Butter Cup ---------- by Florencio B. de la Merced, Jr. (fmerced@pworld.net.ph) A Fanfic inspired by the anime Ranma 1/2 created and copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi A project for the Fan Fiction Mailing List --------- Ranma immediately realized that he wasn't supposed to be in the kitchen that morning. In fact, he'd rather be somewhere else than be in there right now. Off his head, Ranma started imagining images of the Nekohanten, the Uutchan's, Phoenix Mountain, the Joketsuzoku village, Furinkan High. Heck, even the Jusenkyo pools filled his consciousness all of a sudden. "Hand me that strainer, Ranma." Ranma nimbly passed the tool to his fiancée, who at Ranma's best guess, was attempting to cook something. Cooking, deep-frying, boiling, or baking meant only one thing for Akane, Ranma thought. "What does the book say about oven time?" Ranma reviewed the recipe handbook he had laid out in front of him. "Twenty five minutes at three hundred fifty degrees Celsius." Akane promptly set the timer of the oven at those setting Ranma had just imparted to her. "Does this mean I still have to taste it?" "Yes, Ranma." Akane just ignored Ranma's obvious pun on her cooking. "This time I won't let you down." Ranma's hand ran smack right into his face. "You better clean up. I'll clean up our mess here." Ranma somehow felt sorry to leave Akane all alone in the kitchen. It wasn't that usual that they would work together, and at baking a cake at that. What was more difficult to accept was it was his cake that Akane prepared for him. A special cake for his birthday. "Go on, I'll be right out." "Nah, I'll help you." Both quickly got the kitchen back to its Kasumi condition. Akane looked at the timer and realized her cake was almost ready. "Yo, Akane. If you want I can stay behind and wait for the cake to cook." Ranma somehow didn't recognize the goof he had just said. "Bake, Ranma. Bake a cake." Both laughed for a while then they settled down, sitting down on chairs they had intently placed in front of the glass door of the oven. "So, are we still go out tonight?" Akane leaned on Ranma a bit. Ranma blinked before answering. "If I don't die first....Oww!" A quick elbow dug deep into Ranma's side. "Ok, I guess I had that coming." Akane calmed down and soon had her head back resting on Ranma's shoulder. "Well, are we?" Akane felt Ranma's touch reaching for her hand. "Of course." Ranma squeezed a little, which got the same reply from his fiancée. "I hope you like tonight's wrestling match?" Akane's hand quickly bolted away from Ranma's hand. "What? You mean to tell me we're going to the wrestling match?" Ranma casually nodded which immediately irked Akane. "Is that the best you can do?" "Why?" Akane now had her arms crossed and was glaring at her fiancé. "Do you want to go somewhere?" Akane's eyebrows just rose in clear annoyance to Ranma's question and obvious attempt to spite her. "You're so unromantic?!" Ranma almost fell off his seat when Akane spun around in disgust. He tried to calm his fiancée again, but was time and time again shrugged off. "I can't believe you can be so...so..." "What?! Why are you getting so riled up about, Akane? I'm taking you out. Isn't that enough?" Obviously not, Ranma concluded as another elbow buried itself on his stomach. "Why do I need to be romantic?" Ranma blocked Akane's third blow this time. "Ok! Ok! You win. I'll be romantic." Akane briefly restrained herself from further hitting Ranma. "We could go see the new Jackie Chan movie..." Akane had heard enough and quickly slapped Ranma's arm in rapid succession, stopping only when Ranma tried to give a better offer. "What if we go to the park? We could have...have a picnic. Yeah that's seems right." Akane finally smiled again. "That's sounds romantic. I'll cook some..." Ranma gave a serious looking stare that only showed his disapproval in what Akane was getting excited about. "BAKA!" Ranma this time fell off the chair. "Oww! Forget the park!" Akane just turned to look the other way. Ranma slowly got up and sat back on his chair. He again tried to make amends. "Ok, what if we just go to the arcade?" "And you'll just beat me again in Tekken? No thank you!" "How about the...Opera House? Yeah, that's sounds romantic." "You'll just sleep through the whole thing. Remember?" Akane was getting frustrated, and so was Ranma. "Oh right." Ranma thought a bit harder. "What if we just walk around Nerima?" "And what do you expect we do while roaming all around Nerima? You'll just walk up a fence while I'll follow you around on the ground." Ranma winced, since he was running out of options. "Gee. How come I got stuck with ..." "Oh, it's that what's all this is about?" Ranma's teeth were clenching in view of his sudden outrage to Akane's little insult. "Why don't we just go to Ryogenzawa, eh? You'll like that, won't you?!" Akane immediately turned to face Ranma. "What are you implying?! Oh, Ok. I get this. You're still jealous of Kinnoshuke, aren't you?" Ranma's anger almost got the better of him. "Right, hit me! You don't really care about me? At least Kinnoshuke would never ever hit me. He's surely has better manners than you!" "He's a moron! He can't even remember his own grandfather!" "At least he said he loved me!" "He probably can't remember that too!" Akane was almost as angry as Ranma. "At least he said it! Not like you. You never say it!" "Why should I. You Tomboy!" "BAKA! I'll get you for that! You...you pervert!" "Kawaiikune!" "Hentai!" "Tom..." Ranma paused for a moment. "Per..." Akane blinked. Both turned their heads towards the oven door. "The cake!" Both exclaimed at the same time, and both got the pastry out of the oven just in time. ----- "I have to admit, this is the best cake you ever baked Akane." "It's the first cake I ever got baked right too." Both laughed a bit. They exchanged glances. Ranma got a small bit of the cake and spooned it to Akane, and Akane did the same. "Have I ever told you I..." Akane noticed Ranma's hesitation. "I love you Akane." Ranma took a big bite of his piece of cake. "I know. I always knew." Ranma took some icing off his piece and smeared it on Akane's nose. Akane didn't hesitate to retaliate in the same manner. Soon the kitchen was the scene of a battle. Icing and pieces of cake were flying everywhere. When the confusion died down, both Ranma and Akane were a mess, and were still sitting on the chairs. "Happy birthday, Ranma." "Thanks for the best birthday I ever had." Both ended up kissing each other, not withstanding the sugar coating and mess on their faces. Somehow the kiss was sweeter than the icing on the birthday cake and the moment was more special than the coming of age for Ranma. END ----- Ok, here's another one timer....just getting the feel of my keyboard I know it's seems rough, and not a whole lot of thinking went into this one. But I hope this will get some people to think. C & C greatly appreciated (private & public will do fine)