"Not Quite Love at First Sight"
A Ranma fanfic written by MmeFleiss .
All characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement is 
intended.
*********************************************************************

I've never believed in love at first sight.

You must be wondering, what about Ranma? Well in case you don't 
remember, he was a girl when I first met him. I was also sorta mad
at him when I first saw him as a guy.

No, it didn't take me minutes or hours to fall in love with Ranma 
like a character in those cheesy romance novels that Kasumi likes 
so much. It took weeks of the two of us getting to know one another.

I'm sorry if I've disappointed the romantics out there. Really. I know
it's more fun to think of our deepened feelings as a tsunami that 
just engulfed us one day instead of something that crept into our 
hearts while we weren't looking, but that's how it happened.

I realized that I loved him while we were walking home from school. 
We were walking quietly, not speaking, just like we usually did on
these occasions. The day had been unusually cool for June and I 
remembered shivering as a breeze blew past us.

I tried to hide my discomfort, rubbing my arms to generate some 
warmth, but I guess I wasn't doing as good a job at hiding it as I 
thought. Mere seconds after goosebumps began to form on my arms, 
Ranma hopped off the wire fence and wordlessly handed me his favorite 
red shirt.

I was reaching for it when I noticed the subtle tremor of his bare 
torso. He was cold, too. "I couldn't possibly..."

"Take it, Akane. I'll be fine."

"But..."

"I'll be fine," Ranma reiterated, this time in a tone that brooked no
arguments.

I nodded and reluctantly draped his shirt on my shoulder. I waited 
until I heard the clang of his shoes hitting the barbed wires before
I began walking again. "Thank you."

Ranma turned his head away from me, but I could clearly see a faint 
smile and the blush that accompanied it from where I stood. "'s 
nothing."

That was when I realized that I loved him. Silly, isn't it? I've seen 
him that way so many times in our countless walks home to and from 
school. There was no reason for it to be different this time.

All I knew was that love was nothing like I expected it to be; No 
angels descended from heaven to herald the event, no romantic violin
concerto began to play like in the movies. It was more like a bug 
bite suddenly discovered in one's arm, leading one to say, "Oh, I 
didn't even realize I had that." 

I looked around to see if there was a sign-any sign-that proved that
this was a momentous event: But housewives kept on walking to the 
market, the dogs in the distance kept on barking, even the leaves 
hung unruffled after the last breeze.

The only noticeable difference as far as I could tell was that I 
suddenly couldn't catch my breath. It was as if I was really seeing 
Ranma for the first time, this person that I've spent all this time 
fighting with and joking with and... In the space of a few seconds he 
became something other than a temporary inconvenience in my life. 

Ranma caught me staring and I quickly looked away. I wanted to look
back, but I knew he was still gazing at me intently. I contented 
myself instead by watching his reflection on the puddles of water 
from the recent downpour.  The earlier smile still lingered on his 
lips, and I wanted to say out loud that he was cute when he did that, 
too.

But of course I didn't. Giving me his coat was no more sweet than 
the times he'd told me I was cute or saved me from random martial
artists; I'm sure my reaction to his gesture was unexpected, if not 
unwanted.

I quickly handed back his shirt once we neared the dojo, not yet 
ready to see the insinuative stares that it would generate if our 
families saw me wearing it. I was quite sure that it was already 
obvious that I liked him, anyway.

Ranma either avoided the obvious or was too dense to notice it(I'm
betting on the latter). He wordlessly took back his shirt, 
disappointment clear in his eyes as he walked away.

I wanted to call him back. I wanted to tell him that I appreciated
what he'd done and that I loved him and that I thought he was cute
when he smiled, but like before I was afraid that he didn't feel the 
same way, so I said the closest thing that I _could_ say. "Hey, why
don't you stay awhile so I can make you dinner?"

The disappointed look on his face turned to one of pure fear. The
ungrateful jerk, and here I was thinking all those nice things about
him, too. "Fine, if you don't want..."

"Sure."

"..to eat my cooking because..." I stopped after my brain processed his
answer. He was going to eat my food willingly? "Um, great! That's 
great," I answered, watching him walk back towards the gate.

Ranma flashed another smile in my direction before entering the 
house, and I swear that if he didn't stop doing that I might end up 
telling him he looked cute when he smiled after all. 

"But don't you think it'd be better if we invite Ucchan over?" he 
asked. "I mean, at least she can cook."

Or maybe not.

*********************************************************************
Author's notes: This is what happens after my friends force me to
watch movies that actually end happily ^_^   
     I hadn't written a waffy Ranma fic in a long time, so I may be
out of practice; feel free to nit-pick to your heart's content.

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