"FROM DAWN TILL DUSK"

(A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic)

From the Desk of Megane 6.7

This is a work of Fiction.  All Characters and Landmarks, are the
property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan Video, Kitty Films,
Viz Video, Shonen Sunday, and anyone else who legally owns the
rights. 


DAWN

   Akane blinked and rubbed her eyes as the morning sunlight
poured through her bedroom window.  A soft bwee sound was heard
and she glanced down to see her pet P-Chan poke his little snout
through the blankets, sniffing the air.  Akane smiled and knelt down
beside the bed and watched as P-Chan valiantly tried to find a way
out of the blankets.

   "You're so cute, my little P-Chan!  Yes you are!  Oh yes you
are!"  Akane cooed with delight as she reached into the blankets and
gently pulled P-Chan out from under them.  P-Chan blinked as his
eyes adjusted to the sunlight and then he squealed happily at seeing
Akane's smiling face. 

   Akane laughed, her voice sounding like a beautiful melody and
kissed P-Chan on his snout.  P-Chan blushed, if a pig can in fact blush,
and cast his eyes downwards, looking away for a moment in a surprisingly
human mannerism, as if truly embarrassed by the sweet and innocent
gesture.  Akane looked at P-Chan with wonder.

   "Sometimes I wonder if you can really can understand me
like a human.  You are so adorable!" 

   Akane stood up and started to change into her school uniform. 
As she began to undress, P-Chan immediately walked to the corner of
the room and turned his head away.  Akane didn't notice as she finished
dressing. Then she called to P-Chan and scooped him up with her hands.

   "Now you be a good little boy today and stay here.  I don't
want you to get lost again!"  Akane said in a sweet tone.

   P-Chan nodded his head, again in an surprisingly human
gesture.  Akane giggled.  "That's a good boy!"   She kissed his snout
one more time and left him on the floor.  P-Chan walked back towards
the bed with a dazed look on his face and quickly got back underneath
the covers.    

   "Amazing!  He DOES understand me!  I'll have to try some
more tricks with him when I get back."  Akane thought to herself as
she left the room and closed her door.

   P-Chan sighed contentedly, feeling secure, warm, and relaxed
underneath the covers of Akane's bed.  Before he knew it he found
himself drifting off to sleep....

  
*    *    *


NOON
  
   P-Chan's eyes snapped open as his slumber was rudely
interrupted when the blankets around him were violently yanked
off the bed, sending him spinning head over hooves to land on the floor.
P-Chan frantically tried to run away only to get hopelessly tangled in
the sheets, unable to get loose.  Then he heard a cry of surprise....

   "Oh my!"

   P-Chan looked up to see Kasumi kneel next to him with an
apologetic look on her face.  "I'm so sorry!  I didn't know you were
under there.  Here, let me help you."  Kasumi gently unwrapped the
blankets from the struggling piglet and then gently scooped him up to
her eye level and smiled, her expression full of the warmth and
compassion.

   "Akane is lucky to have a nice pet like you to comfort her."
Kasumi softly remarked as she gently scratched him behind his ears.
P-Chan tensed up at first then gradually relaxed as he felt Kasumi's
light touch put him at ease, his warm and comfortable feeling starting
to return.

   "You know, sometimes I hear Akane talking to you when I
pass by her room.  She tells you a lot of things, doesn't she?"  Kasumi
wondered aloud.
 
   P-Chan nodded to her, causing her to smile.  "I thought so.
Sometimes I wish I had someone like you to confide my troubles in."
Kasumi sighed as she placed P-Chan on her lap, continuing to scratch
his ears as she did so.

   P-Chan looked questioningly at her as she continued.  "Oh, I
know you can't give me any answers or solve my problems for me, but
it's nice to get them out in the open once in a while, don't you think?" 

   P-Chan nodded again, not fully understanding what she meant,
but not wanting to discourage her from talking to him.  He got lonely
waiting here all day for Akane to come back home from school and
would enjoy some conversation, even if only for a little while.

   "You see... well...."  Kasumi broke off.  "Maybe I'm being
silly.  If someone saw me talking to a pig they'd think I was crazy." 
Kasumi started to rise but P-Chan oinked and squealed for her to
continue.  Kasumi didn't understand him of course but she sensed by
the amount of noise he was making that he didn't want her to leave.

   "Well... if you insist...."  Kasumi smiled as she rose to her feet
and closed Akane's bedroom door.  Then she sat down on Akane's bed
and held P-Chan in her lap again, as she spoke.

    "Ever since Mother passed on, Father has been... well... not
himself.  He cries much more than he used to and he hasn't taken on any
new students since she left us.  When I was going to high school I had
planned to go to college, perhaps ever become a doctor like Doctor
Tofu."

   "But then after mother died... I knew Father couldn't raise
Akane and Nabiki by himself.  Father loves us all very much but he
couldn't be both a mother and a father to us.  So I put aside my dream
and stayed home to help take care of Nabiki and Akane."   

   Kasumi sighed as P-Chan bwee'd softly at her.  "Don't get me
wrong.  I don't regret the decision at all.  I receive true joy at keeping my
home clean and my family well fed... but sometimes I can't help but
wonder if I'm being more of a mother to Nabiki and Akane than a older
sister. 

   Even father, when I look at him and think of all the things I do
around here and for him, sometimes I feel like I'm become the wife that
he lost, the mother that I lost, and that I'm no longer the person I was
before and never will be again...."  

   "It scares me... a lot." 

   Kasumi looked down at the piglet in her lap.  "But I also know
that my family is strong, each in their own way and one day I'll be free
to pursue my own dreams.  But until then I remain here, helping out
whenever I can, doing what needs to be done."

   Kasumi paused for a long moment, struggling to finish saying
what she had wanted to say to someone, anyone for a long time.  "But
my biggest fear is when I'm no longer needed around here, when Akane,
Nabiki and Father are able to carry on without me, will *I* be able to
enjoy life without them?  I've been in here so long... I wonder if I'll be
able to survive on the outside...."

   P-Chan's eyes grew wide as he tried to make sense of that
statement.  Kasumi noticed his reaction.  "I know, It sounds like I'm a
prisoner here.  Sometimes I do feel that way.  I can leave here whenever
I please, but at the same time, I can't.  The only time I ever go out is to
shop for food or borrow a book from Dr. Tofu.  But I'm here all the time,
not because I have to be... because I choose to be. 

   Maybe if I met someone, someone who would take me out to
dinner and dates.  I've never been on a real date before... I was asked out
a lot in high school but I always turned them down because I wanted to
wait until I was eighteen before I even considered dating a boy... I thought
it was the proper thing to do.  Now, I don't have the time to go out even
if I wanted to...."

   Kasumi felt a tear run down her cheek and she gently wiped it
away while P-Chan looked on with concern.  "But I'm happy here.  I'm
happy because I can make other people happy.  I know I'll eventually be
able to leave and do all the things I denied myself for the past three
years and that too brings me happiness.  I only need to be patient for a
while longer and then...."

   "Kasumi?"

   Kasumi quickly looked up at the door at the sound of her
father's voice.  She quickly rose to her feet, P-Chan cradled in her arms
as she replied.  "Y-Yes father?"

   "Is everything all right?"  Soun opened the door and walked
inside.  "I thought I heard you talking to yourself and... Kasumi, have
you been crying?"  Soun's face was clouded with worry as he quickly
made his way over to his daughter and placed his hands on her shoulders.

   "I... I'm fine Father.  I was slicing some onions earlier and my
eyes still sting from the smell...."  Kasumi replied, trying to keep her
voice steady.

   "Oh?  I didn't smell any onions when I passed by the
kitchen...."  Soun replied in a puzzled voice.

   "Well, that's because... I mean...."  Kasumi stuttered, trying to
hold back her tears.   Soun saw this and without a word he embraced his
daughter in a hug.  Kasumi hesitated and then hugged him back fiercely,
no longer trying to hold back her emotions as she cried, her entire body
racked with sobs as Soun continued to hold her, not knowing what was
bothering her and trying to offer what support he could.  He noticed
Akane's pet pig on the floor... did he have tears in his eyes?

   They held each other for a long time and then Kasumi pulled
away, a small smile forming on her face as she whispered.

   "Thank you father."  Kasumi said.

   "F-For what?"  Soun had only held her, what had he done to
ease her sorrows, he had no idea.

   "For caring."  Kasumi replied.

   Soun looked confused for a moment and then he smiled.

   "Always, Kasumi."

   He gently placed a kiss on her cheek and then left Akane's
room, quietly shutting the door behind him.  Then Kasumi noticed
P-Chan on the floor and her smile grew wider as she knelt down in
front of him, lifting him in front of her face as she gently wiped the
tears from his eyes.

   "Thank you too, P-Chan.  For listening to me."

   Kasumi leaned forward and gave P-Chan a kiss on his snout,
making him blush as she placed him up on Akane's bed.  Then she rose
to her feet again and picked up the blankets on the floor and carefully
placed them over P-Chan so he would be comfortable without getting
lost. 

   Then she resumed her cleaning of Akane's room, carefully
dusting her shelves and picking things up off the floor with a cheerful
expression on her face.  P-Chan felt himself beginning to grow sleepy
again as he felt his eyelids grow heavy, the last thing they saw was
Kasumi smiling towards him as she picked some mangas up off the
floor.... 

   
*    *    *


DUSK

   The door to Akane's room opened again as Akane walked
inside carrying P-Chan in her arms.  Then she gently placed him on the
bed and started to remove her clothes for bed.  P-Chan once again
looked away as she did so and then Akane crawled into the bed and
held out her arms.

   "Come here baby...."

   P-Chan trotted over to Akane and she lovingly held him as she
pulled the blankets over her and drifted off to sleep, holding P-Chan to
her ample bosom.  P-Chan looked at her as she slept and thought of
what Kasumi said, his own thought echoing in his mind.

   "I want to tell you how I feel Akane... but I'm so afraid of what
you'll say... or what you might NOT say.  I'm content to be your pet as a
pig and your friend as a man for now... but someday, when I'm ready, I'm
going to tell you how I feel about you, I can only hope... that you'll feel the
same way about me...." 

   "I'll love you, even if Ranma won't, and I'll always be with you,
from dawn till dusk... forever."

   P-Chan then closed his eyes, the sound of Akane's heartbeat
sending him into peaceful slumber....   

   
THE END


This was the first fanfic I've ever written.  I hope you enjoyed it.  :)

Send C&C to (megane67@home.com )

'A MSTing for All Seasons'
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