All Mixed Up

Chapter Four

Akane sat in front of the TV, idly flipping through the channels. She wasn’t really looking for anything to watch so much as trying to find something to occupy her attention. She had quickly finished her homework and with her foot still healing there wasn’t much she could do. ‘I guess I could always cook something for him again. He really seemed to enjoy the last couple of meals I made.’ A warm and fuzzy feeling sparked in her as she thought about that. No one, not even Kasumi, had ever complemented her cooking. Nabiki had even been so cruel as to try selling it to the military. But Gohan… he not only ate her cooking, he liked it! She hobbled into the kitchen and told Kasumi her plan.

The oldest Tendo sister smiled, happy to see her sister smiling again. However, somewhere deep inside of her, locked away in a cell was a selfish thought. It screamed, ‘She’s trying to take him from me! He’s my fiancé too! MINE!’ As it rattled its cage, an extra foot of concrete was erected around the selfish thought. Kasumi moved over a little to give Akane some room.

Akane’s happy mood doubled when Gohan poked his head into the kitchen. He smiled, although she didn’t notice the nervous quality of it. Her dreams took a horrible nosedive that spiraled into a devastating crash and burn when he told them that he was going out with Nabiki that night, so there was no need to cook for either of them. He completely missed the crestfallen look that came over Akane’s face.

Gohan picked out a fairly nice outfit that he had gotten when he was returning the shop owners’ money. He had left enough money to pay for it, along with the tag so that the owner would know what the money was for. He took a quick bath and got changed. Soun, upon hearing that Gohan was going out with Nabiki, broke out in a fit of bawling, proclaiming loudly that he was so happy that Gohan was getting along with his daughters and that the schools would soon be joined! Gohan saw that Akane had put down the TV remote. He also noticed that there were stress fractures running all throughout its casing. Something seemed to have made her rather mad and Gohan began to wonder what that was, exactly. ‘She could be mad about the engagement being mentioned again. Or she might be worried that I’m trying to take advantage of her sister. I don’t think that’s too likely. She should know me better than that by now. She must just be mad over the engagement being mentioned.’

Nabiki slipping her arm around his saved him from further contemplation. “Shall we go on our big date, Gohan?” A splintering noise marked the passing of Akane’s second crutch. Gohan blinked at Nabiki as he wondered whether she had needled her sister on purpose. He decided to hold off on deciding that until after the date. He would hopefully have a lot more information to go off of then.

Akane fought back tears as she angrily stabbed the channel button repeatedly. ‘Dumb jerk. What do I care if he goes out with my sister? It’s an awfully big coincidence that he ducked out on this date after I went into to the kitchen. He probably was only pretending to like my food and couldn’t handle eating it any more.’ Her fight against the tears was losing as that line of thought continued. ‘He probably just did it to get in my sisters’ good graces, or out of pity.’ That thought sent her even deeper. ‘If I hadn’t broken my foot kicking him, he’d probably be ignoring me right now… like he is anyways.’ And then there were her friends, asking her for help, and she couldn’t do anything for them thanks to her foot. ‘I guess I am worthless to everyone.’

The front door opened, but she kept her eyes glued to the TV. Any sudden movement might have caused her to lose control. She did glance at the clock and realized that several hours had passed. It was already after nine o’clock. She heard her sister’s footsteps bouncing up the stairs. ‘She’s not stomping up them, so it must have gone real well.’

“Akane?” Gohan’s voice called out as he stepped into the living room.

Akane didn’t take her eyes off of the TV. “So how was you date?” Her voice carried a good amount of venom, with a slight hint of misery.

Gohan caught the hint. “It was very… uhm… eye opening. I found out a few things.”

Akane still didn’t look at him. “Like what?”

“Like how to get along with your sister and…”

“And what?”

“That we probably won’t be getting married any lifetime soon.”

Akane finally looked at him. “What?”

Gohan exhaled and dropped himself onto the floor next to Akane. “Not that your sister isn’t a nice person and all, but we really aren’t right for each other. I think I’d rather date someone else.”

Akane looked at him, not quite realizing that she was hoping for a certain answer. “Like who?”

“Someone … special,” he said softly.

Akane instinctively leaned closer to him. “Who?”

“I wonder what Kasumi’s doing tonight,” Gohan stood up with a smirk.

“BAKA!!!” Akane lashed out with all of her pent up frustration. She heard the satisfying crash of impact, but when the red vanished from her vision, her target was still standing. She stared blankly at the shaft of her mallet, which had snapped in two. “What?”

“That was a little uncalled for,” Gohan said as he set the other half of the mallet down. ‘Nabiki was right. Akane simmers way too much. She needs to learn not to hold that anger in.’ “It was only a joke. You really need to learn how to have fun.”

“I know how to have fun,” snapped defensively. It wasn’t as sharp as one might have expected. Hitting Gohan with the mallet had let her get rid of a lot of her frustration. The fact that he was smiling in a nice way, and not mocking or insulting her kept her from holding on to her anger.

“Why don’t you try some relaxation techniques?”

“Like what?”

Gohan’s eyes widened a little in surprise. “You mean you don’t know any? What kind of martial arts were you taught?”

Akane laughed nervously. “Well, relaxation was never a focus of the Anything Goes style. I’m surprised you don’t already know that. Or is that something only my half of the school does?” She vaguely remembered her father mentioning years ago that the Tendo side of the school was more aggressive, while the other side tended towards evasion.

“One of the first things I learned was to relax and focus. It’s kind of hard to concentrate your power if you don’t.”

Akane nodded slightly. ‘That must have been what father was talking about. Gohan’s side finds power through relaxation, while my side finds it in focusing on the target.’ “I see.” She fell silent and started thumbing through the channels again.

Gohan thought that her sudden shift of focus was a bit odd. Remembering a bit more about his conversation with Nabiki, he was able to put it together. “This isn’t just about my date, is it? There’s something else bothering you, isn’t there?”

Akane breathed a heavy sigh. “Our entire gymnastics team was injured before our big match two days from now. They asked me if I could fill in, but they lost hope when they remembered the broken leg. I haven’t felt so worthless in a long time.”

Gohan sat back on his hands. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s too late now. St. Hebereke will win for sure now.” Her expression fell.

A sudden realization dawned on Gohan. “Have I ever mentioned I’m an idiot?” Akane looked up at him in surprise as he jumped to his feet. “I’ll be right back! Stay right there!”

Akane looked at him in confusion. “Like I can go anywhere.” As Gohan headed for the door, she called out, “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back! Everything will be okay!” Gohan grabbed his shoes and ran out the door, putting the shoes on in mid-run. He turned into a dark alleyway and, after taking a quick look north and south, he shot straight up. Changing direction, he rocketed towards Karin’s tower at high speed.

Akane began to wonder what was going on. She had finally turned the TV off after admitting to herself that she hadn’t actually been watching it for the past few hours. At least half an hour passed before Gohan suddenly came in through the front door. He had a rather enormous grin on his face and a small cloth bag in one of his hands.

Gohan sat down next to her and leaned in close. Akane was a little surprised to find that she wasn’t nervous about his proximity.

“Try not to tell anyone about what I’m going to show you. These are very rare and difficult to come by, but Karin said he didn’t mind in your case.” Akane watched in confusion as he pulled out a small bean and handed it to her. “Eat this.”

Akane looked at the bean nervously. “What is it?”

“It’s a Senzu bean. Don’t worry, it’s safe.” Akane still looked at it nervously, so Gohan smiled softly at her. “Akane… you’ve only known me a little while, but please, trust me.”

Akane nodded slowly and ate the bean. She found it tasteless, which surprised her. She thought it was supposed to be a ‘pick-me-up’ treat or something, so she was expecting it to have been sweet or at least beanny. But there was no taste to it at all. “What was it supposed to taste like?”

Gohan thought it over for a moment. “Chicken.” Akane picked herself up from her sitting facefault. “So, how do you feel?”

Akane looked at him in confusion. “Huh?”

Gohan stood and suddenly picked her up. She wasn’t ready for that, nor was she expecting him to stand her on her feet. She steeled herself for pain as her weight came down on her broken foot. It took her a few moments to realize that there was no pain. She moved her foot around a little bit. Still there was no pain. She looked up at Gohan in wonder.

“They can heal almost any wound nearly instantly. They’re not good for diseases or poison or anything, but they’re great for healing from battles or training.” A sheepish expression crossed his features and he bowed his head in shame. “I’m sorry I didn’t remember them sooner. I didn’t-“ his words were cut off as something completely unexpected happened.

Akane threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. It only lasted a moment before she broke it off in complete embarrassment. Gohan stared unseeing for a moment before his fingers went to his lips. “Wow,” was all he could say. ‘What did I do to deserve that?’ He thought curiously. As the pleasant sensation finished washing over him, he thought, ‘And what can I do to deserve it again?’

Akane blushed fiercely. If it had been any other boy or any other situation, she would have been furious at her lack of self-control and would have promptly taken it out on him. But Gohan had helped her out immeasurably and asked for nothing in return. His comments had made it clear to her that Nabiki didn’t want him, or vice versa. And everyone knew that Kasumi was only interested in Dr. Tofu. Which meant that… he actually wanted to date her. He really did like her cooking! And he was willing to train her too! And he was giving her the chance to prove herself to her fellow students by defending the school’s honor at the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament! Most of her doubts evaporated, and in their place, finally clear of all the negative illusions, was a budding affection for the young man.

“Uhm, I… gottagotobedgoodnightGohanthanks!” Akane took off for her room at just under the speed of light.

Gohan kept standing where he was for a little bit before finally coming all of the way back to reality. He slowly walked up to the guest room and crawled into bed.

Akane lay down on her bed, smiling up at the black leotard-clad girl who was hanging from the ceiling with a large mallet in her hands. Akane blinked as that image processed. As the mallet descended towards her, Akane realized that she really needed to move. She rolled off of her bed just as the mallet slammed into her pillow.

Gohan was snapped back to the waking world as a terrible laugh echoed through the house. He nearly discovered how to do his father’s Instant Transmission technique as he all but teleported into Akane’s room. The mass of black rose petals that he found all over the floor confused him a lot. He felt a great sense of relief as he saw that Akane was all right, just very angry. “What happened?”

“Kuno Kodachi decided to try and ambush me, just like she did the gymnastics team. It’s her idea of ‘fair play’. And then she left all of these rose petals for me to clean up. When I get my hands on her!”

Gohan rubbed the back of his head. “That’s a relief. I was worried that something had happened to you.”

Akane blushed. “You were?”

Gohan laughed nervously. “Uhm, yeah. Hey, would you like some help cleaning?”

Akane nodded softly. “Thanks.”

As he started picking up the petals, something occurred to him. “Kuno? Any relation to Tatewaki?”

Akane nodded. “His sister. Yes, the whole family is a menace.”

“Boy, and I thought my friends were weird.”

“Oh?” Akane asked hopefully.

Gohan nodded. “Well, Trunks’ dad, Vegeta, is an arrogant alien prince from a world that blew up. Piccolo is an alien, too. And his world blew up. You know, I never really made that comparison before… Then there’s Krillin, who married android 18…”

“Uhm, Gohan… you’re joking, right?”

Gohan shook his head. “Nope. Do you remember about ten years ago, there was an alien invasion by the Saiya-Jin?”

Akane thought carefully and barely remembered something like that. “Weren’t there only two of them?”

Gohan nodded. “Napa and Vegeta. Napa was killed in the fight and Vegeta was driven off. He came back a few years later, but he was a good guy. Well, sorta… anyways, he married Bulma, of the Capsule Corporation, and Trunks is their son. He’s a pretty neat kid and Vegeta’s mellowed out a lot.”

Akane stared at him for a while before smiling. “I think you have Nerima beat on weirdness… but not by much.” She giggled.

Gohan laughed with her, enjoying the little surprises life had arranged for him.

Nabiki smirked from her position around the corner. She had felt a small pang of worry when Akane kissed Gohan, but she could read from his shocked expression that he hadn’t manipulated her into the kiss. Akane had given it of her own free will. She sighed softly as she considered what she had told Gohan on their supposed ‘date’. She was worried about a few of the things she had learned, but she knew for a fact now that Gohan would never abuse or mistreat her sister in any way.

As she retreated to her bedroom, she went over the date in her mind. They had gone to a relatively nice restaurant and had a relatively quiet meal. She had tried to strike up a few conversations with him in order to find out some more about his past, but he had not been very forthcoming with any details. He seemed to have something to hide, which was setting off all kinds of alarms in her mind. She had finally had enough and decided to drop the pretences and let him know exactly where she stood.

“Listen, Gohan. Let me make this perfectly clear. I am not interested in you, except maybe on a physical level. I have no intention of giving up on my plans in life just because or parents decided it would be a good idea. I also have no intention of helping force either of my sisters into a relationship either. I’m the Ice Queen. I’m the cold-hearted mercenary that cares only about two things: family and money. My sisters are not as aware of the way the world really works as I am. That means I have to protect them from manipulative people who would take advantage of them and hurt them. If you even think about doing that, I’ll make your life a living hell in every possible way. Got me?”

She had smirked to herself at the startled, confused look on Gohan’s face. “That being said, what are your intentions towards my sisters?”

Gohan had scratched the back of his head again. “Well, I think Kasumi’s a great person and all, but she really reminds me too much of a mother for me to really think of her as a fiancé.”

“I don’t think Kasumi reminds me of your mother at all. Not with the set of lungs we heard over the phone earlier.”

Gohan had laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. But she still is too kind and soft-spoken. I’d feel like I was taking advantage of her if I asked her to be my fiancé. I could see her agreeing, just to keep from making me feel uncomfortable.”

Nabiki nodded. “She’s sacrificed a lot for us, she really has. And it’s a good thing you’re not interested in her. She’s got a thing for Dr. Tofu, and vice-versa. So that means it’s you and Akane. So, how does that make you feel?”

Gohan seemed to mull on that for a bit. “I don’t like being forced into it. But if I have to be forced into it, Akane would be my first choice. She’s energetic, she’s fun, and when she smiles, the world is a brighter place. But, if Akane doesn’t want to be engaged to me, then I guess we’ll just have to break the engagement completely.”

Nabiki had nearly spat out her drink at that and her opinion meter started to take a nosedive. “You’d drop a matter of family honor that easily?”

She remembered Gohan waving his hands in a warding gesture. “No! It’s not that. It’s just that I know dad would never want two people to be miserable just because of one of his ideas. And I wouldn’t want to make Akane or anyone else miserable either, so if it’s a choice between two people being honorable but miserable or me losing some honor in order to keep Akane from being hurt, I’ll take the loss of honor any time. People are far more important.”

Nabiki had sat back and mulled that one over. When she was done, her opinion meter had risen again. “All right. If you actually want to give it a try with Akane, I’ll help. But you will need to work with me on it. If it looks like you and Akane have chosen each other, don’t be surprised if Dad suddenly had a wedding hall booked for you. If you want to avoid that, you will have to pretend that I’m still in the running. That means that you can’t be too surprised if I suddenly act affectionate towards you in front of him, got it? We’ll also have to let Akane in on this, or she’ll blow up big time.”

Gohan had nodded, but he had a worried look on his face. “She seems to blow up a lot anyways.”

“When Akane gets mad, most people just let her simmer, hoping she’ll get over it. The problem is, the more she simmers, the worse she gets. She doesn’t know how to let go. So, if she seems to be mad, you probably need to poke and prod till she blows up. Don’t use insults or sarcasm. That just makes her worse. Try a joke. Very few people ever try joking with Akane.”

“I’ll try. Akane seemed to be mad when we were leaving. Any idea why?”

“Gohan, do I really need to spell it out for you?”

“Uhm, yes?”

“You’re taking her sister out on a date. Think about it.”

“Oh. Right. What about your dad? I’m not really good at lying or acting.”

Nabiki had smiled internally on that one. “So, tell me the truth. I want to know more about your background. I want to make sure you’re good for my sister before I commit to this. It’ll also help me come up with convenient cover stories for daddy.”

“All right. What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

Gohan had sighed and launched into an accounting of his life that Nabiki would have had a hard time believing if it weren’t for the fact that she could tell that he was a horrible liar. His story let her come to a few realizations. She found out exactly how he had earned the money, as well as how much he had received. One of the revelations had her worried though, especially since Gohan didn’t seem to realize it himself.

As she lay on her bed, staring up at her darkened ceiling, that one thought constantly nagged at her. ‘What happens when the real fiancé and his father show up?’

Third period at school the next day found Nabiki staking out the boys’ bathroom. Nothing happened and a knowing smile crossed her face. ‘Well, look’s like he’s not immune to her cooking after all.’

Akane looked around the dojo floor. The gymnastics team had been thrilled when Akane told them that she had just been faking the foot injury for a couple of days in order to get all of the boys to leave her alone. They had been enthusiastic in loaning her their equipment. Now she stared at the tools without any real clue what to do with them.

“Can I help?”

Akane spun around towards the dojo entrance. Gohan was smiling at her with that heart-warming smile of his. “Uhm, do you know anything about Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics?”

Gohan shook his head. “Not a clue, I’m afraid. Maybe Master R-“ Gohan was cut off as someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“Pardon me, but can you tell me which way to the Satan Estate?”

Gohan blinked. “Ryoga?”

Akane looked past Gohan and noticed the lost boy. “Oh, hi Ryoga.”

Ryoga blinked. “Oh, I’m back here. Hi, Gohan. What are you doing here?”

“I’m staying here with the Tendos, Ryoga. Did you find Ranma?”

Ryoga growled. “Yeah, but he kept running away.”

“Sorry to hear that. Say, you wouldn’t know anything about Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, would you?”

“Actually, yes. Why?”

Akane ran over to Ryoga. “I need some training for a match in two days. I was hoping you might be able to help me.”

Ryoga blushed badly. “I’d be honored.”

Akane collapsed on the other side of the dojo, breathing heavily. With Gohan and Ryoga cheering her on, she found she was picking up the techniques rather quickly. She hadn’t accidentally broken the hoop or tripped over any of the other tools since the first hour. She doubted she was up to Kodachi’s skill in the Art, but with her other martial arts training, she was sure she could win.

Gohan smiled softly as he watched Akane rest. He looked over at Ryoga. “So, how did your fight with Ranma go?”