Author's Notes: I have committed a grave sin. I am so sorry for not updating for a million years! And although I did promise that I'd update after I've finished The Diary of Akane Tendo, here I am, updating ahead. I know that's not enough to compensate for my very, very bad deed, but I hope I made it in time just before your strings of patience get cut… Now read on, we wouldn't want to keep Ranma and Akane waiting! (",)
Okay. Wait.
Aaaagh my mind was struck numb when I saw that I haven't updated for almost SIX MONTHS! Aaagh!
I know that most of you might have to read the story again to catch up (I am so, so terribly sorry, down to the last drop of my idle blood); you don't have to read-READ everything, just skim over and stuff. It always works. Just a little advice from someone with experience. (",) The later part of this chapter, by the way, is inspired by the episode "Akane Goes To The Hospital". Quite similar, but I think the events here are nicer.
God, I am such an evil, ghastly, cruel person. SIX MONTHS! SIX! I am never, ever doing that again… Okay. Go.
Disclaimer: Not mine, not yours, but Rumiko Takahashi's.
Changed Overnight
Chapter Twelve: Saving Akane Tendo
When she was eight years old, Akane had been immediately volunteered by her classmates to play the part of Awiyao, the lead male character in the upcoming school play, The Wedding Dance. She wanted so badly to be a part of the play because she knew everyone would be watching, and she sort of wanted to feel what it was like under the spotlight. If Akane were any other ordinary kid in her time, she would have instantly said NO and explicated that if she were to star in a play, she should be playing the part of her own gender and not the opposite.
But Akane Tendo was not an ordinary kid. Not in the abnormal Down syndrome way, but she was just too unique a child to be ordinary. She often had a very sweet temper, but when it reaches boiling point, even the Al Qaeda should be warned. Many times she had whined to her father so he would buy her the newest toy from the toy store, but there were instances when, even though her heart ached painfully for that Barbie doll or that three-foot high Hello Kitty stuff toy, she didn't complain – those were the times when she noticed that everybody at home seemed to be in a diet, and eleven-year old Kasumi would sigh when she and her dad opened the empty cupboard in the kitchen.
The little Akane was smart, too – when the teacher first introduced to them the multiplication table, she didn't even have to study hard to get an A plus in her card. Nonetheless, she liked studying in her room, even though with her IQ, studying wasn't really a necessity. She always liked the feel of the school books' pages against her fingertips whenever she turned the paper. The way the pencil just fit like a glove in her hand was a wonderful feeling as well.
And then there was her ability to sacrifice. No, they weren't big sacrifices, not the way that William guy in Braveheart gave his life for the freedom of others. They were the little ones, like the time when she decided not to buy anything with her lunch money starting September so she could buy everybody at home the best presents on Christmas.
Another example was the school play. She really didn't feel like playing the part of a guy, but her classmates counted on her to do it. So instead of contradicting, she shut her mouth, smiled affably, and agreed.
However, it didn't stop there. Two years later when she turned ten, she played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Oh, how she envied her friend Yuka who played the part of Juliet, but again she shut her mouth when she wanted to complain about the unfairness of life, and just gave her playing of the role her best effort.
But she had her lucky break after not too long. When she was eleven, she was supposed to play the first brother in The Two Brothers, but the girl assigned to play the princess came down with a terrible fever just three days before the play, and since Akane memorized the princess' lines, she was asked by the director to play the part of the princess. Hiroshi replaced her as the first brother (some guy whose name Akane cannot seem to recall played the second brother, who was the evil one).
The Two Brothers is a play about a horrible dragon-like monster that eats young maidens for lunch. Its greatest meal is that of the princess, whose parents have no choice; otherwise the monster would attack the country and destroy it to smithereens. So in the play, Akane was chained to a big papier-mâché rock by the lake where the monster lived. During the practices, she couldn't help complaining because the chains were always too tight when the stage manager used them to bind her to the rock. But she bore with it for three days, knowing that it was all part of the whole thing.
The play was held on a Saturday night. All the students, parents, and teachers were there. Little Akane knew that it was the last time those chains were going to hurt her. Finally, Hiroshi, the good brother who has constantly sought the princess' love, rescued her in the end. She could never forget her final line in the play, which went, "Oh, my princely knight, you have saved me from the monster! Do take my gratitude!"
"What might that be, your highness?" Hiroshi, the first brother, asked.
And thus went the short kissing scene, a little peck given by little Akane on the corner of little Hiroshi's lips, which was the reason why he always had a crush on her all these years.
"My hero," the princess sighed. The brother married the princess in the end, and they lived happily ever after.
About six years later, the Akane Tendo we all know wondered with her eyes closed why she's having a nightmare about those chains. They happened many years ago, and she really didn't mind the pain much. After all, the play was successful in the end, and her family was proud of her for effectively playing a female role for the first time.
Akane opened her eyes.
Two blurred images of green and red. Darkness loomed behind them.
She blinked.
Two blurred images of an indigo-haired woman in red and a black-haired woman in green.
She wanted to rub her eyes, but she couldn't. She struggled and realized that she was chained to a metal chair. And then she wanted to clutch her stomach. It was hurting. Throbbing. Very badly. It wasn't the kind she felt when she'd missed breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It didn't come from within; instead, it came from the outside and excruciatingly worked its way to her guts.
"Ugh," she groaned. It was muffled by something that covered her mouth.
The wind blew through the scene. It was very chilly. Too chilly, in fact, that Akane felt like she was walking naked on the streets on a winter night. She looked and saw that she was wearing one of her thinnest nightdresses, a white one made out of silk (in her head, there was a brief but distant flash of her putting it on when she was still inside her room). When she shivered once, it multiplied into chain reactions and never stopped.
She sneezed. It made her feel all the soreness in her body that had been numbed by the cold over the time that she had fainted in exhaustion and pain. "Kami-sama, help me…" she murmured, her voice muffled again.
Her mind was disorganized. It was too dark and cold and the two statues in front of her didn't help, either. She frantically asked herself her name, and was relieved when she still remembered who she was – the image of a yellow duck sign that said "Akane" on her door helped – and that she had a father and two sisters. There was a remote image of a black piglet, and she had a feeling that she loved that little creature dearly.
And then there was a pigtailed guy wearing a red polo shirt. The thought of him made her heart beat fast; the ice that had frozen the blood-pumping muscles inside her chest melted upon the image of the mysterious person. She wondered who he was to her, but before she could find out, she felt her head being tugged violently as the cloth that covered her mouth was ripped off by the indigo-haired woman she saw earlier, whom she mistook as a statue because of being too inanimate.
"Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn… that's what you are, Tendo," the brunette a few feet away said with a smirk. She was wearing a green and white jacket over her green leotard, leaving her legs bare. Her right hand was gripping a long gymnastics ribbon, and the other held a black club that seemed too familiar. "When I say deal, I don't only mean keeping my end of it, but yours as well. That was one stubborn, stupid move for somebody who has got every man in my school fantasizing about you."
Akane was confused. What did the girl mean?
The gymnast whipped her ribbon towards a light post, and a weak fluorescent light flickered on.
"She shine only one night, and her head already big," the girl who ripped the bandana off Akane's mouth sniped. "Too big to remember deal she had with Shampoo. So what if her voice good and she attract every man in Nerima because of stupid concert? It not excuse to forget deal."
"True, my friend, this Kodachi Kuno agrees with you," the girl named Kodachi said. "My poor brother has been a part of it, how unfortunate for him. I was told by Sasuke that the chef was in this too, but she is nowhere to be found. And of course there's the two of us… and the main character, Ranma-sama."
Shampoo, who had been standing behind Akane, seemed to have lost her temper and seized a fistful of Akane's hair. "Why you violate deal?" she demanded harshly. "Why you keep moving closer to Airen? I kill if I want!"
"I don't know what you're talking about…" a clearly disoriented, pained Akane croaked weakly. Her eyes were gray and almost lifeless.
Kodachi scoffed. "You have only been out cold for two hours, and you do not remember anymore? Pathetic!" The gymnast walked close to Akane in quick strides and slapped her cheek hard, that her head brutally swung to her right.
"I might have use Xia Fang Gao Shiatsu on her and not remember… maybe bubbles not enough?" the soft, almost negligible voice of Shampoo mused.
Panicking, Akane struggled to recall what she's done to deserve the wrath of the two ladies surrounding her. The two culprits mentioned something about a deal concerning her, the two kidnappers, a chef, and a boy called Ranma.
Ranma!
Remember Cinderella? It was magic that helped her go to the prince's ball on that night. Her fairy godmother used the "Bibbidi bobbidi boo!" spell on Cinderella's dog, horse, and mice friends, and finally that measly little pumpkin that turned them all into one beautiful transport system. And of course, there was Cinderella herself, whose rags she wore turned into a very breathtaking glittering gown. All of that, courtesy of Fairy Godmother's wand and its magic.
When Ranma's name ran through Akane's mind, she might as well have had an invisible fairy godmother somewhere who shot a jet of magic from her wand. From her position where her head was turned at an angle to the right, she abruptly faced Kodachi again, and this time her heart was functioning operatively, some of the warmth came back to her skin, and her eyes were no longer gray – they turned a little brown, although not to their fullest chocolaty exquisiteness.
"Go to hell," Akane snapped, having found new strength merely from the name of the man that she knew meant so much to her. The memories of the past months flooded to her brain, and it made her head hurt like a computer on the edge of overload. Memories of chocolate chip cookies, pink tights, a grand piano, blue eyes that turned gray and extremely maniacal, tape recorders, hot pools, drowning, Ryouga, Ryouga's kisses, Ranma, Ranma's kisses… they all deluged into her.
Tonight was the night that she and Ranma revealed to the family that they had finally taken the whole engagement thing in. Everybody at home partied like crazy and ate and drank like there was no tomorrow.
But before that, they went through many painful emotional dilemmas and pains. Too many. However, they all disappeared in the end… because of Ranma.
"So that slap was all it took for you to remember?" Kodachi Kuno jeered. "Ahahahahahahah!"
That infamous laugh sent more shivers to Akane's skin and spine.
"Then we just slap you whole night, hentai-girl," the high-pitched voice of Shampoo, whom Akane recognized from her memory was an Amazon, rang behind her. The Chinese girl walked around Akane and stopped beside Kodachi.
"Take it easy," Kodachi counseled. "We have her life in our hands. Nobody will rescue her, and if they do notice that she is missing, they cannot possibly find her. This place is secluded and abandoned; those wretches are going to look all over Nerima – my manor, your restaurant – but not here." She grinned evilly, a horrible, ugly grin that scared Akane to her wits. She knew that Kodachi wasn't exactly pretty, but that grin made her look repulsive!
"So you didn't leave any note to my family that you KIDNAPPED me?" Akane, who startlingly found her voice, demanded. "No ransom, anything?" Her diaphragm pulsated devastatingly upon emphasis on the last word.
"Why there be ransom?" Shampoo hissed. "We bring you here to torture and kill you. You broke deal, hentai-girl, you face consequence. After that, Airen mine!"
"No, Shampoo," Kodachi interrupted coldly. "We are still going to decide on that."
The Amazon nodded stiffly, understanding what Kodachi meant.
I don't believe it, Akane thought incredulously. I just don't believe it! These two lunatics joined forces just to… kill me? For crying out loud! They couldn't be more pig-headed than ever – what good would killing me do if Ranma would never love them anyway? They're so–
Akane's thoughts were interrupted as Kodachi hit her stomach with the black club for the nth time that night. The fragile victim realized how more painful it became every second; she felt like Kodachi has been hitting her with that club even when she was out cold. In fact, she wondered why she wasn't having any internal bleeding…
Until she tasted the horrible tang of copper in her mouth.
"Stop it," she said – more like blurted out as forcefully as she could than pleaded – as her eyes never left the malevolent gaze of the gymnast. She tried again to struggle against the chains that were starting to hurt her arms like mad, but it was in vain.
Without a word, Shampoo's fist came in contact with her bruised stomach, making her cough several times. She cringed from the pain she felt on her belly… it was becoming more and more unbearable by the second…
"Stupid, stupid Akane Tendo," Kodachi muttered in a sarcastic voice. "Don't you understand? You were the one who first approached me. You were the one who made a deal that I keep you away from Ranma-sama, Ranma-sama from you, and that you yourself were to avoid him? I am just keeping my end of the bargain… I'm keeping you away from him, and him from you. It's YOU who cannot follow."
Akane gulped and breathed with difficulty. "L-look, it wasn't my fault… not Ranma's, either. I tried to keep away from the thought of going back to him, but things just happened one after another and… it was complicated…"
"Complicated or not, you not follow deal. We punish you! And Airen still not here to rescue you, maybe he not notice you gone yet." Shampoo smirked contentedly. "Soon you die and nobody even know it," she laughed shrilly, "NOT EVEN RANMA."
Akane's eyebrow twitched, even with her pained condition. "You're wrong," she whispered, her voice escalating in volume after ever word. "Ranma loves me. He'll come here and rescue me from you, just wait… he'll save me." Her final sentence was reduced to a precarious mutter.
"In this derelict construction site?" Kodachi snorted, looking around in the open. The sky was almost pitch black if not for the occasional wisps of blue. An unfinished, ten-story skeleton of a building stood a few yards away from them, a bulldozer beside it. "I doubt it. But don't worry, Tendo, we won't kill you tonight. Not tomorrow night, either. It's going to be a very long torture process, maybe a week… a month, who knows?"
The gymnast and the Amazon laughed together, like they just got off from a roller coaster ride and clearly enjoyed it.
"And then what?" Akane asked coolly. "Even if I die, Ranma will find out, for sure, that you've killed me. And when he does…" she chuckled softly, despite the pain. "H-he'll kill you both."
"How dare you say that Ranma-sama will turn against me like that!" Kodachi shouted angrily, lashing her gymnastics ribbon so that it wrapped itself around Akane's neck. "The reason why he cannot come and tell me his true feelings is you!"
Akane puffed sarcastically, causing her diaphragm and restrained neck to throb. "Even with me dead, Ranma would never stick with a lunatic…" She turned to Shampoo. "Or a violent, deceptive monster like you!"
"I kill!" Shampoo screamed, punching Akane's stomach once more.
Akane cried in torture. It was very agonizing that she was on the edge of fainting, because she felt that the pain would eat her up and kill her. "S-stop it…" she said, less forceful than her first as she tasted more blood in her mouth. A gust of wind blustered again, blowing the edges of Akane's knee-long nightgown, and the cold felt like thousands of tiny knives stabbing her skin. She shivered uncomfortably, her head facing down.
"I think it's time that we gag her again."
Akane felt the ribbon around her neck loosening, and a bandana being brought up to her mouth again. "RANMA!" she had screamed with all her might before the bandana was tied tightly. Her voice echoed around the walls of the construction site.
"You hopeless," Shampoo mocked. "Nobody save you. Even if police come, amazons and ninjas guard place."
Akane stared helplessly, but she swore she wouldn't cry. She shouldn't. Not in front of these two.
"That's right," Kodachi agreed in a singsong voice. "Our skilled friends are stationed around the place. If the police – silly them – ever do their rescue mission act, they're dead. Of course it's impossible that Ranma's the one who'll come to the rescue… this place is miles away from Nerima…"
Shampoo's and Kodachi's deranged laughs reverberated through the site and into Akane's ears. She was half-conscious, but she managed to question herself if her family and Ranma really did notice that she wasn't there at home anymore… Were they looking for her at the moment, or were they still inundated in merrymaking? Was Ranma shouting her name in the streets of Nerima, or was he still with P-chan after he snatched the piglet from her in the bathroom?
Where are they?
The last ounce of strength left Akane Tendo as a roll of thunder roared ominously from afar.
Ranma and Ryouga had split up several minutes ago. Ranma was afraid that Ryouga would get lost and end up somewhere outside Japan, but the latter said that they'd have better chances of finding Akane if they didn't look at the same place.
"Damn!" Ranma cursed, frustrated, as his feet took what seemed like the millionth step that night. The kidnapper just left a few seconds before everybody in the dojo hurried to Akane's room, which meant that he shouldn't have gone far.
But why can't we find him, that evil BASTARD?
It seemed like he'd been running for two years instead of two hours. Red roofs, blue roofs, white roofs, yellow roofs, brown roofs, and a pink one. All colors, shapes, sizes of roofs. He was getting sick of hopping on them, looking for Akane and listening intently for her voice. He ruminated what the kidnapper might want from Akane, and why the guy didn't even leave a note or anything. It rules out the financial aspect, Kami knows how the whole family only barely has enough to sustain six to eight people, which is the exact number of inhabitants in the dojo on an average basis.
Ranma's fists turned white as he crumpled them, the thought of rape running through his mind for a second before he shook it away. Akane was a strong woman! She fought hundreds of guys in their school everyday. She even fought that maniac Jiro off single-handedly… there was no reason why she couldn't free herself from the kidnapper…
"AKANE!" he shouted, aggravated and panicking. He swore that when he finds the culprit – and he will, HELL CRUMBLES HE WILL – he'll kill the piece of bull. Beat him to a pulp.
Ranma knew that he was never too violent a person before, besides the occasional rise to the challengers of Anything Goes. And he wasn't pro-violence-to-the-max, too – if there was a way to settle things without using much force, set aside his daily pickle war with his father or a very persistent, annoying challenger, he prefers it.
But not this instance. The culprit kidnapped Akane and he was going to pay for it whether he's done something to her or stalled it to perform until Ranma arrived to rescue her. Because nothing meant more in the world for Ranma Saotome – not even his stupid father, his mother, The Spring of Drowned Man, his boundless strength, his martial arts skills – than Akane Tendo.
"Akane!" he yelled for the hundredth time. He stopped on a red roof and panted, his eyes not caring to mask their desperation and anger. Ranma knew that he was almost outside the city of Nerima already, but the word "hopeless" never even occurred to him.
"Ranma!"
A pulse of great energy shot through Ranma as he heard a voice too proverbial to be someone else's, too true to be just a figment of his frantic mind. "AKANE!" he called back to the voice, his heart thumping hard.
A silent, cold gust of wind answered him.
"AKANE!" he called again, jumping towards a blue roof to his right. There was no reply. "Damn!" he cussed, starting to jump on the roofs again to the direction where he felt Akane's scream came from.
After running a few moments, he came upon a tall wire fence that surrounded the perimeter of a presumably abandoned building that was never finished. He jumped over the wire fence and was faced with a cement wall ten meters high. His heart throbbed harder for every step he took around the wall as he looked for an entrance… he had a strong, terrible feeling that Akane was inside these very walls. How he knew, he had no idea, but these were the instances where he had to trust his premonitions… otherwise, he'd have no other rational option.
And then he heard it. A terrible duet of two deranged laughs – both too familiar for his presumption to be a mistake.
His adrenaline rushing, Ranma anchored his feet on the ground and gave a big push as he jumped as high as he could. Years of martial arts training doubtlessly helped him with this – his right hand just caught the edge of the wall when his velocity reached zero in the air. He pulled himself up and stood on the wall as he surveyed the surroundings, his body tense and on the alert.
Ranma's blood started pumping through his veins dangerously as a single bolt of lightning flashed and the image in front of him was made clear for a second. It was followed by a hostile rumble of thunder.
What he saw wasn't a beautiful sight – no, it wasn't at all. Bathed in the dim light of a wavering white fluorescent light on a post were three images that Ranma instantly recognized: There was that persistent itch of a fool, Kodachi, wearing her usual leotard and a green and white jacket. She was holding her gymnastics weapons. And there was Shampoo who wore a red Chinese dress. Both of them were looking maliciously at the girl tied to the metal chair.
The girl was Akane. She was barely covered with the white dress that poorly clothed her. Her body sat limp even though it was chained tightly.
His face twitched. His head jerked minutely but forcefully. WHO DID THOSE SICK, DAMNED WOMEN THINK THEY WERE?
"AKANE!" Ranma shouted. He rushed towards the three. Kodachi and Shampoo were startled to see Ranma. They did not expect him to find them there! And he wasn't supposed to, or else they would have lost their chances on him!
Shampoo and Kodachi ran to stop Ranma from reaching Akane. Several yards from the metal chair, the three confronted each other.
"Ranma-sama, what brings you here?" Kodachi asked as sweetly as she could, but it ended up being forced and apprehensive. She looked into his eyes and tried to no avail not to wince from the flicker of fury in Ranma's eyes.
"Wo da airen," Shampoo mewed, "you not suppose to be here!"
"Step aside," Ranma's harsh, cold voice commanded.
"Ranma-sama," Kodachi implored as she stepped forward towards her love, "you have to underst–"
She wasn't given the chance to finish – Ranma pushed her aside brutally.
"Ran–"
"What did you do to Akane?" he interrupted Shampoo in a hazardous whisper. "Why did you take her away?"
Shampoo sighed. "We leave Airen no choice."
"No, idiot, no!" Kodachi argued. But it was too late – Ranma's eyes darted to the skeleton of the unfinished building standing not too far from where they stood. Pairs of white, glowing dots filled the darkness in the building's crevices. They moved swiftly in the dark until they surrounded Ranma in one big circle.
"What are you doing?" demanded Kodachi.
"For Ranma own good," answered Shampoo, her eyes fixed upon her decision. "Airen thank me later for this. Akane we kill, without her in life of Ranma, everything be perfect for him, no more shouting and fighting!" She looked at Ranma, whose eyes were still unwavering and irate. "Do not kill him," she told the people surrounding them, "just keep Airen away from hentai-girl."
On cue, about twenty figures showed themselves to the three. Half of them were clad completely in black, save for their eyes, and carried swords, the other half were clearly Chinese and held different kinds of weapons in their hands. Without a word, eight of them lunged at Ranma as he tried to make his way towards the unconscious Akane.
He dodged a triple attack from three amazons as they simultaneously struck their jakujou weapons at him. Ranma managed to land some punches on the chests of two ninjas who tried to cut his head off, despite Shampoo's orders. His swift leg sprang up in the air, breaking a few of the ninjas' bones, and his tense limbs made thunderously strong, lightning-quick blows that knocked three amazons out.
These idiots don't know who they're fighting, he thought furiously. Most of all, they don't know who I'm fighting for!
"Ranma!" a male voice shouted from afar. "Ranma!" it called again, its volume increasing.
Ryouga had miraculously found his way to the place, and heaven only knew how. It didn't take him more than a second to realize what was happening the moment he saw Akane out cold and Ranma fighting seemingly skilled figures. He joined the fight, his heart quickening with every Bakusai Tenketsu attack that he landed perfectly or missed after the enemies dodged.
Having lost half of their force, the ninjas and amazons swarmed like killer bees towards Ranma and Ryouga, who had their backs to each other, surrounded by several bodies they knocked out in a minute. In a jiffy, about ten sharp, pointed weapons were aimed at the two ebony-haired men. The pigtailed martial artist and the Lost Boy drew quick intakes of air, the blood surging through their veins and their hearts pumping more oxygenized blood by the second as the thought of what the villains had done to Akane plagued them. It seemed like the odds were against them as the razor-sharp pieces of steel glistened threateningly.
Until, as fleetingly as the time it took the wind to travel a fraction of a centimeter, the two disappeared soundlessly in a blur. This caught the black-clad ninjas and amazons by surprise, and before they knew it, their spines have been severely, if not permanently, damaged and broken into bits with various sizes. One by one, they fell.
"Having fun?" Ryouga bellowed amidst the now defending ninjas. He broke the face of one who strongly resembled the Kunos' servant, Sasuke.
"Not quite!" Ranma grunted, the anger still swelling from his insides as he grabbed an amazon by her red hair and hurled her as far as he could. He unmasked a ninja who was about to launch a number of small, round blades at him. Ranma gripped the struggling ninja's hands behind him and kicked his back. With a roundhouse kick, he sent a particularly large ninja flying into the air. Ryouga finished him up by landing a powerful punch to the oversized warrior that sent him soaring outside the country.
Both of them stopped, beads of sweat dripping down the side of their cheeks, waiting for the next attack. Their heavy breathing joined those of the pained moans of the very few ninjas and amazons who were still hanging on to consciousness, unlike the rest who were already sent to the land of dreams for a predictable long time.
Ranma, who was almost numb in a few seconds, expected Kodachi or Shampoo to seduce and tame him to the point of puking, or at least grovel and beg for forgiveness.
It never came.
"Akane!" Ryouga's eyes had found Akane's disordered figure and he quickly rushed to her side to untie her. She was not giving any pained sounds, in fact it seemed like… she wasn't breathing anymore… "AKANE!" the fanged boy bellowed, desperately fumbling with the chains around Akane. In his frustration, the chains in his grasp were crushed as if they were soda crackers.
A light patter on the pavement, before he could even feel the wetness, told Ryouga that it had begun to rain.
"BWEE!" P-chan's wail echoed within the abandoned site for the fear that Akane's body, which was slowly falling from the chair, would hit the ground. The black piglet on the floor abruptly jumped on Akane's lap and braced her tummy, praying that with some sort of miracle or a twist of fate, the rain that fell on him evaporated from the Spring of Drowned Man and he would turn human and would be able to stop Akane from hitting the cement floor.
It never came, either.
A pair of feminine hands gently held Akane's shoulders and held her from collapsing onto the ground. P-chan blinked and saw from his perspective on the scantily-clad girl's lap a short, pigtailed redhead. She lifted Akane's chin and brushed the stray strands of hair from her face dripping from the rain. "Akane…" the redhead called faintly. She shook Akane slightly, but there was no response from the rescued. "Akane," she said more firmly, desperation becoming evident in her voice. "Akane, wake up!" She embraced the limp girl and whispered her name to her ear with pleas of waking up.
Ranma-chan's eyes grew wide open as she felt the first sign of like that Akane showed beneath her: a shiver. "R-Ra… ma…" the cold Akane whispered inaudibly. Ranma immediately looked at Akane's lips; they were closing and opening almost undetectably, but closing and opening, nonetheless, as Akane's red blood cells struggled for oxygen. The short girl kissed the unconscious one's forehead.
Without a second thought, Ranma took off her red polo shirt, leaving her torso vulnerable to the biting cold even though it was still in a white sleeveless undershirt. The redhead put the red polo on Akane's bare shoulders. She knew that it would make little difference, given the fact that it was already wet and just as cold as the air, but something told her (and she believed strongly) that Akane would be feeling less… less not-okay once she feels it around her. With P-chan still on Akane's lap, Ranma brought her hands under Akane and carried her just like the way the groom carries his bride after the wedding.
P-chan was too stunned from everything that happened. He found himself lying on Akane's stomach as both he and Akane were carried by Ranma under the rain.
Ranma-chan inhaled deeply, the smell of dampness, wood, concrete, (and phenomenally) oranges and strawberries filling her nostrils. She herself was feeling the chill seep into her skin, but the warmth that was building up inside of her, psychological or not psychological, fought the bitter cold off.
It was going to be a long walk home.
"…and my stupid father did it anyway, so I think he got what he deserved, stealing my pickles without me looking. That ain't unfair, right? He was damn lucky Kasumi didn't extend his bamboo shoot diet for a month or else he'd be broke right now, buying street food and stuff in secret. He doesn't even have a job for crying out loud! Baka oyaji…"
The voice Akane was hearing came from the right. Her left index finger twitched.
"…Sayuri and Yuka promised to visit yesterday, but they didn't make it because of some school play practice, I guess. It's five now, so maybe they're on their way from school… told them not to tell anybody, so you don't have to worry about any irritating noise from your admirers. Tatchie even wrote a poem for you, that fool… dya want me to read it? Took him every milligram of courage he got to hand this to me, and it didn't came without his usual 'You are not befit to be with Akane Tendo, you vile sorcerer' speech. Here goes…"
Akane's toe moved under the covers. She smelled the familiar scent of isopropyl alcohol, ointment, white hospital sheets.
"Thou art… OH, WHAT THE HECK. I can't even read the next words, much more know what they mean." There was a sound of a piece of paper being folded. "You decide what to do with this piece of trash when you wake up," he snorted. "Anyway, since it's your third day here at Dr. Tofu's, he allowed me to sleep over because he believed you're already fine. If it's fine witcha, maybe I'll just join our beds together and stuff – y-you know, to keep you warm and all – but I don't really know what you'll do when the first thing you see when you wake up is my face, so maybe sitting here will do… wood always does wonders to the butt, I've heard. And don't worry, I'm totally fine with it. Dr. Tofu said that your insides are recovering fast, that you'll wake up in a few days, and that you will be better than ever after a week."
The left eyelid of Akane fluttered open then close unnoticeably. The voice from her right heaved a sigh. Akane felt a grip on her hand, and it held her tighter, which meant that the hand was holding her since before she was conscious of her surroundings, only she didn't feel it then.
"Oh, and ya know what? Our dear old Ryouga's got himself a girlfriend! A girlfriend, Akane! He met her in the public baths… saved her from drowning, actually… and you know what happened next. Ryouga told me the female customers just zoomed up the charts when he started life guarding there. Name's Akari, met her yesterday and she's nice. They're both nice. Ain't they just a nice, hot cup of niceness?" The martial artist laughed a bit. "A couple of Ryouga's and Akari's studded in every corner of the globe, and the world's a better place."
He exhaled and cleared his throat as his laughter died.
"I'm failing math, Akane. I'm really struggling, ya know? Because I know that's what you want me to do. But I can't concentrate… besides English and History and stuff, I think I'm flunking gym class. WHO FAILS GYM CLASS? I know, I know… but every time I start jumping and doing sports and all, I get really distracted when I think of you in this room…" He groaned edgily. "I know that ain't a valid reason or anything. Maybe you'll even buck me on the head when you know about this, but I can't even balance on a trapeze anymore. LAME, but the circus monkeys are better than me now. I-I just…"
He leaned close and desperately spoke to her ear. "Dammit, I just wish you were awake because I want to tell you I love you and hear your voice and see your beautiful eyes and see your lips move and feel your hands react…"
His voice was warm and deep and wonderful, her auditory nerves tingled with delight. As her brain sent pulses of electricity to her numb nerves like jolts of electricity, Akane's right thumb showed the slightest hint of movement. It would have gone unnoticed by anybody.
But not by Ranma, who had his full attention directed to every inch of what he could see and feel of Akane.
"Akane?" the pigtailed boy asked anxiously, caressing the patient's hand with his thumb and focusing on her face. "A-are you awake?" Maybe it was only just one of the 'twitches' Akane had been showing for the past few days, the ones that had Ranma earnestly hoping one second and slumping back in disappointment and worry the next. Maybe it was a sign that her recovery was speeding up, and that she would wake up sooner than the time Dr. Tofu said she would.
Or maybe she had really just woken up from her state of maximum, unrelenting lethargy.
The raven-haired girl batted her eyelashes gently as the sight of a white ceiling welcomed her. Her eyelids felt heavy, but her strength overcame their weight as they slowly opened and the light poured into her eyes and swept away the cobwebs of her thoughts. Memories of the previous night (or was it? She felt like she was losing track of time) flooded into her. That night, she felt bitter and cold and pained, but now everything was surprisingly warm. She looked to her left. A glass window was open, its white curtains fluttering in the breeze, its sill adorned with red and white roses in a blue vase.
She looked to her right. She couldn't.
She couldn't because Ranma's head was buried in the spot on the pillow just next to her head. His unmoving lips were in contact with her neck. And she realized that the reason why she felt warm was because Ranma's arms enveloped her, far more differently than how those horrible chains had bound her.
Akane smiled. "Oh, my princely knight," she uttered coarsely, not quite knowing how those words jumped off her tongue. She felt like Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid – it seemed like she lost her voice, although not completely.
Kami, her voice sounds like a symphony composed by those naked, winged babies up there…
The warmth from the right side of her neck subsided as chocolate met the blue sky. "Hey there," Ranma greeted casually – albeit the look in his eyes was anything but casual – as he flashed the best Ranma grin he could present, one that could sweep any girl off her feet. "I dunno about the whole knight thing, but Pop once said my great great great grandfather was royalty… but that's what he told the guards at the royal palace so we could eat in the buffet when I was ten …"
The patient tried to clear her throat, and with it came a very familiar, tugging pain in her stomach. Her face scrunched up as her hand traveled to her belly.
"C-careful there," Ranma's concerned voice rang. A jiffy later, his calloused hand was holding the smooth one on top of Akane's stomach. "Dr. Tofu said the pain wouldn't be as bad, but still… bad. The internal bleeding's stopped, but you've gotta stop doing sit-ups for now. That means no sparring, katas, anything that has to do with you shouting or straining your muscles…"
Akane frowned. She hated not being able to do martial arts.
"…and don't you frown at me, young lady–" Ranma stopped. "Man, I sound like Kasumi, don't I?"
The now amused Akane nodded. Her hand, the one that wasn't being held by Ranma's, trekked the air and rested on the cheek on Ranma's face that was mere inches from hers. Her lips began to move as they mouthed to Ranma something that pleasantly looked like I love you.
Ranma raised his eyebrow, a playful smile dancing on his lips. When he let Shampoo undergo the infamous Ranma Saotome torture yesterday to extract from her the truth and everything else, the amazon had said that Akane didn't remember anything – even Ranma – at first. It wasn't until a few minutes later (when her brain was probably racked up by the slaps they gave her) that she remembered who she was. Satisfied, Ranma had left Shampoo without hurting her further.
A few seconds later, Cat Restaurant was reduced to a pile of sawdust and splinters as Ryouga, satisfyingly wiping his fist with his yellow bandana, caught up with the pigtailed martial artist. The entertaining conversation they had as they walked towards a certain direction was that of leotards and black roses.
Well, Ranma thought, entranced by the twinkle in Akane's eyes, she certainly doesn't have memory gap now. "I love you, too," he replied affectionately.
And he didn't cringe at all, but rather gave her a mischievous frown when her hand suddenly pinched his cheek. "Baka," Akane croaked faintly, "I said 'island view'…"
Honestly, was Akane really REALLY hurt or was it just some minor throbbing? Because she still had time to nurse that joke in her supposedly in-a-state-of-confusion mind. Because, you know, what most badly hurt patients do when they wake up is anything but joke around, especially when they've just undergone a life or death situation.
"Well… is 'island view too' a good enough answer?" Ranma asked teasingly. "You ain't stopping me with that, ya know."
"Good enough," the highly pleased Akane whispered, giving the martial artist a lingering kiss on the previously pinched cheek.
There was a soft knock on the door as it briefly creaked open. "Hey, Ranma, Nabiki's here. And Ukyou's got okonomiyaki for everyone, so we all better–" The fanged boy stopped in mid-sentence when his eyes drank up what was happening in front of him. And no, thoughts of depression and challenging Ranma to yet another fight never occurred to him. "Akane-san! You're awake!"
Ranma sat back on his chair as he gladly made room for the highly enthused Ryouga to greet Akane with a friendly hug. "Kami-sama, you're awake!" he repeated happily. He stood up, faced Ranma, and motioned his hand to Akane. "She's awake, Ranma!" he said again, blissful disbelief and shock evident on his face.
"Hey, Ryouga-kun," Akane greeted quietly, he eyes shining in glee. Ryouga stepped aside to reveal an equally happy Nabiki with a video camera on one hand. The patient smiled at the camera. "I'm awake," she declared, her eyes disappearing behind a wide smile.
"Good thing I had Ryouga on a leash, else he would have ended up in Hokkaido… you look like a million bucks, sis, greetings from the planet Earth," Nabiki laughed. The red light on the camera continued to blink as Ukyou slowly made her way into the scene, carrying a temptingly aromatic box of okonomiyaki.
"So how are you?" she asked Akane awkwardly.
Even though Ukyou was one of the three whom Akane had made the deal with, Akane realized that Ukyou didn't do anything to hurt her. Eyeing the middle Tendo, she also recalled the documentary film Nabiki'd done, The Truth Shall Set You Free. Ukyou was really nice to have taken part on the good side. Akane was very, very grateful for that.
She offered Ukyou an affable smile. "I'm good," she replied faintly, "but I'll be much better if you give me some of the delicious food you've brought… I haven't eaten for three days, you know."
Ukyou's uneasiness faded as she returned the patient's smile. "Why not?"
Ranma heaved a silent sigh of relief. Shampoo and Cologne are packing up at the moment for their trip back home to China, Kodachi was in a little trauma because of a recent "accident" with Mr. Turtle, Kuno was still as clueless as ever, everyone in the room was in best terms with one another, and Akane was alive, and although not kicking, she was very much okay. It was heaven.
Most of all, she loves him and he loves her, and that was his definition of heaven.
Yep, he agreed to himself, definitely heaven.
"Okay, okay, enough of the mushy-wushy stuff!" Ranma declared. "It's five and we still haven't had our afternoon snack yet! C'mon, Ucchan, everybody's tummies are grumbling… and let's finish it all up before Pop arrives…"
Nabiki snorted. "Course, the old man always finds a way to evade the bamboo shoot diet… caught him picking the heavy duty lock we put in the fridge last night, you know."
"You mean the titanium lock you were telling me about?" Ukyou asked Ryouga in disbelief as she opened the huge delivery box and started serving okonomiyaki.
The Lost Boy nodded gravely, accepting a paper plate. "Saw it with my two eyes when Ranma locked it himself."
"Okay, okay, so we all know that my dad's a conniving, undisciplined guy, and the sky's blue," Ranma said, shrugging and accepting two paper plates. "But ya gotta give him at least some credit; if he weren't born, then I wouldn't be here, would I? The world just couldn't do without me…" He gave them a charismatic grin, and then Ryouga slapped his head with a paper plate.
"Oi, don't flatter yourself much. The main reason why the world's round and squashed on the poles is too much flattery."
Everybody laughed. And so did Akane, even though her laughter was too soft to hear. But Ranma saw Akane, and she was happy, and seeing her smile made the world a better place for him.
"C'mon, say ah," Ranma said, holding a fork with a piece of okonomiyaki on the other end. At first Akane shook her head, but eventually gave in when Ranma presented her his best puppy dog look. She opened her mouth and ate what Ranma fed her, because he didn't let her hold any of the food, and that's what she did for the next twenty minutes – opening and closing her mouth, chewing the best okonomiyaki in Nerima, stealing glances at Ranma who seemed calmer and happier than ever, pretending he didn't see Ranma staring at her, raising her eyebrow playfully whenever she caught his eyes… just for teasing purposes.
After the gracious meal, Ukyou left the clinic to attend to her regular customers in her eatery. Nabiki said she was doing business again, and mumbled something about Tatewaki Kuno, photoshop, and a group picture of nakedness…
Dr. Tofu entered the room. "How's my patient doing?"
"I'm fine now, Tofu-sensei," Akane croaked, smiling weakly.
The doctor looked meaningfully at Ranma and Ryouga. "I hope you didn't give her something hard to digest." He strode over to the bed and pulled up Akane's patient uniform so that her stomach was exposed. It was a weird shade of purple, with some bluish black spots of various sizes. Akane gasped upon seeing herself, but Dr. Tofu calmed her. "Don't worry, Akane-chan, these are just external. Your intestines are okay, although your stomach should refrain from too much… exercise."
Akane nodded.
"We ate okonomiyaki, Tofu-sensei," Ryouga said. "Is that okay?"
The bespectacled doctor pondered on this. "It isn't exactly a hard food, so it's okay… but maybe we should give her medicine just to be sure. A weak antacid would be fine just to aid the digestion, I'll go get–" He stopped, slapping his forehead. "I just remembered, I'm out of that already!" He turned to Ranma. "Could I send you on an errand and buy medicine from the pharmacy a few blocks away?"
"Uh, sure," the pigtailed martial artist complied. He sat up from his chair and planted a kiss on Akane's forehead. "Be back in a few, take care of yourself. And you," he added, facing Ryouga, "take care of her, too."
"Yes sir," Ryouga said, giving Ranma a friendly salute as the latter followed the resident doctor out of the room. The former took a seat on the chair that was once occupied by Ranma.
A minute passed as the harmony of birds twittering, the wind whistling, and the curtains fluttering played in the background.
"You look… happy, Ryouga-kun," Akane remarked, her eyes locking with Ryouga's. The fanged boy leaned closer and smiled at her.
"Well, I am. First of all, you're awake after three days of… well, not being awake. Second, Ranma and I have finally settled everything after several chitchats…"
Of course, having spent a fair amount of time with Ryouga – and not just as any ordinary friend – Akane felt that she knew more about Ryouga than what everybody, even the boy himself, told her. The look in his eyes said everything. But before the revelation that she sort of knew the truth, the apology part came first. It always does. It's like that rule was in a universal handbook of truth.
"I'm sorry, Ryouga-kun," she said weakly, sincerity evident in her eyes. "I-I don't know how to put it any other way, but I really am sorry."
Although she didn't specify the reasons, Akane felt like there was no need to. She felt like in a soap opera, and everything was just dramatic and emotional and stuff.
"No need to apologize, Akane-san, it just happened. You shouldn't say sorry. And just so you know, I'm not sorry for anything either – I'm thankful, if not glad, that all of those… things… happened to us. I guess we learned a lot from that experience, and if we learned a lot, then that must be a good sign."
Akane smiled, and even though Ryouga already had a new girlfriend, that didn't keep him from getting weak in the knees. Good thing he was sitting down. "I loved you Ryouga," Akane whispered truthfully. "You always treated me very, very well, and… and I am so lucky to have known somebody like you. Thank you for everything, for bearing and staying with me, liking me for who I am."
He removed his bandana. "I've stayed with you more than you could ever think of," he chuckled knowingly. "And I loved you too. I… I still like you now, very much. Because you're Akane Tendo, and everybody likes you. I thank you for teaching me a lot of stuff and… and making me stronger, and for… for just about anything."
Akane giggled, which left Ryouga confused. "Is it me, or are you more… collected and mature now? You seem so different, it's a wonder you're not that Copycat Ken guy disguised as Ryouga just so he could see me in a defenseless state."
"W-well, you've done a lot to me, Akane-san, and it was all for the better."
The patient gave him a genuine smile. "Come over here and give me a hug," she beseeched softly. Within moments she was surrounded by Ryouga's warmth. "Friends?" she offered, her face buried in the crook of his neck.
"Friends." Ryouga heaved a reassured, blissful sigh. "You know, all Ranma and I ever did for the last three days was talk. About you, about stuff."
Akane's voice vibrated in his ear. "So is everything okay?"
"Like a nice, sunny day. Or a front row seat to The Night of Corporal Symphony at the part where they played Moonlight Sonata and this amazing girl danced onstage…"
She giggled a bit at this remark as they ended the hug and he sat back down on the chair. "Now what did you say about too much flattery again?"
"I said something about that? I don't really recall…"
They both laughed.
"So I heard you have a new girlfriend now."
"Uh, y-yeah," Ryouga stuttered. "Her name is–"
"…Akari," Akane bridged. Just when Ryouga sensed that there would be a long, tense talk a short while after this, his heart calmed down when he saw Akane's teeth, exposed in a heartfelt smile. "Ranma told me when I was… in the middle of being asleep and being awake. And I'm… I'm happy for you."
"Kami-sama," Ryouga exhaled in relief, holding Akane's hand, "you don't know how much I'm relieved right now!"
"What, you think we're both in some soap opera, maybe a work of fiction made up of an ocean of drama and mush? I realized, somewhere in my dreams, that even though being sensitive is nice, too much of being emotional is detrimental."
"Tsk. Now that's something we all learned from experience, right, Akane-san?"
Akane nodded, finding that too much talking caused a little bit of pain to her abs where she got her voice from.
"Okay, we have to stop the chitchat now, I think," Ryouga realized, getting up and gathering all the used paper plates. "If Ranma sees that you're straining yourself, he'll kill me." He threw them to the nearest trash can. "Now, I know that you've slept three days straight, but a little more sleep would do you good right now, Akane-san. After that, you can run and shout and make merry until your energy runs out again, and you sleep like a rock between nine to ten." He chuckled. "Hey, that rhymed!"
"Why, you know my sleeping habits very well, Ryouga…"
"Well, you k-know me!" Ryouga interrupted quickly in a startlingly cheerful tone. "I know a lot about some people than everybody thinks so! Ahehehe… hehe…" He scratched his head as a blush threatened to take over his face.
There was knock on the door, and Dr. Tofu came in carrying a small box of medicine. Ranma followed a jiffy later, smiling affectionately at Akane, and then gratefully at the fanged boy.
It was ten in the evening. With the help of Kasumi, Akane had taken her first bath in three days. She smelled like milk, courtesy of the "healing" milk soap that Dr. Tofu had offered her (and that before Kasumi had arrived at the clinic, of course, or else the recovering patient would have taken a bath with Clorox, because the doctor would have mistaken it for liquid soap). Now, she sat on her hospital bed, watching Kasumi as the latter was putting the last of the former's things into a bag.
"I'll just deliver this downstairs, okay, Akane-chan? Then I'll come back to help you."
"No, it's okay, onee-chan… you can just wait downstairs with father and uncle and the rest of the crew," she said, less softer than this afternoon, for she had somehow regained her voice.
"They sure are very excited to see you," Kasumi noted merrily. "A grand entrance suits you well."
Akane laughed softly. "Right."
As Kasumi left the dimly weakly-lit room bathed in moonlight and rays from a weak lamp, Akane sighed, lay back down horizontally on the bed, and gazed at the ceiling.
If I were the Akane I was before all of this happened, then what I'd be feeling now are thoughts of hopelessness, misery, annoyance, weariness, and the one and only pain in my guts. I'd probably think, "This life is not worth living. At all. Really." And then when I get back home, I'll do the pile of homework that Ranma'd brought home from me. After that, I'll slump back and try to sleep – and the adverb "peacefully" just wouldn't fit there because of all the troubles my life would have been fraught with.
No, I am definitely not saying that I don't have any problems now. First of all, there's the persistent fact that my family's struggling in financial terms… but Nabiki's got that covered. Ah, my sister loves me so much, she'll send me to college even if she finds out that I've been sneaking money out of her room… not that it's true, but if – note: if (and that's one very unfeasible if), not when – ever that happens, she'd still love me the same.
Problems, problems… yes, there's the Furinkan Hentai Horde, and my performance that night, both in the auditorium and the bar, just didn't help to decrease the club attendance. I guess I don't know my own… what's the term? Strength? Nah. Beauty? Maybe. Haha.
And then there's Shampoo and Kodachi.
I'd rather not recall.
Doing that gives me the shivers.
But I wonder what happened to them… why didn't they storm this room and murder me when I was asleep? I'll have to ask Ranma what happened to them.
Oh, and Ranma! Thank heavens for Ranma! He told me what happened three nights ago, how those two demon women beat me up, how they got a horde of amazons and ninjas to guard the site, how he and Ryouga beat all of them up and rescued me… I wish Nabiki were there to film the whole thing. It would have made a great action movie, probably a demo tape for both Ranma and Ryouga if ever they want to audition in some action show or flick. The screening people would hire them in a split second, I swear.
I'm glad that Ryouga's doing well without me. Not that I'm not there for him – I always will, because he's helped me find myself in a sea of confusion (something like that, I think), and even though I don't love-LOVE him anymore, I still can't help loving him as a friend because he's just so nice. I hope that Akari takes care of him… the way I see it, they're a perfect match for each other. Ryouga's too… well, nice for me. Especially with my temper and stubbornness and indecisiveness and…
Okay, I get it now. Stop.
Ranma.
I'm going to have to spend the rest of the night on this bed, thinking about him, summarizing what he's done to me for the past months.
Frankly, he could have just given up. He could have just watched paint dry instead of getting on this bumpy ride with me and the others. He could have just, you know, ignored me the moment I was introduced as his brand new fiancé. Or, up until the day I started dancing lessons, he could have just continued calling me names and shooing away the thought of apologizing.
But he didn't. He apologized, went through a couple of obstacle courses, stepped on emotional nails, ate all of my badly made cookies, rescued me from drowning, rescued me when I was almost raped (damn that Jiro, crushing his eggs doesn't give everything justice), rescued me when I was kidnapped (without a ransom note; I am going to have to kill those two when I get better, I swear)…
Well, of course I apologized, too.
And he said he loves me.
And I said I love him.
And we kissed.
Lots of times.
And it feels…
Nice.
Wonderful.
Everything good.
I love him so much.
"That silly smile on your face shows everything, all right," a voice in front of her rang. "You're daydreaming about me! I ain't got an inkling what daydreaming at night is called, but you're thinking about me and how you love me." He laughed. "I always get it right, don't I?"
"Ranma," Akane said, rolling her eyes and smiling as she took Ranma's hands that pulled her up back to her sitting position.
Not letting go of her hands, he kneeled in front of her. "Hey you."
"Hey back atcha."
"Ready to go home?"
"Uh-huh. I miss my room. I miss P-chan."
Ranma snorted all of a sudden, and then chastised himself. "Y-yeah, he's at home, safe and sound. He… misses you too…" He broke off, stifling a fit of laughter with a sniff.
Akane raised her eyebrows, but her lips formed an amused smile.
"Hey," the pigtailed boy said again, his voice solemn this time. "I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough."
She tilted her head in question.
"You'd think sixteen years of martial arts would make me… really REALLY good, a virtuoso at it, if not invincible. But no, I was too slow that night. I let them kidnap you because I was too slow. And it took me hours to find you… if I'd caught them at the dojo, then this wouldn't happen to you. I'm… I'm sorry."
His voice sounded sorry. His face certainly looked sorry. And it seemed like he was angry… at himself. That, and he pitied himself too, and Akane.
No, Ranma, Akane thought, just when everything's nice and better, you'll go all drama on me?
"Come on, Ranma," she said, her voice positive. "You and Ryouga saved me, and that's what's important. It just happened too fast, and you weren't prepared–"
"Well that's the purpose of martial arts, ain't it?" Ranma interrupted, his voice rising. "To defend yourself and others, especially at times when you're unprepared and trouble comes marching in…" His voice faded out, seeing Akane's surprised face. "I-I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she assured, removing his hands from hers and patting the spot on the bed beside her. Ranma took a seat. "What's important is," she continued, "that you kept the worst from happening to me. And I am thankful for that, I really am. I can't ask for anything more from you."
"It's just that…" Ranma began, struggling for words. "It's just that I couldn't imagine what I'd become without you! I was so scared that night, Akane, I've never been more scared all my life. If something worse happened to you, then I'd have lost control and started… I dunno, a killin' spree or something like that. I didn't want to lose you, I didn't, I don't, and I never will. I just–"
He broke off.
Akane broke him off. With a kiss. One that remained on his lips for several long, silent seconds.
"I love you, Ranma," she said softly. "I love you so much. And I wouldn't want you to kill anyone no matter how rational the reason is. And that is so because killing would make you the worst type of person on this planet. I love you, and I don't want you to turn into that kind of guy just because of me. Do you promise not – never – to foster that thought in your mind? Ever?"
The martial artist was stunned. Akane does… she does love him so much.
"I promise. And I love you too."
Good thing Mr. Turtle knows his master in the vaguest bit…
Akane smiled, and it was too contagious to not infect Ranma.
The next thing he knew, Akane's wonderful chocolate eyes were growing nearer and nearer… and nearer… and they disappeared behind her eyelids… and her lips touched his for the second time that night. It was gentle… but passionate… and warm… and wonderful.
His hands slid around her back as they stood up; her arms embraced his neck… she opened her lips to deepen the kiss… a little moan escaped her throat. Ranma held her tightly as their lips started moving more vigorously.
The room was dim, the evening air was warm, and time slowed down.
Ranma was about to lay Akane down on the bed…
Until there was a smart knock on the door, there was a weird sound like the combination of screeching brakes and a record being stopped, and in came Nabiki. Both of them pulled away, blushing at the middle Tendo.
"Yeah, well, you can do that at home," Nabiki said flatly. "But now you should go downstairs, because everyone's waiting. Come on, you two."
"R-right," Ranma stuttered.
"Uh… yeah, we're coming," Akane breathed. "Let's go, Ranma."
Nabiki waited for the two to get out of the empty room as she closed the room behind her. The three of them slowly made their way downstairs, to be met by the whole cheering family who had a banner that said, "GET WELL, AKANE, AND HAPPY WEDDING TO YOU AND RANMA!"
Author's Notes: Well, you can try it yourself! Mouth "island view" in front of a mirror and you'd look like you were saying "I love you". I did that to my classmate once, and so much blushing went on. Hehe.
Phew, this one's about twice or thrice as long as the regular chapters (and I am spent)! Now isn't that a treat? ;) It's one of my Christmas gifts to you, I guess… given the fact that I am actually broke right now, since I've bought gifts for about twenty people already…
Oh yeah, watch out for the last chapter; I ain't through with this baby yet! Yes, people, the chapter count stops at lucky 13. (",) Merry Christmas and peace to all… God bless you everyone!