Under the Rug

Careful not to knock over the precarious stack in the cabinet, Akane stowed the last of their skillets and closed the door. Washing the pans was the only time she really touched them. Pulling the door of the empty dishwasher closed, she looked around the kitchen for anything else that needed done. Fortunately, their apartment was pretty small, so there wasn't a lot of room for messes to accumulate.She'd already swept the floor and taken the trash out, and she knew she was probably overthinking it, but she wanted everything to be perfect. Kasumi would never have let a soul set foot in their home if so much as a speck of dust lay unaccounted for, and Akane was determined to impress her.Seeing nothing further in need of attention in the kitchen, Akane moved into the bathroom. Ranko had just cleaned everything the day before, so there wasn't much to do here; Akane needed only to close the shower curtain, pick up the dirty towels from their morning showers, and put out a fresh roll of toilet paper. Akane sighed, realizing that if she had wanted to scrub the shower or the toilet down, she wouldn't even know where the chemicals and tools to do it were. She hadn't done it once since they moved in almost two months ago. That had been the sole dominion of the red-headed dynamo she had fallen in love with.She walked into the bedroom, tossing the few dirty towels in the hamper and setting about making the bed. She didn't need to change the sheets; Ranko had done that two days ago. It really was amazing how domestic she had become, considering her resistance to helping with chores back before it happened; back when she was Ranma. She wasn't interested in learning when Kasumi had tried to teach her, either, but as Ranko herself had told her last week, everything changed when you had someone you were doing it for.As much as she appreciated Ranko's efforts, Akane wished she would slow down. She didn't remember the last time her girlfriend had slept more than a few hours at once, other than the occasional night when Akane had all but bribed her into bed with the promise of wearing her out. As it was, they hadn't gone to bed together in more than a week; Ranko always needed to stay up and finish some homework, or Akane was asleep by the time she got home from work.She finished tucking the duvet around the pillows, looking around the room with a sigh. It was clean enough, she guessed. This part, though, she wasn't looking forward to.She walked over to the dresser, picking up a small glass photo frame and looking down into her own smiling face and that of Ranko's. Gods, she loved that girl. What she would have given to have realized it sooner. Then again, she'd tried to be with Ranma before the Cat's Tongue, before she left the dojo and found her new life at the Phoenix, and she hadn't been the same person then. It was only because Ranko was a gentler, humbler, kinder person than Ranma had been that they worked together as well as they did, and that had been directly a result of her time with Hana and the girls. But, what a cost that progress had extracted for them both.Akane's family and Ranko were the two great loves in her life. So many nights they had sat down to dinner together at home, and Akane had taken for granted that it would always be that way, back when that was the last thing she would have wanted. Now, she'd give anything to sit at the dinner table across from her father while holding her lover's hand at the same time, and it felt about as possible as walking to Jupiter.She'd played the conversation out a thousand ways in her head. Dad, this is Ranko. No, not Ranma. Ranma died. This is a woman, and I love her. He'd lose his mind. She remembered what Nabiki said the first time she'd met Ranma. "Akane, you don't like boys, and Ranma's half girl." Not so much now, sis, Akane thought to herself.Kasumi, remember when you tried to teach Ranma how to be a bride? Well, you'll never guess who she's with now… Yeah, that wasn't going to work.Hey Dad, remember when you said you wanted me to spend the rest of my life with Ranma? Funny story…She couldn't find a path that didn't involve judgment and disappointment from her family. She thought she might be able to shoulder it; she'd always been teased for being something of a tomboy and she'd somewhat gotten used to it. It had only hurt so much coming from Ranma because of how badly she'd always wanted him to see her as something more.But the last thing Ranko deserved was to be made to feel weird again. Put together wrong again. She'd given up everything down to the roof over her head and her very name to earn the right to hold her head up high, and Akane was not about to take that from her just because she missed her sister and father. She knew how much it hurt Ranko to be hidden from her family, but the alternative would be so much worse, especially since if Akane's father knew where Ranko was, Ranko's father would find out in a matter of hours. Honestly, if Genma would just leave, she was relatively confident that her father and Kasumi would come to terms with it eventually, once they got over the initial shock of it all.Akane smirked, remembering the look on Mr. Saotome's face when she defeated him using Ranko's ultimate technique. Told him to keep his daughter's name out of his mouth. He'd deserved worse for what he put Ranma through, but Akane couldn't help but feel a tiny measure of gratitude to him, because every terrible choice he made had helped bring Ranko to where she was now. To Jusenkyo, to the Phoenix, to Hana, and now, to her.Akane had always known that being with Ranko wasn't going to be easy. Being with a girl would be hard no matter what, and Ranko was anything but an ordinary girl. What Akane hadn't predicted was that in order to make it work, she herself would have to hurt the girl she loved. It was killing her, and she had no choice.Then, there was the matter of the volleyball team. Ranko hadn't said anything about it, but Akane knew the night of her first basketball game as a cheerleader had positively killed her. Why did Fumiko have to be there? All I wanted was to be there for Ranko, and I had to bite my tongue and could barely make eye contact all game long without it being noticed.Ranko had specifically been excited about the halftime performance, and she'd missed it because her team captain had dragged her down to the concession stand for a freaking hot dog, of all things. What was I supposed to say? "Sorry, my girlfriend that you don't know exists is dancing right now, and I want to stay?" She wished she'd had the courage to say something to Ranko about it afterward, but it was pretty clear when Ranko went home alone that she didn't want to talk about it, and Akane had felt too guilty to bring it up again.As much as she loved being on the team, she'd have given it up for Ranko if it came to a choice. As long as she kept quiet, though, Akane would be eligible for an athletic scholarship next year, and that would mean enough money to live comfortably, without help from her family that was subject to their judgment about her choice of partner, and without Ranko having to kill herself the way she was. She could just sing for fun, and not have to worry about exhausting herself waiting tables. That said, she knew Ranko would carry that whole bar on her back regardless in order to support her sisters and Hana after all they had done for her.It was settled: the only way to make and keep her beloved happy in the long run was to keep her a secret. In the shadows, but safe.I'm so sorry, baby. I love you. You've protected me for years. Now it's my turn to protect you, even if it hurts. It's for your own good, I promise.She walked to the dresser, opening Ranko's underwear drawer and gently resting the heart-shaped frame in it. She slid the drawer closed with a heavy sigh, looking around the room for what else needed to go before her sister arrived.