Killing Me Softly

Author:

A/N: I knew something was wrong with ‘Epilogue’! Haha! Stupid mistake! Anyway, been working hard on this. I really am a feminist, aren’t I? Haha, if you read my other story, you’ll now what I mean.

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Chapter 2: Break, Break Down

She watched as the frail little flame that fought to keep lit finally died down. The beautiful little candles were now nothing more than a hardening puddle of blue blob.

She wondered if she should try to get some sleep now. It was getting late. Ranma wasn’t showing up for dinner. She made a move to a stand up and sat back down again. No, she wasn’t going to let the night pass by without giving him a piece of her mind. No way was she going to let this pass. Anyway, this time he really was at fault.

Another hour passed by and her anger grew. Finally, his footsteps resounded outside on the porch. She stared at the door, trying to decipher what kind of mood he possessed at the moment.

He opened the door and immediately, the smell of food greeted him. There, only a few meters in front of him, sat a very smug Akane and a very tasty-looking meal sitting on the table.

“Wow! Akane! You ordered this? What is up?” he cried enthusiastically, making his way to her. Akane’s breathing grew labored. He wasn’t even looking at her. He was staring right at the cold chicken. The fact that he wouldn’t be able to believe that she was the one who prepared everything did not make her feel any less infuriated. She stood up with such force that she knocked the chair onto the floor.

Ranma paused in terrifying realization. Akane looked very pretty; that was some outfit she was wearing and it was only then that he remembered what she said that morning. He had totally forgotten this affair. He was out training, as usual, with his dad.

His jaw fell and Akane locked eyes with him. Oh boy, he was in deep this time. There was something in those brown pools that bothered him. Yes, there was fury in those orbs and... what was that? Was that disappointment he just saw?

She quickly broke the eye contact with a sigh and then she glared back at him, avoiding his eyes.

“A-Akane? Uh, I, uh, I was with... with Dad... S-sorry...” he stuttered. Say something, Akane, he said to himself.

In one swift moment, she grabbed the bowl of cold mashed potatoes and threw it in his direction. It hit him square in the face and he froze as the blobs dripped down his face and onto his shirt and then the floor. Then, she was yelling and throwing cold food at him. He raised his arms in front of his face to avoid the very hard surfaces of plates, bowls, wine glasses, spoons, forks, candle stands, bread knives, a bottle of wine and its container filled with melted ice.

“You jerk!” she yelled, throwing whatever was on the table for her to grab.

“Hey! That hurt! Ow!”

“Do you know how hard I worked for this?”

“It wasn’t my fault, you uncute tomboy!” he cried defensively although technically, it really was his fault. He would never give up a fight.

“What? How can you say that? You are such an insensitive cow!”

“So what? You lose your temper too easily!”

“So now it’s my fault!” she cried with an indignant “uh!” Ranma ducked another one of the flying objects before she added the phrase that lingered in his mind for the next few minutes. “I’m sorry you chose me to be your wife!”

Ranma paused for a second before another plate hit him square in the face and he managed to yell back, “Well I’m sorry I married you! You’re not exactly an ideal wife you know!”

Akane’s eyes narrowed even more and, picking up a coffee mug to throw back at him, yelled, “I should have married someone else! L-like...” she faltered for a second, thinking of a good counter. “Ryoga! Yeah! Ryoga liked me!” She looked down at her shaking hands sullenly before regaining her livid composure and started picking up the chairs to fling at him.

“Well why didn’t you, stupid! If you wanted to be with that puny guy so badly then why didn’t you?” The thought made him cringe inwardly but he just had to say something back.

Akane couldn’t reply to that. She knew she’d lose the argument if she told him why so she decided to change the course of the yelling back to something she could handle. “How could you do this? I spend all day trying to do something nice for you and you diss me! You big, ugly idiot!” she screamed at him, finally throwing him her beloved roasted chicken.

After that last object, she realized that there was no more to hurl at him from the dinner table so she quickly moved to the kitchen and started throwing him even more wares from the counter. The whole house was drowned in the sound of breaking glass and clinking silverware.

“You never appreciate what I try to do for you!”

“Well you never listen to me!”

The girl, in her fury, did not notice that she was about to grab a very sharp steak knife and so she did. But before she got hold of the blade completely, it contacted with her finger and unfortunately, she had applied enough force to make it bleed.

Akane did not even care for the wounded finger. She merely cradled it to her chest. She moved backwards, her back hitting the wall, and collapsed to the floor, sobbing and trembling.

Ranma slowly lowered his arms to the sound of crying. He stared at her in shock, his feet rooted to the floor. His young wife was a picture of complete and utter agony. Her forehead rested on her knees, arms around her legs and hands falling limply at the sides. He watched as a trickle of blood fell from the offended finger and onto the floor.

The boy didn’t know what to do. Akane was angry- no, she was worse than that- she was sad. Her temper he knew how to handle, but this? He hated seeing her so vulnerable, so miserable. He walked slowly towards her, feeling guilty at having forgotten to attend their little ‘appointment’. He never thought she was going to do something like this. He had assumed that she would just make him watch cheesy soap operas with her. He never thought that she would do something... as endearing as this.

He approached her warily, trying to be unthreatening and gentle at the same time. He passed by the small clump that was her body and grabbed a band-aid from the cupboard. Then, he bent down in front of her shaking form and gently took the hand that held the wounded finger. He took that poor little finger in his mouth and gently sucked. Akane looked up in surprise, trying to control the tears that still fell from her eyes. When he finally released the finger, he wrapped it in the band-aid.

Satisfied with his work, he held onto her extremely still hand and looked into her moist eyes. The last of her tears trickled down her cheek and he swiped it away tenderly with the back of his fingers. She was still trying to catch her breath, as do the people who cried agonizingly hard, but at least she had calmed down.

Without warning, he enclosed her frail body in his strong arms and she let him, relishing the feel of her face against his chest. They stayed like that for a few moments before all the tension was released and he finally let her go, secretly wishing he had not. Again, deep blue met chocolate brown and suddenly, to his utter joy and relief, he saw mirth spring into her eyes. She smiled and then she was laughing. Her laughter sounded like a choir of angels to him and he chuckled weakly at first, out of relief, and then his guffaws were joining hers.

“W-why are we laughing?” Ranma asked, the last of his mirth cracking his voice.

“I don’t know!” she cried, much in the same way.

When their little giggle fest finally subsided, their stomachs hurting too much for them to continue, Akane was wearing a slight smile on her face. Her husband stared into her eyes, taking comfort in the fact that it was his reflection he saw in them. It was then that he noticed that their faces were merely inches apart and he moved away in a self-conscious and embarrassed manner. He blushed furiously as he saw her eyes slowly shift to the floor. For a swift second, he caught something in those auburn pools- something that resembled... disappointment?

She made a move to stand but he moved forward to catch her chin with anxious fingers. She looked at him strangely and when she spoke, her voice sounded strange to him- like she was scared or afraid to breathe.

“R-Ranma?”

Slowly, his face moved instinctively closer to hers and he held his breath. Was she going to move away? Was she going to yell at him for being a pervert? Was she going to let him kiss her and, more importantly, was she going to kiss him back?

Her heart beat so fast she held her breath to stop it from escaping into nervous chasms. She lowered her eyes impulsively, feeling as if she were a tiny little speck in the perfect framework of time.

And then she felt it. His lips were on hers and she responded languorously, as if relishing his every languid move. Her lips felt soft and fragile against the warmth of his and he regretted that he had never done what he did before. He could not believe how good she tasted in his mouth. He did not know how he found the courage to finally kiss her but with her lips beneath his, he really didn’t care. All he could think of was how pleasant he felt at the moment. He could never have acted so boldly towards anyone else. Of all the people he had met in his seventeen years of living, she was the only one who could make him act like this. He was always so disciplined, so defensive, so careful about showing too much of his more, dare he say, tender emotions.

And yet there he was, savoring that eternal moment with her so close to him. When he pulled away, he opened his eyes slowly, afraid of what her reaction might be. She just sat there against him, staring into his eyes and trying to read how he felt. His mouth was slightly opened, as if he were in a trance. He swallowed nervously, his Adam’s apple bobbing. She kept staring at him, waiting for him to say something.

And he said the first word that came to his idle mind.

“S-sorry...”

Akane’s eyes drooped in disappointment. She felt the tears coming and she tried to stop them from welling up in her eyes. She didn’t want him to see her cry because he was sorry he had kissed her. He regretted what he had done. Now she knew just how much he despised her.

Ranma noticed the emotions play on her face and he immediately regretted what he said. “A-Akane... that’s n-not w-what I m-meant... I-I...”

“What did you mean Ranma?” she asked, raising her head to meet his gaze.

The hardness of her stare made him nervous but finally, he managed to stutter, “I’m not s-sorry... I k-kissed you... I thought you’d be mad.”

Her lips twitched weakly and he saw the small smile that managed to peek from her lovely face. It made his heart beat a little bit slower.

“I’m all blotchy!” she giggled, breaking the silence and sniffing cutely. A moment later, he was giggling with her like a little child.

“It’s all right!” he chuckled good-naturedly and in just a few moments, they were laughing together again like silly friends.

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A/N: Heheh! I kinda liked this chapter... Well, I hope you liked it too! The next chapter will come out soon so please keep reading! Thanks! Oh, and yeah, there is going to be a love scene in the later chapters... Well, I don’t know if I’m gonna write more than one but please keep reading!