[FFML] [Ranma] A Monsoon Souvenir

[ambulatory.kettle at yahoo.com]

Disclaimer: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
Takahashi-san, I shall reap no profits.

Note: This is a sequel to another Ranma story I wrote, "The Seashell."
You don't really need to read that story first to understand this one, 
but if you haven't read it, well, it's short, so what's keeping you?

A Monsoon Souvenir
by Ambulatory Kettle (http://tinyurl.com/AmbulatoryKettle)

The airplane had the familiar smell of recycled air that always 
reminded Akane of travel.
"Aw, c'mon, how come I gotta sit next to Akane?"
Ranma's protest sounded half-hearted.  Clearly, he was teasing her
again as usual.  Akane gave him a punch in the arm that was at least as
half-hearted as his complaint.  He made a show of clutching at his 
shoulder and making a face like he'd actually been injured.
"Because she's your fiancée," Nabiki quipped back, scooting past
Kasumi to nab the seat by the window.  Kasumi hardly seemed to take
notice as she reached up to put her purse away in the overhead bin.  
Nabiki bent down to glance out her window, and frowned.  "Damn, right 
over the wing."  She turned back to Ranma.  "I mean, would you rather 
sit next to your father?"
But Ranma was already breezing past her to his assigned seat.  He
stepped out of the aisle ahead of Akane, then paused, and moved out of 
the way.  "You go in first."
What was this?  Ranma giving up the window seat?
"Thank you, Ranma," she said gratefully, moving past him.
Leaning one arm against the headrest of a nearby seat, Ranma 
turned his head aside and pushed his lower lip out.  "I ain't doing you 
any favors.  I just like the extra space on the aisle side, that's all."
Akane smiled to herself as she sat and buckled herself in.  "Of 
course you do."
"What, I do!  'Sides, if I wanna look out the window I c'n just 
lean over you," he said, slouching down into his own seat.
Akane felt a faint blush coming on at the thought of that, and 
turned her gaze out the window to hide it.  She watched as the sleek
form of another plane taxied up to a neighboring gate.
After a few minutes, a polite voice announced that they would 
begin the pre-flight safety instructions.  Akane ignored these and 
focused her eyes on the vague outline of her reflection that showed up 
in the glass of the window.  She wondered what others saw when they
looked at that face.
She glanced over at Ranma, who was staring at the back of the seat
in front of him with a bored expression on his face.  Akane poked him in 
the ribs.
"Agh, what?" he said, as if startled from some reverie.
"Put your seat-belt on, dummy."
Ranma mumbled something rebellious, but snapped the belt into 
place.  With a sigh, Akane reached over and pulled the belt tight around
his waist.
"Silly," she admonished.
Ranma just swallowed.
Akane glanced up at his face and realized that he was staring up
at the ceiling with a pale rosiness running across his cheeks.  Akane 
retreated back to her window in a sudden fit of self-consciousness.  
What was he so uncomfortable about?  She'd only reached into his lap 
and... oh.  She felt her cheeks burning a much brighter red.
By the time the plane was lifting off, her momentary embarrassment
had dissipated.  She watched in suppressed giddiness as the ground fell
away beneath them, the buildings and roadways diminishing into tiny, 
distant objects as they wafted into the sky.
For a long time, Akane was content to gaze out the window, 
watching first the clouds, then the rolling sea far below.  Eventually 
her neck began to protest, and she turned away, massaging at her collar
with one hand.  Ranma had leaned his seat back, propping one foot up 
on his knee, and was engrossed in a manga.
She watched him for a bit, until he raised his eyes to give her a 
questioning look.  Akane smiled slightly and shook her head.  She bent
down and rummaged in her bag for her own book, then reclined her seat
back so that it was even with his, and cracked open the cover.
"Copier," Ranma murmured beside her.
"Hush," she returned.  "Read your manga."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ranma smirk.
A few minutes of scanning up and down the pages and Akane found
her eyelids were drooping.  She blinked, and yawned, and decided to give
in.  Tucking her book in the pocket in front of her, Akane squirmed in 
her seat, trying to get comfortable.
"Ranma?" she said after a moment.
"Hmm?"
"Can I put the armrest up?"
"Mmm."  Ranma didn't look up from his book, but he moved his elbow
off the armrest between them.  "Yeah, go ahead."
Akane lifted it and pushed it back between the seats.  Then she 
nestled down into the cushions, and quickly drifted off to sleep.

She awoke to find her head propped against Ranma's shoulder.  She 
sat up, embarrassed yet again, and pulled her hands away from where they
had been lightly clutching his arm.
Ranma was asleep, head lolling to the side, his soft snores 
mingling with the much louder snores of his father two rows ahead of 
them.  Akane breathed a sigh of relief.  But then she wondered whether 
Ranma had still been awake when she'd unconsciously leaned into him.  
Had he knowingly let her cuddle up to him like that in her sleep, or had 
he been as oblivious as her at the time?  She rubbed her hands against 
her skirt, recalling the feel of his muscular arm beneath her fingers.
Casting her gaze out the window again, Akane lit up inside with 
delight at the sight of land amidst the sparkling emerald waters.  She 
poked Ranma in the ribs again.
He snorted awake.  "Ugh?  Wha?"
"We're HERE."
"Where's here?" Ranma asked, looking at her bleary-eyed.
"Okinawa, dummy!"
"Oh," he said, blinking, and then added, "dummy yerself," without 
much feeling, as if it were a programmed response.  Ranma rubbed his 
eyes -- then rubbed his sleeve.  "Hey, how come my shoulder's damp?  
Akane, did you drool on me while you were sleeping, you gross tomboy?"
"No!" Akane denied fervently, knowing her face was turning red 
again.  Then something occurred to her.  "And just what makes you think
I would have been sleeping against your shoulder anyway?"
Ranma suddenly seemed to find some fascination with the "no 
smoking" lights on the other side of the aisle.  "Uh, no reason."
"No reason, huh?" Akane repeated, narrowing her eyes at him.
Gaze still averted, Ranma just sweated silently in his seat 
without answering.
Akane couldn't help smiling.  She tugged his pig-tail playfully.  
"Come on, dummy, we're landing.  Have a look."
Though clearly miffed at the indignity of having his pig-tail 
tweaked, Ranma's expression quickly melted into excitement as he leaned
across to get his first glimpse of the island.
Akane allowed herself to delight for a moment in his nearness and 
ignore the view, no matter how spectacular.  She sat back, closed her 
eyes, and breathed in his scent.
"Akane, look!" he said, pointing, as his other arm slipped around 
her shoulders with an ease that signaled the motion must have been 
unconscious.
She didn't even see what he was pointing at.  A thrill ran through 
her, traveling up from the base of her spine.  By the time it got to her 
neck she thought her head would shoot off.
"Ra-ra-ranma!"
Ranma looked at her -- and jerked away.  "Agh!  I didn't--"
"Hey you two," Nabiki's voice came from in front of them.  Her eye 
appeared between the seats.  "Keep it down, you're making a scene."  The 
eye winked at them.
"Don't tease them, Nabiki-chan," Kasumi's admonishing tone drifted 
back from where she sat in front of Ranma.  "They're just excited to be 
arriving in Okinawa."
"Yeah, Nabiki!" Ranma said mockingly.  He pulled an eyelid at her 
and pressed his own face against the seat backs to give her a full view, 
blowing a raspberry into the seat fabric.  Akane couldn't help but 
giggle.
"You guys are so childish, you know that?" Nabiki's voice came 
again from in front of Akane.
"Put your seat up, Ranma," Akane reminded him as she pressed the 
button and righted her own.
"Put it up yourself," Ranma shot back, clearly riled up into a 
confrontational mood by Nabiki's baiting.
Akane sighed and pulled the armrest back down between them, 
pressing the button on it.  Nothing happened.  Ranma grinned at her, his
seat still fully reclined.
"What's the matter?  Go ahead, put the seat up."
"Ranmaaa..."
He just kept grinning.  "What?  I'm not doing anything."
Akane threw a punch at his head; he ducked forward out of the way, 
and she pressed the button again, the seat clicking up into place.
"Damn," Ranma smirked, settling back into place.
"Dummy," she scolded him.
Ranma put an index finger under each eye and pulled down, crossing 
his eyes at her and sticking his tongue out of his half-open mouth.  
"Uuuuugh!"
"An opening!"  Akane flicked him in the nose.
"Hey!" he protested, rubbing his offended nose.
Akane just giggled.  "Serves you right."
"Hmph."  Ranma crossed his arms, muttering something about "uncute 
tomboy," which Akane chose to ignore.
The plane jostled as they touched down, and Akane felt the 
inertial force pull against her as they cruised to a halt.
"I hate this part," Ranma commented, stretching his arms up over 
his head, his contentiousness of a moment before apparently forgotten.  
"All that waiting and we're finally here, and now we just have to wait 
again."
"It shouldn't be more than a few minutes, Ranma-kun," Kasumi 
assured him over her shoulder.
"Easy for you to say," Ranma responded, slumping back down.
<No kidding,> Akane thought.  Kasumi had the patience of a saint.  
Or of several saints.
Soon enough though, they were rolling into their gate.  Akane 
smiled, and leaned back into her seat.
<Okinawa.  At last.>

The inn sat at the top of a bluff overlooking the sea.  Making her 
way down the steep switchbacks to the beach, her sandaled feet sliding 
on the packed dirt, Akane breathed in the sea air, savoring the smell 
and the sound of the crashing waves below.
She wondered if Ranma had come this way, or if he'd struck out 
along the ridge.  When everyone had sat down for a late lunch of 
donburi, Ranma had bolted his down still standing and announced that he 
was going exploring.  Akane, too giddy with excitement to be hungry, had 
left her bowl mostly untouched and snuck away soon after.
Akane shielded her eyes and followed the curve of the bluff, now 
high above her, but she couldn't make out any sign of Ranma or anyone 
else, just the windblown grass that topped the ridge.
She moved on, shaking her head, though she wasn't sure if she was 
disapproving of Ranma and his rude, eat-and-run behavior, or if she was 
admonishing herself for looking for him.
When she reached the shoreline, Akane kicked out of her sandals 
and looped two fingers around the ankle straps, letting them dangle at 
her side as she enjoyed the feel of the shifting sand between her toes.
She was standing entranced, staring out to sea with the wind 
riffling through her hair, when a familiar voice interrupted the 
meditative silence.
"I knew you'd be down here."
Akane turned to find Ranma, arms crossed and mouth quirking in a 
knowing smile, standing atop a rocky outcropping near the base of the 
cliff side.
"Oh?" Akane asked sardonically.  "So you were following me?"
Ranma's expression turned indignant.  "No!"
"Well?  Then why are you here?"
"Hey, maybe you're not the only one who likes the sea, okay?"
"What," Akane made a sweeping gesture, encompassing the vast 
rolling blueness beyond them, "all that water?"
Ranma snorted.  "At least I can swim."
Akane frowned.  "So did you come down here just to tease me?"
"Nah," Ranma said, waving the notion away.  "I found some 
tidepools over here."  He cocked a thumb behind him.  "Wanna see?"
Curious, Akane followed.  The outcropping resolved itself into one 
corner of a pitted rock shelf dotted with still pools of water, 
luminescent in the afternoon light.
Ranma grinned at her over his shoulder.  "Don't fall in or you 
might turn into something weird.  Well, weirder."
Akane chose to ignore the jibe, her attention arrested by the 
tidepools.  She slipped her sandals back on and picked her way carefully 
over the craggy shelf, as Ranma hopped about from rock to rock more 
recklessly barefoot, agile toes gripping where the surface was slick.
Ranma picked up a stray stick of driftwood and poked it into one 
of the pools.
"Ranma, don't do that," Akane chided.
He made a face at her, but dropped the stick into the water, and 
clambered away over the rocks.
Crouching at the edge of the largest pool, Akane marveled at the 
little world below, full of tiny flitting fish and purple anemones.  A 
small octopus eyed her looming form warily as its mottled yellow skin 
turned white, then tidepool gray, and it disappeared under an overhang.
"Hey, Akane!"
Akane looked up at Ranma's call.  He skipped his way towards her 
across the treacherous surface between the tidepools, one fist clenched 
as if something were secreted in his palm.
"What'd you find?" she asked, rising as he came to her side.
"Hold out your hand," he said, his eyes alight.
Bemused, she did so, and Ranma deposited a small spiral shell in 
her upturned palm.  Bands of orange ran down its porcelain sides.
"A souvenir," he said.
"It's lovely," Akane replied, thinking of the much larger and more 
weather-beaten conch shell they'd found in the street earlier that year.
Then a tingly shock of panic spasmed through Akane's hand as the 
spiral shell sprouted dark spidery legs that skittered on her skin; 
Akane yelped and dropped it in the tidepool.
"A hermit crab!" Ranma crowed, laughing wide-eyed, and danced away
as Akane took a swipe at him.
"You jerk!" Akane snapped.  She cranked back her leg and kicked a 
sandal-full of tidepool water into Ranma's face.
"Agh!  Akane what the heck!" Ranma spluttered, wiping seawater 
from her eyes.
"You did that on purpose!"
"I didn't!"
"Yes, you did, you stupid jerk!"
"I DIDN'T!  I swear!"  Ranma looked down at herself and grimaced.
"Now look what you did!  Here I was trying my best to-- and then you 
had to go and-- and now I can't-- aagh!  Never mind, just lea'me alone!"
Ranma stalked off towards the cliffs, pig-tail flouncing angrily.  
Akane watched her go, her rage turning rapidly into a sinking feeling in 
her gut.  Had Ranma really just been trying to do something nice for 
her?
"Ranma, wait," Akane called after, trying to catch up as she 
picked her way between the pools and the sharp stony edges of the rock
shelf.
"I said, lea'me alone!" Ranma shouted back without turning.  
Wiping a hand over her face again, Ranma reached up and started 
clambering her way up the side of the ridge.
"Ranma, what are you doing?"
"Lea'me alone already!" came the heated reply.
Akane set her jaw.  <You won't get rid of me that easily.>  
Steeling herself, Akane followed, feeling out hand- and foot-holds on 
the steep rocky slope.  Ranma didn't look back, and soon she was out of 
sight beyond the curve of the bluff.
The climb was hard, but not impossible.  Akane schooled herself 
not to look down.  The incline lessened as she made her way cautiously 
up, and soon enough she gripped a solid clump of the long bluff grass 
and pulled herself onto the ridge-top.  Ranma was standing with her back 
to Akane, gazing out at an ocean inlet on the other side of the ridge, 
crashing waves throwing sea foam high into the air as the tide battered 
the rock face below.
After a moment, Ranma sat down, folding her legs almost wearily.  
"Dummy," she said, still staring a the sea.  "I told you not to follow 
me.  What if you fell?"
"Well, I didn't."
Ranma turned, her face puzzled and maybe a bit worried.  "Akane... 
are you crying?"
Akane scrubbed at her eyes with one arm.  "No," she answered, but 
without much conviction.
Ranma watched her for a moment, but turned away again, and didn't 
press her.  Clearly most of Ranma's irritation had gone out of her in 
the climb, and now she just seemed subdued.
Her attention turned upward, towards the sky, and Akane followed 
her gaze to see dark clouds coming in low and fast over the wind-whipped
sea.
"Looks like rain," Ranma said.  "Monsoon season."  Her tone was 
flat, without inflection, but Akane thought she detected a hint of 
something... almost despondent.
"Ranma...?"  Akane didn't know what to say.
Ranma sighed.  "I didn't want to be a girl today," she said, 
barely more than a murmur.
Akane tucked her skirt under and sat down next to Ranma, glancing 
at her as she did.  Ranma's eyes never left the darkening skyline.
"It's always gotta be rain, don't it?" she said in the same soft 
voice.  After another pause, she went on, "I wanted today to be... I
dunno... special, I guess.  No worries, no interruptions, no... stupid 
girl-form.  Just... walking on the beach, me a guy... you-- you know?"
Unable to find any words, Akane sat with Ranma in silence as the 
storm approached.  She wanted to suggest they head back, but she guessed
that Ranma wasn't about to move for anything, even a monsoon.  So they 
sat, and watched as the light died away and the wind picked up, and the 
first droplets began to fall as the air grew thick, and hot, and heavy.
The rain came down, and Akane closed her eyes and turned up her 
face and let the streaming drops course over her forehead and her 
eyelids, soaking into her clothes and her hair, bathing her in its warm, 
watery breath.
<Warm.>  She opened her eyes.  <The water's warm.>
She looked at Ranma, who sat beside her with a shocked expression
on his features.
HIS features -- the rain had changed him.
Ranma's expression slowly grew from awe into elation; he leapt to 
his feet, laughing in the face of the gale.
"Ha ha!  Akane, look!"  He spread his arms to the sky.
Akane found herself on her feet, laughing with him.  She reached 
out and he caught her hands, spinning them both about in a dance of joy 
atop the grassy ridge.  They whirled to a halt, and Ranma dropped one 
of her hands, but held the other, squeezing it gently, smiling down at 
her through the downpour; she smiled back.
"I never thought..." he started, but trailed off into silence.
He shifted his grip on her hand, warm water running along their 
fingers as Ranma placed his palm against hers like some unspoken prayer
of thanks to a nameless rain god.  Her hand looked so small against his; 
he curled his long fingers down over the tops of hers.  He fixed his 
eyes on hers, and the intensity of his gaze sent her blood racing anew.
"Akane, I..."  His fingers uncurled, slid between hers, and found 
their grip again.  He pulled her gently towards him, and she pulled 
back, closing the distance.
The rain found new watercourses across their features as their 
lips touched first briefly, uncertain, then more firmly.  Akane tasted 
the rain, and felt a sensation like electric silk in her mind, delight 
and fear and hope and want all rolled together into a single emotion.
Ranma put his arms around her, and Akane rested her head against
his soaked shirt and squeezed him tight, blinking rain out of her eyes.  
Was it only rain?
"Akane..." Ranma started again.  She felt him swallow.  "I..."
"I know, Ranma," she murmured into his chest as the rain continued
its steady rhythm against their clothes and skin.  "I know."
She didn't need anything else; this was the best souvenir she 
could ever ask for.

Fin.

_________________

This has been sitting on my hard drive for a few years now, so I 
figured I might as well go ahead and post it.

In the midst of writing this, I came across another story that had 
already used the idea of Ranma and Akane in warm rain O.o ...  This 
discovery almost discouraged me from finishing "A Monsoon Souvenir," but
I (eventually) pressed on.  So props to MattSaotome, who beat me to the 
punch with his aptly titled story, "Warm Rain."

This entire story grew out of a mental image I had of Ranma, palm to 
palm with Akane, curling his fingers over the tops of hers.  And for 
some reason, I had the distinct impression that it was raining, but 
Ranma was still in male form.  When considering how such a scene could 
possibly come about, I recalled once walking quite comfortably through a 
torrential downpour in Hawaii.  From their, my mind somehow jumped (or 
island hopped, I suppose) to Okinawa, and the rest is history.
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