Ribbons
-----

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

A Ranma 1/2 fanfic
-----------------

"I've had it! I'm out of here!"  Ranma turned his back, yet another one of
his mistakes.  "Klang!!"  A frying pan sailed across the room hit his head
and knocked him over.  "Ouch!  What ya do that for?!"

"Ranma!  You better start eating or I'll!!!"  Akane was too angry to have
noticed what she had grabbed next for a projectile.

"Or what?!"  Ranma's infamous last words, right before he fell unconscious
after a fishbowl had hit the same spot where the frying pan had landed a
while ago.

"Oh my!"  Kasumi's eyes widened in terror as she saw the glass shards
explode into a million pieces right before her.  To make matters worst her
pet goldfish ricocheted off Ranma's forehead, flew past everyone's heads,
and landed in her own plate.  "Aaaaah!!!  My poor pet goldfish!"

"Oh, oh." Nabiki realized she should have stayed in bed that morning.

"Ranma!"  Akane was pounding on her fiancee lifeless body.  "Wake up, this
is no time to sleep!"

Kasumi's eyes were in tears, her pet fish was now in her own glass of water.
"Stop!  I said stop it!"  Everyone leaned back in awe with Akane finally
noticing the other persons in the room, Ranma still out cold.  "Ranma!
Akane!  This is not......good."  Her eyes, focused and staring mercilessly
at the two guilty party at the other end of the table, were impeccably clear
conveying on her anger.

Nabiki was curious at Kasumi's sudden change.  "Sis?"

"Not now, Nabiki!"  Even Soun was flabbergasted at Kasumi's harrowing scowl.
"Ranma, Akane!  You two will..." Kasumi sighed, somehow a deep burden on her
shoulders had awakened.  "I'm sorry but this is for your own good."  With
those words she stood up, her glass of goldfish in one hand, and quickly
left the room.

"Oww..."  Ranma finally gained some consciousness.

=-=-=-=-=

"This," Kasumi revealed a corkboard, with all sorts of border clip arts, "
is going to be your Love-Hate tally board, Ranma, Akane."  She handed the
rather colorful board to the two who were sitting in front of her bed inside
her room.

"Um, what's this for, Kasumi?" Akane asked.

"Hush, Akane.  Won't you take a look at it first and tell me what you
think?" Kasumi reached for a box that she had hidden behind her while Ranma
inspected the gift he'd just received.

"Well, I guess this can be good for something, Kasumi?" Ranma remarked,
though not fully confident on what he'd just said.

"Right you are, Ranma."  Kasumi then handed the blue colored box over to her
little sister.  "Now this is the blue box of Love."

"Love?" Akane opened the box and found hundreds of cut up blue ribbons that
had pins inserted in the middle.  "What are we supposed to do with them?"

Kasumi handed over another box, a yellow one this time.  "Why to pin all
those beautiful blue ribbons on the board, Akane." Ranma checked out the
yellow box this time, and sure enough hundreds of yellow ribbons with
matching pins were inside.  "Now that's your Hate box, Ranma."

"Huh?  I don't get it?" Ranma turned to Akane but she too was at a lost.

"Now, as punishment for killing my pet fish." Kasumi stepped out of her room
followed by the two young ones.  "You two would have to have to do this."
She asked Ranma to nail the corkboard near the steps of the stairs.  "Here,
every time you two feel like..." she reached for a yellow ribbon, "
fighting,
shouting, or just being untrue to one another, instead of inflicting harm to
each other or to the other innocent people in the house, you'd better stick
this pin here."

"I get it." Akane reached into the box for a blue ribbon. "And we'd have to
pin a blue ribbon whenever we feel like..." Her hand had pinned the ribbon,
but somehow she couldn't say the reason for the ribbon's existence up on the
corkboard.  Slowly she let go, her hand slowly coming down.  "Well, I guess
Ranma gets the idea."

"No, I don't actually!"  Ranma said.

"Idiot!" Akane shouted.

Kasumi hushed the two and promptly adds another yellow ribbon on the board.
"Now, remember...don't fight or quarrel...just add a ribbon, is that clear?"
Kasumi also pulled out the blue ribbon Akane left behind and slowly stepped
aside for the two to quietly quarrel.

"Kasumi, what if I want to call her a tomboy?!"

"Just add a yellow ribbon, Ranma" Kasumi replied as she was about to step
back into her room.

"Ha!" Ranma stuck a ribbon.

"Why you!?"  Akane also did the same.

"What's that for?!"  Ranma asked as Akane turned her back on him and headed
for her room.

"That's for punching you and knocking you down the stairs, Ranma!"
Akane yelled as she slammed the door behind her.

"Ouch!" Ranma stared at the board, all yellow he thought.

"Remember Ranma, the goal is to have more blue ribbons there than yellow
ones." Kasumi yelled back before retreating inside her room.

"Yeah, right?  Like that's ever gonna happen between us."  Ranma set the
boxes down on the floor and went to his room.

The hallway was now empty, only the board and two boxes was in sight.

=-=-=-=-=

"Hi, Sis.  What's so special about the dinner?" Nabiki was the last one to
get home.  Ranma and Akane was curiously in a foot race that afternoon
trying to get home earlier than the other, and naturally she had thought it
was Kasumi's cooking that had caused those two to had wanted to reach the
house earlier than expected.

"I'm cooking some noodles and seafood, Nabiki.  Nothing special," was
Kasumi's answer.

That got Nabiki stumped.  She however ignored her curiosity and headed up
the stairs to her room.  She was startled a bit hearing the slamming of
doors in both Ranma's and Akane's room.  She had this urge to come back down
and ask Kasumi, but what she saw confirmed her suspicions.

"That's a lot of yellow ribbons."  Nabiki remarked about the pinned ribbons
on the board.  "Must have been a bad day."  She quickly knelt down and
reached inside one of the boxes.   "This should cheer them up." She pinned
the lone blue ribbon right smack in the center of the field.  She then
continued her way to her room for a change of clothes.

=-=-=-=-=

Ranma heard Kasumi calling him and by the feeling he was having he knew that
dinner was ready.  "All right!"  He jumped to his feet and headed out the
door.  Outside he met his fiancee, she just snubbed him and headed on ahead
of him.  "Fine!"  He bent over to grab a ribbon to place on their
corkboard.  "This is for you, you uncute tomboy." He said to himself.  He
was pinning the yellow ribbon when he noticed the singular piece of blue
thread.  It was there, he closed opened his eyes and realized he wasn't
dreaming at all.  Somehow his hands and arms felt weak.

=-=-=-=-=

Akane had finished helping wash and tuck away the dishes.  Ranma was silent
throughout dinner, she kept thinking.  "What on earth did he eat?" She
couldn't understand him, one minute they were fighting like they've used to
so many times before.  Now, only for tonight, she thought, he was holding
himself back.  Even when he asked for the salt earlier at the dinner table
and she didn't even look at him as a cold response, he didn't even raise a
whimper.  In fact, as hard as she could believe it, she felt Ranma was
trying to be nice to her. A change for once, she thought.

"Akane, I'm going upstairs now.  Don't forget to place a blue ribbon
tonight." Kasumi said as she was taking off her apron.

"Huh?  What for?" Akane asked.

"Why, you seemed to be so nice to Ranma all evening long."  Kasumi left her
little sister rather shocked.

"Me, nice?"

=-=-=-=-=

"What's that you're doing, my boy?" Genma asked as he stepped out on the
porch finding Ranma sitting all by his lonesome.

"Nothing, Pops." Ranma muttered.

Genma stared at the rather quiet Ranma, something short of unusual for his
son to be reflecting under the pale moonlight.  "Come now, Ranma.  What's
seems to be eating you up?"

"It's . . . nothing, ok.  Just leave me alone."

Genma turned to walk away.  "Very well. I'll leave you and your conscience
alone."

"Conscience?" Ranma looked back as his father finally left the room to
retire for the night.  "It's not my conscience, Pops." Ranma said to
himself.

=-=-=-=-=

Akane was already in her pajamas and was turning off the lights in her room
when she suddenly remembered about the ribbon.  She conceded, briefly
fighting with herself if indeed a blue ribbon was appropriate.  She walked
out of her room towards the corkboard hanging in the hallway.  It was rather
dark out there and probably she's the only one still awake that night.  She
knew that the blue box was the left one so she naturally got one from there.
She checked the dimmed hue of the ribbon she was holding to the one's
already pinned, it was darker than them so she naturally concluded it was a
blue ribbon after all.  She pinned it quickly and stared for a moment at her
work.

"What?"  She was taken aback, thinking her eyes must be making tricks on
her.  "Three blue ribbons? What could this mean?"

=-=-=-=-=

"Ranma, your lunch."  Kasumi handed over Ranma's box.  "Did you have a nice
sleep last night?"

Ranma yawned, "Actually, no." He left the kitchen soon after Akane came in.

"How about you, Akane, slept well?"

"Uh, hmmm...You bet." Akane swiftly grabbed her lunch and was out the door
as well.

"How nice." Kasumi said to herself.

=-=-=-=-=


"Ranma, I don't know what you did, but I'm making up for it.  You'll see."
Akane thought as she hurriedly ran past the gate of her school for she was
running a bit late for her morning class.

Ranma was only a couple of steps behind,  "Akane, I promise I'd do better
than one ribbon." he thought.

=-=-=-=-=

"Let's see how those two had been doing." Kasumi walked towards the tally
board and found too many yellow ribbons than she had expected.  "Oh, my.
This just won't do."

"Kasumi, what's going on?"  Soun had just stepped out of his room.  "I've
been meaning to ask anyone of you about that colorful corkboard, Kasumi."

"You like it, father?"

"Well, what's is it anyway?"

Kasumi lifted both boxes off the floor, "You see, every time something good
happens between Ranma and Akane, they're suppose to place a blue ribbon on
the board."

"I see." Genma sudden appearance from behind her didn't even startle Kasumi.

"And if something bad happens..." Kasumi showed the two fathers the yellow
box.  Genma and Soun looked puzzled but they somehow got a grasp of the idea
behind the cork board.  They both stared at the current tally, almost all
were yellow.

"This is not good Saotome," Soun said without noticing Kasumi retreating
into her own room.

"You said it, Tendo."  Genma counted the blue ribbons, holding up three
fingers.  "Only three."

"What do you think we should do?"

=-=-=-=-=


"Ok, Ranma.  Whatever you say?"  Ranma took Akane's bag.  Both were quiet as
they strolled down the street together and headed home.  Nabiki was only a
few steps behind them.

"My my this is quite a turnaround", she thought.

=-=-=-=-=

"This is because you carried my things today.  Thanks." Akane pinned a blue
ribbon up on the board.  "But there are still way too many yellow ribbons
here.

Ranma only nodded.  He then pulled one out.

"What are you doing?" Akane asked.

"This was when you punched me last night."  Ranma returned the ribbon in the
yellow box.  "I forgive you now, Akane.  It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Really?" Akane stared at the tally board and pulled one of the ribbons as
well.  "This was for calling me an uncute tomboy, Ranma." The ribbon ended
back from where it came.  "I guess I can forgive you this time.  I don't
even think you mean what you say." She smiled at him, but Ranma was already
smiling. Right then and there her heart melted away.

"This must be the bad dinner you cooked." Ranma got another ribbon...

"And this must be when you didn't kept talking with Ukyou yesterday..."
Akane added as she pulled out another one.

=-=-=-=-=

Later that evening, Ranma and Akane hands met as they both reached for the
last yellow ribbon.  "Um..." Ranma muttered.

"I guess this is for the Goldfish that I killed." Akane sighed.

"No, we both were responsible Akane." Ranma voiced out making Akane smile
through the darkness of the hallway.

"And I forgive the two of you on that." A voice said behind them.  Ranma and
Akane were startled and jumped up on their feet.  It was Kasumi, and she
had a fish bowl with her.  "This is my new pet piranha, Ranma, Akane.  He's
so glad to meet you."  Kasumi took the last yellow string from the cork
board.  "I'm glad you two realized how to get those ribbons out."  Kasumi
whistled while she retreated to her room, leaving a rather shocked and
stunned Ranma and Akane behind.

"Did she say Piranha?" Ranma looked at Akane.

"I guess she did?" She said unwittingly.

"Ranma! Akane!"  Soun and Genma startled the couple this time.

"Ack!  Pops!  Mr. Tendo!" Ranma yelled out.

"Look, why don't the two of you start being nice to each other." Soun said.

"Ranma, being Akane's fiance, you should try to keep your yellow ribbons
down." Genma added.

"What yellow ribbons?" Ranma snickered, with Akane giggling in the
background.

Soun and Genma pointed at the corkboard, to their surprise, not a single
yellow pin was in sight.  "What?  Why..."

"Could this mean?" Genma said, not noticing their children walking away.

"Goodnight Pops," Ranma yelled out.

"Goodnight father," Akane said as well as she opened the door to her room.
Ranma was right behind her.

Soun and Genma looked at each other, "What do you think Saotome?"

"Mission accomplished, Tendo.  Mission accomplished."  Genma started
laughing, with Soun joining in.


=-=-=-=-=

"Hey, Akane.  Want to add a few blue ribbons more?"  Ranma asked.

Akane couldn't figure out what Ranma meant.  She looked at herself, her
room, the door.  Then it was clear.  "RANMA no BAKA! You pervert!" WHAM!!!

The door slammed shut.

=-=-=-=-=

Ranma crawled his way to bed, holding his head.  "So much on asking her out
on a date," he thought as he finally laid down on his bed.  He suddenly
jumped up, grimacing in pain.  "Oww!"  He pulled the needle off his back.
"What the heck?!"  A blue ribbon was in his hand.  He closed his eyes and
thought for a moment.

"Ok.  I'll ask her again tomorrow."  He  said towards the ribbon.  Ranma
placed it underneath his pillow and soundly went to sleep.

=-=-=-=-=

The End


=-=-=-=-=

How'd you like it?  Not bad for a guy who had not written anything in over
eight months, eh?
I would have called this Silly, part 6...but that would have been silly.

Public or Private C & C would be greatly appreciated.