Kiss Addiction: Ranma's Second... and Third... With more to come.

Unending BE - episode 877861

Tags: fan root Edit Tags

For all that he was a bit of a braggard and a showoff, Ranma Saotome did have certain shy attributes to him. He didn't like to talk about his past, and whatever others may think of him this was not the mind of a playboy at work. Ranma felt that intimacy should be kept between two people that cared about one another. A kiss was a show of affection, which wasn't something he could give easily. His thoughts and feelings were his. They weren't anyone else's business. This may help understand a litle better why he was moping on the floor of the dojo, hugging his legs and scowling darkly.

To this that his first kiss would go to another guy. Ranma's mood darkened just that little bit more as he sat on the dojo floor. None of them could understand. How could they? He had to deal with it on a daily basis. All it took was a bit of cold water and oops! He got to experience life as a girl for a while! To have his first kiss taken by any boy was bad enough, but for it to be a creep like Mikado? That kind of bastard didn't care about women. He was a playboy. A guy that used a woman for his own personal gratification and then tossed them aside, hurting them in a way no martial art ever could. He was a creep. A loser. And he'd slipped right inside Ranma's guard, planting one right on the lips. Ugh!

"Feh! Laughing stock of the whole town. Nobody cares how I feel, just..."

"Your back's wide open," a voice behind him said as a hand whapped him on the back of the head. "You're completely off guard." Just what he didn't need right now. Akane had seen the whole thing and no doubt she was here to have a bit of fun at his expense. "How long do you plan to pout? And you call yourself a man!"

Ranma turned away from her in a huff. Fine then! Be that way! "If you think it's so funny - go ahead and laugh!" And then to his surprise, that's exactly what she did. Just knelt down beside him and laughed.
"What's so funny?!" he yelled.

"Was that really your first kiss?" Akane asked. Honestly now, Ranma was thinking. Don't make me say it. So what if he didn't have any dating experience? It didn't mean anything. Really!

"What difference does it make?" he asked, turning away from her once again. He couldn't look at her just now. This whole event was humiliating!

"Oh foo. It doesn't make any difference at all," Akane said as she opened up the medical kit she'd brought with her. "But really. To let yourself be kissed so easily!" she walked around him, sat down and placed a plaster over his nose as she continued to berate him. "You haven't trained enough. You talk a good match but you leave yourself open a lot."

Leave himself open, did he? Well. We'll soon see about that. Let's lead by example, miss Tendo! Ranma rested a finger on her right shoulder and then with his other hand quite literally swept her off her feet and into his lap. "Who are you to talk?" he asked.

It hadn't occured to him until then precisely how close their faces were just now. If either of them moved forward a mere few inches. A few inches and they would be -

"D-don't get the wrong idea!" Ranma yelled, scrambling to put some distance between the two of them. "It's not like I was going to kiss you or anything!"

Akane turned her head away from him, smiling a smugly superior smile. "I- I know that. You wouldn't have the guts to do that, anyway."

"Keep talking like that and I might!" Ranma yelled, frustrated by the accusation of cowardice. Of course he could kiss a girl if he wanted to! He just never particularly wanted to!

"Oh yeah?! Go ahead and try it!"

Now the two of them were engagedi in a staredown, neither willing to give even an inch to the other. Both of them became aware of their hearts pounding in their chests, yet neither of them was willing to show a single sign of weakness in front of the other. This was the key problem in their relationship: Perceived signs of weakness. They both saw it as a contest due to their own stubborn pride. If only the other would give in first, then maybe they could be hapy together! But neither could stand to lose, so neither of them won. It would take something tremendous for them to break this deadlock. Something like a challenge by the other to show a little guts and kiss them.

"O-Okay! But close your eyes!" Ranma insisted. For once she did something he told her to do, yet still made it seem like an act of defiance. Ranma's lips approached hers, just a little at a time. Closer. Closer. Almost there... But he couldn't do it. Couldn't quite get himself to go that little bit further. "I guess... this is something... you have to do with someone you like."

"I... see," Akane sighed, opening her eyes. "So of course you can't do it with me!"

"That's not what I meant!" Ranma yelled, then froze in place upon the realisation of what he'd just said. Would it be redundant to point out that wasn't what he meant either, or would he just dig himself into a recursively forming pit? To hell with it. "If... If you don't mind, then I don't."

Kasumi had heard the argument between the two of them escalating, and considered keeping an eye on the two of them. From what she could tell it sounded very much like the two of them were very likely to engage in something they probably shouldn't. Yes, she should keep her presence unknown and sit outside in the hall to keep them from doing anything inappropriate. Be a hidden chaperone, so to speak. She considered doing just that, and in another universe she might well have but not in this one. No, she decided. No. Akane was not the kind of girl to do that sort of thing. She was still getting over her dislike of boys and she quite obviously had some feelings towards Ranma. If they noticed her - and either of them might considering their skills as martial artists - then it might ruin any progress they would make. It would be best to leave them alone.

"Hey sis," Nabiki said as she walked downstairs. "I hear those two are at it again. What're they arguing about this time?"

"I think they're arguing about their skating contest. Developing strategies or something like that. By the way Nabiki, my hands are rather full at the moment. Could you please do me a favour and take a book back to Doctor Tofu? I would ask Akane but she is rather pre-occupied at the moment."

Nabiki extended her palm, and Kasumi obliged with some loose change. It was apparently enough. Yes, that should keep her from snooping around. Now she just needed to keep the two fathers busy...

The two were now sitting in silence in the middle of the floor, both bright red and neither knowing what to say or do now. Their hearts were pounding in their chests, the echo of which rang in their ears. There wasn't anything else for it. Ranma leaned forwards towards her again. Akane looked him in the eyes and didn't flinch. Didn't even blink. If anything she started moving forwards towards him. It was like a strange game of chicken. Ranma expected an interruption any second now, about to catch him - catch them - in the act. He couldn't possibly be about to kiss his uncute fiance, could he?

Neither of them were flinching, neither of them were showing any signs of weakness. It was a contest now and neither of them would lose. Determination. Pride was on the line. Both thought to themselves that the other didn't have the guts, that surely they would break away at the last minute. Neither did.

"Soft," was the fist word to enter Ranma's mind when his lips brushed against hers. His mind couldn't help but make comparisons between his first and second kiss. It was his rather amateurish opinion that this was a major step up, even if only for the fact that Akane was a girl. The only problem was he didn't have the faintest clue of what to do now. Ther lips were pressed up against one another. That was about as far as his knowledge went regarding kisses, and he wasn't much in the right state of mind to take any pointers from that slimy skating bastard playboy.

After a moment the two of them drew back from the other and returned to their seated position with a sudden fascination regarding a section of the floor directly between them both. It was the weirdest thing but he could swear he still felt her lips pressed up against his. He chanced a look up at her, but found it quite impossible to do so for too long. It was like staring at the sun.

"Feel better now?" Akane asked. "Now that you've kissed a girl?"

"A little," Ranma admitted. "Now I just have to find a cute one, and I'll be golden."

Akane stormed out of the room a full minute later. As he lay on the floor while she left Ranma wondered what kind of vendetta his smart mouth had against the rest of his body and more importantly how he could possibly make up for the terrible thing he must have done to it. Why else would it say things so completely stupid?

The rest of the day went by with Akane quite deliberately snubbing Ranma at any opportunity. Oh, sure. Go right ahead. Kiss a girl and insult her in your next breath. Stupid insensitive jerk. Shows her what good it did to offer up her first kiss to him like that! Not that it mattered it was her first kiss, but even so! Honestly, did he have no class at all? The only reason she was still willing to work with him in this skating contest was because she desperately wanted her pet pig P-Chan back, and Ranma desperately wanted to continue stomping a mudhole in Mikado Sanzenin's pretty boy ass. So they would both be getting what they wanted out of it. Come to it once she had P-Chan back maybe she'd even join in on the stomping. Still that was the only thing keeping them working together. A partnership based on something so frail couldn't possibly beat a seasoned team like the Golden Pair, could it?

There was something else weird as well, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it until she was getting ready for bed. Akane rubbed her lips with her index finger. They felt... tingyl? It wasn't just that. It was something else that felt warm. Nice. It originated from the lips, but didn't end there. Maybe she was overthinking it. Maybe she was thinking so much about that stupid kiss earlier? She curled up into her bed and tried to put all out of her mind. Tomorrow she'd talk to him again, but only because she needed to make sure he could skate even the tiniest little bit.

That night Ranma kicked the covers off himself for the tenth time. No matter what he did, he couldn't the slightest hint of sleep. He looked at his hands. Drenched in sweat. Just like his forehead. His breathing wasn't that much better either, his lungs sucking in air like he'd just swum ten miles and to top it all off his body was shaking as if immediately afterwards he'd been dropped off at the antarctic. The shorter version was the he didn't feel even remotely well. The line for the complaints department in his head had to include just about every cell in his body by this point, and he just wanted it to stop.

Fine then. He rolled over and dragged himself to his feet on wobbly legs. Given how much he was sweating he desperately needed hydration at this point. Funny, isn't it? He hated how he kept on getting splashed but couldn't escape water no matter what he did. Precisely how integral it was to human life wasn't obvious to him until the very moment he found himself with a curse triggered by the stuff. It was everydamnwhere. Couldn't escape it if you tried. Covered most of the surface of the planet and even on occasion fell from the sky. It was so ubiquitous that the human body was mostly made of it as well! Can't live with it, can't live without it.

Speaking of which, the moment Ranma opened the kitchen door he caught sight of Akane guzzling a glass of water. Once it was done she gripped the sink, took a few deep breaths, filled it back up and drank it right down again. "Akane?" he said, stumbling into the room. She turned to look at him, and -

Lips. Her lips. They were slightly parted. She licked them, chewed nervously on the bottom one, and then closed them up only to open them up again when she took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Her lips were right there, right for the taking. They filled his thoughts, occupied his vision and somehow he found a burst of strength where there had been nothing before. In seconds he had seized her around the waist and for a moment rationality returned to him. There was fear in her eyes, but she did not struggle to escape. She didn't even say anything. Instead she wrapped her arms around his head and pulled him in. Kissing him. It was different to earlier. Like a spark flying from one mouth to the other. All the little annoyances peppered throughout his body were fading away as though into memory, his legs and arms regained their strength, he could swear that his palms and forehead stopped sweating for no discernable reason.

It felt good. No. Amazing. Breathtaking. Why had he not done this sooner? She felt so small and soft in his arms, yet strong enough for him to hold without fear she might break. His grip around her body tightened, and he allowed his hands to wander over her body. His left hand crawling up her spine to better pull them together while his right snaked downwards, resting lightly on her rear end. Ranma gave it an experimental squeeze -

"No!" Akane said, pushing him away with her two hands rested on his chest. The fear was back

Ranma's hand recoiled away like he'd touched hot metal. "I - I didn't mean to - I -"

"Idiot!" she whispered, looking around nervously as though she were terrified they might have woken someone up. "Stay away from me!"

Akane stormed out of the kitchen without further comment, leaving Ranma wondering what had just happened. Stay away from her? He touched his lips. Somehow he had the feeling that wasn't going to be possible for either of them to manage.

Go back - Go to the parent episode.

Lumitiel

Sat Jun 30 08:05:52 2012

Linking Enabled

Edit Tags

Add comment

3 comments Last updated: Sat Jun 30 22:13:01 2012