Forcibly United
Yubitsume Fugitives: Chapter 6
oOo
As Ryouga and Ranma bounded through the late-night Nerima air, the Lost Boy felt compelled to speak. What they'd learned of what they were facing, what they had to do to keep themselves from legal trouble. They'd both already spent far too long outside of the country. Having to spend another half of a year, at minimum, was not something Ryouga was ready to face, and he'd spent months on end away from his friends and family very regularly, before.
"Ranma... What are you going to tell them?" Ryouga finally asked watching as his pigtailed rival shook his head.
"I dunno, man," Ranma replied, lightly touching down on a roof before bounding once more through the sky. After they'd crossed another mile or so, Ranma finally spoke once again. "I guess I just gotta tell them the truth. I can't exactly say I'm gonna be back in a month, y'know?"
"At least I don't have to see Akari's face fall," the bandanna-clad youth noted, frowning as he crossed his arms as they flew through the air. "I just get to send her a damned letter and hope for the best. Damn it, Ranma."
"Yeah, this one's kinda my fault," Ranma admitted, bracing his arms briefly on a railing before flipping through the air, keeping up with his rival as they soared through the air. "I can't dodge that. But, Ryouga... Even knowing what you know now, if our positions had been reversed, would you have tackled things any differently if Yakuza had kidnapped your mom?"
"That's why you're weak, Ranma!" Ryouga snorted roughly as he used the horizontal bar of a lightpost to rotate, gaining momentum as he flung himself back equal with his partner. "You actually gave Motoko a chance to talk her way out of it. I'd have reduced that castle to rubble and probably charged her head on, even when I thought her gun could kill me."
"That's why you're an idiot, Ryouga!" The Lost Boy's pigtailed rival countered, twisting his head to avoid Ryouga's umbrella stab and sticking out his tongue. "You don't think about how to get past your problems outside of headbutting 'em flat!"
The two continued to bicker as they approached the Tendou Dojo, though both were aware their good mood wouldn't last.
It couldn't.
Not with the news they brought.
oOo
"At least six months! Boy, I raised you better than that!" Genma snarled, and although Ranma could see through most of his father's ego-driven bluster, he recognized the genuine disappointment behind the outburst. Not that Ranma was happier about it, but...
"Another six months under Balalaika and you'll be a proper gangster, Ranma," Nabiki noted smugly, resting her chin on crossed hands as she smirked at the pigtailed boy. "Maybe I was a little too quick to give up the engagement. You might actually be able to keep up with me after another six months in Roanapur."
"Nabiki!" Her father scolded, shaking his head. "Don't try to act like this is a good thing! The sooner Ranma and Ryouga are free of that accursed place and their accursed arm guards, the better!"
Kasumi merely watched the ongoing chaos with a slight smile, sipping her green tea. Only Ryouga noticed the slight quirk to her eyebrow which indicated a more than passive appreciation for the chaos which was currently providing her entertainment.
"How much longer do you expect me to wait?" Akane's quiet whisper silenced the room, and it was only then that the people gathered around noticed her standing. She bolted from the room, out into the night.
"Akane!" Ranma yelled, following the girl. Ryouga reluctantly followed, watching as the pair went into the dojo itself.
He couldn't give them much space, but he'd give them as much as he could.
He didn't want to hear anything they were about to say anyway.
oOo
"Akane," the former Tendou resident breathed, entering the dojo. The young woman, the heir to the dojo, was staring at the shrine where Ranma knew her mother's picture was framed, seated on the floor of the dojo. He closed the distance between them, stopping a handful of steps away. "I know it sounds bad, but Rock thinks that in just a few more months, we can get back in the country. We'll have these stupid armbands off by then!"
"Ranma, it's already been what... Six months? I haven't even seen you in that long, and now you're telling me that it's going to be even longer?" The eerie thing, the pigtailed boy noticed, was how... calm Akane was about everything. Her voice was low, almost monotone, and there was none of the fire he was used to seeing in her. "After seeing you for what... An hour maybe, while you were beating up your father, and now you're telling me you're going away again?"
"Akane..." her fiance whispered, and life returned to her eyes. Anger... But resigned anger. As if she'd already had the conversation once with herself before and was now having it again with him.
"Ranma, I'm going to university soon, and you're asking me to just... Put my whole life on hold again and wait," Akane whispered fiercely, shaking her head before meeting the boy's eyes directly. "I've been putting my life on hold for you for years, now. How much longer do you expect me to wait?"
The fire was there, briefly, but it was gone far too soon.
"Akane, I didn't ask for this. I didn't want this arm guard, didn't want to be away like I am," Ranma whispered... As he tried not to let his voice sound broken. It was a hard, hard fight with how quiet and calm Akane was being about the argument.
They were supposed to argue loudly. Explosively, even. This quiet, subtle anger was only charted territory for the pigtailed boy the few times he really, really messed up. This wasn't an argument about anything except time gone, but that made that quiet anger worse.
"Yet it always seems to find you, doesn't it?" Akane asked, her voice oddly light. Her brow wasn't even set into a scowl, but her gaze went straight through the Saotome heir at how... bland it was. As if she was discussing the weather. "We've been engaged for almost two years, now... and trouble always seems to find you, no matter what."
"I didn't ask for this," the blue-eyed boy stated firmly, shaking his head.
"I didn't ask for you," Akane replied bitterly, crossing her arms and leaning forward to perch her elbows on her knees, resting her chin on her wrists. For the first time in their conversation, she turned to meet his gaze, the resolution in her eyes robbing her fiance of his breath. "How much longer am I going to put my life on hold, Ranma? Until I'm done university?"
"Just... Just until I'm done with this. Once I clear things up in Roanapur, I'll be back! I've been trying to get back for so damned long, and we're close!" Ranma grunted, turning away and frowning.
"Which is why you have such nice clothes in the photos you sent us, right?" Akane whispered, turning to look back at her mother's shrine. "Which is why you gave Ukyou such a nice gift for her birthday. I bet your apartment is pretty nice, too. Are you really eager to get back here as soon as you can, Ranma? Or is this new adventure nice and fresh now that you've gotten bored here, with me and my family?"
"Akane..." Ranma couldn't stop his voice from cracking, that time. Akane barely reacted, and Ranma felt a sudden weight in his stomach at the lack of reaction from her. "I just need you to wait a little more. Just... Just wait. Please."
"Wait for you to decide your new home can keep you occupied until you go off somewhere else?" The Tendou heir asked quietly, frowning a bit. "Wait until I'm done with university, and I graduate and no unmarried man will look at me? Wait for years and years in an empty house, like Aunt Nodoka?"
"Hey!" Ranma snapped, his temper flaring.
"Even if I wait, what am I waiting for?" Akane asked quietly, burying her head in her arms. "When you get back from Roanapur, things aren't going to magically be better. You still have Shampoo and the Amazons to deal with. You still have Ukyou to deal with. You still have Kodachi to deal with. You still have curing your curse to deal with. Am I putting my life on hold, so I can put our lives together on hold? What am I even waiting for by waiting for you now?"
"Akane, I'm trying! I just can't-" the pigtailed boy began, and Akane interrupted him.
"Ranma, I'm not sure how much longer I can deal with it all. I just wanted to inherit my father's dojo. I wanted to go to school, get my license to teach, and maybe do some school plays before I graduated and took over things here," the Tendou heir sighed once as she looked back at her mother's shrine. "I didn't want some adventure out of a manga. I didn't want... This. I've done some amazing things, seen some amazing things, but I just wanted a normal life. I want a normal life, a family, and a dojo with students I'm proud to teach.
"Ranma, how long do I have to wait? Even if you were back here tomorrow morning, I couldn't even go out on a date to the movies with my fiance of two years without it turning into a fiasco. If I were to just kiss you, right now, you'd be looking over your shoulder rather than enjoying it," Akane whispered, once more bowing her head. "How long do I have to wait just to be able to kiss the man I, I... Without even having to worry about someone else ruining it!?"
"Akane..." Ranma whispered, frowning. "I don't want to-"
"Enough, Ranma," Akane whispered, as much to herself as to him. "I don't want to talk about it. Not like we have time to talk about it anyway."
In response, the pigtailed boy sat next to his fiancee, close enough that their shoulders were touching, but not much more. He wasn't sure how long they sat like that before he heard a car honking outside twice.
Rock was ready to get them out of the country.
"I'll be back. I will, Akane!" Ranma promised, standing and walking to the door.
"Maybe I'll be waiting," he heard her reply, before he followed Ryouga over the wall of the Tendou property.
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Author's Notes:
Sorry for the late upload. I forgot it was a stat holiday in Canada and was up at the cottage, with no access to the internet and thus, unable to post the chapter on schedule because I had to tweak things right before release, and had half an hour to get ready on Saturday morning.
This is a heavy, heavy chapter. It's something I've been building towards for good reason: Because Ranma is not on the path to a happy ending, as things stand. He needs that wake up call to realize that time doesn't stand still for him when he's not around, and who better to do that for him than Akane?
Plus, girl has to have some frustrations to work out with things. Per the manga's ending, they can only get on with things if he figures out the complex situation he's in and that's not something he's been doing for the last six months.
So yeah. Hope you liked it!
-Gaming Ikari