* * * * *

I Don't Want to Fall...Again.

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

A fanfic inspired by the anime, Ranma 1/2, created by Rumiko Takahashi...

* * * * *

Ranma was nowhere to be found.  Akane thought the worse for him, especially
since it was in the middle of lunch break and not even seeing a trace of her
fiancee around, eating his lunch somewhere with his friends, meant something
was up.  "Where the hell is he this time?"  Sayuri and Yuka saw the look of
concern on their friend but never asked Akane what was troubling her,
instead they went about their daily chore of eating under the cherry blossom
trees, a picnic beneath the cool shade in their usual meeting place in
Furinkan High.

"So Yuka, have you been to that new novelty store that just opened?"  Sayuri
asked as she opened her lunch.

"Oh, if you mean that new bookstore just outside the gates of Furinkan,
yeah, I've been there."  Yuka replied wryly, obviously concerned more on the
last member of their trio that still had her lunch all wrapped up.  "Say,
Akane, aren't you hungry just a little bit?"

"Huh?  Oh, I am, of course I am.  Why wouldn't I?"  Akane muscled her way
through the flimsy plastic wrap and opened her lunch and started eating, all
in one swift stroke.

"Say, don't eat that fast!  Come up for air, won't ya!"  Sayuri quipped,
seeing a faint trace of her friend's old self again.  "So, tell me Akane,"
Yuka was already swinging her head sideways, displeased at Sayuri's obvious
question, " where's Ranma nowadays?"

Akane almost choked at the question, Yuka was helping her swallow and
breath, patting her back while both of her friends giggled seeing how she
had reacted to such a simple question.  "If you must know.  I....I don't
have a clue where that JERK is!"  She indulged herself again into her
lunch.

"Oh, Akane.  You shouldn't worry about Ranma."  Yuka winked at Akane at the
same time.

"Why the hell should I WORRY?!"

"You should worry, Akane, of me!"

Everyone turned around in surprise, seeing a fellow classmate joining them
uninvited to their little picnic party.

"Ukyou."  Akane muttered but Ukyou Kuonji just fell straight sitting beside
her, her arms crossed and she looked really pissed off somehow.

"Ok, Akane.  Where'd you hide my Ran-chan?"  Ukyou had both her hands
occupied with pairs of small spatulas, fully complementing the huge one
strapped on her back, and was bending extensively as she sat.  "It's been
what, four days now, and he's always been missing during our lunch break."

"What the hell made you think I hid him?"  Akane temper was rising, angered
by the realization that someone had just accused her of committing such a
ridiculous crime.  "I don't know where he goes during his free time, Ukyou.
So that's that!"

"What?  Doesn't he tell you anything?"

"What...what do you mean?" Akane has never felt more embarrassed in front of
her friends than now.  "Of course he doesn't! He's a moron!"  She quickly
stood up and walked away.  "Moron!" She muttered as the first drops of tears
started flowing out of her unhappy eyes.

* * * * *

Ukyou stood at the doorway of her classroom, she was both nervous and uneasy
being there.  She had this huge guilty feeling hanging on her shoulders, and
she didn't understand why.  "Akane."  She called for her upon seeing her
coming down the corridor.  Her rival to Ranma's affection was visibly
displeased seeing her now.  She understood now why she had to apologize.
"Listen, I was...out of line back there.  I had no right to have asked you
that, in front of your friends, I mean."

"Ukyou, you, " Akane bit her lip, but she knew that she had to say what had
been bugging her all afternoon ever since that incident,  "you where right.
I just couldn't handle it, that's all."  She walked with Ukyou towards
adjacent seats.  "I guess that me and Ranma aren't really that close."

"You're kidding, right?"  Ukyou gave out a heartfelt laugh, "You and Ranma.
Not close.  Give me a break, Akane."  In her mind she knew her mouth was
speaking faster than what her consciousness and conscience would like.
"I'm...sorry.  I mean, come on, Akane."

"No it's true.  Ranma and I don't really talk, besides the constant
bickering and insults we throw at each other."  Akane sighed as she sat
down.

"But, he's always there for you.  He had saved your life more than once
before, or have you forgotten that already?"

"No! It's not that.  I mean, when was the last time you had a talk with
Ranma about nothing?"

"Nothing?" Ukyou had to think before answering, " Well, I did once asked
about having him come with me on a training trip during the last Fall
Tourism Season, but..."

"No, I mean, just plain talk...like, do you know what's his favorite shirt
color?"

"That's easy, it's Red, right?  He always seems to wear that red Chinese
shirt of his."

"Yeah, but have you asked him, really? Personally, I mean."

"Well, no...but, aren't you also suppose to ask him that, since you are his
fiancee too." Ukyou and Akane heard the commotion behind them, apparently
the person they've been waiting for had arrived.

"Ranma!"  Both women exclaimed.

* * * * *

"Die, Saotome!"  A swinging bokken moved swiftly all over the corridor,
hastily following the figure of a boy around the hallway.

"Cut it out, Kuno!  I'm in a hurry to get to class," yelled Ranma as he kept
avoiding the wooden stick at cat quick speed.

Just then, the school bell rang and soon the crowd that had gathered to see
the fight dwindled down, returning back to their classrooms.  But the actors
at the scene weren't finish yet.

"Saotome, you've gone too far this time.  You shall pay with your own blood
for shamefully embarrassing the Great Tatewaki Kuno!"  A few slashes almost
made their mark on Ranma's shirt, and the fight was only beginning.

"Oh, geez.  Get a life Kuno!"  Ranma wanted desperately to hit back, but
with the paper bag he was carrying and that he was skillfully evading from
the bokken slashes from the upper-class madman that was after him, he just
couldn't.  He needed help, and not a moment too soon when a gray, metallic
giant spatula came between him and Kuno.

"Back off!  I mean it!"  Ukyou swung her spatula before her, ready to strike
again at her love's enemy.  "I'm warning you Kuno, stay the hell away from
my Ranma!"

"Tatewaki Kuno does not bend down to a mere man's trifle," Kuno said as he
got his bearings back, "even though he may be a woman in men's clothing.  I
will not listen!  Stand aside! "  WHAM!!!  In a blink of an eye, a daring
yet gracefully planted uppercut and kick sent the braggart flying out the
corridor's windows, sailing across the school yard unconscious of his
imminent doom.   KABOOM, was the impact of a falling body on the nearby
gymnasium roof, with a carefully cut human figure holed into the canopy of
the building.

Akane slapped the dust of her hands, victorious was her feeling and she
shared it with Ukyou too.  "He just won't listen, eh?"

"Nice kick, Akane,"  Ukyou quipped.

"Miss Tendo!  Miss Kuonji!  Step right here!"  A screaming Hinako-sensei
came charging through the studentry and quickly dragged the two heroines
towards their awaiting punishments.

* * * * *

"Damn it, Ranma!  Why do I get into this mess?"  Akane shivered, her arms
were already waning tired from holding two buckets of water.  "It's all
your fault!"

"What do you mean, It's my fault!"  Ranma-chan exclaimed, " I wasn't the one
who knuckled punch Kuno, now was I?"

"But, but...Ran-chan, we did all that for you."  Ukyou lamented, her head
was aching from the flower pot resting on it.

"Oh, please.  I can take care of myself, fine thank you."  Ranma adjusted
his balance, standing on one leg, carrying pails of water was no easy chore,
that's for sure.

* * * * *

At the Tendo dojo after classes, the arguments kept coming.

"What's this I hear, Ranma?"  Genma pinned his son back towards the far
wall, and angry fist clenched at his son's collar.  "You let two girls beat
the crap out of you!"

"Hey, Pops.  Give me a break, will ya!"  Ranma slithered his way out of his
father's grasp just as Genma cried in front of him.

"My son, what happened to all our training..." sobbed Genma.

"Give it a rest Pops, it wasn't that at all."

Soun stepped into Ranma's path, "What's this I hear, Ranma?  You're letting
women fight your battles!  What a disgrace that is?"  Before Ranma could
utter a response, Soun had joined in the crying as well.

"Aw, shucks.  Grow up,  will ya."  Ranma stomped out room in disgust.

* * * * *

"What's the big idea?"  Ranma slammed the door shut behind him.  "I was
carrying something for crying out loud!"  He couldn't help it, he opened the
windows and started taking in a deep gulp of air.  "Leave me alone will
ya!!!!! Aarrrgh!!!"

* * * * *

"My, was that Ranma?"  Kasumi was stunned at hearing the cry.  She turned
towards her little sister who was again helping her wash the dishes.
"Akane?"

"Don't look at me.  I didn't do anything."  Akane wiped a plate spit dry and
placed it on top of a stack.  She dried her hands with her apron and
promptly left the kitchen without uttering another word.

"Oh, my.  They're fighting again."

As soon as Akane disappeared through the door curtains, out popped Nabiki.
"What's with her?"

"I'm afraid she and Ranma are fighting again."  Kasumi removed her apron and
started placing the dishes into their proper places.  "I wish that they
could stop fighting and just admit their feelings for each other."

"I agree," Nabiki went straight towards the fridge and brought out some
fresh fruits, "but those two are as stubborn as they come, I guess.  They'll
tear down this whole town before they even get to kiss each other."

Kasumi paused for a second then began giggling.

"What's so funny?"

"Sis, you are so pessimistic.  I'm sure they've kissed each other by now."
Kasumi wiped the kitchen table-top to finish off her chores.

"You've got to be kidding, sis."  Nabiki pulled out a chair, "Those two
haven't even gone on a serious date, let alone kiss."

"Oh, my.  Really?  I never knew that."

"Yeah, believe me Kasumi when I say this."  Nabiki leaned back, waving half
an apple in the air, "Ranma would miraculously get bright one of these days
and guess who's he going to pick among his fiancees?"

"Akane."

"Ha!  I said intelligent, sis."  Nabiki bit at the apple, "If  I know
people, they stay away from things that hurt them.  And Ranma has suffered.
Oh yeah, a lot.  Not only from this whole curse of his, but from all his
fiancees as well."

"Surely he'd pick Akane, they love each other."

"Yeah, but we're the only ones admitting that.  And we don't count."  Nabiki
looked around, aimed at the trash receptacle, and threw the apple core.  The
fruit remains sailed directly through the container's hole.  "Slam dunk!"

"I wish you were wrong, Nabiki."

"I can't be.  Ranma hates me for the very same reasons."  Nabiki winked at
Kasumi before she too disappeared through the curtains.

Kasumi was stupefied, she didn't know if she was to cry that moment or laugh
realizing what Nabiki's prophecy really meant.  In the end, she just laughed
and helped herself to the bowl of grapes her sister left behind on the
table.

* * * * *

Ranma felt awfully tired.  His lungs were exhausted from all that shouting
for nothing.  He sat down on the floor and tried to relax.  Images of what
transpired earlier in school kept haunting his mind.  Ukyou stepping in his
fight and Akane kicking Kuno out the window.  He smiled, realizing those two
were great if they were working with each other instead of fighting all the
time.

"Bah, foolish dreams.  That'll be the day."  He got up and stretched a bit,
feeling the soreness of his arms from all that balancing act following that
incident.  "Thanks a lot, you two."  He massaged his shoulder as he walked
up to his drawer, intending to get some medicine for the pain.  Instead he
found the brown paper bag he was protecting during the fight that got him
into all that trouble that morning.  "Oh, boy.  Good thing Pops doesn't know
about this."

* * * * *

"Ranma?"  Akane knocked at her fiance's door.  "Can we talk?"

* * * * *

"Akane?"  Ranma scrambled to hide something, knowing his fiancee would
naturally just barge inside his room uninvited.  "Wait, I ..."

Surprisingly, the door didn't open.  Ranma quickly hid a small metal
container underneath his pillow.  "Come on in."

"Hi."  Akane walked into the room quietly.  "I just wanted to say. . . "
she breath deeply, " that I'm sorry.  About this morning..."

"Aw, don't worry about it Akane.  I don't blame you."  Ranma was nervous, he
forgot to wipe his face off from the evidence.

"Really?  You're not mad?"

"No, why would I?"  Ranma unconsciously licked the top of his lips clean.
"Anything else?"

"Eh..."  Akane was a bit thrown off, seeing Ranma licking his lips in front
of him.  She started suspecting, in fact fearing some hidden agenda behind
her fiance's sudden change of mood.  He was cheerful all of a sudden when
she was expecting him to be angry right now.  Then seeing him lick his lips,
some awful imagery started painting across her mind.  "Um, yeah I guess
that's it."

"Good.  Oh, and lock the door on your way out, will ya?" His smile seemed
forced, but Akane was eager to leave the room.

* * * * *

"My God, what's wrong with Ranma?"  Akane thought as she closed the door
behind her but kept her hand on the handle, leaning back rather surprised at
the scene she just encountered inside her fiancee's room.

* * * * *

"Great, now for some peace and quiet."  Ranma brought out the container.

* * * *

"I better talk with Nabiki or Kasumi."  Akane stepped forward, forgetting
that she hasn't let go of the door and it quickly opened behind her.  "Ah!!"

* * * * *

"What the?"  Ranma turned around, some noodles still sticking out of his
mouth.  "Akane?"  Her fiancee had fallen back into his room.

"I'm sorry for that...I'm such a klutz..."  Akane tried to laugh off her
faux pas.  She was about to leave again when something odd struck her.
"Ranma, what's that?"

"Oh, this..well, its only ramen."  Nice going, he said to himself, why don't
I just shoot myself right now, he wondered.  "Are you alright?"  Try
changing the subject, he ordered in his thoughts.

"Ranma!!"  Akane finally realized why Ranma was all cheery and ill mannered
a while ago.  "Infidel!  Don't tell me this is not the lunch I prepared you
today, is it?"  Akane had Ranma collared and cornered, literally.

"Of course not!"  Oops, wrong answer, he lamented.

"BAKA!"  A punch sent Ranma sprawling across the floor.  "So that's why you
were absent at lunch break today.  You were getting rid of the lunch I made
you, right?!" Akane had picked her fiancee up from the floor and was about
to knock him out cold a second time when she realized..." Wait,  I didn't
make you lunch today....did I?"

"No. . ."  Ranma was unpleasantly dropped to the floor again.

"But...but, that can't be...." Akane stepped back, " Kasumi didn't make us
ramen today, did she?"

"No..." Ranma struggled to get up.

"WHAT?!  Where did you get that, RANMA!"  Akane collared Ranma for the third
time, "Don't tell me it's from that Chinese bimbo, Shampoo!"

"Nope..." At least she won't hit me with that answer, Ranma said to himself.
Naturally he was wrong.  A second later, he was flying through Nerima sky,
unconsciously hurled by the impact of his fiancee's tremendous uppercut, not
knowing where he'd land.

* * * * *

"Akane?"  Soun and Genma were puzzled seeing Akane running down the stairs
crying her heart out.  "Something must have happened, Saotome."

"What could it be? Ranma couldn't have made Akane cry, could he?"  Genma
just stared face to face with his friend.

"Ranma!  Come down here at once!"

"Boy!  You've got some explaining to do!"

* * * * *

Somewhere near the Nekohanten,  Shampoo was about to leave on a delivery
when something dropped from the sky in front of her.  It was naturally . . .
"Ranma?!  What you doing falling from sky like that?  You could get
seriously hurt."  He didn't move, in fact he was motionless the moment he
hit the earth.  "Oh no!  Ranma?"  Shampoo climbed off her bike and saddled
her beloved in her arms.  "Ranma, you not die on me. I've still got
deliveries and no time to play games now."

"Arrgh!"  Ranma finally reacted to his painful landing.

"Ah, you make Shampoo worry."  She dragged Ranma inside the restaurant and
quickly rode back on his bike.  "I'll talk later, Ranma.  Then we'll get
back to whomever made you fall like that."

Ring, Ring....and off she went

"Son-in-law, fancy meeting you here."

"Arrgh!"  Ranma finally started twitching in pain from the experience he
just had.

"I see.   This was Akane's work?"

"Leave me alone."  Ranma walked off limping a bit.

"Poor son-in-law."  Cologne just stood on her cane as Ranma walked away
hurt.

* * * * *

Kasumi was more than troubled when Akane rushed into her room crying.
"Surely that can't be right, Akane."

"No, it's true.  I should have seen it from miles away, Kasumi!"  Akane
tears drowned her frail cries.  Nabiki finally entered the room, more than
expecting such a thing happening.

"What, he's already bright now?"  Nabiki jested, but neither Kasumi nor
Akane could laugh.  "So what's up?"

"Akane thinks Ranma is seeing someone else."

"Really?  Shucks, I should have wagered this with someone."  Akane just
crying louder, "Ok, ok...who's the new girl in Ranma's life?"

Kasumi caressed her little sister's forehead, but Akane couldn't answer.  "I
guess its still a mystery, Nabiki."

"Then what made you think that he was seeing someone else?"

"I saw him eating ramen in his room."  Akane cries subsided, but her tears
did not.  "Why would he be eating so secretly in his room?"

"Maybe he just doesn't want Mr. Saotome to have some?"  Nabiki quipped.

"Then who made those noodles for him!"  Akane shouted, her anger replacing
her sadness.

"Kasumi?"  Nabiki turned cowardly at the eldest.

"I didn't make them, I'm afraid.  I wish I had, and none of this
misunderstanding would have happened.  It is a misunderstanding, right?"

"I don't know..." Nabiki  kept thinking.  "Ranma eating some mysterious food
in his room, and we don't know were he's been going to during lunch
break....well..."

"What, what?"  Akane pleaded.

"I'm sorry Akane.  You've just been replaced, I guess."

The loud cries started again.

"Nabiki!"  Kasumi raised her voice,  "That wasn't a very nice thing to say."

"Come on, sis.  Ranma eating something else other than your cooking....well,
that only means someone else is cooking for him.  Since he won't eat
anything Shampoo or Kodachi Kuno cooks, that only leaves that Kuonji girl."

"Ukyou?"  Akane muffled her cries.

"Yeah, right, but what's her name only cooks okonomiyaki, so that strikes
her out as well."

"No, it can't be." Kasumi shuddered at the thought.

"So that means someone else, some new girl is cooking for him.  And for
Ranma to ignore Akane's cooking," I can't say I blame him, Nabiki secretly
thought, "and yours as well, sis...Well. it'll take something like his own
mother's cooking to make him do that...or he's just struck with this new
girl that he's checking her out....even her cooking."  Make no sense, but
sounds sensible, she thought again to herself.

"Oh, my."

"No!!!!" Was all Akane could say.

* * * * *

Ranma reached for the door and knocked.

"Mom?"  The door opened and Nodoka met him.

"Ranma, you poor thing.  What happened to you?"

"I got clobbered by Akane again."

"For what reason, dear?"

"Your cooking."

"Oh, my.  Did I put too much salt in your lunch today?"

"Um, yeah, that's it.  Too much salt..."  Ranma walked in.  "Tell you what,
Mom."

"What's that dear?"

"I'll come by tomorrow with Akane this time, is that alright?"

"Wasn't that my idea?"

"Don't remind me..."

* * * * *

The End


* * * * *

PS.  So that people think I'm still writing, when I'm really not. He he...