And Life Goes On
 
                Part 1, chapter 6: Won't You Dream of Me?
 
 
        "So, Kuno got the better of you?" Cologne asked Ranma, sitting
 on her stick.
 
        "He did not get the better of me! He just... knocked me out."
 
        "Same thing. Shampoo you know what this means, right?" Shampoo
 smiled without an ounce of worry.
 
        "It not mean thing, since I know Ranma will defeat Kuno again.
 Right?"
 
        "Of course I am! No way am I going to let Kuno get away with it."
 Shampoo hugged him, sharply cutting of Ranma's air supply.
        "Oh, I knew you not let pervert like Kuno marry Shampoo!"
 
        "That's good to hear, Ranma. Having a rich son-in-law like
 Kuno would be a drag,"
 
        "Son-in-law? Kuno? What are toy talking about?"
 
        "By law Shampoo is married Kuno, unless you defeat him in
 two week."
 
        "Really?" Ranma ate his ramen, and thoughtful look on his face.
 
        "Well, great-granddaughter, even if Ranma is going to win you
 back soon enough, you still have to break the news to Kuno. And try
 to lure him into the wedding ceremony." Shampoo sighed, not looking
 forward to having to 'love' someone other than Ranma. 
 
        "So what plan I try today?" 
 
        "Well, first we have to find out what Ku- son-in-law wants
 most, and-" She looked over at Ranma, who was looking VERY
 interested in this conversation. "You'd best leave, Ranma. Shampoo
 and I have important things to discuss."
 
        "Well, ok, have ta go to school anyhow." Ranma walked out the
 door, whistling some nameless tune. Shampoo looked at the closed door,
 shook a little, and turned to look at her great-grandmother.
 
        "Great-grandmother, does Shampoo have to go after Kuno?!"
 
        "Patience, child. You yourself where the one who told me to have
 more confidence in Ranma. Now, the way to go after Kuno is..."
 
 
 
        Ranma walked along the fence, not paying much attention to where
 he was going; instead, he was pondering on what to do. He couldn't think
 of a better way to get rid of Shampoo than dumping her onto Kuno. Well,
 he could come out and tell her the thought of marrying her was non-existent,
 but he wasn't going got do that anytime soon. Not unless he was in the mood
 for being an omelet, that is. Which he wasn't.
 
        But just letting Kuno have his victory... he'd never hear the end
 of it. Just the thought of doing that made Ranma sick to his stomach.
 Never having to worry about one of his catastrophic fiancees would be
 terrific! But maybe it wasn't worth the humiliation.
 
        He stood, concentrating entirely on thinking. If he got rid of
 Shampoo for good, Akane would get mad at him less, resulting in less
 fighting and maybe, just maybe they could resolve their problems and
 get ma-
 
        Tipping over to his left, he fell into the river below, breaking his,
 now hers, train of thought. But she did remember thinking about the
 m-word, and relating it to Akane. Climbing back onto land, she shivered,
 partially because she was covered with cold water, and partially because
 she had almost asked IT. The question greater than what was the meaning
 of life, or what was at the end of the universe, or even the question of
 what was going to be served for dinner. If she wanted to marry Akane.
 The unthinkable. The answer that was supposed to forever remain at 'no'.
 
        Ranma-chan remained clinging to the fence for a long, long time.
 
 
 
 
        She was worried. Oh, she tried to hide it by participating in class,
 looking out the window, the usual. Maybe the fooled everyone, but she
 could hide it from herself. Akane knew it had been a mistake to let
 Shampoo take Ranma. For all she knew, Shampoo had managed to push
 Ranma though a wedding ceremony while he was unconscious. Akane
 didn't put it past Shampoo to do that.
 
        In another useless attempt to forget about it, Akane started to
 sharpen her pencil.
 
        "Hi there, Akane-chan."
 
        "Hi, Ukyou." Tchik, tchik.
 
        "Why're you sharpening your pencil? It's lunch."
 
        "I know." Tchik, tchik.
 
        "Is it true Kuno beat Ran-chan? Where is he, anyway?"
 
        "Yes, Kuno beat Ranma, probably Nekohanten." Tchik, tchik.
 
        "Nekohanten? What's he doing there?"
 
        "Don't know. Shampoo took him." Tchik, tchik.
 
        "You let Shampoo take Ran-chan to the Nekohanten?!"
 
        "It's none of my business." Tchik, tchik.
 
        "Oh, great. I'm going to check on him."
 
        "Wait, Ukyou?"
 
        "What?" Akane lifted her now one inch small pencil.
 
        "Could you lend me a pencil? I over sharpened mine." Sighing since
 she had to bother, Ukyou searched in her nag for a pencil, tossed it to
 Akane, running out of the room.
 
 
 
        Every year Nabiki signed up for Photography for two semesters.
 Next to economics and math, photography was her favorite subject. Since
 at home she didn't have a dark room, or couldn't ask other people to develop
 her photos (A deal is a deal; Nabiki never showed an undiscriminating photo
 to anyone, once the price had been paid), during photography class was the
 only time Nabiki had a chance to develop them.
 
        Looking up from the book she was reading '1001 Ways To Avoid Fake
 Sex Scandals' to check on her photos, most of which had started to clear.
 She blinked, and leaned in closer, surprised by the evidence that was showed
 in the picture. When she felt it was ok, she picked one of them up with a pair
 of tongs, and took a closer look. A scary smile took over her face, as she
 calculated it's new worth.
 
        <The price has doubled, Saotome. Hope you can pay it.>
        


	Isabel Arantes

		terrin@netcom.com