Author's Notes: Here's for my friend Klarence, who died at the age of sixteen two months ago. RIP, man.
Oh yes, and this goes out to April, one of my anonymous reviewers: Ranma does have blue eyes. I googled some images and saw that up close, his eyes are blue. I had to change all the descriptions of Ranma's eyes being brown throughout all the chapters. Thanks for pointing it out! ;)
Disclaimer: I'm sure everybody's well-informed: anybody who writes fanfiction cannot possibly own the category he's writing about. The word FAN just gives it all away, doesn't it? Shame.
The Diary of Akane Tendo
Chapter Seven: Hustle and Bustle
Tuesday, 9 pm, my room
I just couldn't go on writing, so I went downstairs to have a glass of water. I planned to come back to my room after ten minutes or so, but thankfully P-chan arrived on the doorstep after such a long time of being gone; he was covered in mud so I bathed him in cold water to reenergize him.
Yes, my little black piglet (who is now snoring on my pillow after having a huge fit and a power-cry – which is sort of like a power-nap, only one cries in it – because of something he is gravely upset about) is heaven-sent.
Because, you know, the feeling after I wrote the last few sentences was too much, and if I didn't stop, I think I'd have palpitated. It felt very much like watching The Ring at home and pausing the DVD player at the part where Sadako's nail-less fingers were halfway outside the television screen. Your heart starts beating a hundred times a second when you realize that watching a "creature" crawl out of a television inside your own television is just wrongly creepy, or something.
Only I didn't find Avery's kiss creepy. I mean, heck, it was… er, breathtaking at first. How would you feel if the lips you've been staring at lately would meet yours in a surprising, unpredictable instance?
Uh-huh, yeah. I thought so.
But I don't know if it was me, or if it was Kami-sama, or if it was Nabiki tsk-tsk-ing inside my head, or the fear that somebody would see us like that. Something told me that it was wrong. Just plain wrong. I mean, okay, what was wrong with a guy and a girl kissing on the school rooftop? Nothing, right? Especially with someone like Avery, kissing a guy on the rooftop is so not wrong.
Yet I just found it wrong, for some reason. And no, it wasn't Avery. It was me.
A split second after we went into Frenching (FRENCHING! It felt like a tongue that isn't yours doing gentle acrobatics with your own), I pulled away. My mind was clouded – the causes of which are:
1.) the sudden kiss,
2.) the sweet taste of honey from his mouth due to our lunch of honeyed toast, and the cold mist that came from his mouth, and last but not the least,
3.) Avery himself who gave me the said kiss and had his arms loosely wrapped around me that I wasn't aware of until my knees buckled down and I didn't find myself on the floor because, yes, after a second his surprisingly strong arms pulled me up supported my weight.
And we just stood there for like, a minute without saying anything, without moving a voluntary muscle. I literally felt his heart knocking against my palm on his chest, and I was so sure that if his palm was on my chest as well (but it wasn't, okay?), he'd have felt the same pounding rhythm. The eye contact was broken, of course, and while the adrenaline rush dwindled, I fixed my eyes on a puff of cloud in the sky – it was moving really slowly that it might have condensed into liquid unnoticed by everybody if I, the one person who cared about it, didn't want to still see and reflect on my new world, at that moment when it was somehow Avery-ized.
(Who am I to care about a measly cloud when I don't even want to care about my social life anymore?)
But no, with Avery-ized, I'm not saying we continued kissing after the moment of swirls of feelings had run amok in the silence. Because the big clock on the school wall chimed, and it reverberated throughout the premises of Furinkan High School.
I tried to clear my throat, but I ended up choking for a second in, you don't say, my saliva. I strongly think.
"W-we'd better head back to the classroom. Mr. Sachi doesn't like repeating Avogadro's Law to latecomers," Avery croaked.
I nodded (I felt that if I spoke up, my croak would have been hoarser than his, or Cologne's for that matter).
No slaps, no drama, no "But I thought you only saw me as a friend? This isn't right…" or "No, the first time I laid my eyes on you, I knew I already fell in love with you, Akane. Please understand me."
NO, THERE WAS NONE OF THAT. Only the cold winter air that became one of main causes I was – and am – shivering, besides the thought of everything that happened. That, and my frizzy hair caused by the plunge in temperature.
So tomorrow night's the Winter Dance, and I am not going. I don't have a dress to begin with. And, duh, a date. Moreover, having a little experience in downloading horoscopes from the internet, I can safely predict that I'm going to be only "I" in an ocean of "We's" in school tomorrow morning.
And why not Avery? We kissed, right?
Haha, don't even go there. After he said "Take care," when Niles shut the door to his limousine, I concluded that the chances were and are nada. Because what he said before "Take care" was "latecomers," which happened a couple of hours past. No word about the dance, or anything else. Plus, he looked sort of… er, regretful? About the kiss, maybe?
The onion soup I had for dinner is beginning to climb up my stomach along with the hydrochloric acid. I think I'll sweat it out in the dojo.
Tuesday, 10:30 pm
30 counts of neck and hip twists, check.
50 counts of leg spreads and stretches, check.
100 sit ups and push ups, check.
1 Ranma teeming with male testosterone, check.
I was in the middle of doing a series of palm strikes on cat stance in my white tank top and lower gi when something red caught my eye, so I stopped.
"You might consider making known that you're in a room, you know. People might think that you're up to something."
He lifted an eyebrow, but he didn't look offended. "Well, ya might consider tying your hair up – it's… long now. The headband thing does a poor job in pushing your hair back."
"Why…?"
"You might not want anything to bother your training, is all," he explained before I could finish my question, placing his hands idly behind his head.
I ran my hands over my sweaty hair, and I did notice that it was almost past my shoulders already. I took my headband and tied it several times around my hair in a high pony tail. "Are you still jealous?" I asked, advancing to the topic which I guess wouldn't have come around until a half hour or so. I didn't feel like beating around the bush, anyway. Nope, no more beating around the bush for me, or for Ranma (if I really, really willed him to). But I didn't look at Ranma in the eyes. I stood up on my head instead, waiting for his answer as blood traveled to my head and my arms began to tense up.
"Maybe." His hands were crumpled behind him; he thought I didn't see them turn white.
"So you still are," I smirked. With a strong push against the floor, I did a somersault a couple of feet above the ground and landed on my two feet. "Baka." I know that I should have been flattered – Ranma Saotome never ever admits that he's jealous, maybe unless it's a life or death situation. But even so, I know him too well that he may not even say he's envious when his body is halfway to the grave.
Did that mean that I was really, really, really important to him?
He's such an idiot. An unpredictable, inexplicably sweet and totally random idiot.
Ranma took a deep breath before revealing the thing I dreaded he'd known. There was no way – NO WAY – that he might have known the big mistake/accident I made earlier today! Unless, you know, the birds told him… maybe it wasn't just the parrots that could talk…
"No, but this time I have a really rational point! What were you doing with him when you both went out of the cafeteria? And why were you holding hands? You could have just gone out, but… holding hands?"
"Hey, it wasn't me who held his hand; he held my hand!" I argued, facing him once and for all. Thus, I found myself trying to match the level of emotion he was showing, as he never put off his reproving stare that was, I admit, flaming with… jealousy and extreme anxiety and ostentatiously glowing with heavenly shades of blue and grey and mauve… WAIT, WHERE THE HECK DID THAT COME FROM?
Ugh, but NO, that wasn't the part I was talking about.
"But y-you kissed…" he countered, a verbal blow that hit me right in the solar plexus and would have knocked me out if it were his fist.
I didn't ask him how he found out; I was too gobsmacked to even think of what words to express "How did you find out?" with. And right then and there, I didn't care if I thought that he had bird-communicating powers (birds hanging out on the school rooftop, specifically), because now I realize that it's a sign of derangement. I don't really care.
Because the look in Ranma Saotome's eyes killed me. It pierced me not because he looked angry – he didn't look furious, no, not at all – but because he looked abased and totally hurt and dejected. What's worse is that my photographic memory took over at the wrong second, oh how I hate it, and Ranma's gloomy picture is permanently etched in my mind. That means it could kill me over and over and over and over again whenever Kami-sama, or my conscience, willed it to.
"I never meant for it to happen," I said weakly, hoping that it would somehow get over to Ranma's sense of reason. "And maybe Avery never did, either… sometimes people just act out of impulse, you know?"
He sighed painfully. "I-I know… but the impulses don't actually come out of nowhere, don't they?"
Shoot, I knew that. And so does Dr. Phil and the rest of the world. If I said no, I'd have lied. And so would I if I told him that I never felt the slightest tinge of emotion for Avery… which was why I never brought it up. I didn't want Ranma to ask me if I like-liked Avery or anything, because I was certain he knew most of the symptoms I show whenever I tell a lie: fingers fidgeting, eyes on the floor, stuttering, etcetera.
Oh, but he did. He asked me, "Do you actually have feelings for him?"
"It's time you take this maturely Ranma, you're being envious over nothing," I said as firmly as I could. "I… I don't have feelings for Avery."
Hope flickered in his once dim eyes, but the hope was dim as well – too dim, in fact, that I might have not seen them if I didn't have the heart to accomplish eye contact with him.
"What about the kiss?"
I myself cannot explain that – how it happened, and why – but I gave Ranma my opinion, which was my best (and only) shot. "I never willed it to happen, Ranma… as I said, it was just out of impulse–" Avery's impulse, I puzzled. "–that it occurred. And… to tell you the truth, there were no fireworks."
"Oh."
Before I saw the hope in Ranma's eyes grow a hundredfold into a big ignition, I was again in one of my private worlds where my present surroundings transformed into a blended blur, and I imagined Avery's kiss all over again: His lips were as soft as I presumed them to be… they were even sweet because of the honey… he didn't smash his mouth to mine, but his lips (and tongue) gently moved against my helpless ones instead. His hands never wandered anywhere except my back – they didn't go below the hip line. My palms were on his unpredictably warm chest, and I felt the warmth creep up inside of me. The kiss was almost perfect, really…
But there were no fireworks, and it made all the difference in world.
I snapped out of my reverie and looked at Ranma again. His appearance was so much different a minute ago, from what I remember before I entered my recollection of Avery's kiss. Now he looked like the Ranma a few days ago – the Ranma who was undeniably full of concern, bliss, confidence, everything.
He replaced his hands casually behind his head as he looked towards the ceiling. "I just wanted to know."
I blushed. "Well, now you do."
Silence (you know, for the past week, there has been a lot of silence going on in my life. Why don't I lend it for a while to the people insanely suffering the bustle and hustle of really big cities? That way, I would be a lot of help to the planet in general).
"So… about the dance… are y–"
"Are you going somewhere tonight? Maybe we could spar." My delayed speech interrupted Ranma. Really, though! My brain had already processed those nine words earlier; my nerves maybe weren't just keen to relay the message to my speech organs.
Ranma himself was surprised by my sudden output of words. "I… I'm doing something tonight, sorry."
"Oh. I hope it has something to do with Karl Gauss and Euler," I said, laughing discreetly.
"Er… actually… I was supposed to be with Ukyou fifteen minutes ago. Help her with stuff."
Hearing Ukyou's name, I felt my insides heat like pancake batter on a frying pan. "Oh," I said almost forcedly, praying that Ranma didn't interpret it the wrong way, which was how I really felt at that moment. "I'm going back to my room." I calmly walked past him to look for my slippers.
"I know that look." He exhaled jadedly. "Akane."
I whirled around to face him. "Ranma, you should have said that the moment you entered this room. You would have saved time, because I wouldn't have told you a lot of things. But don't worry, I'm leaving so you can go to Ukyou now. Because I am totally fine with you hanging out everyday and having a close liaison with a girl who COOKS PANCAKES FOR A LIVING!"
"I knew it! You're turning into medieval-Akane again!" As I slipped my slippers on, he blocked the door before I could open it, grabbed my arm, and pulled me towards the center of the dojo. I tugged my arm free, untied my ponytail, and adjusted my headband. "You are such a… such a man!"
We both stopped, surprised at the term he just called me, until I continued adjusting my headband by removing it once more, arranging my hair, and trying to put it on again.
"I come here, putting all my effort and sacrifice my time into talking to you about that Avery guy to finally clear things out – you actually tell me that the fireworks weren't there! And now you're hustling and bustling over the fact that I am helping Ukyou with her work?" He half-shouted his words.
"Because Avery is such a sweet, sensitive, smart and sensible guy, and Ukyou is a pretty girl who knows how to cook PANCAKES, that's why! And you don't have to bear with my hustling and bustling because look! I'm leaving!" I stormed past Ranma.
As I was about to slam the door close behind, he called out angrily, "You'd better return my slippers, dammit!"
Looking down on my feet, I saw a pair of black slippers that weren't mine. I slammed the door anyway, and as I was walking away from the dojo in the cold air, I heard a distinct thud, as though someone had punched a wall.
Well, you can't blame me! Leaving the house in the middle of the night to "help Ukyou with her work" is enough to raise eyebrows here.
I don't want to go to school tomorrow anymore. I really don't. Sayuri and Yuka are going to be with Hiroshi and Daisuke. Being with Avery would be too silent and tense. And Ranma – heck, Ranma's going to be with Pancake Girl. It's just so sickly predictable.
Wednesday, December 8, against the 2-ft side of a 4x2-ft table in the cafeteria
Yes, as I am eating my lunch of Spanish paella, Sayuri and Hiroshi are at my right, and Yuka and Daisuke are at my left. And no, it's not like they're acting like I don't exist or anything. Now and then, my two good girlfriends and their dates check on me and make me join their jokes and stuff.
But really, I want to die. Because you know what?
Apart from the fact that even though my four friends at the table talk to me and deem me as existent, I still feel mortified because I am the only one without a pair in the whole cafeteria (even Gosunkugi has a partner: a really geeky-looking girl with protruding front teeth) – as I described it earlier, "the only I in an ocean of We's"?
Apart from the fact that Ranma is, yet again, alone with Ukyou in one of the 2x2-ft tables – he hasn't talked to me since last night, and it seems like it doesn't bother him at all, being with Ukyou and not me on the day of the dance, because most probably he's asked her to be his date already?
Apart from the fact that Avery didn't go to school today?
Apart from the fact that my lunch of paella is making my palate itch?
MY SISTER NABIKI GOT KUNO AS HER DATE IN THE WINTER DANCE! It's just utterly disgusting… if Nabiki wasn't at the top of the food chain and the Ice Queen, Kuno the shark would be circling her and waiting for a chance to literally put his mouth on her flesh, that hentai! And although being her partner would involve a catch, I am sure that Kuno is stupid enough to agree with it because he always does more harm than good to himself whenever he engages in deals with Nabiki.
I really want to die now. I don't care what Avery thinks about people who commit suicide. I don't care if it's suicide or homicide. I just want to die.
Wednesday, 5:30 pm (half an hour before the Winter Dance starts), my room
School ended early, about 2 in the afternoon, so that the students can prepare for the dance, which starts at 6 tonight. So basically, I've locked myself into this room with my dearest little P-chan for about 3 hours already, and it would have gone as peacefully as I thought it would, really. I had it all planned out, you know – I'll be in my room during the dance, and nobody would even notice that I never showed up. Since tomorrow's classes have been cancelled, I'll go to school on Friday and the people would have forgotten by then that I never arrived.
Perfect embarrassment evasion.
But my plan may never be carried out. You know why?
Rewind to Tuesday last week. Yes, the We-Think-Akane's-Going-Crazy-Horde did the whole knocking-on-my-door thing again. It was spearheaded by my father and aided by Uncle Genma. They went on about being worried about me and stuff, when all I could have been doing was sleeping! Too bad they knew about the Winter Dance.
Not this again, I mused.
Dr. Phil says that one of the best ways to relieve anger is shouting or screaming, and then the person would feel very much better. But no, I didn't scream. Not this time. Because last Tuesday, I realized that I am officially in a world where people are quick to judge whether a person is going mad or not. Seeing that I was judged as such just a week ago (and thankfully, the judgment eventually disappeared into thin air as I started acting normally), any close observer could easily predict that I am not – NOT – doing it again.
"Akane-chan, aren't you going to your dance at school?" Dad asked gently.
"No, Dad, I think I'll stay here. I'm fine."
We exchanged a few questions and answers, and, half-heartedly, he and Uncle Genma finally left to continue their game of shogi downstairs (Uncle Genma had most probably switched some figures while my father wasn't looking. Oh, those two…) and I thought I was safe for the rest of the afternoon. Kasumi's offering of help didn't matter, either, because even though I almost didn't resist her gentle tone, I surprisingly convinced her that I was okay and that I wasn't suppressing any feelings, that I just wanted to have me for myself for the rest of the day. So, no. It wasn't the We-Think-Akane's-Going-Crazy Horde.
It wasn't even Sayuri and Yuka, who came to fetch me and were shocked when I told them that I was serious when declared I wasn't coming. They stuck outside the door and convinced me to dress up, and Hiroshi and Daisuke even joined in (the driver of the limousine they hired was apparently growing impatient by the minute). After several fruitless minutes, the four of them gave up and left. Sayuri, however, slipped a note through the slit under my door, which totally touched me. It said:
Remember The Akane Theorem. Remember what we talked about having a date to the dance not being a measure of who you are. Remember that Yuka and I love you. :)
Okay, I cannot bear the furious tapping of glass anymore.
It's Nabiki, okay? Nabiki! She's the reason why I feel that my solitary safety wouldn't last.
She's been tapping outside my window for three minutes now, telling me open it! I've been telling her that no, I am not opening it, but she refuses to budge… that silly sister of mine, she's going to catch a cold in the open December air! I'm afraid she's going to tell me something really harsh and all sorts of stuff… I don't want that to happen.
But she's going to catch a cold!
"Oh, P-chan," I just said to my little black piglet as I kissed him on the snout, "I wish you were human. Then you could be my date to the dance."
Wednesday, 6:50 pm, inside Kuno's limousine
I feel like dying. No, before that, I'd want to throw up first, because I don't want to embalmers the cringe at the grossness of my viscera when I'm ready to be groomed to put inside a coffin.
So how did I end up, you ask, inside Tatewaki Kuno's limousine, on the left side of the back seat, with Nabiki at the center and Kuno at the right? I really don't know the reason myself. It seemed that the suppressed Akane in my brain stood up and took over when the me-Akane couldn't handle everything anymore. And now I am back to me-Akane, and I can't figure out how I had possibly agreed to come!
Here's an account of the previous events:
Having no choice (well, maybe I did have a choice – I could have ignored her and let her freeze to death on my windowsill), I slid the window up, and Nabiki plunged onto the bed and wrapped my yellow blanket around herself. Her teeth were almost chattering. P-chan moved aside to give my sister space.
"Yeah. So. What are you doing here?" I asked, trying not to look demanding or anything. I watched her face closely, and it seemed like she was in the middle of a make-up application when some l entered her room. And somehow she ended up outside my window. She had her lipstick and eye shadow on, but only her left eyelashes were applied with mascara.
Having accomplished contact with the warmth of my room, Nabiki (paradoxically) went back to Ice Queen Mode and stood up, right in front of me, not breaking eye contact. "You're such a weakling, Akane, not going to the dance because of some petty reason," she said flatly.
Petty reason? She called being dateless a petty reason? What was the average reason for her then, APOCALYPSE?
"Hey, I didn't do anything to you!" I said indignantly. "Leave me alone. I have important things to do."
"More important than the Winter Dance, which was what you've been carping about the whole week?" She snorted. "What you're doing is cowardice. It's best to face the music, if there's any music to begin with."
I was nonplussed. "What do you mean?" Sometimes, Nabiki could be more than Confucius himself could bargain.
"Oh, and here I am thinking you're smart," she mumbled, walking past me to arrange her hair in front of my mirror. "Akane, I know you've been thinking that the world's giving you too many problems, and that you may have thought sometimes that the best way out is… you know, permanently putting your life out, whatever the term is. But really, sis, all you need to know is that you've been creating problems of your own! Going to the dance doesn't require a date, but everybody just seems to want to be in a pair because they're too nervous about the whole thing. Unconfident, get my drift?"
It processed slowly in my mind, and as Nabiki saw that, she went on:
"If you strut your stuff in the Winter Dance, people aren't going to laugh at you. They're going to admire your act of independence and confidence and everything in between, especially if you carry yourself well."
"Then what's with Kuno?" I popped all of a sudden. "Why is he your date to the dance? You said that a person could look confident and independent without a date."
She looked amused. "He promised me a couple of membership and discount cards from Burberry, Chanel, and Gucci."
See? There was always a catch when you had a deal with Nabiki Tendo. But that would mean…
"What did he ask for return?"
Nabiki whirled around to face me, raised her eyebrows (threaded to perfection), and smiled. "My presence."
P-chan, who didn't make his existence known until that moment, let out a loud, "BWEE?"
Her presence? No, that would only mean one thing. No effing way.
"Kuno's in love with you?" And what's worse was that… "You permitted him to fall in love with you?"
I couldn't believe it! Nabiki and Kuno? Kuno hardly seemed Nabiki's type. And even when he started showing his feelings for Nabiki, she would have threatened him with something to not fall in love anymore. "How? WHY? H-how did–"
"Look, before you start forming disturbing mental images in your twisted head, let me get this one straight: you are right when you're assuming that I decided to agree to his request because of his money. It was he who offered to be my date, and the membership and discount cards were the main reasons I said yes. I don't know if you've noticed, but we've been hanging out the whole week (wait, I don't think you may have noticed it until yesterday, because before that, we've been eating lunch out in expensive restaurants). And then something weird happened."
She stopped and sat on my bed. I sat down beside her and P-chan hopped on my lap, seemingly resolute to listen to Nabiki. "The weird thing was," she continued, looking rather puzzled and amused at the same time, "yesterday, as I was watching him talk animatedly in front of me while we ate at Mignon Restaurant, I realized how boring my life would be without him."
"And so you fell in love with him?" I offered.
"Hell, no!" she replied, her face wrinkling. Then her expression softened as she recalled what happened to her and Kuno yesterday afternoon. "As I was watching him eat his roasted chicken and explain about the origin of Kendo, he began to look… look innocent, like a kid."
"INNOCENT? Kuno?" I snorted. P-chan snorted with me.
"Yeah, innocent," Nabiki answered, ignoring my sarcasm. "Everybody knows that Tatewaki Kuno acts all grown-up – arrogant, most of the time – and all-knowing in public, but deep inside, he's just a kid. He's a kid at heart, at mind, maybe at soul… but his body sure doesn't fall under the list."
"Oh no, you didn't… you two didn't–" I was lost for words as I gaped at my sister who was smiling impishly.
"No, we didn't, and stop saying all sorts of unrelated things," she curtly said. "So, there. I realized that he's been a part of my life – business or not – ever since. And as he ate the rest of the roasted chicken leg, I continued observing him interestedly, how he did almost everything childishly… and then he noticed me staring and asked me why I was doing it."
"And then you told him you were in love with him?" I offered again.
My sister shot me a warning look. "No, I didn't. That never happened, okay? I just told him that he amused me a lot. He – ugh, Akane, stop grinning stupidly – asked me again why. Then… I guess, if I recalled right, maybe as I said the word nothing, it came with a genuine smile. From me to him. You know how rarely that happens, sis? A genuine, friendly, warm smile."
My eyes widened. "Oh, I know indeed, how rarely your warm smiles occur." For the past month, she has only given me about three of those – and I live with her.
"He smiled back. It looked stupid at first, knowing Kuno, but as he exhaled deeply, his smile eventually grew wider and looked… nice. He looked nice. And at that exact moment, a really weird thought formed at the back of my mind: I didn't really care about what people would think when they see me with Kuno."
"So that means… you love him, right? And vice versa?" Their love story was so cute, Kuno didn't seem too disgusting now that my sister has exposed a good part of him.
"I don't know," Nabiki said tersely, snapping back into being the Ice Queen. "Now get your butt into the washroom and wash your face. I'll do your hair and makeup."
I just didn't get the point yet. "Wait. What does your story have to do with me?"
"Baka. I was trying to cram in that warped mind of yours that you shouldn't really care about what people think, because it wouldn't really matter. What matters is how you feel and what you want to do. In the future, you will be the one satisfied, not the pretentious people faking themselves all the time."
"Oh."
"Now go wash your face."
I was about to get up from the bed, when I realized the bitter truth. It was as bitter as raw coffee and poison. "But Nabiki, I don't have a dress…"
She smirked. "Get up."
I didn't see the point, really, because even if I did, I couldn't go to the dance without a dress. But after a second, it was like heaven was shining upon the little Loalde shopping bag that was dangling from Nabiki's fingers. I must have missed seeing her carrying it when she entered my window! And since I was speechless, Nabiki bothered to explain.
"I bought it, just in case. And since there are things that I just plain know, I was sure then that I was going to be correct."
I wanted to drown her inside a great big bear hug.
And that explains why I am here inside Kuno's limousine (Kuno doesn't really sound like the guy whom Nabiki was talking about a while ago, but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm here. It's weird, but whatever).
Nabiki helped me with my hair – with the aid of a curling iron, my shoulder-length hair now has gorgeous curls on the tips – and makeup. She painted my lips with a pale pink lipstick and finished with cherry-flavored, shimmering lip gloss. She used a curlash and mascara on my eyelashes, and light pink tint on my cheeks. After that, she went to her own room to finish her own preparation. I, on the other hand, opened the Loalde shopping bag and took my dress out and wore it. As the straps rested on my shoulders, it really did look like it was made out of sparkling white fairy dust, and the rhinestone detail that stretched from the chest part to my right hip made it the most wonderful thing I've set my eyes on. The neckline was between plunging and not-plunging, thank Kami-sama, and I decided to wear the pearl necklace my mom gave me when I was a kid. I fastened to my ears the pearl earrings my father gave me for my thirteenth birthday. One last touch… a few spritzes of Clinique Happy.
Everything was okay. In my opinion.
But perfect was what my father described me when Nabiki (who sported a little black dress) and I went downstairs a minute later (I thought I saw a blurred image of Ryouga in a tuxedo in the shadows on the hallway upstairs, but I figured that my nerves were playing with my imagination). Uncle Genma said that I looked like a white fairy, what with the white skin and white dress. Kasumi said that Nabiki and I were beautiful. They took several pictures with Nabiki and me, and when the honk from a car was heard from outside, we were off.
All seemed fine for the first minute I was inside Kuno's limo. He and Nabiki talked about a restaurant downtown, and I listened to them intently. It wasn't until we passed a chocolate shop, which reminded me of Avery, that my guts started to hustle and bustle. Ranma would be predictably hand-in-hand with Ukyou… but what would happen to me without Avery? He was absent from school this morning. If he's going to be at the dance, I could just hang out with him. But what if he's not there?
And Ranma. Could he really let the chance pass, his only chance of asking me to the dance? Why didn't he ask at all? I thought he had feelings for me… or so Nabiki says… Oh, Kami, I don't want to do this. Nabiki's pep talk seems to have disappeared from my mind.
"Here we are," Kuno says as the limo turns to enter the school gates. "Fashionably late."
I want to throw up. I want to die.
Wednesday, inside the female comfort room, sitting on the lid of a toilet seat
When we arrived, I didn't recognize the gym. It was just striking how the white, indigo, and blue decorations made everything and everyone stand out. As we walked towards the gym (the huge speakers playing More Than Words), Kuno offered me his right arm (Nabiki was at his left) so that I would have an escort in my entrance, but I politely declined. The next thing I knew, about a few meters from the entry, I was in front of Nabiki and Kuno. The doors opened and I went in, trying my best to be oblivious of the stares I was getting.
This is it, I thought bitterly, feeling nauseated. The people are going to laugh at me for not having a date.
"She's so pretty," I heard someone whisper from my right.
Yes, people, I thought to myself bitterly, I know Nabiki's so pretty.
"Who is she? Is her date late? Maybe I can abandon my partner and offer her my arm instead," a guy to my left muttered to his friend.
And the whispers and mutters went on:
"No way, I think that's… Akane Tendo!"
"She's so damn pretty, man! I wish I'd asked her… that Avery guy seemed too much for me, though."
When I heard Avery's name, I quickly scanned the gym for brown hair and green eyes, but I didn't see him. Nabiki tapped me from behind and motioned to the direction where Sayuri and Yuka (wearing orange and yellow dresses respectively) were with Hiroshi and Daisuke; the four of them gaped open-mouthed at me.
"Hey guys," I greeted them nervously. I pushed Hiroshi's jaw up so his mouth would close. "You look like a fish, Hiroshi."
"Oh. S-sorry," he apologized as Daisuke laughed at him in silence.
"Akane, we thought you weren't coming!" Yuka exclaimed enthusiastically, grabbing my hand and almost jumping up and down.
"Well, Nabiki put up a good fight and won."
Sayuri grabbed my other hand. "And good thing she did; you look absolutely lovely! Your dress was all glittery when you walked in… you look like a fairy princess."
I giggled shyly. "Thanks." I swallowed nervously, but there wasn't anything to swallow – I realized that my mouth had gone dry. "Guys, give me a minute, I'll just go get myself some drinks."
I walked a few yards towards the food tables where there were chop suey, special noodles, steak, smoked fish, pasta, rice, and – hey, who knew – pancakes and okonomiyaki on huge platters. I proceeded to the refreshment table and drank some cherry punch.
Even though I knew I could always hang with Sayuri, Yuka, Hiroshi and Daisuke, and even though I was surrounded by many people staring at me, I couldn't help feeling… left out. Alone. Most of all, I was wondering – if there were so many guys who thought I looked pretty tonight (and everyday, for that matter), then why didn't they ask me to the dance earlier? I stole a few glances around me and saw that most of the guys weren't even from the Furinkan Hentai Horde. Or, you know, maybe they are, but they're just unrecognizable because they're dressed up.
And yes, I just realized how wrong Father was when he told me that I took after Mom, because haha. She was the prom queen of her time. I'm sad to say that I've disappointed her – it's not hereditary after all, because her date was a handsome guy who later on became one of the most famous male models of Japan years ago. Together, he and my mom became the prom queen and king in their high school days. I however, do not have a date to begin with. Sorry, Mom.
"Ni hao," a very familiar, irritating, high-pitched voice piped up from behind me. I whirled around and saw Shampoo frowning. She was wearing a little red Chinese dress that bordered above her knees. Red chopsticks held her hair up.
"You be careful with hair, do not go whipping people faces with that."
"My apologies," I said calmly. Secretly, I was smiling inside. Shampoo is, of course, another one of the crazy girls who are after Ranma Saotome (who has so far not shown even an inch of his pigtail). "What brings you here?"
"Me cook ramen for people, cater service. Also look for Ranma, wo da airen… you see him anywhere?" Before I could even say, just to push it to her face, that Ranma was my date to the dance, she added, "He say he not go with you here in dance. Oh… and you not have date to dance, I see…"
My fist was a split-second away from scrunching itself up before I eased my muscles up and drank the last of my cherry punch. "Enjoy serving noodles the whole night, Shampoo," I bade contemptuously as I ambled towards the table where my four friends were. And let me tell you this: in my perspective, everything seemed foreign. I felt uncomfortable, and I didn't even know if it was because I didn't have a date anymore. I willed myself to keep walking and stop thinking, but it was no use – the feeling of discomfort swept over me, and my friends' table was a couple of yards away; I had to cross the dance floor and mingle with the dancing people for a few moments (which reminded me that nobody was asking me to dance. Nobody. I felt like a loser).
You know noodles, right? They start out as thin sheets of carbohydrate and a little sodium, and then sliced into thin strands. That's how I felt. Like I was being sliced alive in mortification. But on the other hand, I realized that noodles do not end that way – before ending up in people's digestive tracts, they are seasoned with water, salt, spices, MSG, vegetables, meat, etcetera. Noodles aren't that bad, so I decided that I didn't feel like a noodle.
No, I felt flat.
Like a pancake.
I felt my stomach churning, and I knew that in a few seconds that the dance floor would be covered in my barf…
I hurled.
Nothing came out.
I hurriedly sat down on the fifth chair on the table. Sayuri and Yuka were happily chatting with Hiroshi and Daisuke when they saw me looking unwell. "Akane," Yuka began, "you don't seem okay…"
"No, I'm fine," I replied, smiling.
"I have paracetamol, if you want–" Daisuke offered, slipping his hand into the front pocket of his gray tuxedo.
I cut him short. "Excuse me," I mumbled as I grabbed my little black-sequined hand bag containing my fluffy pink diary and a pen, and dashed in my two-inch high Jimmy Choos toward the comfort room, which was thankfully just a few meters away from our table.
So I find myself here, sitting uncomfortably on the toilet lid inside the empty ladies' room. Why do I always find myself locked up whenever I am troubled? It's just weird. Maybe it's a sign that I'll die in prison when I grow up, or something.
They are now playing Emotion on the speakers. Sometimes, it's nice to just listen to music, you know? You just want to listen to it the whole night and not do anything. Oh, here comes the chorus: It's just emotion that's taken me over… caught up in sorrow, lost in my soul… but if you don't come back, come home to me darling… don't you know there's nobody left in this world to hold me tight… don't you know there's nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight…
On the other hand, maybe not. It just reminds me of my misery.
Oh, Sayuri and Yuka just entered the room! They tell me they're worried. I tell them that my stomach is now feeling fine.
"But is your heart feeling fine?" Sayuri asks. A bold feat.
"I…" I don't know what to say. "Yes."
"Liar," Yuka snaps. She tells me that she saw me in the middle of the dance floor, looking ready to drop my barf bomb and cry at the same time. She says that crying is always a sign that lovesickness, especially when I start locking myself in the CR stalls.
I told both of them that I was such a dorky loser, because I'd done so many mistakes in the past and I kept repeating them. Because I was a macho chick, because even though almost every guy is attracted to me, they believe I'm too rough for my own good. Because Avery, who kissed me, didn't even ask me to the dance. Because Ranma didn't ask me either, and he's supposed to be in love with me.
"Avery kissed you?" Sayuri asks, flabbergasted.
I tell her that yes, he did, and it didn't seem to help my dateless status either. The music outside fills the room: And where are you now, now that I need you? Tears on my pillow, wherever you go… I'll cry me a river that leads to your ocean… You'll never see me fall apart… In the words of a broken heart, it's just emotion…
"You're not a dorky loser, Akane," Yuka says. "You're Akane Tendo, and everybody knows that Akane Tendo is far from the words DORKY LOSER."
"But you will be, though," Sayuri adds, getting over her state of shock. "You will only be a dorky loser if you lock yourself up in that germy stall. I mean, first it's your room. We can take that. But a stall in the comfort room? You've gone too far! Now if you don't get out of there, I'll bring down the door myself and carry your curvy ass–"
Yuka laughs, and so do I. "Okay, okay!" I said, smiling to myself and thanking Kami-sama for giving me friends like the two girls outside my germy fortress. "I'm coming out."
Here goes.
Thursday, December 9, little balcony outside my room
Sometimes I wonder why people are born.
I mean, there's no point in living because we're all going to die anyway. Well, yeah, smart people go to school and end up living lifestyles of the rich and famous, but hey, one thing: just like homeless beggars with rotten teeth and normal people careworn to live, they're all going to DIE. Everyone ends up dead, and I'm not scared to say that. So what's the point of being born, eating, going to school, earning money, plastic surgeries and all that if we're all going to be decomposed into soil anyway?
I don't really know.
But honestly, nobody else does, either, and that makes me feel a whole lot better.
But not better, apparently, than what I felt last night, which was just pure joy and sweet shivers all over me! I am so happy, I'm sure the happiness would carry on until next year! I love my family… I love Nabiki for getting my butt into Kuno's limousine… I love Kuno for having his limousine… I love Sayuri and Yuka for being such wonderful friends and getting my curvy ass out of the germy stall inside the comfort room… I LOVE THE WORLD!
Here's what occurred in the best night of my life:
Sayuri and Yuka led me outside the CR, and we sat back down at our table. Out of the blue, Ukyou arrived on the dance floor, wearing a pink dress with ruffles on the shoulders and the hem. A pink rose pulled her hair up. And what bowled me over the most was that she wasn't with Ranma at all… she was with some unknown guy who looked oddly familiar.
"Expecting someone?" Nabiki's low voice muttered in my ear. I turned my head, and, as if she read my mind, told me, "I told you, Ranma's not going with Ukyou. There are things that I just plain know, remember? You've gotta trust me, sis, there are instances where I'm the most powerful figure you've got on the chess board."
"B-but," I stammered, "who's that guy Ukyou's with?"
"Oh. That's Tsubasa. The cross-dresser, remember?" And with that, she had gone away onto the dance floor where Kuno was waiting for her.
They were playing Only Hope. I sat, mouth agape, at the blonde guy that Ukyou was dancing with. Tsubasa was the guy – er… girl, whatever – who fell in love with Ukyou and followed her all the way to Nerima. He could dress up as a vending machine, a garbage can, or the Titanic ship if he wanted to. At first, everybody thought he was really a girl, but it turned out it was just a product of his cross-dressing powers. I secretly wanted him to finally hook up with Ukyou – the two belong together so much. And now, with his blonde hair cut short, Tsubasa's dream just came true.
"Hey, Akane, would you like to dance?"
My heart was totally thankful for Daisuke.
We went onto the dance floor. Daisuke held up my right hand, and I placed my left on his shoulder as he situated his right hand on my waist. We started to sway as Mandy Moore sang sweetly: Sing to me the song of the stars… Of your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again… When it feels like my dream's so far… Sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again…
"Sorry if…" he began, gulping, and not finishing his first sentence. "Yuka told me to dance with you."
"I know, I heard her whisper," I said, smiling at the dark-haired guy in front of me. His dark brown eyes that were once tense eased up. "Yuka's a great friend. You're lucky to have her."
"W-well, yeah," Daisuke replied, blushing. "Thanks. You look really pretty tonight, Akane."
"Thank you."
We swayed some more.
"You don't happen to know where Ranma is, do you?" I asked.
Daisuke looked surprised. "I thought he was coming with you. Hiroshi and I were wondering why you came without him."
My heartbeat tried to steady itself. "What did he tell you, then?"
He blushed again. "Actually, it's a pretty private thing that the three of us boys share," he paused, looking at my disillusioned reaction, "but telling you wouldn't hurt," he added quickly. "He told Hiroshi and I that… well, his world revolved around you now. He said that he wouldn't stick to 'If I can't get her, no one can' because he wants you to be free; he always repeated that he'd rather die a hundred times seeing you happy with someone other than him than seeing you unhappy, whatever the reason is, even though he complains about it loudly and jealously to the whole world, and to you most of all. And…"
I looked at him, almost teary-eyed, and blinked my eyes dry. I asked Daisuke if I looked like I was crying, and he said no, so I asked him to go on.
"That was it, generally," Daisuke finished, worried that he made me cry. "He said a lot of things… mushy stuff that weren't like him… but what I told was the clincher."
"Thanks for your time, then," I said, smiling again as I caught sight of Nabiki, a meter away, dancing with Kuno whose hands began crawling down her spine. I never knew what Nabiki did about that. And I never found out if the figure I saw twice in the shadows during the dance was really Ryouga, either.
No, I never did.
Because when I was about to incline my head to take a closer look to the Ryouga look-alike, Ranma appeared – Ranma who wore a gorgeous black suit that looked really elegant on him, Ranma who still wore his hair in a pigtail. He was out of breath, looking like he just got there, when he tapped Daisuke's shoulder, and a momentarily startled Daisuke happily made way.
So Ranma and I just stood there, motionless (he was panting a little, though), right in the middle of the dance floor, with the nice scent of his musk filling the twelve inches of air in between us. I didn't know what the people around us did or looked like anymore; everything else seemed to disappear except Ranma and me. Since I was wearing heels, I was slightly taller than my usual self, but I wasn't taller than Ranma at all. He was still at least an inch taller than me. It wasn't an obstacle, though, for the both of us to not break our eye contact… his sapphire-gray eyes were as warm as a room with a huge window that let the warmth from the sun and light from the blue skies in, and they gave me so much comfort…
A few seconds later, as the chorus of Only Hope played, he spoke up.
"I thought you weren't coming."
"I wasn't planning to," I replied, shaking my head slightly, deep inside wanting to disappear so badly. "Nabiki dragged me here. Sayuri and Yuka helped."
"Oh…"
I give you my destiny… I'm giving you all of me… I want your symphony singing in all that I am… At the top of my lungs, I'm giving it back…
"So you're here with Avery, I guess," Ranma said, shrugging, looking shortly at my pearl earrings. "I… I was just at the park half an hour ago. When I came home, Kasumi told me where you went, so I quickly–" He stopped, thinking twice about continuing. He didn't.
I was so nervous. "You should try some cherry punch," I suggested lamely.
"N-no thanks. Akane," he began all over again, drawing breath in. "Yesterday night. I'm sorry. I knew it was shallow."
I waited for a Black Hawk to destroy the ceiling and pick me up, or a Firebolt broom to bring me to Hogwarts. It never happened, so I looked down on the floor. "I'm sorry too. I don't have the right to forbid you from seeing Ukyou in the middle of the night, anyway."
"No, it's not that," Ranma said impatiently. "Do you even know why I've been hanging out with her?"
I looked up into his face and raised an eyebrow. For the first time, I thought of that. "Exchanging words as sweet as pancake batter and all that cra–"
"I was learning how to make okonomiyaki and pancakes, Akane!"
The truth hit me right in the forehead, like Nabiki's finger telling me to snap out of my silly daydreams. I guess my eyebrows formed the shape of two question marks, because he said, "I wanted to make them for the whole family on Christmas Eve. So you see, there was nothing going on! What you suspected had been wrong all along."
My eyebrows were the most expressive parts of my body at the moment. They furrowed slightly together right in the middle. "And that didn't stop you from being jealous of Avery, did it?"
He exhaled with annoyance. "I thought we already discussed this last night!"
I lay my head back down… And I lift my hands and pray… To be only yours I pray…
I gave him a look of apology, and the crease in his forehead disappeared.
For the first time, I was aware of the people around me – well, Nabiki, to be more specific. She gave me a wink, and after that everything around me magically disappeared again, except Ranma.
"Ranma," I started, and he looked at me intently, "why did you think I was REALLY serious about the whole suicide thing?"
"I-I… I guess I was just worried and it got the better of me… I was too scared of losing you. I… I love you, Akane." His eyes grew wide open after he said it, while my heart started beating triple time. Then he looked desperate, in search of something to get him out of the deep pit… "Because," he continued answering my question, his voice growing steadier, "with your unstable Akane-hormonal condition, you are very capable of bringing harm to yourself, baka! I mean… you could always kill yourself if you wanted to…"
The word. He said the word. I retorted angrily. "Oh, and after telling me that you love me, you're calling me a ba–"
And that was it. I was cut short. Before I could give him a piece of my mind, his right arm pulled me towards his warm, suit-clad body, and…
Our lips finally met. It took a lightning-quick moment for the 12 inches separating us to dissipate. He didn't even care to ask permission or do it in slow motion. After months of suffering, waiting – finally. And immediately, as I felt a jolt of electricity travel through my lips, as if on cue, In The Still of The Night played on the speakers around the gym.
His lips were the softest and smoothest things I have ever encountered my whole life.
We didn't move for a few seconds, and then I pulled away. My heartbeat was beating delightfully as I felt Ranma's hands on the base of my spine and my upper back. I gazed at his smooth forehead, the fluttering of his lashes, his divine eyes, the bridge of his nose, his lips partly open.
I smiled. He smiled. And I didn't want us to just bask in each other's smiles the whole night, so I kissed him again – it was the only right thing to do – a soft, gentle one that nibbled lovingly on his lower lip. My hands traveled onto his shoulders, and I kissed him once more because I really felt like it. Because for some reason, it felt cinematic and beautiful, and I was totally loving it.
He returned my kiss with gentle, butterfly ones. The manly weight of his hand on my back startled me at first, but I realized that the guy was Ranma, who was on top of the list of people I trusted my life with. I felt a tingling sensation on the base of my spine as his fingers caressed it, seemingly tracing some words I couldn't make out.
It felt so good.
When he held the back of my head with one hand and deepened the kiss, I thought, Oh, Kami, how silly of me… I've known Ranma for so long and I had never even kissed him, and I never knew just how much I wanted to kiss him, until now…
There wasn't any thrusting involved, so it's you can say that he didn't thrust his tongue inside my mouth, like the romance-movie thrusting that always made me cringe with the aggressiveness and grossness of it all.
There wasn't any thrusting involved because his tongue came in slowly in my mouth. And it tasted… it tasted like Ranma, whatever that means. It wasn't honey-sweet, but it had a sweetness of its own that gratified my taste more than Kasumi's cooking did. He came at me gently at first, and then, before we knew it, the kiss swelled to tsunami proportions. With open-mouthed ardor, Ranma lunged at me with long, hungry, passionate kisses. I didn't even hear the music anymore; I only heard the skipping, speeding heartbeat somewhere inside of me. Like bongo drums.
My knees quivered like Jell-o, but Ranma was ahead of me and had already supported my weight even before I fell. I put my arms around his neck, and it deepened the already deep kisses we shared. His tongue was doing the Moonlight Waltz with mine, and the sweet taste of cherry punch was there all along, together with the saccharine taste of Ranma. We breathed through our noses and continued kissing… I don't know how long it lasted because everything felt so wonderful and neither one of us wanted to end it, because it was like both of us realized that we had wanted to kiss each other badly for such a long time now, and it was very delayed so we wanted to make up for lost time.
I've heard so many people describe love and kisses with certain phrases before, but I never understood them… until then. It was just so… brilliant… no, nothing could ever explain it justifiably. It was like a warp in time, where everything disappeared and appeared in slow and fast motion. The next thing I knew, Ranma was finishing with a kiss that lingered on my lower lip before we both pulled away.
"You taste like cherries," he whispered soothingly in my ear as we both swayed with the music, oblivious to the all the faces circling us. I buried my face in the corner of his neck and shoulder and smiled.
In the still of the night… I held you, held you tight… Oh I love, I love you so… Promise I'll never let you go in the still of the night…
And you know what?
Besides the fact that the kiss was perfect per se?
Besides Ukyou and Shampoo (as Sayuri and Yuka told me via voice message this morning) throwing me jealous looks as I stayed in Ranma's arms for the rest of the dance?
Besides the fact that a fleeting anger swept over me from his kissing, his damn good kissing – WHO TAUGHT HIM HOW TO KISS LIKE THAT? – so I asked him so and he said that I was his first kiss, and that maybe everything just happened harmoniously because Fate willed it to occur that way?
There were fireworks!
The dance ended at midnight, but Ranma and I were gone an hour before that. We had a joyride – he carried me as he hopped and ran on the roofs of Nerima. We both kept laughing the whole time… the curls on the tips my hair bounced up and down whenever Ranma jumped. The cold wind blowing on my face was a totally fantastic feeling, like being taken on a magic carpet ride.
Ranma landed on our lawn without a sound, and he put me down. I held his hand and led him towards the koi pond, where I sat down, pulled my dress up to my lap, and dipped my feet in (my Jimmy Choos were on the grass). He followed and sat right beside me, pulling his black shoes and socks off, not even caring to roll his black slacks up, yet slowly taking off his suit so that he was wearing only a white polo shirt.
We shared a minute of silence, moonlight, and stars, as the carp tickled our feet.
"So," he piped up awkwardly. "What do you want to do now?"
"I don't know."
He put his crisp black suit on my bare shoulders, and I held it close. He chuckled. "Tonight was… tonight was just so…"
"…full of…" I continued, my voice fading.
"…stuff," he finished lamely. I smiled.
I began thinking then that this was the hardest thing to do after what happened: following up.
"What do you want to do?" I asked him, my sight following an orange carp circling my left foot.
"I don't know either," he replied, "but I'm not yet sleepy."
Trying to figure if he was using a suggestive tone, I said, "Me too."
"Then let's just–"
"Sure," I answered immediately, facing him and catching a glimpse of his beautifully growing smile before we started kissing again. There was splash from the little koi pond as I accidentally nudged a carp with my foot. Ranma pushed me gently down on the grass, his hands on either side of my head as he looked at me fondly.
He lowered his head… and he was about to kiss me when we heard a car pull up somewhere outside the gate. It was Nabiki, and she just arrived home. Kuno bade her a good night as the sound of the engine roared then grew fainter in the distance.
Ranma and I scurried behind a tree with a huge trunk as Kasumi welcomed Nabiki at the door, asking where I was, and if I was with Ranma.
I heard Ranma muffling a chuckle and slapped him – not too roughly – on the stomach with the back of my palm. "What are you, ten years old?" I whispered coarsely. I was pinned against the trunk. Ranma's front was completely touching mine because we kept ourselves as flat and unseen as we could.
"Sssh," Ranma whispered into my ear and held me in place. I couldn't really see him since he's taller than me, but the fragrant smell of his musk filled my nostrils and acted as a tonic. My breathing became heavier and quicker, and no, it wasn't suffocation at all.
Nabiki explained that we both left early from the dance and didn't know where we were, but she and Kasumi could just check around…
"If we get caught, tell them we were squirrel hunting," Ranma murmured. I giggled, and he mumbled, "Don't, Akane, we'll get caught…" before suppressing a laugh, his warm breath on my neck.
"Then don't mention squirrel hunting, it's so lame," I said between muffled giggles. Honestly! Squirrel hunting? What? That absurd pretext was the reason why my body shook against him – the more I tried to stop, the more I threatened to laugh out loud, until, without warning, Ranma kissed me to shut me up.
I am really, really sure that my cunning sister saw my Jimmy Choos and Ranma's suit by the koi pond, only she didn't tell Kasumi about it. "They're big kids. They can take care of themselves," she said a little loudly than normal as she and Kasumi went inside the house. And that just affirmed my postulation, but whatever. I was enjoying my time with Ranma… I've never felt so ecstatic before…
I kissed Ranma back. We heard the sound of the door being locked, then… nothing. Crickets.
He continued kissing me. Continued pinning me against the tree trunk.
Truth to tell, I wasn't sure I was really ready for the thing I had in mind that we were going to do… I didn't really know. I had no idea. I wasn't even sure I wanted to do it. This fact kept nagging at the back of my head, and it was getting stronger as each moment passed, each moment of kissing.
But really. Knowing Ranma, my knight in shining armor, I would have known that he wouldn't think of doing that until both of us were ready. Besides, he was as immature was a ten-year old, remember? Insert smiley here, and a LOL.
My hands were on his jaws, opening and closing with mine; his right hand caressed my left cheek, and his left was right above my head, his palm on the rough trunk. He stopped to look at me, and the delay was sooo painful, and it seemed that kissing was the only cure. Months worth of kissing. I began to think how stupid I was, letting my pride get in the way of finally getting to know my heart, and even thinking about killing myself!
It was like we became kissing masters in a matter of hours (haha! Honestly! Just wait until Sayuri and Yuka find out about this)! At least it was something Ranma and I had in common. A few moments later behind the tree trunk, I pulled away. Ranma asked if there was something wrong, and I said no, until I failed to stifle a yawn.
Ranma laughed.
"Well, I'm sorry Mr. Saotome, because many people, unlike you, do not have infinite sources of energy dwelling in their bodies."
"Whoah, whoah. Don't worry," he chuckled. He backed off and I stepped forward. Then he carried me, ran, and jumped all the way here to the little balcony outside my room. I thought we would share some Romeo and Juliet scenes, but he opened the unlocked door to my room and switched on the dim yellow lamp, before he laid me gently on my bed. He sat on the edge of the bed and gazed at me.
"I love you, Ranma," were the last hushed words I remember saying. I pulled him close by his collar and kissed him one last time. Whether Ranma returned it or not is sort of a blur now. All I remember was his angelic face calling out to me, then a soft sensation brushing against my forehead and words being uttered like a name, or a magic incantation, or a prayer.
The next thing I knew, after all the hustles and bustles of the day, I had fallen into a deep sleep. I dreamt about fireworks the whole night.
And then I woke up just an hour ago, still in my Loalde gown and pearls, with Avery's unreturned fur overcoat on me. I found my Jimmy Choos in a corner of the room. Right after I took a bath and got into my white cropped shorts, blue Kickers tank top and the white jacket Kasumi gave me last Christmas, I saw a yellow post-it stuck on my wall. It said:
"Are you tired? You've been running on my mind the whole night… pun intended. Hehe. Good morning!
Love always, Ranma"
It was the loveliest note I have ever gotten. And here I am, writing about everything that happened to me last night – all the wonderful things I have missed all this time! I am so happy that I could just FLY…
Most of all, I love Ranma Saotome with all my being! I LOVE HIM!
Oh, Kasumi's knocking on the door. She says that someone wants to talk to me on the phone. Maybe it's Yuka or Sayuri… they're going to flip when I tell them all about it! No, wait, they already know. Everyone in school saw what happened. I'll be back in a jiffy.
Author's Notes: Now that was a long one, wasn't it? I hope you all liked it… I have actually come to a sensible decision in Akane's love life. I may have disappointed some people, but I made most of you happy anyway, right? And with all that kissing, I'm actually not having a hard time imagining your wiiiiiide smiles and high pitched squeeeeeeeals. ;)
So yeah, thanks to the people who have reviewed so far, the ones who sent in their "votes" because you guys are the best! Watch out for the next chapter, okay? It's coming soon.
Now who could tell me how many times I mentioned the words hustle and bustle in this chapter? (",)
L.B.-chan1: Although I originally wanted this fic to end up with Ranma and Akane getting together, I have to say I've been moved with the sentiments of the readers who want Avery for Akane. I had to make a big decision before I made this chapter, and as you can see, my decision didn't seem to agree with yours. More people wanted Akane with Ranma, and based on previous experiences, it's always like that in the Ranma-verse. Don't worry though, the part you feared didn't happen… turns out, Ranma and Akane are very much happy with being together and our girl never did herself in. (",) Thanks for the praise! And don't be bothered with the long review you gave, it's very much appreciated. See how I'm writing a long response:p
RYUSHI: Very much true, since this story's written in Akane's POV. Naturally, since I am not too much of a tragedy-loving author, everything will end up with my main character being generally satisfied.
Livvy: Well, as you can see, your unwavering support for Ranma has paid off! (",)
apie: Actually, I've written two sets of the seventh chapter – one with Akane ending up with Ranma, and the other with Akane ending up with Avery. I just waited until each has garnered enough votes, and the first one won, so it's the one I published. And yes, I was feeling a little lethargic to make THE decision, and I figured that you guys could help me, so I asked you to help me choose. As you can see, Akane ends up with Ranma, but your advice of making Akane take it easy on Avery is credible. Avery is too much of a nice guy to have his heart broken. (",) Oh yeah, I didn't put too much of drama and angst in this story because this one's meant to be light and romantic. If you want lots of lines full of anguish, though, you might want to read Changed Overnight. :p
Story Weaver1: I do, too. But yeah, I'm glad that you found it cute and funny. I realized that in her diary, a girl could write about (besides her fluctuating love life) – what else? – sleepovers. Another thing I figured was that if Avery was just good for his looks and gentleness and all, he wasn't going to match up to Ranma. Cute, gentle boys tend to be boring sometimes, which is just so sad. Especially for Akane, who cannot live with peace her whole life, because the usual violence is a part of her daily life – even with someone like Avery who could occasionally ground her to tranquility. So… voila! Taekwondo. You know, for the cool, hidden strength effect, without the hands. That would make Avery well-rounded and Ranma's worthy rival.
kenshinlover2002: Yeah, he did. I actually realized that if Avery wasn't making a move, then things wouldn't heat up the second time. If it happens once, it won't happen again. If it happens twice, it's going to repeat itself a couple more times. So yes, you're going to have to watch out for another one of those scenes.
RYUSHI: I'm not supposed to be biased or anything, but that's just… good and evil on the same stage. Let's just see. I think you had it wrong, though, because Akane didn't say "I do," or anything… she just didn't think twice about saying what she said, and she never thought that the mere act of relating her answer to Avery's "Hanamichi" problem to a soap opera was an analogy that she actually was okay about his feelings for her.
Forgot my other name: Yep, perfect. I made him that way, I think. Anyway, thanks!
Ikerana: Whoah, thanks! Ranma admitting he's jealous was actually a big step, and it sort of builds up the tension… along with, you know, the kiss. Your enthusiasm has been reimbursed, by the way, because Ranma and Akane end up together after all.
ranmakane: No, I didn't. (",)
The-Shadow002: Thank you so much for the praise! Your reviews have always thrilled me since Changed Overnight. And I've been loving cliff hangers since I started writing… although there have been some instances when I was very much frustrated by other authors doing the same. :p
Jace3: Amen to that.
avery hawke: Finally! Someone who shares the same fanaticism I have for both Ranma 1/2 and The Princess Diaries! (",) And hey, you and my third main character share the same name. Isn't that just a nice coincidence? Thanks for finally revealing yourself. :p
Kyaroru: Yep, they do. And no need for apology, I share the same sentiment. (",)
RanchanAkanechan08: If you've read this chapter, you'll realize that I didn't. Thanks for reviewing!
Clarise: A threatening finger, eh? Well, wag no more. Your finger has been popping in my dreams and I was afraid that it would haunt me forever, so I made Akane end up with Ranma. Hehe. p