An Uncertain End by Lord Archive Characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, etc..., and are used without permission. I'm only borrowing them. I'll return them. I can't afford the overdue charge Nabiki insists on. ------------------------- It’s five o'clock in the afternoon, and I’m in bed. Sigh. I should have expected this to happen at some point. It's not like I couldn't feel the tension between us growing to the point it would finally snapped. And snapped it did. It's over now. All over. Sigh. Hmm? Kasumi and Auntie Saotome are back from the market. Nabiki is probably out reaming some people for some money that they 'owe' her. Dad and Uncle Saotome are still off to where ever Happosai dragged them to. I shut my eyes. Why did it happen? I don't know. I'm not sure I care to know. It finally happened and now it's time to deal with it. I know some people will think I did something stupid, and others would think it's about time. I'm not sure which one I believe. Maybe both, maybe neither. Sigh. So, what is going to happen now? I guess I know the answer to that. I'm not sure if I really want that future, but my choices are largely gone now... If I ever HAD any choices. I open my eyes and see the odd reflection in the mirror. That's not completely true. This was a choice, and I made it. Whether it was a good choice or a bad one, I made a decision. I just hope and pray it wasn't mistake. Well, Nabiki is back now. Wonder what she'll think about this. She'll probably be upset. Kasumi won't be happy either. I'm not sure what Auntie Saotome would think. At this point, I don't care what Dad and Uncle Saotome will feel about this. Those two have a good amount of the blame for it ending up like this. All their pressure to get me married to that Baka only helped keep us apart, adding to the tension between Ranma and me. Oh, Ranma, why did it have to happen this way? Why? I wish things would've worked out better for us and not end up like it had. We came so close to being married and it failed. You came so close to telling me you love me, but you didn't. I don't know why I've never told you how I really feel. Sigh. That is all in the past, it is time to look at the future. Sigh. What will my future be? I'll eventually get married, raise a couple kids, and run the dojo. It's not like I didn't know that before Ranma showed up, but I liked thinking I had other options. I still do, I guess, but I don't think I want anything else. "It's the end of the world as I know it, and I feel fine," I mutter in English, quoting a gaijin song. Do I feel fine? It some way yes and other ways no. The end to this mess has finally come, and that, at least, is good. It could've ended better. It didn't have to happen this way. Then again, maybe it did. It might have been the only way the end could've come. Do I like how it ended? Not really. Things could've happened so much better. Do I regret it? I can't. If I start feeling that way about this, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. It had to end, and I will not regret how it ended. --- Akane heard a knock on the door and saw the door open slightly and Kasumi peaked her head into the room. "Akane, dinner is almost read...dy... Oh, My!!! Akane?!" Akane sighed. "Be down in a couple minutes." Kasumi stared in wide eyed shock, and nodded. She shut the door as she left. Akane slipped out of her bed, and stretched. "Ite! I don't think I'll be able to walk normally for days." She turned towards the bed and kicked it. "Wake up!" "Wha... What?!" The guy in her bed sat up with a start. "Dinner is almost ready," Akane replied with a slight growl. "Um... Akane, about what we, ah, did?" "What about it, Ranma?" The pig-tailed martial artist gulped. "You're not happy about it, are you? You didn't want to do it." Akane sighed. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to make love to you, but I wanted to wait to be married first. I don’t like it that I lost my virginity because we started kissing and forgot to stop. THAT is why I'm not happy." "Sorry, I didn't mean to push anything that you didn't want to..." Akane interrupted him with a kiss. "You didn't push me into having sex. Everyone else did. The constant tug-of-war over who gets who, pushed us together and apart. It made a growing tension between us, and it was going to end in one of three ways: we do what we did, we break up, or we endure all the pressure until we got married. I really wanted option three, but option one wasn't that bad." "So, you don't regret it?" Ranma asked. "For now, no. Don't make me ever regret it or you'll be a girl in both your forms." Ranma shuddered. "Um... How would I make you regret it?" "If you marry someone else." "Oh." ----------------------------- Author's Note: After reading 'Wedding Night' where Ranma and Akane start kissing, and almost didn't stop. This story came from the thought of what would Akane feel about it if after having her first real kiss, they didn't stop until they had had sex. She certainly wouldn't be gleeful.