"Coming from China with Ranma, arriving on or around 22nd. Saotome."
At last. He felt the tears starting, but ruthlessly suppressed them. No time for that now. He'd been waiting for this moment for years, and now, finally, when it was almost too late, it had come. He frowned. The groundwork for this would have to be laid carefully, and there wasn't much time. The 22nd was - today? Damn! He got up and moved to the door. "Akane!"
Akane watched her father narrowly. He was nervous, his eyes unable to meet hers for long before darting off around the room, only to return to the postcard in his hands. The signs were clear - he was up to something. "What did you want, Dad?"
"Ah, yes." He cleared his throat. "An old friend, Genma Saotome, is coming for a visit with his son, Ranma. They'll be here in the next day or two, and I was thinking..." his voice trailed off as he wilted slightly under the sulfurous gaze his daughter was directing at him.
"You were thinking, 'How nice, some company for Akane?'" she growled. "Or was it more like, "How nice, an opportunity for a little matchmaking?'"
"Akane, I'm just trying to think of your future," he said, endeavoring to look noble and selfless. The attempt was marred by the sweat beading his forehead, but she had to give him points for the effort.
"Yeah? Well, don't. I'll manage just fine on my own, thanks."
"But Akane, the continuation of the family line -"
" - can be handled just fine by my brother," she said, cutting him off.
He bit his bottom lip, and hesitated a moment before continuing. "Well, you see, Akane, the problem is, years ago, before you were born, Saotome and I agreed that we would unite our families by engaging two of our children when they were old enough. Since-"
"You did WHAT?" she shrieked, shooting to her feet. "Are you trying to tell me you actually engaged me to some boy I've never even met?"
"Um, well ... yes," he said weakly. "Since Saotome's son, Ranma, is an only child, and -"
" - and you only have one daughter, I'm elected," she finished. Akane closed her eyes and wished, not for the first time, that she could have had a couple of sisters, instead of her pest of a brother. Growing up might have been easier, and they certainly would have come in handy just then. Unfortunately, the deities in charge of granting wishes still weren't taking her calls. She opened her eyes and stared levelly at her father. Sitting back down, she placed her hands palm down on the table. "Sounds like a great plan, Dad," she said, in a voice of such saccharine sweetness that he winced visibly. "I think you just forgot one tiny little detail, didn't you? I HATE BOYS!" she shouted.
Glaring at him, Akane thought to herself, "Not to mention that I'm already in love with someone. Someone," she thought, her anger changing to an all too familiar moroseness, "who barely knows I'm alive, and certainly doesn't feel the same way about me."
Her father began to speak again, but his words were interrupted by a pounding on the door. Before she had time to react, she heard her brother calling out, "I'll get it!" Damn, he'd probably been listening in again.
The sound of the opening door was immediately succeeded by a yell that threatened to make her hair stand on end. Her brother ran into the room and threw himself behind their father, shouting, "It's a bear! It's a bear!"
Akane leaped up and started for the hall, only to stop dead as a large panda bear walked into the room, carrying a small, bedraggled figure, which it proceeded to dump on the floor. The figure sprang up and scowled at the panda, before turning to them and saying in a low voice, "I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."
Akane stared at the boy who had made such an - unusual - entrance. He was rather short, several inches shorter than she was, and fairly good-looking, she supposed. "This is my fiancé," she thought. "This is the boy I've been promised to my whole life." The whole thing was just too bizarre.
Her father had evidently decided to ignore the boy's mode of transport - he'd seen stranger sights, though not many. He embraced Ranma, saying, "Ranma, my boy! I'm so glad you're here. I've been ... waiting...." His voice ran down, as the knowledge that something was very wrong began to register on his conscious mind. He let go of Ranma, and stepped back, staring dumbly at the boy's chest.
Akane's brow creased as she tried to figure out what was bothering her father, but it was her brother who tumbled to the truth first. Reaching out with one hand, he poked Ranma in the chest, and exclaimed, "Hey, Ranma's got breasts! She's a girl!"
"Could you stop that, please?" Ranma said, in a depressed tone.
Akane started as her view of Ranma suddenly refocused. This wasn't a short, cute boy before her; it was a short, cute - very cute - girl. "Knock it off, brat!" she snapped. "She doesn't need you pawing her." She went on staring at Ranma. Could it be? Could her father really have - her thoughts were interrupted by a dull thud as her father dropped limply to the floor in a dead faint. No, he hadn't known.
Ranma looked up at her, her mouth twitching in a movement so slight it almost couldn't be called a smile. Akane looked into her eyes, and her heart lurched within her as she read the feelings there. Anger, loneliness, sadness verging on despair - emotions she herself was all too familiar with of late. She wanted to put her arms around the poor girl and comfort her. She wanted to - do a number of other things, the mere thought of which started her blushing, and sent her pulse racing. She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as she said, "Hi, I'm Akane. Akane Kasuga. Wanna be friends?"
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Yes, that's right, it's a cross-over between Ranma 1/2 and Kimagure Orange Road. To be continued - sometime.