Ch 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma or any of the characters, they belong to the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi.
oOo
After some fruitful hours of shopping the trio returned home, were they were welcomed by Soun, who gratefully thanked Ranma for his efforts to make a bargain for the family attire. "Don't mention it" Ranma answered brusquely, really not wanting to press the issue of his deed any further. "Akane, Ranma, you have a visitor. She is waiting in the living room." Soun greeted his kids and headed off towards the dojo. These days, the patriarch spend a great time working out as well, just like Akane. If he searched to channel his wistfulness in light of the parting of his two older daughters, Akane did not know, yet she was happy to see him finding delight in the art again. She'd sometimes watch him going through his Katas; granted, his physique seemed somewhat rusty, yet his style was still powerful and full of elegance. He was even better than Ranma, Akane thought, and that would mean something. At times like that, she would hold astounding pride in her task to inherit the family dojo.
While she fondly looked after him, still in thoughts, Ranma had already hurried to the living room to greet their anonymous visitor. "U-chan, hi. What are you doing here?" Instantly, Akane's good mood changed to annoyance as he heard the name. She hadn't talked to Kuonji since the failed wedding, which had been months ago. Surprising enough, it was right after that event that the class teacher had announced Kuonji would be absent for the rest of the school term in order to study abroad (which would only mean moving her business to the beachside with summer approaching, as she would do every year). Akane wasn't sad about her absence, although she had whished, to confront her about her attacks at the wedding. Despite the bickering concerning the legitimation of either one's engagement to Ranma, she always considered them good friends. Oddly enough, it was even important to her to get along well with Ukyo, as she was Ranma's oldest friend. The more she felt hurt upon the ambush and the exploding okonomiyakis in the Tendo dojo. But as summer passed by, her hurt would fade and her feeling towards the friend would harden. Thus, when she entered the living room to face her somewhat-rival, she only nodded salutatory. Simultaneously, Kasumi entered from the kitchen, greeting Ukyo warm-hearted as always. "Ukyo-chan, long time no see. I hope you had good business this summer?"
"Hai" Ukyo replied proudly. "It was hard work, but definitely worth it. I could take off a bit earlier to return home and take care of some things here." She peered at Ranma as she finished the sentence, which did not go unnoticed by Akane.
"I am glad to hear that. Let me fix some iced coffee for you" Kasumi chirped, when Akane interrupted her. "Onee-chan, let me take care of that, busy as you are you shouldn't bother with things like that know." She was sure, Kasumi had something better to do right know, and she would gladly use the excuse to vanish into the kitchen herself. "It's alright, I won't stay long. I just dropped by because I wanted to talk to Akane." Ranma and Akane regarded Ukyo in surprise. Kasumi smiled and took off her apron. "Then I won't disturb you any longer. I hope to see you next week, Ukyo-chan!"
oOo
The two girls sat on the patio facing the garden, gangling their legs in the air. It was humid and fine wafts of clouds damped the intensity of the summer afternoon sun: it felt like a thunderstorm was right around the corner. Fifteen minutes have passed without important words being spoken; the girls merely exchanged formalities. At least, Akane thought, Kuonji seemed as uncomfortable as she felt. She hardly managed to look the young Tendo into the eye. She started to feel compassion for her classmate; she even felt sorry for having greeted her to snappishly earlier. Darn, there it was again, she would always put the interest of everyone else before her own and couldn't even uphold the most justified anger towards her friend. Ranma was right, she was a sucker at times.
"I know you enjoy this conversation as little as I do, so why not come forth with it. Why are you here?" First startled at the bluntness, Ukyo sighed. "What do you think why it is."
"That's what I am asking you." Akane was in no mood to play games. She sounded grumpy. "If you think, I will begin a fight for that joker of a fiancé, you are mistaken." A little rustling from the tree aside the pond gained their attention. Quickly, Akane was on her feet, reaching for a pebble on the ground, and she threw it precisely into the crown to evoke a faint Ouch! "Will you just give us some privacy you …" she roared at the tree, where a black pick-tail descended from a branch, clinging to an upside-down huffy face. "And who are you calling a joke, tomboy …?" As usual, the insult ticked her off, so that she reached for a rather large stone, aiming at the eavesdropper. "Zip it!" Before the stone got to him, he'd jumped over the wall. To his misfortune, a rather large gathering of stray cats took place right outside the Tendo property where he landed, and a laud mewing and screeching gave Akane the presumption that she would now have enough time to talk to Ukyo in private before spending the late afternoon to calm Ranma from the Nekoken.
Ukyo had watched the spectacle in silence and wondered aloud: "Seeing this, I ask myself if I shouldn't overthink my plans again." Quickly, Akane tuned to her. "What plans? I am telling you, if you intend to ruin Kasumi's wedding, I'll…. "
"Never would I do that to your sister" the young woman interrupted. Her face got a sad expression. "In fact, I didn't even mean to disturb your wedding." There it was, the dreaded topic Akane knew was on the agenda, but it took a direction she had not forefelt. She listened to the chef.
"Akane, I am sorry for what happened back then. I had wanted to apologize to you before my departure, but I was too ashamed. I don't want to talk my way out of this, I am fully to blame for my actions. But you know… without saying names, sometimes I get talked into conspiracies and before I can recognize it, things get out of hand…" She did, in fact, not need to list any names, Akane knew exactly who she was talking about. The vicious amazon had always been the sneakier rival and there have been plenty of situations, where Ukyo more or less, seemed like an appendage of the Chinese plaque rather than an accomplice.
Ukyo went forth: "At the time, I wasn't even informed about the events that took place in Jusendo." A pleading look appeared on the young chef's visage. "Please believe me, I knew nothing of your close to death experience, I was devastated…"
"What does that have to do with the damage you've done to the dojo?" Now it was Akane who revealed her sensitivity. She didn't sound angry anymore, but her voice was shaking all the same. Ukyo felt a trace of relief upon getting through to her classmate. She continued: "I was lied to, Akane. Shampoo had told me that it was her, Ranma had saved and plead his love to. She claimed that he was tricked into the wedding against his will and that we had to save him." She was right, he was sort of tricked, but not entirely against his will. Akane's anger rose again, how did that cursed amazon dare spreading lies about Ranma while they had been out there risking their lives for one another? Her fists clenched and her knuckles turned white. Yet again, it wasn't the first time Shampoo played her intrigues and Ukyo ought to be smarter than that. "Anyways, Ranma came to my restaurant yesterday and told me everything that happened in China. We had a long talk about what has been going on lately and what I have missed out …" Ukyo looked Akane straight in the eye. "I apologize for my behaviour. I should have seen it coming, but you how blinded the eye can be when feelings are involved. However, Ranma clarified a lot of things to me. I won't get in your ways anymore, Akane-chan." The intimate form of address startled her slightly, but the content of what Ukyo disclosed to her truly flabbergasted her. "What…" she stammered confused when Ukyo put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I hope you accept my apology. I need to go now, there are other matters I need to take care off." She smiled at Akane. "I'll see you next week." With that she took off, leaving the speechless girl behind. When she seemed to have found her voice again, she ran into the hallway to the front gate to follow Ukyo, but the chef had already left. Was she voluntarily giving up on Ranma? She dared not believing it, but she recalled that sad look on the chef's face, that screamed defeat. She sighed sonorous, as if to push out the feeling of guilt that started building up in her chest. She should be glad to have gotten rid of at least one suitor. As she turned to enter the property, she heard a faint meow. She'd almost forgotten about that, At least I'll get distracted by the kitty she thought, feeling her mood lighten up.
oOo
A distant rumble in the darkened sky echoed through the neighbourhood. The air was so humid and thick one could have cut it with a knife. Akane sat on the porch, stroking the hair of the bewitched pig-tailed boy who had dozed off, his head in her lap. When trapped in that state, Ranma seemed to use up a good amount of energy, so once he felt secured by the touch of his fiancé, he would soon fall asleep next to or rather on top of her. Despite the horror he had to go through to get to that state, he seldomly seemed so at peace as when he was in the Nekoken nuzzling his fiancé. He would purr and once that noise stopped Akane knew exactly when the Nekoken wore off and one could set the clock on his awakening. Usually, she made sure to have removed his body from hers to spare him the embarrassment, but today she didn't feel like doing so: somehow the conversation with Ukyo made her more confident about herself. She kept running her fingers lazily through his hair, winding and twisting his pick-tail around her index finger and savouring the feeling of his warmth close to her. Sometimes she found herself wondering, if she were ever granted that intimacy with him being in full awareness. She sighed softly and circled her finger around his ear, challenging herself if she would wake him or not. When he didn't seem to react to her touch, she became braver and slid her hand down to caress his neck, lightly massaging the stiff muscles. She couldn't help but think back a couple days when she observed him in the dojo, admiring his broad shape and tanned skin. Again, she felt the novel tingle in der lower belly, and instantly a new boldness overcame her. She conducted her fingers along his collar down to his chest. It felt exactly how she had imagined: hard and strong, but at the same time so smooth. Startled, she felt him moving, as if waking, she glanced at his eyes if they would open, but they remained closed and he started purring again. Akane smirked: this had not happened before, she wondered what his cat mind was dreaming about. Even more perplexed she realized that he altered his position from his side to lying flat on his back with his head remaining on Akane's lap, thus giving her easier excess to his chest. The shirt he wore was slightly torn apart during the encounter with his four-legged friends, so sliding under the shirt to continue her exploration was no problem. Again, she checked his face for any sign of awakening before drawing circles with the lightest touch of her fingers. Despite the almost intoxicating softness of his skin, she felt a small unevenness. When she continued the coarseness became more apparent and she used her other hand to lift the shirt to the side to observe the body she was caressing. She inhaled sharply at the sight of countless scars that were scattered over the boy's upper body. She used her index finger to draw the lines of each scar as she started counting them carefully. She whispered the number of each scar she caressed, while thinking about what combats might have been the cause for each of these injuries. She recalled times when she saw him half (or in all glory butt-) naked and he always used to have some kind of black spot or injury that resulted from the training with his old man. Those injuries, however, were nothing in comparison to the cuts that might have caused these scars. She hadn't seen him undressed for quite a long time now, considering their usual accidental encounters that would always end in a screaming argument and Ranma flying through the roof. To be precise, she hadn't seen him undressed since the events at Mount Pheonix. She felt a lump forming in her throat. Despite the physical and mental pain that she had endured trapped in that doll form, at least she would not be carrying the memories of Jusendo spread all over her body. The feeling of shame about her own physical integrity overcame her as she continued her counting, forming each number slowly with her lips as if breaking a spell and making the scars disappear. Mindless, she conducted her hand south on his stomach, when she felt small goosebumps building under her fingertips. She was amazed by the small hairs rising up under her hand like under electric charge, totally altering the texture of his skin. She wondered how he could become cold in the thick summer heat, when she realized that his purring has stopped. The next thing she remembered was looking into his opened blue eyes, that were sternly regarding her and that did not allow her to avert her gaze.