Chapter 2
Akane looked around her office, satisfied she smiled and dusted her hands off. She had opted to go into work on Saturday morning to spend the time she needed to get organized. She had planned to get her office settled before beginning work the following Monday. Through the years and all the chaos, she learned she handled crisis better if her environment was organized. After leaving Nerima, Akane learned that it wasn't just Ranma who was a magnet for trouble and insanity.
Akane was perusing her blackberry as she left her office to grab some lunch. When she turned the corner, she dumped into a solid mass causing her to fall on the ground. She was picking herself up and brushing off her clothes as she said, "Excuse me. I wasn't watching where I was going."
"Still as clumsy as ever, I see."
Akane whipped her head up at the sound of the familiar voice, "Ranma?"
Ranma replied, "Hey, Akane," as he reached down to help her up.
"What are you doing here?"
"My hotel is down the street. I was just walking around, lookin' for a place to eat. How about you?"
"I was just leaving work and going to grab lunch."
Ranma gave her a confused look as he took in her yoga pants and fitted t-shirt.
"Work? I thought you weren't starting until Monday."
"I don't, but since all of my stuff arrived, I thought I would get a head start on unpacking my office."
"Since you were going to take a break, do you want to have lunch with me?"
"Sure. I was headed to the café up the street unless you were in the mood for something else?"
"No, I wasn't in the mood for anything in particular."
The pair remained relatively silent during their walk and while they waited for their food.
"So."
"So."
"This is…"
"Awkward?"
Ranma smiled at this. "Yes. But not."
Akane tilted her head and scrunched her nose. "Oddly, I understood that."
"There really is no way to ease into this, is there?"
Akane sat and thought for a moment. Taking a sip of her tea she smiled, "You know what I really missed when I was in Boston? Good tea. I developed a taste for coffee but there is nothing like a good cup of tea. And with my cooking skills, I could never make it taste like Kasumi's."
Ranma smiled, he was grateful that she provided an opening for him to begin the conversation. "Did you enjoy living in Boston?"
"It was nice, I was happy there."
"You look it. Happy, I mean. You look good."
"Thank you. After all, I couldn't stay an angry, uncute, macho tomboy forever, could I?"
Ranma was surprised that there was no animosity in her voice when she said this and that she was actually smiling. "Ok. Who are you and what've you done with the real Akane?"
Akane laughed. "Oh, she's still here. I still have a temper, I'm just better at reining it in. You seem different too. You haven't insulted me at all."
"Well, I couldn't stay a perverted jerk forever, now could I?" They sat in silence for a while before Ranma decided to ask the question that had been bothering him for the last six years. "Akane, after we…ran into each other….why did you just leave?"
Six Years Ago
Akane couldn't remember being in a better mood. She had graduated college the year before and was just finishing up her first year at a job she loved! She had taken an internship at a sports equipment manufacturing company during her last semester and was pleased when they offered her a full time position when she graduated. It was a difficult decision but she decided to take the offer and stay in Boston instead of returning home to Japan. The last year had been exciting; it was the first time in her life that she felt truly independent. She had started making friends at work and had even started dating. She was proud to say that she was good at her job. So good in fact, that they had sent her to a conference in New York. It was her first time in the city and she was happily playing tourist now that she had some free time. She was wandering around Times Square by herself, enjoying the sites when she heard her name called. When she turned around, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her mind seemed to freeze as she gazed upon the last person she thought she would see.
Ranma had a rare day to himself. The rich gentleman he was working as a body guard for had decided to stay in that day, and let his new mistress entertain him in private. Since it was his first time in New York, he decided he would walk around and take a look at the sites he had only seen in movies. He was standing on a median near a TKTS booth when a petite blue-black haired girl in a sundress walked by. Before he knew what he was doing he had called out her name. It was obvious that she was as shocked as he was. He walked up to her, unsure of what to say or do.
"Hi."
"Hi."
They stood there staring at each other as people walked by. They may have stayed there frozen all day but someone bumped into Akane, pushing her directly into Ranma's chest. He caught her, putting his hands on her shoulders to help her balance. They looked at each other and turned in unison, walking down the street together in silence. They had gone for a few blocks before Ranma pulled her into coffee shop.
"Let's get something to drink and have a seat for a second."
To his surprise, she didn't object.
Akane sat at a table as Ranma stood in line to buy them drinks. She couldn't believe that she had run into him here. She was feeling completely happy a few minutes ago and now, she didn't know how she felt. It had taken her awhile but she had learned to stop thinking of Ranma, it became easy for her to ignore the part of her mind that thought of him at random moments. Having him suddenly appear in front of her caused all the neat little walls she had built to crack.
It didn't help her nerves that he looked good, really good. He was wearing a black fitted v-neck t-shirt, dark jeans, a black leather jacket and black boots. Even with the jacket on, she could see the strong muscles of his chest outlined on his shirt. The outfit gave him a slightly dangerous look and she blushed as she realized how much she liked it.
Ranma couldn't believe it. The girl he spent the last two years thinking of, was here. He had plenty of fantasies of what he would do or say if he saw her again. In every fantasy he smooth and confident, always knowing exactly what to say and how to act. But having her pop up like this made him feel like the shy, socially awkward boy he was when they first met.
It didn't help that she looked amazing. He had always thought she was beautiful, even if he spent most of his time vehemently denying it loudly to anyone who would listen. She was wearing a light blue sundress with fitted waist, ballet flats, and a matching cardigan. Her hair was still short and held back with a wide headband. Ranma glanced over to see her sitting on a chair by a window, the sun illuminating her from behind making her look angelic and making his heart beat faster. He groaned to himself as he thought of her scent. He got a good whiff of her when she had bumped into him. It was exactly the same as he remembered; the scent of soap with just a hint of vanilla. The combination of fresh and slightly sweet that was perfect for her.
"You still like lemonade, right?" Ranma asked as he handed her a drink.
"Yeah, that sounds great."
They sat in silence, sipping on their drinks.
"So."
"So."
Akane started giggling out of nervousness, "What are you doing here Ranma?"
"I'm here for work. How about you?"
"Same. I finished with everything I needed to do yesterday and planned an extra day here so I could look around. I'm just sightseeing today."
"Me too. I have the rest of the day off and decided to check out the city."
They sat in silence a while longer before Akane asked timidly, "Umm…would…do you want to come with me?" When Ranma didn't reply right away, she added, "I mean you don't have to. If you have other things…"
"Yes!" Akane was clearly startled by his sudden and loud response. "I mean," Ranma coughed, "yeah, that sounds like fun." In response, Akane gave him one of her dazzling smiles. When he regained some of mental acuity, he asked, "S-s-so, where did you plan on going today?"
The two spent the rest of the day together taking in the sites. It was awkward at first but they eventually started to loosen up and enjoy themselves. It helped that by unspoken agreement they avoided any hot button issues, including, but not limited to fiancées, fathers, rivals, dojos, cooking, and little bandana wearing black piglets.
The only notable thing that happened that afternoon occurred when they sat down on a bench in Central Part for lunch. They decided on hot dogs and soda, to get the full New York experience. The cart vendor didn't even seem surprised when Ranma ordered five fully loaded dogs for himself. They were just unwrapping their food when a group of middle school boys ran by, shooting each other with water guns, squirting Ranma and Akane right in the face. Akane grabbed a napkin to dry herself with and when she looked over and was shocked to see Ranma was still male.
"You…you're cured!"
Ranma gave her a cocky grin and said, "Yeah."
Getting over her shock, Akane gave him a glomp any Amazon would be proud of. She blushed when she realized what she was doing and awkwardly moved away. Still smiling she picked up her food. They ate in silence, both enjoying the sun and content having the other for company.
Neither would admit it but it was one of the best days they ever had. It was fun just being together and reminded them of the few quiet times they enjoyed together when they were younger.
After dinner they started walking around again, neither of them wanting the day to end. Ranma noticed that they were close to the hotel he was staying at.
"Hey 'kane, my hotel is near here. You wanna come up to my room?"
Akane's eyebrow shot up, "You want me to come up to your hotel room?"
It took Ranma a second before he understood her question. He started to wave his hands in from of him frantically, "Not, like that! I mean…I've been having fun, I just…well I thought, we could…I dunno talk or something," he ended lamely.
Akane looked at him and noticed the blush creeping across his face and stopped herself from giggling. He really didn't look like he was planning anything perverted and she'd just pound him if he tried something.
"Sure," she replied with a smile.
Ranma looked startled but happy by her answer and lead her towards his hotel. They had another awkward moment when they entered the room where the king sized bed was predominately featured. Fortunately, there was a small sitting area to one side where they sat down.
"I..uummmm..had fun today."
"Me too. I'm glad we ran into each other."
"I don't want to ruin the mood but I gotta know, why did you leave?"
"You know why I left."
"No. I know what you told everyone, but I want to know the real reason you left."
Akane sat for a long time staring at her hands. She didn't want to get into all the reasons she left but after all the time apart, she felt she owed him some sort of explanation. Taking a deep breath she said, "One day after class, one of my professors pulled me aside and told me about the study abroad program available through the university. She was impressed with my work and thought that it would be a good opportunity for me and urged me to consider it. Well, at first I brushed it off, I couldn't really imagine leaving home. But when I got home that night, we got into a fight about…I dunno, why the sky was blue. We started the typical round of insults that ended up with me pounding you with something or other. Then our dads started in on us about joining the schools and I stormed off to my room. I started to pull out my homework when the brochures fell out. I took a good look at them and thought that being somewhere else, anywhere else, might be not be a bad thing.
"You probably don't remember but I came to you a week later. You were in the dojo and I asked you if we could talk. I told you that I didn't need you to declare anything to me; that I wasn't ready for marriage but asked you if you could imagine a future with me. You blew me off, told me that you were sick of everyone pressuring you and that you would 'never marry an uncute, macho tomboy who couldn't boil water without instructions'. I submitted my application the next day."
Ranma sat there staring at her before blurting out, "THAT'S why you left?"
"What do you mean 'THAT'S' why I left?"
Ranma got up and started pacing the room, mumbling to himself, "Of all the stupid..." He stopped and looked at Akane before saying, "I remember that conversation. I remember it perfectly. Do you have any idea what I went through that day? Shampoo tried to drug me and then drag me off on a date. Ukyo saw her and stopped her but proceeded to latch onto my arm and started to rub up against me, all the while telling me why we would be so happy together. I finally pried her off and spent an hour dealing with Kodachi. Once I got away from her I came home to find our fathers had planned yet another wedding. I was in the dojo that day because I was cleaning up the wedding decorations! Then you come in and ask me that. I was frustrated so I yelled at you. I can't believe you took me seriously!" At this point Ranma had started pulling on his pigtail.
Akane stood up and got in his face, "Of course I took you seriously! You always called me your uncute, macho, built like a brick, tomboy fiancée! To make it worse, you called me that in front your "cute" fiancées. What else was I supposed to think? You have no idea how that used to make me feel! I can't believe you STILL don't understand that what comes out of your mouth matters!"
"I know I was stupid and I said stupid things but why did you have to take it seriously that day? You always forgave me and brushed it off. It was just a bad day for us to have THAT talk."
"You don't get it! When was there ever a GOOD day for us to talk? There was always something crazy going on and when we did have a quiet moment, someone would interrupt us. I was tired of it. We had graduated high school two years earlier and you still didn't look like you were any closer to making a decision. You acted like you were happy having all the girls around chasing you and I had deal with it being thrown in my face, EVERY DAY. I watched as my friends dated, falling in and out of love. Some of them got engaged and married but we were still in the same damn holding pattern!"
By this point, Akane was pacing waving her arms around as she ranted.
"So, I figured if you didn't want me, you didn't want me. Maybe, just maybe, it was me that was stopping you from exploring your relationship with the other girls. I knew I never reacted well when I saw you with them and thought that you were too scared of how I was going to react, so you never spent the time with them you wanted. I thought I'd make it easier on everyone and leave. Give you some space to focus on the other girls and pick the one you really wanted." She narrowed her eyes and pointed an accusing finger at him, "And it worked! You left for China with Shampoo a year later!"
At that point Ranma felt the need to pound his head on the wall. "I did not leave with Shampoo!" When Akane only glared at him he added, "NOT in the way you were thinking! Shampoo's village was on the verge of war and they sent a message to Cologne explaining the situation and asked for everyone to come back as quickly as possible. The situation was so bad that Cologne asked me if I would go with them to help. At first I said no, thinking it was some sort of trick to get me back to their village and married. Cologne swore to me that it wasn't a trap and I eventually got her to agree to dissolve the kiss of marriage on me and the kiss of death on you if I went. Cologne took a blood oath on it. I was there for two months helping to defend the village before some sort of truce was met. After that, I left and I never went back. I haven't seen Shampoo since. NOTHING happened while I was in China. I admit that I found her attractive when we she started throwing herself at me and yes, I enjoyed the attention at first."
Ranma sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. "I still feel like an idiot for how I acted when Shampoo had that stupid jewel on and acted like she hated me. But there was never anything between Shampoo and I. I never felt anything for her."
Akane stood staring at Ranma. There was just too much emotion and too much information for her to process in a short period of time. She had spent years not thinking of these things and having them laid out in front of her left her feeling vulnerable. All of her insecurities seem to have rushed back and with them her anger and sadness. It only made her feel worse that they went from enjoying each other's company to fighting in the blink of an eye. Akane suddenly dropped her defensive posture and looked at the floor, shaking her head.
"This was a bad idea. I shouldn't've come up."
Akane turned to leave but stopped when she felt Ranma's hand on her wrist.
Ranma wasn't in a much better place. He finally had some answers from her but they made him feel worse, not better. Ranma being who he was, was always a do first think later (much later) kind of guy, so it was unnerving not knowing what to do or say. The only thing he was certain of was he didn't want her to leave.
"Don't go."
"Why? This doesn't change anything that happened."
Ranma watched as she turned to face him, clearly trying to blink back tears. He knew she would never try to use her tears against him. She was the only person in his life who never tried to manipulate him.
When she felt more in control, she continued, "All we ever end up doing is fighting. We should've left well enough alone."
Ranma stepped closer to her, grabbing her other wrist.
"Please, stay."
He moved his right hand to her chin, lifting her face and resting his forehead against hers. They stood motionless for a few moments before Ranma brought his hand to the top of her head and started to move it down to the back of her neck, his thumb creating small circles on her throat. He slowly lowered his lips, giving her a soft kiss on the mouth. It was sweet, gentle and in Akane's opinion, much too short. As he pulled away she leaned forward with another kiss. They traded butterfly kisses back and forth until Akane stepped closer to Ranma, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. As their lips touched, Akane parted her mouth, running her tongue over the bottom of his lip. Ranma moaned at the sensation and squeezing her tightly, deepening their kiss. Ranma pulled her slowly back into the room where he sat on the bed and pulled Akane onto his lap as he continued to kiss her.
Gasping for breath, Akane pulled back, resting her forehead against his. She took the opportunity to look into Ranma's eyes, which were slightly glazed and full of desire. Making a quick decision she moved off Ranma's lap. Ranma felt a wave of disappointed when Akane got off his lap which quickly turned to surprise when she straddled him and slowly pushed him onto his back. She kissed his mouth again before moving to kiss his jaw and slowly giving him kisses down his neck while her hands reached under his shirt to feel his rock hard abs and slowly roamed up to his chest.
Ranma didn't remain surprised for long and he allowed his hands to start an exploration of their own. He put his hands on her legs slowly moving both hands up her thighs and under the hem of her skirt. He had spent all day covertly staring at her long legs and was amazed that he was now allowed to touch her soft silky skin. His hands roamed up over the curve of her bottom and he gave her a small squeeze, eliciting a moan from. At that moment, he felt like the luckiest man alive.
Akane knew that Ranma would never push her into doing anything she wasn't ready for, so she slowly took the lead in their exploration. Neither were shy and both fully enjoyed giving each other pleasure in ways they had only dreamed of before. Fully spent, they fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms.
When Ranma woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that he was alone in the bed. He got up, pulling on his boxer shorts as he went to check the bathroom. Pushing open the door, he called out "Akane?"
When he saw that she wasn't there he sat down on his bed, his heads in his hands. His only thought, 'She left me…again.'