The song, "To Face the Truth" is the Pet Shop Boys.  Characters from Ranma 1/2 are Rumiko Takahashi's.

Well, this is it.  A prequel of sorts to my earlier fanfic, "The Question."  I know it's long (I tend to get pretty long winded), but I hope you read it anyway.  It's my second fanfic ever, so let me know what you think and please be gentle!

To Face the Truth

That's it, Akane thought angrily.  It's over.  I'll go crazy if I have to keep doing this!  She sank down onto her bed.  Who am I kidding?  I'm already crazy…I've just stepped one foot further off the edge. 

You know it hurts me when you lie
Sometimes it even makes me cry
'Cause I'm so in love with you

Ever since the return of the vacationing suitors and their intrusive parents, their budding relationship downshifted from hopeful to pathetic.  Ranma, still convinced that hiding his feelings would buy them a little more time, denied any inklings of a possible love affair left and right.

"As if I WANTED to spend time with that tomboy!" he snorted to Ukyo.  "Everyone else was gone…it was SO boring, what else was I supposed to do?"

"Take care of that uncute thing?" he declared to the his parents and Mr. Tendo.  "She as tough as a bull with hemorrhoids and twice as ugly.  She's a terrible cook and her temper is fifty times worse!" 

"Train that untalented, violent girl?" he broadcasted to the Amazon faction.  "She couldn't fight her way out of a paper bag with holes cut in it!"

If you don't believe what I have said
Take a look, my eyes are red
'Cause I'm so in love with you

With every cutting remark, it grew harder for Akane to find words to fight back with.  Lately it hurt too much to even mallet him and she opted instead for running away, sometimes just barely fighting back the tears that stung her eyes.  She couldn't even bring herself to get mad at him!  Not when every fiber of her heart kept fighting to remember how it was before everyone returned.

But all those sleepless nights in bed
When you've been out somewhere instead
I wonder if you care and cannot bear the proof
It hurts too much to face the truth
To face the truth

Every night Akane waited for Ranma to tap on her window to be let into her room.  If only I could just talk to him!  If we could just laugh and joke about what a great actor he's become, if I could just touch him gently instead of slapping his face, if I could just look past the shutter he's pulled over his eyes.  She sighed.  If I could do those things, any of those things, the world would be all right again.  Every night she sat up waiting, not even letting P-Chan in, refusing to fall asleep lest she miss his entrance.  But he never came.

A lawyer with a case to prove,
Would sift the evidence, then move
It's the only thing to do
So why then can't I face the facts?
Sift this evidence that backs
I'm so in love with you

For the first time in a long time, Ranma had no idea what Akane may be thinking.  He knew she desperately needed to talk to him, to reassure herself that what they had existed.  He knew this because he felt the same way but he also knew there was nothing he could do about it.  So many people were suspicious already…he couldn't risk it.  Not when her life was at stake.  He'd already decided.  He'd sacrifice what they had now for what they could have in the future.  It was the only thing to do.  When they were older, when he was even stronger, smarter, faster than he was now, then they'd be together, the way they wanted to be, forever. 

But all the nights when you have said
You must be somewhere else instead
I wonder where you go, but daren't expose the truth
It hurts to much to face the truth
To face the truth
To face the truth

Akane tossed and turned as she greeted yet another sleepless night.  Why didn't he come?

On the roof above her Ranma rubbed his palms against his tired eyes.  He never went to her at night, instead opting to mourn on the roof above her bedroom.  It was the closest he'd allow himself to be to her.  He couldn't get close to her, not now, especially since he knew, deep down inside, that not even all the training in the world could fix what was had been broken.

You are the only one, the only one

"I love you, Akane," a whisper, only heard by one.

"I love you, Ranma," the unheard reply.

"So much," a chorus that fell on deaf ears.

You know it hurts me when you lie
Sometimes it even makes me cry
'Cause I'm so in love with you

Akane wished she could have done it privately.  Her pride wouldn't let her.  The need to start over, to end the pain was too strong. 

"Leaving?"  Ranma asked disbelievingly.  "Where do you think you're going?"

The room was still; the tension that engulfed it prohibited anyone from moving.

"Miss Hinako recommended it.  She believes in me…she thinks I have a really good chance."

She couldn't go on, too afraid that she would burst into tears and beg him to beg her to stay.  Underneath the table, Kasumi took her hand and continued for her sister, "Akane applied to a very prestigious cram school and got in.  The school will giver her the boost she needs to get into a really excellent university." 

"Where will you be staying, Akane?" This from Nodoka, who, while addressing Akane, glanced at her son through the corner of her eye. 

Kasumi began to answer the question but Akane stopped her by shaking her head imperceptibly.  "Nabiki found a great place for me to stay.  Since I'll be working for one of the residents, the rent is really cheap."  She forced a teasing smile onto her face.  "And don't go trying to follow me Ranma.  It's an all-girls dorm complete with hot spring so even you couldn't disguise yourself for long."  She got up and turned to leave the room.  "Please excuse me.  I need to pack now."

If you don't believe what I have said
Take a look, my eyes are red
'Cause I'm so in love with you

"So, you're really going, huh?" Ranma asked as he leaned against her doorway.

"Yup."

"And there's nothing I can do to stop you."

"Nope."

"Dammit, Akane," he charged into the room, his voice a forceful whisper.  "How can you just give up on us?  How can you just leave?"

"Do you think it's easy for me?" she hissed back, every bit as quiet, every bit as forceful.  It was easier, really.  Easier to start over in a brand new place than to see memories of them in every corner.  Easier to meet strangers than to be with people who loved him too.  Easier to try to forget and begin anew then to live in the painful construct in what could have been.

"I just need a little more time.  I can figure this thing out.  I need more time."  I need you, I need us.

"I'll stay, Ranma.  But only if we tell them now.  Tell everyone everything."

Sheer terror at the consequences of doing that made his blood run cold.  "I can't do that, Akane.  I can't risk losing you that way."

"We are losing, Ranma.  We can win if we are in it together."  Together…it's the only way I want us to be.

He shook his head again.  "Not this way, Akane.  I need more time.  Please…stay."

"I'll stay, Ranma.  I'll stay if you can do something for us."

But all the nights you don't show up
I know it's time I should grow up
I ask you if you care, you stand and stare, aloof

Everyone turned up at the house to see Akane off.  She would go to the station alone, Nabiki had gone through great pains to keep her new home a secret. 

"Well, this is it," she proclaimed, a little too loudly, drown out her father's wails, a little too brightly to drown out the sorrows in her heart.  Her eyes met Ranma's. 

Ranma held her gaze in an attempt to put all his feelings in that last look.  I can't do it, Akane.  I can't say it in front of all these people.  They'd kill you.

Akane looked back, whispered one last "I loved you" with her eyes. 

The shutters that hid their emotions came down at the same time.  Akane turned around and opened up the door of the cab.  "Goodbye," she called out the window as the cab drove away.

It hurts too much to face the truth
To face the truth
To face the truth