Venom

III

He was nervous…

Thirty years old and having her near could still make him shake like a teenager. He still didn't know how he had managed to convince her, but he had. And now she was there sitting in front of him and ready to talk.

He looked at her in awe. She was the same girl he had known so long ago… with the same hazel eyes that stared at him as if from far away; with the same short bluish hair that once upon a time he dared to touch… the same face… and the same old effects this things used to have on him. Why had he thought everything would be different?

"Ten years don't change a thing," a hoarse voice whispered inside his head.

"So?" Akane asked coldly, prompting him to start.

Ranma didn't answer. He idly looked around instead. They were in Nerima's old Soda Shop. It all looked exactly as he remembered. Just like it was back in the time when he went there to eat desserts in his cursed form. Just like it was when--

"G' Morning! Ready to order?" a waitress asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yeah, sure…"

She looked the same too… it was the same girl that took their order years ago… He felt trapped in a deja vú.

"…just coffee please," said Akane. Her voice suddenly seemed from far away. The young waitress wrote it down and then she left, smiling. Just coffee… He remembered Akane ordering the same thing the last time they were there… "Just coffee, please." Yes, just coffee, because she wanted to leave soon… because she didn't want to be there with him sitting in front of her; because she didn't want to talk, not anymore…

Coffee… yes, just like that Friday, the day when—

"Ranma!" the girl sitting across the table urged suddenly. "What did you want with me?"

"Huh?" Right, he was there with Akane. Ten years later and he was there again. In the same place everything was over as if time had stopped. "I… I wanted to talk…" he answered slowly, unsure. "I need to talk with you."

Akane tilted her head in confusion. "About what?"

The man frowned… "About what?" He couldn't remember anymore… but he knew. He knew that—

"Don't we have to finish something?"

Akane, his unchanged Akane, smiled. "I was hoping you'd remember…"

Yes, yes. Something to finish, something to tell her.

"Ten years don't change a thing," the hoarse voice repeated. And with the echo of that phrase imbedded in his head, Ranma Saotome woke up from his dream.

His alarm's clock tilting red light marked 2:42 AM. It was Friday morning already, july third, to be precise. With a sigh, Ranma turned over his bead. Lying on his back he stared silently at the cracks on his ceiling's room.

The same dream again. He thought with resignation. The dream had become recurrent and much more vivid than before during the last week. It had become more ridiculous too, in Ranma's opinion.

"Ten years don't change a thing." Ranma muttered with disgust. "Yeah, right." He snorted.

Ten years changed every thing. And he had proved it himself a few days ago when -following his subconscious advice and surely under the influence of some temporary insanity- he stood in front the Tendo's door and invited himself to come in.

The dream that somehow made him do such a stupid thing haunted him since then. Not even the pills were enough now to help him sleep after he woke up with that phrase imbedded in his mind.

How absurd. How terribly ridiculous.

Yes, ten years later. Ten years too late, time had proved Akane right. She had told him long ago that Friday by the river -the day he decided to leave- She had told him and he didn't believe her. Time is a poison… It cures everything. It changes everything. It kills everything.

Ten years don't change a thing.

Ranma Saotome shook his head. They had changed him, hadn't they? There were mornings he stared at himself in the mirror trying to recognize the well dressed man with a stony expression he had become. He wasn't the same anymore. How stupid was to think that time, that had done so much with him, couldn't have changed much the people of his past. How vastly ridiculous that seeing Akane all grown up and wearing an apron, would affect him the way it did. Leaving him with the silly doubt of which one was real. The Akane in his dream, the one he knew, or the composed women that managed to throw him out of her house without being rude.

He sighed.

He was thinking too much.

Yes, Ranma knew it… he was thinking too much. But it's impossible not to do it when your brain forces you.

Ranma Saotome just wanted to forget it all. The same way he did before. He wanted his routine back, his business, his cocktail parties, his interviews, his nights deprived of sleep because of women instead of disturbing dreams. He needed his life back.

He wanted to leave it all behind and his brain had become and enemy that wouldn't let him do it. How do you beat yourself in a battle and not lose?

Ranma glanced at the clock. 2:49 AM.

It would be a very long night.

---------------------------------

Nabiki Tendo didn't believe in destiny.

Just the thought that maybe her life was not under her absolute control was so ridiculous to her that it made her laugh.

No, Nabiki Tendo not only had her life under control… she also controlled the lives of many others. A decade later and she was the only one of the Tendo sisters that had managed to elude change. She was the same as always. She was Nabiki Tendo, the mercenary, the one that always got what she wanted no matter what it was… the one that never gave up.

She wasn't like Kasumi, who didn't even start fighting and threw away from the beginning her dreams of becoming a doctor. No, she was not like her sister who ignored her wishes as if they were nothing but the silly aspirations of a silly selfishgirl. Yes, selfish. Nabiki thought mockingly. Because Kasumi thought that everyone's needs were more important than hers. She thought all her sacrifice was expected. She thought she didn't matter that much. And that was why most of her dreams were still dreams with no hope of being fulfilled. That was why her life had become a constant of living through her husband –who was a doctor- and her kids, and her neighbours and once in a while through Akane.

No, Nabiki was not like her sisters: the housewives. Because even though Akane taught at the Dojo and was virtually independent, she was still in essence nothing but a housewife.

Nabiki was not like Akane either. Akane who defeated herself in order to become the little porcelain doll she thought she should be. As if changing, transforming, redefining herself was the best way to heal all the wounds her doomed relationship with Ranma had left her with so long ago.

No, no, no… Nabiki Tendo was a business woman. She was worldly and smart and street-wise. She wasn't cut out to be the loving wife and caring mother most Japanese women were expected to be.

And she had recent proof of it.

The thirty-two-year-old woman could still pass as one of twenty. A new lucky single girl who, that Friday night, had finally take her wedding ring off. She flushed it down the toilet without a second thought, not caring a bit about all the diamonds in it. Now that the divorce was finally official and, as usual, she had gotten all she wanted and needed; Nabiki could relax at last. And she decided to do it resting at the balcony of her brand new apartment with a drink at hand. All the while ignoring the loaded messages her ex was still leaving on her machine.

Nabiki Tendo sipped her Bloddy Mary and snorted loudly. Right, as if hearing that man's taped voice listing and describing the seven hells he wanted her to rot in, would make her giving back the agency.

Ah yeah… The divorce left her completely shattered. The psychological damage was beyond repair… Her husband's profitable sports agency was the only thing that could offer some relief to her broken heart.

She smirked hollowly. It was never to be said that someone had hurt Nabiki Tendo and gotten out with it.

She thought of her sisters again. Yes, she was not like them. For a brief second she wondered if then, they were happy.

Well… a night drinking can't go by without a stupid question. Nabiki thought rolling her eyes. She didn't have time to mull over her life and her recent triumph… or failure, whatever. It was pass two in the morning and that meant it was Friday already. In a few hours she'd have to dress up, wear her power suit, her perfect make up and she'd have to go take over her hus--- ex- husband's agency. And then of course, she'd have to start doing what she did best.

Business were her world and money was the force that made it move. There was no room for love and all the other silliness. She'd tried that already. She was definitely not cut out for it.

Taking one last sip from her drink, Nabiki Tendo stood up and walked towards her room. She started planning the day she had ahead of her. She didn't know much about the agency. All she knew was that it dealt with sports and it was some kind of gear provider mostly for gyms, dojos and sport's stores. It was okay. There was nothing in the world of business that she couldn't handle.

To be continued…

NOTE: People interested in beta reading please send mail to: Thank you. (since this is a translation from a fic I'm originally writing in Spanish I mostly need help with grammar.)