天道 あかね (asanequal) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-12-23 09:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, akane tendo, ranma saotome |
Who: Akane and Ranma
What: Akane’s done with Ranma’s extra weird behaviour
When: Early December
Where: Tendo-Saotome home
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
This was getting ridiculous. Even her father had picked up on Ranma’s strange behaviour. First he had started ignoring her. Then he had stopped eating with them. Akane had no idea what to make of it. There wasn’t even a fight or whatever to blame it on. Things had been fairly normal and mellow for them. But given she’d been asked if she had done something, and then if something had happened at school? Akane had gone from annoyed to worried. The only thing she could think of was that this was dream related. As annoying as they could be, Akane had never been apprehensive on what would come. Now? Now she was.
It was quiet at the moment. Everyone was out and for that she was thankful. She loved her family but whenever something with Ranma happened, it just made it easier to deal with things alone and without the risk of someone meddling or overhearing. First things first, she checked his room. But nothing. Huffing in annoyance, the teen tried the next logical place. The roof. It was one of the few places they could go where they didn’t have to worry about the frustrating family situation. Who cared if it had started snowing?
As expected, there he was. Pulling her jacket closer around her, Akane just sighed.
“You’re being weird.” That was an understatement. “Even dad’s noticed.” She had found things for a traditional Japanese New Year that hopefully would cheer Ranma up. But first she wanted to know what was going on. She really hated being left out of things.
Ranma hadn’t thought about a jacket, he was still dressed in short sleeves as if the chill in the weather didn’t affect him anymore. Honestly cold weather was the least of his worries at that point in time. He’d caused Akane’s death. It had been his fault she stopped breathing in his arms.
The dark haired teen had barely even heard Akane approach, that small Gekkaja in his shirt with it’s eyes closed as a stark reminder of just how much he’d failed. No amount of regular old water was waking it either, it had to be cursed springs water but that didn’t exist in the waking world.
Only when Akane neared him did he tense and stand. She was better off without him. “I’m fine…” He trailed off as he neared the edge of the roof.
Well. Now she was even more worried. Because it wasn’t exactly easy to sneak up on Ranma. She had no idea on what was going on in the dreams. Was it everything that happened at Ryugenzawa? No. That wouldn’t make sense. Things had worked out then, she went home with Ranma. Things had even been okay after that.
There was no bravado, no confidence. It was… really unnerving. Then he was nearing the edge and Akane acted without thinking and grabbed his arm as if she could ever stop him from jumping or leaving or whatever it was Ranma was thinking.
“You’re clearly not! Ranma, what’s wrong?” Who even knew if she’d be able to help, but Akane would be damned if she didn’t try. Though it wasn’t like she could help if she had no idea about what was going on in her fiance’s mind.
Ranma didn’t like to talk about the dreams, even less when they concerned Akane in the way that they had. He wasn’t in the mood to relive that moment where he was certain she’d died in his arms. He was more than ready to leave instead, but something physically held him back.
Dark eyes turned to narrow on her. “Let go.” Avoiding again.
While Akane would bring them up sometimes if something particularly strange had happened, for the most part she just let them go. There wasn’t anything that could be done and there wasn’t much point to it. But Katou seemed to think that whatever was going on was dream related and she was beginning to agree.
She didn’t even balk at the fact Ranma had narrowed his eyes. Instead she just gave him a stubborn look. She was scared about whatever was going on because she was worried, but she was more concerned and wasn’t about to back down just because Ranma wanted to keep avoiding her. Which meant that she was still holding onto his wrist.
“Not until you tell me what I’ve done to make you avoid me for this long.” She wasn’t letting him out of this.
Ranma knew very few non-lethal ways to break Akane’s hold on him, he really wasn’t looking to physically harm her. Damn his dad only teaching him ways to hurt people that he could think of, or was that his fault? Was he the one being horrible now? He couldn’t tell. Everything was frustrating him including the sound of Akane’s voice right then. Absent mindedly his muscles tensed under her grip. Even a non lethal way could send her off the roof if she stumbled.
“It’s not your fault.” He didn’t meet her gaze, he couldn’t.
That… really didn’t alleviate her concern. It just reinforced her worry about whatever was to come up in the dreams once she caught up to Ranma. Because she clearly was behind him because nothing in her dreams would make sense of this reaction. She didn’t really know what to make of it though. Because she didn’t know what happened so it wasn’t like she could try and help. So while she didn’t let go of Ranma’s wrist, her grip seemed to loosen some since she was stunned by both the words and the fact that Ranma still wouldn’t look at her.
“Then what could be so horrible that you’re locking yourself away?” She didn’t understand. She wanted to, but she didn’t. All she knew was that something was clearly upsetting Ranma and she was worried and was getting more so as the conversation or lack thereof went on.
“Me.” Probably not the response she was looking for, but that was exactly how he felt. He was the one getting people he cared about hurt or worse, even when he tried to do the opposite. Nothing seemed to work out in his favor, he must have been born under a bad sign or something for all this rotten luck. “I won’t be responsible for getting you killed again.” He chewed at the inside of his cheek and stared down at the small pond in their front yard. Anywhere but at Akane.
“...What?” Because that made absolutely no sense to Akane. Why would Ranma think he was horrible and needed to be locked away? Then he was saying something about how he wouldn’t be responsible for her getting killed and all she could do was stare at him in shock. Just what the hell was coming in the dreams?!
It was strange, knowing that apparently she was going to die in the dreams and she wasn’t sure how to process that fact. At least not right now. So instead she took a breath and tugged on Ranma’s hand to get his attention.
“I’m not dead here, Ranma. I don’t know what’s happened or will happen I guess. But whatever happens in the dreams doesn’t have to happen here. But pulling away isn’t going to make it more or less likely to happen.”
“Yet.” The small pond in their front yard was starting to get ice around the edges. That was not going to be fun to fall in. “People die here from the dreams just as much as they die there.” He didn’t want to take a chance. Ranma didn’t struggle though from her grip this time even as it loosened up some. He wanted to escape, he wanted to run-do anything really.
His own death he didn’t care much about, he was proving that by just how long he’d been out in that cold weather. He shivered a bit as a snowflake or two made it inside his jacket. The Chinese shirt he wore was long sleeves but hardly qualified for winter clothes.
“Not always and they always come back. Honestly, Ranma. You being here or not won’t keep anything from happening like that. If I end up as one of the people who dies that way, it won’t matter one way or the other if you’re here.” Sometimes one needed to use logic. Not that either were known for it when things like feelings were involved.
And while Ranma might not care about his own death, Akane did. She knew that in the dreams she would get reckless if she was trying to help him when the stakes were especially high. She was the same here even though they hadn’t really had any need for it. She just knew she’d do whatever to help Ranma. Which right now?
“Come inside, Ranma. Please. It’s freezing out here.”
Ranma sighed, a bit of that sigh lingering in the air. He really wasn’t enjoying this confrontation but what else could be done now. Akane was worrying. Was that really better than the alternative? “It always matters.” He responded but didn’t elaborate. That alone was hard enough.
Finally he relented and let her lead him in, too tired to keep fighting anymore.