Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny's kiss ❯ Talking, Dreams, and Nightmares ( Chapter 3 )

Destiny's Kiss

Chapter three: Talking, Dreams, and Nightmares

AN: Here I am, busy as ever. I was skiing in Switzerland for a week, so I had no time to write, then my professor decided to give us a surprise Latin quiz… you know the drill. It's a miracle I ever got around to writing chapter three! But finally, under great demand, here it is. Oh, I modified it, so it won't be exactly like the preview described.

"_"= spoken

`_'=thoughts

[_]= panda signs

:_:= other language, usually Chinese

A small Japanese dictionary for those who don't know these terms

Tadaima= I'm home

Baka= idiot, fool, jerk

Kawaii= cute, pretty

Kawaiikune= uncute

Iinazuke= fiancée

Oneechan= older sister

Otousan= Father

Gomen= sorry

Hentai= pervert

"NO! Mother, don't leave me! Mother!" Cologne heard Shampoo's screams and quietly opened the door to her room. Shampoo was sweating, her nightshirt revealing her creamy skin, tossing and turning in bed, a pained expression on her face.

`Poor child.' She thought. She blinked when she saw a hand reach over and caress Shampoo's tangled hair, gently pulling the sheets back onto her shivering body. Cologne looked around the corner and saw Mousse, an unreadable expression on his face. Cologne gently shut the door, and walked down to the empty restaurant. She opened a drawer and pulled out a faded photograph. Cologne sighed, her grand-daughters hazel eyes staring back at her.

"My poor grand-daughter," she said softly in Mandarin, remembering the day Shampoo had lost her mother. Her mother was one of the strongest Amazons in the village, and Shampoo looked up to her. Shampoo was seven years old when her mother caught a strange sickness and fell into delirium. After a few weeks, she died, leaving Shampoo and her father alone. Shampoo strived to become the strongest Amazon in her village, taking out the rage she'd held inside after her mother's death on her suitors.

In truth, she had always held the doctor who had predicted her mother's sickness and later her death as responsible for her shattered family.

Cologne put the picture away and walked back to Shampoo's room. Mousse was still gently stroking her hair, murmuring comforting words to a seemingly more peaceful Shampoo. Cologne looked at him sadly.

`That boy must really love my great-granddaughter. I do wish she wouldn't keep pushing him away….' Cologne started. `No, what am I thinking. Shampoo must follow the laws of her tribe, just as her ancestors have done before her.'

She stole another look at Mousse, who's blue eyes were slowly beginning to close behind his bottle-thick glasses. `But maybe… this time it could be different.

For them.'

Tendo household.

2:30 AM.

Akane rolled over in her bed, stubbornly refusing to open her eyes.

`Go to sleep,' she thought to herself, but she was only staying the wider awake.

She sighed, and reluctantly got up, clutching her shoulders.

`Maybe a bath would warm me up,' she thought as she strode off towards the bathroom, the sound of her bare feet echoing in the empty hall. She turned on the water and undressed, watching the white bathtub slowly fill up. She tentatively stepped into the water and let the heat seep into her skin. She closed her eyes, steam rising about her, and tried to clear her mind.

But it was no use. She couldn't stop thinking of what had happened earlier that day.

**Flashback**

Akane hummed cheerily, peeling an apple, pausing to look at the black kitchen clock hanging on the wall. She pushed her bangs out of her eyes, and took a bight of her apple. She loved the kitchen, it was one of her favorite rooms in the house, even though the other family members stared at her in horror every time she even went near it. It was a small kitchen, decorated with white tiles. Akane could remember her mother dicing carrots, while a delicious smell wafted from the soup she was preparing.

"You seem happy, Akane Tendo." Akane snapped out of her dream-like state and turned to look at the person addressing her. It was Mishomutzu.

"Oh, it's you," she said, smiling. "You scared me."

"I'm sorry," Mishomutzu smiled back. "I just came for a cup of tea. Do you know where your sister keeps it?"

Akane nodded.

"Sure, I can make it if you want." She giggled. "Actually, tea is one of the only things I can actually make without messing up."

"Very well then," Mishomutzu hopped up on the counter as Akane filled the teapot and set it on the stove. Akane paused, hearing some noise from outside, and pulled aside the curtains that covered the small window above the stove. It was Ranma, doing a kata. She watched him, mesmerized. His muscles tensed with every movement, small beads of sweat sliding down his forehead. His blue- gray eyes were fixed on the punching bag he was working on, a determined expression on his face. His white tank top, soaked with perspiration, clung to his skin.

"A-hem," Akane quickly turned as she heard a cough from behind her. She blushed and quickly looked away. She felt some steam on her face and turned off the gas. Mishomutzu observed her.

"You seem a cultured young lady. I would like to give you a gift, if I may," he said, hopping down from the counter top.

"A-a gift?" Akane asked, taking out the teacups. Mishomutzu nodded.

"Yes. I can tell you something that will happen to you in the near future," he said, whipping out his cards and throwing them on the table. Akane raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, I don't know if…" she started.

"Come now. Pick one, and I shall tell you what it means," he said, inviting her to touch one of the cars laid out on the table. Akane reached over, hesitated, and picked one up. It immediately began to glow, and Akane stepped back as the card came towards her. A black moon with a leering face stared back at her. She looked at it in horror. Mishomutzu took the card and observed it with narrow eyes.

"You have chosen the black moon. It is a sign of ill-fortune; it means that you will soon lose something very dear to you," he said, slowly raising his eyes to her stricken face. She heard a voice.

"Akane? Hey, Akane?" Ranma entered the kitchen. Mishomutzu shifted his eyes to the pigtailed boy, and Akane gulped.

"And what the heck is goin' on in here?" Ranma asked, looking at the scattered cards in the floor. Akane looked up.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. What did you say you wanted?" she said nervously, trying to hide her worried face.

"I didn't. A glass of water, though. Are you sure you're OK?" Ranma asked suspiciously, his eyes darting to the old man, who was innocently picking his cards off the floor.

"I'm fine."

"Ok tomboy, whatever you say," he shrugged his shoulders and draped his towel around his neck. He felt a heat coming from behind him, and slowly turned only to receive a full mallet in the face that sent him flying.

"WHO's a tomboy?" she yelled back after him.

"Baka," she muttered. When she looked back to the floor where Mishomutzu had been, he was gone.

*End of Flashback*

Akane sighed and slid deeper into the water.

`Lose something very dear to me… I hope not, but that old man seemed so serious… almost scary. Huh?' she shook herself.

`If Ranma heard me now he'd think I was crazy.'

But in that moment Ranma was too busy thinking about the fact that he was cold and wet, and that his father was snoring loudly in his ear. He shivered.

`Geez, I hate it when pops does that in the middle of the night.'

He (she) sneezed, a drop of water coming off the tip of her red pigtail and rolling down her shoulder.

`Guess I better go get some hot water or I'm gonna catch a cold,' he thought, and got up. Giving his father one last whack in the head, he walked down the stairs to the kitchen and turned on the faucet. No water came out.

`That's weird,' he thought, frowning. Then he remembered.

`Oh, yeah. Nabiki turned off the faucet `cause she said there was a leak and the water bill was getting too high. Wouldn't wanna get on her bad side, no way,' Ranma shuddered as he thought of the last time he'd really angered Nabiki.

`Guess I'll go take a bath then,' he thought, shrugging, and walked back up the stairs. On the way he noticed a faint light coming from Nabiki's room. He peeked his damp head around the door. Nabiki was asleep at her desk, the light coming from her lamp. Her hand was still clutched around her blue pen, marking some equation that she hadn't finished. Ranma quietly walked up to Nabiki, listening to her deep, even breathing. Seeing her like that made her look more human in Ranma's eyes; he'd always considered her a cold, scheming, cynical person. He looked back in horror at the very short time span of his life in which he'd been engaged to her. Nabiki stirred, a stray lock of hair falling across her cheek. Ranma hesitated, then draped a blanket around Nabiki's shoulders and switched off the light.

`She'd be pissed if she woke up tomorrow with the lights blaring,' he thought, and gently closed the door. He made his way towards the bathroom and quietly opened the sliding door, which sometimes creaked. The light in the laundry room was on, casting long shadows on the whitewashed walls. He was about to undress, then heard a splash come from the other side of the door.

"Hmm?" he slid opened the door to see the naked back of a short haired girl he knew very well.

"AARGH!" he yelled, and ducked, somehow hoping to miss the blow of her infamous mallet. But Akane wasn't fazed. She simply muttered,

"Baka hentai. What the heck are you doing in here at this time of night?" she said, motioning for him to switch off the lights, her knees clutched tight to her chest.

"Well I wasn't…" he paused, trying not to use the Saotome stick your foot in your mouth technique, but Akane guessed his next words.

"Gonna spy on an uncute sexless tomboy like me? Yeah, I know," she said, looking down at his blushing reflection in the water. She tilted her head.

"But Ranma, you're a girl! What happened?" she asked, grabbing a wash bin and filling it with the progressively cooling water.

"No idea. I think pops decided to switch to panda, just to annoy me. He snores louder that way. He spilled half the water on me in the process," he said, sitting on the tiled floor. It made him really uncomfortable to be talking to Akane like this, especially since she wasn't reacting the way she usually did. Akane handed him the wash bin.

"Here," she said. "I hope it's still warm enough."

"Thanks," Ranma said, testing the water with his free hand. "I think it's fine."

He poured it over his head. The water smelled of Akane, a mix of lavender and lilac, with just a hint of vanilla, and some kind of a general `girl' scent he couldn't quite make out.

Akane watched his reflection. She never got tired of seeing him change.

"Do you really hate it so much?" she asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Your girl form," she said, turning around to face him, water splashing around her.

"Oh."

Ranma thought for a minute, then answered.

"Yeah, usually, but sometimes it isn't bad. I hate it because it kept me from meeting mom. You have no idea how much I hated it then. I didn't want to disappoint her," he said, resting his chin on his knees.

"Then again, if I ever did get cured, losing her would be like losing a part of me. I'm used to it now, I guess," he said, looking down at the small drops of condensation sliding down the rim of the bathtub. Akane observed his reflective face, and nodded silently.

"And if I didn't have her, Shampoo wouldn't be after me, and neither would that idiot Kuno. Well, maybe Kuno would be after me for different reasons," he said, and looked back up at Akane, who held his gaze.

"Since when have you been using a different name for your girl side?" she asked, her fingers tracing small circles in the water.

"I… I dunno. I guess since I… I feel different when I'm in my girl body. Not just physically, but… I haven't ever told anyone that," he said, and Akane smiled.

"I'm glad you did." Ranma was suddenly very aware of how those stray rays of moonlight that filtered through the window highlighted the droplets of water on her creamy neck, the way her hair fell in damp locks on her face, making her features softer.

"Ahem," Akane gave a little cough and Ranma looked away, the faintest hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"I'm getting cold Ranma. Do you mind…?" she tilted her head towards the door.

"Oh, no problem." He got up, flicking the light back on as he went. Akane composed herself, then grabbed a towel. She could see Ranma's silhouette through the door, standing motionless. Was he waiting for her? Akane toweled her damp hair and opened the sliding door a crack. She stuck out her hand and said,

"Pajamas, please." Ranma turned around and grabbed her old yellow pajamas. Top, bottoms, and… Ranma hesitantly picked up her underwear, handing it over. She grabbed it, red faced, and quickly got changed. Ranma waited for her to come out, leaning against the cool metal of the washing machine. She slid open the door, and they silently walked back down the hall. Akane stopped at her door, and looked back at Ranma. She smiled.

"Thank you Ranma. Good night," she said, and brought a hand up to his cheek. He blushed, and she gently closed the door.

"Good night… Akane."

~~~~~~~

Nabiki was in the middle of an empty street, clutching a huge manila envelope. She didn't know where the envelope had come from, she just knew she had to get it to someone as quickly as she could. A chill wind blew through the deserted streets, scattering leaves. She shuddered and walked quickly. Somehow she found herself standing in front of her house, the large wooden gate open. She walked hesitantly to the door and stepped inside.

"Tadaima! Kasumi, Dad, anybody home?" she called, but there was no answer. She walked to the kitchen to get something to drink.

"Kasu… oh my god," Nabiki stepped back in horror. On the floor of the kitchen was Kasumi's bloody body, a knife stuck in her stomach, blood still pouring from the wound. Her eyes were open, and her face wore an expression of terror. Nabiki ran from the room, turning the corner to her father's room.

"Daddy!" Soun's mangled body lay across his Shogi board, a black piece still in his hand.

"Akane!" but Akane was dead.

"Ranma, Mr. Saotome!" but the giant panda's red fur blocked the entrance.

"Ranma! Ranma!" she tried to push the panda out of the way, but he was too heavy. Blood poured on her hand, staining her white shirt.

"Ranma!"

"Na… biki…" she heard his strangled voice behind the carcass of black and red fur.

"Ranma! Ranma, hold on! I'm coming!" and she heaved with all her might on the stinky corpse. It shifted slightly, just enough so she could squeeze through bloodying her face and hair in the process. She saw Ranma lying on the ground, all strength drained from him, a black figure removing an axe from his crushed chest. Nabiki took one look at him and vomited, but she barely heard Ranma whisper,

"Akane I… I've always…" but she couldn't hear anymore. The hooded figure was advancing on her now, axe dripping with blood in it's bony hands. She backed against the wall, raining her hands to cover her face.

"No one can save you now Nabiki. It was all your own fault you know, it was your debt. But they paid. They paid with their blood. You can have it all now, Nabiki, all the money you want," he said, and cast five ten thousand yen notes on her bloodied skirt. Even the money was covered in blood.

"It was your debt Nabiki… they paid… yours…" the figure advanced, and raised the axe.

"Now it's your turn."

"No, NO! NOOOOO!"

Nabiki woke up with a jolt, a cold sweat running down her face. Her breaths were coming shallow and fast, and her hands were clutched tightly in fists.

"It was just a nightmare," she said to herself. Even her voice shook.

"Oh stop it, Nabiki. It was just a nightmare," she took a deep breath and wiped her forehead. She looked around and noticed that she was still sitting at her desk. She sat up and a blanket fell from her shoulders. A blanket? She frowned, clutching it around her shoulders. Someone had shut her light off too. She blinked, and saw a red hair stuck to the corner of the blanket. Nabiki picked it off.

`Ranma? Huh. Who knew,' she thought to herself, her lips hiding a half smile. She pulled out her notebook and wrote: `note to self: be nicer to Saotome. At least once.'

~~~

Ukyo looked upon Ryoga's sleeping form one last time and closed the door. She sat on her bed and took off her robe. `That jackass. You think he could at least help me in the kitchen, but nooo. As soon as I take out the pork he starts freaking out,' Ukyo thought angrily. Then she giggled, remembering his expression when he passed her the Tabasco instead of the tomato paste, and she offered the okonomiyaki to him for lunch. Poor guy. She'd never seen anyone get so red as when he tasted a particularly spicy piece. He almost looked like…

`Ranma after his wedding. He was so mad.' She sighed and pulled the coverlet up to her chin, remembering that day.

**Flashback**

"Aiyah! Shampoo kill Akane! She force airen to…" Shampoo yelled, but her grandmother pulled her away.

"Come great-granddaughter, I think you've done enough," said the old woman, quietly looking back to an Akane in a torn wedding dress, standing among the ruins of what should have been the happiest day of her life. Ukyo looked away. She hated Shampoo for even thinking about wrecking Ranma and Akane's wedding in the first place. She did love Ran-chan and want to marry him, but… she only wanted him to be happy. She sighed, and walked towards Akane.

"Akane, listen. I'm so…" she started to apologize. Akane turned around, her eyes full of hatred.

"Sorry? SORRY? You're damn right, you should be. How could you, Ukyo? How could you do this to me?" she said, voice starting to tremble. Ukyo helplessly watched one of the only true friends she had drop to her knees and start to cry inconsolably. Ukyo bit her lip regretfully. She saw an arm go around Akane's frail form. It was Ranma, who held his sobbing fiancée close. He lifted his eyes to meet Ukyo's, who stepped back. She'd never seen her Ran-chan look so angry.

"Get out of here, UKYO. Haven't you done enough?" he asked bitterly as another sob escaped Akane's lips. Then Ukyo realized it. He wasn't her Ran-chan anymore, and never would be. Maybe he never was. The friendship they shared was fading, from her stupid, selfish desires. No, he wasn't her Ran-chan anymore. He was Akane's Ranma, at least for now. She turned and quickly made for the door, tears clouding her blue eyes. She could barely make out Ryoga's strong figure turning the corner just ahead of her.

"Ukyo-sama? Ukyo-sama? What's wrong?" it was Konatsu. She ignored him, and walked on until she came to the park. There, she sat down on a bench and let the hot tears stream down her cheeks until she couldn't cry anymore.

**End of Flashback**

Ukyo turned in bed, facing the wall. Things had slowly gotten better. She'd apologized to Ranma, and he accepted, but she wasn't entirely sure he'd forgiven her. Ukyo closed her eyes, sleep slowly overtaking her. She'd think about it in the morning.

~~~~~~

AN: So sorry for the delay! I promise I'll have chapter four up by next week. At least I'll try. Oh, and one more thing. If you know Joseph Palmer's story, "Winter," some of you may have noticed that the bath scenes are somewhat similar. I was greatly inspired to stick that scene in by his story. (If you haven't read it, do, it's great). This chapter is sort of an interlude between events. I have a bad habit of making stories move a little too quickly, so I decided to stick this chapter in. I always appreciate a review; if I get enough support my muse has me writing more often! Thanks to all and see you in the next chapter!!

Midnightwitch ~_~

Oh, and this is NOT a Ranma/Nabiki!!!!