Unnoticed by either Ranma or Usa, Haruka was approaching their table firm in her intention to ask him if they knew each other from somewhere thus it neither saw when the blonde ex-Senshi slipped behind a large fern that lay just behind them when Usa giggled out “She didn’t! Now way! Haruka? I don’t believe you.” .
“Sure did.” Ranma replied. “I couldn’t show my head around the guys without getting snickered at for days!”.
Usa cutely hid her smile behind her hand as she giggled again. “In front of the whole lunch room?”
“Yup! She got right up on that lunch table ‘n screamed ‘Saotome Ranma is my boyfriend!’ in front of the whole lunch room!”
Usa tittered a bit more at the image of the woman she knew to be a lesbian standing up and declaring her love for the boy in front of her. “Must have been quite a sight. I bet you were blushing down to your toes.”
“I was under a table eating my bread.” Ranma admitted, and then frowned. “Least I was until Ryoga started teasing me for hiding like a coward.”
“What did you do?”
“Me, I pounded Ryoga out a window ‘n stormed out of the lunch room with Haruka hot on my tail.”
Silence reigned for a moment as Usa waited for Ranma to continue, she didn’t have long to wait as the smiling boy said, “Speaking of pork butt, I wasn’t the only one she embarrassed.”
“What did she do?”
“Well… back than getting the good bread at lunch time was a real fight ya know? So everyday I’d get the best bread by beating the others to it and then go sit under this tree near the edge of the school yard.” Ranma said “Usually Haruka would find me so we could eat lunch together. Or more precisely she could try ta hand feed me bits of the lunches she’d bring with her.”
Ranma leaned forward as if to speak conspiratorially though he never changed the pitch of his voice as he said, “But being honest she wasn’t much of a cook ya know? She thought she was but man did her food taste awful!”
Behind her fern Haruka twitched with the need to pound Ranma on almost causing her to drop some of the food off her tray thus causing her to miss a bit of what Ranma had been saying by the time she got the tray back under control.
“… burnt the rice and somehow added red-pepper to sweet rice balls.”
Usa again hid her smile behind her hand as she laughed. “I thought only mom was that bad at cooking.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“Mom doesn’t cook anymore so there’s really nothing to worry about.”
Ranma, who hadn’t really heard her, spoke his thought aloud. “You know, come to think of it Akane and Haruka had something in common besides making bad lunches. They never ate their own cooking. I wonder why that is?”
“Maybe they didn’t eat it because they wanted you to have it. As a token of their feelings for you.”
“Maybe.” Ranma shook his head. “But makin’ someone eat something that makes you sick ain’t exactly what I’d call showing someone you care.”
It was Usas turn to nod.
“So where was I?” Ranma asked. “Oh yeah, Ryoga and Haruka. Well this one week pops took me away for some training up in the mountains and when I got back it was school as usual right up until lunch. After I’d beaten the other guys to the good bread I headed off to my tree.”
“I wasn’t there very long when Haruka showed up ‘n dumped a week’s worth of bread into my lap. All my favorites. When I asked her where she got it all she just looked down and twisted her foot in the dirt like a real girl instead of the grabby tomboy she’d been the week before. It was really weird. I mean she was even wearing a dress ya know?”
Usa waved a hand to prompt him to continue.
“Why I asked her why she was actin’ so weird she did a bit more of that food digging before she raised her head and looked me in the eye and opened her mouth. I never got my answer though ‘cause Ryoga showed up just then and when he saw all the bread around me he started screaming about I was a cheat who had to hide behind an uncute girl.”
“Before I could get up and teach the jerk a lesson Haruka was all over him.”
“Didn’t you try to stop them?” Usa asked, her voice thick with concern even though the event happened ages ago.
“Sure did. But Ryoga got in a lucky hit sending me into a tree. That set Haruka off even more and I bet she would’ve worn pig-boy down if the teachers hadn’t of arrived to break it up.”
“Haruka got in the last shot though by yelling at Ryoga about finding a boyfriend of his own since I was already hers.” Ranma finished with a chuckle. “Man did Ryoga get teased about that! Even more than I did for having a girl friend.” Ranma then blushed and turned away “Not that she was…”.
A glassy eyed Haruka was blushing similarly as she too recalled the event Ranma was describing. She also remembered what he’d left unsaid. Of how she’d broken free of the teachers to grab Ranma into her arms where she gave him his very first serious lip-lock.
Hers as well.
As she stood there more and more memories pushed past the barrier that had been erected in her mind, all of them concerning her time with Ranma and the time they'd spent together before he'd been taken away by his father to continue his training journey.
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(Posted Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:34)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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