feel the atmosphere lighten instantly.

Ranma hadn't had that expression in years.

Akane smiled suddenly.

Nabiki picked up a piece of food easily. "Let's get down to the important stuff, shall we?" she began pleasantly.

Kasumi raised her hand demurely. "No serious discussions at the table, please," she laid down simply.

Akane finished her food. "I'll be at the koi pond," she told them with a brief smile. It seemed resigned, but oddly hopeful. As expected, Ranma followed her in the next few minutes.

Nabiki continued eating slowly. Turning to Kasumi and Tofu, she began a conversation about the freshness of the fish.

—

"Tea?" Kasumi interrupted politely.

Akane nodded, extending her teacup to her sister.

It was almost unnoticeable, but everyone in the porch knew that Akane was holding Ranma's hand with such intensity it was almost frightening. It pained her to dig up all this, but they needed to do this… and she wasn't going to back out.

Ranma, for his part, had no particular strong expression. Heck, he seemed relaxed. Only his grip on her hand showed otherwise.

Nabiki let the silence sink in. Nearly two hours had passed since they sat down to talk, a unanimous decision by everyone in the house. It was as though it was only natural to sort out old misunderstandings and troubles once it became clear that something had happened between Ranma and Akane.

She stared into her teacup. Finally, this whole mess was coming to a close.

It began simply enough. Nabiki had started by telling everyone how, a few months after Ranma simply disappeared, she received an email while she was in college.

Tendou Nabiki,
Will send money over to cover expenses at Tendou Doujou. Thank you for supporting my father and I.
-Saotome Ranma

She had taken a mere five minutes to reply.

Saotome,
We don't want your fucking money. We're not charity. We want an explanation. Do you even know what you did to Akane? Or perhaps you don't care.
-Tendou N.

He replied.

Nabiki,
And I am not someone to be tossed around. Akane will live without me… she is strong. You'll get the money soon.
-Ranma

She had laughed in sheer irony when she read that.

Oh yes, Saotome. I'll be sure to tell that to the shrink the next time she has an appointment for depression. I'm not that heartless to accept money from someone who has hurt my family. Send the money over and I'll burn it.
-Tendou N.

He didn't reply after that. The money did come: it went into her bank account. She left it there, not bothering to use it.

"It's still there, you know," she remarked to Ranma. He didn't seem upset, merely snorting.

"Stubborn cow," he let out, but there was a smirk on his face.

In any case, she had saved his email address. One day, he came to her requesting a loan… one thing led to another, and soon she was keeping touch with him through email and providing updates on the rest of the people who used to live in Nerima. She did give him the loan, and on his part, he gave his word to repay her favor.

"Loan?" Kasumi asked. "What for?"

Ranma's face grew drawn for a moment. "Mum had a bad fall," he answered then.

Kasumi grew dismayed. "I'm sorry, Ranma-kun…" she apologized. "Is she…"

He gave her a smile, although he looked shadowed. "She's okay now."

Akane squeezed his hand.

—

According to Ranma, after he left he wandered around aimlessly training for a while before leaving for China. He had no idea why he left for China, but he thought that since he had no obligation to stay in Japan anymore, he could look for a cure.

And find a cure he did.

It was in the area around Jusenkyou that he found a small village. The people were so far from civilization that most of them had never heard of computers and televisions… even more outdated that the Amazons themselves. Sure they had heard of strange machines that could do unbelievable tasks, but they found it hard to believe.

It was in the small village that Ranma stopped to take a break and by pure luck, passed by the wooden house of a middle-aged woman and her family. Nothing unusual really, until it started raining. He remembered feeling the utmost irritation as he felt his joints shift oddly and his body tingle as he shrank into the body of a girl.

"Mama! Mama it's one of those Jusenkyou people! Is he gonna buy your water? Mama!"

Ranma turned around and stared at the child running into the house. Within a few minutes, a woman hurried out, eyes gleaming, as she looked the redhead over. Then, realizing that Ranma was getting soaked in the rain, she pulled her into the house hurriedly and rushed about getting tea.

"Hello!" she greeted exuberantly in accented, slightly broken Japanese as she pulled her strange dark green hair into a bun. "Welcome to my house! You Japanese, right?"

Ranma nodded, feeling a bit disorientated.

The woman tittered and pulled over some hot water from the fire. Briskly she dumped the container's contents over Ranma and she felt the change taking place without delay. Once the woman was satisfied that he had returned to his original form, she bowed and smiled, her son peeking out from between her legs. "I am Lu Shan," she introduced. "Lu Shan or Lotion."

He stared. Strange-colored hair, name resembling a product's… he let his eyes travel expertly over her stance. Martial Artist, he noted, seeing her muscles and the way she stood.

"Are you Amazon?" he asked bluntly without caring.

The woman's lips curved into a sad smile. "Very clever Japanese you are. I was once an Amazon… but the Amazon life does not suit me. Lotion believes there is more to life than lording over males and fighting." Her hands, rough with work, came to pat her son's head gently and she smiled down tenderly at the child. "I leave for family."

Abruptly her demeanour changed. Her head snapping towards Ranma with a bright smile, she nodded and began in a business tone. "Young man like to buy cure for curse of Nyannichuan? I have enough preserved Nannichuan from before I left tribe." She shook her head and clucked her tongue. "Now Nannichuan is flooded, is it not? This may be only hope."

He stared at her. "Are you serious? Is that really Nannichuan?'

She nodded. "Lotion lies not." The woman giggled then. "When Lotion was young, my older sister broke my doll. Lotion try turn Perfume into boy. But Grandmother found out and had to turn her back with Nyannichuan. But Lotion took too much of spring water, and now has a lot stored in my house." She gave a little sigh. "Perfume tells me that her son has been cursed with Jusenkyou and wanders as a duck. Lotion wishes to help the poor boy."

Ranma stiffened. "Mousse?"

"You know Mousse?" the woman exclaimed in delight, not noticing Ranma's slight grimace. "Ah, friend of my sister's son is a friend of mine!" Shoving a cup of hot tea into his hands, she busied herself with fetching a large container of water from the next room. "For you," Lotion said warmly, pushing it into his hands. "For Mousse's friend, free."

Mousse's… friend? He had wanted to laugh bitterly at that. Nemesis, more likely. Still, he wasn't one to refuse a cure that had just been shoved into his hands by a friendly ex-Amazon, so he accepted it with a word of thanks and prepared to use it.

"No, no!" Lotion protested. "Not in my house, please! Lotion does not want ants cursed with Nannichuan in my house! Son will be terrified!"

He smiled then, briefly. Obeying her, he stepped out of the house to empty the spring water all over himself.

The water was cold, but he remained a man.

He took a step out into the rain. He was a man.

For the first time in a long time, Ranma gave a small smile.

When the rain stopped, he bowed in thanks to the woman and left, promising to remember her kindness. She had laughed and shrugged it off, and stood in her doorway as she waved, cradling her toddler son in her arms.

—

"Well, you should write to thank Mousse for that," Nabiki commented.

"Maybe I should," Ranma answered lightly.

"Ranma…" Akane said suddenly. "The effects of the powder…"

He looked serious now. "I'm getting to that."

—

When Ranma was in China, he met a man who knew about magical powders and potions. Even though he couldn't pinpoint the exact powder used, he suspected that the combined effects of the two powders not only messed up Ranma's senses, but also turned up the intensity of emotions.

The powder that Shampoo wanted to use worked by triggering the brain's wired response to someone calling Ranma's name and intensifying it until it became an emotion like love. But when Kodachi mixed it up, it intensified everything around him instead, including feelings.

Every emotion he had ever felt, every train of thought had been ruthlessly dug up by the drug and intensified until Ranma himself had been so consumed by it that he couldn't stop.

That was why he had hit Kunou so badly.

That was why she had given herself in.

That was why he had been so angry, so dangerous.

That was why his responses had seemed so… magnified.

That was why he had left.

And that was… that was why they all fell apart.

—

The wind picked up slightly across the porch, and ripples formed across the surface of the koi pond.

"Ranma…"

The young man turned around and gave the oldest Tendou sister a small smile. "Hey, Kasumi," he said. "What's up?"

Kasumi smiled, warmth seeping into her smile, and Ranma found, with a slight pang, that he missed seeing the warm maternal look that Kasumi gave to everyone. The look that he had grown so accustomed to after living at the Tendou Doujou. The look that he hadn't seen in years. "They're leaving soon, Ranma," Kasumi said carefully.

"Are you going with them?" he asked.

Kasumi shook her head and smiled wanly. "I don't like law very much. But Nabiki-chan wants me to tell you that she would like it if you went with her and Akane."

"Me?" Ranma was a bit surprised. "What about Tofu?"

Kasumi turned her gaze out to the koi pond. "Tofu wishes to stay and accompany me," she answered quietly, with the faintest hint of thankfulness.

"Ah…" Ranma said thoughtfully. He turned to her and gave her a teasing grin. "Well, I wouldn't interrupt your time together then."

Kasumi laughed a little. "Ranma…" she admonished lightly.

There was silence once more, and then Kasumi spoke up again. "Ranma," she began. "Are you… better?"

Ranma did not seem perturbed by her questioning. Instead, he casually locked his fingers behind his head and gave a quick affirmative nod. "Not entirely, but the man I met in China taught me to block out the emotions so I wont get affected." He looked pensive for a moment. "Do I seem aloof now, Kasumi?"

She folded her hands. "Perhaps a little," she replied gently. "But I believe you will heal." Giving him a bright smile, she turned to leave. "I'll go and wash the dishes now, if you don't mind."

Ranma stared after her. Perhaps I might heal.

"Oh yes, I seemed to have forgotten to say something. How rude of me," Kasumi remarked cheerfully as she glanced back. With a warm smile, she tilted her head slightly. "Welcome back, Ranma."

Every single person in this household has missed you. You just don't know how much.

—