I Wish I Were in Love Again




I WISH I WERE IN LOVE AGAIN

A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction by June "KaraOhki" Geraci
October 22, 2000

Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi. This story was written for fun, and may not be used commercially.

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"GET OUT!!!"

"But, Akane!!"

"I said, GET OUT!"

A pair of shoes aimed directly at Ranma’s head convinced him to listen to his wife. He grabbed them out of the air, put them on his feet, and left.

"What’s eating her?" he asked nobody in particular as he walked along. Akane had been moody all morning, so much so that Ranma had taken the children to the park and kept them there until lunch time. She had seemed somewhat calmer when he returned, but a chance remark about the cookies she had baked the previous day got her all wound up again.

"Your mother’s are better? If your mother’s cookies are so good, why don’t you go live with HER?"

Their youngest had looked from her mother to her father and back again. Then she’d burst into tears. That only irritated Akane more.

"Now look what you did! You made the baby cry!"

That was when Ranma lost it.

"I made the baby cry? You’re the one who’s doing all the yelling!"

*****

Ranma walked on, hands in his pockets, trying to remember the last shouting match between himself and Akane. He couldn’t. They had their share of disagreements, but yelling was something they had put behind them a long time ago.

Then Ranma was distracted by the sound of music coming from a nearby house. He’d often passed by and listened to the music Mrs. Yamasaki played. It was from a time long before his birth, and it wasn’t even in Japanese, but he liked it. This song was intriguing enough for him to sit down on her steps and listen.

"The sleepless nights, the daily fights
the quick toboggan when you reach the heights
I miss the kisses and I miss the bites"

Ranma grinned. Whoever wrote this song knew him.

"I wish I were in love again."


That verse brought Ranma up short. [Am I NOT in love?] he wondered.

"The broken dates, the endless waits

Images of him and Akane fighting, and making up, and fighting again, and getting married somewhere in the middle filled Ranma’s mind.

"The conversations with the flying plates
I wish I were in love again."


That verse brought a smile to his face as he remembered Akane’s efforts to learn to cook. They nearly didn’t survive the experience.

The song continued on, but Ranma wasn’t paying attention anymore, because the front door opened and he was drenched in cold water. Again. He should have known better than to sit on this particular doorstep. Mrs. Yamasaki gasped when she saw Ranma sitting there.

"Ranma Saotome! What are you doing sitting there?" Before Ranma could answer, the old woman had grabbed his collar and dragged him inside.

"I was listening to the music. Who’s that singing?"

Mrs. Yamasaki turned off the music, brought Ranma a towel, and turned on the light under her teakettle.

"Frank Sinatra. You’ve probably never heard of him." Ranma didn’t reply, and Mrs. Yamasaki chuckled. "You still haven’t told me what you were doing on my steps."

"Just listening to the music. I like the words."

Mrs. Yamasaki looked carefully at Ranma. There was a guarded expression on her neighbor’s face that she recognized.

"You had a fight with your wife, didn’t you?"

"I, well..."

"What was it about?"

Mrs. Yamasaki’s concern reached Ranma, and somewhat to his own surprise, he related the events of the day to her. Akane had woken in a foul mood, accusing her husband of stealing all the blankets. Then she complained because he left dirty clothes on the floor, took too long in the furo, and hadn’t kept his promise to paint the trim on the dojo.

"No matter what I did, she wasn’t happy! That’s not like Akane. We get along better than that!" Ranma stopped long enough to accept the hot water from Mrs. Yamasaki. "I kept out of her hair all morning, but she started again at lunch. At this rate I’ll never get to go home."

"Nonsense. How long have you been married?"

"Ten years."

"And you’re suddenly fighting the way you did when you were children? Why?" Mrs. Yamasaki turned away and put the music back on.

"I don’t know." Ranma sat with one elbow on the table, resting his chin on his hand.

"The sleepless nights, the daily fights."


They didn’t have daily fights any more. Hell, they didn’t even have weekly fights. Why were they fighting now?

"The pulled out fur of cat and cur
The fine mis-mating of a him and her
I’ve learned my lesson and I wish I were in love again."


Something tickled at the edge of Ranma’s perception, and danced away again. What was it?

"The furtive sigh, the blackened eye
The words ‘I’ll love you ‘til the day I die’"


Ranma involuntarily rubbed his head, remembering all the times Akane had hit him. It had taken him the longest time to figure out that she didn’t know how to say "I love you"--so she’d hit him instead. Her behavior earlier that day was different. Somewhat familiar, but different.

Then Ranma figured it out, and jumped to his feet.

"I’ve got to go home!"

"Ranma?"

"The last time Akane got this way was three years ago. The time before that was five years ago, then it was seven years ago."

His neighbor smiled. "You mean?"

"Yup, she’s pregnant again."

He flew out of the house and down the street, the last strains of the music following him.

"Believe me sir, I much prefer
the classic battle of a him and her
I don’t like quiet and I wish I were in love again."


Quiet? Hell, who needed quiet? Fighting with Akane was too much fun.

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with apologies to Mr. Richard Rodgers, who wrote the music, and Mr. Lorenz Hart, who wrote the lyrics--way back in 1937.