A/N: Exams came. Exams killed. Exams gone. Hooray. And here's Chapter 3. (:

Kismet
A Ranma ½ Alternate Universe
By Andrina

Chapter 3

"It is choice—not chance—that determines our destiny."
-Jean Nidetch

"Sango said you wanted to see me."

The young man raised a steely blue gaze to her, and Akane pressed her lips tightly, recognizing him as the one who had grabbed her and pulled her out of the choking red haze. He seemed entirely calm, but there was something she couldn't quite put her finger on about his stance. He seemed… wary, perhaps? She ignored the thought and straightened in response to it. She wanted answers. She was burning with the want, the need for answers. She wouldn't let him cow her out of it.

Sango had not told her much ever since she had woken up. The furthest the girl would say was that she was in a village far from the mountains where the Maidens had dwelled all their lives, and that she was safe. Yet, she could not provide the information that Akane wanted most: What happened to her sisters and fellow Maidens, or how she had ended up in this village.

There was something, however, in Sango's gaze as she tended to her, and Akane had firmly refused to acknowledge the quiet empathy in her eyes. Empathy was not required, unless…

Sango had told her that their leader wanted to speak to her first thing in the morning. Akane had assumed that Sango had been referring to the Village Headman, and had agreed. Then they had spent the night talking quietly. Akane did not want to sleep; perhaps from anxiety, perhaps from that burning desire to have her questions answered. Sango had stayed awake, making light conversation and getting her some food. The young woman was about her age, Akane guessed, maybe a little older, and while she was a bit on the quiet serious side, Sango was quite a sweet girl. Akane had been grateful to Sango for tending to her so carefully and patiently, and also for being willing to bear the night out with her.

The night seemed especially long that night. She spent much of it glancing out the windows at the darkness, and after what seemed like an eternity, she was relieved to spot the first dim glimmer of light creeping out from over the forest tops.

A while after the sun had risen over the horizon, and life took hold of the village once more, Sango made the request for Akane to pay visit to their leader. She set off willingly at Sango's request, sensing that the girl had other matters to tend to, and in any case, it would give her some time to herself. So she prepared to make her way down the village. It's the house with a dark red door, Sango had said. You can't miss it.

So she went.

The weak sunlight was pleasantly warm on her skin, and Akane walked slowly, turning curious gazes to the people around her. She had grown up in the Temple, so she had never spent much time in the villages and towns she knew existed at the foot of the mountains. This village was a small close-knit one, she deduced, judging from the way the housewives called out to each other in friendly greeting as they passed. Already the children were up, and it was with barely-concealed delight that she watched several tots tumble around fresh mud while giggling madly, much to the exasperation of the mothers and older sisters who hovered nearby. For some time she stood in the middle of the path, feeling the feeling of soft earth beneath her covered feet, staring at the obliviously blissful villagers and them being so happy.

But it was time to go, so reluctantly, Akane tore her eyes away from the sight of children and continued on her way. Most of the people she passed did not seem to give her a second glance, although one or two did give her a curious look, to which she bit her lip and patted down the peasant clothing she was dressed in self-consciously. It was odd, not wearing the robes of a Maiden after so many years. She missed the white of her robes, so smoothly white and pure that it seemed to glow in the dark; the pallid brown she was wearing now did not suit her a bit. The thought sent a heaviness sinking on her heart, reminding her of the worries that had consumed her since she had woken up. Akane bit her lip… Where were her sisters?

So here she was, in the quarters of a young man with a pigtail whom Sango had called 'leader'.

Akane's eyes narrowed as she gave him a quick once-over. Well, one thing was for sure: he definitely wasn't some Village Headman. Weren't Village Headmen supposed to be much older? This guy couldn't possibly be one or two years older than her at the most, and judging by the brooding look he was giving her, Akane was beginning to feel more than a little uncomfortable.

"Sango said you wanted to see me," Akane repeated. Then, uncomfortable with the odd silence that seemed to cloak them both, she turned her attention to the wooden carvings on the desk. Long and intricately entwining within the warm smooth oak of the desk, she could pick out leaves and vines and branches and…

The young man glanced at her, and then stood up with a sigh, tucking his hands behind his head. Moving until he was right in front of her, he gave a slight nod. "Ranma Saotome," he said simply.

Ranma Saotome, she repeated. Then, realizing it was a request for her name, she returned the nod. "Akane," she answered.

Ranma's brow furrowed slightly, but she did not notice, so preoccupied was she in the carvings in his table. "No last name?" he said lightly, and she did not notice it either when his stare intensified. Usually, a lack of a last name made tracking people down so much harder…

The small polite smile on her face slipped a little at his question. How could she give him a last name when she herself had never met her parents?

All her life she had been living in the mountains, training to be a Maiden. Her earliest memories involved her running over to some of the older Maidens to be picked up and hugged, before being brought around the gardens to learn about the land. The only real family Akane had ever known was her two sisters; she had always considered the other Maidens as family. Her sisters and her had never had a last name, and all her time, cocooned within the warmth of the other Maidens, it had never seemed necessary in the first place. After all, if she were wanted, then the others would just call her 'Akane'. Who would attach a last name to it anyway?

For a while back then, she had always wondered about her parents. There were two possible scenarios; Nabiki had once told her flatly. Either they were orphans taken in to be raised by Maidens, or their parents had more or less turned them out onto the streets.

She had been angry at first, upset that Nabiki could be so callous about it. Either they died, or they were heartless bastards, her sister had bit out, and Akane had shrunk back in hurt. She had been angry for a while, until Kasumi took her aside, and pressed her warm fingers to Akane's wet cheeks softly. "Don't be angry," she had said simply, in that sweet kind way that only Kasumi could pull off. "It's Nabiki's way of showing that she cares." Then she had wiped the hot tears away, and pressed a loving kiss to her twelve-year-old sister's forehead.

She felt her eyes grew hot then, and she sucked in a deep breath, making it go away.

Akane had always hoped it was the former. She did not know how she was supposed to feel if they had really been abandoned.

She brought herself back to the present. This guy didn't need to know all of this. "No last names," she repeated to Ranma. "Never known of one."

He must have seen the unhappiness that had fallen gradually over her features, because he caught on to the idea and did not pursue it any further. "All right, then," Ranma said casually. "I'm going to be straight to the point with you, because I have other things to do and I think we should get this done and over with, so I'm going to need you to answer a few questions…"

I'm going to need you to answer a few questions.

Instantly, the cogs in her mind began to turn. Oh yes, living with Nabiki had resulted in her picking up a few habits, least of all the ability to think quickly.

Ranma was still in the middle of beating around the bush when she cut in. "A deal," Akane interrupted him, her tone serious. "I want to make you a deal."

Ranma blinked. "And what exactly is this deal?" he asked, staring at the young woman before him.

Akane straightened, pushing a stray lock of blue-black hair over her shoulders. Her confidence mounting, she gave a small smile. "I'll answer your questions, in exchange for you answering some of mine," she said.

He seemed to think about this for a moment or two, his expression turning guarded. But try as he might, he could not figure out if there was any hint of a threat in the slim petite figure of the Maiden before him. Finally he agreed, giving her a nod.

"But you will answer my questions first," he said, and it was an order, not a request.

Akane shrugged. It didn't really matter to her. All she wanted to know was what had happened to the other Maidens, and she had a feeling that Saotome Ranma, being the leader around here, would at least be able to provide her with details of some sort. She let out a long sigh, and for a moment, Ranma looked a bit guilty at interrogating her.

"Look, I hope you understand why I'm doing this…" he started, but she waved it away.

"It's okay," she said anyway. She already had a sneaky suspicion about exactly what type of organization he was leading…

"Okay…" Ranma seemed to think hard for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Tell me everything about how you came to be here."

Akane looked puzzled. "But Sango said someone brought me here…"

"Not that!" he interrupted with annoyance. "I meant, how you ended up all unconscious and everything." He paused, and then continued. "Oh, and while you're at it, I want a brief outline of your life."

She fiddled with a long lock of her hair uncomfortably, a habit she had picked up since she was young. "I don't understand what that has to do with…"

"You said you'd answer my questions…" he cut in firmly, and Akane sighed in defeat.

"Fine," she answered. Tossing the hair over her shoulders, she cleared her throat and took up a casual position against the wall. "My name is Akane, and I don't have a last name, so there. I'll turn eighteen this summer, and I've been a Maiden since I could remember," she recited dully.

Then, for a moment, Akane hesitated, wavering briefly before continuing with a determined look. "I have two older sisters, Kasumi and Nabiki and…" she paused, seemingly considering her words. At last she shook her head slightly, "…Never mind.

"Anyway, this brings me to what I wanted to ask you. You see, up in the mountains we don't really have that much contact with the outside world. But one morning, there came some sort of… some sort of attack on the Temple." Her eyes darkened, and Ranma noted with grimness the way her fingers curled tightly into her skirts. "Our Head Priestess told us to run, so we did… but…" Akane paused, thinking hard. "The only thing I remember was running down the mountain with Kasumi and Nabiki, but then something strange happened, and after that…" her voice trailed off, and she pursed her lips tightly, sifting through her mental recollections as quickly as she could. Finally she shook her head. "I don't know what happened after that, and then I guessed I must have blanked out."

"You said something 'strange' happened?" he pressed, still unsatisfied.

Akane nodded slowly. "Yeah…" She could bring back the faint frightening memory of inky black devouring her limbs greedily, bringing with it a tingly not-quite-painful sensation. "It was like I was being... eaten by blackness or something…"

Ranma gave a slight nod, thinking over her words. He might not know much about sorcery and whatnot, but he was pretty sure someone had put her under a spell of sorts. Moving back slightly, he nodded to her, signaling the end of his questions.

He might be a warrior, but over the years Ranma had developed a pretty good eye for people: whether they were kind or cruel, whether they were dangerous or harmless, whether they were honest or deceitful, whether they were loyal to their last breath or they would flee at the first whiff of danger. And right now, his intuition was telling him that this Akane girl was being honest with him, and that she was perfectly harmless to the rebels. In fact, she might even be useful to them.

"Can you tell me about the attack…?" her voice broke into his thoughts. Automatically, Ranma could pick up the hesitation and wariness in her subdued tone, and he thought, it was hesitation well deserved. This was not going to be pretty.

"You might want to prepare yourself for this," he said to Akane, not unkindly. They were strangers, yes, but he thought he would spare her this bit of consideration. After all, didn't she say she had two sisters who were Maidens as well?

Akane paled. "Oh no," she muttered softly. "It's not going to be a good thing, is it?"

"No, it's not," he replied after a moment of thought. She paled even more, if that were possible, and out of the corner of his eye, Ranma could see her fingers tightening on her skirts once more.

"A few days ago, we got news that the king's armies launched an attack on your Temple," he began. His tone was crisp and flatly neutral; it was, to Ranma, merely an act of the regurgitating of information. "Dasier,"- here, he could not keep the anger out of his voice- "Ordered all Maidens to be captured and killed. Of course, what this means is that the old and ugly get killed and dumped in the forests by the soldiers. The pretty young ones get hauled back to the Palace to become Dasier's whores." He paused, almost apologetic as he watched her freeze up before him. "As of today, soldiers are crawling every main village in the Kingdom, on the lookout of Maidens who have escaped capture. Dasier's been putting up rewards to anyone who turns in a Maiden, so if I were you I wouldn't wear those robes anytime soon." He fell silent then, still watching the young woman before him.

He could not see her eyes; they were being obscured by thick locks of blue black that fell into her face as she turned her gaze to the ground. He saw, however, the way her fingers were shaking as she tried to maintain the grip on her plain brown skirts.

"Survivors," the word tumbled from her lips, and Ranma winced mentally at the pleading in her voice. "Are there survivors?"

"None that we know of," he answered quietly.

She began to shake. In the most pitiful voice Ranma could imagine, she asked, "…My sisters?"

He looked down. "I'm sorry," he offered, and it had to be the most useless reply he had ever made. Akane drew in a deep shuddering breath.

"Why?" The word was quiet and would nearly have been lost in the silence of the room had it not been for Ranma's sharp hearing.

"Dasier claims that the Maidens were corrupted and that they were practicing witchcraft up in the mountains. He said they were planning a revolt against his rule." The words came out before he could think about it, and a disbelieving gasp shook itself out of the distraught girl.

"That's… that's ridiculous!" she snapped lividly. Ranma took a step back, watching almost fearfully as all the grief in her slender petite form drained away into disbelieving anger. Akane stiffened, and within seconds she was gripping her skirts in fury, her eyes enraged.

"We would have never done such a thing!" she gritted out, stepping forward. Ranma shrank back, eyes wide. "How could he have attacked us for something we didn't do? It's ridiculous!" Her voice was rising with every angry syllable, and now it was a furious yell.

"I know, I know!" Ranma yelled back, taking a few steps back before she could advance further. "Jeez, lady, you're taking your anger out on the wrong people here!"

Instantly, her anger evaporated at his words and Akane slumped down back into her grief. "I'm… I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm just… overwhelmed at this and… I'm sorry, I'll go now…" she trailed off, looking lost.

Ranma heaved a sigh of relief silently. As much as he could understand her rage and grief, she was getting a bit intimidating when she got angry. He just hoped she wouldn't start crying; he could never deal with crying girls.

"Never mind," he offered awkwardly, taking a step forward as she turned to go. "It's okay, I understand. It's all part of Dasier's tyranny; after all how could Maidens ever think of revolting and practicing witchcraft? You're all a bunch of herb-lovers anyway, you ladies couldn't do anything else even if you tried…"

He continued talking; missing the way Akane froze in her steps.

"Excuse me?" her voice faltered, before sliding deceptively into sweet honeyed tones. "You were saying?"

"Huh?" Ranma looked around, confused. "I meant, all you guys care about are the herbs right? So you wouldn't know how to do anything else…"

Akane twitched.

Seconds later, the young woman was stomping out of the house, leaving a prone Ranma twitching violently under the impact of several stools.

"So let me get this straight…" Ukyo said slowly. "You called her and her Maidens herb-lovers and said they couldn't do anything else right after she found out she's probably the only survivor of the attack?"

Ranma nodded slightly with a scowl, poking gingerly at the purpling bruise on his arm.

Ukyo leapt up from where she was polishing her giant spatula and heaved an exasperated sigh. Much to Ranma's chagrin, the young woman smacked him on the head. "You're an idiot, Ran-chan!" she exclaimed in frustration. "And here I thought Ryoga was useless around women!"

"Hey!" came the indignant reply from their bandanna-sporting youth. They ignored him.

"Well it's true!" Ranma argued, rubbing the spot when Ukyo had hit him. "She's pretty much useless when you put her next to the rebels, ain't it?"

"You're such an elitist," Ukyo chided in annoyance. Huffing, she planted her hands on her hips and lowered her tone. "She's grieving over the loss of her only family, Ran-chan," she tried again.

Her features hardened, and instantly Ukyo knew it was not going to get through to the pigtailed young man. "Deal with it," came his flat reply, and inwardly she sighed. He rose fluidly. "She's not the only person who's lost a family member or two to Dasier. We all have."

It was a heavy silence that greeted Ranma's coarse remarks.

"Knock it off, bastard," said Ryoga quietly, from where he was polishing his metal spikes. Ranma looked away.

Ukyo dropped her gaze, knowing that despite his harsh words, Ranma did understand. After all, Akane wasn't the only one hurting… Hoping to reach out to that empathy within her friend, she raised carefully, "But it's painful to each and every one who has to go through it, isn't that so, Ran-chan?"

She watched, with a tiny spark of victory as grudging agreement dawned on Ranma's features. Yet…

"Feh," he muttered. "I'm going to check on the new recruits' training. Suit yourselves." Before they could say another word he left the room.

"Stubborn as a mule," Ukyo muttered. Despite years of friendship with Ranma, even she got frustrated with his obstinacy something. Getting to her feet, she beckoned to Ryoga, who rose without a second word. "Come on, jackass," she sighed, eliciting a glare from her companion. "Let's go look for that Akane girl."

Women, Ryoga thought, and went along.

Akane drew in a deep breath, ignoring the little beads of sweat that had trickled down her face. It was two hours past noon now, and she had gone the whole day without food or drink, yet she was not in the least bothered.

She gulped in another breath, trying so hard to hold in the deep burning anger within her, trying and trying but then it was beginning to bubble out from her, just like how it had been bubbling out for the past four hours… With a furious scream, she lashed out, driving her fist into the nearest tree trunk in white-hot fury.

There was a resounding 'thud' as her fist made contact. The wood splintered violently.

Akane pulled back, breathing heavily. Through her sweat, she grinned humorlessly at the abused tree. Glancing down, she noted with grim detachment how her knuckles were bleeding badly.

It stung, Akane thought.

When she had been young, she had always been a particularly active tomboyish child. She liked running around the mountains, she adored tree-climbing, and she hated anything that involved her having to sit still for more than half an hour at a stretch. It was because of this that she ended up with bruised knees and torn robes, and she remembered sniffling pitifully and running in search of tender comfort whenever she was faced with a newly scraped knee.

It was in times like those that Kasumi would take her aside quietly and chide her gently. At that time, they were much too young to make their own healing salves, so Nabiki, being the sneaky devious girl that she was, would easily get hold of some healing salve from the older Maidens (if she couldn't talk them into giving her some, then it was a simple matter of filching some).

Then Kasumi would spread the salve on tenderly, with that sweet smile, and Nabiki would watch and make jibes at her for being such a tomboy. Then Kasumi would step in with a gentle admonishment of "Nabiki!", and Nabiki would grin and stick out her tongue and Akane would smile amid her tears and glares because she knew Nabiki didn't really mean it anyway and…

Akane fell to the ground and drew her knees up to her chin tightly. Biting her lip, she began to cry.

"Looks like we found her," Ukyo said softly. She moved forward slightly towards the sobbing girl, but before she could make any significant leeway, Ryoga grabbed by the waist and held her back, shaking his head.

Ukyo glanced back, intending to tug her hand away when she caught the look on Ryoga's face. For the first time in a long time, he looked completely serious, and she ducked her gaze slightly at the empathy and hurting that lurked beneath his gaze.

She didn't want to go into that again. Not now.

"Leave her alone," he insisted seriously. "She wouldn't want us anywhere near."

Ukyo hesitated, and then nodded. "All right. Come on, jackass; let's go."

"Sango?"

There was no reply from within the house. Akane peered around before pressing her lips tightly together, rapping lightly on the door once more.

"Sango, are you in there?" her voice wavered slightly.

Still, there was no reply. She took it that the young woman was somewhere else within the village. With a grimace, Akane turned and broke out at a slow jog down the village.

Her knuckles were still stinging. She could feel warm blood dripping slightly. With a despondent sigh, she swung her gaze around her. Where could she get a bit of healing salve in this village?

Raising an arm to wipe away at the traces of sweat, dirt and tears on her cheeks, Akane headed towards the edge of the village, towards the forests. She had no wish to walk up to any one of the occupied houses and ask for some clean water and salve. One look at her dirty wet face and she would become the recipient of many startled and concerened looks.

She didn't want that now. She wanted to be alone.

So it was with this thought in mind that she slipped quietly into the bushes and walked on. She did not want to meet anymore. Not now.

And, well, if she couldn't get bandages around here, then she would make her own salve.

It was only when she picked up the first traces of yelling that her head snapped up in curious wariness. Picking up speed, Akane hurried up towards the source of the noise.

Then she stopped dead in her tracks.

Before her, down a little slope, was a large clearing in the forest. And in this clearing, there were nearly a dozen young men and women, engaged in fierce silent fighting.

Her jaw dropped. What the…?

Soreness and low spirits forgotten, she let her gaze wander freely over the forms below her. Fascinated, Akane watched in mounting wonder as the men and women exchanged blows furiously. She saw Sango, her face drawn in concentration, striking out intensely at her opponent, a slim small-sized girl who dodged the blow just as quickly. She danced away lightly, and just as Sango darted forward, the girl raised her fist and—

To the right! Something inside her yelled. Sango, watch out!

But alas, the young woman took the blow with a grunt, but before Akane could even groan, her friend was striking out successfully at the girl.

"Enough!"

Akane's gaze flew over. There, at the edge of the group of men and women, stood Ranma in all his bare-chested glory. The fighters ended their sparring instantly, turning their attention.

Her lip curled. She would never forget the way he…

"That's enough for today. Move into your cool-down kata," he directed.

In perfect synchronization, the group began executing a series of fluid movements. That was it; she could not keep her eyes off them. And despite herself, she had to admit that among them all, Ranma was obviously the most skilled of them all.

Except for 'fluid', Akane had no other word to describe his movement.

"Impressive, aren't they?"

Akane whirled around, coming face to face with a young couple of her age. The man was tall and stocky, sporting a bandanna around his head. He grinned politely at her, and she hesitated a moment before managing a weak smile in return. The girl was tall and slender, clad simply in fighting attire. Disturbingly, though, there was a humongous spatula strapped to her back. She was the one who had spoken, and now she smiled warmly at Akane.

"It's nice to meet you," the girl continued, sticking out a hand to Akane. "You probably don't remember me, sugar, but the name's Kuonji Ukyo. I'm the one who found you unconscious in the bushes. This is Ryoga." She gestured, and Ryoga nodded politely.

Ukyo smiled brightly then, and Akane found herself smiling slightly. She took the hand and shook it.

"I'm Akane," she said, but before she could say anything else, Ukyo frowned and raised her hands up.

"You're bleeding!" exclaimed the brunette.

Embarrassed, Akane pulled her hand away. "It's nothing," she told her. "I was just looking for some herbs to make my own healing salve anyway. Don't worry about it."

"Oh no, you don't," Ukyo declared. "Why make a salve when we have fresh bandages and clean water waiting? Come on, Akane; let's go over to Ryoga's place. He's got some salve left over."

And efore Akane could say anything else, Ukyo had grasped her wrist firmly and started dragging her back in the direction of the village.

Despite what Ranma had said about Akane not being able to do anything else, Ukyo had seen raw impressive strength when she saw Akane striking out at the tree trunk. In any case, the ability to heal was no laughable feat, and judging by what she could see of Akane's current situation, it would only be a matter of time before the young Maiden joined the rebels.

And, Ukyo guessed, she would make a formidable ally.

Until then, it would do no harm to start treating the girl as one of them. The girl was in grieving anyway, and as far as the rebels were concerned, they always helped one another out when it came to alleviating grief and pain.

"Come on, Akane," she found herself saying encouragingly. "Let's taken a look at those wounds."

"Are you hungry, Akane?"

She looked up at Ukyo, and then turned her face away slightly at the look of concern etched so clearly on the young woman's face. "No, I'm not," she answered. "Thank you," she added as an afterthought.

Ukyo pursed her lips together tightly. "Don't you want some food, sugar? I'm one of the best cooks around these parts," she declared, a note of truthful pride creeping into her voice.

Akane smiled slightly at her words then. After a moment of thinking, she finally nodded in agreement. "Okay," she conceded.

Ukyo grinned, getting to her feet. "Come on," she beckoned. "It's about time to get dinner ready anyway."

Leading Akane out of Ryoga's quarters, they bid goodbye to the young man, who sent them off with a smile and a wave. Barely two steps out of the door, however, Ukyo froze in her tracks and spun around.

"You'll be coming around later, won't you, Ryoga? We have something important to discuss."

The meaningful look she gave him escaped Akane's notice. Ryoga, on the other hand, caught it and Ukyo smiled in satisfaction as recognition dawned on his face.

Something important to discuss. He knew what that meant.

"Yeah, sure," he answered nonchalantly. "I'll bring along whatever I have."

He was rewarded with a bright smile from his comrade. Nodding, Ukyo planted her hands on her hips. "Thanks, hon. You know, we're going to need it."

Ryoga felt a small frown coming on as he thought of Ranma's reaction to the plan that Ukyo was cooking up. "Oh yeah, we are," he replied. Some distance away, Ukyo sighed.

Akane glanced between the both of them in mild confusion.

Out under the sky once more, Akane walked quietly, long sunken back into a sad dull stupor. She had spent most of the day attacking trees and screaming angrily in the woods –here, she glanced down at her newly-bandaged knuckles- and it had been mid-afternoon when Ukyo and Ryoga found her.

For a moment, her desolation had dissipated at the sight of so many people moving simultaneously in some sort of beautiful fluid synchronization, and it had been with warm quiet gratefulness when Ukyo and Ryoga and helped to clean her bleeding knuckles.

Now, the sun had set and the sky had darkened, and so had her mood.

Akane felt completely and utterly miserable.

Kasumi… Nabiki… Kasumi… Nakibi… and what had happened to Kikyo? The girl who sat next to her at mealtimes, Kagome, and the one who had chased her out of the kitchens in exasperation, Ikumatsu. And Naomi, and Eri, and Ayame and… She growled then, rubbing a hand into her eyes forlornly.

Ukyo paused. "You okay back there, Akane?" she asked quietly.

Her eyes darted up, before she responded with a slow nod. "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied after a moment or so.

Ukyo did not pursue the issue any further. Instead, she came to a stop in front of a small house. "My quarters," she said simply, and pushed the wooden door open. "Come in, Akane, and take a seat while I get a fire ready."

Akane stepped into the house, letting her gaze move around the simply furnished room. There was a fireplace, but to her surprise, instead of moving to light a fire in the fireplace, Ukyo padded over to a door on the other side of the room and kicked it open. Akane peered through the door out of curiosity, only to see that it led to the back of the cottage, and that Ukyo was setting up a fire outdoors.

For a while, she watched the young woman push a few small logs together, engrossed in her task of preparing a fire. Ukyo had obviously done this many times before, she could see, and she was pretty sure the brown-haired woman was a good cook. Akane, on the other hand… However, while Akane could not cook to save her life…

"Here, let me help." She surprised herself when she moved out of the house and towards Ukyo. She supposed it must have been the need to keep her hands occupied. She did not really enjoy sitting down to wait for Ukyo to complete the fire.

Ukyo blinked at her. "It's okay, really, I mean, I have done this many times before and…"

Akane smiled slightly, although it was not much of an amused smile, recalling how Ranma had said Maidens did nothing but go fanatical over herbs. Then she shrugged mildly. "I insist," she answered politely, distantly. "I'm not very good at cooking, so the other Maidens wouldn't let me into the kitchens, but I did start fires quickly, so they always called for me before they prepared meals for the day."

It was a quiet wistful recollection. Ukyo gave her an awkward but warm half-smile. "In that case then go right ahead, sugar," she said cheerfully. "I never did like lighting fires anyway. Tell you what; if you get the fire ready, I'll go get the ingredients."

Akane grinned then, seemingly happier at this allowance. "Thanks," she said, and Ukyo trotted away, glad that the awkward moment had passed.

It was quite a while before the brunette returned with a large metal slab and an armful of ingredients. When she did, however, she paused and stared at the large fire burning away cheerfully at the centre of the clearing.

Akane wasn't lying when she said she could start fires quickly. Ukyo laughed to herself. It had to be some kind of quirky natural talent or something. Ukyo would have taken twice the amount of time to get a fire this size. Shifting the bundles in her arms, she turned her gaze around the clearing, looking for the Maiden.

Only to see Akane heaving an axe with ferocity and slamming it down into a log with a loud cry.

The log broke neatly into two.

Ukyo blinked, feeling the inane urge to scuttle back slightly. Whoa, she was a strong one. And without any martial art training too…! It was adding to her resolve to pull off her plan every minute.

"Akane!" she called and the dark-haired girl straightened, wiping her brow. Akane smiled and waved to her.

Ukyo padded over to the fire and placed her bundles down carefully. With a grunt, and moved the metal slab over the fire. "Nice fire," she commented, and Akane smiled, an indication of how her mood was becoming better. "What were you doing?"

"Working up an appetite," Akane answered without thinking, and Ukyo blinked. Seeing the disbelieving look on her face, Akane chuckled a little.

"I was only kidding," she continued. "You weren't back, and I had nothing to do. Then I noticed you needed some wood-chopping done, so I thought it would give me something to do." She paused, and then glanced at Ukyo anxiously. "You don't mind, do you?"

Ukyo grinned. "Nah, in fact I'm glad. Thanks a lot."

It was a truthful statement, and somehow, the honestly must have been able to convey itself to the other girl, for Akane glanced at her and smiled It was a tentative smile, but it was real. Ukyo felt a warm sensation enveloping her at that shy upturn of lips, and the instant friendly warmth that emitted from the girl. It was infectious; and within seconds she was grinning back whole-heartedly. She might not have known it then, but it was with that hesitant friendly smile that the first flicker of friendship took hold firmly of them.

"Come on, you can help me cook," Ukyo suggested.

She should have heeded the warning signs that spawned from the look of mixed apprehension and hope that dawned on Akane's face.

"Well," Ukyo said awkwardly, trying not to burst out into laughter.

Akane had a look of resignation on her face as she gazed at the smoking black pile of something that was supposed to be dinner. "I told you, Ukyo, I'm not really very good at cooking," she sighed moodily.

Perhaps that was the understatement of the decade. Ukyo had never seen anyone who could mix up ingredients that badly. She choked back her laughter with commendable effort. "It's okay, honey. Maybe I could teach you someday. You just need some practice, that's all." Still struggling to hold back some snorts, she grinned good-naturedly and gestured. "Why don't you dump that into that hole over there? I'll, uh, get a new batch ready." She turned her back to the Maiden, ready to whip up a batch of edible food this time.

That was when Ranma sauntered into the clearing, still sweaty from his workout and looking around curiously.

That was when Akane looked up from where she was about to dump the burnt food into the hole in the ground.

In that split second, their gazes met.

Edited, 3/5/2014: Rephrased some paragraphs and corrected some grammar mistakes.