at least read this one. c&c if you feel it was worth
the time.
A Mother's Hand by PhoneyNT
-
Ranma looked at the walls in Akane's room, looked at the mirror, the floor,
anywhere except directly at Akane as he tried to formulate his sentence.
"So...I was wondering if you would want to...to...g-go...out...with me."
Ranma stammered, the words coming out in a rush.
"What?"
Ranma was so nervous, he could barely contain himself. He gripped Akane tight
by her shoulders and pulled her close to him, as if to focus his efforts.
"Tonight...would you..."
"Pervert!" Akane cried, her hand sung through the air as she pulled herself
away, Ranma fell backwards, face stinging.
"What's so perverted about--"
"--tonight, huh? What do you take me for?"
"But I just wanted you to go out with me, you overreactive tomboy!"
"Who wants to go out with you?" Akane screamed, then booted Ranma through the
window, shattering it into a thousand pieces and sending Ranma into the pond.
-
Ranma huddled up in her futon, feeling downcast.
"All I tried to do was something nice for Akane...god, she is so beautiful.
She is a tomboy, in the original sense of the word," Ranma stopped to chuckle
here, then continued, "but I still like her."
"Dinner!" came Kasumi's innocent voice through the closed door of the guest
room.
"Oh boy!" grinned Ranma. Downstairs she bolted, blasting into the dining room
and sitting down at the table. She smiled a warm smile at Akane, who seemed
to be pointedly ignoring her.
Ranma shrugged, picked up her chopsticks, and began eating. Genma was
slamming food back at top speed, and, hoping to fool Ranma, grabbed a slab
of fish from Ranma's plate. Ranma paused a second, then continued eating.
Nabiki was the first to comment, as she'd been robbed of another fun fight to
watch, "Are you just gonna take that, Ranma?"
Ranma shrugged and continued to chew her food at a leisurely pace. "Why
shouldn't I?"
The whole family stopped and stared. "How hard did you hit him," Genma dead-
panned.
"Not any harder than usual," Akane replied.
Kasumi simply said, "Maybe he's finally matured." She grinned.
-
Ranma went up to her room after dinner, slipped into her futon after stripping
most of her clothes off, and fell asleep almost instantly.
Her dream was pleasant and reassuring.
"I am good. People like me when I act good. Admit to yourself the truth.
If it won't matter in a week, don't worry about it."
Akane ran around in a field of dandelions, kneeled down to pick one, looked at
Ranma, smiled cutely, and proferred the flower to him.
Suddenly it was morning.
-
Ranma sat up, rubbing her eyes and blinking several times. She itched her
ears, stretched, and stood. Snapping her chops a few times, she made her way
out into the hall and to the bathroom.
The bath was clean and refreshing, from the scrubbing to the soak.
"Aaah," Ranma breathed out happily as he sunk into the deep tiled bath.
Suddenly there was a knocking at the door.
"Come in," Ranma yelled.
Akane came through the door, yawned, turned around, saw Ranma naked in the
bathtub, and turned red.
"What? You're in the bath! Why'd you tell me to come in?"
"What do you say to swimming today, Akane?"
"Here you are...in the bath...with me in here...and all you can do is--you
pervert!"
"Oh, don't overreact. We are fiancees, after--"
Ranma didn't get to finish his sentence, because a stool was newly implanted
in his face and Akane was already halfway out the door.
-
Ranma sighed. "What did I do wrong this time?" he wondered, "I was nice,
I said what was in my heart, where did I go the wrong way?"
The morning-afternoon sky was laid out before him like fresh bedsheets just
spread over a bed. A cloud turned around, and Akane's face peered at his
from within it.
He lay down for only a minute and thought about his life.
"Admit to yourself the truth. Tell the truth, and the truth will come out."
Ranma opened his eyes, and it was late afternoon.
"Why am I so tired lately?" Ranma thought.
-
Genma and Nabiki watched Ranma reenter the house and looked at each other.
"Something's up," remarked Nabiki.
"Don't I know it," Genma replied.
"Keep a close eye on him."
"Right."
-
Kasumi chopped the vegetables before dinner as usual. Her mind wandered as
usual. This time, she drifted to last week's afternoon. She had found the
box.
The memories had come back to her in a horrible flood. Dad, seriously
disturbed, demanding those...those things of her. She couldn't blame him, he
was only human. But somehow, Kasumi wanted to believe that the man her mother
had married was made of better stuff.
Bury it, hurry, bury it, you are strong, strong like a Tendo.
Kasumi's skilled knife shredded the last carrot and flipped it into the bowl.
Daddy's Little Girl. Always stay around. Damn him. Damn him to hell. No,
leave him be. Just set things right. Make things the way they were meant to
be. Help Akane, help Nabiki, help Father.
-
Ranma glanced sidelong at Akane over dinner.
"Excellent dinner as usual, Kasumi!" Soun smiled happily.
"Thank you," Kasumi said, bowing slightly.
"Akane?" Ranma started to ask, but stopped, crestfallen, when Akane simply
sniffed and stuck her nose in the air.
"What did you do this time, Ranma?" Genma asked while chewing his food.
"I don't know. If only Akane would listen, I'd tell her the truth about how
I f--"
"What?" Akane interrupted him, turning to face him, "how do you feel?"
"W-well...I, really...nothing."
"Hmph!" Akane growled.
Ranma looked up, started to open his mouth, it shut again.
"The truth, the truth," Ranma said to himself over and over, "why don't I tell
her the truth?"
The table was silent.
Kasumi frowned. A little longer, perhaps then Ranma would be ready to confess
his feelings.
-
Nabiki and Genma peeked in on the guest room. Ranma was asleep alone inside.
It was late at night.
"Why are we doing this?" Nabiki asked.
"Shh! The martial artist must keep a sharp eye out for every possible--hey!"
The spies looks in and could see a shadow kneeling on the floor near Ranma's
head. It sat for about a half a minute, then stood up, picked something up
off the floor, and came towards the door. Genma, kenpo artist, leaped to the
ceiling and held himself fast, but Nabiki was not nearly so quick. The door
opened as Nabiki scrambled away.
Nabiki stumbled and landed on her face. There were footsteps behind her now.
She rolled over to see Kasumi.
"Oh, hello Nabiki! I was just coming upstairs." Kasumi had a load of washed
clothes in her hands. "Would you like a hand?" Kasumi grinned at Nabiki.
"S-Sure..." Nabiki started, and Kasumi helped her on her feet.
"Now try not to hurt the floor in your game, okay?"
"Ah...okay."
Kasumi turned and entered her own room. Genma dropped from the ceiling.
"Who do you suppose that was in the guest room, and what was he doing?"
"I don't even have a guess."
Kasumi couldn't help but feel a little insulted.
"Do they really find me that stupid?" she wondered.
-
The next morning...
"Aieeeee!" Nabiki yelled. The whole house ran to her room.
"My records! They're...gone!" Nabiki indicated the computer monitor, there
was nothing but a "INSERT A BOOT DISK INTO DRIVE A:" message parading across
the screen.
"Oh my," Kasumi asked, "what does that mean?"
"It means everything in the computer is gone. Well, I can recover them."
"Are you sure about that?" Kasumi inquired.
"What makes you think I'm not sure, eh sister?"
"Oh, nothing! You are the computer expert in here, after all."
-
About five minutes later, Genma found a message on his futon.
"Meet me in Osaka if life you value. I am your long-time enemy, and I'll make
sure your wife finds out about certain things you have been hiding.
Signed,
Vengeful."
"Oh, no!" Genma gasped. He was in his clothes in a flash, and leaped out the
window.
-
Nabiki weeped.
"Now how am I gonna collect without my records? Two hundred thousand yen, all
down the drain."
Akane and Kasumi stood by, looking at the screen.
"I thought you got them back," Akane said.
"I don't believe it myself, but they've been irretrievably damaged."
"Who woul--er, how did that happen?" Kasumi asked.
"I don't know. I just don't know. Maybe I should have upgraded to Windows NT
after all."
"Mother would never approve of such hard language, sister." Kasumi reprimanded.
"You've lost me," Akane said, exiting the room.
Nabiki turned around and looked at Kasumi.
"I think somebody did it deliberately. You think so too."
"But who?"
Nabiki narrowed her eyes, and tried to see through Kasumi.
"Oh my! Did I do something?"
"Okay, maybe I'm a little paranoid. Not Kasumi, definately," Nabiki thought
to herself.
-
Only a little bit longer. With the meddlers out of the way, I can proceed as
mother would have done. Soon sister will be enjoying love, ah, love, such a
wonderful thing. And when he finally speaks his mind, they'll start acting
like lovers. And then I can sleep at night. Finally...a quiet night.
-
"Akane?"
"What do you want now, Ranma?"
"Please...please...don't..."
"You should borrow money from Nabiki. You know I don't have any."
"No, it's not that...I want to...say...the truth..."
"About what?"
"I...sort of...don't dislike you."
"Uh...so?"
"There's more...it's not just that...actually, I l--ah, I have something to
do. Talk to you later!" Ranma ducked out of the dining room and outside.
Kasumi entered the room.
"How are you, Akane?"
"Fine, but Ranma's acting weird recently."
"Maybe he's got something on his mind. Give him a chance to say what he has
to say."
"Okay, Kasumi!"
-
"Ah, I love Kasumi's dinners." Ranma smiled as he fell into a slumber, "not
at all like Akane's." Her face burned into his mind and he slept peacefully.
Ten minutes later, a shadow entered. It stooped by Ranma's head and put a
hoop over his head after adjusting it. The shadow looked at the little box
attached to the hoop, contemplated, then opened the box and placed a small
cartridge in it.
"Click, whirrrr," came from the box.
"'Say What's On Your Mind' sounds good for tonight," Kasumi grinned and left
the room, making a mental note to return before dawn.
-
Ranma bounded through the clouds after Akane. A voice in his head told him
what to do. "Be truthful. Separate yourself from the situation and make it
easier to say. Be truthful. Separate yourself yourself from the situation
and make it easier to say. Be truthful."
"Akane, I love you."
They fell through the clouds and towards the ground, embracing and turning
over and over, an eternal free-fall.
Suddenly it was morning. Ranma looked in the direction of Akane's room and
stood up.
-
Well? Whatcha think? Do I pump these out too frequently? Will anyone even read
this fic or just delete it like it seems is happening a lot on the FFML?
drward@richmond.infi.net http://www.aodesign.com
* Straight from Victoria! 360 degrees of perfected styles! *
we436@freenet.victoria.bc.ca
-----------------------------------------
| ******** END * TRANSMISSION ********* |
-----------------------------------------
drward@richmond.infi.net