"I'm so sorry!" Akane says, kneeling down beside her, with a worried expression on her face. "I didn't-- I should have held back, but you're so good with swords that I thought-- I don't know what I thought. I'm just-- I'm not used to having to hold back. I'm used to barely being able to keep up."
And she is. She really is. Ranma and Ryouga... Mousse and Shampoo... she could maybe take Ukyou or the Kunos if she went all out, but she was far behind the real top-tier fighters back home these days.
It was hard to believe some days that once she'd been one of the best fighters in Furinkan Town, if not the entire Nerima Ward.
"It's fine, it's fine!" Connie laughs lightly, getting to her feet. "Honestly, I'm kinda glad that you went all-out. It's been a while since I've been so hard-pressed in a fight. Not since... stars, the Topazes? Hessonite? And that was years ago. Getting pushed to the limits of your abilities is the only way to improve, really; so I should be thanking you more than anything else!"
She touches the bruise, still smiling. Connie means every word that she said; while she may not have allowed herself to feel the sheer joy of combat back home because she was supposed to be a proper and noble knight, her time with the Rockets has broken some of the ideals Pearl drilled into her head during training. "You know, I could have Artemis heal this, but... I think I'll keep it for a little while. Remind me of what to watch out for next time, neh?" Somebody's picked up a few speech patterns from Carly.
"I have to ask, who trained you? They must've been really good."
You hear that? That's the click that a metaphorical mine makes when it's being stepped on.
Akane gets... well, there's no other word for it. She goes stiff. "My father did," she says, looking away. "And-- I thought he was. I thought I was. And we're-- we're better than ordinary people, I guess. Hobbyists. Even the competition circuit. But we're not--"
She bites her lip, trying to think of how to explain this. "There's a difference, I guess. Between martial artists and martial artists. People like me who-- who work really hard at it, but still maintain a mostly normal life. And... people who don't. About a year ago, my father's old training partner brought his son to stay with us. And Ranma... Mr Saotome took him on a ten year training journey, back when he was a little boy. He's so much better than me that it's--"
She clenches her fists, still not looking at her new friend.
Connie's silent for a moment as she turns Akane's words over in her mind. She may not be an experienced pep talker like Universe, or always know the perfect thing to say like Garnet.
But she had to try.
For Akane.
"This is going to sound weird, but... This Ranma guy. I'm taking a wild guess and saying that he's an emotionally stunted asshole who doesn't know how to process his own feelings and whose natural response is to anything he perceives as a threat is annihilating it with extreme prejudice?"
Connie, at the very least, has lots of experience with people who have devoted their entire lives to a singular purpose.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say annihilating it," Akane says, but doesn't disagree with the emotionally stunted jerk part because, well.
He kind of is. She-- has very complicated feelings about her fiance. But she can't deny that description of him, even if on her better days she knows that there's more to him than just-- being an arrogant jerk.
Connie sighs, staring up at the night sky to get a full view of the stars before closing her eyes. As much as she loved the Crystal Gems, they were complete, utter, and total messes. (Were being the operative word because they were starting to put themselves back together, but still.) But at least their overwrought emotional drama could actually help somebody now, albeit indirectly.
"My sword master was the exact same way. After she gained her freedom, she spent her entire life, which was thousands of years long, devoted to two things: her paramour, Rose, and the art of the blade. And she was a total wreck, even before Rose died. Pearl was never human in the first place, but... people who spend their lives chasing after perfect martial prowess or some romantic ideal of a person they love never get to experience anything else. What it's like to curl up in a sunbeam and read a familiar book. Going out for a walk in nature just because. Picking out constellations with a friend."
(Connie may have done this with Akane yesterday.)
"They don't get to be human. Sure, they're the best at what they do, but... giving up all of that just to be good at hurting people isn't worth it, in my opinion."
Akane's quiet for a long moment... thinking, just thinking, of everything she'd done with Ranma in the year since he'd come to town. How they even managed to have fun together sometimes, just... doing all those ordinary, every day things like going shopping or to the beach or just hanging out together. And how happy Ranma seemed in those ordinary, every day moments.
"He didn't remember what his mother looked like when I first met him," she says suddenly. "His dad took him away when he was that little. And when Auntie Saotome used to visit he'd always have to pretend to be my cousin, because his dad had promised to make him a man amongst men before they could see her again and he... wasn't yet."
And then, suddenly, she makes a sound that's hard to tell if it's a laugh or a sob. "Just-- gah, the Cat Fist. Sometimes he really wasn't human in his head. Undefeatable when he was. But-- not human."
Connie's eyes widen as Akane describes some of Ranma's life, oscillating between abject horror and righteous fury before settling on both. Turning away, she crosses her arms and huffs. "You know, I was going to make more scathing comments about this Ranma, but... now I feel more sorry for him than anything else."
It was kind of funny, really. Steven's problems were the exact opposite of Ranma's.
Grasping Akane's hand with both of hers and staring deep into her eyes, Connie says, "You see now? This? What we're doing, what we've been doing for these past few days... I wouldn't trade any of these kinds of moments for all the power in the world. Because this is what's important."
After a long moment, Akane nods tightly. "Yeah," she says softly. "I'm-- really glad, I think, that my dad never... did anything Mr Saotome did. Even if Ranma is stupid and ridiculous and a pervert and the worst--" She lets out a shaky breath. "And the best fighter I know. And the most honorable. And... a really good person when he's not terrible. And... probably my best friend, not that you can ever tell him that."
Her eyes don't move from Connie's face. How funny, she thinks, that here of all places she'd found the friend she'd wanted Ranma to be, back when she thought Ranma was a girl too.
Her mouth opens to say-- something. She's not sure. But what comes out instead is a song:
"Dreading the school bell, we can't help but worry Classmates behind me, we can't help but hurry They'll catch their breath and then, they'll say: 'Good-Mor-ni-ng!'"
Connie begins slowly swaying along with Akane's melody, a half-melancholy, half-sweet smile spreading across her face. Now this is familiar, familiar in a way that makes her heart ache for home... but also familiar in a way that makes her glad that she's here in this moment, too.
The way Pearl taught swordfighting was almost like dancing, in its own way. Elegant, refined. But as Connie begins dancing along with the song, Connie draws on her very first dance with Steven, when they both stopped caring about form or steps or not looking like a pair of complete dorks and just moved like their hearts told them to.
Connie starts slow, of course, as she picks up the part of the song Akane gave her.
"Sweet summer grass that Grows wild by the roadside Starting each day with A smile I can't hide"
"It's what I know... But it may not always be so."
As she finishes her part, Connie picks up the pace, holding out a hand to invite Akane to join her.
It reminds Akane, somehow, of all those times when she was little and she'd been invited to take a boy's part in country dancing or a class play or-- any of those things, because she'd been 'as good as.' Except Connie hasn't said anything to her like that. Connie treats her like a girl, like the girl she is, even if she's horrible at being one. Even if she's outclassed by a boy who isn't really a girl, who only has a girl's body sometimes.
Why couldn't Ranma have really been a girl?
She takes Connie's hand and the bridge of the song together.
"Casual moments like these mean the most to me Treasured times that don't need any key. In the album of my heart I keep, Old times stay like new...
Connie gives Akane a wide smile as she raises her arm to twirl her. It really was like her first dance with Steven, in a way; except she was the one bringing Akane out of her "shell" (if a complex about physical and violence could be compared at all to moderate social anxiety). Yet it felt different enough to be entire new; forging new memories that she would treasure instead of dredging up old ones that were painful with the lens of time and maturity laid over them.
"No, I won't forget... No, I won't forget...
These gentle times We'll share forever Long past all Those times are through"
Maybe it's because Connie's taken the boy's role in the dance, even though she's of course not a boy either. And that's good. Akane wouldn't want her to be a boy. She's wonderful how she is already.
"Even when I'm sad... Even when I'm glad... Memories of days I'll never, ever let go."
She comes out of the twirl with her head tilted slightly up, looking up into Connie's big, dark eyes, her heart beating the way it did when Ranma (who she had thought was a girl) had poked in her the back after tricking her into punching through the wall.
At the very end of the dance, Connie dips Akane. She smiles down at her, the warmth in Akane's eyes reflected in hers. What a strange mirror memories can be. Just a few months ago, Connie would've given to share this moment with Steven again, to be that innocent and carefree... but now, she's infinitely more glad that it's just her and Akane.
Connie smiles wider at Akane's thanks, opens her mouth to say something, then-
Remember that intense sparring match that sparked this entire interlude? Connie's finally feeling its effects. Such as losing strength in her legs.
She falls to the side, desperately rolling over so she won't crush Akane beneath her, and ends up flat on her back, laughing.
Akane lets herself get pulled down as well, coming to a thump on the sandy grass right next to Connie, laughing as well.
"Thanks," she repeats. "I-- really needed that, I think. It really does help to know that... I might not be as good as Ranma, but I had a better life than he did. Even with what happened to my mom and everything else. I mean, having to fight my way into school every day was awful, but it's not being wrapped in fish sausage and being tossed into a pit of hungry cats."
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Re: action, at the camp (parallels i don't know what you're talking about)
And she is. She really is. Ranma and Ryouga... Mousse and Shampoo... she could maybe take Ukyou or the Kunos if she went all out, but she was far behind the real top-tier fighters back home these days.
It was hard to believe some days that once she'd been one of the best fighters in Furinkan Town, if not the entire Nerima Ward.
no subject
She touches the bruise, still smiling. Connie means every word that she said; while she may not have allowed herself to feel the sheer joy of combat back home because she was supposed to be a proper and noble knight, her time with the Rockets has broken some of the ideals Pearl drilled into her head during training. "You know, I could have Artemis heal this, but... I think I'll keep it for a little while. Remind me of what to watch out for next time, neh?" Somebody's picked up a few speech patterns from Carly.
"I have to ask, who trained you? They must've been really good."
You hear that? That's the click that a metaphorical mine makes when it's being stepped on.
no subject
She bites her lip, trying to think of how to explain this. "There's a difference, I guess. Between martial artists and martial artists. People like me who-- who work really hard at it, but still maintain a mostly normal life. And... people who don't. About a year ago, my father's old training partner brought his son to stay with us. And Ranma... Mr Saotome took him on a ten year training journey, back when he was a little boy. He's so much better than me that it's--"
She clenches her fists, still not looking at her new friend.
"Next to him, I'm nothing, Connie."
no subject
But she had to try.
For Akane.
"This is going to sound weird, but... This Ranma guy. I'm taking a wild guess and saying that he's an emotionally stunted asshole who doesn't know how to process his own feelings and whose natural response is to anything he perceives as a threat is annihilating it with extreme prejudice?"
Connie, at the very least, has lots of experience with people who have devoted their entire lives to a singular purpose.
no subject
He kind of is. She-- has very complicated feelings about her fiance. But she can't deny that description of him, even if on her better days she knows that there's more to him than just-- being an arrogant jerk.
no subject
"My sword master was the exact same way. After she gained her freedom, she spent her entire life, which was thousands of years long, devoted to two things: her paramour, Rose, and the art of the blade. And she was a total wreck, even before Rose died. Pearl was never human in the first place, but... people who spend their lives chasing after perfect martial prowess or some romantic ideal of a person they love never get to experience anything else. What it's like to curl up in a sunbeam and read a familiar book. Going out for a walk in nature just because. Picking out constellations with a friend."
(Connie may have done this with Akane yesterday.)
"They don't get to be human. Sure, they're the best at what they do, but... giving up all of that just to be good at hurting people isn't worth it, in my opinion."
no subject
"He didn't remember what his mother looked like when I first met him," she says suddenly. "His dad took him away when he was that little. And when Auntie Saotome used to visit he'd always have to pretend to be my cousin, because his dad had promised to make him a man amongst men before they could see her again and he... wasn't yet."
And then, suddenly, she makes a sound that's hard to tell if it's a laugh or a sob. "Just-- gah, the Cat Fist. Sometimes he really wasn't human in his head. Undefeatable when he was. But-- not human."
no subject
It was kind of funny, really. Steven's problems were the exact opposite of Ranma's.
Grasping Akane's hand with both of hers and staring deep into her eyes, Connie says, "You see now? This? What we're doing, what we've been doing for these past few days... I wouldn't trade any of these kinds of moments for all the power in the world. Because this is what's important."
no subject
Her eyes don't move from Connie's face. How funny, she thinks, that here of all places she'd found the friend she'd wanted Ranma to be, back when she thought Ranma was a girl too.
Her mouth opens to say-- something. She's not sure. But what comes out instead is a song:
"Dreading the school bell, we can't help but worry
Classmates behind me, we can't help but hurry
They'll catch their breath and then, they'll say:
'Good-Mor-ni-ng!'"
no subject
The way Pearl taught swordfighting was almost like dancing, in its own way. Elegant, refined. But as Connie begins dancing along with the song, Connie draws on her very first dance with Steven, when they both stopped caring about form or steps or not looking like a pair of complete dorks and just moved like their hearts told them to.
Connie starts slow, of course, as she picks up the part of the song Akane gave her.
"Sweet summer grass that
Grows wild by the roadside
Starting each day with
A smile I can't hide"
"It's what I know...
But it may not always be so."
As she finishes her part, Connie picks up the pace, holding out a hand to invite Akane to join her.
no subject
Why couldn't Ranma have really been a girl?She takes Connie's hand and the bridge of the song together.
"Casual moments like these mean the most to me
Treasured times that don't need any key.
In the album of my heart I keep,
Old times stay like new...
no subject
"No, I won't forget...
No, I won't forget...
These gentle times
We'll share forever
Long past all
Those times are through"
no subject
"Even when I'm sad...
Even when I'm glad...
Memories of days I'll never, ever let go."
She comes out of the twirl with her head tilted slightly up, looking up into Connie's big, dark eyes, her heart beating the way it did when Ranma (who she had thought was a girl) had poked in her the back after tricking her into punching through the wall.
"Thanks," she whispers.
no subject
Connie smiles wider at Akane's thanks, opens her mouth to say something, then-
Remember that intense sparring match that sparked this entire interlude? Connie's finally feeling its effects. Such as losing strength in her legs.
She falls to the side, desperately rolling over so she won't crush Akane beneath her, and ends up flat on her back, laughing.
no subject
"Thanks," she repeats. "I-- really needed that, I think. It really does help to know that... I might not be as good as Ranma, but I had a better life than he did. Even with what happened to my mom and everything else. I mean, having to fight my way into school every day was awful, but it's not being wrapped in fish sausage and being tossed into a pit of hungry cats."
no subject
Beat.
"What, what happened to Ranma?"