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Yin
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Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet. Yin is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity and the night.
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Ranma dodged Akane's attacks. The offer from the girl to be friends had been gratefully received just moments ago, and now they were having a friendly 'spar' in the dojo of the Tendo house. Akane was throwing punches and kicks, and Ranma was avoiding them. From the look on Akane's face, Ranma was guessing that not being able to land any kind of hit was beginning to infuriate the other girl. There suddenly being a fist-sized hole in the wall might have been another tip-off.
Ranma gently poked Akane in the back of the head, smiling hopefully. She really did want to be friends. It wouldn't be long, she knew, before their father's were back on that engagement kick, and Ranma really only had one option from the Tendo sisters. Kasumi was too old – three years older! However nice she was, Ranma just didn't like the idea. Nabiki was too insensitive – seriously, just poking and grabbing her breasts and no sense of personal space! No. Just no. On the other hand, Akane was the same age as him, had been nice so far if apparently a little short tempered, and really did care about the dojo – and the union was supposed to unite the schools after all.
"I'm glad you're a girl," Akane said, smiling a little as she withdrew.
"Why? Were you looking forward to a fiancé as much as I was?" Ranma joked, referring to the way she had been literally carried in, kicking and screaming, against her will.
Akane laughed. "Well, that too," she said. "But I couldn't stand to lose to a boy," she explained.
"Akane, wait," Ranma called, stopping the other girl from leaving.
"Huh? What is it Ranma?"
Ranma took a deep breath, steeled herself, and knelt before the girl on the dojo floor. "Thank you for offering to be my friend, but there is something that I must tell you."
Akane blinked and returned to the centre of the room where Ranma was kneeling, and sat down with her. "What is it?"
Ranma opened her blue eyes, fixed them on Akane's face, and admitted the full truth. From the cursed springs, to all the other weird training her father had put her through, to the crazy Chinese Amazon girl who was after her life – she even admitted to having eaten Ukyo's sauce and tried making it again, but knowing that she'd done it wrong. She even told Akane about Ryoga, for all that she hadn't seen him for a long time. The story didn't end until Ranma had covered her reaction to being told she was promised to marry a Tendo earlier that day, and being carried in, screaming – Akane hadn't seen all of that after all. It turned out to be a very, very long story.
Akane was silent for a while, just blinking as she took it all in. The girl was a boy. She'd had a practically torturous life because her father was an idiot, and because she thought with her stomach had a few problems as well.
"So..." Akane mused quietly, finally breaking the tense silence that had fallen around them heavily as Ranma watched Akane think about what she'd been told. "What does all that mean then?"
Ranma took a deep breath, and took Akane's hands in her own.
"Before family members start trying to force anything, I am asking you. Akane, I figure you and I probably have the most in common, so, will you, someday, be my bride?" Ranma asked, a little brokenly and clearly quite nervous.
Akane blushed, and looked down at Ranma's hands holding her own, then nodded quietly.
Kasumi came then to show their guest to her room.
"And here," she said, handing over a towel. "After all that exercise and travel, you would surely be glad of a bath, yes?"
Ranma nodded silently, staring at the soft yellow towel as she followed the older, honestly very motherly girl, to the bathroom.
Alone, Ranma put a sign on the door saying to knock first, and then stripped down, soaped up and rinsed off before climbing into the blissfully hot water, laying a cloth over his eyes, and lying back to just relax for a little while.
For some reason, there was no knock before he heard the door slide open.
"Eep!"
Ranma at least recognised the voice, which was good, and recognised Akane, which was better. Not removing the cloth from his face, Ranma felt around for a towel or cloth, and pulled it over himself when he found one.
"Akane?" he asked carefully. He hadn't heard the door shut yet, which meant she'd either run off and left it open, or was still standing there.
"H-how'd you know it was me?" Akane asked, clearly unnerved.
Ranma gave a shaky smile. "You're voice when you squeaked," he admitted. "I did tell you what happened with the hot and cold water Akane," he reminded gently. "Um... Would you like to turn around and I'll get out? Or, uh, would you like to... to join me?"
"Pervert!" Akane gasped.
Ranma shook his head. "I'll keep the cloth over my eyes, and not do anything you don't want me to," he promised. "Akane, I... I'm sorry about the whole situation but... as my fiancé? Please? If we can get through this, we'll probably be able to handle anything."
Of course, he was blushing fit to be mistaken for a great big tomato, and it didn't stop at just his face. The flush went down his neck and over his ears as well.
"Okay," Akane said at last, and Ranma listened to her soap and rinse before also climbing into the warm water with him.
"Akane," Ranma said quietly, aware of her feet brushing against his in the water. "Why didn't you knock, when I'd said before about the Jusenkyo curse? I didn't exactly hide my clothing in the other room."
Akane blushed, though Ranma didn't see it, as the cloth was still over his eyes. "I guess I didn't entirely believe it," she said quietly. "And then... when I saw you in here..."
Ranma smirked just a little. "Enjoy the view while it lasts?" he suggested, a tiny bit smug.
Akane splashed him, but laughed, even as she called him a pervert again.
Ranma laughed too. "I don't want you to ever believe that of me Akane," he said gently, once the laughter had subsided. He heard the water slosh a little, and a hand lay on his arm beneath the water, soft skin pressing against his side ever-so-lightly.
"I don't Ranma," Akane said. "You explained it all to me, I was just teasing." Akane giggled. "I mean," she explained, "when you've got your own girl's body to stare at all the time, as well as a male one, you could be a pervert going both ways."
Ranma paled. "That's not funny," he said.
Akane giggled. "But your reaction is," she pointed out. "I don't mean it," she said again. "You should probably get out. You're getting wrinkly."
Ranma sighed, checked the way the cloth over his hips was tied, felt for the edge of the bath, and stood up.
"Wow," Akane breathed, then clamped a hand over her mouth.
Ranma chuckled. "Now who's the pervert?" he teased. "Thanks for boosting my ego. I'll see you out there soon?"
"Uh-huh," Akane answered, watching, still a little stunned, as Ranma felt his way along the wall to the door, his eyes still closed and covered, before he disappeared into the other room.
What could have been a terribly bad beginning, amazingly, wasn't. When Akane got out of the bath, before she went to watch the explanation that was being given – badly – to the rest of her family by Saotome Genma while Nabiki stared at Ranma accusingly, she moved Ranma's backpack and futon to her room.
He'd just shared his bath, she could certainly share her room. It would be good preparation for when – not if – they did eventually fulfil the wishes of their parents and marry.
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