I added a few words to clear-up the Santa misunderstanding mentioned in the reviews. Hope it's more understandable now.

Christmas

"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring- " CRASH!

Akane looked up from her book at the noise heard downstairs. 'Not quite' she thought dryly, shrugging off her blankets and climbing out of her warm bed.

Everyone who was meant to be in the house had been in bed by midnight, as far as she knew. It was now 2am and she was feeling too antsy to sleep with Christmas morning just hours away.

"Nice night for an intruder" she began to the tune of 'Jingle Bells' while choosing between a bokken and her trusty dumbbell. "Now which one should I pick?" she continued in song. "One requires aim, the other is a stick. I'll just take them both, either way I just can't miss. Whoever is downstairs, will not ruin my Christmas!"

Slowly she crept out of her bedroom and into the hall, unable to stop singing 'Smashing skulls! Smashing skulls!' in her head. That coupled with the late hour had her concentration level at a minimum, so when she saw Santa Clause in the living room it took a full minute before her brain grasped the full situation. After it did though, she had no good, preconditioned responses to know what she should do.

Even if it was an intruder, clobbering Santa didn't feel like the right thing, after all.

Finally she backpedaled up the stairs and instinctively went to Ranma's room, sliding open the door in a quiet flurry. Two heartbeats before her hand met him he rolled over, his face dimly lit in the orange glow of the Christmas lights strung in his window. Akane froze. Waking him suddenly seemed like a ridiculous idea, he would only tease her. Instead she decided to consult Nabiki.

"Psst!" she whispered from the foot of Nabiki's bed. "Hey, Neechan, wake-up! Santa's downstairs!"

Nabiki responded by lifting her arm, previously thrown over both eyes, to give Akane a death look.

"Yes, Akane. Santa comes but once a year, after all. Now go back to bed before he hears you and takes back all your presents." With that she threw her arm back over her eyes.

"Ho, ha! C'mon! I'm being serious!" she whispered furiously back at her.

"Then go bother Ranma, you both like this sort of thing. It let's you 'bond' or something. Now scoot before I charge you for my time."

With a sigh Akane left the room and headed back to Ranma's, stopping to drop off the dumbbell in her doorway.

Again she found herself staring at Ranma's face. He looked so peaceful she almost couldn't bring herself to hit him awake with the bokken…Almost. Anything else could have been misconstrued as affection! She gently poked him in the shoulder with the tip and whispered his name several times, but he was fast asleep. Looking over at the snoring panda in the room she decided two things: 1) Santa was not Genma dressed-up as Santa and 2) If she continued like this, he would wake before Ranma and come to the wrong conclusion as to why she was in the room, with his son…at night.

She leaned in close to Ranma's ear, pausing for a moment to breathe him in (Hey! No one was looking!) Then, cautiously she spoke, "Hey, Baka! Wake-up!"

His eyes shot open, much to her surprise, searching the room for a moment before landing on her. Crinkling his eyebrows he croaked out "Akane…?"

"Shhh! Just come with me for a sec." she said, taking his hand and guiding him into the hall. After his door was closed once more, and Akane was confidant that the meddling Panda would remain asleep, she told him about seeing Santa downstairs. A broad grin instantly lit Ranma's face at the news.

"Akane, really. If you wanted to see me so bad tonight you didn't need to come up with such a lame excuse! Heck! We both know that I'm sooo-" Another sound downstairs silenced his egocentric Akane-teasing. "You might be onto something, Tomboy!" he whispered over his shoulder to her, already making his way to the top of the stairs.

Biting back her anger she crept behind him, laying a hand on his back and craning her neck to see past. They could make out a shadow of someone moving around below.

"We have to go down! If they take the presents…um…it won't be good!" Akane finished lamely. Ranma looked down at her wishing he could read minds. She was purposely avoiding his gaze, which baffled him more. It seemed there was more to what she was saying, as if it were more important than just presents, but for now he would have to put that aside.

Creeping slowly down to the living room, the pair saw just what they should have expected…nothing. 'Santa' seemed to have already left, and the gifts were all there but one. Akane realized immediately that her present to Ranma was missing and gasped.

"No! They took your gift! But how could they have known it was- I mean, I didn't tell anyone and…we have to get it back!"

She was acting stranger than he was used to, which he was used to. As she rushed past he snagged her by the wrist, pulling her against his chest and laid a finger over her lips. "They're still here, listen!" he whispered while chucking a thumb toward the kitchen.

They were going to need to keep the element of surprise, he thought, just as Akane made her first move. Rushing at the doorway she cried out "Whoever you are, you're going to regret taking that gift!" Stopping to look in she realized the culprit had escaped again, only a red velvet mitten and her gift on the counter remained.

"Oh thank the kami!! Here, Ranma, you should open it now so nothing else can happen." With that said, she thrust the package into his hands.

He didn't notice her blush as he started into the wrapping paper, or how excited she was getting. As he pulled a regular plastic water bottle out of the packing he looked at her confused. "Akane…thanks?"

All of her anticipation climaxed to nothing, she let out an exasperated sigh. Rolling her eyes she snatched the bottle and up-ended the contents onto a still baffled Ranma.

"Eh!?" she grinned, "Well, what do you think?! It's a good thing we got this back now, isn't it!? Obviously somebody else must have found out about it! I had to pull a few strings to get it, and the shipping overseas in time for the holidays was a nuisance, but I knew you'd just love it and you'd wanted it for soo long so it was worth it!!"

He looked at her for a moment, then down at his wet clothes, then back to her. "Well, I'm wet as usual, and cold, if that's what ya mean" he sighed. Then it hit him…HIM. He was cold and wet and male.

"Holy…How?!!!" He quickly patted down his chest to check again, 'Yep, no breasts!' Looking up at her smiling face once more, he grabbed her arm and quickly pulled her to the furoba.

"I've gotta check for sure, spray me!" he said handing her the shower head and spinning on the cold water. There he stood, grinning in such a weird way that she couldn't help but catch it and beam right back.

"This…" he gestured with his hands down at himself, not yet having the words to sum it all up. "This is…just…FREEZING! Damn, it's cold is what it is!!" Peeling off his pajamas and snatching Akane up into his arms in what seemed like one movement, Akane found herself in a warm tub with a boxer-clad fiancé only a heartbeat later. Grasping her by both shoulders, he suddenly got serious.

"Akane, thank you so much. You always go so far to make sure I'm happy. Just, more than other people do, y'know? And, well, I know it's already official sort-a and all, but that wasn't our idea so…" Dropping his eyes for a moment and sighing, he tried again. "I guess what I mean to say is, it wouldn't bother me for that long if other people weren't around. But, it WOULD if you were gone…a lot. So I don't want you ta not be around. Ever?"

Akane sat down with a sploosh, the water coming up to her chin. His grip on her shoulders lost, Ranma quickly followed to be sure she wasn't going under. It wasn't impossible to think she could drown in the bath, given her swimming skills. It was then he noticed the left side of her mouth was pulled up into a silly, lopsided grin. Dipping his head down, he caught her eyes and her attention once more.

"D-did you just propose?" she whispered, "To me."

Her gaze was so hopeful, so intense, he thought he could feel it burn right through him.

"Heh, yah…I kinda did." He had to drop his gaze again, his blush burning his ears while her lack of a positive response was becoming unbearable. After what seemed like an eternity, she started to giggle.

"You are so silly, Baka! This is where you decide to tell me!?" With that she began to giggle uncontrollably, until some water splashed down her throat. Coughing, she began to hug him tightly.

"Is that a 'yes', or are you drowning?" he smiled, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "C'mon, let's get outta here."

Beginning to stand, he was abruptly stopped by Akane. "Let's just stay a little longer," she mumbled while nuzzling further into his chest. He was unable to say no.

Up in Nabiki's room, Kasumi was smiling. "I told you that would work" Nabiki said tiredly. "Those two just needed something to push them a little, eh 'Santa'?"

Kasumi, slipping out of the last red, velvety leg of her pants just looked at her younger sister wearily. "My! They are much faster than I thought! I just made it out of the kitchen window in time!" Then as an after thought "They have been in there for a long time, maybe someone should check on them."

"Just for tonight, sis, let's leave them alone." As Kasumi grudgingly agreed and walked out the door, Nabiki whispered "Merry Christmas you two. This one I'll let slide."