A/N: Hey, whaddaya know, a fast-ish update! All your reviews do push me to get the story going, you know. ^__^ 

Though, can you believe it, some of my reviews disappeared! Thank goodness I had e-mail alert! Grrr, dunno why the invisible reviews don’t appear. Anyone know how to fix that?

 This chapter is Ranma’s point-of-view. If the grammar sounds odd, it’s because I’m still working on getting his voice right.

House of Cards

Chapter 2

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“So why the hell did you run away?” I asked again, patiently enough, from where I was standing.

Akane sat sideways on a single-seater couch, her head against one cushioned arm, her bare feet propped against the other. The position forced her knees close to her face. I’d freed her arms and she was rubbing her wrists.

She glanced at me. Her short dark hair was tousled over her eyes and around her cheeks, from sleep, I assumed.

“I told you already,” she said, a small frown between her eyebrows.

I walked closer, letting her know I was invading her space.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?”

She looked away. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, which annoyed me.

I drew closer, and grasped her chin with my fingers, forcing her to look up at me.

“Tell me the truth.”

“Don’t be such a bully.” She knocked my hand aside, stood and tried to move past me.

I blocked her with my body.

“You still don’t trust me, is that it?” I took a shot in the dark, and watched with increasing anger as her face gave her away just for a moment.

 “I was your first,” I held my fists clenched tightly. “Doesn’t that mean something?”

She walked past me. “Don’t let it go to your head. I was simply proving a point.”

I watched her go.

I was about to challenge her again when a fluffy white Persian cat came out of the bedroom.

My brain shut down.

“C…cat,” I moaned in mortal terror.

“Shampoo…” Akane crooned, bending down. “C’mere, honey.” The cat jumped into her arms, purring.

I backed away, my palms thrown up in a warding-off gesture. “You have a cat?! What in the world were you THINKING??”

“I think Shampoo wants to say hi to you, Ranma,” Akane said slyly, turning around. “I know you didn’t meet her last time but…”

I fled. Retreat is the better part of valour, they say, or something like that. Close enough. I could pick my battles, as long as I lived to fight another day.

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Akane and I called a temporary truce to go downtown and get her new assignment. Not that she had much of a choice since I’d tricked Shampoo into a closet with a piece of fish.

So now she was in her office building.

Akane watched the two occupants of the large office.

From her ear, I watched them, too.

“You’re Akane Tendo? I expected someone…older.” The woman in the slim black suit and designer cats-eye glasses frowned and crossed her arms. Her pencil thin legs were already crossed as she leaned back in her leather seat.

Not the most inviting body language.

The other person in the room sat behind the huge walnut desk that dominated the room. Akane’s chubby boss, Yamayato Keichi, was smiling cheerily at her.

“Welcome, Akane! I’ve been telling Ms. Noriega here all about your last trip. I’m aware we don’t usually tell potential clients about other assignments but in this case, what you retrieved is now public property.The Great Moghul diamond, indeed! Well, how are you?”

The camera dipped as Akane bowed slightly. “I’m well, Mr. Yamayato, thank you for asking.”

“Good good, well, like I said, Ms. Noriega’s been hearing good things about you, so I suppose she WAS expecting someone older.”

Kelly Noriega was one of the richer businesswomen in Los Angeles, and it showed in her outfit and her attitude. The woman herself though, left something to be desired.

“I didn’t realize there was an age restriction,” I heard Akane say quite politely.

I couldn’t see her from my position in the car, of course, but the tiny video cam I’d attached to her ear made me a little fly on the wall. Akane had been dead set against me joining her to receive her latest job assignment, but I hadn’t let that stop me. Much.

It amazed me how Akane could switch personalities in a blink, like a magician changing hats. After yelling at me for a few hours for tying her up, she’d walked into the building as cool a cucumber, dressed in a green silk V-neck sweater and a black skirt that screamed ‘efficient’.

If I was Noriega, I’d have said ‘You’re hired’ as soon as she walked through the doorway. But then again, I AM kinda prejudiced towards Akane.

“I don’t have a problem with your age, Miss Tendo,” Kelly Noriega was saying on the little TV monitor in my car. “You come highly recommended.”

“That’s what they all say.” I heard amusement in Akane’s voice.

“Please, have a seat.” Noreiga gestured to a chair. She pushed back a lock of shining black hair, obviously structuring her words.

The camera moved as Akane sat down.

“How can I help you, Ms. Noriega?” she asked. From her tone you wouldn’t guess what she was thinking. Not that I had a clue what she was thinking. And boy, how many times had that gotten me into trouble… It didn’t bear thinking of.

“Please, call me Kelly,” Noriega said, clasping her hands in front of her. Hmm, a sign of nervousness. She looked into Akane’s face as though she were trying to read it.

“The reason I contacted your company for a courier is that I need a…map...transported.”

“A map,” Akane said encouragingly.

“Yes, it’s a route to…”

Akane held up a hand. “There’s no need for that information. All I need is a destination.”

“Yes, exactly,” Noriega said. “Well, I’ll need you to deliver the map and its packaging to the Temple of the Blue Heron in Nerima.”

Akane didn’t say anything, and for a second I wondered if she’d missed it.

“Its packaging?” Akane asked softly. The strange wording had made me uneasy, too.

“What sort of packaging is it in?”

Noriega stiffened in her seat.

Wary, I imagined some kind of precious casket studded with jewels. That would be a hell of thing to cart around the world. Just thinking of US customs gave me a chill.

“You know we can only give you more details if you take the assignment, Akane,” Yamayato said.

“It’s the only one you have for Japan?” Akane really wanted to go back home, and she said she needed an assignment for home. I wasn’t exactly sure how much dough she had, or even how much she needed. She was incredibly close-mouthed nowadays.

Just take her runnin’ away from me, for instance. I coulda told her she was wasting her time. I had only the foggiest idea of why she’d skipped town. But now that I’d fulfilled my job of saving her ass, I wasn’t about to let Akane go anytime soon. I’d had my share of girls, and been chased by the best. None of them came close to doing for me what Akane did. Maybe part of it was that she never tried to attract me. She actually hated my guts most of the time. And yet, there was just something about her…the way she held herself, the way the stance of her lithe frame challenged the world . I wanted to answer that challenge.

“Yes.” Yamayato was saying. “it’s the only one for the area you’re interested in.” Despite his friendliness, Akane’s boss was sly. He made no attempt to sway her either way. Probably he didn’t even care all that much. He had other couriers at his disposal. But I knew Akane needed the money.

None of them had made any mention of money in the office however. Akane’s company was very discreet. The fee was the first thing they gave her information about.

“Fine, I accept the assignment,” she said formally, bowing slightly.

Noriega unbent slightly. Yamayato nodded.

“Excellent,” her boss said. He punched a button on his desk. “Lily, bring the package in.”

Before long, a tall, leggy blonde came in, herding a small boy of about 8 years old in front of her. He looked Japanese, with spiky black hair, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.

“What’s going on?” Akane blurted out, surprised for once.

I was getting a bad feeling.

“This is Jain. He’s the ‘packaging’.” Akane’s boss had a twinkle in his geriatric eye.

Akane sat silently for a moment. I’d sat up in the car, unable to believe my ears.

“You’re serious.”

“No, I’m joking!” Her boss started to laugh.

“Really?”

“No, Akane, of course I’m serious. Why else is there an eight year old boy in my office?”

“I thought he was your grandson.”

Yamayato looked shocked. “Akane! How old do you think I am?”

“…..”

“Jain, take off your t-shirt.” This from Noriega, looking tense and worried. Her shoulders were stiff and there were tiny stress lines around her nostrils..

The boy, with a long-suffering look on his face, sighed, reached under his armpits and lifted. Then he turned around unbidden.

Despite knowing what I was going to see, I couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Akane gasped. Tattooed against the boy’s skinny shoulder blades was a map of some kind.

“Didn’t that hurt?” Akane asked disbelievingly.

“Jain, answer the lady,” Noriega said. She had her eyes averted from the map.

“No,” was Jain’s monosyllabic reply.

“You want me to transfer him…where?” Akane asked. I could tell she was boiling over with questions. Hell, so was I.

“To Nerima,” Yamayato said. “You’re lucky I was able to get a package going to right where you wanted.” Akane’s boss smiled as though conferring a huge favour on her.. “Now, you’ll deliver him to the temple of the Blue Heron. Anyone within the temple walls will take over Jain for you. Half now, half later.”

I studied the boy from the limited view I had of him. Jain had a mutinous look in his eyes as he watched the people in the room decide his future. He was small, bony in the manner of eight year old boys, still very much a child. I remembered being that short, kinda. His spiky black hair stuck out in all directions and. I couldn’t bring myself to believe he was a priest-in-training. Well, that’s what he most likely was, anyway.

Akane walked forward until she stood before the boy. His small face was turned away from her. She knelt before him.

“Hi, Jain,” she said in a friendly voice. “My name is Akane.”

“I know that…!” Jain turned angrily to face her, but whatever else he was about to say was lost when he looked at her.

Akane smiled. I didn’t know for sure, but I could tell by the star-struck expression on Jain’s face.

“Want to be friends?” she asked gently.

He nodded slowly.

I sighed and leaned back in my seat. Akane Tendo had made another conquest. Geez, the chick was like a loaded gun.

I waited impatiently while they finished up the meeting and Akane led a silent Jain downstairs. Halfway down, Akane reached up and switched off her camera. My monitor went black. I watched as the two of them, looking equally apprehensive, came through the glass doors and onto the busy sidewalk. Passersby stared briefly at them, and moved on.

Akane looked around, and then led Jain towards the car. Jain stopped dead when he saw me, his eyes grew huge, and he began to back away.

“No!” he cried, spun and tried to run around Akane. She hauled him back by the neck of his T-shirt without much ado.

“Jain! Quiet down, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” she murmured. Jain stopped and glanced warily at me.

“He…looks scary.” The kid pointed at me with a finger.

“He does, but he’s not. Have you seen Monsters, Inc.? Remember Sully? He just looked scary, remember? He wasn’t so bad.”

Jain stared at me. Great, Akane had him thinking I wasn’t really a monster, I just LOOKED like one.

“This is a fine pickle you’ve got us into, Stanley,” I said, quoting from Laurel & Hardy as Akane opened the passenger door.

“Stuff it, Ollie,” she said absently, shooing Jain into the back. Once they were seated, she turned around.

“Jain, this is Ranma. He’s going to come with us on this trip, to make sure you get to the Blue Heron temple safely, okay?”

Jain watched me suspiciously for a minute.

I raised my palms, trying to look harmless. Hard when you’re tall for a Japanese guy, and work out every day to boot.

“Hey kid, I’ve got nothin’ against you,” I said, venturing a half smile.

He peered up at me, screwing his face up into a serious look. It was dark in the interior of the car, and Jain squinted, trying to make out my face.

“You have eyes like rain clouds,” he said, finally.

“Uh…” That was the last thing I’d expected. “Actually, they’re kinda blue-grey…sometimes…”

“They are not brown,” he said. “That’s ok, then.”

He sat back, as though he’d decided something.

“We can go,” he said, and closed his eyes.

Akane and I stared at him, astounded.

We looked at each other. Akane shrugged.

“We do have a plane to catch,” she said. “And we need to get you ticket as well, unless you’ve changed your mind about…”

I glared at her.

“Never mind.”

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Well, I’m trying to balance Akane’s assignment, her real reason for going to Japan, and her relationship with Ranma. Hope it works. I plan to release a chapter of my Fruits Basket story, Possession, after this. But I’ll try to update this soon anyway.