MY SEMI-TRAINED, OTHERWISE RABID WEASEL HORDE HAS COME BACK. IN ADDITION, THEY HAVE INFORMED ME THAT, SHOULD I TAKE MONETARY RECOMPENSE FOR MY WORK HERE, I TOO AM A VERY LIKELY TARGET OF THEIR WRATH. THAT'S UNDERSTANDABLE, GIVEN THAT RANMA ½ DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. THE CHARACTERS AND ORIGINAL STORYLINE BELONG TO RUMIKO TAKAHASHI AND WHATEVER COMPANIES SHE HAS DETERMINED ARE ALLOWED TO HELP HER DISTRIBUTE ACROSS THE WORLD. I DON'T FALL INTO THAT ORGANIZATION ANYWHERE, SO PLEASE DON'T GIVE ME ANY MONEY- IT WOULD BE ILLEGAL. THAT, AND THE WEASELS LOOK HUNGRY.

Apology

Chapter 8

A Ranma1/2 fanfic by

FrictionX42

italics means the content is thought, not said aloud.

"I'm home!" Nabiki Tendo's voice sang out across the household. Akane and Kasumi were in the kitchen talking, and both noted a sense of urgency in her voice. Akane visibly stifled an angry outburst as she and Kasumi both moved to the living room to meet Nabiki as she changed her footwear to something more suitable for indoor wear.

Nabiki noticed her sisters come into the living room and fixed her younger sibling with a look more akin to a shark viewing its next meal than any loving expression two sisters might normally give each other. "Well hello there, Akane! Word had it that you'd left school early today. The rumors have a few other interesting things to say as well..." Nabiki's needling was rewarded when Akane suddenly couldn't meet her gaze and she swallowed nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about Nabiki. What the school rumor mill has to say is usually wrong anyways, why should I worry about it?" Akane was making an attempt to put up a front, but Nabiki could see right through the act.

"That's why I'm asking you, Akane." Nabiki could almost see yen signs as she looked at her little sister. She was going to go after more information, but Kasumi stopped her.

"Nabiki, I know you just got home, but I could really use some help in the kitchen for a moment..."

Nabiki looked at her sister incredulously. "Akane's been home this whole time, sis. Why ask me?"

Unperturbed, Kasumi continued, "and Akane needs to go check up on Ranma so she has her hands full." She then merely looked at Nabiki. To any unfamiliar bystander, nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Merely an older sister looking at one of her younger sisters. Nabiki could feel her breath catch and the hair on the back of her neck stand up. What's... Kasumi's not smiling!

Akane was also feeling particularly uncomfortable. Kasumi's expression closely matched the one she'd levelled at Akane when she'd come home early. Close, except the one she was giving Nabiki now was worse. Almost icy, in Kasumi's own way. "Kasumi's right, I should go make sure the lunkhead is still breathing. You two have fun!" With those words, Akane got to her feet and walked to the stairs. Ow! Guess I should've stretched more after practice with Ranma earlier, my legs are killing me! Akane glanced back to see Nabiki and Kasumi enter the kitchen. The normal smile was back on Kasumi's face, but stopped just above her nose. Something about Kasumi's eyes suggested that Nabiki was in for a ... well a talking to, anyhow. Akane couldn't figure out a way to ascribe the term 'stern' to anything Kasumi did. Sighing, she made her way up the stairs and to Ranma's room.

Akane stopped in front of Ranma's room. She then tentatively knocked. First time for everything, I suppose. Akane couldn't remember the last time she'd knocked to come into the room Ranma shared with his dad. Sure, she could remember coming in often enough, but she usually just opened the door and barged in. When there was no reply, Akane fidgeted for a moment, then opened the door and walked in. Ranma was snoring softly on his futon, wearing a tee shirt and boxers. Akane could see this only because he'd kicked the covers off of himself and was laying half on, half off the mattress on the floor. Akane giggled and kneeled near him to cover him again. As she did, she stifled a giggle more girly than she was used to hearing come from her. Oh boy, he's gonna be fun to sleep next to... wait, he didn't move around much when we fell asleep in my room... Blushing furiously, Akane finished straightening the bedding and just as she turned to leave the room, she heard Ranma make a noise.

"Kane, no..." Ranma thrashed again, shoving the blankets down and revealing his tee shirt-clad torso again. His face looked worried, and he clenched his teeth in determination against whatever dream he was having.

Akane returned to his side and stroked his hair to help him relax, as she flushed with shame as she imagined his nightmares. Akane saw herself slamming her mallet into Ranma's unconscious form again and again, stopping only when her family came to drag her away. The vivid imagery continued for a few minutes until Ranma opened his mouth again.

"Kane, no-don't!" Ranma's vocal pitch grew higher as he thrashed more, looking for a way out of his nightmare.

Akane felt her heart plunge as she knew that she was the cause of his suffering. Her fingers traced the section of his head that was stitched together-remnants of her previous work and a reminder of what her temper had almost cost her. Akane felt tears well up in her eyes as she reflected on how nice Ranma had been after he had awoken that morning. A lot nicer than I would have been, most likely, she figured. She held Ranma's head steady on his pillow so that he wouldn't knock it against the floor and reopen the stitches.

Unfortunately, that only seemed to make his nightmare worse. "don' hafta tas' it, Kane. 'lready know it's bad!"

Akane's mouth dropped open in shock. Ranma was having a nightmare all right; but it wasn't about the beating she'd given him, it was about her cooking! Growling in fury, Akane gripped the side of his head in one hand and balled the other into a fist. "Ranma you JE-" A split second before slamming her fist into his face, Akane stopped. The realization of what she was about do tore all of the energy and anger from her. Here was Ranma, just awoken that morning, just as unable to protect himself as last time, and she was about to pummel him again! Shakily, Akane rose to her feet and left the room, softly closing the door behind her. It's the duty of a martial artist to protect the weak, Akane sulked, caught up in her thoughts. And he's already injured, by me. Asleep, and I was still about to pound him!

As Akane turned to go to her rooom, she caught a glimpse of Nabiki. Nabiki's face was a bit pale, and she didn't even glance in Akane's direction as she opened the door to her own room and entered. Akane briefly toyed with the idea of going to Nabiki to ask her what had happened, but then she remembered that she had other things to consider, such as her close call with her fist and Ranma's face only seconds before.

As Akane shut herself in her room, she threw herself onto her bed. She could already tell it was going to be a long day, and perhaps a longer night. She spent some time thinking about Ryoga, quite a bit longer thinking about Ranma, and then some time thinking about her anger. She attempted to come to some sort of conclusion, something to help her come to an understanding of what had happened earlier in the week – or at least reduce her guilty feelings. Ranma seemed to have forgiven her for the most part. As Akane struggled with forgiving herself, however, she found that the emotional stress she'd been under compounded with her hard training session with Ranma were wearing on her too much, and she fell fast asleep.

Ranma awoke early Sunday morning, before even Kasumi rose to begin preparing for the day. He'd been recovering nicely for the last few days, thanks in large part to Akane's help. Things had been odd over the last couple of days. Everyone in the house had been treating him nicely, even his father-even Akane! Ranma chalked it up to them not wanting to aggravate his injury, but he did find it very nice. Especially Akane. Ranma smiled. He had visited Doctor Tofu again a few times over the last few days, and the Doctor was impressed by the speed at which Ranma recovered. The doctor had finally deemed him ready to try the operation that would bring Ryoga back. Today's the day. Ranma had worried about it so much the last few days that he could hardly wait.

It was better, he considered, to just have it over and done with instead of having to sit and think about the problem over and over again. Had enough of that with the fiancee 'issues'. He mused. His fiancees had been strangely absent of late, except for Akane of course. He'd been glad for the break from the others. He found out from Nabiki (who now that he thought of it had also been acting... disturbingly pleasant towards him) that Genma and Soun had actually gone so far as to obtain restraining orders against both Kunos, Shampoo and Ukyo. They hadn't felt that Ryoga had contributed enough to the wedding disaster to warrant one. Ranma's mother was seeing to the family affairs, such as rebuilding thier home with the insurance money they'd recieved. She had insisted that after Ranma and Akane wed, that she and Genma would return to their home so that the two newlyweds could get down to the serious business of baby-making without 'the old folks' getting in the way. Ranma and Akane had both flushed such a bright red that Nabiki had considered wearing suntan oil around them for the rest of the day.

Ranma thought back to the look on Nabiki's face at that moment. She'd been exultant, but then he caught her looking at Kasumi out of the corner of her eyes, and her face dropped into a distictively unhappy frown. When Ranma turned to look at Kasumi, however, he noticed nothing out of the ordinary as Kasumi cheerfully refilled his rice bowl. Ranma tried to push the whole experience out of his thoughts. Too much was on his mind already as it was. Today they'd get Ryoga back. Sure, he'd be a pain, but at least he wouldn't die, and Ranma felt that if he helped with this, then perhaps he and the Lost Boy could patch things up a little. He liked having Ryoga as a rival, but sometimes he felt that he'd really rather have a friend. A real friend, not one mixed with rival, not one mixed with fiancee, not one mixed with anything. He just wanted to have someone around who was a friend, and Ranma could think of no better choice than Ryoga. Sure they'd had their differences, but Ranma felt that this was his chance to really overcome them and try to salvage something of a friendship with the boy.

Ranma had briefly discussed the idea of becoming friends with Ryoga after the operation with Akane, as he lay his head in her lap after his bath the day after he'd woken up. She hadn't been against it so much as just become very quiet and withdrawn for the conversation. Guilt, Ranma surmised. She deserves it, but I'm not gonna be the one to get on her case about it. Better change the subject. Akane hadn't resisted. They'd found the time after Ranma's bath to be an ideal time to discuss things and had found themselves discussing the future more and more over the past couple of days. Ranma still managed to say idiotic things to her from time to time, but for some reason she had been allowing him to stammer out apologies lately, instead of just pounding him into the ground. Akane's been a lot nicer than usual lately, Ranma considered, if I didn't know any better it's like she's actually workin' on controlling her anger. I guess I'll have to really test that out while we train this afternoon. Gotta go deal with Ryoga first, though. Hang in there buddy, I'll save ya.

Ranma dressed and quietly made his way out to the dojo. Today was also the day Doctor Tofu had cleared him to begin training again, as long as he didn't push himself too hard the first few days. Ranma was used to that, as he'd been injured a few times during the ten-year training trip with his pop. He figured he'd start with a couple of warmups and see where things went from there. Ranma toyed with the idea of waking Akane so that they could train together, but figured that he'd rather she not see anything if he should screw up. He was just getting over a head injury after all. He could feel that his balance was still a tiny bit off. Not so much that anyone normal could tell, but for someone who had trained his body to the extent that Ranma had, it was apparent. Ranma smirked at the thought of the last couple of days spent training with Akane. After some cajoling, Soun had been convinced to help her with some of the more advanced parts of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Ranma and Kasumi had talked him into it while Akane was at school on Friday. I sure am glad that Akane's not as crafty as her sisters are, Ranma mused as he went through some basic forms.

It surprised Ranma for only a moment that the old crone was present. When challenged, Cologne merely laughed and assured Ranma it was only to ensure her son-in-law's safety. The glint in her eyes told Ranma that she knew more than she was letting on, but seeing as that was the way things normally were with the amazon matriarch, he let it lie. Ranma could have sworn for a moment that he'd seen something strongly resembling concern in her eyes as well, but didn't entertain that thought for a moment. He needed to focus everything he could to bring Ryoga back. The actual operation was a lot less painful than Ranma had been expecting. All he had to do was stand in one small circle and emit as much battle aura as he could muster. Ryoga's still form lay in another, but larger, circle not far away. Doctor Tofy stood between them, wearing some ceremonial robes. Ranma was again amazed by the skill he saw in Doctor Tofu and found himself wondering not for the first time how a doctor so young could know so much. Then he put such thoughts outside his mind and focused on the task at hand. He could feel the doctor's touch as he performed some kind of sealing technique, then there was a slight twinge as the doc did something to Ranma's battle aura. Ranma's eyes flicked open for a moment and he locked eyes with Cologne. The look on her face was grim, but she nodded her head to him, indicating that everything was going normally. Ranma next felt a disturbing sense of loss, as though there was a hole in him that couldn't be filled. Tofu's hands again flickered over Ranma and he felt significantly more comfortable. In the back of his mind, Ranma knew that there was no going back from that point. Tofu nodded to Cologne, and she hopped off of the stool that she'd been perched on and prodded Ranma out of the room with her staff.

"All right, Son-in-Law, your part in this is over. Go wait in the lobby." The gnarled old lady watched as Tofu knelt next to Ryoga, and then shut the door, leaving Ranma in the hall.

Ranma made his way out to the waiting room where Akane awaited his return. The rest of the family had stayed at the house- not because of any lack of concern for Ranma or Ryoga, but they'd felt that it was the best way to keep Kasumi far away from Doctor Tofu if they waited at home. She looked at him expectantly as he came into the room. He just shrugged and explained, "Doc's workin' on Ryoga now. I gotta stick around and wait."

Akane nodded as Ranma came to sit next to her on the waiting room's small couch. The two sat in silence for several long moments until Ranma slid his hand over to cover Akane's, hand cupping it in his. She gasped softly, and turned to look at him. Ranma was staring straight forward, too nervous to make eye contact. As he felt her stare, Ranma began stammering out an explanation.

"I uh, I'm just-" Ranma babbled before being cut short by Akane's finger on his lips.

"Shush, Ranma." Akane whispered gently, before settling her head on his shoulder and letting loose a content sigh.

Ranma bristled at the unexpectedly increased contact. He spluttered as he began to protest, "A-Akane! Anyone could just walk right in through those doors! What if-" again, Akane interrupted him, this time with a low growl, carefully enunciating each word.

"Ranma, I said shut. up." She returned her head to his shoulder, uncaring what may happen or who may see them. The tiny room was quiet and, aside from her and Ranma, empty. Right then, Akane didn't care about the rest of the world, she just wanted to enjoy this time alone with Ranma.

Ranma wisely did as he was told, and after a moment of tense consideration, slipped an arm around Akane and gently rested his head upon hers, savoring the sweet smell of her hair as he did. Her presense did make him feel better, he had to admit. Within moments, the two were softly snoozing in the quiet Sunday morning calm.

Ranma awoke with a start. Doctor Tofu was shaking him gently by the shoulder. Akane was already awake, blushing furiously as she avoided eye contact with the young doctor. Tofu settled his gaze on the two teens, "We're all done for the day, and it looks like Ryoga's going to be just fine now. He still hasn't awakened, but I'm not expecting that for another week or so. Once he wakes up, I'll have a better idea of whether or not there's any lasting damages."

Ranma stood and nodded to the doctor. "You're the doc," he said, and headed for the exit. "Let us know when he wakes up and we'll come visit as soon as we can." Akane agreed and after saying their goodbyes the two left the clinic, glad to have good news and to be heading home.

Once home, Ranma and Akane ate a light lunch during which Ranma told them about the operation that he'd gone through. Several times Genma looked about to say something, but each time was stopped by a menacing glare from Akane. After lunch Akane and Ranma changed clothes and went out to the dojo to spar a little. And Ranma got the biggest surprise he'd had in a very long time.

As he picked himself up from the heap of training tools that they stored there in the dojo, Ranma could see Akane rushing over to help him. For a moment, he couldn't recall why he was even there. Then it came back to him; Akane rushed in and he'd tried to dodge as usual, but he just hadn't moved fast enough. He frowned as the both of them worked to pick up the mess they'd just made. Before continuing, Akane quickly checked Ranma for injury, since his mind appeared to be somewhere else.

Ranma, for his part, was trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. Even though he'd been laid up for the last week, he didn't feel like there was anything wrong. Certainly his muscles couldn't have atrophied that badly in only a week! Then Doctor Tofu's warning came floating back to him, and Ranma was no longer confused. The scene played through his mind and Ranma was suddenly very, very worried.

"I need to give him some of your ki, Ranma. Your life essence - a part of your very soul. This is a very dangerous process that may do irreparable damage to the both of you if it is not done right. There is also a very good chance of you being weakened by the same amount of ki you give to him – permanently weakened."

"How much do you think he will need, Doc?"

"About a third. Maybe more."

Akane noticed Ranma's sudden change of mood. "Ranma? Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, I'm uh, just fine Akane! I'm just as good as ever! I'm just a little stiff from last week, that's all." Ranma sputtered. Akane didn't look like she was buying it, so Ranma decided to switch tactics. "Doctor Tofu told me that there was a chance that I would be weakened by what I had to give up to Ryoga. Maybe..." Ranma's volume dropped noticeably, "maybe even permanently."

Akane's breath caught in her throat, and she found herself unable to say anything. The two sat in silent contemplation for a while, before Ranma jumped to his feet and started to leave. Before he could make more than two steps, however, Akane reached out and stopped him.

"Ranma wait, we don't know if it's permanent or not yet, do we? I mean, unless you try, you'll never know."

Ranma's reply was cut off by the door opening and Nabiki's voice ringing out, "She's right Ranma, and with this coming up," She held up a small, folded piece of paper upon which was written,'Challenge' in fanciful kanji. "You'd better be ready..."

Author's notes:

Ugh. This is a lot later than I'd wanted. After a month of dealing with mono, it seems that my writing skills are still not all the way back. That last half of this chapter really did NOT want to be written. Anyhow, I'm still working on everything, I haven't lost interest in this story, no worries about that. I'm actually pretty excited to write the next couple of chapters, they look like they'll be a lot of fun.

I'll rewrite the chapter later, but for now I really just want to get the chapter posted.