Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and Full Moon o Sagashite are not mine.

Fumbling for the Full Moon

By ToastedPine

Chapter 4

Mitsuki watched her peers do their stretches from beneath the shade of a tree. Once again, she was reminded of her frail health, but today was different; she wasn't training her sight on the grass to avoid the pity written on her classmates' faces. She wasn't wearing dark blue bloomers, hoping it would make her fit in despite the obvious, and she hadn't been stealing glances at the field with a mix of longing and sadness for what she thought would forever be an impossibility. Instead, Mitsuki sat tall and looked on happily. She spotted her new friends, Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi, waving back at her, to which she smiled and waved back.

Whom did she owe her good fortune to? She picked up a twig and wrote the name down on the damp earth near the trunk beside her, "Ranma," it was he who bought back her smile, the smile that made her classmates notice her, and the smile that made others truly acknowledge her existence for the first time since she could remember.

More than anything else, it was because of Ranma that she gained a new future, one that gave her a chance to sing, and, maybe one day...

...she remembered those eyes that drank her very being, always watching her, smiling, reflecting absolute peace and happiness whenever she sang the songs she had learned from her father.

The gym teacher's whistle carried through the air, bringing her out of her musing. Mitsuki got up, patted her rear, and straightened her twin spirals of hair, then ran towards the group.

Akane passed a ginkgo nut back and forth between her heels as she sat on the bench behind the school storage, her chopsticks clicking against the inside of her empty bento for what seemed like an eternity. Finally tiring of the uncomfortable atmosphere, she cleared her throat. "Where's Yuka?"

"Yuka," Sayuri slid the red ribbon out her dark brown hair, slowly yet, forcefully twisting and pulling on the red fabric, "... needed to do something."

"What did she need to do, she could've told me at least, or asked us for help if she needed any."

Sayuri sighed. "Akane, why didn't you eat with Ranma instead?"

"Where did that come from?" Akane's sniffed derisively. "Like I'd eat lunch with that pervert, stringing so many girls along, he's probably flirting with his bimbos right now, eating their food, and doing who knows what to them."

"Oh come of it, Akane," Sayuri shook her head in exasperation, "have you ever seen Ranma actually return a hug or a kiss to Shampoo or Ukyo willingly? I'm starting to suspect that you exaggerate your problems with Ranma just to turn us other girls away from him."

"I'd never do--"

Sayuri waved her off. "I know that's not true, but you have to admit that while he's a bit rough around the edges, he's handsome and loyal to a fault. That's not all that common especially when all these martial artists build like goddesses show up and turn most of the guys here into puddles of drooling flesh." She slumped. "How can any of us normal girls compete against that?"

Sayuri took a cleansing breath, and retied her hair into a ponytail. "Please, think about what you have with Ranma, because if you don't come to a decision, and make a move soon," she paused, "then maybe... I will."

"Are you insane! You have no idea what..." Akane trailed off as Sayuri packed her utensils and left.

That evening, Akane sat in her room, the nature of her relationship with Ranma weighing heavily on her mind.

"Morning Akane," Ranma greeted as he stepped in from the yard, his tiny grin seemed to make everything else around him even brighter. "There something on my face?"

Akane shook her head. "Nothing, morning, I didn't get a good nights sleep last night, that's all." She had trouble controlling her blush when she saw the concern in his eyes.

"You should take it easy, those extra school activities might be too much for you to handle. Look, your face is all red. Maybe you should get someone else to handle some of your responsibilities." Ranma moved to get a closer look.

Akane could barely think straight, 'He knows about my after school activities? I didn't know he even cared, normal guys I would expect, but not Ranma.' She looked once more into his concerned eyes. Why couldn't he be like this all the time? She turned slightly, hoping to hide her blush, "I... I'll do that."

"Okay," Ranma said without hesitation. "I'm going upstairs for a bath. Kasumi said breakfast'll be ready in a few minutes."

Breakfast was a quiet affair, Genma and Soun couldn't decide what mood Akane was in, and they didn't want to suffer in case it wasn't a pleasant one, while Nabiki and Kasumi relaxed, happy that, for once, the "newlyweds" seemed at peace with one another.

Akane walked silently on the sidewalk while Ranma whistled atop the wired fence. 'Something's changed in him," she thought. "I heard that you're going to help out the basketball team for next week's game."

"Yeah, Ohtori's supposed to be good."

"... well good luck."

Ranma smirked. "Feh, I said they were good, didn't say nothing about being the best."

Akane rolled her eyes, incidentally spotting a dark brown ponytail out the corner of her eyes. "Ranma, get down!" She yanked him off the fence and behind a corner.

"What did you do that for you--" Akane slammed a hand shut over his mouth. "Shhh there's Sayuri." Why was she hiding behind that mailbox? Akane's eyes widened when she traced Sayuri's line of sight. It was Yuka with an upperclassman! She watched Yuka leaning her head against the man's arm, walking in sync with him. A hollow feeling suddenly seized her chest. 'I'm not jealous,' she told herself, but her ears picked up the faint sound of Yuka's genuine laughter and she couldn't help the dark, black hole sucking away where her happiness for Yuka should've been.

It all made sense, Sayuri's irate behavior yesterday, her unexpected defence of Ranma, the hints of recrimination. 'Yuka hadn't mentioned that she has a boyfriend to me so Sayuri must've found out that same way I did. Akane grimaced; there was a bittersweet kindness to Yuka's decision to keep her boyfriend a secret. Yuka probably knew how she and Sayuri would react. 'What am I thinking!' Akane unconsciously picked at the grey cement blocks she was holding onto for support, she looked at Ranma, who had quieted down, and wondered what was going through his mind, he'd usually be making a fuss by now, 'I... I do have him.'

"Akane, why are we hiding? Don't you want to say hi to Sayuri?" he kept his voice low.

Akane went rigid, how would she explain it to him? She pulled Ranma's arm and backtracked. "C'mon we'll take the long way; it's none of our business."

"Huh?"

"Trust me, it's hard to explain," She pleaded.

Her heart skipped a beat when Ranma shifted from extremely puzzled to wrinkling his brow, signaling his defiance, but bit back whatever it was he was going to say at the last minute.

"All right, but we have to hurry if we don't want to be late." Ranma took her arm when he her grip loosened and began leading her towards their new route.

Inside, Akane couldn't believe what just happened. She wanted to squash the faint traces of hope that Ranma was finally growing up, that they could finally get along, that maybe she had with Ranma what Yuka had with that senior. And yet, inside her, a small light shined brighter.

Akane stared longingly at the students going out the gates from the windowsill of the student council room. On her desk was a thick stack of forms, for new clubs and various events. She propped her head up on the palm of her hand and let her mind wander; eventually, her thoughts did begin focusing upon a certain fiancé. Ranma had changed the past few weeks, some changes better, and some worse. He'd been home less because of Hinako's tutoring sessions, and his penchant to disappear every so often for "walks." Part of her doubted him the night he came home late, but the other part believed, perhaps even trusted him when he said he wasn't out flirting.

"We've been getting along really well lately," she smiled wistfully at that. "He's been nicer and doesn't stick his foot in his mouth as much anymore. Maybe he really is growing up. He'd always been such a... a BOY before."

Sitting up, she pulled back her sleeves and got back to work, then thought better of it, someone else could finish sorting through the forms tomorrow, she had told Ranma that she would stop pushing herself so much. "Spending some time with him would be nice." She smiled.

"Okay Mitsuki, bend your arm to the left like this." Young Hinako moved slowly to give Mitsuki a good chance to see how the exercise was done.

Ranma watched the two at a distance from his spot in the yard. He concentrated on both girls to see how the calisthenics helped the body deal with the Five-Yen-Satsu, and develop a time frame. "Hmm, we won't make it in time at this rate. I'm gonna have to speed up the process somehow," he mumbled. The principle was simple enough, breathing plus positions to optimize the ki's malleability so that it wouldn't break under stress.

"Mitsuki-chan." A loud call coming from the main house reached them, which cause the black haired girl to panic.

"Oh no, Tanaka-san!" She ran towards Ranma. "You have to hide quickly!" Mitsuki tried her best to push him but failed completely.

"Huh, wha?"

Mitsuki became more anxious and hopped from one foot to another. "I forgot to tell you, my grandmother is really strict when it comes to visitors, especially boy visitors. If Tanaka-san sees you here and tells my grandmother, I won't get to see you anymore for sure!"

"Sheesh, why didn't ya say so earlier?" Ranma jumped up to the roof, quickly disappearing out of sight just as the pouffy brown haired woman rounded the corner.

"I brought some pealed apples for--" Tanaka-san stopped in mid step. "My… who's that adorable girl beside you?" She gushed as Hinako opened her eyes wide and exuded sweetness at near illegal levels.

"She's Hinako…chan. I met her a few days ago and she came by to play." She rocked herself on the balls of her feet.

"Hina-chan's here!" Young Hinako raised her hand up high. "Mitsuki-chan's my new friend. It's okay to visit her right?" Hinako went from overly happy to puppy dog pout in the blink of an eye.

Tanaka-san stood there for a bit, trying to decide what to do, looking at the main house, presumably towards the direction where Mitsuki's grandmother would be. "You know the rules Mitsuki, Madam has to give her approval first before anyone comes over." She leaned in and put a hand to one side of her mouth. "I won't tell her about it this time and I'll ask her if it's okay to have Hina-chan over here whenever she wants."

Mitsuki brightened. "Thank you Tanaka-san" She bowed.

"Ahaha, don't worry about it. Now how about some apples?"

"Yes, please."

"Aaaaapplessss aaapplesss!" Hinako jumped.

The two girls made quick work of the fruits and Tanaka-san left to do the dishes.

Mitsuki loudly breathed out, before being shocked by Ranma's sudden appearance. "Ah, stop startling me! Mouuu…"

"Sorry. What was all that about?" Ranma looked longingly at Hinako munching on the last apple slice.

"Grandmother is very traditional. She considers it scandalous for men to enter this house without formal introduction first. Even then, I don't think she'd let me spend anytime with any guy," she blushed, "alone."

"Didn't think there were people like that anymore. Then again, there's my pops and Mister Tendo so it might be a normal thing."

Mitsuki blinked, thinking aloud, "What kind of people are your father and Mr. Tendo?"

"You know... my pops is like any other dad, doing normal, dad type things, and Mr. Tendo is your average, everyday best friend." Ranma weakly finished. 'Damn, made her sad again.' he cursed himself. 'I can't tell her the truth though...'

"Ah, that's... nice, I guess." Mitsuki brightened, "What about your mother and father Hina-chan?"

Hinako poked her cheek, "Hmm, Hina-chan has the best mama and papa ever, they took really good care of Hina-chan, reading her stories, and baking her cakes, and had fun, fun, fun everyday!"

'Weird, I don't remember anyone else living at her apartment when I snuck in to grab her fighting fish.' Ranma wondered. 'Maybe her parents come to visit.' It was odd though, he knew she had plenty of books, furniture, and posters of sugary monstrosities better left forgotten, but there were no family pictures set on the table or hung up on the walls, the only one was a of the children at the hospital set in a frame on her nightstand.

"That must be so nice." Mitsuki spun around on a heel and sat on the raised floor of her room, "My parents died when I was little. It's okay." She looked at Ranma before he could say anything and smiled, "I have good memories of my father even though they're a bit fuzzy, and Grandmother has been taking care of me so well ever since the day that I came home from the orphanage, and I have you, Hina-chan, and my friends at school. I'm really happy."

Akane spotted Ranma hunched over the dinner table with a look of concentration on his face. He was reading his notes, flipping rapidly from one page to the next, and jotting down something once every so often. It was a rare, if not, impossible sight to behold, until recently. "What are you up to Ranma?" she tried to put as much cheer as she could into her question.

Ranma briefly looked up from his studies. "Studying."

"How's it going?"

Ranma frowned, glared at the book, and slammed it shut. "Argh! That's all I can take for today."

Akane could hear the blood pounding in her ears, now was her chance! "Well... i-if you want to take a break, we could go watch a movie."

"Huh?" Ranma looked wide-eyed at her before scanning the area nervously for intruders. "...sure."

'Yes!' Akane internally jumped. "Really?"

She noticed Ranma was blushing as much as she was, and was scratching the tip of his nose. "Yeah."

"Not on a date mind you, this is just two people going to watch a movie." She quickly added.

"Of course," Ranma agreed, much too quickly for her tastes, "not a date. Let's go before it gets late."

Akane followed him towards the genkan to fetch their shoes, both pretending that they weren't holding hands all the way to the screening room.

Author's Rambling: My thanks to Fallacy for helping me refine the feel of the story, and Hiryo for catching a lot of my mistakes. Sorry it took so long.