Ranma 1/2:  Dreams and Realities; Part 3--**Awakenings**
By:  Numbski
Last Updated:  12/17/96
 
Legal Stuff:  All these characters were created by Rumiko Takahashi and I
therefore take no credit for them.  All I did was place a hypothetical
situation upon them.
 
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Ranma slowly opened his eyes from the sleep he had been in since...

<Since what?  What the heck happened?> He looked around and found himself in a very
sterile environment.  White seemed to be the predominant theme surrounding him. 
"Where am I?"  He tried to sit up in his bed to get a better look, but he was
brought back down by the pain that shot up through his back.  Indeed, what had
happened? 

*******

Ranma and Akane walked up the stairs arm in arm.  Akane was in his arms, shaking
rather violently from the careening emotions she was feeling.  Why hadn't either of
them come forward and told her the truth?  Now she had slept with...with....HIM in
her bed all this time.  The thought absolutely disgusted her.  She hated him now. 
She also had Ranma to blame as well, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself
to do it, not right now.  She looked down and at the ring on her left hand and back
up at the one that had given it to her. 

The two walked into Akane's room.  The sun had gone down by now, the bright
moonlight illuminated the room enough that neither of them cared enough to turn the
lights on.  They sat down on the floor in each other arms.  Akane was leaning on
Ranma's shoulder, trying to steady herself.  This was all too much for her to bear
right now.  She finally gathered up her emotions enough to attempt speaking. 

"Ranma....why?"  She feebly attempted to keep from breaking down in tears. "Why
didn't you tell me P-chan was..."  She finally couldn't take it anymore. The tears
came down worse than a tsunami now.  Ranma held her in his arms and didn't dare let
go.  He finally had her, and now he wouldn't let anything tear them apart. 

"Because it was my, it was my fault.  Ryouga chased Pop and I to Jusenkeyo.  I was
pissed off at Pop for dragging me out there. Ryouga got in the way of me kicking
Pop, so I knocked him out of the way."  He was trying hard himself not to fall into
tears.  He had kept this from her for so long, he wasn't sure if he could take it
himself anymore. 

"That still doesn't mean you couldn't have told me."  She was still crying, this
sharp remark came from the absolute bitterness she was feeling.  Ranma and Ryouga
had dishonored her and made a fool out of her.  She was so embarrassed. There were
so many times she had dressed in front of P-chan, or told him things that she told
no one else.  Now she knew the truth. 

"I was bound by my stupid honor Akane.  I didn't like it.  You saw how much I
abused P-chan and how much I tried to keep him away from you.  Now you understand
why I acted the way I did."  He too had now broken down into tears.  They embraced
each other tightly.  Neither of them wanted to let go of the other. 

"Akane, I love you.  Please Forgive me..."  He was trying so hard to regain his
composure.  Men didn't cry, this was no way for him to be acting, but he couldn't
help himself.  The tears continued to come. 

She looked up at him and managed to force a weak smile at him.  "Baka..." She
leaned over and kissed him tenderly on the lips.  She was still bitter about the
whole situation, but she was starting to feel close to Ranma for the first time,
and that emotion was taking priority over all others at the moment. 

"Kawaiikunee iianazuke..."  He leaned over and returned the kiss, enjoying the
feeling that the emptiness he had been feeling for so long was finally being
filled.  The two kissed for a long time, enjoying each other's company more than
anything. 

The two jumped apart startled at a knock that came from the door. 

"Hey sis, can I talk to ya for a sec?"  It was Nabiki.  Leave it to her to interrupt
a sensitive moment. 

"Uh, could you wait a minute Nabiki, I..."  She was cut off by a yell from
downstairs. 

Suddenly, everything around them began to crash and burn.... 

*******

<Whoa.> Ranma thought to himself as he lay there in bed.  Things were starting to
come back to him.  The blast, where had it come from, and why?  The ceiling had
caved in on top of them, but for the life of him he couldn't piece it together. 

His head was bandaged, and he had numerous wires and tubes running from him. 
Finally, someone would be able to answer his questions.  A nurse walked in to check
on him, seeming somewhat startled to see him awake. 

"Mr. Saotome, how are you feeling?"  She tried to look as normal as possible to
hide her surprise to see him conscious. 

"Well, everytime I try to sit up my back starts to kill me, but other than that I
feel okay."  He was somewhat confused, mostly from his abrupt awakening, also from
being called Mr. Saotome.  That wasn't normal.  "Where am I?" 

"You're at Tokyo General Hospital, and have been for the last 2 days." She looked
at him thoughtfully.  "Hold on a moment so I can call a doctor in to speak with
you."  She walked over to an intercom and spoke into it, Ranma not listening
carefully enough to hear what was being said.  When she was finished she walked
back over to his bedside, checking his blood pressure and doing some other routine
checks. 

"Do you happen to know what happened to me?  I'm not really sure I remember right." 
He looked hopefully up at the nurse tending to him. 

"I really don't know much.  You came in from a massive explosion that occurred in
the Nerima district.  It originated at the Tendi residence.  We don't know what
happened." 

"Tendo.  Was the house destroyed?"  He was starting to feel a coldness come over
his body.  A thought had come to him that scared him so much that he began shaking. 

"What about Akane?  Akane Tendo?"  He held his breath waiting for a response.  He
realized that he had just rapidly blurted out a slur of questions. 

"Well, I don't know about the house, but Akane and Nabiki Tendo are right across
the hall.  They are both unconscious yet, and in critical but stable condition.  It
looks like they are both going to make it, but you are the first to awaken." 

The cold feeling continued up his body.  Finally, just as the doctor and someone
that looked like he was in a police officer's uniform walked into the room, he
slipped back into unconsciousness, satisfied that Akane was safe, or at least as
safe as he was. 

*******

The school bell rang, dismissing the students for the day.  As all days go at
Furinkan, it was expected that Kunou Tatewaki would try once more to win the
affections of the "pig-tailed goddess" and Tendo Akane from that vile sorcerer
Saotome.  It was well know that Ranma had put these two under some sort of spell,
for there is no way that either of them would, in their right minds, deny the love
of the Great Kunou Tatewaki and choose that cur instead. 

At least those were in the inner workings of Kunou's mind anyway. 

At the ringing of the bell, Nabiki, Ranma, and Akane headed for the Tendo home in
the usual manner.  This included Ranma and Akane arguing, and Nabiki watching in
sheer amusement, waiting for the inevitable. 

"You JERK!  How could you let Ukyou just hang all over you like that? Right in
front of the entire school?"  Akane was already glowing a light blue, this was a
pretty fast manifestation.  If one didn't know better, one would think she actually
TRAINED her ki to swell at Ranma alone. 

"Gimme a break, will ya Akane?"  Ranma was in no mood to fight right now, in fact
he had been acting very strangely all day.  He had to keep up a front, he couldn't
let her know what was going on.  "I couldn't help it she glomped onto me like that. 
What was I supposed to do, hit her?" 

"Then what made her glomp onto you like that?  You had to have done SOMETHING." 

Nabiki nearly choked.  Ranma was having an equally difficult time holding his
composure.  What to say?  He couldn't tell her the truth... 

##Two Hours Earlier##

Ranma was sitting in class looking absently out the window, and seemed to be
fidgeting with something in his pocket.  Nabiki was sitting next to him, and Ukyou
was sitting two rows over, with Akane sitting in front of her. 

"Hey loverboy, when are you going to tell her?"  Nabiki looked at him with an amused
look on her face.  She was enjoying the harassment she was giving Ranma, and knew
that he could do nothing about it, except change his facial color to something
closely matching that of his favorite silk shirt. 

"I dunno, I haven't found the right time."  The object Ranma has been fidgeting
with now moved out of Ranma's pocket into his hand, just in view of Ranma and
Nabiki.  "I, uh, really appreciate you helping me get this for her, you don't know
how much it means to me, and her both." 

Nabiki was the one to blush this time, it wasn't of her nature to give money away,
but this time, something was very different about the whole scenario.  She had to
do it.  Ranma was finally go to get up the nerve to...her line of thought was
finally distracted by Ukyou, who had started to take interest in the conversation
between Nabiki and Ranma. 

"What are you two up to?"  She leaned over to the unexpected surprise of Ranma
trying to hide something.  She did catch a glimpse of a small red box about 2
inches in width and 1 inch high.  Ukyou's eyes widened. "Ranma!  I knew you'd
finally come to your senses!  Why didn't you tell me?"  She had quickly jumped to
the conclusion that Ranma wanted to marry her, and was out of her chair and glomped
onto Ranma, who had somehow passed the box to Nabiki out of sight of Ukyou and most
importantly Akane who was now fuming. 

"You HENTAI!"  Akane stood up and the Dimensional Hammer (tm) was in her hand ready
to go... 

##Back to the present## 

"Fine then, if you're going to go letting every girl in town go hanging all over
you, maybe I ought to open up my options a bit with the men in town."  She had
turned absolutely cynical now, she was still mad, but she was purposely trying to
make Ranma jealous, and she was doing a good job of not showing it. 

"Come on Akane, do you really think a kawaikunee tomboy like you would actually be
able to get a guy..."  He ended up being cut short, but not from a fuming Akane. 

"Saotome you cur!  Release Tendo Akane and the pig tailed one to me at once or feel
the wrath of the Blue Thunder!"  Kunou ran up and tried desperately to hit Ranma,
but as usual he didn't have a prayer of touching him.  Trees fell, walls got
smashed, and Kunou was generally making a mess of the place.  As ticked off as
Akane was, she couldn't help but laugh. This picture had repeated itself so many
times.  She knew Ranma loved her, but he would never show it, and she was just as
stubborn, and would remain so.  She wondered if either of them would ever give. 

"Kunou sempai, you just don't get it do you?  You can't beat me, so GIVE IT UP!!!" 
By this time Ranma was getting ready to boot Kunou into lower orbit, but Nabiki had
shaken out of her laughter long enough to stop him. 

"Hey Kunou baby, why don't we go get something to eat?"  Nabiki had this sweet and
innocent look in her eyes, and Kunou knew what that meant:  He was about to lose
some money.  However, he usually got something worthwhile in exchange, so he
willingly left his fight with Ranma to follow Nabiki, not without first making some
choice insults to Ranma of course.  As they walked by, Nabiki slid her hand into
Ranma's pocket, much to his and Kunou's surprise.  Ranma jumped about ten feet at
the feeling of someone sticking her hand into his pocket.  He calmed down once he
realized that the box was back in his possession.  Kunou knew none of this however,
but he managed to hold his tongue until they had arrived at their destination. 

"Tendo Nabiki, how is it that you go and place your hand in that cur Saotome's
pants?"  He had the most peculiar look on his face; a cross between confusion and
disgust all at once.  Nabiki turned to him and smiled.  "That information isn't
free Kunou baby." 

He looked at her, almost unwilling to know why she would commit such an atrocity. 
However curiosity got the best of him in the end, and his pocketbook was opened
wide. 

Reaching in and taking out what she considered to be a fair price, she returned to
the conversation.  "I had a gift that Ranma bought for Akane, and I had to give it
to him without Akane seeing it.  He knows it didn't mean anything, and Akane was
probably just confused about it and thought nothing of it.  She probably thought he
owed me money again." 

Kunou finally relaxed, knowing that she hadn't fallen under Saotome's spell as
well.  Nabiki proceeded to order her fill of food as Kunou ordered a hot tea. 
Nabiki ate and Kunou finally spoke up.  "Well, what do you want?  You usually bring
me here when you have something to sell." She gave him an amused look. 

"Yes, there is something I want in fact."  She pulled out a calendar, and looked
it over thoroughly.  "What are you doing tomorrow early evening?" Kunou was
surprised, he had expected to see pictures of his two precious beauties.  He
stumbled over his next several words. 

"Um, tomorrow, Saturday, I don't think I am busy. Why do you ask?" 

Nabiki thought carefully before she spoke.  She had been plotting for a while, and
didn't want to blow it now. 

"Well, I would like to be taken out on a date, if you wouldn't mind doing the
honors."  She did her best to keep a smirk on her face to hide the nervousness she
had been feeling just a moment ago.  Kunou on the other hand looked like he had
just been rudely awakened from la la land. 

"What?"  It was the only thing he could stumble out.  I uh, never considered, uh. 
He looked at her, and finally, after drawing a deep breath, answered. 

"Yes, I would be honored."

*******

Nabiki was lying peacefully in a white sheeted bed.  Upon looking around, one could
see her sister Akane lying directly across from her.  Akane, however had been
strapped down to her bed. 

Nabiki rolled over, moaning just a little incoherently.  If one could listen 
closer, one could hear... 

"...if you wouldn't mind doing the honors..."

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Well, that's all for part 3.  Have you caught what has actually happened, and what
is only the imagination of those involved?  Did Nabiki ask out Kunou?  It wouldn't
be any fun if I told you, now would it? =)

and now the sig...

Numbski's Outta Site:  http://panther.greenville.edu/~ashadwic
Dreams and Realities Homepage:
http://panther.greenville.edu/~ashadwic/ranma/dreams.htm