SUNSET
a Ranma fanfic by CBear <cleng@mnl.sequel.net>

All characters in this story belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc. I’m just
a broke college student who has nothing better to do and who enjoys this
series so much. I want to fine tine this, so I’d really appreciate some C&C.
This is my first draft. Enjoy!

*	*	*	*
SUNSET
 
The sun was just beginning to set, bathing Nerima with its red orange glow.
Smells of dinner being prepared and sounds of children happily sharing the
events of the day with their parents hung in the air like a comforting
blanket of warmth.

The rooftops cast shadows on Ranma's face as he wandered from street to
street looking for Akane. He sighed despondently as he peered along yet
another alley, only to find it empty. Where could she have gone?  She had
been gone since lunch and, much as Ranma hated to admit it to himself, he
was beginning to worry about her.

Especially when it was all his fault that she had run off...

*	*	*	*

Kasumi, who had been, as usual, optimistic beyond belief that Akane could
cook a decent meal, had allowed Akane to cook lunch. And, as usual, the rest
of the family had cleared out of the house as soon as they had heard Akane
banging away in the kitchen – Pop and Uncle Tendo begging off with the
excuse of an all-city shogi tournament; Nabiki dragging off Kasumi over
Kasumi’s protests, saying that she owed Kasumi lunch and that she had a
couple of discount coupons to a newly opened restaurant downtown – besides,
she wanted to go shopping with her. 

He himself had been prepared to dart out the door when Akane had emerged
from the kitchen with an eager, hopeful smile on her face, pinning him with
her liquid brown eyes. "Hey, Ranma, call everyone, lunch is almost ready –"
The eager look on her face was replaced by puzzlement as she looked around
to find that he was the only one around. "Where IS everyone?"

"Pop and  Uncle Tendo had a shogi tournament to attend, and Nabiki treated
Kasumi to a meal at a newly opened restaurant," Ranma began. He was about to
spout off an excuse of his own when he saw a sad look pass over her face for
a moment – but it was quickly gone, replaced by a look of cheerful
determination. 

"Oh, well, I guess that just means more the both of us, ne?" she said,
giving him one of her sunshiny  smiles, leaving him speechless for a moment.
He hated to admit it, but he really was becoming a sucker for those smiles.
It was the only explanation. Why else was he still standing here and risking
food poisoning if he wasn't?  "I'm so glad you decided to stay. I would have
hated to eat lunch by myself."

"I – I..." he began, then trailed off sniffing the air. "Something’s burning."

Akane blanched and dashed back into the kitchen. "Oh no! It’s the octopus!"

Octopus?  

He really should get out while Akane was still in the kitchen… Ucchan would
be willing to give him free lunch… There was always spare food at the
Nekohanten… Either way, he would still be ALIVE.

An image of Akane's disappointed expression  flashed across his mind, making
him hesitate. Then it was too late, and Akane was calling him to lunch.

The mess that Akane had laid out before him looked like it had been trapped
inside a burning building but was not quite dead yet. Charred in some
places, raw in others –morphologically unrecognizable. Ranma’s stomach
churned at the thought of putting even a small bit of it in his mouth. He
was on the verge of telling her so, but he bit his tongue in time. They had
been getting along pretty well the past few weeks, and he realized much of
it was because he had begun to learn not to shoot his mouth off without
thinking first. One wrong comment about the food, and he was sure that Akane
would shatter the delicate truce between them – not to mention any part of
his anatomy within reach – with one whack of her hammer.

Akane looked at him expectantly, a hopeful smile hovering on her mouth. "Go
ahead, Ranma, taste it," she urged, pushing the dish closer to him. 

Ranma gulped audibly and hooked a finger under his mandarin collar. "Uh…"

"Please?"

If she had threatened him with the hammer, he probably would have run away
or, at the very least, told her what he really thought of her cooking –
truce or no truce. But the look in her eyes, the smile and the "please"
undid him. 

He took his chopsticks, stuck it in the portion he thought most edible, and,
after a considerable amount of subtle pulling,  put it in his mouth. He
chewed, thankful that this time, no awful taste exploded upon his taste
buds. She was improving. The only problem was that it didn’t taste like
anything at all… and it was as tough as rubber. He chewed some more,
thinking with a sinking sensation in his stomach that his teeth hadn’t even
made a dent in it since he had first put it in his mouth. Finally, after a
small struggle, he managed to down it whole, gagging on it.

 "Uh…" he began in between coughs, biting his tongue to keep the stream of
nasty comments about murder and poisoning at bay, but pretty sure that she
was already taking his gagging as an insult and was already  pulling out her
hammer from hyperspace. "Uh.. Akane…"

Finding her strangely silent and no blows landing on his head, he looked up
at her to find, instead of rage, a stricken look on her face. She had taken
a bite of what she had cooked while he was choking and was still chewing the
morsel. He continued to watch her closely, afraid she would choke, until she
finally managed to swallow it. She followed it with a glass of water afterwards.

"Oh, Ranma… it’s… it’s… AWFUL," she said in a small, suffocated voice, her
brown eyes filling with tears as they met his.

"Aw, Akane, ‘s not as bad as the other stuff you’ve cooked," he tried to
comfort her, not quite sure how because what she was saying was true and he
wasn’t a very good liar. "At least I ain’t unconscious and none of us need
to get our stomachs pumped or anythin’. It was just a little too tough…"
Ranma trailed off as he watched her pick up the plate of charred octopus –
if that’s what it really was, he had his doubts – from the table and stand
up. "Akane, what are you doing? We haven’t had lunch…"

"This stuff isn’t good enough to eat," she said, as she walked to the
kitchen, still with that strange little voice. "Why don’t you go over to
Ucchan’s for some real food? Or maybe to Shampoo’s, I’m sure she’ll be glad
to see you and feed you for free…"

He looked at her, surprised that she was actually suggesting that he go to
Shampoo or Ucchan for a meal – it was one deed she always rewarded him with
a bruise for. That only meant – she wasn’t okay at all. "Uh… Akane, why
don’t we both go to Ucchan’s together?" he invited. "I’m sure you’re hungry,
too."

He heard water begin to run inside the kitchen and the sound of pots and
pans being placed inside the sink. "No, thank you, Ranma, I’ll just stay and
clean up in here first," she said, her voice hardly being heard over the
sound of the water. "Go on. I know you’re hungry."

He walked doubtfully towards the kitchen, almost went inside, thought better
of it – and went to the dojo to practice kata instead. Maybe when Akane was
feeling better and was finished cleaning, she would feel differently about
eating at Ucchan’s, and he wasn’t that hungry anyway. His stomach growled in
protest at that, but it didn’t feel right going off for food and leaving her
like… like this. 

But when he returned to the house half an hour later to ask if she had
changed her mind, she was no longer anywhere to be found.

*	*	*	*

She wasn’t at any of her friends’ houses. She wasn’t at Dr. Tofu’s. And she
certainly didn’t meet up with Nabiki and Kasumi because Nabiki had just
called right before he left the house saying the she and Kasumi wouldn’t be
home for dinner.

He shouldn’t have left her alone, even just to go to the dojo. She was
acting weird, and he should have stayed to make sure she didn’t do anything
stupid. Then, when he found that she was gone, he should have gone after her
right away. Instead he had stayed home and taken a nap, thinking she had
done the same thing. She never did that. He should have known she never did
that. 

 He stomach growled loudly as he walked, reminding him rather viciously that
he had not had a decent meal since breakfast. He had thought of stopping by
at Ucchan’s or the Nekohanten for something to eat, but worry for Akane had
taken over and he had decided to look for her instead of eating.

A decision that brought him here, in the middle of some unknown street in
Nerima right before dinner hour, hungry and frustrated and worried beyond
belief about the very reason he was going hungry in the first place. Then
again, if he hadn’t eaten anything decent since breakfast then neither had
she – what if she had passed out in some alley or something and that was the
reason she hadn’t gone home for the past few hours?  Worried even more than
he had been before the thought had entered his mind, he picked up his pace.

And suddenly halted when he realized where she could be.

 *	*	*	*

He found her sitting at his place under the bridge, that place where he was
usually banished when he did something incredibly stupid, that place where
he sometimes went to let off his steam when Akane was too harsh and punted
him when he felt he didn’t deserve it. It was one of the places he went to
when he wanted to be alone.

Akane, being Akane, knew this place very well.

She was looking out into the water, hugging her knees to her chest, a
wistful expression on her face. The late afternoon breeze whipped her short
blue-black hair back, and the red glow of the sunset tinted her cheeks but
didn’t quite disguise the fact that she had been crying.

Ranma, relieved to finally find her, allowed himself to lose his temper.
"Where’ve you been all afternoon, Akane?  It’s almost dinner time, no one’s
coming home for dinner and no one is cooking, and you’ve been gone since
after lunch, and I’ve been looking all over for you," he spewed angrily,
striding to her side as he spoke. "I mean, how was I supposed to know you,
bein’ the klutz you are, didn’t fall over somewhere and hurt yourself?  Or
maybe you had passed out from hunger or somethin’? And you call me insensitive!"

She didn’t shout back nor pull out her hammer from hyperspace, didn’t even
look back at him – and Ranma realized that something must really be
bothering her for her not to lose her temper at his harsh outburst. He
approached her more cautiously, finally taking a seat beside her. 

"Ranma, I’m a hopeless cook, aren’t I?" she finally said, still not looking
at him. "You were right all along when you said that I can’t cook anything
without turning it into something toxic."  

Ranma, who had opened his mouth to let loose another barrage of insults just
to get her to notice him, suddenly found it difficult to raise his jaw back
into place. Did this mean that they were going through all this trouble
because of what had happened over lunch?

"Uh, Akane, if this is about lunch…"

Akane interrupted him with a sad shake of her head. "Ranma, I – I just
wanted to say that – I’m sorry for all those times I forced you to eat my
cooking," she said, ending on what sounded suspiciously like a sniff. He
didn’t want to look. "I don’t know how you’ve stood it, but thank you for
trying to – to tell me the truth." She sighed and this time ended on a
hiccup. "I’ll never try to cook anything again."

Ranma was stunned. If there was anything Akane didn’t do, it was give up on
ANYTHING. Darn that burned octopus anyway. And darn all the times he had
insulted her cooking, never mind if every word he had said about it was true.

"But, Akane, just because lunch didn’t turn out okay today, it don’t mean
you ain’t ever gonna learn how to cook. You just have to try harder," he
said, then mentally hit himself. Had some sort of death wish gotten into
him? Why was he actually encouraging Akane to churn out more of her toxic
messes in the kitchen?  It didn’t make sense. The world would be a better
place without Akane’s cooking – so many people would live longer, especially
him. So why did he get the feeling that Akane’s never cooking again was
something that wasn’t quite… right?  That he couldn’t let it happen?

They sat companionably side by side, each keeping their own thoughts close.
Ranma was relieved to hear that she had stopped sniffing, but he still felt
vaguely uneasy. The sun dipped low in the sky, so low that he could no
longer see it. But he knew it was there because the cheerful red glow that
bathed the both of them was still there, lingering, probably as curious as
he was to find out how this episode between him and Akane would end. The
breeze continued to waft gently at them, occasionally splashing him with
miniscule droplets of water enough for him to feel on his face but not
enough for him to change into a girl.

"Do you know I always wonder why it seems I can’t be really good at
anything?" she said at last, still staring at the water wistfully. "I mean
REALLY good, not just good enough. Even when we were little, Nabiki was
always the smart one, so great at Math, and Kasumi was always the most
domestic of us all. I was just... just me. I tried so hard at everything,
but everything – well, nothing I tried agreed with me, except maybe martial
arts, and you’ve told me I’m not that good at that either."

Baka, he told himself. Baka, baka, baka, baka. "But, Akane…" he began,
rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, a pained look on his face.

"No, no, you don’t have to… have to… it’s true, I know it is," she said,
sighing and laying her head on her knees. "I’m just good enough to say I
know martial arts, but I’m nothing special. Ukyo can beat me hands down in
combat, and Shampoo can beat me into a pulp if she really wanted to. And
they can both cook so well while I can’t even make anything in the kitchen
that doesn’t make you gag."  Her head snapped up and swung around to pin his
gaze, tears filling her eyes. "HOW CAN I BE SO HORRID AT SOMETHING AS SIMPLE
AS COOKING? Why, you’re even better at it than I am!"

Ranma opened his mouth, thought about it, then shut it again. He shook his
head. 

"What?" she asked, puzzled at the reason he was shaking his head. "You can
tell me, I promise I won’t whack you or anything – having had to eat my
cooking this morning was punishment enough for you, I’m sure."

He took a deep breath and tugged his braid nervously. "No," he said,
releasing his breath in a whoosh. 

"No?" she asked, a puzzled frown creasing her face. 

At least she wasn’t feeling sorry for herself anymore, Ranma thought. He
plodded on. "No, you’re wrong about thinking that you ain’t good at anythin’
because you are," he said fiercely, resisting the temptation to haul her to
face him. "You’re good at lots of things."

"I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I know you’re just trying to make
me feel better," Akane said, looking back at the water with a shrug. "Don’t
worry, I’m okay…"

"No!" he exclaimed in exasperation. "I ain’t lying, you know I don’t do
that," he said, moving in front of her and pining her surprised brown gaze
with his own earnest one. "You’re good at makin’ people smile – and makin’
friends – and thinkin’ about other people before thinkin’ about yourself. So
don’t ever say you ain’t anythin’ special..." 

To his surprise, the memory of when they first met crowded his mind – her
tentative smile, her offer of friendship, the only welcoming gesture in a
strange house for a strange girl who was supposed to be a boy – and it
washed over him, warming him, and making him want her to see it. It was just
too bad that he wasn’t too good with words and couldn’t find what else to
say, he had so much to say.  

Akane was looking at him with an expression of disbelief and hope on her
face. "Ranma… I… do you really…"

"Don’t interrupt me, Akane," he exclaimed in irritation, squeezing his eyes
shut and rubbing his neck again. He hated talking about stuff like this. It
simply wasn’t normal. He opened his eyes again and struggled to explain.
"You know, Akane, that’s a lot more than other people have – ain’t something
I have, that’s for sure. I’m such a baka… And… and… you know, you don’t have
to be good at martial arts or at cookin’ for… for…" he trailed off. *For me
to… to… like you.*  

Realizing what he had been about to say and realizing it was what he really
felt, he shut his mouth, turned beet red, and averted his gaze darting back
to his original spot beside her. He had been about to tell her… he liked
her? No, no – it was just hunger and the charred octopus talking. He didn’t
really… did he? Confused, he moved restlessly.

"For what?" she asked, curiously following his agitated actions with her
gaze. "Well?" she prodded, releasing her legs and moving to face him. 

Ranma shifted nervously. "Er… uh… you don’t have to be good at martial arts
or at cookin’ for… for... uh… people!… yeah, that’s it… for people to… to…
like you," he said, his cheeks still feeling terribly warm. "Oh, and there’s
one more thing you’re really good at that I didn’t mention…"

"What’s that?" she asked, beginning to smile.

"You’re really good at never giving up on anything," he answered, smiling
shyly back at her.

They looked at each other for a few moments, seeing one another in the light
of new discoveries and new emotions. In the meantime the red glow of the
sunset sky had given way to a dusky pink-tinged purple. Both broke the stare
at the same time, blushing, and Ranma looked up only to find the first star
of the night winking back at him. 

"First star out," Akane murmured, seeing it too, then closing her eyes to
make a wish. "Star light, star bright…" 

Ranma, feeling foolish but getting into the mood of the moment, made a wish
of his own. 

"You… you really were worried about me?" she suddenly asked him, breaking
the silence.

He cleared his throat in embarrassment, totally off balance now. "What did
you expect?" he snorted, trying to restore a sense of normalcy between them.
"How can I have any peace of mind knowing a mega-klutz like you is wanderin’
the city with an empty stomach? Akane no baka!" he concluded in disgust,
then braced himself, fully expecting her to bash him this time, this time
actually wanting her to bash him unconscious.

But she didn’t. Unexpectedly, she laughed. "You don’t have your insults
right," she said, eyes twinkling, the wistful look gone. "I’m supposed to be
the ‘kawaikunee tomboy’ – you’re supposed to be the ‘baka’." 

She sobered, hesitating a moment, then leaned forward and suddenly kissed
his cheek. It was feather light, her lips brushing against his cheek,
tickling it like a butterfly’s wings, a comforting warmth spreading from it
to wash all over him. He felt her dart away – too soon, he thought – and saw
a splash of pink on her cheeks before she retreated to her side, away from
his stunned gaze. "Thank you, Ranma," she said in a breathless voice, a
little stunned at what she did herself.

He sat there feeling himself blush, too. "Akane, I…I…"

"Do you want to pass by Ucchan’s for dinner since Oneechan won’t be home to
cook for us?" she quickly asked him, standing up abruptly in a jerky,
flustered motion.

He gazed up at her thoughtfully, then shook his head. "I’ve got a better
idea," he said grinning as he took the hand she offered to pull him up with.
He allowed her to pull him but didn’t release the grip on her hand
afterwards. It felt good, that. He cleared his throat. "How about… how about
both of us cook dinner at home instead?" 

He felt her stiffen and held his breath while he waited for her reply.
Although the wait wasn’t more than a few seconds, it felt like forever.

"Okay," she finally agreed, returning his grin. "But this time, you cook the
octopus." She took her hand from his, and he felt vaguely disappointed by
the loss. 

"Race you home!" she quipped, nudging him then taking off without further
warning. 

He suddenly felt much better, never mind his roaring stomach. Taking one
last look at the star that had granted his wish, he whispered a thank you,
and gave chase.

Behind him the early evening breeze whispered its approval, carrying the
sound of their laughter around Nerima long after the two of them had reached
home. 

 - fin -

 

 
 

 







 


   
       {~._.~}      Claire Francisco
       (  Y  )      UP Diliman
      (:)~*~(:)     mailed with *hugs* and a :) enclosed 
     (-)~--~ (-)    Have a nice day!