Part 2 of my series is only 8k. It picks up at the same evening the last
one did. C&C please;)

"Dream Weaver, I believe you can get me through the night..."


---The Yin, The Yang, And the thin line between.---


part 2 'Revelations, and a back rub.' 

Ranma was falling as he quickly analysed what he was going to do next.

Saphron, the phoenix-god-child, chuckled to himself as he let loose the
killing blow.

Ranma clutched Akane's doll.(I cant lose! I wont lose! I wont let
him...) Ranma's thoughts were broken by Saphron's massive voice.

"My final blow shall end this farce! You will die like the stock animal
you are!!"

Fire erupted everywhere.

"TENKANSHUNMETSUKOKYUDAN! 
JUDGEMENT'S GENOCIDE BLAZE!"

Ranma felt the fire storm wash over him as his clothes burned apart. He
felt his bones turn to charcoal and everything went hellashioucly hot.

AAAAAAaaaaaa.....

====

"aaaaaAAAAAA!" Ranma woke up in cold sweat, bolting upwards.


He breathed heavy, shaking from the nightmare that had erupted from his
thoughts...Looking down at himself, he curled up his knees.

(Damn, where'd that come from?) He looked around, brushing his chin on
his knees. His scream had awakened no one. He had thrashed a great deal
and was now close to the window. ( I wonder...what it meant...) Now, he
coaxed himself to loosen up as he crawled over to the window. 

It was a cold stale late autumn night, probably about 1:30 he thought.
It was even colder than before tonight, making him wish he had gotten
out his pj's from his room. It was at least reasonably warm when he was
talking with his mother earlier.

(Am I...) He looked out to the starry sky. (Could I have lost so easily?
Jeeze, we'd all be dead by now if I had.) He thought back to his
climactic fight with Saphron. 

Saphron. An incarnate of the heavens? (Or maybe hell..)

He looked down at his hand, thinking of all his training, all his skill,
all his power. The enormity of his experiences began to fill him with
weight. (I beat him single handed...)

He slapped himself. (No, Akane and I defeated him.) He grumbled at
himself in a self chastisement attempt. (That was arrogant...I should
know better. I co...co..couldn't have won without her...) 

Why was he so angry in that fight? Sure, he wanted to save Akane, but
that wasn't all. He knew it was something else.

He thought back to when Akane had become super strong from that crackpot
soba. (Maybe I am a little arrogant...) He thought about
himself....fights with everyone, particularly Mousse. He didn't like
people to be unhappy, but he still wouldn't throw the fight to him. Then
of Tsubasa, trying to make him feel better after Uchan bought the last
okonomiyaki. Then Konatsu, and his wicked step family and the fight in
the forest. Then Pantyhose Taro.

(I guess...I guess...I just can't let myself lose...)

The moon was nowhere to be found in the skies. He thought back to the
nightmare.

(I can't think of why I'd....) He stewed on his thoughts for a long time
before realising he wouldn't be sleeping for a while. He stood up and
headed for the bath, quietly closing the door.

He was wrong...he had woken someone.

"Are you okay, Ranma?" Akane stood almost in front of him in her thin
yellow short sleeve pjs, apparently en route to his room. "I heard.."
she stumbled off.

"Uh, yeah..I'm okay..." he too, trailed away. They stood, looking deeply
at each other.

(His clothes are all wrinkled and damp...is he really okay?)

(I can't stop looking...) he shuddered, his nightmare still fresh.

Akane knew he wasn't that cold. Something was wrong. "You wanna..."  
"you wanna talk?"

He stumbled in his thoughts. "Uh, nah. I just..." he motioned down the
hall towards the stairs..."wanna get in and soak...ya know?"

Akane traced his outline in the dark. "Yeah." she sighed softly. "I
just...I'm just worried about you...that's all..."

(That's all?) "Uh, thanks..."

silence...

Ranma nervously started to tip toe to the bathroom. He slid down the
stairs in an ethereal fashion.

Akane watched him walk away. She was still too concerned to let it rest.

===

Ranma laid the towel to the side and looked out the window. He stepped
into the hot bath carefully, still facing away from the entrance. He
felt the tension in his body lessen, only to be accompanied by the
ritual sensation he got when in contact with any water.

He sighed a sigh of depression. Then a shudder of anxiety from the
nightmare. The water did not calm him.

Neither did the sound of the sliding door opening behind him.

He knew who it was...he was beginning to distinguish footfalls that
people had by using his ears. He was also becoming acute to other
people's ki.

He was to edgy to look back to her.

Akane slowly walked over to the tub. Her gait on her bare feet suggested
how cold the tile was to her. She set the towel down next to Ranma's,
and slowly slid into the tub.

Ranma, still flooded by emotions from his recent life events, barely
noticed the water rise and ripple to his chest.

silence as the water grows calm.

(Something's wrong.) She thought quickly. He hadn't tried to push her
away or even insult her. Either it was that he truly trusted her, or
that it was so serious he let his guard down. (What to do?) She wanted
to help, but she had no idea how to proceed."Talk to me..." she said
softly, making her way a little closer to him. That's what Dr. Tofu
always said. "Was it a dream?"

Ranma wondered why the words just started coming. "What if we lost?"

Akane half laughed."Then we wouldn't need to worry about this right
now." She tried to hide her understanding of his nightmare, because
somehow she knew she had the same nightmare. But she had something that
Ranma had yet to realise.

"Akane, I'm just a man..."  (Jeeze) "Half the time I'm not even that...I
could have lost. We'd be..."

"shh..." She laid her hand on his shoulder gently. "Ranma...I had that
dream too..."

He slowly turned, but only so much that he could hear her better. "...I
wonder, what could have happened." She began to shake, her hand coming
off his shoulder. "I was so close, I could feel it slipping...I have
been that...way before..." Her voice cracked, her speech halting. She
came close to tears before she let a wave of resolve wash over her. "But
when I think of before, and all of those times I think..." This was
obviously hard for her. (Just say it, girl. No more pride. We've got
to..)

"I think of you."

"I think of you, Ranma." she repeated. "I knew you'd come...come for me.
I...I...I believe in you."

Ranma exhaled deeply at her soft words. He felt something strange
welling inside of his being.

"You always have...and...I know..." she clutched her hands in front of
her bare chest. "You always will," she finished softly. 

She reached for his shoulders, and began kneading hard.

Ranma relaxed 5 levels instantly. (Dang, she's still got wrist
strength,) he thought as he felt his muscles loosening. Everything else
seemed so trivial, all his other thoughts began to wash away.

All but her...

"Akane, I..." he turned to talk to her, but then checked his glance,
looking away quickly. "Sorry..."...."I...you...we..."

She heard his heart racing, finding hers doing the same.

"Can I take you somewhere tomorrow?...uh, today?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, uh, on a date..." he twiddled his fingers in the water.


=====


Needless to say, Akane had finally stuttered an affirmation to his
proposal, which she was thinking about as she laid back down to her bed.
(He finally asked me...and I said yes...) She hoped no one could see the
silly grin on her face.

Ranma was still shaking....(Too much...too much in one night..)

But she said yes. That seemed to dwarf everything. Shame. Fear.
Insecurity.

All paled in comparison. She had said yes. 

He wasn't sure if the old freak was in the room. He had elected to leave
so his mom could stay with his father. He hoped he would leave him
alone.

He sat down on the floor, the futon mattress poofing slightly. She said
yes...

=================================================
-- 
___________________________________________
|"You never know how screwed up you are   |
|until someone else decides to tell you." |
|_________________________________________|
|http://www.abraxis.com/ryougaecho/ranma  |
|_________________________________________|
|Ding and Dong productions.    \  Space   |
|"Quit playin` with your dingy."|  for    |
|______________________________/__Rent____|