Okay. Here's the sequel to "Life and Manhood". I hope you like
this one too. It's probably going to go through some more revision....

alhuang@hcs.harvard.edu
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang

  This is a sequel of sorts to "Life and Manhood", assuming that such a 
short story can have a sequel. (It's not too necessary to read that 
first, since I go over the main points of what happened there, but 
please, do read it first, at least to capture the feeling of what Ranma 
went through previous to this story.) This may, in fact, become a full-
blown continuation-type fic, but I'm not sure I'm going to go that 
far, yet. This has nowhere near the angst levels of its prequel.
  As always, Ranma 1/2 and its characters are the property of Takahashi 
Rumiko-san. My thanks to her for establishing such a wonderful world.

And now, Oddzilla Productions presents....

"Waking" by Andrew Huang

<...>: thoughts

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  Ranma stirred, grimacing. His head hurt horribly, and the bit of 
light that managed to glow through his eyelids was jabbing straight 
into his head, painfully. <What happened?>

  He tried to open his eyes, and shut them immediately, as the light's 
intensity nearly knocked him back into unconsciousness. <Aagh! That 
HURT!> Yes, Ranma was suffering his first hangover. He lay still.

  <Okay. What happened yesterday?> He ran his still-cottony mind over 
what he could remember from last evening. <Escaped Kunou, got jumped
by Shampoo, then got kicked into the basement by the tomboy--> He 
suddenly stopped on the word "tomboy" for some reason. He mentally 
frowned, then continued. <Got kicked into the basement by...Akane. 
Sake. Sake? Damn. I got drunk last night. I'm such an idiot....> At 
this point, the memories got a little fuzzy.

  <Then...I.... A knife. The tanto, in the Dojo? I...tried to kill 
myself? God, how drunk was I?! Ow, my head hurts.> He put a hand up 
to his head, but stopped when his stomach didn't agree with the 
movement. "Uhh...." <Not a good idea. Where was I? I was in the Dojo, 
with the knife... I almost--but then.... Akane. Akane?> "Akane!"

  Something stirred to his left. "Hmm...Ran...Ranma?"

  Ranma's eyes shot open again. He decided to keep them open, despite 
the pain. Slowly, he turned towards the sound. There, on his father's 
bedroll, lay Akane, opening her eyes. "What is it, Ranma?"

  <Why...why is she here?> "A...Akane...what happened yesterday?" 
He carefully sat up, rubbing his eyes a bit. "I'm trying to remember, but 
it's a little hard...."

  Akane looked at him. "Well...what do you remember so far?"

  Ranma dropped his gaze to the floor. "I was kneeling on the floor in 
the Dojo...I...started to cut myself, but I stopped when...when...I 
saw your face, in my mind." No matter how fuzzy last night was, he 
couldn't forget imagining her face, with that indescribable, yet... 
haunting expression on it. "Yeah, I stopped...you saved me...."

  Akane felt her heart swell a little. Even after his words the night 
before, hearing that felt...special. "And...then what?"

  Ranma looked back at her. "You...you came in. I...don't remember what 
happened next, for a little, but you said...said...." His eyes widened.

  Akane was smiling. "Yes. I said that, all right."

  Ranma's eyes lost focus. "You...love me...me?" Akane nodded. "And--
and then...." 

  Akane waited expectantly. <Come on. Say it, please....>

  "I said...I said that I love...you." Ranma whispered that, more to 
himself than to anyone else.

  Akane reached and took his hand, squeezing it, bringing him back to 
reality. "You fell asleep then, and your father brought you back to 
your room, here. I...I decided to stay with you, just in case...and 
your father decided to sleep downstairs...."

  Ranma stared at her. <She stayed here for me? Yeah, she did.> "You 
stayed...." He blushed slightly, and looked down again. "D-domo."

  Akane slid up closer to him, brushing his hair out of his face. "No 
problem. I wanted to do this...I meant what I said yesterday."

  Ranma raised his head to meet hers. "And...I guess...I do too...." 
He gazed into her eyes. <Kawaii....> Suddenly, he was seized by an 
impulse, and slowly started to move his face closer to hers.

  Akane, seeing this, nearly jumped. At least, her heart rate did. <I 
don't believe it...we're...we're....> She closed her eyes and leaned forward 
as well. She could feel the heat of his breath on her lips....

  "Hurglk!!" Akane was suddenly hit in the chin by Ranma's forehead. 
Her eyes snapped open, to see Ranma suddenly curl up a little, covering 
his mouth with his hand. He sprang up and darted out of the room, 
running to the bathroom to be very noisily sick. Evidently, this had 
been momentous enough to create a reaction in his stomach. Akane 
sighed in defeat and slight exasperation.

  "Baka," she muttered, but with a small smile.

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  Ranma had decided to forgo breakfast, owing to the state of his 
stomach. Still, he did decide to join everyone at the table, sitting 
next to a slightly blushing Akane. Kasumi, as always, smiled at him, 
but he noticed a note of relief in her voice when she bid him, "Ohayo 
gozaimasu, Ranma." Nabiki looked as she always did, except with a 
measure of gladness reflecting in her eyes, even as she teased him 
about getting himself drunk off his @$$. Soun was crying tears of 
joy and nearly smothered Ranma in a hug. His father gruffly grunted 
and slapped him on the shoulder, then pulled him aside (after, of 
course, sucking down a huge amount of food).

  "Ranma, are you all right, Son?"

  "I am, now, Oya...Otousan. Don't worry about it."

  Genma was slightly surprised by the Ranma's change of addressing 
him. "Ranma, tell me, whatever prompted you to do such a thing?"

  Ranma shook his head. "Really, don't worry about it...."

  Genma sighed. "Son...please, never scare me like that again. Akane 
told me that you were threatening me to cut your wrist when she finally 
stopped you.... It's not like that would have done anything, because I 
know we would have gotten you to Toufu-sensei or even the hospital in 
time, if necessary...but the simple fact that you were about to do 
something like that is just--just...."

   "Wrong? Yes, I know. It's not like me to do that, is it?" Genma nodded. 
"Not to mention that I got myself drunk." Ranma chuckled. "Don't worry 
about that, either. It's not worth the hangover. What happened last 
night...won't, not ever, not again." He glanced over at Akane, who 
smiled...almost shyly back at him. This was not lost on Genma.

  <Well, Son, you finally appreciate what you have, na?> "Well, boy, 
I'll let you go, then." He smiled and gave Ranma a pat on the arm again, 
then ambling back to the table on a holy quest for leftovers.

  Ranma looked for Akane, who had gone over to the couch in front of 
the TV. (Fortunately, it was Sunday, so they all could relax a good 
bit.) Ranma sat down next to her. Neither spoke for a little while, but 
clearly, they weren't concentrating on what was on the screen. Slowly, 
Ranma snuck his hand towards hers.

  Akane almost jumped for the second time that morning, when she felt 
Ranma take her hand in his. <This...this has been an incredible day... 
and it's not even noon, yet....> Her thoughts were interrupted by Ranma.

  "Akane...where is that tanto? The one I...I almost used last night?" 
The question took Akane by surprise. "I just want to see it. I won't 
use it, I swear." Ranma smiled.

  "Oh...okay...it's in the Dojo." They got up, still holding hands, 
and walked to the Dojo. Akane dropped his hand and plucked the blade 
from its place on the wall, placed back there last night by Kasumi. 
She studied it, carefully, looking at the finely crafted handle, the 
beautifully worked sheath....

  Ranma walked up to her, and took it from her hands, turning it over 
and examining the details. Unconsciously, his left hand went to the 
bandage under his shirt. "So.... This is the one?"

  Akane nodded. "Otousan tells me...it was actually from Okaasan's 
family. It was one of the things...that my mother had with her during 
the wedding ceremony. It's been a tradition of her family's...."

  <Somehow...fitting.> Ranma closed his eyes and sighed, shaking his 
head. A sad smile came to his lips. "To think...to think that it took 
this much...." He turned to his fiancee. "Akane.... Domo arigato 
gozaimasu," he spoke, bowing formally to her. It surprised her a little, 
but she bowed back. He continued, "You saved my life...you saved me 
from myself. But...as bad as yesterday was, I'm...I'm kind of glad it 
happened, now." He suddenly grabbed her in a gentle hug, whispering 
in her ear, "I love you, Akane. More than I could say. For longer than 
I can remember." It was so easy to say now...to feel. So very easy.

  Akane's eyes shined. "I'm glad yesterday happened too. And I love 
you too, crazy baka." The words came to her naturally. She pulled back 
a little, gazing into his eyes. <You're not going to get away from me 
this time....> She darted her head in, quickly brushing her lips across 
his once, then pressing against him firmly for a long, long time.

  Ranma was startled for just a few moments, but quickly responded in 
kind, closing his eyes. <This...this feels...good.> The understatement 
of the year rang in his head for a while as he savored the feeling of 
the wonderful girl in his arms. Behind Akane's back, he gripped the 
tanto tightly, the thing that had, in a way, finally broken the spell 
which once held the two apart. <This can't be a dream....> He paused a 
moment, reconsidering that. <No...it is a dream, but it's not one that 
I'll be waking from.>

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  There you have it. The true closure for that story, the one that 
Ranma and Akane deserve. It took me a little longer to write this one...
I tried to really get their feelings and affections across here. As I 
said earlier, this may turn into a continuation. If that does happen, 
it's not from the end of the manga--Nodoka still does not know, Akari 
has not come in, and Konatsu isn't here, either. They will appear, 
though, I think--it wouldn't be fair to them to leave them out. It's 
going to be difficult, I know, since I don't know those characters very 
well. One further thing--if this continuation does get written out, 
expect it to feel like Marisa Price's _A Lesson in Love_ (thank you so 
much, Misa-chan, for writing in such a wonderful style with such a 
wonderful story), not like TMTC. It's going to be a more serious work; 
I don't think I could maintain a level of humor too long. So, any 
comments? They would be appreciated.


>From the desktop of the Taiwanese-American-German-Scot,
	Wakko "Andrew" Huang
Brought to you by his computer, Oddzilla
Oddzilla says, "Ryouga and Ukyou! Ukyou and Ryouga!"
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang