Hey folks...this was the last thing I was working on when I stopped
writing, and while it is a little unpolished and unfinished, it's
probably the last piece of fan work I'll ever do.
T'cha
She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was
sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.
Crystal
by j.s. levine
It was very very dark. Above the Nerimian skies, clouds hung like
spectres in a moonless sky, keeping watch over the lone figures sitting
on various rooftops across the neighborhood. The stars sparkled like
crystal globes on a neverending sea of darkness. A chill breeze wafted
through the alleys and streets, bringing tidings of the coming winter
and forcing those seated around the region to seek a warmer position.
Some went inside to get blankets, while others just seemed to
concentrate a bit more and seemed to be fine in the cold of the night.
------------
Ranma lay on his back, staring at the stars above, speaking quietly to
himself, a cup of tea resting on his stomach. A sad smile adorned his
face whenever he stopped talking for a moment and lay in silence.
"Why? Why do I keep going on like this? I know I love her. There
wasn't any other reason for me to keep this charade up, to keep my
feelings bottled up inside."
He paused.
"I know why. I'm not as stupid as they all want me to be. Miss Hinako
said something about it. There's something about rebellion and not
following your parents wishes while you're a teenager. Maybe that's all
it is...I don't want to be what Pop wants anymore."
Silence.
"No, not that. I want to be the greatest martial artist, ever. But I
don't want to be it at the expense of everything else anymore. Akane
and me, we can't pull it together because we're too young. She doesn't
want it now as much as I don't. But there's got to be a better way to
be than this, and life is too dang short for me and her to be this way
all the time."
-------------
Ukyo sat in a camping chair in the small lot behind Ucchan's, her
portable grill lit and warming her slightly. A few tears ran down her
face and she raised her arm to wipe them off, but chose not to. Her
chestnut colored hair fell into her face, and she made no move to fix
it.
"Eleven years, down the drain. Why, Ukyo? What could have convinced
you that this was worth that sort of sacrifice? A cart is a worthless
thing."
"No, you know what did it. You missed your best friend, you missed your
games, you missed your...heh...fiancee. He was never yours, silly girl.
He was never...*sob*...yours..."
Ukyo buried her hands in her face, and started crying again. "He is so
beautiful, you know? He's like an Adonis or something. The one
everyone would love to be. Love to possess. And maybe that was the
problem, silly girl. He doesn't want to be a possession. That's why he
would always choose her, no matter what happened. She..."
Ukyo looked up at the sky at the sparkling stars. "When we were kids,
we used to look up at the stars and we always would wonder that if we
could jump high enough, maybe, maybe, maybe we could catch them. But we
never could jump that high, and I know that it isn't possible now.
Those stars are too far away."
She sighed. "Friends, forever and ever, amen."
-------------
The kitchen was silent save for one young lady, who sat there, writing
notes in the edges of a cookbook. Lifting her teacup to her mouth, she
frowned, and walked back to the stove to heat up more water.
She stiffened as she heard someone come down the stairs.
"Kasumi? Are you still up?"
"Yes, Akane. I couldn't sleep."
"Neither can I...I saw light on in Nabiki's room as well. I think the
only person asleep is Dad and Mr. Saotome."
"What about Ranma?"
"Ranma is up on the roof, just like he has been every night this
month...I wonder what he's doing up there. There's never any noise or
movement."
"I think that maybe he just doesn't want to wake anyone up."
-------------
The moonlight glinted sharply off the thick lenses of Mousse's
eyeglasses from his vantage point above the Nekohanten. He pulled his
robes closer around him to ward off the cold of the air, and, from
within the volumous folds, retrived a mirror.
"It has been two years, Shampoo, my love. You must know by now! It's
obvious even to me, and I'm almost blind. Your great grandmother knows
it. I know, deep down inside, you must...but why then do you keep
trying? It hurts me too, you know, every time you go for him, and then
find out that he still doesn't love you."
He removed his glasses, and slid them up upon his forehead, at the same
time slipping the mirror back into his robe.
"Silly Mousse, she doesn't love you either. No matter how you hope, she
doesn't, not now...ever. So why do you keep trying? You know why...the
same reason that you always do, the same reason that she does. Life
would be much shorter if we didn't have a dream."
He stopped, as though touched by an epiphany, and stared into the
stellar distances. One hand snaked up to slip his spectacles on, and he
paused.
"Maybe...Maybe what we need is a new dream...a better one. Not
better...a different dream, one that can come true. Before, once when
we were young, we used to lie on our backs and look up at the stars and
wonder whether someone made them, or if they just happened. Shampoo
always said that they just happened. I used to say that someone must
have made them. But now...now I don't know. Maybe, somehow, it's
both."
--------------
The farm, many miles outside the city, was devoid of movement at night,
except for the two people, a man and a woman, seated in rocking chairs
on the front porch. The woman sighed, and rested her head on the man's
shoulder, while the man stared into the distance.
"Ryoga?"
"Yes, Akari?"
"What are you thinking about?
"Stuff..."
"What sort of stuff?"
"You. Me. Us. Everything. Nothing."
"Well, at least you covered the basics. Anything specifically?"
"How happy I am to be here with you."
"Ryoga! That's so sweet of you to say!"
"It is? Oh, right!"
Akari tilted her head to look at Ryoga's face, and frowned.
"There's something else, too, isn't there?"
"How'd you know?"
"Girls are good at that sort of thing."
"Uh, yeah. Akari...I...well, that is..."
"Yes?"
"I love you?"
"I love you too, Ryoga. Don't ever forget that. The world is more
beautiful every minute I spend with you, and it would be too short
without you."
She gasped, and pointed into the sky.
"Look! A falling star. Make a wish, Ryoga!"
------------
... Jerry Levine ................. www.patchmonkey.net [personal]
... jerry@onimedia.net ........... www.onimedia.net [media]
... jlevine@umd.edu .............. www.gaijeans.com [high fashion]
... patchmonkey@patchmonkey.net ..
........."He who knows he has enough is rich." - Tao Te Ching..........
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