Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Out Of The Blue ❯ Chapter The First ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One

It took two years before Akane would grudgedly admit to have been lying at the inquisition her parents had set up, and not very much longer before she took it back. Ranma refused to answer anything even remotely attached to the subject on the grounds that there was nothing to speak of, until the age of twenty-five when he began to refuse on the grounds that it was no one's business but his own. The truth of the matter was that there had been many reasons the two had refused each other so violently, the most prominent being timing.

Completely unnoticed by the heads of both households, a bond had formed long ago between Akane and Ranma. It was started because there had at one time been a type of friendship between all four children; the kind that is usually formed when groups of people who don't mind each other's company meet on a weekly basis. At least once a week the families would hold dinner parties, on top of the already lengthy play dates Ranma and Kasumi had. Nabiki, eager to grow up had secured herself a place among the adults before her eighth year, amusing them with her position on how the world worked and how it should be run. This left the three other children to grow up together at their leisure.

This was all well and good, and Akane was as pleased with the situation as the others were. Although all three girls had friends enough, the Saotome's were the family that was naturally enough over the most. However, as the years of puberty drew closer things began to change.

Returning one summer from a study with one of the leading Madrid masters, Ranma realized how different life had become. Girls began to notice him, and much to his discomfort were starting to flock near him at every stop. The fifteen-year-old Kasumi had discovered Khan, the adults had discovered a new dance to demonstrate, and Ranma discovered that the world was cracked. Disgusted with the fact that the age difference between him and his closest friend was beginning to show, Ranma turned to his last resort and fellow twelve year old only to find her changed as well.

Not that she approved of the entire ridiculous spring-like behaviour any more than Ranma. There just seemed something -different about Akane now. For one thing she became quicker than usual to anger while he was around. In times before if Ranma had made a face when she offered a homemade cookie, Akane had stuck her tongue out at him and shrugged it off. Now, however, her eyes would fill up with tears before she managed to bite them back with a stinging remark (or a plate of cookies to the head). There was the fighting as well. If at any time before the two had disagreed, Ranma would get Kasumi's input and they'd soon have something new to deal with, while now Ranma found himself thinking that perhaps Kasumi wasn't always right. An impartial position is always good to consider, but he began to wonder whether he shouldn't put all the opinions together to fix a problem instead of relying solely on the older child's advice. The problem for him was that now that he had figured this bit of wisdom out, there were even more occasions to put it to use. Ranma found he seemed to lose control of the words coming out of his mouth much more often, leading to far too many fights where there shouldn't have been.

It took the pair three weeks to come up with a reasonable conclusion about this phenomenon, which in no way hurt their pride or compromised what they were entirely comfortable with: Ranma and Akane had become, through no fault of their own and for no apparent reason, sworn enemies overnight. It was seven months before Ranma realized this was completely backwards, and by then it was too late. Completely set in his ways and having absolutely no clue how he was supposed deal with the truth, Ranma and Akane spent close to ninety percent of their time in each other's presence barbing each other (the other ten percent was used for ignoring and glaring).

Therefore, it was no welcome day when their parents had set them down to announce their short-lived engagement. Confrontation was not at all what either of them wanted at that point, although it was exactly what they got. Ranma's visits were more and more frequent, as he feared that if he stopped what seemed normal and no longer called on Kasumi, he may suspect something of himself. Akane took to sitting perfectly still whenever he was in the same room as her, refusing to leave until after he did in the hope of not planting any suspensions in the minds of those around her. None of this worked to make them any more comfortable, and Akane began to worry that her parents may have been on to something. In a final desperate act, she refused to leave her room aside from meals, a plot that would have worked had their house not been flooded by Akane dumping several sheets of recipes down her toilet throughout the afternoon. Nonetheless, the Saotomes were pleased to take their old friends in for a few days and all but two in the group were happy.

* * *

“I just feel awful about intruding on you like this.” Nadesico announced while the dinner dishes were being cleared.

“Oh, think nothing of it.” Nadoka smiled. “You were due for a visit anyway, what's the harm in extending it? Besides, it will be good for the children. Ranma's been awfully quiet these past few days, I feel as if a day or two with his friends might be good to cheer him up.”

“You shouldn't baby the boy Nadoka, he'll grow up soft!” The only response Genma got was a glare followed by the cold shoulder. “Well it's true! Take today for example -.”

“No more about that subject husband.”

Genma quickly shut his mouth. It was one thing to get your bit in, but quite another when Nadoka stopped referring to him by name. That usually meant trouble for him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ranma was trying his best not to make any contact with Akane at all. This proved to be a problem, as Kasumi was catching up with the visiting Nabiki in the far corner of the room, leaving him with the choice between an awkward hush and awkward conversation. Finally, fed up with the deafening silence, he turned to Akane.

“Look, don't you think it's time we stopped this?” He sighed. “We're supposed to be civil, aren't we? I mean, that -is- the way these things work, I think.”

“I've no clue what you're talking about.” She answered stiffly. “I'm being perfectly civil to you and will continue to do so by remaining quiet and not insulting you for the rest of the evening.”

Resisting the urge to rub his temples, Ranma pushed onwards. “Well sure, that's -one- way of doing this, but there's usually some conversation going on when guests who aren't strangers are around. My mother specifically told me I had to talk to everyone who looked left out. Host's duty or something like that.”

“I don't feel left out Ranma;” Akane said, rolling her eyes, “If you want conversation my sisters are here.”

“Yeah, but I'm talking to you.”

She blinked. “Fine. What would you like to talk about? Just so your parents don't think me rude, of course.”

“Um . . .” He hadn't actually thought it through to this point. “Let's talk about frogs!”

“Pardon me?”

“Or . . . let's talk about toads!” Seeing Akane shaking her head, he switched. “Let's try to solve the riddle of why chickens cross roads?”

“Nuh uh.”

“Let's talk about games than, or let's talk about sports . . . Let's have a big debate about ladies in sports?”

“You would!”

“Err; let's question the synonymy of freedom and autonomy?” Ranma hurried on. “Let's delve into astronomy; political economy?”

She smiled a bit despite herself. “What-.”

“Or if your feeling biblical, the book of Deuteronomy!” He interrupted, getting into it, “Bu-.” Stopping himself abruptly as he noticed how loud he was getting, Ranma grinned.

“Impressive, you can rhyme.” Akane slipped out before quickly correcting herself. “What I mean is very nice work. Excellent suggestions,” she smirked.

“I don't hear -you- offering up any ideas!” Ranma retorted.

“Fine; nice weather we're having, isn't it?”

He stared silently for a second. “Th- Come -on- Akane, even you can do better than that!”

“Oh, and I suppose discussing frogs can be considered brilliant?” she snapped.

“Well it's better than the -weather-!”

A cloak of silence fell over the two fuming teenagers for endless moments, leaving neither of them willing to cut into it, despite their personal wishes. Finally, unable to withstand the stifling hush for any longer, Ranma broke through.

“You know, you were a lot more fun before,” he muttered, nearly inaudible to all but himself.

Akane let out a soft sigh, and sounding a bit rueful said, “Well, things change. Everything has to at some point; why should we be any different?”

“Yeah, but it's supposed to be for the better, isn't it?” He grumbled, “I -liked- things the way they were, before I had to hate you! Why'd it have to turn into all this?”

“Than stop, if you're so unhappy,” Akane answered carefully, watching Ranma's face with sudden interest.

“Don't be such an idiot, you know I can't do that!” He shook his head in disgust, “Sometimes you're such a gi-.” Catching Akane's fixed gaze, Ranma both halted and lost his trail of thought. “Uh,” he stated hesitantly, unsure of whether he really wanted the answer but determined to ask anyway, “Why are you staring at me?”

It was a perfectly good question. An excellent size at six words, undeniably reasonable considering the circumstances, and, as this was Ranma, very well put. All in all one of the few sentences that could be understandably anticipated and thus soon accompanied by a well plotted out answer; and yet Akane could not think of even a single word to use for a proper explanation. Or more truthfully, she could not think of how to rationalize this act without admitting to have been reading more into words that had been said than may have been there. Therefore, the only way out was to plan, not something she was being given much time for. “A-.”

“There you are Boy!” Genma's voice busted though, “Come on, we're going outside before your mother catches us.”

Not allowing him any time to disagree, Genma grasped his son by the arm and steered him towards the back hall.

Akane stayed in her seat, a bit taken aback still. `Well,' she thought, `Perfect.'

A/N: Well, what do you people think? Thank you to all the reviewers! As you can obviously see, this is not a one-shot, I was simply a bit slow. *laughs* Ah well, I've somewhere to go from now. R/R greatly appreciated.