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,  but I might
add a VERY VERY VERY mild lemon in fourth part. 
	No other odd happenings... everything in the Ranma Universe
is "traditional storyline."

Part I: After the "Wedding Fiasco" (complete)
Part II: Okonomiyaki and Jealousy (working on it)
Part III: Parting Ways (not even close)
Part IV: The Beach and Night
Part V: Untitled as of yet
***********

A LESSON IN TRUST
By Marisa Price

PART I: AFTER THE "WEDDING FIASCO"

	Furinken High, never the ideal educational establishment,
felt particularly strange to Ranma and Akane on the day after what 
everyone in Nerima was 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 him 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 still hush hush around the
Furinken campus. No one wanted to be on either Ranma OR Akane's
bad side at the moment. That is, until Nabiki whipped out photographs 
and offered to tell the curious what had happened after the fiasco had 
ended and everyone had gone home.
	It was, to say the least, a profitable day for Nabiki.
	Akane sat under a tree with her two friends, Sayuri and Yuka,
eating lunch. They knew better than to even MENTION the "R-word",
and never spoke about Ranma unless Akane brought him up in a 
conversation, so Akane was having a peaceful lunch. Ranma was about
20 feet away on some benches talking to his friends, Hiroshi and 
Daisuke, and a few other guys. Both were totally oblivious to the 
crowd encircling Nabiki on the other end of the lawn.
	Akane was at that moment thanking the powers that be 
that her friends hadn't said 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 are still getting 
married?"
	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..."
	Nabiki sighed, pretending to be touched.
	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!!!"
	The pictures varied: some were of Akane in her wedding dress, 
some of Ranma in his tuxedo, some of the two together. Something for
everyone.
	One of Akane's friends sighed, looking at the 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....that is why you are still going to
marry him, right?"
	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. Not even when he thought I was dying..." 
 	Akane looked over at the baka, impossible to miss in his red 
satin shirt in the crowd of black and white uniforms, where he sat with 
his friends on the benches. Ranma, of course, had his back to Akane 
and to the crowd around her.
	"Oblivious idiot," Akane muttered.
	Of course, Akane didn't consider that he was probably being 
interrogated too.
	Hiroshi 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?"
	Daisuke 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 on 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, "Ranma no.... Ranma no.... Ranma no BAKA!!!!!"
Then, tears filling her eyes, she turned and ran out of the school gate.
	Ranma, a bit catatonic 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, Nabiki's
voice could be heard taking bets on the outcome of Ranma and Akane's
fight, 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, "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. 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 fighting 
him, 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."
*****