The sunset tinted her cheeks with its red orange glow, but even the dim light didn't quite disguise the fact that she had been crying.
All characters in this story belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc. I'm just a broke college student who has nothing better to do and who enjoys this series so much. Many thanks to everyone who helped me polish this one up - I hope you enjoy this one!
The sun was just beginning to set, bathing Nerima with its red
orange glow. Smells of dinner being prepared and sounds of children
happily sharing the events of the day with their parents hung
in the air like a comforting blanket of warmth.
The rooftops cast shadows on Ranma's face as he wandered from street to street looking for Akane. He sighed despondently as he peered along yet another alley, only to find it empty. Where could she have gone? She had been gone since lunch and, much as Ranma hated to admit it to himself, he was beginning to worry about her.
Especially when it was his fault she had run off...
* * * *
Akane had emerged from the kitchen with an eager, hopeful smile on her face, pinning him with her liquid brown eyes. "Ranma, lunch is almost ready -- "
The eager look on her face was replaced by puzzlement as she looked around to find that he was the only one there. "Where IS everyone?" She walked to the table and knelt in front of the table across from him, her brows meeting in a slight frown.
"Pop and Uncle Tendo had an all-day shogi tournament to attend - unlimited sake - and Nabiki decided to take Kasumi shopping today," Ranma said, shifting uncomfortably. "They told us over breakfast, remember?" He cleared his throat, already deciding to cut his losses and get out before she could bring out the food, but the look in her eyes stopped him.
"But... but... I thought the shogi tournament was after lunch,"she began, then trailed off. The tournament WAS after lunch, but when their fathers had found out Kasumi would be leaving too early to prepare lunch... He thought he saw a sad look pass over her face for a moment -- but she ducked her head before he could be sure. She looked down at the hands she was twisting on her lap, her knuckles turning white.
They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes, neither not quite knowing what to say.
What was he still doing here? He had already known she would be making their lunch. For some dumb reason he couldn't begin to explain, he just couldn't stand the thought of leaving her all alone in the house even if it meant eating her... cooking. Now he was rather glad he had stayed, even if another part of him wanted to bash himself over the head for being such a masochist.
Suddenly she looked up at him, a cheerfully determined expression replacing the look of disappointment he thought he had seen. "Well, I guess this just means more for the both of us, ne?" she said. She paused, a blush crawling up her cheeks. "Ranma... I... I'm glad you stayed. I... I would've hated eating alone."
The sight one of her rare, sunshiny smiles caused a twisting sensation in his stomach.
He really was becoming a sucker for those smiles.
"I -- uh -- I... " he began, putting a hand to the back
of his head and feeling a blush creep up his own cheeks. He trailed
off as he sniffed the air. "Uh... Akane... something's burning."
Akane blanched and sprung from her seat. "Oh no! I forgot
about the curry!" She dashed back inside the kitchen.
The part of him that wanted to bash himself over the head for staying was screaming at him, practically ordering him to make his escape while she was still in the kitchen. He was fast, it would be easy. He could go to Ucchan's or maybe...
An image of Akane's disappointed expression flashed across his mind.
He stayed.
She came out of the kitchen carrying the entire pan of curry between two pot-holders, biting her lip worriedly. The burning smell was much stronger now, the acrid odor assaulting his nose and making his eyes tear. His eyes followed her motions as she laid the pan on top of the table and knelt across from him, then darted to the charred contents of the pan.
His stomach twisted again. More violently this time. He held back a groan and several insults, biting hard on his tongue.
"Lunch is served." Akane looked the pan and then at him with apology in her eyes, but with a hopeful smile hovering on her mouth. "I'm sorry it looks so... um... different. Maybe - maybe it isn't burnt too bad?" She continued to gaze at him hopefully. "Go ahead, Ranma. Have some."
Ranma gulped audibly and hooked a finger under his mandarin collar. "Um..."
If she had threatened him, if she had tried to force feed him like she often did in the past, he probably would have run away or, at the very least, told her what he really thought of her cooking. But her eyes, wide, hopeful, and eager undid him.
He took his chopsticks and, with a sigh, placed a few charred pieces of meat inside his bowl. He put a morsel in his mouth, feeling it crumble, the bitter taste spreading on his tongue and drowning out the curry's mild flavor. Maybe it could have been edible -- curry was one of the things Akane could cook without making it mutate -- but the fire had taken care of that, and now the contents of the pan was only curry-flavored charcoal. With some effort, he swallowed, the grainy texture tickling his throat and making him cough.
"Uh," he began in between coughs, eyes squeezed shut, biting his tongue to keep the stream of nasty comments bay. "Uh... Akane..."
Finding her strangely silent, he looked up at her to find, instead of rage, a stricken look on her face. She too had taken a sample of her curry and was trying hard to swallow it. He saw the exact moment the first grains of charred meat slid down her throat, seeing her grimace and hold back a cough of her own. She washed the taste down with a glass of water.
Her brown eyes filled with tears as they met his. "I'm so... I'm so..."
"Aw, Akane, 's not so bad, just burnt a little," he said, the sight of her moist eyes and trembling lips causing his throat to tighten. Just a few weeks back, he would have been shooting off a commentary about why she never should have tried to cook in the first place -- but now, when they were getting along so well, he found himself wanting to make it all better for her instead. He frowned as he watched her pick up the pan of curry from the table and stand up. "Akane, what are you doing? We haven't had lunch yet --"
"This stuff isn't good enough to eat," she said with a suffocated little voice, quickly turning and striding into the kitchen, disappearing from his line of vision almost immediately. "I know you're hungry, Ranma. Why... why don't you go over to Ucchan's for lunch? Or... or maybe to... to Shampoo's? I'm sure either of them will be glad to see you and feed you for free..."
He heard the sound of pots and pans being placed inside the sink, followed by the splashing sound of water running.
What she had just said... it didn't sound like her at all. "Um, Akane," he asked, hesitating, a disturbed frown on his face. "Akane, why don't the both of us go to Ucchan's for lunch together? I'm sure you're hungry, too."
She didn't reply.
He walked doubtfully towards the kitchen, hesitating by the door. He watched the graceful line of her back and the slow, almost lifeless motions of her arms as she began to scrub the pan, so different from her normal, vital - even furious self. He never knew how to deal with her when she was like this... it was easier to deal with her when she was angry, and, considering how violent her temper often was, that was saying a lot.
He decided to go into the dojo to practice kata instead.
Maybe when she was feeling better and was finished cleaning, she would feel differently about eating at Ucchan's, and he wasn't that hungry anyway. His stomach growled in protest at that, but it didn't feel right going off for food and leaving her like... like this.
When he returned half an hour later, she was nowhere to be found. Thinking she had taken a nap and not wanting to disturb her, he ignored the niggling doubt in his mind and made his way up the roof to take a snooze of his own.
* * * *
He found her, almost by accident, at his place under the bridge, that place where he was usually banished when he did something incredibly stupid, where he sometimes went to let off his steam when she upset him more than he cared to admit.
It was one of the places he went to when he wanted to be alone.
Akane, being Akane, knew this place very well.
He should have known she would be here.
She was looking out into the water, hugging her knees to her chest, the late afternoon breeze whipping her short blue-black hair back. He stopped a few meters away from her and let the powerful relief flood him at the sight of her, the feeling tighten his chest -- he had to fight the impulse to run to her and... and...
He pushed the thought back, allowing his frustration to take over and his temper to take spark. He strode towards her, his angry strides eating up the distance between them in a matter of seconds. He spoke loudly as he walked. "Where've you been, Akane? I've been looking all over for you," he spewed angrily. "I mean, how was I supposed to know you, bein' the klutz you are, didn't fall over somewhere and hurt yourself? And you call me insensitive! I..."
He trailed off when she suddenly turned her head, and he caught his first glimpse of her face. An expression he couldn't describe was in her eyes, he didn't know what it was called -- he only knew he didn't like seeing it there. It was so... sad. The sunset tinted her cheeks with its red orange glow, but even the dim light didn't quite disguise the fact that she had been crying. She turned her face back towards the water with a sigh, resting her chin on her knees.
She didn't even shout back at him.
He really hated seeing her like this. Was this all because of charred curry? It wasn't like she hadn't ruined other meals before. He approached her more cautiously, finally taking a seat, Indian-style, beside her.
The silence hung between them and lengthened. From the distance, the sounds of downtown Tokyo was carried by the breeze, along with the peaceful sloshing sound of the water. Above these was the sound of their own breathing -- and Akane's occasional sniffs. Finally, Ranma cleared his throat. "Uh, Akane, if this is about lunch..." he began.
She faced the back of her head to him, her voice strangely muffled when she spoke. "So, did Ukyo make you one of her okonomiyaki specials for lunch? Or did Shampoo cook some ramen for you?" she asked quietly, without the usual heat in her voice when she mentioned either of the two girls in connection with his name. "I... I hope you didn't have to pay for lunch. If you did, I -I'll pay you back."
Ranma scowled and resisted the temptation to shake her for even thinking she had to pay for his lunch just because she had accidentally ruined their meal. "What the... Akane, stop this, okay? I didn't have..."
"I'm glad you didn't... didn't have to pay," she said, interrupting him again and retreating back within herself before he could say anything more.
He clenched his fists in frustration, staring at the back of her head. What did she expect him to do? He didn't even know what was getting her so upset. He pulled his pigtail in frustration and was just about to let loose a stream of insults just to get the kind of reaction he was used to from her when she suddenly swung her head to face him and pinned his gaze with hers.
His mouth, already slightly open, snapped shut.
"I... I'm never going to cook again," she told him. "I... I'm rotten at it. You were... you were... all of you.... right. About me." She turned back to the water and rested her chin on her knees again, tears glistening in her eyes.
Ranma was stunned. If there was anything Akane didn't do, it was give up on ANYTHING. She never allowed people to tell her what she could and could not do. Specifically, what she could NOT do. Akane had a fighter's attitude, there was nothing she could not do if she tried hard enough; she always told people so, with eyes blazing dark fire and chin tilted saucily in the air, set with determination. Some people called it stubbornness, but, irritating as it could be sometimes, it was one of the qualities he truly admired in her.
It didn't feel right, hearing this hopelessness in her voice, caused by one burned pan of curry. It didn't feel right to see her gaze sadly at the setting sun as if she had just lost an old friend.
It didn't feel right to see her giving up.
Somewhere deep inside him, he knew this wasn't just about cooking.
They sat silently side by side, each keeping their own thoughts close to themselves. The sun dipped low in the sky, so low that Ranma could no longer see it. But he knew it was there because the cheerful red glow that bathed the both of them was still there, lingering, probably as curious as he was to find out how this episode between him and Akane would end. The breeze continued to tease them gently, occasionally splashing him with miniscule droplets of water enough for him to feel on his face but not enough for him to change into a girl.
He heard her sigh beside him, and he changed his position, shifting to face her. He could see her delicate profile outlined by the reddish light, her lashes, moist and spiky from crying, casting shadows on her cheeks.
"When we were little, Nabiki was always the smart one, so great at Math, and Kasumi was so good at doing everything around the house," she said, pausing as she absently tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and she continued to stare wistfully into the water. She turned to look at him and smiled at him ruefully. "I was just... I was just Akane. I always tried so hard at everything, but I was never really good at anything, except maybe martial arts, and you've told me I'm not that good at that either."
He winced inwardly. He never realized that she took his insults so seriously. He never meant to make her feel... "Akane, I..." he began, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, a pained look on his face.
"No, no, you don't have to... make me feel better... it's true," she said, sighing and laying her head on her knees and turning her face away from him again. "Even as a martial artist, I'm nothing special. Ukyo can beat me hands down in combat, and so can Shampoo. And they both cook so well..."
He watched her shrug her shoulders almost imperceptibly, another soft sigh escaping her lips. "And... and... well... I'm still just... I'm still just Akane."
He stared at her silently for the longest time, knowing she was wrong, but not quite knowing what to say to make her realize it. Still, he had to try.
He took a deep breath and tugged his braid nervously. "No," he finally said, releasing his pent-up breath in a whoosh.
"No?" she asked, her head suddenly swinging around again, her brown eyes pinning his gaze, a puzzled frown creasing her face. She released her legs and moved around to face him, planting her one of her hands by her hip for support, the other hand idly playing with her skirt. She was studying him curiously, head slightly tipped to one side. He shifted, uncomfortable under her steady gaze, but glad that curiosity, not sadness, was causing the glint in her eyes at the moment.
"No, you're not 'just' Akane."
To his surprise, the memory of when they first met suddenly crowded his mind - her tentative smile, her offer of friendship, the only welcoming gesture in a strange house for a strange girl who was supposed to be a boy; it washed over him, warming him, and making him want her to see it.
"When... when Pop first brought me to your house, you... you were only one who asked me to be... to be your friend," he said, gazing earnestly into her puzzled eyes, struggling to make himself understood. "You... you smiled at me." He paused, suddenly at a loss for what to say next, tweaking his pigtail nervously.
He took another deep breath. "You smiled at me," he said again. "And... and to me, well... that's you, Akane. Not cookin' or martial arts or anythin' you think you aren't good at." He cleared his throat again, rubbing his the back of his neck awkwardly and ducking his head.
"Ranma..."
"Don't interrupt me, Akane," he exclaimed, irritated because, now that it mattered, he couldn't find the right words to say. Or maybe... he just didn't have the guts to say them. He squeezed his eyes shut. He wouldn't look at her.
He didn't want to look at her.
He felt a blush creeping across his face, but he finally forced the words out. "Akane... I know I'm such a baka... and... I say the dumbest things to you about stuff like that... but, you know, I... I..." He took a deep breath. "I... I kinda... I sorta... I l-like _j-just Akane' just fine." He mumbled the last few words, feeling the heat in his face rise even higher.
"What?" he heard her exclaim beside him, causing his eyes to fly open. He was not going to look... he was not going to look... But it was too late, she was there, she was on her knees, bending and peering up at him, her brown eyes wide with disbelief and... and something else. "What did you just say?"
He grit his teeth and snapped his head up to escape those eyes. "I said... I said... IKINDALIKEYOUJUSTFINE, okay? There, happy now?" he growled out, his entire body tensing as he waited for her reaction.
She feel back on the ground beside him with a gasp. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the beginnings of a smile dawn on her face and it drew his gaze, making him turn his head towards her. He returned her smile shyly.
They looked at each other for a few moments, seeing one another in the light of new discoveries. In the meantime the red glow of the sunset sky had given way to a dusky pink-tinged purple. Both broke the stare at the same time, blushing, and Ranma looked at the sky to find the first star of the night winking back at him.
"First star out," Akane murmured, seeing it too, then closing her eyes to make a wish.
Ranma, feeling foolish but getting into the mood of the moment, made a wish of his own.
"Were you... were you really were worried about me?" she asked him hesitantly, breaking the silence.
He cleared his throat in embarrassment, totally off balance now. "What did you expect?" he snorted, trying to restore a sense of normalcy between them. "How could I have any peace of mind knowing a mega-klutz like you was wanderin' the city with an empty stomach? Akane no baka!" he concluded in disgust, then braced himself, this time actually wanting her to bash him unconscious.
She didn't. She laughed. "You don't have your insults right," she said, eyes twinkling, the wistful look gone. "I'm supposed to be the 'kawaikunee tomboy' -- you're supposed to be the 'baka'."
She sobered, hesitating for a moment, then leaned forward and gently kissed his cheek.
The kiss was feather light, her lips, soft as a whisper, brushing against his cheek, tickling it like a butterfly's wings, a comforting warmth quickly spreading from it to wash all over him. He felt her dart away -- too soon, he thought -- and saw a splash of pink flare on her cheeks before she retreated to her side, away from his stunned gaze.
"I... I kinda... I kinda like you, too, Ranma Saotome," she said in a breathless voice, sounding a little stunned by what she had just done herself. He turned to her in bemusement, taking in the sight of her pink cheeks, wide eyes, and shy smile. She was so... kawaii.
"Akane, I... I..." he began, not really having anything to say, just wanting to hear his voice to make sure that this was real. But before he could say any more, she had pulled herself to her feet in one smooth motion. He followed her with his eyes, still rather dazed, admiring the graceful silhouette she made against the twilight sky. The shy smile was still hovering on her mouth as she looked down at him and held out her hand, offering to pull him up.
His stomach suddenly growled loud enough for her to hear, and they both laughed, breaking the spell. He frowned up at her. "I just remembered -- Nabiki called to say she and Kasumi wouldn't be home 'til after dinner. If you're never cooking again... who's cooking dinner? I haven't had anything since breakfast."
He saw a look of surprise on her face. "You mean... you mean you didn't have lunch at Ucchan's or at the Nekohanten when you left the house?"
"No, I was in the dojo practicing kata... waiting for you."
"Oh." There was a short pause and he saw the beginnings of yet another smile. He didn't mind -- he was beginning to realize that he would never get tired of seeing her smile. "Well... now that you've mentioned it, I'm hungry, too. Since Oneechan won't be home, do you want to pass by Ucchan's for dinner?" she asked him.
He just stared at her, feeling his stomach twist again.
"Ranma? Hello? Anybody home?" she asked, chuckling as she waved her hand in front of his face playfully.
"I've got a better idea," he finally said, getting a grip on himself and grinning up at her as he took her hand and nimbly pulled himself up. But he didn't release his grip on her hand even after he was standing. It felt... it kind of felt good, having her small hand nestled against his much larger palm. It almost felt as good as... He cleared his throat, pushing the thought away. "How about... how about both of us cook dinner at home instead?"
He felt her stiffen and saw a frown of apprehension crease her brow at his words. Then, he watched the frown smooth itself away and melt into one of her slowly-blooming grins.
"Okay," she agreed, returning his grin with her cheerful smile. The saucy tilt was back in her chin, that glint of determination sparking dark fire in her eyes. "But this time, YOU make sure it doesn't get burned." At this, she gently took her hand from his, and he felt vaguely disappointed by the loss.
The thought was jolted from him as he felt her tag him on the shoulder.
"Race you home!" she quipped and, after shooting a final goading grin over her shoulder at him, took off.
Yes, she was definitely back. He suddenly felt much better, grinning even wider, never mind his roaring stomach. Taking one last look at the star that had granted his wish, he whispered a thank you, and gave chase.
Behind him the early evening breeze whispered its approval, carrying the sound of their laughter around Nerima long after the two of them had reached home.
- fin -