Promises

Ranma pointed to a sentence in her book as he leaned over and attempted to read it. "Oh," he said when he had finished. "So the reason why x moves there is so it can be moved again later on?"

"That's right," Akane told him. "If you put it somewhere else, you'd have problems getting rid of that plus sign."

Ranma stared at the problem. "Oh. Okay. I think I get that. Er. . . it seems to make sense, anyway."

"Good!" she exclaimed, slamming his book shoot. "Now you're ready for the test, right, Ranma?"

He reached over and tried to pry the book back open. "No way, Akane. We just started fifteen minutes ago. You promised you'd help me." He tilted his head up toward her, still trying to take the book away from her. "Please?"

Akane let go of the book, and Ranma flew off the chair and onto the floor. "Fine," she said. "Here. I'll make up some problems for you to do, then when you're done we'll go over them. Okay?"

"Fine," Ranma agreed from his seat on the floor, his hands wrapped around the book. No other girl could have held onto something so tightly that when she let go he went soaring. No other girl but Akane was that strong. "You and your brute strength," he mumbled.

Akane's head spun around to face him. "What was that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes into little slits at him. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

"Heh. . ." Ranma smiled as he scratched his head and looked away from her. "N-no. . . I said that you're really cute and. . ." Damn it, he couldn't think of anything to rhyme with strength. He suddenly turned red. Did he just call Akane cute? Out loud!? When he looked back at her, she was staring at him in shock.

"Ranma," she said, her voice soft, but then her eyes clouded over. "You jerk, I heard what you said the first time. Now it's nine days that you have to be nice to me!"

Ranma's face went from pink to red. "This isn't fair!" he told her. "You help me study once, but I can't ever be mean to you or this deal just keeps getting longer and longer!"

Akane folded her arms over her chest and stared ahead. "Listen to yourself, Ranma," she whispered.

"What?"

"Is it really so hard to be nice to me?"

Ranma gulped. It wasn't that he didn't want to be nice to her, it was just that old habits were hard to break. "Um. . ." he mumbled. "I'm really sorry, Akane. I'll try harder from now on, okay?"

When she didn't say anything, he went on, "Hey, I know!" he exclaimed, getting up on his knees and leaning over onto his chair as he stared up at her. "How about if I can be nice to you for a whole day, you'll help me study again?"

She looked down at him. "That wasn't part of the deal."

Ranma sighed. It was worth a shot. "Okay, never mind." He slumped down, resting his chin on his arms. "Hey, let's take a break from studying and go work out in the dojo."

"We've been studying for fifteen minutes," she pointed out.

"Who cares? C'mon." He stood up and waited for her to do the same, but she just sat there looking at him. "I'll let you practice on me," he said, trying to sweeten the deal, but still, she only stared at him.

"Ranma, sit down," she told him. "Let's finish studying."

Defeated, he slumped back down into his seat and waited while she made up some problems for him to complete.

A half hour later, both Ranma and Akane were still caught up in math problems. Akane looked at the last problem on Ranma's sheet of paper and noticed a step that he had missed. "Hey, Ranma, in this one if you move the thirty-six here before you multiply-" but when she looked over at him, he had his head propped up in his hand. . . and his eyes were closed. "Ranma!" she said, giving his arm a shove. It fell out from underneath him and his face fell flat on the desk. "Wake up!"

He popped back up in his seat, looking around. "Oh," he said when his eyes met Akane's. "I didn't fall asleep, did I?"

"How can you expect to study with your eyes closed!?" she yelled at him.

"Uh. . . I was thinking really hard?" he offered.

"Try again."

"Um. . ."

Akane stood up so quickly that her chair scraped against the floor making a screeching sound as it flew backwards. "I'm sick of studying," she announced. "Especially when you can't even pay attention!"

Ranma watched as she stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind herself. He stared at it for a moment until it popped open again, and Akane stuck her head inside the room.

"And get out of my room!" she told him. "I'll come get you when I'm ready to study again."

The door slammed again, harder this time, and Ranma was left blinking in her wake. Some deal this was! He had a study partner who didn't even want to help him, yet he was expected to keep his end of the bargain. How was this fair? If he didn't get studying, he was going to fail the test. . .

Feeling defeated, Ranma threw open the drapes and pulled the window open. He picked up all three of his books, a notebook and a pencil and then climbed out onto the roof that hung over the front door. Akane had told him to get out of her room, but she didn't say he couldn't sit on the roof outside of it. He leaned against the side of the house and propped the books up on his knees. Maybe studying wasn't so hard. If he only had the motivation. . .

He wasn't sure what time it was, but when he opened his eyes, it was no longer light outside. Ranma wondered if he'd missed dinner. The light was still on in Akane's room, casting a glow onto the open book that still rested in his lap. He hadn't looked at one problem since he'd sat down. He was about to get up and climb back inside when he heard someone moving inside Akane's room. The window slid open and Akane's head appeared.

"Hey," she said. "You've been sitting out here the whole time?"

He nodded. "What time is it?"

"Seven. Kasumi says that dinner's almost ready. Why don't you come inside? We'll study after we eat."

"Yeah," Ranma sighed as he stared down at the numbers in his book.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you before," Akane went on, climbing out the window and taking a seat next to him. She pulled the book off of his lap and closed it. "You were right. If you're going to be nice to me, then I should be nice to you, too, right?"

"I guess." He almost jumped when he felt Akane lean in against him.

"You're not still mad at me from before, are you?" she wanted to know. "I mean, it's not your fault that Math is hard for you. Then again, have you ever studied, Ranma?"

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