Ranma ficlet
Apr. 17th, 2009 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesGot hit by random idea for ye old fandom. Possibly a bit over the top. ConcirtConcrit muy cool.
Title: Shiver
Word Count: 589
Fandom: Ranma 1/2
Rating: G (or maybe PG for swearing)
Characters/pairing: Ranma/Akane
Prompt: Fear
Summary: There are times when she frightens him, and it’s not when you might think.
Disclaimer: The characters of Ranma 1/2 were created and are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. They are used here without permission for entertainment purposes only. This fic is not intended for profit.
It doesn’t happen often, not at all. In fact, it only happens very rarely, so that Ranma almost – but not wholly – forgets about it entirely until the next such moment comes along. Normally Akane is just Akane – familiar, reassuring, puzzling, infuriating, jealous, forgiving, touchy, generous… Brave, though in a worrying way since her strength doesn’t match her courage; but also fun to tease and just plain easy and nice to hang out with, she has somehow wound up being the most important thing around except maybe maybe for Mom (and he doesn’t know Mom half as well as he does Akane). But nowadays... well, nowadays that part’s just normal too.
That’s how it is, most of the time.
But there are times, just fleeting brief moments, when he looks at her and it’s like there’s someone else there – a different Akane than the normal everyday one. He doesn’t know why this is, or why those moments particularly since there doesn’t seem to be anything special in them. She might holds her head in a certain way, as she moves through the festival crowd in her brand-new summer kimono; or she might walk across the classroom to get a new eraser, then stopping for a second to gaze out the window with a distant look; or she might just smile in a tired, sweaty but satisfied way, after winning another sports event at school for her team. She might also walk right next to him under autumn trees, catching a leaf or two as they slowly drift down, the wind spinning them around. Nothing extraordinary at all.
And yet for him – and he can’t explain this at all – in those rare instances he’ll feel a gap opening up inside him, a cold shiver running down his spine; and where did the ground go? Suddenly it’s like there’s a fire right next to him, not a small and comfortable one but a restless flame that may easily turn into a great, roaring furnace from volcanic depths. She seems to hold the key to something much deeper and more frightening than anything he’s ever faced, threatening to engulf him wholly… as if she was the gatekeeper to a power he can’t even imagine but which he knows he’d be helpless against. If it came out in full force, he imagines that it would obliterate him, drawing him in and swallowing him without the least effort, his hard-won strength turned entirely useless.
In those moments, Ranma looks at Akane and sees not a teenaged girl but a brightly burning flame, utterly beautiful, utterly terrifying.
And then it’s over in the next moment. She’s back to being the same normal nice and violent macho chick who needs to be protected, nothing else. And Ranma will scratch his head and wonder where the hell that weird feeling came from, then try his best to bury it deep inside his head again, because it makes no goddamn sense and isn’t even manly. So maybe he’ll turn away and say something stupid, making her get mad and try to hit him so he can dodge and stick his tongue out and everything’s back to normal for real.
Sometimes he’ll feel a bit odd as he does so, though. Almost bereft. And maybe someday he will be ready to challenge that mysterious fear, to step into that fire without flinching. But for now, he’ll be the normal Ranma to the normal Akane, pretending he never felt that way at all.
It seems like the safest thing to do.
Title: Shiver
Word Count: 589
Fandom: Ranma 1/2
Rating: G (or maybe PG for swearing)
Characters/pairing: Ranma/Akane
Prompt: Fear
Summary: There are times when she frightens him, and it’s not when you might think.
Disclaimer: The characters of Ranma 1/2 were created and are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. They are used here without permission for entertainment purposes only. This fic is not intended for profit.
It doesn’t happen often, not at all. In fact, it only happens very rarely, so that Ranma almost – but not wholly – forgets about it entirely until the next such moment comes along. Normally Akane is just Akane – familiar, reassuring, puzzling, infuriating, jealous, forgiving, touchy, generous… Brave, though in a worrying way since her strength doesn’t match her courage; but also fun to tease and just plain easy and nice to hang out with, she has somehow wound up being the most important thing around except maybe maybe for Mom (and he doesn’t know Mom half as well as he does Akane). But nowadays... well, nowadays that part’s just normal too.
That’s how it is, most of the time.
But there are times, just fleeting brief moments, when he looks at her and it’s like there’s someone else there – a different Akane than the normal everyday one. He doesn’t know why this is, or why those moments particularly since there doesn’t seem to be anything special in them. She might holds her head in a certain way, as she moves through the festival crowd in her brand-new summer kimono; or she might walk across the classroom to get a new eraser, then stopping for a second to gaze out the window with a distant look; or she might just smile in a tired, sweaty but satisfied way, after winning another sports event at school for her team. She might also walk right next to him under autumn trees, catching a leaf or two as they slowly drift down, the wind spinning them around. Nothing extraordinary at all.
And yet for him – and he can’t explain this at all – in those rare instances he’ll feel a gap opening up inside him, a cold shiver running down his spine; and where did the ground go? Suddenly it’s like there’s a fire right next to him, not a small and comfortable one but a restless flame that may easily turn into a great, roaring furnace from volcanic depths. She seems to hold the key to something much deeper and more frightening than anything he’s ever faced, threatening to engulf him wholly… as if she was the gatekeeper to a power he can’t even imagine but which he knows he’d be helpless against. If it came out in full force, he imagines that it would obliterate him, drawing him in and swallowing him without the least effort, his hard-won strength turned entirely useless.
In those moments, Ranma looks at Akane and sees not a teenaged girl but a brightly burning flame, utterly beautiful, utterly terrifying.
And then it’s over in the next moment. She’s back to being the same normal nice and violent macho chick who needs to be protected, nothing else. And Ranma will scratch his head and wonder where the hell that weird feeling came from, then try his best to bury it deep inside his head again, because it makes no goddamn sense and isn’t even manly. So maybe he’ll turn away and say something stupid, making her get mad and try to hit him so he can dodge and stick his tongue out and everything’s back to normal for real.
Sometimes he’ll feel a bit odd as he does so, though. Almost bereft. And maybe someday he will be ready to challenge that mysterious fear, to step into that fire without flinching. But for now, he’ll be the normal Ranma to the normal Akane, pretending he never felt that way at all.
It seems like the safest thing to do.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 11:45 am (UTC)And Ranma will scratch his head and wonder where the hell that weird feeling came from, then try his best to bury it deep inside his head again, because it makes no goddamn sense and isn’t even manly.
Ahahahahaha. <3. Ranma... give it a few years.
Sometimes he’ll feel a bit odd as he does so, though. Almost bereft. And maybe someday he will be ready to challenge that mysterious fear, to step into that fire without flinching.
Love that bit. That is kind of the nutshell of how I viewed him (and her, in a similar way) when I was reading/watching the series. They have these moments... and then back to baka-Ranma and macho-Akane.
Nitpick: Verb tense thingy: "...that it would obliterate him, drawing him in and [swallowing] him without..." (Or "[draw him in]" instead).
no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 12:02 pm (UTC)That is kind of the nutshell of how I viewed him (and her, in a similar way) when I was reading/watching the series. They have these moments... and then back to baka-Ranma and macho-Akane.
It's like the "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" song: "You say dummy, I say tomboy~..."
Thanks for the nitpick! *edits*
no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 10:14 am (UTC)Secondly, I really liked this. It feels true somehow, and very real, and his purposeful forgetting makes a lot of sense given his character. And Akane...
I really like Ranma 1/2 but I sometimes really wish Takahashi had let them grow more than she did. This really captures that.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 04:54 pm (UTC)There is SOME progress in the Ranma manga with characterisation, but no real closure... except for the Nodoka issue, and arguably with Ryoga giving up on Akane. By and large Ranma and Akane seem more accepting of their relationship at the end than at the start, I think... but it's very "by and large". And in the later manga I get the impression it's Ranma holding back more than Akane... and my theory is that part of it may be that he's afraid of his emotions.
Thanks for the comment!