A Lesson In Trust
by Marisa Price

These characters are the creation of Rumiko Takahashi and the property of
Viz Video,
Shogukun?, Kitty Animation, etc. This doc not for sale, etc.

The basic idea of this story:
	This story is what takes place right after the final Ranma 1/2 manga.
Should be typical Ranma Universe, might add a VERY VERY VERY mild lemon in
fourth
part. No other odd happenings... everything in the Ranma Universe is
"traditional."
(I hope)

Part I: After the "Wedding Fiasco" (complete) Sections A, B, & C.
Part II: Okonomiyaki and Jealousy (working on it)
Part III: Off to China (not even close)
Part IV: The Beach and Night (I have an idea, may have very very mild lemon)
Part V: Parting as Friends (nope not done)
*************************
A Lesson In Trust

PART I: AFTER THE "WEDDING FIASCO"
Section A
	Furinken High, never the ideal educational establishment,
felt particularly strange to Ranma and Akane on the day after what
everyone in the Tendo and Saotome families were referring to as the 
"Wedding Fiasco." All in all it was a quiet day, not a squabble, 
obsessed maniac, or martial arts duel to be seen. Anyone who lived
in Nerima knew that the quiet itself made the day especially bizarre.
Ranma and Akane had run to school together, late as always, and 
everything seemed to being going well between them. Akane was being 
nice to Ranma and Ranma hadn't said anything stupid for at least an hour.
	Things were just not normal. Something was just BOUND to happen.
	At lunch the hot gossip was that Akane hadn't beat up Ranma all day. 
The explanation, including Ranma's trip to China, Akane's near death, 
and the failed wedding, was not yet general knowledge on the Furinken 
campus. That is, until Nabiki whipped out photographs and offered to 
tell the story (for a price of course.) It was, to say the least, a 
profitable day for Nabiki.
	Akane sat under a tree with two of her friends, Ranma was about 
20 feet away on some benches talking to some guys. Both were totally 
oblivious to the crowd encircling Nabiki on the other end of the lawn. 
Akane was just at that moment thanking the powers that be that her 
friends hadn't heard anything about the "fiasco"; Akane didn't even 
want to have to think about it. Suddenly she heard someone behind her 
say, "So, Akane, is it true that you and Ranma almost got married yesterday?"
	Akane turned bright red as she choked on her food. She coughed 
and hacked until she got herself under control and then stuttered out, 
"Uh... well... not exactly.... I... I mean Ranma and I... no!... my
father..." She stopped and blushed furiously.
	Another group of girls joined the rapidly gathering crowd 
around Akane. One asked, "Did you really almost die in China, Akane? 
And Ranma saved you?"
	Akane looked as if she would have liked to sink into a hole 
in the ground. Nabiki walked up with a smirk on her face and said, 
"Oh it's true all right. It was so....so... touching....." (she grinned
a wicked grin) "then they were supposed to get married because Ranma was 
scared he would lose her.... and the wedding was disrupted by those 
jealous of their love..."
Akane rolled her eyes and commented, "Love. Right. Whatever."
Nabiki paused and whipped out the photos again, saying, "Here are some 
pictures if anyone wants to see. 100 yen apiece."
Akane stared.  Then she said, angrily, "Nabiki!!!"
One of Akane's friends sighed, looking at a picture, and said, "Wow Akane. 
You are so lucky... 'betcha he told you he loved you and swept you off your 
feet with a kiss...."
	Akane just looked at the ground. The crowd continued talking about 
Nabiki's version of the story, a complete fantasy fairy tale, and Akane began
to look more and more troubled. Akane figured Ranma loving her and admitting
it was just that: a fantasy.
	She wondered to herself, "I know he cares about me... but he has never
said he loves me." 
 	Akane looked over at the baka, impossible to miss in his red satin shirt 
in the sea of black and white uniforms, where he said with his friends on the 
benches. Ranma, of course, had his back to Akane and to the crowd discussing
him.
	"Oblivious idiot," Akane muttered.
	Of course, Akane didn't consider that he was probably being 
interrogated too.
	One guy said, "So, man, Kuno told us you tried to marry his 'fair Akane 
Tendo' and said that he broke the thing up."
	Ranma groaned, "Come on guys. Ain't nothin personal?"
	Another guy elbowed Ranma and asked, winking his eye, "So... dija do...
'it'.. yet with Akane? I mean since you thought you would be married and
all...."
	At this point Ranma was totally pissed off, embarrassed, and confused.
These guys were touching a subject Ranma felt VERY uncomfortable about. Ranma 
jumped up, and, as usual, opened his mouth without thinking and shouted, "Lay 
off man! Like I would do that with an uncute tomboy like Akane anyway!!"
	Akane, and everyone else, stiffened as they heard Ranma's shout.
Everyone turned to Akane to see what she would do. Akane looked furious. She 
got up and stomped over to Ranma and hit him on the head shouting, "BAKA!!!!!" 
Then, tears filling her eyes, she turned and ran out of the school gate.
	Ranma, a bit delirious from the punch, still saw the tears and thought,
"Me and my big mouth," before getting up to run after her.
	The tittering in the Furinken High yard began again and someone commented
 loudly, "Well at least things are back to normal!"
                                        *******
	Of course, things really weren't back to normal, but everyone wanted
to believe they were. The scene at the Nekkohanten was familiar at least... 
but a certain unfamiliar feeling ran through Shampoo.
	Mousse had done it again. Shampoo sighed as she place a cool wet cloth
on his bruised and bleeding forehead and securely tucked the sheets around him.
	Mousse was knocked out cold; or else he would probably be raving something
about her "great beauty" or his joy at her "tender" ministrations. Shampoo
sighed
again, pulling off Mousse's glasses. She held them up to the light, and the
myriad 
of cracks and chips caused a prismatic light to glow through the thick glass, 
leaving a rainbow on the nearby wall. 
	"Great-grandmother," Shampoo turned and yelled to Cologne, who was busy
in the kitchen creating her special Amazon-style ramen for their dinner.
	"Yes Shampoo?" Cologne asked as she hopped in on her giant staff, her gnarled
body wrapped around it like monkey grabbing at the limb of a tree. Long
swirling white
hair, the only remnant of her 275-year ago Amazonian beauty, swirled around
her like
a cape. She looked down at Mousse, the blood from a cut on his forehead
running on 
her recently cleaned pillows.
	"What happened this time, Shampoo?" she asked, always ready to be amused by 
this obsessed would-be-fiancee of her great-granddaughter's.
	Shampoo threw her hands up in the air, and then crossed them against her chest.
She adopted a perturbed look and began, *Well today when I was making a
delivery, two
men tried take the ramen. . .*
	Cologne nodded in encouragement for her to go on.
	*And, as usual, stupid Mousse appeared and tried to stop the men. He never
realizes that I can defend myself!* she grimaced in exasperation, her hands
falling 
to her sides in clenched fists, before she continued, *Mousse got wet when
he fell into
a puddle he couldn't see and became a duck. But still he tried to defend me!
He is so
stupid!*
	She grimaced, her eyes narrowing as she considered the situation, and then
said, "And did they get the ramen, Shampoo?"
	"Aiyaa!" Shampoo said, slipping into Japanese. "Yes they get ramen because
Shampoo have to run back and save Mousse. Stupid, stupid, Mousse," Shampoo
stood and
walked into the kitchen, opening a sizable drawer. She pulled out a pair of
glasses, 
a particularly strong pair, from the large assortment collected there for
"accidents."
	Shampoo sat down again, placed the glasses on Mousse's face. She dropped her
hands into her lap and stared at the floor.
	Cologne was amused. She shook her head as she walked out of the room, sensing
that the ramen was ready, chuckling. She thought, "That Mousse just tries
too hard.
That on has been trying too hard all his life, poor fool." Out loud she
said, "I will
come back to stitch him up in a while, I have to prepare the materials."
	Shampoo looked at her hands, still folded in her lap, time passing without
notice. She was startled when she realized Mousse had been staring at her
for several
minutes, and one of his hands now covered her own.
	Mousse smiled at her, a tight painful smile, and said, "You stayed, Shampoo.
You took care of me. Thank-you. I only wish I could have..."
	Shampoo stood up quickly, pulling her hands from Mousse's. She shouted at him,
"How many times Shampoo need tell Mousse no need protect Shampoo!"
	Mousse tried sitting up, causing blood to start trickling from his head again,
and he looked more than a bit dizzy, "I am sorry Shampoo, I was only doing
what I
thought was right."
	He began to look pale and started to fall sideways.
	"Mousse!" Shampoo shouted, catching him before he could fall and laying
him back against the pillow. *You stay in bed Mousse! The cut is deep!
Great-grandmother
will give you stitches soon.*
	He just smiled that sad smile again and said, *I'm all right now, Shampoo.
Honestly I am. And I am sorry if you don't want me to defend you. I... I
just can't
seem to help it sometimes... you see... as the one you have chose to defend you,
that cursed Ranma Saotome, has left you time and time again to save that
Akane Tendo...
someone else has to...*
	Shampoo cut him off, *Ranma doesn't love Akane! They fight! Ranma will realize
soon that I am better, just you wait Mousse. You leave Ranma and I alone!"
	*Will he defend you in the crucial moment, Shampoo?* Mousse smiled, and, his
eyes growing heavy, sank back down on the bed and fell asleep.
	Shampoo remembered the battle against Monlon (SP??) when Ranma had left her to
fight and had gone on himself to help Akane. She had survived, and won, but.
. . he had
left her behind. Shampoo stood, upset now, and strode out to the front of
the Cat-Cafe,
unlocking her bicycle.
	Cologne called from the kitchen, "Where are you going Shampoo?"
	Shampoo poked her head back in the cafe and said to her great-grandmother, fury
still lighting her eyes, *I am going to see Ranma.*
	Cologne smiled again at this development. She called after Shampoo as she rode
off, "Tell my future-son-in-law I said hello!"
                                *******
	Akane slammed the door open, knocking it out of the slider.
	Kasumi looked up and said, "Oh my. You are home early today, Akane!"
	Akane was furious, confused, and embarrassed. As with Ranma, this did not 
make a good combination. She opened her mouth and said, "I felt sick. I came
home. 
LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
	Akane stormed past a blinking Kasumi, went upstairs to her room and slammed
the door.
	"Oh my," Kasumi said again, looking at the place where Akane had stood,
frowning.
	Kasumi finally turned around and walked up the stairs. She put her ear to
Akane's door and heard a lot of stomping, pounding, and banging, mixed with
several
shouts of, "BAKA!!!"
	"Ranma." Kasumi thought.
	Finally the noise quieted down and Kasumi knocked on the door. 
Akane: (muttered) "Come in."
	Akane was sitting at her desk, her back to Kasumi, looking out the window.
She turned and said, quietly, "I am sorry I yelled at you Kasumi."
	Kasumi smiled. "That is OK, Akane. I know we all have bad days. Do you want
to talk about it?"
	Akane began to tear up a bit as the whole story, including why she was pissed 
at Ranma, her anger at Nabiki and the nosy students, and, finally, how she
was feeling
strange...almost sorry... that the wedding had not happened... Unspoken was
the truth
of the matter: Akane was confused, still, about how she felt about Ranma.
	Kasumi went over and hugged her sister and said, "You should know, Akane, that
Ranma has spent so much of his life training in the marital arts that he
never received
any social training. The way he shows affection to his father is by beating
Mr. Saotome
up, insulting him, and practicing martial arts with him."
Akane: "So?"
	Kasumi sighed and said, "Well, Akane, who else do you know that Ranma treats
like he does his father?"
	Akane looked blank.
	Kasumi laughed and pointed out, "YOU, you silly. Ranma is very shy and doesn't
know how to express love. It terrifies him. Nothing has ever been permanent
for him,
anyone he loved except his father was taken away from him. Permanence, such
as in admitting
love, scares him. He is probably afraid he will lose you the same way he had
to give up
his mother."
	Akane STILL looked blank and asked, "And your point is....?"
	Kasumi said sternly, "My point is that sometimes Ranma's insults are his way of
saying, 'I love you', and are just his way of fighting his insecurities.
Akane, Ranma DOES
love you. It is just hard for him to say the words."
	That left Akane with something to think about. Kasumi looked at the
contemplative
look on Akane's face and walked over to her. Kasumi kissed Akane on the top
of her head,
the way Mother used to do, and then started to walk out of the room.
Akane: "Kasumi?"
	Kasumi turned back to look at Akane.
Akane smiled and said, "I love you Kasumi."
Kasumi nodded, and said, "I know. I love you too little sister."
                                        *****