Take this waltz

Take this Waltz this Leonard Cohen song paints a picture in your mind of this beautiful yet terrible place he describes. It's not heaven... it's not hell, it's just beauty mixed with sadness.

I have taken that theme and took a night of celebration and showed the misunderstanding and loneliness that could occur amongst the driven Nerima Wrecking Crew.

I hope that you like it.

Sid

TAKE THIS WALTZ Lyrics
Artist(Band):Leonard Cohen

Now in Vienna there's ten pretty women
There's a shoulder where Death comes to cry
There's a lobby with nine hundred windows
There's a tree where the doves go to die
There's a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws

Ryoga looked at the invitation in his hand for Ukyou's New Years party and could only feel frustrated to find out he was in Okinawa! Tonight was supposed to be the night that he told Akane that he loved her and they shared their first kiss. Out of sheer annoyance he stopped at the nearest bar and ordered a sake, one of many that night. All he could think about was his sweet Akane kissing Ranma at the stroke of midnight. In his mind it would be the sweetest kiss that she would ever receive and this would cause her to fall for the pigtailed marital artist. They would marry and have children of dubious sexes together. He could see her face so close to him that he felt like he could lean over the take her sweet lips for his own. If this were possible, she would fall in love with him instead and become Mrs. Hibiki! They would love each other so much and their children would have her soft doe brown eyes. He was a tad tipsy and heaved a sad sigh at this lost opportunity.

"Are you okay?" a soft voice asked.

"I'm fine" he answered, he glanced up to find a pretty girl with long brown hair standing by his table. She seemed to be in cheerful disguise because even though she wore a festive red dress, her eyes were sad.

"It is about a girl?" she asked.

"Isn't it always" he said with a sigh.

"Not if it's about a boy" she said sadly. Seeing that she seemed to be alone, he invited her to join him. After a few drinks they exchanged sad tales of love gone undiscovered, as only lonely strangers can do. The atmosphere of the bar was festive and the satellite TV was tuned to the famous apple dropping in Times Square, but their table might have been better situated at a funeral as they both mourned what never was. Finally she stood up just as the countdown began by the drunken revelers. "My head's spinning, I should get home" she said.

"Thanks for talking to me Rika" Ryoga said with a grin.

Just as the apple touched the ground, the bar exploded in a flurry of frantic hugs and kisses, Rika leaned over and gave Ryoga a kiss on the cheek. "Nice talking to you to, I hope it works out for you and Akane" she said and ghosted out as if she had never been there.

He watched her leave and felt like the only creature alone on the planet that night. He conjured Akane's smiling face to his mind again and whispered "I hope so too"

Oh I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lily
In some hallways where love's never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take its broken waist in your hand

Mousse lay back on his futon as tears leaked from his eyes. He'd been invited to Ukyou's party to. Cologne had forbidden him to go as she had developed a sort of perfume to help Shampoo snag Ranma and didn't wish him to be there to ruin things as usual. So he was alone on one of the most romantic days of the year with only a bottle of whiskey for company.

He didn't understand why Shampoo couldn't love him; plenty of girls had approached him romantically in the past. They didn't care that his eyes couldn't see as long as they were beautiful, his features pleasing, his body well developed and his mannerisms and personality endearingly sweet. Yet Shampoo was immune to all he had to offer...and she was the one he wanted. He'd saved up every dime from when he used to be in the circus to have a nest egg for them. He'd only spent a part of it building a hut with his bare hands for them on a piece of land that she loved on his mother's farm. His love, his devotion, his chastity, all of it was hers...and she wanted another.

He pictured her in the beautiful fuchsia dress she'd worn to the party; she was being held and kissed by Ranma. He felt his heart lurch, he sat up and took another slung of whiskey; he shuddered at the taste and wiped away a stray tear. He was all alone; he always seemed to be alone. He had tried to argue with Cologne that they were his friends too, as much as the Amazons could be friends with the strange people they had met in Nerima. She had told him to go to the Chinese community center and listen to girls singing traditional Mandarin songs. But he didn't want to do this, he wanted to be with Shampoo and hope that he would be the one to kiss her at midnight. He wanted to be surrounded by cheerful people who could put aside their differences for one night and celebrate the New Year. He wanted cheer, he wanted drunken midnight hugs that girls offered friends...he just wanted to feel accepted for once. He now felt like Cinderella being excluded from the ball.

He laughed bitterly when he thought about the secret that Ranma didn't know. Cologne had ordered Mousse to prepare Shampoo for marriage by sleeping with her to improve her skills in how to please her husband. Unmarried Amazon males were often used for this; it was considered to be an honour to be chosen. An honour that they dare not refuse, this insulted the girl. He'd hoped that this intimacy with Shampoo would force her hand and had done so eagerly. It hadn't worked, now she came to him out of sexual frustration for Ranma. They slept together every night, so he'd become her sex slave when he wanted her heart.

Mousse picked up his bottle and weaved drunkenly onto their balcony, he stood still when he spotted their neighbours on their's. Cologne hated them; they lived in an apartment a little bigger then Mousse's room. They were young, poor and loud as they would often have their friends over to party long into the night. She referred to them as trash and frequently called in noise complaints. Yet tonight they were alone and dressed up. The woman wore a dress that probably was the height of fashion in 1982 and embarrassingly enough, probably a bridesmaid's dress that a woman used to torture her friends with. The male wore a wrinkled suit that had seen better days. Yet they held each other sweetly and kissed at midnight while all of Nerima went wild. They were tawdry and cheap but they had the one thing that Mousse could never seem to achieve; love, it was apparent in the way they looked at each other. This made him sad.

The girl noticed him standing there and said "Happy New Years" in a drunken, happy voice; she stumbled and giggled when her mate caught her. She blew a kiss at Mousse and went back inside when her boyfriend scooped her up to continue celebrating their love in private. Mousse raised his bottle to their departure and drank to his own sorrow and loneliness, the taste was bitter and it was no longer just the alcohol...

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and Death
Dragging its tail in the sea

Nabiki stood outside the cloak room of Ukyou's restaurant selling Ranma's New Years kisses to his fiancées. Ranma had gone along with it only because she had threatened to tell Akane that he had gone on a date with Ukyou, it didn't matter that Ukyou had blackmailed him into this too. He was frustrated and drank sake as he kissed women that he didn't really care for as they press their firm, young bodies against his in a way that they hoped appealed to him. All of his fiancées were full breasted, save one and they thought he liked a healthy chest. It wasn't true; he liked petite girls with smaller, perky breasts, who still had curves...like Akane. She was the girl he liked, but she seemed to think that he was the biggest pervert on the planet. It wasn't his fault that girls were attracted to him and his father an enterprising douche. When he was caught in suggestive situations, it was never because he wanted to be there in the first place. He dreamed of a peaceful future free of grabbing hands and having breasts thrust into his face every two seconds, he just wanted the dojo and one love...Akane. He glared at Nabiki for forcing him into the situation and sent her for more sake...it was the only thing he could make her do.

He tried not to cringe in revulsion as Shampoo's tongue snaked into his mouth. Her behaviour had gotten even more suggestive lately and he didn't like it. She'd squashed herself against him so that dime couldn't have slipped between them. She wore some sort of cloying perfume that made him feel ill and she massaged his tonsils in a way that made him want to retch. Finally she leaned back and said "We date now airen?"

Ranma angrily wiped his mouth and said "I'll think about it"

"Hiya, so happy I kiss airen" she said and left.

Ranma sighed in frustration when Ukyou, his cute fiancée came in to take her place. He gnashed his teeth in frustration that Nabiki had turned him into a kissing whore.

There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz it's been dying for years

From where Nabiki stood she could see the man she liked, Kuno flirt with her sister. Akane looked annoyed by this, but Nabiki was still envious of the attention. Akane seemed to be looking for Ranma, but Nabiki wouldn't tell her where he was until she had received her money for his kisses.

Nabiki was surrounded by happy people, but stood apart from them. No boy had asked her to dance or to fetch her some punch, this bothered her a little. Yes she loved an opportunity to plump up her bank account, but wanted to join the party. She'd been sipping the sake that she'd brought to Ranma and was a little tipsy.

She longed for Kuno to come over to where she was and ask her for a midnight kiss, but knew that that wasn't going to happen. She dreamed of his larger body pressed against her own, how his full lips would feel as they curled into their kiss, how soft his thick hair would feel under her fingers and of the scent of his expensive aftershave. From where she stood, she watched him hand Akane a bouquet of roses. She longed for her own arms to hold them while she smiled up at him, but had never received even a single blossom...from anyone. She'd secretly pressed a rose he'd given Akane in her diary, she'd take it off the floor after a fight. She kept her diary in a bank vault that no one knew about...her heart she kept there too. In it she wrote secrets that she would never admit to anyone in her need to keep up appearances.

Ranma emerged glaring daggers at her while he wiped lipstick from his mouth. "Satisfied?" he asked bitterly. He left the party without a goodbye to anyone, he felt too soiled to face Akane.

Nabiki watched Kuno out of the corner of her eye as he tried to fasten around Akane's neck the diamond necklace that he'd bought her for Christmas. She kept on resisting him and eventually left the party in a huff.

"Of course I am, I got paid" Nabiki said in a false, happy tone. She took the almost full glass of sake that Ranma had left and drank it all in one gulp.

There's an attic where children are playing
Where I've got to lie down with you soon
In a dream of Hungarian lanterns
In the mist of some sweet afternoon
And I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow
All your sheep and your lilies of snow
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
With its "I'll never forget you, you know!"

Akane weaved drunkenly through the streets while jubilant strangers hugged each other out of sheer happiness of the bright New Year and the euphoria that it brought. Akane had been similarly hugged and had allowed them from girls and spurned them from guys. There was only one man who she wanted touching her and he had disappeared and left her alone at the party to be molested by Kuno. He'd probably run off with his cute fiancée, Ukyou Akane reasoned. She didn't understand it; Ranma had asked her to go with him. Well actually he'd said, "a party? You want ta go Akane?" So technically he hadn't asked her go with him exactly, but it was the principle of the matter. He had kinda asked her and had even been a good date by escorting her there and making sure that she had enough to eat and drink and didn't lack for pleasant conversation. Then he disappeared and left her there!

Akane was in love and didn't know how to tell him. She thought that they had grown closer in their time together, but apparently not. All he had to see was the pretty faces of his other fiancées and he was gone. Was it that they were more developed then Akane? Akane felt herself a little...small in the bosom department compared to the others. Okay she was a tomboy, but she certainly didn't dress like one. Her clothes were actually quite feminine. She let out a bitter laugh that she was the most sought after girl in school and yet she couldn't attract the attention of the one she wanted. She tried to imagine Ukyou and Ranma finding a quiet place and celebrating their love, this made her feel ill. She knew that the only reason why Ukyou hosted the party was to flaunt her cooking skills and put Akane's to shame.

Akane's imagination took a hold of her and she pictured them kissing, she bolted for an alleyway and threw up in a garbage can. "Are you okay?" a young woman in a green dress asked her worriedly, beside her stood her companion.

"I don't know if I will ever be okay again" Akane said mournfully and allowed the nice people to see her home.

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz ...

Ukyou freshened herself up in the washroom after she'd kissed Ranma. Kissing him had been everything she'd ever dreamed of and more! She touched her lips and remembered how his had felt like silk as he'd held her body tightly against his more powerful frame. This had sent shivers up and down her spine. Her first kiss!

She frowned that he hadn't seemed as happy about it as her, in fact he'd seemed...machine-like, as if he was only going through the motions. He'd thrust her from him as soon as it was over, as if repulsed by her and had left before she had exited the cloak room. He'd left in a huff!

Ukyou shook her head to clear it of the negative thoughts. Of course he'd enjoyed kissing her, hadn't he always said that she was the cute fiancée? Ranma loved her and she shouldn't question that, he merely had a problem expressing his emotions and no wonder with his weird family. He would learn to open up once they were married and running their restaurant. He would be a great husband...'and father' she thought with a blush.

She knew that she was going to make a great wife. Hadn't she shown him that with this party? Everyone was having a wonderful time and the sake and champagne she'd supplied were flowing like water, she had indulged a bit herself and was tipsy. Everywhere she looked were happy couples having fun. Yet she couldn't see Ranma or Akane. Had they left together?

Something niggled at her brain. She'd noticed that they had seemed to be getting closer and acting more like a couple lately. Before they had bickered like a pair of school yard six-year-olds, that being at the time when a guy showed he liked a girl by picking on her. Why the other day she was sure that she'd interrupted them about to kiss. She would watch them giggling together while walking home. She would see them eat lunch together under a tree, they looked...so cozy. So cozy that she'd joined them without permission; Ranma had looked annoyed by this. Even tonight he'd been fawning over Akane until Nabiki had cornered him. 'Did they like each other?' she wondered and then shook her head to clear it. Then there was the fact the Ranma showed more interest in running a dojo then a restaurant and Akane's family owned a dojo...

'Nah Akane with her small breasts, short stature and clumsy ways had nothing on the tall graceful her' she thought and went to rejoin her party. Ukyou was the cute fiancée after all.

And I'll dance with you in Vienna
I'll be wearing a river's disguise
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder,
My mouth on the dew of your thighs
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
With the photographs there, and the moths
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
My cheap violin and my cross
And you'll carry me down on your dancing
To the pools that you lift on your wrist
Oh my love, Oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It's yours now. It's all that there is.

Kuno stared at the diamond necklace in his hand, it'd been expensive but he hadn't cared. He had more then enough money to spoil the woman he loved. Everyone he'd talked to had suggested to him that girls loved diamonds and they make an excellent gift. That would include; his house ninja, his upstairs maid, his downstairs maid, his head housekeeper, his chauffeur, his chef, his hairdresser etc. All of them had assured him that no girl could resist diamonds. After all didn't the song go 'diamonds are a girl's best friend'? So he'd bought her a diamond necklace; even he knew she would never accept a ring.

He'd presented it to her in a black velvet box, her jaw had dropped when the perfectly cut gem sparkled at her from the dark interior. She had thanked him politely but had handed it back. He'd gotten rather insistent, assuring her that he could afford it and it was merely a token to her beauty. She'd had pushed his hand holding the box back towards him and had gotten more forceful with her objections. Finally he had tried to place it around her neck, that's when her famous foot met his head and the world went black. He woke up with Akane gone and the box still in his hand.

He sighed, here he was almost eighteen and not only still a virgin, but never had kissed a girl. Everyone in his mansion, save his sister, said he was an excellent catch. So where were his dates, his romances, heck even a girl who would do her homework with him?

Undecided what to do, he felt it was time to leave. He'd drank a fair bit of champagne and felt kind of dizzy as result. Besides he didn't want to be amongst the happy couples as they kissed at midnight. After thanking Ukyou politely, he turned to leave, but not before he spotted Nabiki standing close to the door. He thrust the rejected necklace into her hands and said cruelly, "here, a materialist bitch like you will appreciate this" as his normal politeness had been altered by his drunkenness.

Nabiki watched him leave and then opened the box; he didn't see her tender smile as she looked at the beautiful necklace. She knew that he'd bought it for Akane, but didn't care as he'd given it to her. He would have been shocked to learn that it wasn't the value of the necklace that she appreciated, but that it was a gift from him.