Chapter 3

During the lessons Ranma always shot short glances at Akane but never got her to look at him.

He also noticed that Ayumi, while she looked concentrated, wasn't concentrating on the lesson, but was studying the auras of the other students. And when she got to his, her back went rigid, and Ranma could just feel her frowning.

'What is it with her? It's sure that she knows some things of Martial Arts, but what exactly? And what could be so wrong with my aura that she would frown?'

Ranmas thoughts were interrupted as the bell began to ring, signalizing lunch time. And the next thing Ranma knew, was that there was a hole in the wall and that Shampoo and Ukyo were fighting. They were shouting at each other but their fighting was so loud that Ranma could only discern some bits of what they said.

"Chinese idiot!"

"...chance...win airen...'fore Akane!"

"You wish, you...!"

Ranma stopped listening. He didn't really need to know any more, and his stomach reminded him that he didn't eat anything in the last three hours. But he also didn't want to eat when those crazy girls were around! He had them the last two months and one of the reasons he was so looking forward to go to school, was because of the bit of peace he hoped he would get. What was he to do?

Just then Ayumi approached him, smiled comfortingly and said:"Your fiancées, I assume?"

Ranma just nodded, and Ayumi gave a short laugh.

"Want to escape it?", she asked with a wink.

Ranma wasn't so sure about this... He didn't really know her, and one thing he was taught in this school: Don't trust people too easily! But she looked rather harmless and she was Akanes cousin. She couldn't be so bad, now could she?

Ranma wasn't really sure if this was a comforting thought or not... But he decided that she deserved a chance, and this would also give him the opportunity to talk to Akane. He was really curious about that training trip and he could get to know Ayumi better...

"Sure", he said and followed her out of the class room, without being noticed.

She led him to the stairs and they got up to the roof, where Akane was already waiting for them with their lunch ready.

At this sight, Ranma wasn't so sure about this anymore... Did Akane prepare that lunch? As he contemplated his chances of running away, Akane spoke up.

"Hey Ranma! Kasumi told me to give you her regards, and to enjoy the food she prepared for you."

Ranma let out the breath he was holding, but made sure that neither of the girls noticed, and nodded with his head.

Akane gave him a little smile, and they all started to dig in, in their food, nearly starved after three hours of boring school. They ate in comfortable silence, and Ranma checked for any changes on Akane. As far as he could tell, she hadn't phisically changed, however, her aura told him otherwise. Somehow, the aura changed, which wasn't really that odd for someone who just came home from a training trip, but if Ranma had to describe it, he would have said that it had matured. For a aura to grow stronger wasn't that special, but for one to 'grow up', to reach something higher, was something special, and had normally very little to do with any new learned technique...

Ranma glanced at Ayumi, but didn't find anything odd about her.

'Who is she? And what did she do with Akane?'

After they had all finished, they had still ten minutes to spare, and Ranma told them of what had occured during their absence (without telling them of his new obsession with reading...), and made them laugh with each new story he came up.

'Admit it.'

'Admit what?'

'You missed it.'

'I missed what?'

'Her laugh'

For once, Ranma did something he normally never did, but he couldn't help it, the mood was light, he didn't have a care at that moment, and he was experiencing a rare moment of peace, without any interruptions.

And so, Ranma did the thing, nobody would have thought him capable of...

'Yes, yes I did.'

He admitted to himself, that somehow, he had missed Akane.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½. It does belong to Rumiko Takahashi.