Nicky Townsend
NiChan16@aol.com

Ranma � belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Communications,Inc. 'Pictures of
You' is copyrighted 1989 to The Cure and Elektra/Asylum Records.

			Pictures of You


The young man sat huddled in the corner of his padded cell. People came and
went. He was too caught up in his own world to pay attention the orderly who
gave him his shots. He clutched and old picture in his hand. Once, they had
tried to take it away from him, and he screamed for three day and nights
strait, and no amount of medication did him any good. When they gave it back
to him, he quit screaming. They never took it away again. The young man was
obivilous to everything but the picture in his hand. He stared at it sometimes
and he thought, *I can see you, you are still real to me* 

Still real� Nothing was real anymore. Not since�His mind breaked to a hault.
That track was closed. Best not to think about it, or he would start screaming
for her again. What would his mother think if he did that? She would
kill�screech. U-turn. Back to her. She stilled lived. She talked to him all
the time in his head. Of course she was still alive, or he wouldn't be able to
talk to her.

She was so beautiful to him. So precious. *I will always love. Whatever words
I say,  I will always love you*  He could see her hair strait and black, and
it smelled like lilacs. She had the smallest wrists for someone who was as
strong as she was. He remembered holding them�His eyes and jaw clenched, his
fingers threaded threw his hair, and pulling to create pain elsewere, trying
to fight off the feeling of emptiness that filled his chest, so deep and
constant, and almost vibratatory. A few tears flowed down his cheeks. 

A  feeling of disorentation gathered in the space between his eyes and made
the world go black, as it spun around him. He clutched now at the padded walls
of his cell to find something solid in this world were ever thing is so
fragile, that anything can be smashed like a flower, you can bruise the petals
with only a touch, so delicate�

The world spun wildly. And he was� not here again. Anywhere but here. *I don't
want to remember this!* But there she was. In her best kimono. The dark colors
were so perfectly contrasted with her skin, which was so white�Her lips were
blue when they found her. Her eyes were open and she was smiling. But there
was no life there. Blood covered the floor of the dojo and was smeared where
she was laying, the tanto still in her hand, a  Z-shaped gash on her chest.
She had not needed a second to cut of her head. She did not scream. Her father
closed her eyes, so she would not stare at them anymore.

It was her older sister who had found the note. She handed it to him�

"I loved you, you know. I really did. Shame that
I was not good enough for you. I wasn't good 
enough for anyone. I was worthless. Perhaps, 
when we meet again in another life I will be worthy.
So I got my honor back the only way I knew how.
Good bye. I love you."

Him. All him. All his fault. If only he'd told her. So many things to tell
her, that she would never hear. She would never here him say "I do". She would
never hear him say "I love you. So much. No one else, just you." He sank into
his guilt like someone drowning in a warm lake, the darkness enveloped him,
surrounding him with churning currents, he felt his body swept this way and
that, like a leaf floating on a stream. Where would the water take him? A hand
grabed him and pulled him out of the tempest. Lilacs�

She pulled him out. She was still alive! IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou
poured out of his soul,as the tear poured down his cheeks. Her arms were
around him. Trembling like a child, his voice shaking "I love you so much�" He
felt her face with his finger tips, running them over ever beloved feature,
his thumb over her lower lip. He took her in his arms and held her, running
his hands up and down her spine, able to feel the individual vertibrea, his
face buried in her neck taking in the scent of her short hair. "I love you so
much, it hurts me sometimes"He whispered, his lips moving against her throat,
so delicate, skin so soft. Her hands were stroking his long hair, which had
come undone, and was now full of tangles, like she was comforting a small
child. He pulled his face away from her neck so he could see her eyes, so
large and expressive, and now so full of love it hurt him to look at her,
knowing that he didn't deserve anything that she gave him. She took his face
in her hands, and wiped his tears away gently with her thumbs. "Live. You need
to live"

His voice shook and caught in his throat "But�I can't! Not without you�" His
head tilted to the side a little and his tears renewed their swift course down
his face, his eyes squinted to see her threw the veil they made on his
eyelashes. His hands were on her face again.

"You need to live. Please. For me. That existance you have is not life. Go
back. There are still people who love you, there."

"If  I go back I'll never see you again, all I'll have is that picture! Please
let me stay here with you�" He broke down, unable to say more.

"You can no more stay here with me, then I can go back with you. I want you to
be happy. Please go back and tell everyone that I love them." She stood on her
toes an kissed him on the lips. His arms went round her, holding on so
desprately  to the only thing that was real to him now. He'd looked so long at
that picture he'd began to believe it was realy her. She faded away slowly.
This wasn't what she would want. She would want him to live his life, with or
without her. And he would, for her. He would do anything for her.

Slowly, his vision cleared. And he actualy saw what his brain said was realy
there. He saw the room around him for the first time. He was in a padded cell?
He saw he had clumps of hair in his hands. He'd pulled out his own hair? So
they'd put him in here to keep him from hurting himself. Was he really that
much of a danger to himself? How absurd. There were a few people in the room,
a doctor, an orderly, and three other people that he knew from a long time
ago.

He shook his head to clear out some of the cobwebs. He stood up and looked
more closely at the people he knew he knew, but he couldn't remember� They
were obviouly scared of him. A woman steped forward tentively. "Ranma? Do you
remember me?" Her hand was streched out to him. He took it and felt the
various creases and cauluses, he turned it over gently and looked at the
nails, well groomed, trimmed and buffed.

He looked from her hand to he face. Her hair had a red tint to it, and she had
eyes like his. Tall and stately. There was something strapped to her back. Her
katana. It was given to her by her mother when she was married. It would have
gone to Akane when they got married, but�Akane� "Be stong" she said in his
mind. "Be strong" His eyes were distant for a moment but cleared again.

"You are my mother" He said slowly after a few moments. "Your name is Nadoka"
His mother's eyes filled with tears.

"Ranma!" She eveloped him with her arms. "I knew you'd come back to us one
day. We've missed you so much! I promise I will come visit you everyday,
untill we can get you out of here."

"Thank you, mom." He pulled away a little, so he could look at his mother. He
hadn't seen her in�How many years? "How long was I like that?"

"Two years, son." His father said from where he was standing, behind a man
with long black hair and a mustache.

He turned back to his mother. "I love you, mom. I just wanted you to know
that. I'm ready to go home now."



Author's Notes.

Depressing, wasn't it? Well, that's what happens when you go to gothic dance
clubs. That's where I  was last night, and that is were this came from. Here
are the songs that gave the inspiration.


Pictures of You							

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you,			
That I almost believe that they're real.				 
I've been living so long with my pictures of you,			
That I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel			
								   
Remembering you, standing quiet in the rain, 			
As I ran to your heart to be near.
And we kissed as the sky fell in holding you close,			
How I always held close in you fear,			
Remembering you, running soft threw the night,			
You were bigger and briter and whiter then snow.			
Sceamed at the make believe, screamed at the sky			
And you finaly found all you courage to let it all go.			

Remembering you fallen into my arms				
Crying for the death of you heart			 
You were stone white, so delicate, lost in the cold			
You were always so lost in the dark					
Remembering you, how you used to be,				
Drowned you were angels, so much more then everything		
Oh hold for the last time then slip away quietly			
Open my eyes but I never see anything
								
If only I'd thought of the right words 				
I could have held onto your heart					
If only I'd found all the right words 				
I wouldn't be breaking apart, all my pictures of you  			
								
Looking so long at these pictures of you
But I never hold on to your heart					
Waiting so long for these words to be true				
But always just breaking apart					 
My pictures of you.									
There was nothing in the world that I ever wanted more		
Then to feel you deep in my heart.					
There was nothing in the world that I ever wanted more
Then to never see the breaking apart 
All my pictures of you.