Tadaima: I'm home
 
 
                                And Life Goes On
 
        Part 1, chapter 8: Playing With your Mind, That's All
        
 
        As Shampoo broke off the kiss with Kuno, she shoved him
 away. She had done it, she obeyed the amazon law as far as she had
 to, and by no means would she go any further. Instead, she ran right
 out, trough the wall as Kuno watched her.
 
        <She does kiss well... maybe I should reconsider adding her to
 the list of my true loves?> He got back up to his feet, and holding his
 hands to his heart, he loudly declared,
 
         "No! My love shall forever remain for Tendo Akane and the
 Pig-tailed girl! No other woman is worthy of this fine soul!"
 
        
        "Ok Ranma, you want to prove you're innocent?" Nabiki asked,
 propping her elbows on the table. Ranma, who had a rice cake stuffed in
 his mouth, mumbled some incompressible answer. "Swallowing before
 answering might help, Saotome." He followed her advice.
 
        "Innocent to what?"
 
        "Innocent to loosing to Kuno this morning." 
 
        "You saw that?" Nabiki took this as a bad sign; she had
 expected the idiot to jump at her offer, bringing her an easy 1500 yen
 Obviously he all ready had proof that Kuno had not been a victor, or he
 didn't care. The latter was so improbable that Nabiki didn't even give it
 any further thought.
 
        "Yes, I saw it. I bet you're worried how to clear your name."
 First thing to do was to find out what he had; next was to prove her
 proof was better than what he all ready had.
 
        "Well, um, yeah, I guess, kinda...." She didn't know what
 to make out of this. Ranma was the worst liar she ever met, and if
 he was truly trying to lie about not caring, this was the best job he'd
 ever done of faking it. But she refused to believe that; was Ranma
 really uninterested not being the best anymore?
 
        "Kuno does deserve to be the best, though." If he didn't
 contradict this, Nabiki would know that he needed to be taken to a
 doctor, and fast.
 
        "He does not!- I mean, the guy needs a break and maybe as
 his ego gets larger so will his skills and give me more of a challenge."
 That made sense, but Nabiki was still convinced that maybe Kuno
 had whacked him too good a whack.
 
        "Are you sure you're all right, Ranma?"
 
        "Of course I'm fi-"
 
        "Tadaima!" Akane walked into the dinning room, her bag in
 hand.
 
        "A-A-Akane!" Ranma stammered, stunned. He was expecting to
 see her in another hour or so, so he had not had time to make himself
 be 'mean' to her again. "Weren't you going to the movies?"
 
        "Yeah, but my friends wanted to see 'Golden Eye'. I left after 10
 minutes, the movie was so boring." she flung her bag into some corner
 of the room, took a seat next to Ranma and picked up a rice cake. Ranma
 turned pale and jumped about twenty feet away from her. "My, aren't we
 jumpy today."
 
        "Bye bye!" He exclaimed, and rushed out of the room. Akane and
 Nabiki looked at each other.
 
        "What's into him?" Akane asked, biting into the rice cake.
 
        "That's what I've been trying to find out."
 
 
 
 
<<Comercial Break>>
 
        Shampoo-neko sat on the top of the table gently licked
 her paw; Cologne, at the same table, was reading some book in
 Chinese. The two went on doing these activities calmly,
 appreciating the quiet moment.
 
        "Excuse me, madam?" A voice asked from behind the
 camera. Both of them looked up. "Do you have any problems with
 your kitty litter?"
 
        "Of course not! "Cologne cried, idignated. Shampoo-neko's
 eyes turned into little slits, bared her teeth, and could be heard
 thinking,
 
        <WHAT?!>
 
         The screen moved onto a picture of cat pushing his paw in
 a kitty-box filled with some kitty litter, and a box of 'Fresh-scent
 Scoop' next to it. "Um, you need Fresh-scent scoop, lady. It
 freshens with every step, and can be easily scooped up!"
 
        The scene sifts back to Cologne (Shampoo-neko is gone).
 "Now, isn't that much better than your old kitty-litter?"
 
         With an amused look, she responded, "That does sound
 good."
 
        "Fresh-scent Scoop- Um, who are you miss, and would you
 please put of some clothes?! Well, don't put the clothes back on bu-"
 Another voice joined the guy behind the camera.
 
        "Shampoo not let you get away with calling her smelly!
 Shampoo never so humiliated in her whole entire LIFE!" Yells, cracks
 and cried for mercy was now coming out from behind the screen. 
 
        A picture of a cat smiling comes on, replacing the current
 scene. "We are experiencing technical difficulties; please wait."
 
 
<<End commercial break>>
 
 
 
 
        He laid on his futon, his face stuffed in his pillow. This was NOT
 good. At all. For the past half hour Ranma had spent reviving the memory
 of all the cruel things Akane had ever done to him- everything
 from hogging the bathroom that morning to hitting him with
 the table on the first day they met. This was a technique that
 had always worked before, when he wanted to be especially
 mad at her. But now, when he needed it the most.
 
        Sleep. That was the ticket. He hadn't gotten enough sleep
 that night, that was why his was confused. Oh, what a relief!
 When he woke up, he wouldn't think twice of Akane.
 
        
        Not taking care to be quiet, Nabiki opened the door to
 Ranma's room. She knew damn well that he could sleep through
 anything; another great advantage Nabiki had over Ranma.
 
         Rummaging around the room, she tried to find out what was
 wrong with Ranma. After knowing Ranma for two hours, you
 could be sure of at least to things
 
         1) This undying need of being the best martial-artist,
 and 2) He denied often of any feeling for her little sister. And both
 of these things he did not stand up to. Nabiki knew something was
 wrong, and she had to find out fast, or else she'd miss out on
 money-catching opportunity.
 
         When she checked to see if Ranma was all right, she nearly
 jumped out of her skin when she heard him mutter, "Akane..." Was
 he awake and think she was Akane? Realizing he was only dreaming,
 she inspected him even closer. He was relaxed, a lazy smile
 stretched across his face. "...Ok..."
 
        <What IS he dreaming about?>
 
 
 
 
        As it turned out, 'he' was having a very pleasant dream.
 Almost as soon as he had ht the gates of dreamy-dream-land, he met
 Akane. She smiled at him, and held something behind her back.
 "Hello, Ranma."
 
        "Akane..." She titled her head to the right, closing her eyes
 and smiling even more. "What are you doing here?" Opening her
 eyes, she pulled out what she had been hiding from behind her.
 
        "I made this just for you!" Even if it was just a dream,
 Ranma could feel his stomach tightening. She held out a tray of food;
 and if what she said was true, she had cooked it. He looked closer,
 wanting to make sure that there were no unnecessary green blobs or
 any other obvious mistakes. He couldn't find any; Akane's food had
 finally passed the sight test, and also the smell test. "Won't you try some?"
 
        How could he say no? She looked so pleased with her
 herself, and hopeful. "...Ok..." Taking the plate from her, he
 sat on the ground setting the try in front of him, and picked up
 a piece with a pair of chopsticks. Taking a deep breath, he ate
 it. He was so astonished that he nearly choked.
 
        "You don't like it?" Akane asked, on the verge of tears.
 Holding his hand to his neck,
 
        "No! It was great! I mean it!" He couldn't remember a
 time when she had been happier. she threw her arms around him.
 
        "Oh, I'm so happy! Oh, I'm so happy! I'm so happy!
 So happy! Happy!"
 
        
 
 
        Nabiki repeated various times, "I'm so happy!"  to tease
 Ranma, and also as an experiment.. He blinked, as he slowly woke up.
 
        "Na-nabiki... what re you doing?"
 
        "I'm just playing with you mind. That's all."
 
 
 

	Hi hi! Did the commercial thing go well? I've been meaning
to write it up for a while, but I don't know if it quite fits
in the story.
	Anyway, you know what my life is like, pretty much? I
go to school, and use computer. I spend most of my time waiting
on the computer for some response to my latest chapter. Isn't
that sad? So, to keep me from waiting and never getting anything,
please comment! :)



	Isabel Arantes
		terrin@netcom.com