Reunited

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing, I just borrowed the characters and I don't try to make any money with this story, so please don't sue me! ^^

Summery: Coming home after two years is great, is it not?

The rain was unswervingly falling down upon the deserted streets on this fateful Saturday, the 23rd of September. The pitch black clouds concealed the beautiful stars, which were twinkling in their spheres as well as the pale moon, which seemed to be fighting against its confinement, because every once a while even the alleys were illuminated by the white moonlight for a second or two . The few trees standing in this city were slightly see-sawing, the leaves rustling due to a moderate breeze and the lanterns flickering, creating a gloomy atmosphere.

The only person walking in the streets on this day was a 19-year-old, black haired, young woman. She wore a tight blue coat and a knee-length skirt and her face was neatly hidden behind a thick, white scarf.She held two shopping bags in her right hand and an umbrella in her left hand. One by one the raindrops hit her umbrella, exploding with a loud thud into thousands and thousands of smaller ones, each of them glimmering every now and then like bluish diamonds as the beautiful moonlight retracted in them. Inwardly she cursed the foul and brass monkey weather, but still kept on walking in her calm way. After all she was not in a real hurry today. But as the weather got worse minute-by-minute, she started running towards her home, past the flickering lanterns, past the dark alleys and past the rustling trees, not once looking back.

As she turned around the last corner she slowed down a little bit. The young woman looked up at the sky and felt the cold raindrops on her face, bringing back those hated memories of him. On rainy days like this she could always see his face clearly in her mind's eye, smiling at her.

If he was here, he would most certainly walk next to her, the bags in his right, the umbrella in his left hand and grin at her with his cheery smile, assuring her that it would stop raining soon enough in order to cheer her up .If she said, she was cold, he would give her his jacket and if she said, the rain was making her wet, he would walk closer to her, maybe even lay his arm around her. But fact was, he was not walking next to her, he was not cheering her up, he maybe was not even in this country at the moment.

He had left her over two years ago without a single word. He had gone the day after her seventeenth birthday, just a single note in his empty room.
She had wanted to talk to him all alone in order to thank him for the birthday present he had given her. But as she had come into his room, he and almost all of his belongings had not been there any more. That day, she remembered clearly as if it had just been yesterday, she had been running around the house, screaming his name. She had been so jazzed, she had not even seen the note on his door.

I'll be coming back. Please wait for me.

The young woman tried to keep her tears in check. She had always thought that her life before her fiancé had come into it like a whirlwind, had been better, more quite, more peaceful and more relaxing.And maybe it really had been, but he had shown her what living really meant. He had shown her what it was like to be loved, to be jealous, to have fun and most importantly to love, although she had not recognized her feelings back then.

Soon after her fiancé had left, her father-in-law had also left, trying to find his son, but had come back after a year of inconclusive manhunt. And not a week afterwards, three Amazons, a cook, a dark haired boy and an old grandmaster had left as well, each of them trying to find the boy for their own personal reasons. The only one who had not run off to find him was the young girl walking in the streets right now. After all he had asked her to wait for him. Of course, with her fiancé gone, the boys beat a path to her door again, but she had not even once thought about another man in her life and nor had her father.

The young woman snapped out of her thoughts as she saw a figure standing in front of her house. He was standing there in the middle of the pouring rain without an umbrella, not moving at all, just looking at her house.She knew she should be getting away from the figure as far as possible, because for all she knew he could have been a criminal, but something about him was so familiar, so comforting, so handsome. So, instead of running away, the young woman moved closer towards the man, who had not noticed her at all. Hesitantly she closed the short distance between herself and the man and stopped two steps next to him. Indeed, she could not make out his features, because it was too dark, but the way he was standing, holding his huge backpack with just one hand, the way his strong chest heaved and sank as he breathed in and out, sent shivers down the girl's spine.

The young woman knew she should not be feeling this way, but this man was just too mesmerizing. Trickles of water ran down his chin and dropped to the ground and the young woman found that she couldn't tear her gaze away from this man.

So she closed the remaining distance between them, held the umbrella high over herself, so that it would cover both of them, smiled sweetly as she looked him directly into the face and opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing outside in the middle of the night in this heavy rain and without an umbrella.At this moment a lightning illuminated the whole street, including the stranger's features. Instantly her smile cracked and her hands flew up to her mouth, not caring that the bags and the umbrella were falling uselessly to the ground. The young girl hardly noticed the glass, which shattered with an enormously noisy big bang.

The young man's face was more muscular than she had ever seen it before and its shape was more masculine. He was still not looking at her but at the house, his hands clenched to fists, hanging motionlessly at his sides. Only now the young woman discovered that it was not the rain, that was running down his face but a trickle of tears. But this did not matter to her at all. Her own tears started to well up in her eyes as one of her hands moved slowly towards the man's face.

The young woman was afraid that her fingertips would just go through his face and it would turn out to be another one of her dreams. But as her fingertips made contact with his face, softly caressing his cheek, her tears flew freely and uncontrollably from her eyes and her heart skipped a beat or two."Ran-ma?"

And for the first time the taller man tore his gaze away from the house as he looked down and into a pair of beautiful hazel eyes. As he saw her he nodded slowly. Then his eyes lit up and he smiled softly down at her.

Guiltily and hesitantly Ranma opened his arms and closed his eyes, preparing himself for the beating of his life, but the young woman saw in his actions rather an invitation than an order to beat him up. She threw herself into his open arms and started to cry into his shoulder, while he, only for a split second surprised by her embrace, enclosed her in his strong arms.

The heavy rain decreased slightly, while the two of them hugged each other tightly, the young woman never wanting to loosen her grip on him ever again. She clutched onto his shirt in desperate need and felt his grip tighten on her. The young woman loved the pleasurable feeling of his muscular arms around her, pressing her well shaped body against his wet, strong one. But his embrace did not feel the same way as it had two years ago.It was a lot more intense and not the embrace of a protector or a good friend but a lover's embrace.

The umbrella, which lay upside-down on the ground, was filled with water and slowly overflowing, whereas some red liquid, which leaked since the bag had hit the ground, encrimsoned said bag. But neither the young man nor the young woman cared much about it.

Ranma, wet to the bones and shivering from the cold, felt the hot tears on his chest, which were running down his shirt and felt the woman in his arms trembling violently. One of these warm tears flowed over his heart and further down, leaving a trail of warmth on the young man's cold body. Suddenly he loosened his grip on her and looked down.

"Akane"

As he smiled down at her, Akane completely forgot about the rain, completely forgot about her tears and completely forgot about the two years of loneliness. She just felt the bitterness of the one having been left alone and behind for two years and closed the distance between them in a second.This time, however, she thumbed simultaneously with both of her fists against his chest; hard, mercilessly, repeatedly.

"H-how could you just u-up and leave me? I've been waiting for two years now, you jerk!" she yelled at him, beating every inch of his chest as hard as she could. "H-how? W-why?"

Ranma knew he deserved every punch she threw at him, but nevertheless it hurt. After two years of separation he had totally forgotten how strong she really was and her punches proved that she had not stopped training, probably because she wanted to kill him the day he would come back. But the young man did not even once try to dodge one of her blows nor did he try to talk to her. He simply held her, letting her release all of her anger at him.

And after heaps of time the young woman's anger and bitterness decreased. She leaned against him again, rubbing with her cheek against his muscular chest and trying to wipe her remaining tears off. His name became her mantra and he rested his head on hers, avoiding to move too much, because every time he moved even a little , his chest would hurt and the girl in his arms would wince, causing him even more pain.Neither of them heard the door open nor the loud gasp following