The Beautiful Secret
(A/N) This is my first attempt at any fan fiction so the writing may not be to detailed, I just wanted to give it a try and get some reviews, then hopefully I can take your guys advice and improve my writing.
Chapter 1
"I can't believe Akane." Ranma muttered as he sprinted through the front doors of Furinkan High School ten minutes late. He took a deep breath and sighed as he opened the door to his class, and was not surprised when he was immediately sent out to stand in the hallway with two buckets of water. 'Why hadn't Akane woken me up this morning?' He thought to himself, as he stared down the hall. Ranma started to replay the last few days back in his head, but couldn't find a single thing for Akane to be mad at him for. Actually things over the last few days to everyone's surprise were very mellow between them. They got in no fights, and actually spent more time together than usual. "Hmmm" Ranma sighed, "I'm half girl and I don't think I'll ever understand women."
Akane stared at Ranma's empty desk feeling bad for not waking him up this morning. It had been about fifteen minutes since he was first sent out into the hall, and she wondered how mad he would be for the rest of the day. Though Ranma had done nothing to deserve it she simply needed to start a fight with him to hopefully stop another one of their fathers' crazy wedding schemes. Last night Akane had over heard their fathers talking about various ways to basically force her and Ranma into marriage. She figured the recent good times Ranma and her had been having together were the main reason for the sudden plotting, so an argument like this would be the perfect way to crush their spirits. Akane stared out the window and sighed, 'If only there was some other way.' She thought to herself.
Just as Akane had thought Ranma had said hardly anything to her the rest of the day, besides the occasional "uncute" or "tomboy" which she was kind of expecting from him. It was nearly midnight now and she couldn't sleep, so she just stared at the ceiling thinking to herself. 'All this trouble couldn't have come at a worse time.' She thought, 'My birthday would be coming up in a couple of days and I was worried enough as it was that Ranma would either forget or just flat out not get me anything. Now for sure there would be no way the jerk would get me something.'
"Hmmm" Akane sighed as she rolled over in bed. 'Why did everything have to be so complicated' she thought, 'I just had to go and fall in love with the most sought after guy in all of Nerima, and if its not some girl madly in love with him it's some guy who wants to kill him.' Could Ranma possibly feel the same way about her, or was she just as delusional as his other fiancés? For the first two years Ranma was staying with them she always new in the back of her mind how she felt about him, but she was determined to try and believe she hated him just like she would tell everyone else. It wasn't until about two months ago that she finally started to come to terms with her feelings even though never openly admitting it and of course she still tries to play it off like she didn't care too much about him. Akane closed her eyes and decided the best thing for her to do now was to get to sleep and just hope for the best.
Ranma woke up after being softly shaken by his father, which surprised Ranma who was more used to flying out the window into the koi pond right about this time in the morning. "What pops?" Ranma groaned still stunned by his non-violent father. "I know you are mad at your fiancé, but you got to suck it up boy, her birthday is tomorrow and I know you haven't even thought about what you are going to get her." Ranma looked at his father for a while "And who says I'm getting that tomboy something." He replied coldly. Ranma now found himself flying towards their window, this was more like what he was used to. He gracefully caught himself before flying out the window and took a seat on the windowsill. "I'll get her something." Ranma said, "But don't go getting any ideas I'm just doing it so I won't have to hear you and Mr. Tendo lecture me." Genma grinned after hearing this and watched his son jump out the window and disappear over the back wall.
Ranma was walking through town looking at all kinds of different things in various shop windows, but nothing stood out to him. He had planned on asking Akane about what she wanted for her birthday present yesterday, but was to busy being angry at her. It didn't help both that he was up all night thinking about stupid Akane, and why she had suddenly reverted back to how she normally acted a few months ago. He could have any girl in Nerima, yet the one he cared about was so hard to figure out. He supposed the fact that he pretended he hated her guts opposed to just showing how he truly felt, probably added to the difficulty. Just then Ranma spotted Kasumi who was out grocery shopping. "Kasumi!" he shouted, causing the oldest Tendo sister to turn and wave in his direction.
'This couldn't be better.' Ranma thought, 'Who knows Akane better than Kasumi.' "H-Hey Kasumi do you think you could umm help me out with a present for uhh Akane, because I'm hopeless with this kind of stuff?" He was surprised at how embarrassing the question actually was when he asked it. "Of course Ranma!" Kasumi said smiling at him. Ranma was instantly relieved as Kasumi brought him to a clothing store where he bought a beautiful white and red dress that Kasumi had promised that she would absolutely love.
Ranma decided he would treat Kasumi out to ice cream since she had been so helpful to him today, plus he'd never really had the chance to talk to Kasumi before one on one. That sat across from each other trading stories from their past, Ranma mostly talking about all the times his dad had used him to get food or money. Kasumi shared more cheerful stories about trips the family would take when her mother was still alive. All and all Ranma was glad he had gotten to have the conversation with Kasumi.
The walk home was mostly quiet until Kasumi had broken the silence. "You know I'm really glad you and your dad started living with us." She said Ranma surprised by her gratitude. "You've really made Akane happy being here Ranma." Ranma's heart skipped a beat. "I don't know if you and me are seeing the same Akane." He said gloomily, "Akane completely despises everything about me!" This made Kasumi laugh, Ranma looked at her curiously. "She has never been really good at expressing her feelings, but look at all the little things she does for you." She said cheerfully. "Like what?" Ranma asked while shooting Kasumi another curious glance. "Well for one you're the only guy she has ever tried to impress so badly with her cooking, and not to mention every time a girl gets close to you she goes crazy." Ranma took a moment to think about these things, he had always thought about the negative things these actions had brought him, but now that Kasumi had said it, he supposed it did kind of sound like she cared. It also made Ranma feel bad for all those times he had been so insulting of Akane's cooking. Before he could respond to anything Kasumi had said they were walking through the front gate of the house.
Akane watched as Ranma and Kasumi walked through the front door together. "Where had they been all day?" she thought, but quickly refocused herself. She had already decided she was going to apologize to Ranma for yesterday, at least that way maybe he wouldn't hate her on her birthday.
Akane followed her fiancé up to his room and then waited a couple minutes at the door before taking a deep breath and knocking. "Come in!" she heard him say. Akane slowly entered his room suddenly very nervous about the apology she had worked out in her head.
"R-Ranma?" she stuttered.
"Yeah Akane?"
"I just wanted to tell you sorry… for how I treated you yesterday."
"Don't say another word Akane." Ranma said plainly.
"W-What!" she asked confused.
"I'm the one who's sorry Akane."
"For what?" she asked.
"For everything I have or for that matter haven't done since the day I met you." Ranma said sincerely.
Akane was completely astonished, that was the complete opposite of what she had expected to hear from her fiancé. She now had so many things she wanted to ask Ranma all running through her head at once. The only problem is she was at a complete loss for words at the moment.
"I uhh… thanks Ranma." She managed to choke out.
"Everything you've done for me has been meant with good intentions." Ranma said his voice shaking, "And I'm very sorry that it took me this long to figure it out."
"Ranma." Akane muttered.
