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When the knocking started at two in the morning, Akane Tendo was confident about who was at the door before she’d even left her bed.
Sure enough, after dragging herself out from the bliss that was sleep and getting herself dressed well-enough that she wouldn’t be mortified if she was wrong, Akane opened her front door and found Ranma Saotome waiting for her. He was wearing that same red outfit he was so fond of back in high school, and he had a large knapsack full of his belongings resting over one shoulder. “Okay if I crash here?” he asked, already entering Akane’s apartment even as he was asking it.
Akane wanted to be mad, she wanted to lean into the classics and take out her frustration on him, but she couldn’t. Behind the bravado and the cocky smile that still came so easily to his ( stupidly handsome ) face, Akane was one of the few people who knew him well enough to see beyond that. He was nervous. Unsure. He knew this was crossing a bit of a boundary, and he felt bad about it. So instead of biting his head off, Akane gave him the closest thing to a smile that was possible in her current state and told him, “The couch is yours.”
It had been several years since the two had graduated high school. Several years since their failed attempt at actually getting married. They’d tried to go back to ‘normal’ back to that, and for a while it worked. Akane was even able to help make sure Ranma actually had the grades to walk out of school with a diploma.
But that was where they parted ways. Akane was heading to college, though not the same one that Nabiki had already started attending. Ranma was not. She had felt at the time like he’d wanted Akane to talk him out of his plan to travel the globe, honing his martial arts skills even further, to convince him into joining her in Nagoya, but that hadn’t happened. Something, though Akane had never been able to exactly nail down what, had prevented her from trying to make him stay.
This wasn’t the first time Ranma had appeared out of the blue. In the morning, she knew, they’d talk about what had been happening in their lives over the last eight months, spend some time together, and soon it would feel like he’d never even left. Then, he’d take off, seemingly out of nowhere. It would hurt. But the cycle was one Akane had quickly noticed developing, and she’d decided that, at least for then, the good of it outweighed the bad. She tried not to think about how she’d feel when Ranma once again decided to wander off, as she went back to her bed and quickly fell asleep.
The smell of something delicious woke her up. For a second, she almost wondered if Kasumi had dropped by unannounced, until she went into her kitchen and saw a certain busty red-head with Akane’s apron on, making crepes. Ranma was singing a song to himself, a pop number that went really well with his higher-pitched voice when he was in his cursed form. Akane drank in the sight, remembering Ranma’s late-night appearance, and deciding to see how long it took for Ranma to notice her presence.
When five minutes had gone by without Ranma turning around, Akane ran out of patience. “Did you need to use cold water before making food?” Akane asked, entering the kitchen herself to grab some plates for the both of them. That, at least, she could do without hurting either one of them. It had been a hard pill to swallow, but several years on her own had made Akane accept that she was not, in fact, able to cook. Ranma didn’t flinch in the slightest, confirming Akane’s guess that Ranma had known she was there the whole time, and just decided to play a waiting game of his own.
Whenever Akane had asked Ranma a question like that when they were teenagers, he’d either have dodged the question or made some sexist remark that he was somehow a better cook ‘as a girl’. But it seemed Ranma had been growing more comfortable with his curse. With a bounce in his step, he finished the last crepe and told Akane, “Just kinda felt like it.” There was a note of genuine happiness in his voice, and it actually did Akane a lot of good to hear it.
They ate breakfast together without a lot of conversation, but once food had been devoured and the plates washed, Akane decided to broach the bigger subject at hand. “So, why are you here, Ranma?” It felt big to even ask it, even though she’d done it every time Ranma had shown up since she first got her own place. His responses thus far had ranged from ‘I was bored.’ to ‘What, do you want me to leave? Because I will.’ They were always delivered in that breezy, carefree way Ranma liked to use when he was trying to avoid talking about something more serious.
That wasn’t what Akane got from him this time. Instead, he winced, then ran a petite hand through his red hair. “I...need a trip buddy. And I was hopin’ you’d be up for it.” Hearing Ranma Saotome talk about something like he was embarrassed to even bring it up was not exactly common. The martial artist was well known for his foot-in-mouth disease, sure, but that led to his shame after the fact, not before he’d said a word.
Akane considered what he said. “I’m sorry Ranma, but I can’t just leave out of nowhere with you.” He seemed confused by her response, so Akane did her best to clarify. “I have school, and a part-time job. Plus, you travel the world all the time, don’t you? Why would you suddenly need my help?” Akane did her best not to make it said like she was bitter. ( Even though I kind of am. )
Rather than appearing offended by Akane’s words, Ranma looked somewhere between annoyed and amused. “Geez, ‘kane, sometimes I forget how much of a goody-two-shoes you are.” That made Akane narrow her eyes at him, for which she got no response. At least he sounded fond when he said it, she supposed. “A ‘trip buddy’ doesn’t have anything to do with traveling.” Then, apparently deciding what he said required a visual aid, he got up from the table, scampered over to the couch, dug through his knapsack, and pulled out a plastic baggie full of what appeared to be small dried mushrooms. “A friend of a friend of an acquaintance hooked me up with some shrooms. Thing is, you’re supposed to have someone taking care of you while you’re tripping, so I came here.” Akane’s shock must have registered on her face, and Ranma scrambled to fix the situation. “You don’t need to worry, there’s no way you’d ever get in trouble for it. You don’t have to do much, either, just make sure I stay hydrated and I don’t do anything dangerous, or try to go outside by myself.”
Now it was Akane’s turn to feel bad. “Ranma, I’m not upset, I’m just...surprised.” Why exactly, she wasn’t sure. After all, it wasn’t as if she’d ever pretended Ranma was an upstanding member of society. He’d been raised by a man that was basically a con artist, and while Ranma hadn’t quite taken to that path in life, his relationship to typical social rules had never been a close one. Still, the idea of using drugs...came out of nowhere for her. She also had to admit, it wasn’t as if it was something particularly dangerous. From the little she knew about the substance, these mushrooms would be simply hallucinogenic, nothing that would create an addiction or permanent damage to his brain. After thinking it all over, Akane told him, “Okay. I’ll do it.” Ranma pumped his fist, looking like he’d won a major battle, but Akane held up her hand and added, “Not today, though. I have responsibilities, and this sounds like it will be an all-day task. I’m free all of Saturday, so we can do it then.” It was two days away, but it was the best Akane could offer.
Ranma didn’t appear to be angry at the delay. “You okay if I crash here until then?” Akane nodded, and some slight tension Akane hadn’t noticed before disappeared from his body language. “Cool. Cool cool cool.” Ranma leaned back in a stretch, the move shoving out his prodigious endowed chest in the progress, and when he recovered and noticed Akane was staring, asked, “Hot water?”
The rest of the day, and the entirety of the next one, passed by in a seeming flash. Akane wasn’t the most rigorous student she knew, but she still liked to challenge herself, and between her assignments and work, she didn’t actually have a lot of time to spend with Ranma. At least, not until Saturday rolled around. Whenever she wasn’t busy, Akane would find him lying on the couch he’d been sleeping on, watching television, something he didn’t usually have the ability to do on his own with how he’d chosen to live his life.
There was also one time she’d gone to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and he was exercising in the living room while shirtless. Ranma hadn’t noticed that Akane was there, which she counted as a blessing. If he had, he would have seen her drooling. It had been a while since she’d gotten to see the full Ranma Saotome package, and she would be lying if she said she didn’t understand why so many women tended to chase after him. Regardless of his foibles, eye candy was eye candy.
Normally, Akane liked to sleep in on what mornings she could, as it helped with the seemingly endless exhaustion college life had saddled her with. But this particular Saturday morning, she woke up much earlier than was usual for a day off. Since he had started living on his own, Ranma had become something of an early bird, so even as Akane stumbled into her living room, still blinking sleep from her eyes, she saw Ranma was sitting at her dining room table, paging listlessly through one of her textbooks. Ranma wasn’t wearing his usual outfit, having traded those out for a loose-fitting white training gi. She supposed they must have been the most casually comfortable clothes he owned. Ranma looked like he was trying not to laugh, and it took Akane a moment to understand why. Getting up this early had meant skipping even her usual minimal morning routine, so she must have looked a little shabby, with unbrushed hair and wearing the most comfortable pajamas she owned. If it had been anyone else, Akane would have felt embarrassed to be seen like this, but after everything they’d gone through together, Ranma was an exception.
“So, when were you wanting to start this?” Akane asked him, after managing to fight back a yawn. From what research she’d been able to do, how long the ‘trip’ would last depended entirely on the type of mushroom, and the same was true of just what effect it would have. At worst, it could take up more than ten hours.
Ranma gave her a once over before responding, “I probably shouldn’t eat one on an empty stomach, right? We should do breakfast first.” Akane was about to bring up that she wasn’t really dressed for going out to eat, when Ranma got up and walked into her kitchen, grabbing a muffin from the counter and tossing another to her.
She looked at it more closely. Still warm without being too hot to eat, and they were her favorite kind: banana nut. “You made these?” she asked him, and Ranma just nodded his head while taking a bite from his own. Akane tried hers, and was surprised by how good it was. She found herself thinking that, if the two of them ever did actually start dating, his cooking skills were definitely a major plus. When they’d filled up on baked goods, she asked Ranma, “So, are you ready?”
“Are you?” Ranma countered, looking cheeky. When her expression made her answer clear, he pulled the plastic bag out of his pants pocket, pulled out a mushroom, then tossed it down the hatch. After a few seconds, Ranma looked around at the room, disappointment evident on his face. He held the bag up to his face, squinting his eyes as he scrutinized the fungi inside. “Did I get ripped off? If so, I’m taking it out of Mousse’s ass.”
That answered Akane’s lingering question about who the ‘acquaintance’ was in Ranma’s chain of people to the drug supplier. His suspicion was also making her want to laugh, but she did her best to hold it in and explain, “From what I’ve read, it usually takes around half an hour for them to take effect.” From the way Ranma blanched, it was clear he’d been expecting something more expedient, but he didn’t raise any more of a fuss about it.
To burn time until the ‘trip’ started, he and Akane ended up sitting on the couch, on opposite ends, watching TV. She’d gotten to choose the show, though she’d made sure to keep in mind that Ranma might start to experience the mushroom’s effects in the middle of the program. She settled on one of her favorite cooking shows, something she enjoyed even if she’d long since accepted that she was never going to be able to do much cooking herself, and Ranma seemed to enjoy it as well, despite the sassy remarks he made every minute or two. During a commercial break, something occurred to Akane and she turned to Ranma, a nostalgic smile on her face. “Let’s hope these aren’t like those mushrooms you and Ryoga ate that turned you both into kids.” Since moving away from Nerima, those weird incidents, no matter how challenging at the time, became more pleasant with the vantage of time.
Immediately, Ranma’s hands went to his face. “Ugh!” This time, Akane wasn’t able to hide her snort of laughter. “Why did you say that?! I’ve been trying to forget about that since I got these stupid things!” It seemed Ranma didn’t remember the occasion with quite as much fondness as Akane did, but she could tell he was being more than a little overly dramatic, trying to get a reaction from her.
Doing her best to ignore the fluttering feeling in her stomach, Akane kept laughing, noticing that damn sparkle in Ranma’s eyes when she opened her eyes. “You know, you were pretty adorable as a kid.” It wasn't a lie, even if he had also somehow become twice as much of a terror at half the size.
That earned her a shocked gasp from Ranma. “Akane! Are you really suggesting I’m not adorable now?” She made a show of looking like she was considering the question, which just made Ranma roll his eyes. “Hmph! Maybe next time I need a trip partner, I’ll go to Shampoo!” The name had barely left Ranma’s mouth when he seemed to realize he had messed up, but the damage was already done. Even after all these years, Akane and the amazon still hadn’t learned to get along, and even the joking idea that maybe, if Akane didn’t treat Ranma right, he might ditch her for the busty warrior...it was an old wound, but one that was always tender.
Akane flinched, a sting of emotional pain digging into her like a sudden dagger. She sucked in a breath, and from the corner of her eyes saw Ranma extend a hand, regret showing in every line on his face. Doing her best to calm herself, stop herself from crying, and suppress her anger, Akane ignored Ranma and focused her attention on the show, which was back from its commercial break.
She knew that Ranma hadn’t meant to hurt her. Ranma never meant to. ( Except when he does. ) To give him credit, Akane knew he’d gotten a lot better on that front as he’d gotten older, but that only made his slip-ups hurt worse. She wasn’t on guard for them any more. She and Ranma settled into an uncomfortable silence, both watching the cooking show, unsaid words sitting between them.
“Uh oh,” Ranma said, eyes widening, and the faux pas was forgotten as Akane gave him her full attention. He was looking at the television still, but there was clearly something going on with him. “It’s...yyyyeeeaaahhhh it is definitely kicking in.” She couldn’t tell from his tone whether that was a good thing or not, so she decided to just keep one eye on him and another on the show. They were almost done with the episode when Ranma suddenly said, “Alright, I have to get up.” Akane wasn’t sure why he had announced that out loud, until he started to try and stand up.
It had been years since Akane had seen Ranma like this. He was slugging to rise up, every movement looking unsure, like he’d completely forgotten how his body worked. Deciding to stick with her role, Akane stood up too, but something about that must have triggered something for Ranma. He was watching her do it, and suddenly he looked terrified, his eyes going around the room with sudden fear, his posture shifting into a guarded stance. “Woah! It’s...it’s okay, Ranma, you’re okay.” Even as Akane said that, she wasn’t really sure what other comfort she could offer. She had no clue what was scaring him so badly, and since it was his own senses causing the issue, there weren’t many practical solutions on the table.
From there, Ranma started to nervously walk around the apartment, slowly, still clearly unnerved by whatever he had seen before. Akane could tell he was trying to hide some of what he was feeling from her, but even through his stoic facade, she could see he wasn’t liking what he was seeing. He wandered aimlessly around the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, her hallway. Then, he went into the bathroom, keeping the door open just in case, and to Akane’s surprise she watched as he started the water in the sink and put his head under it, activating his curse.
Without a bra on, or anything at all under his white gi, Ranma’s chest was even more prominent than usual. It also seemed like the effects of the mushroom stayed with him through the change, as Ranma was looking around the bathroom now, his movements still slow and awkward. He went back on his tour of the apartment, still looking around at everything, and appearing to be unsatisfied with it. For a moment, Akane wondered if there was something wrong with her place, before deciding she couldn’t make that assumption from what limited information she had.
Then, after having looked at everything for a second time, Ranma turned his attention to Akane, almost looking nervous as he did it. But as their eyes met, she could see the tension that he’d been holding since the effects had begun disappear. Like snow melting into a beautiful stream, that stoicism Ranma had been using a shield changed into a smile. In all the years Akane had known him, she had never seen Ranma smile at her like he did in that moment. There was no fear in it, no self-consciousness, no mockery. Just open, naked adoration. It made Akane blush just looking at it, but the fact it didn’t go away made that even worse. Ranma took a few steps closer, so he was standing just a few centimeters away, and just kept looking at Akane.
Realizing that, apparently, he just wanted to do that now, Akane suggested, “Couch?” Ranma gave a nod so small it was barely noticeable, and Akane gently led Ranma there, and helped sit him down. Now sitting much closer than before, Akane couldn’t help asking, “Um, Ranma...are you okay?”
Still staring at Akane, Ranma’s smile lessened in intensity as he seemed to be thinking of how to respond. “...can I tell you later? I don’t have the words right now.” Even saying that seemed to be a lot for Ranma, like even that simple communication required a mountain of effort. Of course, she had no clue what he was experiencing, maybe it really was that hard for him. She nodded her head, and Ranma went back to smiling at her, before adding, “You can do other stuff, I just wanna look at you.” Unsure exactly how to take that, or what to say about it, Akane went to grab some textbooks she still had to study from and focused on that, regularly lifting her gaze from the pages to check on Ranma, who was still focusing on her attently.
They ended up doing that for most of the day. Every few hours, Akane would get them both water, and make sure Ranma drank all of his before she went back to schoolwork. He never asked for any hot water, and after a while she realized Ranma seemed to be completely content with looking the way he did. Even after all the progress he’d made on that front since they first met, she could usually see that slightest bit of discomfort with it, even if he didn’t complain about it out loud anymore.
It was early afternoon when she realized the effects must have started to wear off. Ranma got up himself to get something to eat from her cupboard, his movements not as smooth as they normally were but leagues above how he’d been before. When he came to sit back down, he was still occasionally looking at her, but he’d also turned on the television and was diving his time between her and some American action movie he’d found.
About an hour after that, Ranma said, “I think it’s over.” There was relief in his voice, and she felt bad that he hadn’t seemed to enjoy his experience. While she didn’t think she’d ever want to try something like that, Akane had still hoped Ranma would come out of it happy to have given it a shot.
Feeling like she’d done as much reading as she could stand, Akane put her books back and left Ranma to his movie for a little bit, waiting until it was over to tentatively ask, “So...what was it like?” She would have been lying to say she wasn’t curious of how it had all felt to him.
Ranma scratched his head, thinking it over before settling on saying, “Really weird.” Akane couldn’t help herself from rolling her eyes, but he quickly added some specifics. “Everything felt...not really real? Like, at the start, we were watching that show, and it felt like we’d been watching it for hours, but then the episode ended and I looked at the clock, and it hadn’t even been ten minutes.”
Unable to help herself, Akane tried to imagine what that must have felt like. She could definitely understand why Ranma had felt restless, especially for someone who could get bored so easily. Thinking back to what else had happened around that time, she asked, “What about when I stood up? That seemed to really freak you out.” It made her blood freeze just thinking back to the sheer depth of the terror she saw in his eyes.
Flinching at the thought of it, Ranma nodded and told her, “Ugh, that. That’s...actually maybe the hardest one to explain? It was like...” His words trailed off, and she saw his eyes settle into the middle distance as he tried to find a good way of conveying his experience. “...when you stood up, it seemed to happen super fast, and the entire room got taller as you moved.” The look on Akane’s face must have made clear she didn’t quite understand, so he tried to rephrase it a little. “Imagine, with no explanation, the walls and ceiling of the room you’re in suddenly stretching out of nowhere.”
Akane still wasn’t entirely sure she understood why it had terrified him so much, but she at least could take a mental note on the weird dream logic attached to the experience. Just in case she was Ranma’s trip buddy a second time. Going over everything in her head once more, Akane realized she had another question, but she felt odd asking it. “What about the, uh, how you were-” Before she could finish talking, Ranma interrupted her.
“Staring at you?” Ranma finished, leading Akane to awkwardly nod her head to confirm. She could at least take some comfort that Ranma felt weird talking about it too, a rare blush settling on his cheeks as he told her, “Okay so...it’s kind of tied to why I was wandering around your apartment. After a while, this thing happened where everything I could see was either good or bad, right?” Not really understanding, Akane gave him the signal to continue, wanting to know where this was going. “Whatever I was looking at, it completely affected everything else. If I looked at something bad, then the entire world was bad, all of it, everything, and if it was good, then everything was good. The problem was, the only way to know if something was good or bad was to look at it...and pretty much everything I looked at was bad.”
Trying her best to reserve judgement until Ranma was done with his explanation, she still couldn’t help feeling a little down at that. “Sorry my apartment sucks...” It might have been lightly decorated and fairly boring, but Akane still tried to like the space she’d begun to make for herself.
Letting out an annoyed grunt, Ranma shook his head and said, “No no no, it’s not like that. It’s...I don’t know. Your apartment is fine, Akane, it’s nice. I like it.” Even with the clipped tone, Akane did feel a little better hearing him say that. “But I kept looking everywhere, trying to find something that would be better, and even used cold water to see if that changed anything. But it didn’t.”
With that in mind, Akane could now piece together what Ranma had been doing stumbling around the apartment. But it still didn’t explain one thing. “So, why did you start...” but even as Akane began to ask the question, she realized what the answer was.
Now both of them were blushing. Suddenly looking anywhere that wasn’t Akane, Ranma said, “...you were the best thing in the apartment. Looking at you, it made the entire world beautiful. I don’t know if I’ve ever been that happy before.” All of a sudden, Akane became very aware of the small distance between them. If she wanted to, she could close it easily, draw Ranma into a kiss before he knew what was happening, her hand running through his short red hair. The urge to do that was damn strong.
Whether he really knew it or not, Ranma had just told her something she would hold dear to her heart for the rest of her life. Akane knew it was meaningless, an arbitrary distinction created by Ranma’s psychotropic-affected mind. But it mattered anyway. Ranma thought she was Good. For those few hours, he had looked at her because she made him happy.
All the reasons why breaking that boundary between them didn’t feel relevant anymore.
Akane stepped forward and took her chance.