A Kiss to the Victor, Chapter 1
A Kiss to the Victor
July 5, 1999
A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Hound & Cabbit Productions (David "Fido" Lindquist and June "KaraOhki" Geraci)
Ranma 1/2 was created by Rumiko Takahashi. We're just borrowing her characters for a little while.
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Forward - A Note From The Authors
The idea for this fic came from a question posed to the people on the FFIRC: "What would have happened if Ranma REALLY kissed Akane during the 'Romeo and Juliet' storyline? David was the one who asked the question and June commented that she had a similar idea. What really got us started, though, was a suggestion made by Gary Kleppe that we should collaborate on it.
We started gathering ideas on how to do it from there. This will most likely be a multi-part fic detailing a developing relationship between the only confirmed (by Takahashi) couple in the Ranma 1/2 series: Ranma and Akane.
We also hope to address some of the true reasons behind their reluctance to act upon their hidden feelings for each other. Chapters 1 and 2 will deal with Ranma coming to terms with the fact that he cares for Akane. Chapters 3 and 4 will deal with the repercussions of his decisions, and Akane's responses to them. From there, the rest of the chapters will have to do with the effect their relationship is having on the other characters in Nerima.
This chapter takes place during the Romeo and Juliet storyline.
We would like to thank Gary Kleppe, Brad Crawford and all the others who helped to make this fic work.
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Chapter 1
Kasumi turned off the downstairs lights, and climbed the stairs as quietly as she could. Everyone else in the Tendo home had gone to bed while she was finishing the rest of the housework. She checked to see if there was any light coming from underneath Akane's door, and sighed. If her sister had been awake, she would have gone in to talk with her about the way she'd been fighting with Ranma. Unfortunately, it had taken Kasumi a long time to finish cleaning up downstairs, and Akane was sleeping.
*I just wish those two would stop fighting* she thought.
The thought stayed with her as she undressed, and got into bed.
*Can't Akane see that Ranma likes her? I can, just as clearly as I can see that she likes him. They're just SO stubborn!*
Kasumi shook her head sadly, and turned off the lamp. She sighed once more, and whispered her last thought aloud: "I wish they would just admit it..."
And in the great workings that could be called Heaven, events began to be set in motion.
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Sitting down at her desk, Akane Tendo could barely contain herself.
*I can't believe that they wanted ME!* she thought. *I've gotta write this down!* She quickly opened her desk drawer and pulled out a locked book. Undoing the catch, she opened it to a blank page and began to write.
"Dear Diary,
The most wonderful thing happened today. The Drama
Club asked me to be in their production of Romeo and
Juliet. This time, it will be different. THIS time,
I get to be Juliet, not Romeo! I want it to be
perfect, Diary. I don't want anything to spoil my
dream--not water curses, not rival fiancees, not magic,
and NOT RANMA!"
Akane felt a slight pang of guilt as she looked at the last statement. She knew it wasn't Ranma's fault that their stupid fathers had engaged them to each other.
*If only he wasn't such a jerk!* Akane thought.
-----------------
Ranma watched from a quiet corner of the room as Akane sat with her sisters, smiling and laughing. He'd rarely seen her so enthusiastic. Then Akane went upstairs rather early, leaving Ranma alone, and for some reason feeling lonely.
He sat quietly for a few minutes until he heard her door close. Letting out a sigh, he then got up and headed for the closest thing he could call a sanctuary: the Tendos' roof. Once he got there, the martial artist lay down and began to sort out some of his thoughts.
For once, Ranma felt regret for his actions. He'd teased Akane mercilessly about how she'd played Romeo when she was younger. The heir to Anything-Goes Martial Arts would be the first to admit that he didn't know much about 'Romeo & Juliet' but even he knew that Romeo was a man. Of course, he'd paid for the remarks in a painful manner, but still felt his conscience nagging him.
Ranma understood why it was bothering him, though. He'd gone too far with his teasing this time. What made it worse was the fact that, at the time, Ranma knew he was hurting Akane's feelings, but he went right ahead and did it anyway.
*Why did I do that?* he thought, as he watched the star-filled sky. *Why is it that I always have to insult her? She can't help it if she's an uncute tomboy.*
"Stupid uncute tomboy," he muttered as his eyes got heavy...
"You always call me uncute," a familiar voice called out.
Ranma turned and looked at sound of the voice. He saw Akane standing there, with an expression of hurt mixed with anger on her face. What struck him as odd about her appearance was that she was wearing her school uniform.
"If that's the way you feel," she continued, "then why did you kiss me?!?"
"T..that wasn't really ME!" he stammered out as he stood up. "I was in the Neko-ken! It was the c..c..cat!"
"Riiight! Sure it was!" she replied sarcastically. "Only one problem: we both know for a fact that the Neko-ken only suppresses your inhibitions!"
Ranma watched as her face turned red. "You wanted to kiss me and I want to know why!!!"
"Why would I even WANT to kiss a tomboy like you!!!" Ranma shouted back.
"Oh? You don't want to kiss me, right?" she replied.
"Right!" Ranma said.
Suddenly, Akane's form began to shift. Her face contorted in an angle impossible for a human to do without serious pain. The effect also seemed to extend to her body and clothes. Ranma stared in shock at the now almost unidentifiable form in front of him. After a while, the figure took on a recognizable shape.
"Ranma maybe kiss Shampoo, then?"
"N-now wait a minute here..." Ranma stammered out.
Shampoo's form shifted again, changing to Kasumi.
"Would you like to kiss me, Ranma?"
"Uhhh...I...don't..."
Another shift.
"What about me, Ranma? I wouldn't mind if you kiss me...Of course I'll have to charge you for me to keep quiet about it afterwards," Nabiki chimed in.
Ranma backed up, and would have come close to falling off the roof, but he bumped into something. Spinning around, he stared into an old withered face.
"Well, I don't think you want to kiss me, do you, Groom?" Cologne said.
"AHHHHH!"
A ribbon wound around Ranma's waist, jerked him off his feet, and away from Cologne. He suddenly found himself much too close to Kodachi's lips. "Will you kiss me, Ranma-sama?" she asked.
"No!" he replied, working his way out of the ribbon. He spun away from her, only to notice that all the girls had surrounded him, each asking, in their own way, the same question: will you kiss me?
All of them, except one.
Akane stood at the same position she had been in when she told Ranma about the Neko-ken. She was silent and motionless, save for a single tear that rolled down her cheek. Ranma froze as he saw her. Then she whispered a single word.
"Why?"
For Ranma, the word was like an explosion. He suddenly saw three beings standing between him and Akane. Each one looked somewhat like Ranma. The first one was small: almost a child. He looked like he was mashed between great forces.
"Because I will not be forced into anything by anyone!!" the small Ranma said defiantly.
Ranma then looked at the second version of himself. This one was about his size but looked like a half man/half woman he had once seen on a tv show about circus freaks.
"Because you deserve to be kissed by a whole man," it stated, not even trying to keep the despair out of its voice.
The third Ranma was huge. He was easily twice Ranma�s size, or would have been, if he wasn't sitting there with his knees crunched up to his chest, and his arms locked around his legs. Even though he was gently rocking back and forth, Ranma could clearly see the look on his face. Fear. The kind of fear Ranma imagined his own face looked like whenever he saw a c...c...cat.
"Because," the third Ranma said, "I'm afraid that I'll let you in and be hurt when you leave."
Akane looked at the four Ranmas standing in front of her, and asked: "But do you WANT to kiss me?"
The original Ranma found himself saying the answer in unison with the other three.
"Yes..."
Ranma woke, to find himself still lying on the roof, feeling cold, tired and confused. He climbed down to his room, and let himself in.
*Well...that was...weird. Must have been something I ate.*
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Akane couldn't relax; she was too excited about the play. Tomorrow the club would hold tryouts for the role of Romeo, and she wondered who would be playing opposite her.
The director of the play had given Akane a booklet with various photographs of costumes for Juliet, and had asked her to look them over. She sat at her desk, chin in her hands, and imagined herself in the costumes, acting the role of Juliet. The book also contained pictures of costumes for Romeo, but at this point in Akane�s mind Romeo was just a figure in a costume--a figure without a face. Akane closed her eyes and let her imagination take over. The figure's face became clear, and it was...Ranma?
Akane's eyes snapped open.
*Why did I think of HIM?* she thought, her face getting hot as she blushed. *I don't want that BAKA to be in MY play! There must be dozens of boys who would do a better job.*
She suddenly remembered that three of those 'dozens of boys' that wanted the role were Tatewaki Kuno, Happosai, and Hikaru Gosunkugi. The youngest Tendo daughter shivered.
*Not one of them. Please.*
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"Come on boy, training time!"
Ranma slowly stirred at the sound of his father's voice. He didn't really need this at the moment but knew that if he didn't get up, he'd be getting a different wake up call. A wet one.
"Yeah...yeah...I'm up," Ranma grumbled as he rose from his futon.
"You look like you haven't slept, boy," his father said. Then Genma looked at him with a sly smile. "You know, you'll sleep a lot better when you're married."
The sound of his voice had barely died when Genma found himself sailing out the window and towards the Tendo pond. *Well, his reflexes are okay,* was his thought just before he hit the water.
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Akane woke, and stretched. The sun was already streaming in through the window, and she smiled. *What a beautiful morning,* she thought.
Her smile faded when she sat up, and caught a glimpse of her desk. Her completed homework sat there, along with her diary, and a little booklet. Seeing the costume booklet caused Akane to remember the previous night, and her fantasy of Ranma in the Romeo costume.
*I can't keep thinking about that* Akane thought as she got up, walked over to the desk and put her diary away.
The sound of a splash made her look out the window. A damp panda was making his way out of the pond. Moments later, Akane saw Ranma land on the grass near his father and start throwing a barrage of kicks and punches at the panda. Genma was able to block most of them, however, and launch a counterattack, but Ranma dodged it easily.
As the two martial artists fought, it soon became obvious to Akane that Ranma was far more focused and determined in this 'sparring match' than usual. He was also winning quite easily. A tiny feeling of jealousy suddenly crept into her thoughts.
*I wish he would fight me like that some time* she thought. Sighing, she turned away from the window and prepared to get ready for school. A few seconds later, she heard the familiar sound of a splash coming from outside.
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Ranma was more than a little annoyed at his father. It wasn't being woken up by him earlier, nor was it his comment about how he looked that had caused the annoyance. For this morning, all it took was him pushing about marrying Akane, again! The young martial artist was determined to punish his father by giving him more than one dunking today.
"Old man," he said as he connected with a punch. "You're getting slow!"
Following up on the opening created by the punch, Ranma grabbed his dazed father, and prepared to toss him into the pond. Suddenly, his instincts told him that someone was watching the fight. He looked up to see that Akane was watching their battle.
The moment he saw her, an image popped into his head. It was of the two of them locked in an passionate embrace, with their lips touching in an equally passionate kiss. Normally, this image would've created a slight feeling of enjoyment, only to be instantly smothered by denial that he would even WANT to kiss her.
This time though, it was different. He didn't feel the denial. As a matter of fact, he didn't feel any negative emotions at all. Only the enjoyment of the imagined kiss.
Akane left the window, and Ranma continued to look up. Unfortunately for him, he didn't notice the pair of wet paws grabbing his shirt until it was too late.
With a tremendous throw, Genma flung his son towards the pond. As the young martial artist flew through the air, he knew why he had messed up. He'd gotten distracted, and now he was going to pay for it.
SPLASH!
A drenched, female Ranma cursed as she slowly dragged herself out of the pond. A part of her wanted to place the blame for the loss squarely on Akane's shoulders. It was her fault she had gotten distracted! She directed a glare in the general direction of Akane's window. A few seconds later though he shook it off. *Don't blame her for your screw-ups,* Ranma thought as she squeezed some of the water out of her shirt. *You know better!*
Sighing, Ranma ignored Genma-panda as he admonished her for losing her focus, and headed toward the bath. She had no intention of going to school smelling like the pond.
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Akane was sipping her tea when the now-male Ranma came in and sat down beside her. Suddenly, Akane had a terrible time holding the cup steady, so she put it down as casually as she could.
For one brief instant, she had seen Ranma in Romeo's costume again.
*What is the matter with me?* she thought.
Not sure whether to be amused or angry at herself, Akane tried to chase away the mental image of Ranma standing below her balcony, and picked up her rice bowl.
She felt herself blushing, and tried to suppress the warm feelings that the image sparked.
*Just eat your breakfast, and STOP thinking about it!* she mentally told herself. She then took a glance at Ranma.
*Stupid idiot!* Akane thought angrily. *This is all your fault!!*
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Ranma was shoveling in his breakfast as fast as he could, while trying to prevent his father from taking any of it.
Then for, the second time that morning, Akane distracted him. He stopped short, chopsticks halfway to his mouth, and took a good look at her.
*Oh, great!* he thought as he noticed the red coloring of her face. *I wonder what she thinks I did this time?*
Ranma mentally sighed as he returned to his meal. It took him a few seconds to realize that his food had disappeared. He glared at his father, who was innocently staring off in the opposite direction and attempting to whistle. Since he was still in panda-form, his efforts came out sounding like heavy breathing. A few seconds later, Genma-panda turned to his son and held up a sign.
(What?)
Ranma just shook his head and sighed.
*This* he thought as he got up and went to check his book bag, *is going to be a looong day.*
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Akane finished her breakfast a few minutes after Ranma had left. She was starting to get up when Kasumi stopped her.
"Are you feeling well, Akane?"
"I'm fine, Sis," she curtly replied. "Excuse me, I have to get ready."
"Are you sure?" Kasumi said. "You look rather flushed. Let me check and see if you're running a fever."
Akane's face became several shades redder.
"I SAID I'M JUST FINE!" she yelled. "DON'T BABY ME!"
Akane stopped short, and looked at the faces around the table.
Soun looked at his daughter in disbelief, while Nabiki seemed amused. Mr. Saotome had already risen and shuffled off, apparently wanting to stay as far away from the problem as possible.
Akane looked at Kasumi last. Her sister looked confused and hurt, and Akane instantly became consumed with guilt.
"I-I'm sorry, Sis," Akane stammered out. "Guess I'm more nervous about the play than I thought. Excuse me."
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From then on, the rest of the day went just like usual, with few exceptions. First of all, Ranma and Akane didn't speak to each other at all. Secondly, Ranma was staring at Akane more but trying not to let her know it. Finally, Akane was staring at Ranma, trying to do so without letting him notice.
Needless to say, the other students soon became witnesses to the first Martial arts 'staring without getting caught' contest, some of them wondering who would win while the others wondered who would get whiplash first from all the head movements. Finally though, the time for the tryouts came, without either one of them getting caught by the other.
Some of the students were interested enough in what was (or wasn't) going on between Ranma and Akane to follow them to the tryouts for the play.
The first thing Akane noticed when she got to the audition was that there were a lot of male students there. She overheard them reading various parts of the play aloud. Akane's spirits started to rise higher when she realized that most of them were reading Romeo's lines.
*There sure are a lot of people trying for Romeo*, she thought. *Maybe one of...* The rest of her thoughts were interrupted suddenly when some of the male students began to be tossed around.
Over the commotion it caused she could clearly hear a voice shout out:
"Away, vermin! None of you are fit to be Romeo!! Only I, Tatewaki Kuno, am worthy to be the fair Akane's Romeo!"
As she watched him tear through the assembled boys, Akane's spirit started to plummet.
Its descent slowed slightly when something hit Kuno so hard that he fell over flat onto his back. The hesitation was short, however, when she realized what had hit him.
"No way! I'm going to be Juliet's main squeeze!" Happosai shouted.
Akane's spirit went from plummet to total freefall.
Happosai jumped over Kuno's body and made a beeline towards Akane.
"Cmon, sweetie, time for rehearsal. Let's start with a lov--"
Happosai's words were cut off when a foot embedded itself right in his face.
*Thank goodness* Akane thought.
"Hey, Director," Ranma called out, his foot still placed firmly on Happi's face, pinning the old hentai to the ground. "You let old geezers like this try out?"
"SAOTOME!! YOU WILL NOT TAKE THE ROLE OF ROMEO FROM ME!!" a recovered Kuno yelled as he charged at him.
Ranma stood there as the kendoist raced towards him, wildly waving his bokken. Just as it looked as if Kuno would strike him with it, Ranma sidestepped him, and the blows meant for Ranma rained down on Happosai.
Kuno stood triumphantly over his fallen foe, while Ranma stepped back a few feet just to get out of Kuno's vision.
"At last, Saotome, you know the full wrath of the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"
"You really got him this time, did you?" Happosai said as he perched upon Kuno's shoulder.
"Aye," Kuno responded.
"Only one problem," the old pervert said.
"Eh?"
"THAT WASN'T RANMA! IT WAS ME!" Happosai replied. He then began to show Tatewaki Kuno just exactly why he was a master.
WHACK! BASH! CRUNCH!!
Despite the punishment Happosai had given Kuno, his single-minded ambition to be Romeo still motivated him. He raised his head, and looked directly at Ranma.
"You will NOT take my place as Romeo in this play!"
"Who wants to be in this dumb play, anyway?"
Ranma felt something big hit him from behind.
"Then what are you doing here?!?" Akane screamed, letting go of the balcony she'd hit him with.
"I didn't think you'd want the old goat to grab you!" he replied, rubbing his head.
"I could have handled him, you know!" Akane said.
"Ah...fair Aka...OOF!!" Kuno said as Ranma's and Akane's fists connected with his stomach simultaneously.
"Against him?!?" Ranma replied, pointing at the old pervert as he downed a bottle of sake. "You can't even beat Shampoo!"
Knowing he had won the argument, Ranma turned towards the boys who had stayed. Suddenly, he saw them all begin to slowly back away from him.
*Huh?* he thought, a little confused at their actions.
"RRRRAAANNNMMMAAA!" Akane roared.
*Oops!*
Fifteen minutes later...
Akane stood in the recently replaced balcony and looked down at the area they had set aside for the tryouts.
*This is it!* she happily thought. *I'm finally going to play Juliet!*
Crunch....
*No one is going to ever say I'm better as Romeo again!*
Crunch..
Irritably, she glanced up at one of the higher branches of the tree where the balcony had been placed and scowled. There, she saw a very bruised Ranma eating some crackers.
Ranma soon noticed that she was staring at him.
"Want some?" he asked.
"Idiot" Akane muttered as she turned her attention back to the tryouts...
Ranma continued to munch on the crackers while he watched the tryouts. He'd quickly come to the conclusion that most of the guys wanted to play Romeo because Akane was Juliet.
*Why would they want to be in a play with Akane? She's so violent that if they make a mistake, she'll pound them. I just don't know what they see in that uncute girl.*
Uncute.
Ever since this morning, every time he had thought of her as that it had bothered him. The worst part was he really wasn't sure why. He knew it had something to do with that strange dream. Why did he want to kiss her? Could it be that Akane really was cute? All the other guys at school kept saying that she was. As Ranma stared at the Tendo girl, he had a revelation.
There had been moments where he had thought she was cute. However, each time it happened, either he would chalk it up to him being sick or one of them would do something to mess it up. Or more accurately, he would do something to mess it up. Suddenly, the words the third Ranma said played through his mind.
*I'm afraid that I'll let you in and be hurt when you leave.*
*Is that it? Do I call her uncute because I'm afraid to let myself like her? NO WAY! Ranma Saotome isn't afraid of ANYTHING!*
*Akaneiscute.... There! I admit it.* Ranma thought. *Now, so long as I don't have to let her know about it until I'm ready, there won't be a problem.*
Ranma pushed the thoughts aside, and looked down from his perch. The director had finally brought the group to some semblance of order, and was having the students do brief readings from the play.
The group of Romeo-wannabes had dwindled considerably. Most of them decided it would be much healthier to leave than try to compete with Kuno, Happi or possibly Ranma. Of those that remained, some of the boys found themselves completely tongue-tied when it was their turn to read, mostly due to the glares from Kuno and Happosai. Others, once they got near to Akane and realized they were supposed to read romantic lines to her, just went to pieces. Soon the only ones yet to read were Kuno, Happosai and Gosunkugi.
To everyone's amazement, the self-styled voodoo priest had stuck it out. Well, to the amazement of everyone who noticed him, that is.
Hikaru was ready to begin reading, when someone roughly pushed him aside.
"Stand aside! I shall go first!"
Kuno stood straight, held out his book, and began to recite. It didn't surprise anyone that he was letter-perfect. After all, he spoke as though he was in a Shakespeare play every day of his life. The only problem was that he was reading the wrong part, from the wrong play, and it wasn't even written by Shakespeare.
Happosai walked around Kuno, and gazed up at Akane. His intense stare made her very uncomfortable.
"I'm the only Romeo for you, sweets!"
He immediately opened the script he had 'found' during his morning raid of the girls' locker room, turned to a random page, and began to read. Unfortunately, he'd had a little too much to drink, and what he did read came out rather mangled. It also didn't help that he was reading Juliet's lines. When the director tried to correct him, he found himself flat on his back.
Kuno grabbed Happosai by his shirt, and shouted at him. "You dare befoul the immortal words of Shakespeare?"
Before he could continue. Happosai had flung him up into the tree, where he narrowly missed landing on Ranma.
By this time, the director had picked himself up, and was bewailing his bad luck. "This is terrible! How can we find a Romeo this way?"
He flung down his copy of the play, and softly muttered another complaint.
"Now our poor students will never get to enjoy that invitation to see China."
Ranma's eyes went wide. *See China?!?*
Images of him taking various transports back to the country that lodged perhaps the only known cure to his curse, flooded his mind. No matter how he went, it all ended the same. Him at Jusenkyo and bathing in the spring of the drowned man. Then the image shifted, showing him returning to Nerima, a full man and holding Akane in his arms....
*I've got to win this contest!*
Ranma quickly shoved Kuno out of the tree, and used him as a 'pillow' to land on.
"Did you say CHINA?" he shouted towards the director.
The director nodded.
"You got yourself a Romeo."
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Ranma's words rang in Akane's ears. Her daydream was coming back to haunt her.
*What am I going to do? I can't play Juliet to Ranma's Romeo. I can't do it......Can I?* Her thoughts were interrupted by a couple of shouts.
"NEVER!!!"
"NO (hic) WAY!"
Ranma ducked under Kuno's bokken swing just in time to see an angry Happosai begin his attack. Thinking fast, Ranma grabbed the middle of Kuno's bokken and used it as a lever to block, and then threw Happosai up in the tree. Almost instantly after Happi had been launched, Ranma kicked Kuno square in the chest, knocking him out.
Just as the battle was winding down, Akane saw Gosunkugi shout, "STOP THE MADNESS!" and charge towards the back of Ranma, armed with his voodoo spike. She was about to shout a warning to him when she saw Ranma turn and catch the spike between his fingers.
--------------------------------
"Huh?" Ranma replied casually, the spike still trapped between two of his fingers.
Despite the casualness in his voice, Gos could see the anger in Ranma's eyes.
"Ahh...I-I mean, since this is a play..." he stammered out, hoping to distract Ranma from doing very grevious bodily harm to him. By now, Ranma had broken the wooden spike in two, and grabbed Gos by the shirt. The look on his face said simply: YOU'RE NEXT!
"...We should settle this on the stage."
By this time, Kuno had recovered enough to comment.
"Hmm. . .an amusing thought. Then the last one left standing on stage, will be the one true Romeo!"
The director nodded enthusiastically in agreement because, quite frankly, he liked not being beaten into a bloody pulp.
"A battle Royal? You're on!" Ranma replied.
None of them noticed Gos shaking his head in disbelief.
"That's not what I meant," he mumbled.
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Akane couldn't believe it! In mere minutes, her dream of playing Juliet was turning into a nightmare! All because of that stupid pervert! Rolling up her script, she leaped down from the balcony and swatted Ranma with it.
"IDIOT!" she screamed as she felt the tears well up in her eyes. "We're supposed to be doing a play, not a massacre!!
If she hadn't been so upset, she would have noticed the look of hurt on his face.
"Akane, I..." he replied.
Now crying, she slapped him across the face.
"Now you've ruined everything!"
As she ran away, all of Akane's thought revolved around one question. * Why? Why does he always have to ruin everything for me!?!*
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Ranma eyes followed Akane as she fled the tryouts. He'd hurt her again. The heir to Anything-Goes martial arts could have shrugged it off except for one thing.
He'd made her cry.
As he clenched his fists and lowered his head, he tried to control the swirl of emotions the incident had ignited in him.
"Damn," he whispered.
---------------------------------
That evening after dinner, Ranma quietly crept into the kitchen. He noticed that Kasumi was still washing the dishes, so he decided to wait until she was finished before he would bother her.
He'd arrived home a few minutes before dinner and had just enough time to ask his pop about who Romeo was. His response about him being from Krypton didn't make much sense to the martial artist. He decided afterwards that it might be a good idea to ask someone else about it. Almost instantly he ruled out asking Soun, the question would have brought on a torrent of tears about how his daughter's fiance wanted to be in the play. He thought about asking Nabiki but realized that he probably couldn't afford the money she'd charge him for the information. That left either Akane or Kasumi but the way Akane glared at him during dinner pretty much ruled her out.
Noticing that Kasumi had put away the last dish, Ranma spoke.
"Kasumi, got a minute?"
"What is it, Ranma?"
Ranma shifted nervously from foot to foot, then just before he spoke, he took a big breath.
"Do you know who Romeo is? Pop says he's some guy from Krypton, but I don't think that's right."
Kasumi couldn't help laughing.
"Ranma, that's Superman," she said, still giggling. Then she shook her head. �Don't you know anything about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Well...um...I know Romeo is a guy," he replied sheepishly. "Isn't it a Samurai drama about a father and his daughter?"
"Here" Kasumi said. Walking over to the counter, Kasumi picked up a book and handed it to the confused Ranma.
"This is a copy of the play. When Akane told me you were trying out for the part, I got this out of my room."
Kasumi noticed Ranma's face falter slightly at the mention of Akane. Akane had told her sister what had happened at the tryouts, but she knew that her sister had a tendency to blame everything on Ranma. *Ranma looks upset. I wonder what really happened at the tryouts.*
Brushing aside her concern, Kasumi smiled slightly. "I figured you would need it."
"Is she okay?" Ranma asked, taking the book from her.
"The last time I checked on her, she was still a little angry," she responded.
"I noticed," he said. "Well, thanks for the book, Kasumi. This is exactly what I needed. Good night."
As he turned to leave, Kasumi gently grabbed his arm. "Ranma, this play is very important to Akane. Please don't ruin it for her."
Ranma looked into the pleading eyes of the eldest Tendo daughter.
"I..I won't," he stammered out.
After Ranma left the kitchen, Kasumi took off her apron. She was folding it up when she started to giggle.
*Superman? Poor Ranma. Wait 'til he finds out what the play is REALLY about.*
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Ranma fled to the sanctuary of his bedroom, and began reading.
*Huh? Where are the samurai?*
*Romeo's NOT Juliet's Dad?*
*Waitaminit! This is a LOVE story!!!*
A few minutes later, the book flew across the room, and hit the wall.
Ranma decided it was time for bed. His mind kept returning to the same thought. Romeo loved Juliet. Romeo kissed Juliet. Therefore, Ranma would have to kiss Juliet...err...Akane.
*Could I do that? Yes I could, but I won't do it to win that contest! I don't need to!!*
Even as he lay down on the futon, he was trying to convince himself that he could win without kissing her.
It was going to be a long night.