Note:  This is a sequel to 'Solitude', reading it is necessary to
understing this.
PM Productions Presents
A Phillip Masters Fanfic
Beginning

     Ranma blinked as he awoke.  Light was shining in through his
window, meaning it was not early by any stretch.  He had overslept
again, though no one could blame him.  Ryouga had kept him up for nearly
four hours before going down.  While the lost boy was again sufficiently
stumped as to his current whereabouts and probably favoring his left leg
quite a bit, he himself had not come out unscathed.  Far from it as he
could still feel the slight swelling in his eye, and a dull ache around
the rest of his body.  
     The young martial artist sat up and looked around the room.  It
seemed he wasn't the only one who had a long night, as his father's
futon was still empty.  While the sorry excuse for a panda was probably
hurting nearly as much as himself, it was most definately for a
different reason entirely.  Unless he had gotten himself into a brawl at
the bar, probably in the act of skipping out on his tab.  
     Ranma rubbed his temples lightly as all the thinking so early in
the morning caught up with him.  As he looked downward his eye caught
something most certainly out of place.  An arm, and it was draped across
his waist.  He had no idea why he had missed it previously, but decided
to make up for lost time.  He looked over at who was attached to the
arm, and immediately made like a deer in headlights.  
     He briefly considered saying something, briefly.  However, he
quickly wrote that off as temporary insanity.  He needed some way to get
out of the bed without waking Akane.  Needed.  Badly.  
     Unfortunately, the Universe decided now would be a good time for a
jolly chuckle, and Akane's eyelids flickered.  Ranma's heart skipped a
beat.  Small beads of sweat began to form at his forehead.  As her lids
once again moved, her arm tightened around him and she made a small
noise.  Sort of like a cat makes when it's happy beyond even purring.  
     Ranma had never gazed so deeply into the mouth of Hell.  He saw the
end of his life coming in so many different ways.  At one end of the
spectrum, she would be hysterically angry and destroy him where he sat.
On the other end, she could actually be happy to be there, and then he
would have to eat her breakfast.  Either way the end promised to be
long-lived and excruciating.  
     Akane's eyes opened.  They blinked a number of times, becoming
acclimated to the lighting, and focused on him looking down at her.
First confusion registered in her face.  Shortly followed by...
understanding?
     Ah, there it was, anger.  Sheer, unremorseful anger.  Ranma
grinned, as it meant Akane was perfectly healthy.  Yet, something else
was amiss.  As he shot up out of the futon, mostly driven by instinct,
he couldn't help but ask, "Is that sake I smell?"
     Akane, however, couldn't have heard it, as she was bellowing,
"HENTAI!!" at the top of her lungs.  Then came the fist.  Ranma moved
his face slightly so as not to have his eye reblackened and was
summarily laid low.
     Akane dusted her hands off and began to walk out of the room.  She
stopped at the door jam and leaned against it, putting her hand to her
head.  "Ranma, I have a piece of advice for you.  Do not piss me off
today."  With that she vanished around the corner into the hallway.  
     Ranma sat up once more and stared at the door a moment.  He would
give a whole lot of money, if he had it, to know what in the hell just
happened.  Why had she been in his bed?  Why was she so pissed about it,
even though it was his bed?  Why had she dispensed such sound advice?  
     He went back to rubbing his temples.  When he finally died and went
to heaven he would have to have a nice long chat with whoever ran
things.

------------------------------------------

     Ranma left the bath feeling a thousand times refreshed.  His
morning had started out so downright upsetting that he was sure he
wouldn't be able to make it more than five minutes at any given point
during the day without something very bad happening.  Yet, his half an
hour bath had been largely uneventful.  
     After drying himself off and putting on fresh clothes he exited the
changing area back into the world proper.  Now came the true test of his
theory.  He walked to the end of the hallway.  Nabiki came around the
corner, having just arose herself.  Nabiki in the morning was certainly
a very bad thing.  Ranma gave her as wide a berth as possible.  
     She stopped and turned her half-lidded gaze toward him.  He
startled slightly.  She smacked her lips and slowly her hand came up to
inefficiently comb her disheavled hair.  Her hand dropped again and she
remarked, "It's extremely fortunate for you that our parents didn't come
home last night."  She began to move toward the bathroom once more, but
stopped and added, "And that you were fully dressed."
     Ranma followed the older girl with his gaze as she finished her
voyage.  He made his way carefully to the end of the hallway and looked
out into the kitchen.  Kasumi was carrying a tray out to the dining
room.  As if sensing his presence, she turned to look at him with a
smile. 
     "Good morning, Ranma.  I hope you slept well."  She turned and
placed the tray on the table.
     He couldn't help but feel better once Kasumi had showered him with
her radiant aura.  Ranma was sure she was using the stuff she learning
from Dr. Tofu in order to help her extend her good feelings physically
to others, and it seemed she was getting mighty good at it.  He smiled
back and replied, "I did, Kasumi, thanks."
     He went over to the table and sat down.  Suddenly the day didn't
seem so bad.  Outside it was bright and airy, not a cloud in the sky.
Only the sound of neighborhood dogs could be heard along with the birds
and crickets.  A small, but steady wind blew in through the open doors,
pleasantly cooling the room.  
     A moment later, as he watched the small carp pond, Akane came
jogging up into the dining room.  She was smiling from ear to ear and
sweating more than any one person should.  Her breathing was labored,
and a clean towel hung from her left shoulder.  
     She turned her smile toward Ranma, and it stayed!  Ranma was
amazed, it was as if she had forgotten completely about what had
happened earlier.  She plopped herself down next to him.  The smell of
sake was gone from her, and the musky odor of her persperation only
served to make him a little intoxicated.
     "So, Ranma, sleep well last night?" she asked cheerily.
     Ranma considered.  She didn't look ill, and, if anything, she
seemed perfectly normal and happy.  He shot for the safest route.  "Um,
yeah."
     Akane frowned slightly, and Ranma began to prepare for a tounge
lashing.
     It never came.  She looked at the table and said, "Um, yeah?  After
a night sleeping next to me, that's it?"  She looked away from him
completely and muttered, "Perhaps an actual bed would make a
difference?"
     Ranma's brain wasn't making any sense of the current situation.  He
felt frightened and defenseless, confused and alone.  He didn't like it.
"Akane, aren't you angry about this morning?"
     Akane blinked and looked back at him.  "Eh?  Oh, no... I was just a
little hungover, sorry I hit you."  
     Ranma's brain checked and double checked what was just said.
Making neither this nor that out of it, he just tried to reaffirm the
situation.  "But, my bed... this morning... you... um..."
     Akane smiled, "I was the one who fell asleep there.  Anyway, I
didn't mind it..." she paused and looked worried, "did you?"
     "Uh... no?"  He was in all new territory now, and had no way to
adapt. 
     She smiled anew.  "I'm glad."
     Ranma searched Akane's face for any sign of possession, drugs,
magic, or any other form of control or manipulation.  Finding none, he
simply asked, "What happened, Akane?"
     "I did a little soul searching last night," she began, "and I found
you."
     Nabiki and Kasumi came into the room at that point, and Ranma spent
the rest of the day thoroughly confused, but happy.
     And life goes on...
END
What's with these little fics that just link together?  No clue.  If
anyone out there at all is enjoying them, they're basically a way for me
to keep in practice, while perhaps making sort of a series that I can
expand on at a future time in which I have a computer to do so.  If you
like, want to see more, wish I would not bother, etc... please mail me.
PMasters (10-6-98)  

"I'm only holding back the rain.  So many raindrops, so many pains.  I
want to find my train someday.  As seasons go past the station." - Tokyo
Babylon OVA 1
/ E-mail at:  PhilMasters@webtv.net /
Web page pending use of a computer!
"...has anyone ever used something alive for a coat of arms?" - The
Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea (Mishima Yukio, 1965) / 
"You see, what you call a cat, we use as armor." - Rune (El-Hazard,
1994)