The title doesn't quite seem to go with the story till they go to school.
The whole idea is that Ranma is confused sometimes about his feelings and it
often confuses him.  I had a hard time trying to fit it in, so its just all
smooshed into one area.  The rest of it concentraits on his feelings for
Akane.  So its somewhat mushy.
Azusa-chan



Azusa-chan
mimzy@ix.netcom.com
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction =)

Ranma 1/2 is the property of the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi.
All rights reserved.

*****Ranma Romance*****
*Ranma's Burdened Heart*

We are all sitting out in the livingroom watching a movie.  I don't know
what movie, much less what it is about.  I'm busy watching Akane in the
mirror she set ontop of the television.  I think she might be watching me
too, but she doesn't say
anything.
   Akane yawns.  I can feel her shifting position to get more comfortable,
her body rubbing up against me slightly.  I supress a happy sigh.  I wish
things could always be this way.  I almost jolt straight up when I feel her
rest her head on my
thigh.  She yawns again and goes to sleep.

As soon as the boring movie that I didn't watch was over, I picked Akane up
gently.  She was actually kinda...light.  She is so cute when she's asleep.
Her breathing is even.  Her eyelashes flutter open slightly.  She looks up
at me and gives me a faint smile that makes me choke up.  Then she closes
her
eyes and snuggles up against me.
   Life is good.
   I carry Akane all the way up the stairs and to her room.  I move the
covers aside and set her down as carefully as I can.  I cover her up and I
hear her sigh in contentment as she rests her head on the pillow.  I check
the door and, seeing no one there, I kiss her softly on the forehead.
   "Good-night, sweet tomboy," I whisper, too quietly for her to hear even
if she was awake.
   Damn, she's cute when she's sleeping.  I yawn.  I guess I'm more tired
than I thought...

My eyes open slowly, wincing at the light.  Odd, the light seemed to be
hitting me from a slightly different angle.  I hear a noise.  I guess that
is what woke me up in the first place.  I sit up, look around, and blush.
Shit.  I'm in Akane's room.
   I look over at her bed and she's laying there, giggling softly at me.
"Ohayou, baka," she says.  I blush some more.  "Why are you sleeping on my
floor?  And without a blanket?  Tsk, tsk!  You'll catch a cold!"  She laughs
softly to show me she's teasing.
   I get up unsteadily.  I had fallen uncerimoniously onto the floor shortly
after saying good-night, I suppose.  Some of my joints were stiff and sore.
I stretched out and yawned.  I look at Akane sideways.  "Wanna spar?"
   She looks up at me, eyes shining.  "Sure!"

You're probably wondering why, if we're getting along, I don't tell her how
I feel.  There are several reasons actually.  One is that I don't know how
she feels either.  Another is I don't want to hurt everyone elses feelings.
I mean, Ukyou and them can be pretty nice, but I just don't care about
*them* like that.
   Third, I'm not going to cooperate with my stupid father who got me into
the mess(es) I'm currently in.  Which is basically everything.  From
changing gender, to my fear of cats, to my multiple finacees.  I wouldn't
wish this toture on anyone.
Not even Kunou.  Well, maybe Kunou.
   Akane changes into her gi as I wait outside her room.  It's a nice Sunday
morning.  I doubted it would rain.  I smell the heavenly smells of Kasumi's
cooking wafting from downstairs.  I hope there is enough time for me and
Akane to get in a few rounds.
   I begin to drum my fingers on the wall.  Sheesh.  Akane isn't dressing up
for a date or anything, how long can it take her to slip into her gi?  I
begin to pace.  Jeez.  Women.
   She (finally!) emerges from her room.  She is, as expected, dressed in
her gi.  "Ready?" she says lightly.
   "Yeah," I mumble, deciding (wisely!) not to ask what took her so long.  I
probably didn't want to know.

At breakfast, everyone winced away from us.  I whisper to Akane, "Maybe we
should have taken our baths before coming to the table, ne?"
   She snickers quietly, but doesn't say anything.  I feel like we're just
normal, young kids in love.  At least *I'm* in love.

Akane and I had to go shopping again.  Akane needed some new dresses and
oyaji forced me to go along.  Not that I fought too hard once no one was
watching.
   She tried on dress after dress after dress.  I don't know why she kept
asking my opinion.  I do have my limits, even when it comes to her.  Clothes
shopping is well past those limits.
   "Why do you need more dresses?" I groaned for the fifth time as she
emerged in what must have been the millionth dress she tried on.  Then I
looked up.  My breath caught in my throat and I couldn't speak.  I almost
uttered an 'Oh-my' worty of Kasumi, but I suppressed it.
   The dress she wore looked like it was cut just for her.  A low neckline,
but not too low.  A short skirt, but not too short.  It went well with her
curves, but it didn't over emphasize them.  It was just like her; cute but
not grossly cute.  It was white.  'Wedding dress?'  No, to plain.  To
perfect.
   "What do you think of this one, Ranma?" she asked, ignorning my question.
Her eyes were shining.
   "Uh...its...uh...Its nice," I said.  Oh my oh my oh my she is too damn
cute for words...
   "Do you really think so?"  She spun around, looking at herself from
different angles.  "I dunno, maybe the one before the blue dress I tried one
was better..."
   I didn't remember the blue dress, much less the one that came before it.
I figured this was one of those times that pride had to be put aside just to
rescue myself from death by boredom.
   "No, Akane," I said, looking at her as seriously as I could.  "I think
you look much cuter in this dress than in the blue dress *OR* the one before
it."  I stood up and looked into her eyes.
   "Ranma..."
   "Akane..."
   "Hmm?" she said, going back to looking in the mirror.  A faint blush
painted her cheeks.
   "I...nevermind."  I was just about to confess my deepest feelings!  All
over a dress...

Not much happened the rest of the day.  I am so tired, I'm
glad its time to sleep already.  I didn't sleep very well on
Akane's floor.  No one has brought it up yet.  Too bad for
Nabiki, she could have made pleanty off of pictures.  She may
well have.
   I walk into the room I share with Pop.  I lay down and I
wonder how I'm gunna get to sleep.  It wasn't really that bad
sleeping on Akane's floor.  At least it was quiet.  Pop snores
really loud.  I somehow manage to fall asleep, Akane's face shining in my
mind.

My eyes open and I sit up.  "What'd you do that for?!" I yelled to oyaji,
who had taken it upon himself to wake me up by heaving me out the window.
Directly into the koi pond.  Whata jerk.
   I splash water with all my force behind it, aiming at the window.  Oyaji
is so busy laughing, he doesn't noticed until his laugh takes on a different
tone.  He cusses me out in panda, and I just laugh at him.  Serves him
right.
   "Ranma!  Oji-sama!  It's time for breakfast!" Kasumi calls out, her voice
light and welcome.  I dash to the house and she stops me just before I walk
in, handing me a towel.  "Please try not to get the floor wet," she says.
   Still toweling off, I take my seat next to Akane.  She has a slight smile
on her face and is already eating.  I think about asking her what is so
funny, but she doesn't say anything.
   Akane bumped me slightly several times during breakfast.  I don't think
they were accidents, not by the way she looked at me.  I think I am living
in a time warp.
   We walk to school peacefully.  No fighting.  No arguing.  I really *must*
be living in a time warp.

While walking to school with Akane had been fun, what happened when I got
there was anything but.
   "Ran-chan!" Ukyou called out.  I tear my eyes away from the ground I had
been studying to avoid staring at Akane.
   "Uh, hiya Ucchan."  I really didn't want to talk to her now.  Talk to her
always confused me.  True, she is cute.  She can cook.  But I think of her
only as a friend!  Sometimes though...Like when Akane was particularly
violent...I wish I loved Ukyou instead.
   "Do you want to...go...on a...d...d...da..."  Ukyou appears to be having
trouble talking all of a sudden.  I blink.  Something she ate?
   "I uh...I gotta get to class.  Sorry, I just don't have time to talk to
ya.  Maybe after school?"  I walk away quickly so I don't have to hear her
answer.  I also don't want to know if Akane is angry for some unknown
reason.
   Of course, the next thing I wind up seeing is a bucket of cold water
falling from a window.  Then Kunou appears.  Great. Today already wasn't my
day.
   "Oh!  My sweet love!  Come hither into my arms!"  Kunou makes a grab for
me.  I finally lose it.  Usually, I try to either beat some sense into Kunou
or just try to beat him.  Now was not a good time to mess with me though.
   "Give it up you jerk!" I said, doing my best Tsubasa imitation.  "I hate
boys!  I prefer dating with girls!"
   A flash of some emotion, some thought passed through Kunou's face.  I
couldn't tel what it was, it went by so fast. Then I saw the shock I more
expected.
   "Oh!  You poor, gentle soul!  You do not know the wonders of a mans love,
and so in your innocence you turn to your own gender!  Here!  Allow me to
give you the love you so desire!" Kunou make move to do that whole romantic
'taking into arms' thing.  I dodged.
   "Stop it you pervert!  I have never liked men like that!"  I give him a
harsh boot in the face and he colapses.  I hear him mutter, "Yes, Saotome,
yes."  His voice scared me like no cat ever had.  I made a run for it...
   ...right into Shanpuu.
   I got the glomp of my life.  My bad life.  Though, I have to give her
credit for her really nice body.  And she is really cute, even cuter than
Ucchan.  If she just wasn't so crazy, I might actually have considered
dating with her.
   "Ranma!  Airen take Shanpuu to date now, yes?"
   Mallet-sama had a fleeting introduction with Shanpuu's cranium and I
looked up to see Akane.  "Hey, thanks," I said in my most non-chalant manner
.  "I'm getting sick of being glomped by weirdos like her."  Akane smiles at
me.  She isn't beating *me* for once.  She's cute when she smiles.
   Sometimes I think the only reason I like her is because no other girls
are really worth my time.  I just can't explain why I feel this way.  Maybe
if I hadn't known Ucchan as a boy, maybe if Shanpuu were sane...Maybe if
Kodachi got a new hairdo and a personality switch...But for the time being,
its Akane that my heart throbs for.
   And for some reason, I feel that it belongs that way.
   Not that the stress isn't killing me anyway.  I guess I must admit to
myself, to be fair, that I have slight crushes on Ucchan and Shanpuu
sometimes, but never enough to leave Akane.  Maybe she's not so wrong to be
jealous.
   Akane and me make our way to class.  I see Ucchan again on our way in the
door and I smile and wave.  Yeah, I think we were meant to be just buddies.
She gives me a kinda hurt smile and waves back too as we all make our way
into the crowed doorway.

*the end*

Authors notes:
I can hardly believe how long it has been since I wrote.  I wrote about half
of this a few weeks ago and just finished it. C&C is welcomed and begged
for.  I don't know when part five is gunna be out cuz I got lots of other
writing I'd really like to get done.  I'll try to start writing more
frequently though =)