|
|
Study Time
Akane looked up from her homework at the sound of a knock on her door. "Yeah?"
"It's me. Can I come in?"
"I guess." Akane waited until the door open and Ranma stuck his head in. "What do you want, Ranma?"
"Umm....could you help me with my homework?"
Akane rolled her eyes. "Ranma..."
"Oh, please?" he pleaded. "You know how bad I am at this." Akane looked into his puppydog eyes and sighed in defeat.
"Oh, alright, get your butt over here." With a grin, Ranma entered her room, closing the door behind himself. Akane scooted over on her bed and Ranma flopped down next to her, spreading his math book, paper, assignment and notebook out in front of himself. "What's the problem?"
"Well, I don't really get this stuff..." Ranma picked up a pencil and placed it uselessly behind his ear. "Can you explain this problem to me?"
"I'll try."
"..And that's all there is to it," Akane finished. "Now do you understand?"
"Umm...no."
"Ranma!"
"Well, I'm sorry, but this stuff isn't easy to understand!" Ranma looked over at Akane. "Can you explain it again?" Akane sighed, shifting her position as she began to explain the problem again. But Ranma's attention was diverted as he noticed that the overhead light was making it possible to see a faint outline of Akane's body beneath her shirt. 'Whoa...'
"Ranma, are you listening to me?"
Ranma snapped back to attention. "Uh, what? Huh?"
Akane glared at him. "Did you hear a word I said?"
Ranma nodded-lying. 'Ecchi!' he scolded himself. 'You're not supposed to look
at girls like that! Especially not Akane!'"Uh, thanks Akane, that's all I needed!"
Ranma jumped up and grabbed his things, leaving the room quickly. He had taken
but two steps out her door when he realized what a stupid thing he had just
done.
Akane heard another knock on her door. "What now?"
"Um..Akane?"
"Yeah?"
Ranma opened the door and stuck his head in sheepishly. "I changed my mind. Please...?"
Akane groaned. "You're so weird!" Ranma's shoulders slumped, but Akane scooted over again. "Come on," she sighed, patting the bed next to her. His face lighting up, Ranma came over and sat down next to her.
"Thanks, Akane. I really appreciate it."
Akane hid her smile. "Yeah, yeah." She put on an annoyed look. "Honestly, this isn't that hard to understand."
"Maybe not for you; you're good at math," Ranma frowned. "I'm not."
"You might be if you ever studied."
"What does it LOOK like I'm doing?" Ranma removed the pencil from behind his ear. "Just because YOU'RE good at math..."
"Heh. You MUST be joking."
"You ARE!" Ranma picked up his math book and began flipping to the desired page. "You're good at almost every subject," he mumbled. Akane blushed, turning to her own homework. "Aw...great." Akane turned to see Ranma with his face buried in his hands.
"What's wrong?"
"I just remembered-I have an English test tomorrow! I forgot about it..." Ranma looked at Akane pleadingly. "Akane.."
Akane sighed heavily. "I don't know WHY I'm doing this, but get your stuff."
"Oh, thanks Akane! I owe you one!"
"More than one. Get going."
"Oh my, are you two still up? It's nearly midnight! What are you two doing up so late?"
"Studying, Kasumi. We've got killer tests tomorrow."
"Oh...well..don't stay up too late, alright, Akane?"
"Ok, Oneechan." Kasumi came and kissed Akane's cheek.
"Goodnight, Akane. Goodnight, Ranma."
"Huh?" Ranma looked up from his textbook. "Oh, yeah. 'Night." As Kasumi left the room, Ranma sat up straight, wincing. "Ooh."
"What?"
"My shoulders are killin' me."
"How come?"
"Well, I was fighting with Ryoga all afternoon. He caught up with me right after school and I didn't get rid of him until just before dinner. I guess I was kinda tense all afternoon, and just now, I was hunched over funny..."
"Oh. Well, c'mere. I'll rub your back while you tell me what you've got so for."
Ranma looked over at her, surprised. "Really?"
"Sure." Akane motioned for him to come closer. Ranma scooted over to her and sat cross-legged with his back to her. She placed her hands on his aching shoulders as he began.
"Ok, now this chapter is on sentence structure, so we need to..to..." Ranma trailed off as Akane's hands slowly massaged his tight muscles. She moved down his shoulders to his upper back, then back up to his neck.
"Yeah? Go ahead."
"Um..S-sentence structure. We're supposed to figure out how to..." Akane slowly rotated her hands against Ranma's shoulder blades. He closed his eyes.
"Ranma, you're supposed to be telling me about the assignment."
"I can't," Ranma murmured. Akane's hands left his back and her face appeared around his right arm.
"What do you mean you 'can't'?"
"Well, how am I supposed to talk about English with you doing whatever you were doing? How DO you do that, anyway?"
"What? The massage? I dunno. I've always been able to do it."
"Do that again."
Akane rolled her eyes. "What about your homework."
"In a minute. Please?"
"Oh..all right." Akane resumed her massage. Ranma pretended to be looking at his homework, but he couldn't even do that when Akane's hands moved over his spine. Ranma wasn't really paying attention, so it came as a shock when Akane suddenly ran her fingernails down his back. The feather-light touch was just enough to snap his spine ramrod-straight.
"Hey! That was mean, Akane!"
Akane giggled from behind him. "Sorry. I couldn't resist." Ranma humphed and crawled forward. Akane took him by the shoulders and pulled him back. "Aw, don't go. I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Promise."
"I dunno..." Akane began to work on his shoulders again. "Well, ok, if you insist..." For a few minutes, Akane worked on his stiff shoulders in silence, then she pulled away, giving Ranma a friendly pat on the back. He sighed, slouching back to give her a lazy smile. "Thanks Akane."
"Welcome. Now, what about your English homework?"
"Yeah, yeah..."
"Anyway, so that's pretty much all I could get. What do you think, Akane? . . . Akane?" Ranma poked his fiancee on the arm. She stirred, mumbling something, then fell silent again. Ranma grinned, shaking his head again. "Fell asleep again, kawaiikune?" Akane's peaceful expression never altered, so Ranma knew she was really asleep. Smiling, he swept their homework off the bed and turned the bed down. Then he gently lifted Akane into bed and pulled the covers over her. "Ya know," he whispered, "you do look really cute when you're sleeping." Akane's slow breathing was his only reply. Slowly, Ranma bent his head and, brushing back Akane's dark hair, he tenderly kissed her forehead. He opened his eyes as he slowly pulled away. Akane stirred in her sleep and smiled. So did Ranma. "Goodnight, Akane-chan," he whispered. Then he gathered up his homework and tiptoed out of her room.
Finis