Butter Cup
----------

by Florencio B. de la Merced, Jr. (fmerced@pworld.net.ph)

A Fanfic inspired by the anime Ranma 1/2 created and copyrighted by
Rumiko Takahashi

A project for the Fan Fiction Mailing List
---------

Ranma immediately realized that he wasn't supposed to be in the kitchen
that morning.  In fact, he'd rather be somewhere else than be in there
right now.  Off his head, Ranma started imagining images of the
Nekohanten, the Uutchan's, Phoenix Mountain, the Joketsuzoku village,
Furinkan High.  Heck, even the Jusenkyo pools filled his consciousness
all of a sudden.

"Hand me that strainer, Ranma."  Ranma nimbly passed the tool to his
fiancée, who at Ranma's best guess, was attempting to cook something.
Cooking, deep-frying, boiling, or baking meant only one thing for Akane,
Ranma thought.  "What does the book say about oven time?"

Ranma reviewed the recipe handbook he had laid out in front of him.
"Twenty five minutes at three hundred fifty degrees Celsius."  Akane
promptly set the timer of the oven at those setting Ranma had just
imparted to her.  "Does this mean I still have to taste it?"

"Yes, Ranma."  Akane just ignored Ranma's obvious pun on her cooking.
"This time I won't let you down."  Ranma's hand ran smack right into his
face.

"You better clean up.  I'll clean up our mess here."  Ranma somehow felt
sorry to leave Akane all alone in the kitchen.  It wasn't that usual
that they would work together, and at baking a cake at that.  What was
more difficult to accept was it was his cake that Akane prepared for
him.  A special cake for his birthday.  "Go on, I'll be right out."

"Nah, I help you." Both quickly got the kitchen back to its Kasumi
condition.  Akane looked at the timer and realized her cake was almost
ready.  "Yo, Akane.  If you want I can stay behind and wait for the cake
to cook."  Ranma somehow didn't recognize the goof he had just said.

"Bake, Ranma.  Bake a cake."  Both laughed for a while then they settled
down, sitting down on chairs they had intently placed in front of the
glass door of the oven.

"So, are we still go out tonight?"  Akane leaned on Ranma a bit.  Ranma
blinked before answering.

"If I don't die first....Oww!"  A quick elbow dug deep into Ranma's
side.  "Ok, I guess I had that coming." Akane calmed down and soon had
her head back resting on Ranma's shoulder.

"Well, are we?"  Akane felt Ranma's touch reaching for her hand.

"Of course."  Ranma squeezed a little, which got the same reply from his
fiancée.  "I hope you like tonight's wrestling match?"  Akane's hand
quickly bolted away from Ranma's hand.

"What?  You mean to tell me we're going to the wrestling match?"  Ranma
casually nodded which immediately irked Akane.  "Is that the best you
can do?"

"Why?"  Akane now had her arms crossed and was glaring at her fiancé.
"Do you want to go somewhere?"  Akane's eyebrows just rose in clear
annoyance to Ranma's question and obvious attempt to spite her.

"You're so unromantic?!"  Ranma almost fell off his seat when Akane spun
around in disgust.  He tried to calm his fiancée again, but was time and
time again shrugged off.  "I can't believe you can be so...so..."

"What?!  Why are you getting so riled up about, Akane?  I'm taking you
out.  Isn't that enough?"  Obviously not, Ranma concluded as another
elbow buried itself on his stomach.  "Why do I need to be romantic?"
Ranma blocked Akane's third blow this time.  "Ok! Ok!  You win.  I'll be
romantic."  Akane briefly restrained herself from further hitting Ranma.

"We could go see the new Jacky Chan movie..." Akane had heard enough and
quickly slapped Ranma's arm in rapid succession, stopping only when
Ranma tried to give a better offer.  "What if we go to the park?  We
could have...have a picnic.  Yeah that's seems right."  Akane finally
smiled again.

"That's sounds romantic.  I'll cook some..." Ranma gave a serious
looking stare that only showed his disapproval in what Akane was getting
excited about.  "BAKA!"  Ranma this time fell off the chair.

"Oww!  Forget the park!"  Akane just turned to look the other way.
Ranma slowly got up and sat back on his chair.  He again tried to make
amends.  "Ok, what if we just go to the arcade?"

"And you'll just beat me again in Tekken?  No thank you!"

"How about the...Opera House?  Yeah, that's sounds romantic."

"You'll just sleep through the whole thing.  Remember?"  Akane was
getting frustrated, and so was Ranma.

"Oh right."  Ranma thought a bit harder.  "What if we just walk around
Nerima?"

"And what do you expect we do while roaming all around Nerima?  You'll
just walk up a fence while I'll follow you around on the ground."  Ranma
winced, since he was running out of options.  "Gee.  How come I got
stuck with ..."

"Oh, it's that what's all this is about?"  Ranma's teeth were clenching
in view of his sudden outrage to Akane's little insult.  "Why don't we
just go to Ryugenzawa, eh?  You'll like that, won't you?!"

Akane immediately turned to face Ranma.  "What are you implying?!  Oh,
Ok.  I get this.  You're still jealous of Kinnoshuke, aren't you?"
Ranma's anger almost got the better of him.  "Right, hit me!  You don't
really care about me?  At least Kinnoshuke would never ever hit me.
He's surely has better manners than you!"

"He's a moron!  He can't even remember his own grandfather!"

"At least he said he loved me!"

"He probably can't remember that too!"  Akane was almost as angry as
Ranma.

"At least he said it!  Not like you.  You never say it!"

"Why should I.  You Tomboy!"

<beep>

"BAKA!  I'll get you for that!  You...you pervert!"

<beep>

"Kawaiikune!"

<beep>

"Hentai!"

<beep>

"Tom..."  Ranma paused for a moment.

<beep>

"Per..."  Akane blinked.  Both turned their heads towards the oven door.

<beep>

"The cake!"  Both exclaimed at the same time, and both got the pastry
out of the oven just in time.

-----

"I have to admit, this is the best cake you ever baked Akane."

"It's the first cake I ever got baked right too."  Both laughed a bit.
They exchanged glances.  Ranma got a small bit of the cake and spooned
it to Akane, and Akane did the same.

"Have I ever told you I..." Akane noticed Ranma's hesitation.  "I love
you Akane."  Ranma took a big bite of his piece of cake.

"I know.  I always knew."

Ranma took some icing off his piece and smeared it on Akane's nose.
Akane didn't hesitate to retaliate in the same manner.  Soon the kitchen
was the scene of a battle.  Icing and pieces of cake were flying
everywhere.  When the confusion died down, both Ranma and Akane were a
mess, and were still sitting on the chairs.

"Happy birthday, Ranma."

"Thanks for the best birthday I ever had."

Both ended up kissing each other, not withstanding the sugar coating and
mess on their faces.  Somehow the kiss was sweeter than the icing on the
birthday cake and the moment was more special than the coming of age for
Ranma.

END

-----

Ok, here's another one timer....just getting the feel of my keyboard

I know it's seems rough, and not a whole lot of thinking went into this
one.  But I hope this will get some people to think.

C & C greatly appreciated (private & public will do fine)