Split Seams

"Ranma 1/2" and most of the characters and setting are copyright Rumiko Takahashi.

"Why'd you do that?" The recently turned female Ranma yelled at the one person who he would have never thought would have purposely activated his curse. Here he had been, minding his own business doing his homework for once, when Akane strolled in and doused him with the rest of a glass of ice water she had been drinking.

"Well, you were complaining like a girl, so I thought I'd help you out." Akane huffed as she set the glass down on the table. True, he had done nothing to upset her, but he had been there and she was bored. She almost had a script for the scene that was about to play out.

"I was not!" Ranma yelled again.

"Yes you are boy!" Genma, who had been sitting at the table chimed in.

"Says who?" The redhead brought the tone down. He elegantly shifted between his two argumentative voices, one for Akane, and one for his father. The difference was that usually, while arguing with his father, they were fighting, so he had to use less energy to argue, so he could use it to show his loudmouthed parent that he wasn't sloppy. Arguing with Akane, he would never hit her, for fear that he might hurt her. So he could use more energy in the verbal assault. The routine had become so entrenched in his brain, that he did it without even thinking about it. Soon enough, the argument became physical, with Genma and Ranma fighting very close to the koi pond.

"Face it boy, you are very sloppy." Genma taunted his son as the two continued to fight. At the taunt, Ranma seemed to step up the fight's pace. Genma, not expecting that, was soon headed head first for the pond. After a moment, a giant panda's head emerged from the pond.

"What was that, lard ass?" Ranma called as he entered the house to find some hot water. Akane, who had been watching the events unfold from the living room, chuckled quietly to herself. She did feel bad using her fiancé for entertainment, but felt that Genma had it coming after he had personally raided her bra drawer to appease Happosai. "What, It's broken again?" Ranma's voice yelled in disbelief. Akane gasped as she heard the statement. Immediately, a pang of guilt sprung up in her chest. A moment later Ranma stomped into the living room. Even though the expression was supposed to be anger, his girl form just couldn't make it look as menacing as he intended. Cursing the Kami that was punishing her for her entertainment, she sighed in defeat.

"Come on, I'll walk with you to Dr Tofu's office." She said as she lead him to the door and out onto the streets of Nerima. As they started down the street, Akane took note that Ranma wasn't walking on the fences, but on the street with her. Not only that, but he wasn't complaining about the situation that she had put him in. As the walk continued, she started to become irritated at his sudden lack of complaints. As her anger got the best of her, she whipped her head around to give him a tongue lashing about how he was too quiet, when she noticed that he had his head hung. "Great Ranma, stab me with the guilt knife again." She mumbled under her breath, hoping that he didn't hear her.

"What was that?" Nope, no such luck was on her side today.

"Nothing." She said quickly hoping he would take the hint and drop the conversation.

"Oh, OK." Her hopes soared at his acceptance of dropping the conversation. Unfortunately, the tone in which he said it caused her guilt to come back at full force. Being Akane, she handled it in a way very fitting her personality.

"Will you quit that for Pete's sake!" Yep, she turned around to face him and yelled at him with all her anger.

"Look," Ranma put up his hands, "I don't have the resolve for this. Its obvious that you don't want to be around me today, so I'll find my own way to Dr Tofu's." Before Akane could put up any argument on her behalf, Ranma jumped up onto the fence, then onto the nearest roof, and disappeared from her sight. Akane stood there fuming with anger with no one to vent her rage on, so she did the next best thing.

Funny how at the time, some things always feel like a good idea until there put into motion. Akane was now feeling the results of a good idea that really wasn't. She pulled her fist away from her other hand and examined her knuckles. They were red, swollen, and turning slightly purple despite the small amount of blood that was seeping from one of the knuckles. She tried to move her fingers, but pain shot up her arm at the first movement. The wall hadn't faired much better, as it was lying in a heap of rubble on the ground. She knew were Ranma was headed, and now she had an excuse to see the doctor as well. A very painful excuse mind you, but an excuse non-the less.

As she entered Dr. Tofu's clinic, seeing that no one was around, she started to head to the back where he was sure to be found. As she reached the door to the examination room, she heard voices coming from within. "Thanks, Doc, I owe you one." Ranma said as he moved toward the door.

"Don't mention it." Dr. Tofu replied. Akane, hearing movement, tried to get away from the door. Her movements were a little too late as a now male Ranma opened the door. "Wha…" He asked stunned to see her there.

"Yea, well what do you want?" Akane shouted not in anger but in embarrassment at being caught eavesdropping.

"Nothing." Ranma's sigh gave Akane another shot of guilt. She was starting to boil over with seething anger at the sudden amount of guilt that she was receiving from her fiancée. Before she could confront him about it, he simply passed her in the doorway and started down the hall toward the front door. Now shaking, Akane entered the examination room.

"The nerve of that boy!" Akane growled thru her teeth.

"Oh, and what did he do this time?" Dr. Tofu asked.

"He's trying to put me on a guilt trip today." Akane grumbled as she held her hand out so Dr. Tofu could examine it.

"Dear lord Akane, what did you do to your hand?" Dr. Tofu asked as he saw the hand.

"I punched a wall." Akane replied, some of the anger starting to drain from her.

"Why on earth would you do that?" the doctor asked. "Aren't bricks more your specialty?"

"Yeah, yeah, Ranma did something to get me really angry, and the wall was handy after the idiot ran away." She winced as he started examining the hand.

"What did he do this time?" he asked, not only curious, but also to keep her mind off the examination.

"He just started moping." She replied. As the doctor touched her middle knuckle, she screamed in pain.

"Well Akane," he started after the ringing in his ears had quieted down to a dull roar, "you have broken several bones in your hand. I'm afraid that you're going to need to have your hand set in a cast for a while." She grimaced as he told her the bad news. "I'm going to give you a local antistatic to numb the pain and let me set the fractures, then we'll get you into a cast." Dr. Tofu sounded as cheerful as ever as he set about to get everything prepared to set and cast Akane's hand. First he exited the room, only to return a minute later with a small pan, a pile of gauze strips, and a bag of plaster of Paris. After he set every thing up, he opened up a cabinet that stood in the corner and proceeded to pull out a small bottle of a clear liquid and a syringe. Akane cringed at the needle, never having been fond of them. He proceeded to stick the needle into the bottle and draw a small amount of the liquid into the syringe. "So, why was he moping?"

"Who?" Akane asked, having forgotten the earlier conversation.

"Ranma." Tofu said as he approached her with the needle.

"Why does he do anything? I'm sure that his over developed sense of pride was crushed after I doused him with cold water."

"You were the one who splashed him?" Dr. Tofu asked as he stuck the needle into Akane's hand just in front of the wrist. She was so wrapped up in the conversation that she never even noticed and nodded her head yes. "Why did you do that?"

"Because he was complaining like a girl."

"What was he doing that he was complaining about?" Dr Tofu feel for the fractures and set them.

"Homework."

"So, let me see if I get this right." The doctor started to sum up as he continued to work on her hand. "Ranma was complaining about doing homework. A task that he loathes but was doing it anyway. He was complaining about it, so you felt it was right to punish him for his complaints and activate his curse. A curse which he feels makes him less of a man, and for Ranma, being a man according to his upbringing is everything." As the words sunk in, Akane's guilt came back full force. She realized that Dr. Tofu was right. She silently berated herself for a few minutes. "Hey, don't let it get to you too bad, after all you mean the world to him." Dr. Tofu gave an uncharacteristic shot to Akane as he started to mix the plaster.

"What do you mean by that?" She yelled at him.

"Akane, I thought by now you would have seen it." Tofu sighed. "It is clearly written in his actions, the way he moves around you, heck even the way he moves when he's not around you. I can see it in his eyes as he looks at you, even when you two are supposed to be angry with each other." Dr Tofu said as he started to dip the strips in the plaster and wrap them around her hand, wrist, and a portion of the forearm

"I haven't noticed." Akane said in a quiet voice as the revelation started to hit home.

"Done." The doctor said after a few moments of silence, stepping back to examine his work. "Unfortunately, your going to have to sit here until the cast has dried."

"How long will that be?" Akane asked.

"Oh about half an hour." Akane groaned as she thought about how long she was going to have to sit there without any thing to do. "I'll call the dojo and see if someone can come and walk you home." After Dr. Tofu left the room, Akane put her head down on the table and started thinking about any random topic. She started thinking about her friends, which turned into thinking about school, which turned into thinking about Ranma. Her broken hand was all his fault. It had to be, because if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have hit the wall now would've she. As this line of thought ran thru her mind, Ryoga's voice played in the back of her head.

"This is all your fault Ranma!" She cringed as she realized how much she sounded like the lost boy. Was this really Ranma's fault? Sure, he had gotten her angry by making her guilty. Guilty, the word stuck in her mind. "Why was I guilty of anything?"

Because you were the one who splashed him with cold water when the water heater was broken! An annoying little voice in the back of her mind shouted at her.

"But I didn't know that the heater was broken." She said out loud.

You're still the reason he had to make this trip down here.

"Well, he didn't have to sulk around me did he?"

You didn't have to go with him. The voice gave a smug answer, knowing that it had just won the argument. Akane slumped down in the chair. Why did she come with him here? Could it be that she really did have fee-

"Ok, lets take a look at the cast." Dr. Tofu interrupted her thoughts as he reentered the room. "Kasumi said she would be right over to walk you home." Akane cringed as she thought about Kasumi walking in right now. Not only about how she would scold her about hitting things in anger, but also with Dr. Tofu examining her hand when she did walk in, Akane shuttered. Not noticing her shutter, after looking the cast over, Dr. Tofu looked at her with a warm smile on his face. "The cast is set and dry so as soon a Kasumi arrives, you can leave with her. I'll give you some pain killers for when the anesthetic wares off." Dr Tofu exited the room again, motioning for Akane to follow him. They entered his office and Akane sat down in a chair. Dr Tofu went to the cabinet, unlocked it, and retrieved a bottle out of it. "These herbs will help dull the pain, but I will also prescribe some regular pain killers as well."

"Thank you Dr Tofu." Akane said as she took the bottle of pills form the doctor. Then Dr Tofu stood up straight, Akane only needed to see his glasses to know who just came in. "Hello Kasumi." Akane moaned as Dr Tofu immediately turned to the wall.

"Hello Kasumi nice weather we're having. How long are you in town?"

"Dr Tofu, I'm over here." Kasumi called out. Immediately Dr Tofu turned toward the hat rack.

"My your thin. Have you been eating enough?"

"Akane," Kasumi turned her attention to her little sister, "When Dr Tofu called he, oh my Akane your hand!"

"Come on Kasumi, or he'll never get calmed down." Akane grabbed her sister's hand with her good one and lead her out the door.

"Call again when you can stay longer" Dr Tofu called out to them. After a few minuets, his glasses cleared up and he saw that he was facing the hat rack. "Not again." He groaned.