Note: I in no way own Ranma, Akane or any of the other crazy people in this story line. I am however a big fan of the Ranma/Akane coupling and decided to make my own version of their story. I'd like to pre apologize if anyone has already done this same kind of story, I am not aware of it and am not trying to copy. As I'm still new to whole fanfic writing thing I'd appreciate it you guys went kinda easy on me, but feel free to leave constructive critisism as I need to learn to walk if I am to ever grow.

I'd also like to thank Everfly who is my prereader for my stories here.

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Ranma paced back and forth the lenght of his bedroom. How he'd ever magaged to let the guys talk him into this he'd never know. It's not like he didn't have a life, and it definitely wasn't as if he was lonely or anything. Still, as most folks know there's nothing wrong with a little companionship, and after all...it was just a date. Not like he was being introduced to a girl and being forced into an engagement or anything like that. He took the small plastic basketball he'd been holding and through it easily through a small hoop on the wall oposite him.

Ranma had done a lot of martial arts training abroad with his father and was still fairly new back to school, but his old friends had taken no time in pointing out that being without a girl was NOT going to put a good image on him and it was quickly decided to set him up. The plans were easy enough. A new family had moved to town recently, the Tendo family. Among them were Soun Tendo and his daughters, Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane. Akane hadn't come along with the family yet as she was in the middle of a school production and therefore was staying at her grandmother's house for another week. Akane (thanks to Nabiki and a few of Ranma's friends) is the girl who Ranma was to go out with when she arrived.

'I wonder what she looks like...' he thought to himself remembering the one occasion he asked Nabiki to see a photo and her spouting off some junk about him paying to get a glimps. Forget that! He would wait to see her in person and be sure to kill his friends later if they'd gotten him into something terrible without even looking into it.

Of course he was a bit nervous, Nabiki had told him that she informed Akane about the date, but she had conveniently failed to mention what her response to the whole thing was. With a determined sigh he threw the ball once again and again it sailed easily through the hoop on the wall.

"Heh...I haven't met any challenge I couldn't face." He said to himself "and meeting this girl isn't going to be any different!"

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((applauds and cheering in the crowd))

The line of actors took a final bow and near the center of the line was Akane Tendo. She looked out and spotted her teary eyed grandmother in the front row. She wished silently in her heart that her father and sisters could have been there. However she knew that he father had to get to Nerima to set up the martial arts school that had been put on hold after the girls mother died until the girls were old enough to not have Soun worry quite so much about them. The fact that Akane had ended up (aside from her many other talents such as theater and gymnastics) with a great skill for the art was a big push in her father deciding to move back to his old home to re open the school.

Akane's mind continued to wander to her Father and sisters who seemed so far away. Other than her share of the love for the arts with her father she wasn't particually well connected in very many ways with her family. Kasumi was very motherly and acted much like a house wife wood as shortly after the death of their mother she'd taken to learning how to keep house by doing things like cooking, laundry, sewing, and other household chores. Akane herself was prone to being a little more on the sloppy side. Not horredously sloppy, but she wasn't very tidy with her things. Sewing was something she rarely did as most of the time her family couldn't even guess correctly what she'd made, and her cooking...well lets just say that it was pretty much decided by the family that Akane should save her cooking skills for when the government called in need of new weapons.

Nabiki was a world all her own. This woman could get a person to pay her countless amounts of money for pretty much nothing. Of course when she found out they were moving back to Nerima she was right on the wagon and ready to leave for the land of opportunity.

Akane sighed as the line of actors stood for a few more seconds with their hands clasped in the air. Then she walked back stage with her friends.

"Oh Akane! I can't believe you're actually going to be gone in a few days!" one said. "I mean...can't you just stay here and live with your grandma instead of going?"

Akane had a small tear in her eye, "You know I'm going to miss all of you so much...but I just can't stay here. I need my family and they need me"

She really didn't know if her family did need her. After all...she wasn't the homemaker and she wasn't the money maker. Her father had everything he needed for a complete household rolled up in his two oldest daughters. Although Soun did love his youngest daughter very much and even though she didn't know it he thought she would be the one to carry on the family school and hold up the family honor. No, she wasn't at all sure how much her family actually needed her, but she knew for sure that she needed them.

Later Akane was home in her small room. She didn't mind its size as the situation was pretty sudden and her grandmother didn't have a very big house. She had just been greatful that she hadn't had to bail on the production. It was Monday night and she would be leaving that Thursday evening on a 4 hour train ride to a place she hadn't been since she was just a baby. Then her thoughts turned to a phone conversation she'd had with Nabiki a few days after her family had gone. This conversation consisted of Nabiki telling Akane that she was setting her up with a guy from school. She had began to argue but decided that it couldn't hurt to at least meet this person. If nothing else maybe she'd find herself a friend, and she knew that friends was something she was going to need.

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AN: I think this chapter is probably a bit on the short side but I really just kind of wanted it more as a set up for the start of the real story. So, tell me what you think! Does it seem like it could have the makings to be something readable? Constructive critisism only please! I know you have to know your faults if you are to improve on them...but you can point them out without being mean about it. XD