Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Did I Tell You that I Love You? ❯ chapter one ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Title: Did I Tell You that I Love You?
Chap: 1
Rating: PG (The rating might go up.)

This is my very first Ranma fic. (: Combine that with the fact that I have only read vol. 1-4 & 9 of the manga ( and seen none of the anime) and you'll get a recipe for disaster. :D So, if I make any mistakes and you know the correct answer feel free to tell me. But please don't review just to tell me I'm wrong and leave it at that, because that doesn't help anybody.

-

Akane's eye twitched as Ranma noisily slurped his soda through a straw. "Must you do that, Ranma?" Ranma slurped louder in lieu of a yes. Akane sighed, "very mature Ranma."

"You're the one that asked me to join you." Ranma grumbled. Akane quietly drank her soda for several minutes. Ranma tapped his foot in agitation until he could no longer stand the pressure of holding in his curiosity. "So . . . why did you ask me to join you anyway?"

Akane looked down at her drink as she played with her straw. "I guess I was lonely. It's been a year since we started college, but I still miss home. A lot of people here seem so cold." She made a motion with her hands. "I guess being with you is like being back in Nerima."

Ranma's lips twisted derisively. "Better than nothing, hm?"

Akane bit her lip. "I didn't mean it that way. I'm. . . glad we're friends."

"I thought you didn't want to be friends with me when you found out I wasn't a girl?"

Akane sighed. "Ranma that was a long time ago, I was embarrassed over seeing you naked and the whole engagement thing. Perhaps I went a little overboard in the way I treated you then, but I thought we were friends now." Ranma continued to sit in silence.

"After all," Akane was starting to ramble in her nervousness, "we do make time to see each other every week. Even though the colleges we attend are on opposite sides of the city. So can't we just forget the past and start over?"

"Start over, eh?" Ranma looked like he was considering something. "All right," he leaned forward, planting his elbows on the table in the process. "Hi, my name is Saotome Ranma and I'd like to get to know you better."

Akane furrowed her brows. "Ranma what are you doing?"

Ranma ignored her question and countered with one of his own. "How does dinner sound? I hear you have a fondness for Italian."

"Ranma," Akane growled, "are you trying to ruin my good mood? Because if you are, you're succeeding wonderfully."

Ranma put his hands up in defense. "I'm just trying to start over."

Akane's anger deflated and her cheeks reddened for a different reason. "Oh."

"So how about it?" Ranma asked in reference to his earlier question. "Or do you still not like boys?" he teased.

Still annoyed by his previous behavior and confused by this new, flirtatious side of Ranma, Akane answered with a vehement no.

"Ah." Ranma nodded sagely. "You prefer girls, hm?"

Akane scowled and viciously kicked him in the leg, satisfied when Ranma gave a cry of pain. "You know I don't!"

"I don't know . . . " Ranma knew he was treading on dangerous territory where Akane's temper was concerned, but he was having too much fun to care. "Sometimes I think you look at me a little longer when I'm in my girl form. You act a little more . . . friendly then too - if you know what I mean."

"Ranma you pervert!" The teasing glint in Ranma's eyes left and he shut his mouth tautly. He felt the first time Akane labeled him a pervert was uncalled for and the name was still a sore spot with him.

"If I'm such a pervert why would I hang out with such an uncute chick like you when there are other more beautiful women I could be spending my time with!"

"Because!" Akane spluttered, "perverts don't care who they're peeping at! Naked female bodies in general excite them!"

"I've never 'peeped' at you on purpose, and I can assure you it wasn't exciting! And you've looked at me before too, so what does that make you, hm?" Akane's cheeks puffed out in indignation and she rose swiftly.

"I have a class to go to." And with that frosty announcement, she left.

Ranma kicked the chair Akane had just vacated, causing it to tip over and clatter across the floor. "What are you looking at?" he snapped at the customers staring at him so that they would put their heads back down and pretend to go back to their business. If they were still in Nerima, nobody would have even bothered to glance up, everybody was so use to their constant bickering.

Of course, if they were still in Nerima he wouldn't have felt free enough to tell Akane of his feelings for her. Which was what he had been leading up to before Akane had screwed everything up.

"Stupid, uncute chick," he muttered, "this is all your fault."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"That man is so infuriating!" Akane ranted to her roommate, Megumi. "First he confuses me by teasing me about going out to dinner and then he starts calling me names!"

"Maybe he likes you and this is his way of showing it," Megumi suggested.

"Right," Akane rolled her eyes. "And the reason he calls me names is because he can't confess his secret feelings that I'm beautiful. That's very elementary school."

Her roommate shrugged. "Some men never grow up."

Akane snorted. "That's definitely Ranma."

"Oh come on, Akane. He's not that bad. I think he's actually very sweet." Akane frowned, trying not to agree.

"Besides," Megumi gave a sly grin, "any man that gorgeous would be worth the trouble." Megumi ignored Akane's glare. "Maybe I should try for him, since you don't seem to get along with him very well. What do you think?"

Akane viciously pulled a book out of her satchel and pretended to read it. "Why should I care? It's not like we're engaged or anything." Her cheeks reddened slightly at the lie. Megumi gave Akane an odd look.

"Nah, that's okay. He's not really my type. But I really think you two would be perfect together." Akane leaned down closer to her book and tried to ignore Megumi. It seemed no matter where she went, people tried to set her up with Ranma!

Megumi perked up at Akane's reaction and moved to stand in front of her. "You like him."

"He's my friend." Akane answered in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner.

"It's obvious he's more than that to you. Or at least you'd like him to be. So go get him."

"No way! I'm still mad at him!"

Megumi grinned. "You can use that to your advantage. Play the aloof, hard-to-get type."

Akane looked skeptical. "I don't know. Ranma would probably figure something's up and ask me why I'm acting so funny."

"Honey, trust me. After I fix you up and coach you in a few lines, he'll be begging for your forgiveness."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Ranma threw a vicious punch into the air, followed by a kick.

Then another.

And another until he had trapped his sparring partner into a corner. "Woah, Ranma calm down! What's up with you today?" Yukimura asked.

"I take my practice seriously, unlike you," Ranma taunted with a grin.

"Oh it's on now!" Ranma's friend jumped and did a neat little rolling flip over his head. "No more Mr. nice Yukimura."

Ranma always enjoyed sparring. The quickened beating of his heart, the disturbed air whizzing by his ears, it all helped block his feelings of inadequacy and frustration he felt when dealing with Akane or school.

This he could understand. This he could excel at. "So how's it going with Akane?" Yukimura's question boomed into Ranma's thoughts, almost causing him to trip.

"I thought we were here to fight, not talk!"

Yukimura snickered. "That bad, eh?"

"It is none of your business!"

"Oh it seems I've hit a sore spot."

Ranma growled and aimed a punch straight for Yukimura's smirk. "Would you just knock it off!"

Yukimura dodged and continued to smile smugly. "You know what you need Ranma? A little advice from the master of love."

Ranma's eyebrow twitched in irritation."And whom might that be?"

A vein popped in Yukimura's head and he tried to kick Ranma. "It's me you idiot!"

Ranma stuffed his hands in his pockets and gave his friend a cocky expression. "If you're such a 'master', then why don't you have a girlfriend?"

Yukimura scowled. "Hey! We're not talking about me here, okay?" Ranma turned away, indicating - in his mind anyway - that the conversation was over.

"We aren't talking about me either."

Yukimura shrugged. "If you're that willing to admit defeat."

Ranma finally snapped. "What is it that you want me to say? That I'm madly, passionately in love with Akane and I'm plotting the days until she's mine?" Ranma was too caught up in his tirade to heed Yukimura's persistent pointing behind Ranma's shoulder.

"Well here's a news flash! We can't even get along as friends. She doesn't seem to need me and I certainly don't need her!" Yukimura was now waving his hands and head back and forth in a clear sign to shut up.

But it was too late, Ranma had already heard the sharp gasp behind him. He hesitantly turned around to confirm his fear that it was Akane he had heard. They stared silently at each other for several minutes. Ranma wondered when she had matured enough to stay calm over a situation that usually would have earned him a birds-eye view of the city, while Akane tried to keep her promise to herself that she would neither cry nor give in to her embarrassing fits of rage.

"Is this true?" Akane's voice wavered slightly in her anger. "Is it?" She repeated her question when Ranma looked off to the side instead of answering her. Ranma's head snapped back and he made a growling noise in the back of his throat.

"Well what do you expect? You're always calling me names, jumping to conclusions, blaming me for everything." Akane's eyes brightened and her nostrils flared in indignation.

"You're the one jumping to conclusions now!" She reached down to pull off one of her shoes and throw it at Ranma, allowing herself to feel a moment of gleeful pride when it connected squarely with his forehead.

"Ow! Dang it! Akane!" Ranma clutched at his now aching forehead. "What was that for?"

"You tell me! You're the one that was acting strange back in the restaurant, suddenly getting mad at me. And now you're saying you don't even want to be friends."

"I didn't-"

Akane cut him off. "Well for your information," she poked him in the chest with her forefinger, "I had come to talk things over. I was even willing to apologize if necessary." She stepped back, and if anyone had cared to look closely, they would have noticed slight tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "But I guess that doesn't matter now does it?"

"Akane don't-"

Akane shook her head and ran off. Ranma made a frustrated noise and took great joy in stomping on her shoe, imaging it was Akane's stubborn head.

"You see what I mean?" He turned to a bewildered Yukimura. "Always jumping to conclusions!"

-

I lack an imagination when it comes to names for original side characters, so I've decided to just borrow characters from other manga/anime. Anyway, Megumi and Yukimura were borrowed from Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai Deeper Kyo respectively. I apologize for butchering their characters. (:

I sent Akane and Ranma to different colleges for two reasons. One, I figured Ranma really isn't as dedicated to his studies as Akane is (but I certainly don't think he's stupid) so I think she would be able to get into a more advanced college. Two, I think the only really big way those two are going to develop a healthy relationship, is if they first spend some time apart from each other and especially away from their family. (I'm so grateful I don't have to live with them! I'd go bonkers! O.o)