Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Distance ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

He could have fixed it all, right then. He knew he could have. But he and Akane… they were too stubborn, too angry, and too young. He had wandered for hours, eventually found by his mother driving by in the taxi taking her home from the airport. He'd confessed everything, and she'd taken him back to the dojo. But Souun… Souun politely but firmly refused to let him inside.

He'd stared up at the window of Akane's room as they left, and he swore he saw her face, ashen white, staring down at him in hatred. But he couldn't be sure.

After that, his mother decided to step in. She paid Ukyou her dowry, and the okonomiyaki chef was forced to admit defeat, at least for the moment. He never saw her again. He got one letter, telling him how much she missed him, and that she and her father had repaired their relationship. He didn't respond, and she never wrote again.

Shanpu and her grandmother returned to China after his mother had a long conversation with Cologne. Ranma remembered the look on Shanpu's face when she left his parents refurbished house; like a kicked puppy. Ryouga… Ryouga just disappeared. He showed up at Ranma's place in Osaka a few times, but they could barely even look at each other. At least he was alive, was what Ranma always thought. At least Ryouga hadn't done something stupid.

And Akane was obviously out of his life after that.

Now, sitting on the train next to her, four years later, he felt like something could change. He didn't know, he couldn't be sure, but maybe, if he tried.

“Kita Ward.” The announcement startled him out of his reverie, and Akane motioned for him to get up. They stood by the doors, holding on to the railing, squishing together despite there being, for once, no one else on the train. Having her pressed this close made his heart thud eagerly in his chest. He felt like a virgin all over again.

Eventually the train pulled to a stop and the doors slid open. They exited together, Akane slightly ahead of him as they walked out of the station. “How far is yer place?” Ranma asked, looking around; he'd been to Kita once, a long time ago, but he and his dad had mostly just passed through on their way to Nerima. He wondered, idly, if his father had any outstanding warrants here.

“Not far; I wanted a place close to the station, so I could visit Kasumi and Daddy easily,” Akane looked at him over her shoulder and smiled softly, “sometimes I even thought about going to Osaka.”

Ranma stared at her in shock. “You knew I was there?”

She nodded and turned back around, half-skipping as they walked under the streetlamps. There were a few people out, but Ranma ignored them, watching the back of his ex-fiancée and the little twitches of her sundress. It was slightly cooler in Kita, but not by much, so he didn't feel much worry for her comfort in such a small dress. “Yeah, Kasumi talked to me about you a lot the first year, told me about your plans,” she paused, “she talked to your mother often, too.”

“Yeah, I know,” he didn't mean to sound glum, but that was how he felt at the thought; he could have talked to Kasumi himself, but it was so much easier to stay away from all of them, so much easier to hide like a coward.

They walked in silence until they reached a nondescript apartment building. Akane led him up to the front door and inside. Ranma glanced up at the clock on the wall: nine-forty. He felt exhaustion creeping into his bones, and suddenly his small bag felt huge.

Her apartment was, thankfully, on the bottom floor. She hesitated at the door and looked back at him, key in the lock. “Ranma, I meant what I said. This is temporary.” Her eyes and voice were firm.

Ranma could only nod in response. She nodded back and unlocked the door, opened it, then stepped inside, flicking on the lights and kicking off her shoes. Ranma kicked off his own onto the small red rug by the door and looked around.

Her apartment was nice. It had a small kitchen with an island counter, and a spacious living and dining room by Japanese apartment standards. There were three doors off to his left, probably the bathroom and bedrooms. The walls, littered with photographs and posters, were painted crimson, and the wooden floors shone in the orange lights from the ceiling. There was a soft rug under a low, dark wood table, and a nice but well-worn cream couch behind that. Over the couch was a large window, covered now with yellow curtains.

“The bathroom is the middle door over there,” Akane was saying, nervously motioning around, “my room is right there, and that's my roommate's room, Makoto Hisamura.” The name sounded familiar and Ranma looked at Akane quizzically.

“What's your roommate like?” he asked, walking over to the door to the left of the bathroom.

“She's nice. She's Nabiki's boyfriend, Toya's, little sister,” so that was where he recognized the name.

Opening the door to Makoto's room, Ranma peeked inside. In the dim lights from the living and dining room, he could see a pink ruffled bedspread on the futon and several glossy posters on the wall. He grimaced a little, but decided complaining was the least-smartest thing for him to do right now.

“Well, feel free to use whatever from the bathroom. I'm going to bed; I've got an audition in the morning.” Ranma glanced over at her as she stood outside the bathroom door, and felt a pang in his chest.

“Oh, um, thanks,” he looked down at his hand on the doorknob to Makoto's room. At the click of a door closing, he looked up, but Akane was gone. He sighed heavily and stepped inside the room, setting his pack on the floor. He collapsed onto the futon with a sigh, rubbing his hands across the smooth sheets and wishing Kaibutsu was here to share the strange bed with him.

He fell asleep eventually, after fitful tossing and turning, and he could swear he heard crying.