Surprises

By Erzamarie

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½.

It was 9 pm and Akane found herself in front of her apartment building in California. She just got out from a Mercedes Benz driven by Jackson, a persistent suitor and a classmate. She cradled in her arms a bouquet of red Roses, which were also given by him from the beginning of their date. "Who would have thought that the arrogant brat had a bit of a romantic streak," Akane thought after receiving the flowers earlier that day.

Almost two years ago, she left Japan for a scholarship in the US. Her father was displeased with it, even went far to marrying her before leaving. It was thanks to her fiancée, Ranma, who had somehow convinced her father. Ranma wasn't ecstatic about her leaving either but he agreed later on.

Flashback…

"Why do you have to leave?" Ranma asked angrily.

"Why shouldn't I?" she countered. Then seeing the hurt look in his eyes, she eagerly explained. "This is a one in a million opportunity for me to go out there – to study. Everyone in their right mind would grab this chance."

"I'm not," he stubbornly said.

She let out a sigh. Of all the people in the house, it was Ranma that she needed to convince more. With him as her ally, she knew that this would be possible. So even though, they had been arguing about it for the last two days, she still tried to make him understand. "You're different. You already know what you want even before we finished highschool. You wanted to be a great martial artist and to teach in the dojo. I'm not that lucky to know what I want," she explained. She then turned away from him and sat on her bed, afraid of letting him see this insecure side of her.

Ranma looked at her and watched how dejected his fiancée was. But he could still not understand why she has to go so far away from him. "You could still know what you want here. You passed all the universities you've applied to. There is no need for you to leave."

"But I want to. I want to be Akane Tendo and not Ranma Saotome's fiancée. I want to leave your shadow for once." She stated as she hugged her knees.

He wanted to come closer to her and comfort her but at the same time, he felt hurt for being the reason for her to feel this insecure. "Is it that bad to be called my fiancée?"

"No, of course not. More than ever, I am proud to be your fiancée and ONLY fiancée," Akane uttered looking at him straight in the eyes. " But I want to achieve things on my own. I don't want to leave what ifs in the future."

"Why does it have to be that far? You can do that here," he asked.

"Ranma… please…," she begged.

Looking at her teary eyes, Ranma could only say, "Fine." Then he came beside her and took her in his arms and gave her a tight hug. Two years ago, he would have been scared to hell of even doing this thing with her, afraid that she would mallet him. But as their relationship grew and their feelings having known to each other, hugging seemed to come naturally for them. " One to two years, right?"

"Four," she whispered as she was trapped in his embraced.

Ranma let her go."What?"

"It's a four year course," she flatly stated then took the chance to give her fiancée a fierce hug. " But it'll pass quickly, you'll never notice that I had been gone," she added trying to convince him.

"Yeah, right!" he said sarcastically at the same time enjoying his fiancée's hug.

End of Flashback.

This was the first date she had ever since she came to America. She wasn't really up to it but due to her friends encouragement teasing and also of Jackson's persistence, she agreed to this one date. Also, the guy was not actually bad looking. Well, in fact, he was popular in the university for his good looks. His rare eye color was among his assets which were green. He was also a sports enthusiast which had resulted to his gorgeous body. So after several attempts to take her out, she finally agreed with the thinking that there's nothing to lose since her supposed fiancée would be in the other side of the world doing whatever things with his other fiancées. She felt a little guilt after saying yes believing that she was cheating on Ranma, but what the hell he wasn't even there to know about it anyway.

At the end of the date, although a bit early, he offered to drive her home. They stood by the door and seeing the lights on, she rung the bell for her roommate to open it. Of course, this was done after realizing how a klutz she was to forget about her apartment keys.

By the time of the second press, she could hear the rumbling inside going towards the door. So before her roommate could open it, she said her thanks to Jackson. What she didn't expect was the Kiss that would end the date. The kiss was a surprised yet welcomed delight. It was, after all, the first time she had felt such passion filled kiss. Even though, it was a bit regretful, Akane chose to end it. A blush instantly spread in Akane's cheeks together with her silly smile.

"I'll see you at school," Jackson said happily before entering his car.

Akane had only nodded at him and watch him drive away.

Everything would have been perfect, if not for the opened door behind Akane and the people who saw everything. When Akane turned towards her apartment door, an unexpected person came into view. Her delighted expression turned to shock then guilt. Because the person who was standing in the door was not her roommate, but her fiancée who she thought was in Japan.

Ranma's face was a void mask. He looked at her for a few seconds before closing the door on her face.

Akane felt something shattered with the door closing. She found her knees growing weak and her hands trembling. It took her a few minutes to compose herself before she entered. But actually, in those few minutes, she was hoping and praying that everything else was just a dream – a very bad dream.

She entered the door and hesitantly said, "Hi!"

Ranma was now sitting in the couch looking elsewhere other than Akane. A girl came rushing in forward feeling sorry.

"I called a few times in your phone but you weren't answering," the girl said apologetically.

"I'm out of battery," Akane answered. Then she stared at Ranma, observing any hint of his current emotion. "It was just a kiss – just a kiss," she thought. "I've seen him kissed his other fiancées before and I've always had forgiven him about it. So it's no big deal, right?" mentally asking herself.

"Ranma arrived earlier. He opted to wait for you," the girl stated.

Akane just nodded not knowing what to say or do.

"I better leave you two alone. I'm just going to be in my room," the other girl said before going upstairs.

Several minutes passed without any of them saying anything. Ranma continued to looked elsewhere after Akane took the seat next to the couch.

"When did you arrive?" Akane said breaking the awkward silence.

"Yesterday," Ranma briefly answered.

"You could have called."

"I thought it would be nice to surprise my fiancée. I didn't know I was going to be surprised as well," he said unemotionally.

A minute of silence passed before Akane responded, "What you saw…"

"I brought a package from your family. It's in your room. They were nothing important, just the things you said you missed in Japan," Ranma interrupted. "I don't know much what my… my mother put in there. She just…just said that you would like them," he finished with difficulty. As if everything that happened had slowly sunk in within him, Ranma felt his chest constricting making it harder for the words to come out. The excitement he had in arriving to Akane's door turned into something that was suffocating him. He wanted to hit something or someone. It would have been nice if Kuno or Ryoga was there to relieve him of this feeling. So instead, he clenched his hands tightly to restrain his feelings inside.

"The kiss meant nothing," Akane said. "It was just a goodbye kiss. There is no deeper meaning to it."

"Isn't it funny how I used to say that when we were in highschool? If I had known this is how it felt like hearing it, I wouldn't have said any of it," Ranma said bitterly. Then, Ranma could no longer contain his frustration. A tear slipped which he immediately wiped with his hands.

"I'm sorry. I really am sorry," Akane said now crying.

"Why now, Akane? We made it over my fiancées, we passed highschool and even outgrown our immaturity, but why do it now?" he asked. "I was even serious to make this work," he whispered.

"It was just a friendly date. It was a mistake to give in to my friends' constant pressure of going out with him. But there was nothing between us. I don't feel anything about him. I didn't even expect that he would kiss me tonight," she explained. "Please believe me, Ranma," she begged.

Ranma took the little courage he had left and face her, "You wouldn't have made that look if it meant nothing." Looking at his face, he had an expression of a total defeat.

"No. I was just so caught off with that moment. It's almost two years since I left. No one had ever gave me that much attention since I came here. And I never bothered with any of the guys because I am engaged to you. What happened earlier is just a moment of weakness. I was so lonely without you here."

"I see. I missed you, too," Ranma said staring into Akane's brown eyes. "But it just hurts so much right now."

"I'm so sorry," Akane took his hands and kissed it. "Please forgive me."

"I don't know. I wish I could forgive you so easily. But every time I closed my eyes, I remember how you look earlier. And because I came here to surprise you with this,"taking out a small box.

Akane gasped and felt more ashamed than before. She took it and opened it, revealing a simple gold band with a small diamond. It was then that Akane realized how much she had screwed up that day.

"I wanted to surprised you with that. But you gave me more of a surprised that I had expected. And right now, I don't know what to do with it anymore."

"Ranma?!"

Ranma smiled bitterly. "Keep it. I don't want to carry it. It felt like a heavy burden in my pocket."

"Is this the end of us? Will I see you again?"

"I don't know," Ranma left with a faraway expression on his face. It reminded Akane of the look he wore when she slapped him at Ryugenzawa. It was the same – same hopeless gaze.