Sorry for the delay, to those of you that bother to read this
fanfic. :)

        
                                'And Life Goes On'
 
                        Part 1, chapter 11: Shadows Of The Pride
 
 
        "I'm sorry about Shampoo, Akane." Ranma apologized as
 Akane looked out over the balcony. After Ranma had 'accepted'
 Shampoo's request to stay over at the Tendo dojo, Akane had
 refused to talk to Ranma. "She misunderstood me, and asking
 Shampoo-" Akane turned to look Ranma straight in the eye,
 her eyes beginning to water.
 
        "SHUT UP, Ranma! I've had enough! What makes you
 think I ever cared about you, anyway?" His mouth opened, but
 no answer came out. "If you think I'm jealous about Shampoo
 or any other of your fiancees, the you've got more than just a
 few screws loose!" After promptly delivering a blow to Ranma's
 stomach, Akane left the balcony.
 
 
 
        The pain was overwhelming. It wasn't the punch, Ranma
 hadn't even noticed that. No, it was what Akane said to him. He
 had heard words of anger and denial from her so often that he
 had come to expect it and even grown to like it. But for the first
 time ever the words wounded him. 
 
        *She... she hates me!* He thought desperately. *And all
 this time I thought... I thought... how could I have been so blind!
 She despises me! What am I going to do?* He wanted to cry.
 And yell. And jump off the balcony. Not that jumping off the
 balcony would do any good, he could jump off the empire state
 building and be just fine. 
        "Ranma, you come to bed now!" A pair of arms came
 from behind Ranma, hugging him tightly, and a locket of purple
 hair covered his face. "You need get sleep for important match
 tomorrow. After all, you no want loose, right? But Kuno should be
 easy to beat! You no need worry!" When Shampoo realized that
 Ranma hadn't complained or even squirmed yet, she checked to
 make sure if he was still breathing.
 
        "Is Ranma all ok?" She asked. He nodded his head.
 "Ranma! Oh, at last you belong to Shampoo!"
 
        "Wha?" A part of his mind wondered why he wasn't taking
 Shampoo's arms off of him, or try to make it a little clearer
 that he did not belong to Shampoo, but he didn't really have an
 answer. His mind was simply too numb for any sort of thinking.
 
        "Why, that we can finally get married! Now that you
 know that you love me-"
 
        "Not today, Shampoo." 
 
        "You sure you're ok, Ranma?"
 
        "I'm all right." Ranma wished he could tell somebody
 about his problem with Akane. But everybody he knew would
 beat him up if they found out that he was in love with Akane.
 Why did his life have to be so hard?
 
        "Shampoo love you, you know that, right?" She
 whispered softly into his ear, running her fingers along the
 outline of his face.
 
        "Y-yeah..."
 
        "Ranma love Shampoo, too. And when two people love
 each other, they get married. So it be only right that we do."
 By now, Shampoo had pulled Ranma's face so that they were
 now about an inch apart.
 
        "Bu-but what about Ku-Kuno." Despite the fact that
 half the time Ranma's gender was female, and had seen a
 female body thousands of times, it still made him nervous to
 be so close to another female body. Especially Shampoo's.
 
        "Shampoo won't have to marry him if we complete that
 marriage. And Shampoo not care about that, Ranma will defeat
 Kuno early tomorrow."
 
        "Shampoo, lets get-" Ranma didn't get to say what he
 wanted to get, as that moment he had found Shampoo's lips
 pressed hard against his. 
 
 
        It was one of the best moments in the world for Shampoo.
 The dirt she had carried around with her all day disappeared as
 she kissed her love for the third time. Flowers popped around the
 kissing couple, violins played romantic melodies, and a cupid was
 seen nearby. Their lips only started to part after a long while,
 Shampoo hanging onto the kiss because she wanted to, and
 Ranma did because he was in such shock. 
 
        "Oh, Ranma..." She whispered, her heart felt the same joy
 when Romeo and Juliet first kissed. "Let do that again..."
 Ranma gulped, his joy equal to that when the people on the
 Titanic realized that the ship was sinking. Approaching his
 lips with her again, she was stopped as Ranma pushed her
 away, fear clearly visible in his eyes. "Something wrong,
 Ranma?"
 
        "W-we can't do this, Shampoo! I mean, you're going to
 be married to Kuno soon-" Shampoo snuggled up against
 Ranma's chest, not noticing how tense his braid was getting.
 
        "Oh, I still married to you. And Shampoo will never
 marry Kuno, since Ranma defeat him before anything bad
 happen. We can do this all night, and much more."
        "Shampoo- I'm sorry." Before she could protest, he
 stood up, dumping Shampoo roughly back onto the wooden floor,
 and jumped off the porch and into the night.
 
        "Ranma, you no run away from me!" She yelled, following
 Ranma.
 
        ...Or what she believed to be Ranma. He watched as Shampoo
 chased after somebody else, sitting at the base of a tree in the Tendo
 backyard.
 
 
        "Ranma come back! You no should be running at night,
 Ranma need rest!" After running after him for about half a mile,
 Shampoo had completely lost track of him. "RANMA!" So instead,
 she resorted to calling out to him, ignoring the complaints she received
 from the Nerima citizens for disturbing the peace.
 
        "Shampoo." The word- or name, in this case- was spoken
 quietly, but Shampoo picked it up. Turning around, she saw Kuno; her
 heart sank when she saw that in his arms he held a bouquet of roses. 
 
        "Shampoo not interested in you!" She cried, disturbed deeply
 that Kuno may like her after all. After having watched Ranma and Akane
 have to deal with him for months, she knew he was a worse pain than
 Mousse could ever be.
 
        "I have pondered for a long time about you have told me this
 afternoon... indeed, you are worthy enough to date with me, for you
 are strong, stronger than my dear Tendo Akane, and nearly as fair as
 my pig-tailed goddess. However-" He took a deep breath, as if to
 draw strength from the air to help him aid in what he was
 going to say next, "Two true loves are enough for me. Two is a
 blessing, and three is a crowd. I hope that you shall be content
 enough in being my friend."
 
        "Then what the roses for, dumb boy?"
 
        "These?" He looked at the roses, admiring them. "These
 are for me beloved pig tailed goddess. I have not have had the
 pleasure of being in her presence, and I do miss her. You would
 not happen to know where she has gone, would you?"
        
        
        "He makes me so mad!" Akane exclaimed. "Where did
 he get the idea that HE could invite guests to OUR home? And it
 was Shampoo! He's such a jerk!"
 
        "Don't you think he's acting a bit odd?" Nabiki asked, twirling
 a pencil in her hand. As a child, she used to bite on the eraser, but
 not did she look utterly repulsive as she did, she found it could be
 considered a nervous habit, damaging the view she could gain as a
 business woman. She had forced herself to stop, although she
 couldn't help twirling her pencil from time to time.
 
        "I hate having to deal with him all the time! And- What?"
 
        "Nothing. Just wondering aloud."
 
        "Actually, now that you mentioned it..." Akane racked her
 memory, remembering what Ranma had told her earlier. "He said to
 me-" Suddenly she remembered to whom she was talking to.
 "Nice try, Nabiki."
 
        "Oh, Akane, you don't think I'm going to harm your fianc�
 with this information, do you?"
 
        "No, I'm afraid you'll harm me."
 
        "Trustworthy little sister, aren't you? Don't worry, Akane,
 nothing awful will come out of this."
 
        "I'm going to trust my gut instinct, Nabiki. Besides, it's none
 of my business."       
 
        "Oh, is it really?" Nabiki's eyes glinted with evil- or maybe
 just the light- and held up a small book with a blue cover, and on
 the front written in delicate letters, 'Diary'. Akane gasped.
 
        "Nabiki, you wouldn't!" Surprising Akane by throwing
 the book into her hands, she turned to look out the window.
 
        "You're right. I wouldn't. You're family."
        "You didn't read it, did you?"
        "Akane, do you realize that's what an amateur would do?
 There's no challenge in reading a diary; even Ranma would be able
 to do that. You should start hiding your things more carefully,
 Akane, if you want your life to be remotely private."
 
        "I can't believe you're my sister. Sisters don't do things like
 this!"
 
        "Show me a sister who doesn't take advantage of her siblings
 weakness, and I'll give you a thousand yen." A soft knock came
 from the door, the person on the other side then opened the door
 gently.
 
        "Nabiki, Akane, I just wanted to say good night, I have to get
 up early tomorrow so I'm going to bed early."
 
        "There's your sister, Nabiki." She smiled smugly at Nabiki,
 Nabiki only realizing then what a stupid bet she had made.
 "Goodnight, Kasumi-onnechan."
 
        "I don't believe I said that." Nabiki muttered, as she drew some
 money from her wallet. "Good night, Kasumi."
 
        After Kasumi left the room, Akane couldn't chanting, "I'm
 smarter than Nabiki, I'm smarter than Nabiki." Watching her little sister
 with the utmost calm, she vowed silently to, in some slight way,
 bring harm to Ranma with his latest quirk. <And she is NOT
 smarter than me!>
        

	This part took a life of it's own. Normally I had some
form of outsline I want to follow in a part, but this time 
I pretty much ignored it. The original ending of this part
was rather lame, and was contemplating what to do when I rememberd
a line in the Simpsons from a Halloween ep, so I decided
to put it in there (Yes, I realize Akane isn't THAT childish,
but I couldn't resist).


	Isabel Arantes