CHAPTER 2

"It ain't easy for me to say stuff like this...I was never real good at it, y'know." Ranma Saotome admitted. He fidgeted with his sweaty, stringy bangs, smoothing them over nervously with his hand.

Akane swallowed to clear her parched throat. She couldn't tell if she was shaking from anxiety or from more strange symptoms that had come with the news that Dr. Tofu had given her on her last visit. It was embarrassing, at the least-Ranma, of all people, making her nervous. She rigidly folded her arms in her lap and focused on her breathing.

"I don't think I'm ready to be someone's dad."

Akane flinched slightly. She closed her eyes and let out a long wind of air.

The sound of the garden pond sounded louder than it ever had before from outside the engawa. Ranma's eyes followed a lone goose waddling over the bulging stones that edged the pond. It settled into the water with a cautious flap of it's mud-brown wings. "It's not you." Ranma spoke. He took a slow, healing sip from his bowl and settled it back down on the table.

Akane still hadn't opened her eyes yet.

"What kind of role model would I be if I don't know how to be one in the first place?" Ranma paused-even though he was sitting right next to the only person in the world he could be most vulnerable with, Tendo Akane, he couldn't bring himself to speak about how he really felt about his father.

It felt private, like something only he'd understand-why he always had felt somewhat distanced from Genma. Ranma thought his mother was lovely, but years of separation still left him feeling as apart from her as he did with the father he had grown up right alongside with.

"I don't think I'd know how to love my kid. The way I should." Plus, he thought to himself, I'm still half girl.

Akane shook her head slowly, trying to eliminate the voice she heard in the air that was dismissing their child before it was even born. "So, you want an abortion."

"I'm not saying 'get rid of it'!" Ranma shouted. The hashi sticks he squeezed in his grasp snapped in half at an angry thought that she would even consider that. Akane's silence was almost scaring him. He thought she would understand.

"All I'm sayin' is...it won't be happy here, with me." Ranma turned his glistening eyes at the still, silent woman perched beside him. "I'm scared, Akane-alright? I don't wanna mess this up."

Akane's let out a sob. Ranma panicked. One thing he couldn't stand to see were tears on Akane's face. She quieted the outburst with a shaky inhale. "Hell, I'm scared too! But that's not an excuse!"

Ranma's body flushed with an icy feeling at the way her eyes glowered at him. It was worse than any other look he saw in their shouting matches. Her expression at that moment was raw and infuriated. She probably couldn't even see how bad her entire body was trembling.

"We're its parents, Ranma! It's our responsibility to take care of it! You're such a…!" Her face suddenly felt like it was on fire, and hot tears leaked from her eyes. All the resolve Akane had to not cry in front of Ranma dissolved away in seconds. She smeared some tears away from her nose and cheeks, but then she defeatedly curled into herself, holding her breaking heart.

Ranma's throat tightened when he tried to speak again, until his voice sounded like a plea. "Akane…." Ranma gripped his wife's sunken hands. His heartbeat raced even faster with dread when Akane gently wrestled out of his grip. It didn't feel like Akane was shoving him away, but like she wanted a physical distance away from him. Anywhere away from him.

Kasumi Tendo's eyes shrank away from her shoji when her youngest little sister ran by to retreat to her old room. Her dainty fingertips rose to her mouth in worry. Ranma's unusual outburst had jolted her awake. Although everyone at the house already knew about her pregnancy before Ranma did, it was still a surprise. Suddenly, Kasumi thought of something that might make their transition into parenthood a little easier.

She glided to her sister's room and shared her idea. Akane wiped away some tears, but felt more encouraged than ever to give her clever big sister a wide smile. When Kasumi told Soun, he lit up like fireworks.