A Lesson In Love
Chapter XIII: Forgiveness
By Marisa Price
(Copyright to Marisa Price, 1996, All Rights Reserved)
mdp102@york.ac.uk

Part I

	Akane wasn't moving. Ranma cried, "Akane..." and
reached toward her hesitantly, as if afraid to touch her.
Then, suddenly, Ranma was desperately shaking her; tears
streamed from his eyes, and he was shouting, "Are you OK,
Akane? Wake UP, Akane!"
	Ukyou had dropped to her knees, about two feet
away from where Akane lay. She began to sob as she heard
Ranma's desperate pleading. She feared the worst.
	Finally, Ryouga punched him away, saying sharply,
"Don't shake her like that! You could hurt her even more!"
	Ryouga was surprised at the feeling of calm he 
suddenly possessed amidst this chaos. But, as the others
could not deal with the situation, it seemed some force
had decided to give him the will and the strength to do
what neither the sobbing Ukyou nor the frightened Ranma
appeared able to do.
	Ryouga approached her and then reached down to
slowly turn Akane over. He flinched slightly as he did so,
seeing the blood; there was a deep cut along her forehead,
which had produced most of it. There were two others: one
on the front of her left shoulder and the other along her
left leg. The head wound was serious, the other two were
relatively shallow, and the yellow gi had soaked up most
of the blood from the minor cuts. Ryouga reached out
to gently take her wrist and check for a pulse...
	He gratefully felt the blood moving through her
veins. Ryouga sighed in relief, and realized that her
chest was also gently rising with her breathing.
	He turned to Ranma, his voice confident, and said,
"She's going to be all right, Ranma. She's just been knocked
out, and losing blood isn't helping her wake up any faster."
	Ranma's relief was palatable, his shoulders relaxed
a bit, the desperate fear left his eyes.
	Ryouga continued, "...She's probably going to 
need some stitches though... You should get her to Dr.
Tofu's as soon as I finish putting some temporary bandages
on her wounds."
	Ranma nodded, silent but grateful, and kneeled 
down next to his fiancee, taking her right hand in his.
	Ukyou was momentarily ignored, quietly staring
at Akane, her face agonized.
	Ryouga took a few of his bandannas off and tied
them around the cuts on Akane's shoulder and leg, trying
to slow the bleeding. He considered the deep gash in her
forehead for a few moments before he finally nodded to
himself and then folded two other bandannas and pressed
them against her forehead. He then wrapped another two
around those and fastened it on the side of her head to
hold the makeshift bandage down.
	He finally turned to Ranma and said, "OK. I'm
done." 
	Ranma had remained seated at Akane's side during
Ryouga's ministrations. He still held her hand, and his 
thoughts briefly flickered with the image of how soft and
delicate she really was, although she always tried to be
so tough.
	Ranma gently stroked her hair and mumbled, "Akane...
Shit, Akane. You better be OK... You can't leave me... not 
now... please..."
	After reassuring himself that Akane was temporarily
safe, Ranma finally stood and turned to the quietly sobbing
Ukyou. 
	She sat on her knees, looking disheveled with her
hair mussed and slipping out of its white bow. Her face was
pale and full of horror, her eyes wide and damp, her cheeks
crisscrossed by gleaming trails of tears. As she saw Ranma
turn toward her, she started to shake uncontrollably and
began to move away from him, almost cowering. She finally
put her hands over her eyes and crumpled to the ground in
a heap, sobs racking her body. 
	Ranma just stared at Ukyou, fury filling his eyes.
	He said, desperately, "Why? WHY?? How COULD YOU!"
	Ranma started to advance on her, his fists clenched. 
	Ryouga stood quickly and stepped in front of Ranma
to stop him. He placed his hands out to block Ranma, palms
braced; he did not dare to touch his furious friend, but 
needed to present Ranma with a barrier.
	Ranma stiffened, ready to push Ryouga out of his
way, when he heard him saying, quietly:
	"Ranma. This is no time for revenge..."
	Ranma began to growl out a reply, and then noticed
that Ryouga was no longer looking at him; he had paused to
stare at the hysterical Ukyou. Against his will Ranma's
eyes followed Ryouga's gaze. Strong Ukyou, his best and 
oldest friend, lay distraught, her eyes blank with sorrow.
Somehow, despite the fact that he wanted to immediately 
accuse her, to blame her, to hate her for what she had 
done, there became a clear spot in the red haze that 
surrounded him and he realized that something didn't add
up.
	Ryouga noticed that Ranma's eyes had lost their
beserker glow, so he said cautiously, "As we can't get
the story out of either of them at the moment... I think
it would be best to wait before jumping to conclusions."
	Ranma managed to control his anger as Ryouga's
words, emphasized by Ukyou's obvious grief, sunk in. He
turned away from Ukyou, refusing to look at her and risk
doing something that he might later regret, and finally
said over his shoulder to Ryouga, "What now?"
	"Take Akane to Dr. Tofu, and be careful. She is
going to need stitches, and she has lost a lot of blood."
	Ranma looked down at Akane and then asked, "Are
you sure I should move her?"
	Ryouga shrugged and said, "You can get her to
help faster than any ambulance."
	Ranma focused his attention on Akane, and gently
took her in his arms. Ranma turned toward the doorway 
through which he had stepped, full of laughter, not but
ten minutes before. Now, not looking again at either
Ukyou or Ryouga, he stepped outside, heavy hearted, and
then set off with his fiancee for Dr. Tofu's clinic.

*****
	Ukyou had curled herself into a ball, her arms
wrapped tightly about her body. Ryouga hesitated, 
wondering if he should approach her. He paused in his 
indecision.
	The silence, broken only by Ukyou's sobs, became
too heavy for Ryouga to bear. He finally said, softly,
"Ukyou... what happened?"
	Ukyou looked up at him with tear-filled eyes and
managed to say, "I... I... I DON'T KNOW!!!" This was 
followed by another storm of tears, and Ryouga patiently 
waited for them to pass.
	But they didn't pass.
	He finally decided that he should get her off of
the floor and out of this room where she kept remembering
what had just occurred. He strode over to her and gently
touched her shoulder. She was cold to the touch, and her
skin was very pale. She wasn't even crying much anymore, 
just staring off at some distant point in the room. 
	She was in shock.
	Ryouga felt his heart twist.
	He swept her up into his arms, and she seemed to
realize that someone held her. She turned to his warmness
and clung to him, her arms around his neck, and she was 
suddenly crying tears against his shirt. He carried her
up to her room, and lay her gently down on her bed. She 
curled up tightly, clutching her pillow to her. Ryouga 
got up and went off to get a bowl of warm water, a cloth,
and some tissue.
	After making several wrong turns, but thankfully
not ending up out of the house, he finally returned.
	She still hadn't moved.
	He gently cleaned her face and then dried it with
a soft towel. He stood again and went to rummage around 
in the linen-closet for a few minutes, before he finally
returned to Ukyou's side and then covered her up with two
additional blankets.
	Ryouga looked down at her, confused. He needed to
believe that the... -situation- he had just witnessed was
not her fault. But... that would mean that somehow Akane
had been responsible, and his heart wouldn't let him
believe that either.
	Akane had almost done a Shishi-Hokodan. He had felt
the dark, heavy energy collecting as he entered the room--
as attuned as he was to it. But... why? It was not really
a question of skill. Akane had witnessed both versions of 
the attack, and, feasibly, she might have been able to 
unconsciously pick up on the style and technique. How 
powerful the attack might have truly been was another 
question; and the answer was... probably not very strong.
	The ball of ki she had held in her hands was only
about a fourth of the strength of his or Ranma's attacks,
he had sensed that (with his experience) as he saw what 
she had been about to do. But... the only problem was...
WHAT could have EVER depressed Akane enough to make her 
summon up the energy for such an attack?
	Akane angered easily, but she forgave just as
quickly. She was a basically happy person... even happier
since she and Ranma had finally reached an understanding.
What could have POSSIBLY caused this to happen?
	It MUST have had to do with Ranma. And yet...
	Ryouga stared at the figure on the bed.
	...Ukyou?
	Ryouga shook his head fiercely. No. There was
nothing between Ranma and Ukyou anymore. She was too proud
to ever let him hurt her again, and Ranma was too in love 
with Akane. He had even bought Akane an engagement ring, or
so he had said the previous night. 
	Was that it? Was Ukyou jealous of Akane's ring, and
she had attacked Akane by saying something from Ranma's past
that would hurt her, depress her? He couldn't imagine what
that would be.
	Ukyou's eyes were swollen and faintly purplish and
bruised from her crying, still closed, and her breathing
was now deep; she had fallen asleep. 
	He hesitantly reached down to brush a stray lock of
hair away from her eyes, and then ran his finger lightly 
down her soft cheek.
	Ryouga started as her eyes opened, and she looked 
up at him. He pulled his hand slightly to the left and made
a big show of tucking the blankets around her.
	Ukyou stared at him, and then one of her hands
reached out from under the blanket to take his. She held
his warm palm firmly in her grasp, and said, fiercely, 
"Please don't leave me alone... Please, Ryouga...."
	Ryouga could see that she was still in shock, and
that the tears were about to begin again. He knew now was 
not the time to bring up what had happened... either what 
had happened with Akane, or the situation between the two 
of them. But...
	Ryouga reached out to hug her to him, and her 
arms went around his shoulders, holding him tightly. 
Everything was going to work out, somehow.
	He said, softly, "I won't leave you alone. Not 
like last time. I... promise... Please, forgive me, and 
believe in me..."
	And she began to cry again.

******

	Ranma sat on the chair in the waiting room of Dr.
Tofu's clinic. The good Doctor had told him quite bluntly
that if he was too distraught to remain with Akane as she
received her stitches (his grunts and moans at every
stitch were driving Tofu insane), then he needed to wait
in the lobby.
	Akane had recovered long enough to say something
like, "Uughnh?" Before the pain-killer injection Dr. Tofu
had given her kicked in, and she was back out cold. She
had not noticed Ranma was there, but Ranma had felt a bit
better knowing that she HAD woken up and he decided that
she was on the road to recovery. This, combined with
several reassurances from Dr. Tofu, allowed Ranma to
finally get up and leave Akane to Tofu's ministrations.
	Ranma sat for awhile trying to avoid any thought
about what had happened, before he finally realized he
should probably call the Tendo household. The phone rang,
and Kasumi picked it up. Ranma shakily told a bewildered
Kasumi that Akane had been in an "accident" and that she
was at Dr. Tofu's.
	Kasumi said, upset, "Oh Ranma! Is she all right? Are
YOU all right? Dr. Tofu's?? Goodness! I will be right over!"
	Ranma bigsweated as he thought about Kasumi coming
over while Dr. Tofu was giving Akane stitches, and then
desperately tried to erase the gruesome thought from his
mind as he said, "AH!!! KASUMI!! Um.. I don't think... well
that you should come! It's only a teeny tiny head wound!
She only needs a coupla dozen stitches! Ha ha ha..."
	Kasumi interrupted with, "A head wound? Oh my!
Stitches! Oh Ranma! I will DEFINITELY..." Someone
interrupted in the background at the Tendo household.
	Kasumi said to the person, "What?" And after a few
seconds of fuzzy mumbling, Ranma heard Kasumi say loudly,
"Goodness! I forgot! But... this is an emergency Nabiki!
Akane is at Dr. Tofu's!"
	Ranma heard more mumbling, and then Kasumi got back
on the line and said, "Oh, Ranma! I am SO sorry. I almost
forgot that I promised to go take care of the Ibonichi's
children today. Nabiki is going to come instead... Please
tell Akane that I love her and I am so worried! I wish I
could come!"
	Kasumi prattled on for a few more minutes before
she finally put Nabiki on the line. Nabiki said, softly,
"Is she all right?"
	Ranma muttered, "Yeah. Thanks for keeping Kasumi
from coming over..."
	Nabiki sighed in relief and then said, a bit more
energetically, "We'll talk about that little issue later.
I'll be there as soon as possible. Ta ta!"
	The phone at the Tendo household clattered down.
Typical Nabiki. She would probably charge him for stopping
Kasumi. Ranma sighed and then slowly hung up and then sat
down again in one of the nearby chairs.
	He tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair,
trying to keep his mind occupied. He picked up a magazine
and saw it was about "Retirement: Life after 50!" and
groaned. He couldn't exactly start doing his kata in the
middle of a Medical Office; patients might come in. What to
do? What to do?
	Ranma finally gave up and leaned back against the
chair, his head resting on the wall. He reached up and
massaged his temples and closed his eyes, the strain of the
past hour starting to affect him.
	What had happened?
	The thought came unbidden; in fact, Ranma had been
trying with all his might to suppress it. But the question
was there in the back of his mind.
	He reasoned, as Ryouga had, that Akane had been
about to do a Shishi-Hokodan. This amazed him too; Akane
was not only untrained in it, but she also was not a
depressed person. Obviously, she had somehow picked up the
technique from observing Ryouga and himself, but he wasn't
quite sure what would be able to bring about that kind of
energy from Akane.
	It must have been something that Ukyou had done.
But... what?
	Ranma puzzled through every possibility, but
nothing seemed realistic to him. He knew that Ukyou had
several reasons to dislike Akane, and it wasn't hard to
imagine that she would attack Akane. But... Ranma knew that
Ukyou was doing her best to put aside the past, and that
she wasn't a vindictive sort of person. Why would that have
suddenly changed? He also couldn't believe that she would
even be able to come up with something that would hurt
Akane to the extent that she could do a Shishi-Hokodan.
	Then Ranma realized something: Akane had been
dressed in her gi. Why would she have been dressed that
way, outside of the dojo... unless she had come to Ucchan's
Okonomiyaki knowing that she was going to be in a fight?
	"Ranma!!" a voice said loudly, interrupting his
musings. Ranma looked up and saw Dr. Tofu standing over
him, with a small frown on his face. Ranma jumped to his
feet and said, horrified, "Is she OK?! You look worried,
Doc!"
	Dr. Tofu nodded and said, "She's sleeping. I was
worrying about YOU! I said your name about ten times before
you finally answered."
	Ranma said, apologetically, "I'm sorry.. I was
thinking about something. Tell me, Doc, is she gonna be
OK?"
	"The stitches are done, and all three wounds should
heal with a minimum of scaring since they were all done
with some sort of blade, as sharp as a scalpel knife," Tofu
looked at Ranma, concerned, and finished, "Do you want to
tell me exactly what happened?"
	Ranma shook his head and finally said, "I dunno
what happened exactly. I wish I did. All I can tell you is
that the cuts were done by Ukyou Kuonji, and that I THINK
it was some sort of accident."
	Tofu sighed and adjusted his glasses before saying,
"Hmm. Well, if this is a case that needs to be reported to
the police, I would appreciate knowing it. Understood,
Ranma?"
	Ranma nodded and then looked longingly toward the
door of the room where Akane lay sleeping. He turned to the
doctor, about to ask a question, when Tofu read his
thoughts and said, "Go on in. Just try not to wake her. She
needs to sleep off the injection I gave her."
	Ranma went in and sat next to his fiancee, gently
stroking her hair. A clean white bandage now covered her
forehead, and she was dressed in a hospital gown. He could
see that the cut on her shoulder was also bandaged, but the
one on her leg was covered by the hospital blanket.
	An IV dripped fluid into her left arm, and she
looked wan and pale. Ranma sighed and sat back, waiting
for his fiancee to wake up, holding her right hand in
his.

*****
	
	A few hours after sunset, Ukyou finally woke up.
She felt extremely disoriented for a few minutes, and her
head felt like it had been through the washing machine a
few times. She was warm, EXTREMELY warm, as there were 
several blankets piled on top of her. She wondered, "What
the...?" When she noticed that, illuminated by the soft
moonlight from her open window, Ryouga sat a chair next
to her bed. His head was tucked against his chest, and
he was slumped down, asleep.
	She started to sit up, ready to yell at him for 
being in her house, when suddenly the memories flooded
back. She winced, as if she had been struck by a physical
pain, and lay back on the bed. She contemplated the dark
ceiling for a few minutes, thought about what had happened,
and then finally managed to sit up and wake Ryouga.
	Ryouga grumbled, "Not now, Mom..." And tried to
roll over, effectively dumping him out of the chair and 
onto the floor.
	Ukyou couldn't help it, despite her depression, and
giggled at him. Ryouga groaned, fully awake now, and 
picked himself up off the floor. Ukyou turned on the small
lamp that sat on her nightstand and looked at Ryouga. He
was rubbing his thigh, a slight grimace on his face. He
looked at her giggling, and said, "I suppose this means
that you are feeling better."
	The giggling stopped, and she sighed, and Ryouga
noticed that she was still pale and that there were huge
circles under her eyes. He also sighed, and then sat back
down in the chair.
	She said, quietly, "I suppose you want to hear what
happened."
	"Well, the thought did cross my mind," he said as
casually as possible under the situation.
	Ukyou growled at him and said, "Watch it. You are
still on shaky ground with me."
	Ryouga apologized, and she nodded at him before 
finally telling Ryouga the story.
	She failed to notice that when she mentioned the
"letter" Akane had been talking about, that Ryouga froze.
	"...So, I was going to throw my spatulas at her to
pin her down, I never meant to hurt her," her eyes got a
bit teary at this point, "but then you two came in and I
couldn't stop her from turning to look, any more than I
could change the direction that the spatulas were going..."
	Ukyou broke off as she saw that Ryouga had put his
face in his hands and he was saying, over and over, "Oh NO,
oh NO, oh NO..."
	Ukyou reached over and touched his arm, alarmed.
Ryouga looked up at her, his eyes wide with horror, and she
gasped out, "What? What's WRONG?!"
	Ryouga stood up and went to bang his head against
the wall. Ukyou pushed the covers aside and ran over to
him, shivering in the cold air outside of her warm bed. She
pulled him away from the wall, and held him for a moment.
She said, sharply, "What? WHAT?! Tell me!"
	"It's my fault. It's all my own damn fault. That
letter she found... It wasn't a letter from RANMA to you,
it was a letter from ME to you!!"
	Ukyou pulled away from him in surprise and asked,
"What?!"
	Ryouga nodded, walking to the window and staring
outside at the moon. He finally continued, "You see, Ranma
came up with this idea that I could get you to forgive me
if I wrote you a letter apologizing for what had happened.
I was trying to tell you that you were more important to
me as a friend than Akane, and that I was so sorry for 
letting you down."
	Ukyou was frozen, and simply stared at Ryouga while
he spoke.
	"...You see, I never finished it. It takes me a 
really long time to write letters, and Ranma got bored. So
he got this bright idea and decided to drag me off to try
something else," Ryouga decided it wasn't prudent to tell
her about Shampoo at the moment.
	Ukyou finally asked, "It wasn't finished? So..."
	Ryouga nodded, "Yeah. So there wasn't a signature
at the end. And I left it in Ranma's room. If Akane found
it, she never would have known that Ranma hadn't written
it. And the gods only know how she might have interpreted
it."
	Suddenly Ukyou was at Ryouga's side. She awkwardly
put her arms around him and hugged him. He stiffened at
first at the contact, but finally let his arms come up and
hold her back.
	She whispered against his chest, "Ryouga. It's not
your fault. This was all one HUGE misunderstanding. God. I
just hope that she forgives you and Ranma and I for it."
	Ryouga muttered, "Yeah. And I hope she is going to
be all right."
	Ukyou nodded. She finally said, so softly that he
almost didn't her hear, "And I am glad that letter was 
from you..."
	He wondered if he had imagined it.
	She said, louder, "You are welcome to come back and
live here if you want to."
	She looked up at him and his eyes were full of 
hope. Ukyou smiled and said, blushing, "It gets a bit 
lonely around here. Besides," She winked at him, "I could
use some more help around the place again."
	"Then I am forgiven?" he asked, hopefully.
	Ukyou nodded.
	Ryouga was exultant. He looked down at her, and,
despite the fact that she had been through so much today,
he thought that she looked beautiful. He slight blush made
her cheeks glow, and her eyes were shining.
	He wondered if he should kiss her. He wondered if
that was even the right thing to do, if this feeling that
he felt at the moment was love.
	He started to lean down, and she didn't move away.
	Then the phone started to ring.
	They immediately moved away from each other, almost
reflexively. Ryouga started to fumble for words, but Ukyou
saved him by saying, "I'll go get it."
	She sprinted from the room, leaving a bemused
Ryouga staring after her.
	He decided that perhaps this was a sign, and moved
out of the room, trying to follow her audible voice to
the room with the phone.
	He had just made it to the dining room, when she
was hanging the phone up.
	She said, "That was Nabiki. She said that Akane is
OK, and that she is awake. We'd better get down there."
	Ryouga nodded.
	Ukyou ran back to her room, saying back over her
shoulder to Ryouga, "I am going to go get cleaned up, I 
will be right back."
	Ryouga waited, noticing that the moment they had
just had in her room had passed, and things were seemingly
back to normal.
	He shrugged and looked about the familiar
restaurant, and decided that it was nice to be forgiven,
despite it all, and that he was happy to be back.