So freak out if you wanna

And I'll still be here

Don't call me for years and when you do

Yeah, I'll still be here

I'm not saying the effort is a waste of time

But I just love you for the things you couldn't change, though you've tried

These hours of confusion, they will soon expire like everything does

There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you

While the world is watching

All you need is the thing you've forgotten

And that's to learn to live with what you are

Ben Folds "You've Got To Live With What You Are"

I sighed, flipped up my collar and stared at myself in the mirror. My crisp black shirt was buttoned down a bit, my silk black tie hanging lazily from my muscular, but not roast beef-like, neck, and my black suit jacket was laid out on our ugly-print bed.

There was something I needed, something missing. I scrolled down a bit and figured out what.

I needed pants; my gorgeous boxers might make the girls swoon too hard and the guys too jealous. Pants for humanity then; and Jin says I'm not a humanitarian.

I swooped to the bathroom and grabbed them from where I dropped them on the floor to put on after the shower. I had forgotten though; I had gotten used to not wearing them very often.

That brought a smirk to the man staring back in the mirror.

Yes, I had gotten to know short girls, tall girls, lean girls, built girls, skinny girls, and fat girls; and yet, none had really mattered. There was one, her name was Kit, and she was another assassin; well, a gun-for-hire. She had been the closest I had had to a relationship since Akane. I told her a lot of stuff; she had been the third in the Dynamic Trio and we loved her.

She hadn't come from Nerima. In fact, she never told us where she was really from. Jin did a check and it was Brussels. She spoke English and Japanese, and probably a whole book of other languages too. They were never really my thing, but I had learned English, the American kind and the real kind. She was brilliant though, a master thief that always hit her target, and very good with the boys. You couldn't escape her beauty and her carefree attitude. Once you got to know her, as Jin and I did, we discovered she wasn't carefree: she was completely afraid of committing to anything and did the opposite.

Kit was tall, lean, and beautiful. She had brown hair, but loved wigs, probably trying to hide herself all the more. She was complex though, and one night, on top of a rooftop in Berlin, she told me something in complete secrecy.

"I've been in love too," she said, after I had told her about Akane.

"But you couldn't have as much as me. It had been four years and I still have dreams about her." I told her, unaware of the common ailment.

She sighed, breathed in and looked at me. "His name was Fox and I loved him. We went to school together and fought all the time. We weren't engage like you and Akane, the hierarchy of the school was different, but we were still the same. Oh god, he was handsome, Ranma, the most brill eyes in the world! No offence, of course, but – hey, stop pouting like a puppy dog, lame ass, and listen. So, we're walking down the boulevard one night, regaling about the play we had just seen, and he wrapped me in my arms and kissed me," she paused here, closed her eyes and smiled that smile of memories held on to, "It wasn't for the first time, of course, but, um,it would be for the last."

She stopped smiling then, another memory, not so pleasant, arose, and her eyes flashed open.

"Some things are better forgotten." She muttered.

I sighed. "So what went wrong?"

She looked at me and shrugged. "He wanted to go away to college, asked me to marry him, told me we could make it work." There were tears in her eyes. "I was eighteen though, scared shitless of commitment, and I told him I'd think about it. His face was . . . crestfallen, but he knew, and so did I, that he could change my mind."

I rolled my neck. "So did he?"

She stared ahead. ". . . never got the chance. That night I got mugged in a park and killed the perp. I hadn't tried to, of course, but I had. Then someone came out of the shadows, my adrenaline was still running so I said a few threats and we started to fight. He easily beat me and after a delicate, yet complicated as fuck, move, he had me on the ground. He asked me if I wanted to live. I said more than anything. So he let me up and told me I fought well, and that my futures lie in bounty hunting, snipering, and thievery. I thought he was joking until he took out a gun and placed it in my hand. I stared at the man I had killed with his own knife, and back to the city line. 'I'm never coming back here, am I', I had asked. He shook his head no."

She stalled there, abruptly and quietly, coughed and hung her head back.

I was confused. "But you could have left with Fox?"

She smiled. "I could never tell him about that night though, and the guilt would ruin what I had. Plus, it was a sign, the night he tells me he wants to marry me another chance pops up. And like I said before, I was, and am, scared of commitment."

I sighed again, trying to hide my smirk. "My story's cooler."

She punched me in the arm. "Jack ass, my story is aboutlost love, I never got to say good bye. I definitely get points for that."

"I didn't either! Did I tell you about the night I left? About the talk I had with my dad? About the . . ." I couldn't finish. "Did I tell you how I found my curse?"

She smirked, wrapped an arm around me, and squeezed. "Honey, you don't have to tell me anything, but I'm interested as hell. So if you keep talking, I'm not going anywhere. The past is a funny thing though, there's always a right moment to unleash it upon yourself. See, you just had a hiccup. Now, you've gotta decide whether you should confront it now, or wait until your ready."

I stared at her for a second and pondered. "I've got a few more stories to tell."

She kissed me on the cheek loudly and rustled my hair. "Well, that's lovely, go on then."

And I did. And it was lovely.

We had been together for a few weeks then, and lasted until one day, on a mission; she was shot dead on a flaming roof with me and Jin in a car at the bottom.

I never lived that down.

So now she is a memory, and it's really not time to face her.

The good thing about Kit and I was that we both knew we were, and would always be, in love with our respective "one". That didn't mean we didn't love each other; just that we both knew the other wasn't who we were meant for in the galaxy, or cosmos, or whatever.

The wind whisked through my hair as I walked up to the high school. There wasn't really a purpose of being here. I suppose, I'd already been to the graveyard, "home", and, aside from the dojo where I certainly was not going, there was really no other place to go.

Nabiki had phoned earlier and asked me to "relax" for a few days. Meaning, of course, I was to stay off Akane's trail. I didn't mind. Nabiki always knew more than she let on.

Funny, they wouldn't just kidnap her like everybody else. It would make things much simpler, not to mention more fun.

The school looked the same except for the paint was chipping a bit and the clock, according to my watch, which was gun proof and always accurate, was five minutes fast.

Then again, with a sadist of a principal it could have always been that way.

It was deserted, dust rose a bit as I walked through the open gates. The fact that they were open was odd but there were many weekends the school had been open, or some teacher with only half a life would come in and do work, stealing away from their twenty five cats for the night.

I stood in front of it then, waiting for Kuno to pounce at me for a fight. My leg flinched, ready to boot, but it was not necessary. I shook it out a bit and let it rest next to my other well toned knee.

My hands were thrust into my pockets and I swung back and forth on my heels, staring at the clock, the building that shaped my entire young adulthood. Now, there was only dust, and the false pretence of being on time for class seemed irrefutably useless.

I stepped closer, almost at the doors. I touched the cold metal and my heart stopped for a second. As the cool metal interacted with my clammy hands, a shock went through me and I closed my eyes. The night, that night, rose around me. She was already inside, fuming with me being late and not taking her myself. And I had been standing here, clutching this steel, with clammier hands than ever, wondering what the hell I should do.

Kuno had slapped my back. I tensed with the memory and stretched my sore shoulder blades.

"No fights tonight." He had said.

I remember feeling confused. Every night was a fighting night for Kuno.

"What's so damn special about tonight?" I had grumbled like the angst ridden teen I was.

He had smirked. "Why, tonight is thy night of magic and mystic. My fair maiden shall be through those glorious doors and I shall run to her."

I stood still at the door, my knuckles now white. "I think she might be here with somebody."

He laughed. "What? You? Did not I tell you tonight is the end. What have you after this institution has forgotten our names? Nothing! But I, a Kuno by name, and by nature, have everything she shall ever desire."

I stared at the window, back at myself, my hand-me-down suit and brushed the dirt off my face.

"Whatever." I found myself, telling no one at all.

That was only one of many conversations that night. And only one of many dreams that haunted me.

I sighed. Coming here was a very bad idea.

I reached for my cell phone to call Jin and go out to relieve the pressure, maybe kill a mark or something. My pocket was weightless though.

"Fuck." I muttered, as I searched for my neglected phone.

Damn, I must've left it on the damn table in the damn room. We really needed to switch to a better suite. I wanted to lay low for a bit though, just in case. I had a lot of enemies now. Well, a lot more heinous ones.

I hitched up my pants for no reason at all, and twirled around to walk away.

I still couldn't shake that feeling out though, of what was, what was dead, and what could have been. . . no matter how hard I shook my leg.

I decided to walk and, upon returning to my humble abode, moved quickly to the night stand. My phone was missing and, in it's place on hotel paper, was a note in Jin's writing.

It read:

Ranma,

Stole your suck ass phone

Emergency call from Akane

Sounded pretty shook up

Went over to figure things out

Hope she's okay

Will phone room

Nobody's,

Jin

Well, something obviously bugged Jin when he reverted to lame humour.

Something crept up on me though, the distinct instinct that all was not good. And that Akane was in trouble.

She was not becoming just another memory to face.

I almost forgot to lock the door; I was too busy loading my gun.

A/N: Wow, I was done for a while my computer just messed up so I couldn't post. But I have half the next done so whoopah.

Puppkid: Sorry this chapter is shorter. No worries, they will grow like flowers. Wow, that was really lame of me. Anyway, thanks for liking it and I hope I haven't deterred you from checking out more Ranma fanfic and, perhaps, reading the manga.

Jace3: Sorry for the soul-Ranmaness of this chapter. Don't worry; a hell of a lot of tension is coming. Muahaha

Ikerana: Oh, oh my you will just love the next chapter (hopefully)

FenixDown: Yes, with hatchets and Barbies. Hehehe just kidding

lisiegirl: Thanks, I love her too! Read Eleven On Top yet?

Innortal: Yeah, there really isn't a lot with Jin yet, but hopefully you'll be just as interested in his back story!

WhiteTigress666: Yes, the mallet is never for just one person (although it does choose favourites)

Read, review, make me love you