@->-- Breaking the Cycle A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Mana~chan @->-- A pair of brown eyes snapped open in the darkness of the night. Peering about, trying to clear the haze that was cast upon her, Akane searched for the glowing numbers of her clock. *3:15?* Groaning, the girl turned over, trying to retrieve the restless sleep she had obtained only hours before. She had school this morning and needed to get some rest. She knew how irritable she got if she didn't get enough rest. She tossed, trying to find a comfortable postion. It was one of those nights where you couldn't seem to get comfortable no matter how you laid. Finally, she gave up and stared at her ceiling, letting her mind wander. It was amazing what kind of thoughts came to you extremely early in the morning. The girl remembered things that had been lost in the deep recesses of her mind. The small things that she had forgotten. The way her mother smelled, how she used to dance around the kitchen and sing silly songs when she did chores. *So that's where onee-chan got the habit from* She remembered how her father tried teaching her martial arts moves, but her clumsy limbs couldn't move gracefully. Instead they moved in the jerky fashion of a four year old still getting a feel for her growing body. She recalled the twinkle of pride in her father's eyes everytime she tried a move, no matter how much she messed up. She saw, in her mind's eye, how her stingy sister, who never shared, gave her the larger half of her cake when she had tripped and dropped her own. The two sharing giggles at the mess on the younger girl. The thought made her smile. Then her personal movie theater played the time when her oldest sister was trying to cook dinner. For the first time on her own. The kitchen was a horrible mess. Dirty plates and pots were strewn about, the walls covered in food. Her older sister screaming at the food in the pot to stay inside. Giggling quietly, she couldn't help but notice the similarity of her own cooking experiences. Abruptly, the movies stopped as her mind started wandering again. This time to more recent events. In bed, the girl frowned, the reason for her sleepless night dawning on her. She realised, with clairity that only came at bizarre times in the middle of the night, that she was tired of her life. It was nothing but one giant chaotic mess, and it showed no signs of changing. She tried to change things, she really did, but things had a way of going around in loops here. Her most recent attempt: a wedding that ended with tears in her eyes, her would-be-husband unconsious in the floor and numerous frightened, dissappointed and angry people. She sighed. She had hoped, hoped so bad, that even if they didn't get married, SOMETHING would have been different. They'd get along, or the others would back off, or something. Anything. She would have been perfectly happy with anything, no matter how small, changing. That would, at least, throw the group out of the cycle they had been trapped in since Ranma arrived. A cycle that became tiring very quickly. A cycle that consisted of fights, fiancees, misunderstandings, fights, fiancees, demons, fights, fiancees, kidnappings, fights, and yet, more fiancees. She frowned as another thought came to her in the night. She and Ranma had a cycle all of their own, and when one tried to break it, the other would only throw them back into it. Insult, fiancees, fight, mallet, insult, fiancees, fight, punt, insult, fiancees, fight, punch, insult, fiancees, fight, smash, insult, fiancees, and yet, more fights. All that, along with the cycle the Nermia crew had created all on their own. Her frown deepened as she noticed the two main themes of their endless round of ring-around-the-rosie. Fights and fiancees. She thought about her...no, THEIR...problems. She couldn't do anything about the fiancees. That was Ranma's responsibility. They were his fiancees, after all. Self-inflicted or not. But what about the fights? True, that they weren't all her fault, but as the thoughts came to her, she relized that most of the fights in the her-and-Ranma cycle were indeed her fault. She didn't have to hit him. Ever. But she had a hell of a time controlling herself. She didn't have to take his insults so personally. She never took any other criticizm to heart, not like Ranma's. She didn't have to react. She knew, for a fact, that she had more control over her mouth than Ranma did. He never knew what he was saying until after he said it. She, on the other hand, knew very well what she was saying and doing. *Well.* She thought, resolve on her face, *That is going to change right now.* It was time to change. If she was the one that had to do it, so be it. She just could NOT go on like they had been. *It's been nearly a year. I know that he has some feelings for me. Whether it's l...l-love or not, it doesn't matter.* She grimaced to herself. *The best I can do now is stop our fighting. If he doesn't change his ways...well...* She guessed it gave her a picture of how he really felt about her. She would move on, if needed. *I'm almost 17 years old. I haven't had a real date since I started high school, and never will at the rate we're going.* Nodding once as a sign of determination, the girl turned on her side and closed her eyes. *Yes...it's time for a change. I'm tired...* @->-- BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE-SMASH! Groaning, Akane threw her arm over her eyes, trying to keep the light away. The alarm clock on her night stand cackled and smoked before it died comepletely. *Argh. Next time, I'm going to do my thinking during the day* Akane thought groggily. She forced herself out of bed and prepared to go jogging. If she didn't start soon, she'd miss breakfast. Akane took in a huge breath of air, enjoying the clean crispness of the morning. *It's so peaceful.* As she moved along her route, she pondered about her thoughts the night before. How was she suppose to go about with this change? *Well...* she rationalized, *since I start most of the fights, maybe I shouldn't get angry anymore?* A part of her mind snorted. *Riiiiiiiiiiight. You? Not get angry?? HAH!* And she realized that it was right. She was Akane Tendo. She was always angry...and jealous...and clumsy...she shook her head. These were not healthy thoughts to have if she wasn't going to get mad anymore. "I will NOT get angry anymore." She growled to herself. "No matter what happens, I WILL stay calm." Seeing her house up ahead, she prepared herself for a fusterating day. Not only did she not get enough sleep, the usual main cause of her irritaion was already heard shouting at his father. She entered the gate just as her sister called everyone in for breakfast. She ignored the sound of a splash as her fiance threw his father in the pond. By ignoring the end of the fight, she missed Ranma's look as she headed into the house and upstairs. Ranma wondered what was wrong with Akane as he sat down at the table. She usually glared at him on her way to the house in the mornings. Shrugging, he waited patiently as the other members of the house made their way to the table. He looked at Akane as she trudged to the table. She had dark circles under her eyes, but other than that, she looked fine. *Not that I care* the boy thought to himself, turning away as she sensed him looking at her. "Good morning!" sang Kasumi as she set about serving everyone. She took a good look at her youngest sister. "Oh my, Akane, are you all right?" "Hmmm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine onee-chan. I just had trouble sleeping last night, that's all." "Oh, great!" groaned Ranma, drawing the attention of the short haired girl. "Does that mean you're gonna be more of a violent tomboy today?" He watched in morbid facination as her face scrunched up and her fists clench. Struggling with herself, Akane fought with her temper. *Control, control, control.* She repeated it like a mantra. It wouldn't do to get angry so soon after her promise to stay calm. She tried to think of anything that would calm her down. Closing her eyes, she imagined Ranma being smashed by her mallet in her mind. That made her feel a lot better and she resumed with her breakfast, sparing the boy only a glare. *Huh?* Ranma was confused. He was so sure she was going to take a swing at him, but she only glared at him and kept on eating. He looked around, trying to figure out what was going on, but everyone else was just as stunned as he was. Ranma snapped out of his stupor when he saw that Akane was almost done with breakfast. That meant that she would be leaving soon, and he'd be left behind if he didn't hurry. He'd analyze this situation later... @->-- Even though breakfast had been a calm, uninteruppted one, the couple still rushed to school, only walking faster instead of running. They hadn't left early enough to walk leisurely. RING! RING! Mentally, Ranma groaned. No matter how much he tried, he was never able to avoid Shampoo's bike on time. *Kinda like Akane's swings...* he thought before he was run over. "Nihao Airen!" shouted an enthusiastic Amazon as she threw herself into his arms. "Is beautiful day. Why no take Shampoo on date?" "Shampoo! I gotta get to school! Lemme go!" "Ranma no go school. Ranma take Shampoo on date!" "You have got to be kidding!" He squirmed around, trying to get free, but her grip on him was unbreakable! He looked around for something...anything...to help him get free. *Huh? Akane? Why hasn't she malleted me yet?* Akane looked at the two. *Pervert! Chinese bimbo! Who do they think they are?!* She was heading down a very familiar path. Narrowing her eyes, she looked more closely at the two. *Just what is he doing?* He was wriggling, but...not against her? He was squirming AWAY from the girl. Akane saw that when he got away a little, the Amazon's arms only tightened, bring his body back to hers. *He's trying to get away?* She smiled in her mind, but kept her face neutral. Ranma saw Akane's eyes narrow, and he prepared himself for a malleting. The good thing about this situation was that he got away from Shampoo. He closed his eyes and waited in anticipation. When the time that it took for the mallet to hit him passed, he opened his eyes again. The look on Akane's face worried him. There was no...emotion on her face. It was like she didn't care. He watched as she stared at them a little longer and simply turn and kept going to school, jogging now. Ranma sat still, staring after the running girl, trying to figure out what just happened. *She didn't hit me?* Shampoo was just as stunned. So stunned that her grip on the boy slipped. "What wrong with violent girl? She no hit." Ranma shook his head. "I dunno. She's been like this all morning." Ranma narrowed his eyes at Shampoo. "You didn't do anything funny to her, did you?" Shampoo shook her head. "Shampoo do no such thing." "Well, I guess I'll have to ask her myself then." With that, Ranma took off after Akane. "Bye Shampoo!" Shampoo blinked after her husband. "Bye Airen! See you at lunch!" @->-- Ranma became more worried as lunch time rolled around. He had tried to make eye contact with Akane all morning in class, but she wouldn't even spare him a glance. She didn't even react when he threw an eraser at her. When the bell for lunch rang, he grabbed his lunch and headed outside. He saw a flash of blue-black hair and ran to catch up with it. "Hey Akane!" The girl stopped and turned. She smiled at Ranma. "Hi Ranma!" "Um...yeah. Hi." They stood and stared at each other for a moment. Ranma was the first to break the eye contact. Fidgiting, he nervously asked her, "So...you wanna...um...eat lunch with me?" Akane's smile got bigger and she nodded her head. "Sure! Let's go outside. It's really nice today." She turned towards the doors and started walking. *He's being so nice! I guess not getting angry is paying off.* Then she cautioned herself. *It's only been half a day. Shouldn't get my hopes up yet.* Ranma and Akane sat under a large tree, far away from the more crowded areas. They usually tried to find more private places because they drew so much attention. They ate in silence for a bit before Ranma started wondering about the change in Akane. "Hey...Akane?" "Hmm?" "Are you...feeling all right?" "Yes, I feel fine. Why do you ask?" "Well..." Ranma looked down at his lunch. "You seem different. I mean, you haven't even smacked me yet." "Ranma, aren't you tired of it?" "Tired of what?" "Of fighting!" "Huh?" He had that confused look. "Whaddya mean?" "I mean, for an entire year now, we've done nothing but fight. Aren't you tired of it?" "Well, if you weren't as violent as a gorilla, we wouldn't have that problem, now would we!" Akane shot him a glare. "Why do you always have to insult me?" she growled. "It's getting old." For a moment, Ranma looked contrite. "Look," Akane started. "We've been doing the same thing over and over again for the past year. Don't you think it's time to move on? All we do is fight, argue, insult and things like that. Then there's the fiancees and suitors and kidnappings and demons and stuff. It's always the same. Shouldn't it be time for a change?" She paused and looked at her fiance in the eyes. "I don't want to fight or argue anymore. It hurts." Ranma stared at Akane. What she had just said rolled in his mind and he thought about it. He had started to nod his head slowly when his reply was cut off by the tire of a bike. "Nihao Airen! Shampoo bring too too good lunch!" "Shampoo!" Ranma yelled. "Must you ALWAYS land on me?" "Shampoo make sure husband no run away. Or violent girl hit away before huband eat too too good food!" Akane shot the amazon a glare, which she returned in full. Shampoo took out a steaming bowl of ramen and held it out to Ranma. The delicious smells made his mouth water and he stared at the bowl hungrily. "Smells good..." he said as he sniffed the air. The sound of a beeper went off. "Oh! Shampoo must go make delivery. So sad she no able stay with airen while he eat." Ranma was too busy stuffing his face to notice the kiss she put on his cheek before she left. She gave a malicious wink to Akane as she hopped on her bike. Akane followed Shampoo with her eyes, her glare cold enough to freeze water. Then she snapped her head back towards Ranma who had just finished the bowl of ramen. "Honestly!" she snapped. "Must you lead her on like that?" "What?" "Ranma, the reason we fight so much is because of all the girls you lead on!" "I don't lead on girls!" The boy screamed back, standing up. "Oh yes you do!" Now Akane was also standing up, in his face. She stabbed a finger in the direction that Shampoo went. "You never tell them or show them that you aren't interested! You're always stringing them along, making them think that they have a chance!" "Well they have a better chance than a stupid tomboy like you!" At this point, most people would have realized that they should have stopped. But...well...this IS Ranma we're writting about here. "At least they can cook and swim! They're not at all violent, and they're a lot cuter than you could ever be!" Akane stood in front of Ranma, her hands in fists ramrod straight at her sides. She was breathing heavily, like she had been running. Her eyebrows scrunched together, forming a 'v' above her eyes, which were slowly filling with tears. She swallowed hard. "Fine." She said sharply. That made Ranma take a real look at her. His smirk dissappeared when he saw the expression on her face. "If..." She took another deep breath. "If that's the way you feel, then so be it. I won't try anymore." Ranma was taken aback. "Wha...?" "I am so SICK and tired of all this. I tried to change things, I really did. I tried to make it better, but you obviously don't want things to be better. Well, fine. We'll leave things the way they are, but I am NOT going to be a part of it." Akane blinked hard, forcing her tears to stay in her eyes. "I...I hope you're happy Ranma. Whatever you end up doing and whoever you're with I hope you're happy. That's all I ever really wanted." Ranma's mind was reeling. *What is she talking about? What's going on?* A cold rush ran through his veins as her speech continued. His chest tightened and his throat closed up, making it hard for him to breath. "A-Akane?" he whispered, trying to make sense of what was happening. She looked sadly at him before turning around and walking away. Too stupified to do anything, Ranma could only stare helplessly at her retreating back. @->-- It was after dinner was done that Ranma actually came home. He has spent the rest of the day just wandering around, not really paying attention to where he was going. As he headed for the stairs, he absently notice that Akane was not sitting with the rest of the house, drinking tea and eating dessert. He ignored all the concerned looks Kasumi and Nabiki shot him. "Poor Ranma." Kasumi whispered to Nabiki. The girl nodded. "Yeah. He really does care for Akane." "But why? Why did Akane break up with him?" Nabiki shrugged. "She was tired. I saw this coming a while ago. Today at school, she tried to get Ranma to change things, and almost did it to." She shook her head. "That's just the darndest thing. She was so close. They both were." "Oh my. I hope they work things out." "Well...they love each other enough. It's not going to end like this, trust me." Nabiki looked in the direction Ranma had went. "They'll find each other again. They always do..." @->-- Ranma continued his trek to his room. He was tired. *No...you're depressed.* A flash of yellow caught his eye and his head involuntarily turned and looked at the duck shaped name plate. 'AKANE' He paused for a bit, and his feet headed for the door. *Why?* he asked silently to the duck, as if it could answer him. *Why did you leave me?* The light was off. That meant that she had cried herself to sleep. The longer he stood in front of the door, the stronger the the urge became to run in and shake her. To make her see that he wanted her, and that he wanted to make things better. That he needed her. But he couldn't. His hand caressed the name on the duck once more before he finished his journey to his room. There, he threw himself onto his futon and stared at the ceiling. @->-- The next morning turned out to be a bad one for the two teenagers. It didn't help that both of them didn't get any sleep the night before, but their fathers hadn't shut up about what happened. "Well boy," Ranma's dad asked during breakfast. "What are you going to do to fix this situataion?" "Yes, son," added the other father. "You had better find a solution." Ranma only contunued to stare ahead of him, mechanically shoveling food into his mouth. Akane was no better. She refused to look at anyone. Kasumi and Nabiki watched the two, concern in their eyes. "I'm off," Nabiki said, interrupting the fathers before they could harass Ranma some more. Abruptly, Akane stood up as well. "Wait, oneechan, I'll go with you." She ran to get her bag, zooming past the family and out the door when she got it. She failed to notice that she left Nabiki behind. Nabiki shook her head. "See you at school, Ranma. Bye everyone." When she was gone, Genma and Soun once again began to bug Ranma. They were both knocked onto their backs as the boy surged to his feet. "Leave me alone," he growled. Then he stomped out after the two sisters. @->-- For once since Ranma started at Furinkan, he was early. For the first time, he was able to observe the normal morning routines that students in high school had before class started. Slowly making his way down the hallways, he nodded his greetings to people who aknowledged him and dodged clutters of students standing in the halls. He arrived at his class to notice a group of guys around Akane, asking if she was free again. He fought down jealous surges when he saw that she was actually answering their questions. He saw Akane glance his way. Embarassed, he adverted his eyes, a blush coloring his cheeks. After a moment, when he thought it was safe, he turned his head back. Only to lose himself in her chocolate brown eyes, which were still observing him. Their eyes searched each other, looking for something. What, they both didn't know. Abruptly, Akane broke her gaze, turning it back to the boys around her. Ranma suddenly had trouble breathing. It seemed that his heart had dropped down into his stomach. Visibly sagging, Ranma dragged himself to his desk and plopped himself into his seat. Secretly, so as to not raise the suspicion of anyone in class, Akane observed Ranma out of the corner of her eye. *Maybe he does care,* she thought to herself as he sagged. It pained her to see him so sad. It wasn't that she wanted to make him sad. She very much wanted to make him the happiest man in the world. He, however, had not wanted that. She gave him his chance and he totally blew it off. Her eyes ran around the faces of the boys around her. *They're like sharks,* she swore to herself. It kind of scared her how obsessed they were about her. It's not like they really knew her. She cast one more look at Ranma before closing her eyes and sending a private prayer that they would both end up happy. @->-- Ukyou was NOT a happy camper. Something was going on, and it didn't involve her. Something BIG was going on, and it only involved two people. That's what was irking her. Ranma and Akane. Akane and Ranma. It was never just Ranma and Ukyou or Ryouga and Akane. Or just plain Ranma or plain Akane. It was always, ALWAYS Ranma AND Akane or Akane AND Ranma. No one even noticed her in her seat in the back of the room. It had always been like that. No one noticed that she was also Ranma's fiancee. His cute one at that. Not even Ranma. If it had Akane involved in any way. Any minute, teeny tiny way, he would never notice her. Unless she was trying to hurt Akane. THEN he would notice her...but in the wrong way. She sighed. It was hopeless, she knew. But Ukyou Kunoji was not one to give up. She had her sights on something and she would get it...unless that something was truly beyond her reach. Which Ranma was NOT. @->-- TO BE CONTINUED...