Disclaimer: Not mine, not yours, but hers. You don't have to shove it to my face, you know.

Changed Overnight

Chapter Six: Voices In Her Head

A young lady of sixteen found herself squinting at the sun as it rose on a Saturday morning, almost a week after the course of her life changed when her feelings for the person whom she thought was just a naïve friend altered how she felt about her fiancé.

She leaned on the balustrades of the small balcony just outside her room and breathed in the cold, fresh air. She heard some birds twittering not too far away, and when they came into the view, she gazed longingly at them. Flying, carefree, unbound, living a simple life of hunting, eating, and sleeping. Free.

Why can't I be just like the birds?

They don't have human emotions. They can't feel sadness that easily unless they experience a grave loss like losing their nestlings. But heck, they just forget about it after all! They don't really experience love. They just mate, and boom – a family.

Why can't my life be as easy as that?

Her lower lip trembled, and she felt a trickle of tear roll down her cheeks. A week ago, she felt she had moved on to a new stage of her life – without the insensitive fiancé, but with a very good guy by her side who'd surely be her one-member support crew.

But when Ranma got sick for some reason she doesn't want to think about, realizations came pounding to her head like heavy raindrops on the roof on a storm. Her heart changed color so quickly, but doubts were always there.

Sometimes she felt she should try loving Ranma again, because maybe now that he's probably realized his loss, he's isn't going to be insensible to her anymore. But if she did, she'd have led Ryouga to false hopes about their love taking a step further. She did love him for a while, but that was when she thought her love for Ranma would never be recognized.

Damn, she was a… a player.

Akane didn't know what to do, and burst into tears that early morning.

"Breakfast!" Kasumi called from downstairs.

In a few minutes, Akane had already washed, tidied herself, and put on a nice-looking summer dress. She went downstairs and settled down by the breakfast table and noticed that someone was missing.

"Where's Ryouga?"

She didn't notice Ranma flinch when she asked the question.

"He told me he was just going to breathe some fresh air a while ago. But you know him, he gets lost all the time, even in the lawn. Maybe he'll find himself in Hawaii," Nabiki laughed as she ate.

Although Akane was a bit worried, she found herself not really caring about it. She felt guilty as she reached for the rice bowl that she didn't know that someone else was holding it. Ranma looked as surprised as her.

She quickly let go, and so did Ranma. Genma ended up grabbing it and emptying its contents.

"You're off your guard, boy," Genma burbled, his mouth stuffed with food.

Ranma didn't care or answer back, or grabbed the pickles on his father's plate. He was busy summing up courage in his mind and guts. He was busy pushing himself with what he was going to do. He was busy thinking of what to say. Now that the opportunity came, he was not letting go of it. He knew that Ryouga would be very hurt and that he'll probably kill himself – poor guy – but Ranma had to do something with his feelings which kept growing and growing in his chest by the minute… or it's him who'd get killed. And he probably won't even have to commit suicide then.

She yawned and looked around. "Whoah… where are you guys?" she called out as she roamed around the house with her naked feet. Akane only took a short nap after breakfast and woke up to find the house deserted.

"They've gone out," Ranma's voice answered from somewhere.

"Where did they go? And where are you?"

"Our dads went on some trip again. Kasumi went to the market, and Nabiki went shopping with her friends. Me… well, I'm here."

Ranma appeared in the dining area, dropping from somewhere above the roof outside.

"Oh," Akane managed to say. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled gently.

A day with Ranma with the house? I don't know… I mean, he just got sick because of me. Or because of Ryouga being with me. Or, you know. Something. Kami, I don't want to think about it…

Ranma was watching her, but when she looked at him, he faced away. "I guess… I'll just bake some cookies or something."

He choked on air when he heard what she said. Akane glared at him. "I know how to cook now, you know. Sayuri and Yuka actually said my cookies weren't bad at school."

She stomped to the kitchen where she started making dough and preparing chocolate chips. Ranma followed inside, watching her silently with an expression one might say of curiosity.

"You sure they're gonna taste okay?" Ranma cautiously asked when Akane was putting the cookies into the oven already.

"Of course they are," Akane replied with a snobby air. Then her face softened. "Ryouga loved them so much when I made a batch a few days ago."

This made Ranma's heart hurt, as like many other times he saw Ryouga and Akane together for the past two weeks. But he was getting quite used to it that it didn't seem to matter anymore. He just wallowed in his misery, which he knew wasn't a very positive way to recover… but he couldn't help it if the girl he loves belonged to someone else, for crying out loud.

Well, today it did. It mattered.

"Now. Time for me to taste the famed ones, right?" Ranma suggested, grinning.

Akane looked at him like he was a… crabby old man turned into a clown. "Are you sick again?" she asked, but quickly regretted asking it because it brought back the memories of what happened a week ago – Ranma saying that he needed her. She didn't want to go back there because for the past week they've been sharing neutrality between each other; they didn't really talk.

And… well, I guess things were better that way.

Ranma noticed her reaction and seemed to read her thoughts that time, but he didn't let it turn serious again or he'd have lost his chance today. "No, I ain't sick," he replied simply, sitting on the table kitchen counter beside the spot where Akane was leaning. "Ya know, you've always been chasing me with your cooking. You gave me stomachaches with your cookies, but now's your chance to get me to taste them and change my opinion… forever."

She raised her eyebrows suspiciously and faced him. Then she shrugged her shoulders. "Right…"

When the oven rang, Akane carefully served the cookies on a plate. "Great!" She was absolutely sure they were perfect.

"Great!" Ranma echoed. He got off the table and said, "Now can I have some?"

Akane smiled with a challenging look on her face.

And heck, she didn't know why she acted the way she was just about to – maybe she was just missing moments like these, maybe another soul took over her body, or maybe it was just meant to happen.

"No, you'll have to catch me," she giggled before sprinting upstairs into her room, not giving Ranma time to complain. She slammed the door but didn't hear it close.

"Oi, that was unfair!" Ranma's voice whined. "I thought you wanted me to have some!"

Akane smiled. She sat on her bed and stretched out the plate of cookies to Ranma, who closed the door behind him and popped a cookie in his mouth. As he chewed, he plopped on the bed beside her and scrunched his face up as if he was deciding the taste.

She eyed him curiously, waiting for the diagnosis.

Ranma put his hand on Akane's shoulder. "Not bad," he said.

Akane beamed. "Really?"

"The best."

Akane was more than contented when she watched Ranma pop one cookie after another in his mouth. Memories of the times Ranma had made her feel this way – very, very happy – played in her head. It was like the times he hurt her didn't exist, that they were just some product of her crabby imagination to ruin her happy moments.

"Akane."

She remembered the time when she climbed a tall pine tree because she sprouted hair on her face, a side effect of the food she ate that made her too strong. She was crying, and Ranma followed her up the tree to give her the antidote that cured her. She took it and apologized to Ranma as she sobbed. Ranma said, grinning, "Now that's the Akane I know."

"Akane?"

There was one time when Ranma got scratches all over his face because of some trouble with cats, and a band-aid was put on his nose. It happened to belong to Happosai – that meant it wasn't a normal band-aid. Indeed, it wasn't, because it had love potion in it. Ranma had flirted with every girl he saw, and all his fiancées quarreled in an abandoned construction site. Akane was hit and fell down from a high spot, but Ranma found himself lunging below to save her. He ended up saying Akane was cute… and he didn't have the band-aid on his nose anymore. The other fiancés went sour graping home.

Akane smiled.

"Akane!"

She snapped out of it. After looking at Ranma, and realized that she's been staring at him the whole time. "S-sorry," she muttered.

"You've been drifting off these days, I've noticed," Ranma said, looking straight at her eyes.

"Oh," Akane muttered, evading his stare. "I have, haven't I?"

"Something's wrong, isn't it?"

"No," she replied quickly. "I was just… thinking about school. You know – those circle equations and all that."

There was something very different about Ranma, Akane noticed. He wasn't the pleading child she knew a week ago. There was no trace of weakness or being bedridden for days in his face or body – like he had a goal, and had prepared for it. She decided to steal a glance from his eyes. It took her one second to recognize the look of verve. She quickly looked away because she feared that the more they locked eyes with each other, the more he could see into her and know what she felt at the moment.

"Akane, even a straight-A student like you won't think about circle equations when something, like last week, happened. I know you, Akane…" Ranma held her chin gently and made her look at him. "And I know what's bothering you."

She waved his hand away and looked down on the floor. "Nothing's bothering me." Akane got up from her bed, walked across the room and was about to open the door, but she felt Ranma's hand grab her wrist.

Oh, not this grabbing-the-wrist thing again…

"Akane, why can't you just say it?" Ranma asked, getting up.

"Say what?" Akane, who was too concerned about words to worry about Ranma holding her wrist, asked back.

"Say that you just wanted to be loved back in return so you told yourself that you love Ryouga," Ranma replied.

He gulped. Here goes…

"What are you saying?" Akane was definitely baffled.

Ranma continued. "Say that you don't love him after all, that you were just confused that time because of… because of what I've been doing that made you feel… well, bad. That right now, you don't know what to do because your love for Ryouga's gone after a short time, and you don't want to hurt him because he's been doing nothing but loving you from the first time he met you. That, in simple words, you really just don't love him anymore."

It sounded like Ranma had rehearsed these words, and Akane never even had time to think about anything to say, except, "No!"

Ranma let go of her wrist, only to hold her shoulders with both his hands. "Yes, Akane."

"No!" She was teary-eyed and sobbing when she said, "I… I love Ryouga. And I don't want anybody, not even someone like you to–"

"Someone like me? Who am I in your life, anyway?" Ranma asked, not letting go of her shoulders, his gaze piercing hers.

"You're… y-you're…"

At this moment Akane had to stop. She had to stop because she knew exactly what he was to her. She wanted to shout, "You're everything to me, that's who you are! Damn you Ranma, you've stolen my heart, broken it countless of times, made me feel the world hated me, made me feel it's my destiny to die alone, but I always kept trying to change you and I never ceased to believe you would, all because I've loved you more than I have loved anyone in my whole life!"

She wanted to. But she didn't.

"You're bullshit," she said above it all, and turned to leave.

Akane was out of the door when she felt Ranma's hand holding her wrist. She tugged, but he tugged back.

"Ranma, let go!"

"No. All you do is shout all that crap about being hurt when I'm there, but come on! I've apologized for all that, and now that you know how I really feel about you, it's you who's become senseless! Akane, I love you. And I know you love me too…"

A split second later, there was a slapping sound as Ranma felt a painful sting on the right side of his face, which turned numb in a moment. Akane had felt angrier than ever. "How dare you say that! After what you have done to me! Geez, you're so…"

She broke off as Ranma's grip on her wrist loosened. Taking her chance, she went out of the door and almost reached the stairs when Ranma's voice stopped her.

"Yes, I dare say that!" he sniped, appearing behind her. "And whatever I have done, I have apologized for already – more than I ought to have. But still you aren't contented! What's the problem with you, Akane? You aren't the same girl I used to know – the girl with the bad temper who could easily change to be as sweet as honey… the girl who always did everything to make everybody happy. Where did that girl go?"

"Ranma," Akane said in a tone Ranma couldn't decipher. "I'm not falling for that trick again. You can't say the same lines. Then what, you treat me to ice cream like what you did the last time? And don't say you've apologized more than you should have, because you might say you're sorry your whole lifetime and still wouldn't make up for it!"

Akane saw something different in Ranma's eyes. Something like…

"That's it! You know what you are, Akane? You're selfish! You think about yourself, and nobody else – all you care about is how you feel and how much you've been hurt. You always convince yourself that the hurt will never go away your whole life while I'm trying more than my best to get you to change that mentality! That's what you are – SELFISH!"

Ranma's heart started beating double time… what he just said, he never rehearsed. He never even imagined saying all those things to her, but there were just times when… the truth cannot be stopped.

Akane wanted to cry, but she tried to cover it up by showing anger in her eyes. She ran all the way downstairs out of the front door, put on the first pair of footwear she could find, and kept running toward nowhere.

As Akane's figure disappeared, a teardrop from Ranma's eye fell on the wooden floor as he clutched his ruined stomach.

Akane no baka! Always been like that, huh? Running away, like what you've been doing all your life…

Why?

He's supposed to be the unwise one. The dumb one. He doesn't know a thing about how I feel. He doesn't know anything

Yet how come this time, he sounded right?

Am I really selfish?

Akane thought of the time Ranma said she's made a fool out of him. She had begged for him to stop saying it, yet he kept on shouting insisting it was true. He made her look evil. The nerve of him! It wasn't her fault if she loved another guy because he was so insensitive! He never took importance of her, and then he was the one who got mad!

Give me a break! I don't see myself being selfish there at all. He's the one who's been thinking about his feelings, not me. I have the right to love another guy!

Akane felt her muscles tighten. She just realized something – and it was not good.

"Kami-sama…" she muttered.

If she loved another guy, that meant she had loved someone before. That meant she did learn to love Ranma! No, it wasn't good. The last time she thought of this… yes, she thought it was good to finally know her feelings for him. But not now.

Ranma was right, she was selfish. She kept thinking about herself – her pride, her self-importance. The guy comes to her; she doesn't come to him. But love was supposed to be a relationship where the people both benefited! They do not keep secrets, they do not hold back. If Akane was really in love with Ranma then she should've told him. She knew that he loved her back. But she didn't tell him how she felt because all she thought of was her pride. Her once broken heart. She was afraid to break it again.

How could she not be afraid? Ranma was always pursued by all those girls – crazy amazons, gymnasts, cooks… and she would have thought she's the last on the list if Ranma didn't… if he didn't say he loved her.

"But he's hurt me so much before!" Akane kept insisting to herself.

"Oh, but that was before," a voice in her head spoke. "And what he said was really true – he's apologized to you already, more than he ought to have. If he were any other person in your life, he would have given up on making you change your crooked thinking. But he didn't, because he loves you. You're just too self-absorbed to notice it."

Akane, not even wondering where the voice came from, answered back. "I'm not self-absorbed! I perfectly know he loves me!"

"Then what's keeping you?"

"Well…" Akane started. Then she didn't know what to say next.

"Yeah, sweetie, that's what we actually call human pride. Monstrous thing, that one."

Akane didn't care if she was going crazy talking to an imaginary voice.

"Pride. Okay, let's say I set that aside for a second. Then what? I still feel hurt. I don't think it's pride anymore. I think Ranma's done a lot of hurtful things to me in the past, that no matter what he does – and what I do – to forget them, the pain is still there!"

"Oh goodness, stop yapping about the pain!" the voice replied exasperatedly. "You know what I think? That is just some drama you're having. A drama that you think is real. If you really want the both of you to go a step further, then forget the drama because it's holding you back. See, Ranma obviously has the drama thing, too. But I can sense that he's trying to set that aside. And you know what? It's actually doing him progress like what happened a while ago with your horrible cookies–"

"My cookies weren't horrible! I've learned how to make very good ones!"

"Nah. The sugar and the salt looked the same, so instead of putting sugar, you used salt," the voice explained disapprovingly.

"And he still ate them?" Akane asked in awe.

"Just like what he did with you horrible cooking in the past," the lackadaisical voice noted. "And it actually took a voice to make you realize that?" it chuckled. "Major pride case here."

Akane was speechless for a second. She looked up at the bright blue sky, all the way down from the wooden bench she was sitting on in the park. For once, the right realization came upon her: Ranma doesn't just care or love her, he worships her. Okay, maybe worship is too strong a word. Let's just say he loves her so much that he doesn't really care about what happens to himself as long as she's okay.

And that touched Akane's heart like never before.

"I'm sorry, Ranma…" she spoke to herself.

"Yeah, but what about Ryou–" the voice was about to say something, but it was muffled by some force.

As if she didn't hear anything, Akane got up and went back home – to look for Ranma and finally say the things she wanted to say.

When Akane was gone, the middle Tendo holding a pencil and a notebook full of notes (actually, they were the lines the voice had spoke to Akane) emerged from the bushes behind the bench.

"Mission accomplished, my friend," Nabiki Tendo said in triumph, sitting on the bench Akane had left.

"Why did we have to use my voice?" Another person whined. She sat beside Nabiki on the bench, pouting.

"Because she very well knows mine. I'm her sister, dorkus. But thanks," Nabiki said with her all-knowing smile, "Ukyou."

"Ugh, I don't know what I just did… I actually helped make Akane and Ranma a couple again. What would happen to Ranma and me, huh? I need to get him back!"

Nabiki Tendo thumped the chef's head with her fist. "Ukyou, you just made them a couple. And then you're breaking them up? Baka…"

Ukyou massaged her head. "No… but I do love Ranma. Seeing him with Akane hurts. And," her voice became stronger, "have you ever had that feeling? Like your heart's being torn in two when you see the love of you life in another girl's arms, especially if you know very well that you're supposed to be that girl?"

"Jeez, stop being hysterical."

"But Akane and I had a deal!"

"A deal?" Nabiki was interested about it. Her definition of deal involved money.

"Yes," Ukyou went, forgetting that this was supposed to be clandestine. "A few weeks ago, Akane went up to me and said that she wanted to avoid Ranma, and I was supposed to keep them away from each other. I tried to do that, but I really haven't talked to Ranma since then. Whenever we had recess and lunch in school, he was with his guy friends, huddled in some private conversation. I interrupted them a couple of times, but they seemed irritated, and I didn't want Ranma to be irritated with me. And in dismissal, Ranma was always gone early, along with Akane. Maybe he'd gone looking for her because back then, the thing about Akane's dance lessons was still a secret."

"So…?" Nabiki didn't know where this led.

"So no matter how Akane avoided him, and no matter how I want to keep Ranma away from her, they would still get together somehow, one way or another!"

"Like right now?"

"Like right now!" Ukyou started sobbing.

Nabiki was silent for a while, listening to Ukyou's sobs. "You're going to have to make up your mind. If you're willing to love Ranma–"

"Of course I'm willing to love Ranma," Ukyou said.

"…even with knowing the fact that you can never be together," Nabiki continued pointedly, "then you bear the consequences. Would you want to be with a person whom you very well know isn't meant for you? Or would you just want to wish him well with his life with someone else, explicitly the girl he really loves – who is Akane?"

Ukyou had her head down. After a while, she went, "I must be that kind, letting Ranma go like this…"

Mission accomplished again, Nabiki thought contentedly.