Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters included in the manga/anime. Although, if I did, I'd probably write this stuff anyway...
Akane's Dream
The morning had been so bright and beautiful. Sun shining, blue sky freckled with white, fluffy clouds, light breeze, and peace. Akane had turned down her friends invitation to go out of town for the weekend, as a treat for finishing off exams, since she had promised herself that she'd make a nice dinner that Sunday night.
She'd woken up that Sunday morning, happy and content, ready to spend the day planning her dinner meal. The curtains to her bedroom window softly flit as the breeze blew into the room. The baby hairs on the back of her neck tickled her skin and gave her goose-bumps as she picked out her clothes. This one is pretty. I haven't had a chance to wear it yet, with the weather being so gray... "Thank goodness that it's so warm today!"
After making a list of what she thought she'd need to cook dinner later that evening, Akane left her room and walked down to the kitchen, finding her oldest sister preparing breakfast.
"Good morning, Kasumi! Mm, something smells really good." Her eyes slid shut, instinctively, as she took in a big breath of what her older sister was cooking.
"Why thank you, Akane, dear. I'm just making Father and Mr. Saotome a little lunch to take with them on their field trip."
At this Akane started. Her eyes popped open in surprise and the enveloping smell of Kasumi's cuisine flushed out of the room, "Filed trip?"
"Why yes, Akane. They wanted to go with Grandfather to see... now what was it..."
"WE'RE GOIN' TO FRANCE! WHERE THE NAKED LADIES DANCE!"
Akane felt her skin jump off of her bones as a grinding and thin voice burst into the room, the source of the voice bouncing about like a rubber ball.
"Akane! My love! Why don'cha join us-UFF!!"
"Like I'd accompany a bunch a' old men to a peep show!"
"Oh my..." Kasumi smiled, unfazed by the sudden intrusions in her kitchen.
Instead, the eldest Tendou daughter set up breakfast and packed Soun's and Genma's lunches for the day.
At the table for breakfast, everything seemed normal. Nabiki gave her two cents when unnecessary and Kasumi stayed bright and oblivious as always. Genma and Ranma fought about the last pickle while Akane chastised her fiancé for being so rude at the table. Soun, all the while, sipped his tea with only a "Delicious breakfast" directed at Kasumi.
"Mm, thanks Kasumi! It was really good."
"Why, thank you, Akane. Nabiki, would you help me clean up?"
"Yeah, sure, sis."
Akane smiled as her two older sisters picked up the used dishes and carried them into the kitchen to wash everything up. All the men sat at the table, minus Happosai who was somewhere in the Tatewaki mansion at this point...
"Well, Akane, you look very nice. Do you and Ranma have something planned that Tendou and I don't know about?" Soun hinted to his youngest daughter while lifting both eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
"Dad! It's nothing like that." Akane's cheeks lightly dusted over with a rosy shade as she answered her father, "I'm just going to do some shopping and stuff before dinner."
"Oh? Why before dinner?" Her father inquired.
"Well, so I have enough time to prepare dinner for tonight."
While Akane blinked both fathers had ran for their gear and headed for the door.
"Well, we gotta head out now!" Soun called out.
"You know what they say! Early bird catches the worm!" Genma added.
Both had a sheepishly guilty expression covering their faces. Even their shoulders slumped over in mild fear of being yelled at.
"Hey! You could at least PRETEND to not be in such a hurry to RUN AWAY!" Akane's face turned red from anger as both her father and Ranma's ran off, scurrying away like fire was on their butts. "Really... those two."
"Can ya blame em, Akane? Your cookin' ain't all that good, ya know."
"Ranma..." The name came out in the usual growl-like fashion.
"I'm just sayin'. One of these days you're gonna send one of us to the hospital with that awful cookin' of yours. You can't expect us to stay around for that, now, can ya?" Ranma sat next to his fiancé with the most innocent expression on his face. "'Kane...?"
"Why you... JERK!" In one swift motion, Akane pulled out her super deluxe mallet, catapulting Ranma through the roof and over Nerima in less than three seconds.
"Oh my..." Akane turned to see Kasumi standing on the open porch, "Father and Mr. Saotome forgot their lunches..."
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A couple of hours later, Akane was at the grocery market. She had a white sun hat on her head, the rim large and round, protecting her face from the sun, with a yellow ribbon around the crown of the head. Her dress was a matching, pale yellow with a large white ribbown tied around her waist, just below her breasts. The white ribbon was tied into a large bow at her back. The bodice of the dress was tank-sleeved, with thick, straight straps that sat delicately on her shoulders and a square cut on the back and chest to shoe off her shoulder blades and collar bones. The material of the dress was a thin cotton, keeping her nice and cool, but was also down to the tops of her knees, being very spring-time. It was made for her shape, really, showing off her slender neck and arms and her thin frame. Her breasts were given enough emphasis to be noticed, but not enough to be obvious. Her legs were beautifully shown, their shape emphasized by the empire dress, completed with white flats on her feet.
She felt very pretty and very feminine.
In fact, she felt good enough to go shopping for another outfit!
"Oh..." After trying on a few and seeing the price-tag, Akane quickly changed her mind.
But she still found herself admiring her glow in most of the things she had tried on. But I'm here for groceries... let's see, what's next on the list? Her chocolate eyes scanned over her list, a bag of groceries in her hand already. Alright. I guess I'll head over to the farmers market for the rest of the stuff. And with that she walked into the farmers market surplus to buy the last of her list.
About thirty minutes later Akane emerged from the store, her delicate hand placing her hat on the top of her head. She stepped out into the open and took in a deep breath, then gasped.
"Wh... What happened?"
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"Man, what is her problem... I only told her the truth!" Ranma winced as Kasumi patched his head up with a white bandage.
"You must forgive Akane's anger. She's just short tempered, but she means well." Kasumi smiled as she packed up the first aid kit.
"Sometimes, Kasumi..." Ranma gave a sigh and leaned onto the table with his elbow, "I just don't get what you mean."
Kasumi smiled and stood, "Someday you will, Ranma." She then disappeared into the house to clean.
"Man..."
"Looks like the weather is going downhill." The middle Tendou daughter walked into the room with a cookie perched between her lips.
"Huh? Whaddya mean, Nabiki?"
"Just look outside."
The boy did so and blinked in surprise at what met his gaze.
"Looks like rain, don't you think? I hope Daddy brought an umbrella, for your dad's sake."
Ranma smirked at the thought of his dad traveling to a hot spring as a panda. The old lech had told Ranma where he was headed, since he had invited him to go along-as a girl. The three were headed for the Spring-time Hot Springs in the mountains right near Nerima. Once every year they had a festival for Nerima residence which entailed a free buffet and a Buy one Get one Free pass for the communal hot springs.
It would most likely intrigue many young visitors.
"Ah, Pop'll be alright. He can always hold his breath under water incase it rains up there, too."
"Hn. I wonder if Akane brought an umbrella..."
At this Ranma stopped chuckling. He had totally forgotten about Akane going shopping in town. He did, however, remember her outfit, which was too short for the breeze that was blowing, in his opinion.
"Eh, it's just gettin' dark, Nabiki. It's not like it's gonna rain or nothin'."
The clouds chose that moment to open up and pour.
"Well, I hope her dress isn't TOO see-through..."
Nabiki was able to change the channel on the television to her favorite program a second later while Ranma fiddled around trying to find the large umbrella.
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"Geez..." Akane stood under a magazine cart as the rain came don in bucket loads. "Just my luck."
The cart attendant sat on his stool, reading a dirty novel as she stood there, "You can stand there as long as you want, girlie, but I doubt the rain will let up before I close up shop."
Akane turned to him with a light scowl, then turned away in embarrassment. You're not my first choice for shelter, pervert. "Thanks." She said instead and pushed off, quickly walking out into the rain towards her home.
It didn't take long before Akane was jogging. Her shoes were squishing from the puddles she ran through and her dress was sticking to her skin. She was holding onto her bags with one hand against her chest while holding her hat onto her head with the other. I can't believe this! I don't even have enough money to buy a paper to cover my head with... She then noted that her groceries would most likely be ruined before she could make it home.
She rounded a corner, her feet moving as fast as the pavement would allow. Any faster and she would run the risk of slipping and either hurting herself, wasting her groceries, or both. Then, as if Kami himself pointed at her, a car drove by and splashed the most brown water all over her.
"Ah-HEY!" She turned around, her right hand leaving her head in order to wave her fist at the passer-by.
It gave the wind its chance to pick up and fly her hat away.
"Wha-no!" She grabbed for it blindly, the rain hitting her face as she jumped for the white hat.
It flew through the air and turned this way and that before plopping onto the street gutter, flowing away with the dark and murky water to the street drain.
"Oh no!" Akane could feel her eyes begin to water as she watched her entire day go to pot.
First her father left in order to get away from her cooking, then her own fiancé had to point out that her cooking was horrible. Next came the rain and then the driver who ruined her dress and now her groceries were probably wasted and...
"And my hat..." If anything, Akane felt utterly hopeless.
Then.
"Huh?" She blinked, her eyes wide as she realized she hadn't felt any rain hit her face in a few seconds.
She turned around, her face met by a pair of deep, blue eyes.
"Hey Akane."
The feminine voice made Akane's heart melt instantly. Ranma stood behind her with a large, red umbrella with orange polka dots covering the both of them.
"R-Ranma..."
"Looks like you got caught up in the rain. You okay?"
The gentleness in his voice, although a girls voice, was sweet enough to bring Akane over the edge.
"Oh, Ranma! My groceries are trash and my hat blew away and a lousy driver ruined my dress!"
"Was it a green car?"
Akane nodded.
"Got me, too..." Ranma gave a wave of himself in his girl form and then took the soaking bag of groceries from Akane's arm, "C'mon. Let's go home and get you dried off."
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Back at the Tendou household, Akane bathed and soaked in the furo. She and Ranma had gotten home at the same time the street lamps turned on. They walked inside to find a quiet house, and both assumed that Kasumi and Nabiki had gone out for the night. Ranma boiled himself some hot water and told Akane she could take a bath while he sorted out what groceries were good and what would have to be thrown out.
Akane felt entitled to a nice soak and was now doing so. It's nice. She sank into the water up to her nose. We haven't fought once since he's walked me home. Maybe he's come to his sense? She gave a small giggle and stood, unplugging the bath before drying herself off and changing into her new clothes.
"Ah, that was nice." Akane walked through the house with a soft blue towel on her shoulders, her right hand rubbing her hair with a corner of it, "I feel much better."
She walked into the dining room to find a basket of cookies set out. Thanks, Kasumi. She mentally thanked her oldest sister and sat down, her pink cotton shorts riding up slightly with the motion. Her white t-shirt had two large stripes over the front and back, circling all the way around. The bottom stripe was blue while the top stripe was orange. Hey, wait a minute...
"Ranma?" Her voice called out to the boy and it was only then that she smelled something cooking in the air.
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing, Ranma?"
There was a slight pause, and then shuffling, then the boy in question emerged from the kitchen, "Just cooking. Why?"
"What? I'm suppose to cook dinner!" Akane could feel her head start to swim with anger and she could feel the blood rush to her face.
"You still goin' on about that?" Ranma crossed his arms over his chest, the red, long-sleeved Chinese shirt rolled up over his arms in his usual fashion, "Why don't you let me cook dinner tonight, alright? I still wanna live to see tomorrow."
Akane wanted to do a number of things. Cry, scream, throw the table directly through Ranma's thick skull... But she couldn't make up her mind in time to keep up with her body.
"Ranma, you... You idiot!" She stood from the table and began running for the stairs.
Behind her she could hear Ranma's footsteps catching up to her, his voice calling out to her to stop and to wait. But she wouldn't... couldn't...
Then she felt strong hands on her wrist and shoulder, spinning her around.
"I told you to wait, dammit!"
"Don't yell at me, you jerk!"
"You're so uncute! All I did was make dinner!"
"Don't be so stupid, Ranma! You did it so I wouldn't make dinner because you hate my cooking!"
At this Ranma nodded, which caused Akane to struggle even harder and Ranma to tighten his grip on her.
"No, no! Just listen!"
"I don't have to listen to you! You're just an inconsiderate jerk!"
"Gosh, you're so uncute... Akane!"
The next second, Akane felt her face heat up, and then a fuzziness wash over her mind.
Soft lips pressed against hers, although they were not another woman's. Large hands held her close as her breath was stolen away from her lungs and all thought ceased to churn in her mind. For a moment Akane thought that maybe she was dreaming, that maybe she was hallucinating or that maybe she was dead. But being dead was next to impossible so she ruled that one out right away. Then the air returned to her.
"Ah... Ranma.." Her eyes slowly opened to see a flushed Ranma standing over her, and she then felt the wall pressed against her back.
"A... Akane..." He seemed questioning, as if he was waiting for her to give him permission or to throw him out into the rain.
She did neither.
Instead she stood in awe at him. He'd never done anything that bold and that honest before. She had always wondered if someday he'd kiss her and if she would feel doubt behind it, but... But there was none. He wanted it, and I think he wanted me to want it, too. Her cheeks burned now and she could feel the heat pool in her stomach. What's going on? Her feet pushed her onto her tippy toes, giving her that extra inch or so to reach his lips. Her arms wound around his body, his strong arms wound around her shoulders and pulled her closer, and for the first time in her life, Akane felt completely protected.
She could feel her breasts pressed into the flat, warm chest of her fiancé and could feel the perfect way their bodies fit together like molds. It was too good to be true, in her mind, but she pushed that thought aside and let her fiancé take her to her room.
The yellow covers were soft and cool from her window being opened, and the way the bed sank with both of their bodies laying on it felt strangely comforting. Ranma stood for a moment after laying Akane down to close the window, stopping the cold wind from biting into the room.
"You're so beautiful..." He said, his eyes clouded and heavily lidded as he walked back to her bed.
"Th-" Her words were cut short as she felt his hand on her lips.
Hands pulled her clothes off delicately, peeling her shirt and shorts off her body until she felt bare. He ran his hands over her face and down her chest all the way down her legs. She could feel his fingers playing in her hair and was afraid at one moment to open her eyes, for fear of this being nothing but her imagination.
Akane then had the startling thought of one of her sisters still being home, but the soft voice of her lover telling her how cute she was chased the thoughts away quickly. At one point in time she shivered from his hand, suddenly feeling cool against her hot skin, dousing the fire that was coursing through her veins.
"Oh, Ranma... Ranma!"
Akane opened her eyes, feeling her body start at the sound of her own voice breaking through the haze. The ceiling met her gaze and she was surprised to see light filtering into her room. She could feel a soft wind tickling the curtains at her window, but knew by the lack of movement that the window was opened only halfway. She turned her head to see Ranma sitting at her desk, hunched over and sleeping on the chair with his arms crossed over the desk-top, face nuzzled into his elbows.
What... happened...? Her arm pushed her up to a sitting position, "Ranma-"
"Oh." Kasumi walked into the room, a pale and wash cloth on her hands, "You're awake, Akane." Akane nodded, "We were all so worried about you." Kasumi added while walking over to her bed, setting the pale and wash cloth on the desk-top.
"What... happened, Kasumi?"
Kasumi looked down at her younger sister and placed her palm against her forehead.
"You had a fever last night, Akane, don't you remember?"
Akane sat still while her older sister made her lay down and ran the cold cloth over her forehead.
"No... I remember fighting Ranma about dinner, and then..."
"Than ya fainted." Ranma was sitting in the chair rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands, "Nearly scared me half to death, ya know." He added before stretching.
Akane turned her head towards him in surprise, then to Kasumi.
"Yes. Nabiki and I changed you into your nightgown and then Ranma took care of you all night with the wash cloth. We really were worried about you."
Akane blinked, watching Kasumi leave the room.
"I... Fainted...?"
"That's right, baby-sister." Nabiki stood in her doorway with a smile on her face, "You were out all night with a high fever, and you kept calling out 'Ranma, oh Ranma' and stuff."
"Wh-WHAT!?" Both Akane and Ranma chimed in unison as the middle Tendou daughter skipped out of the room.
Ranma and Akane now sat in silence, the former clutching his hands into the fabric of his black pants and the latter staring up at the ceiling.
"Thank you, Ranma." Akane broke the frozen silence with a warm and sincere comment.
Ranma looked up to the girl laying on the bed before him and smiled, "Ah... it was nothin'."
The next night Akane cooked dinner, and everyone enjoyed hiding the fact that they were definitely NOT enjoying it at all.
-Just a little something that was on my mind the other night. I had a dream about watching a sun hat float by in a murky gutter, but then woke up when my alarm clock went off to get ready for work. It was really strange, but I got this out of it, so thanks Sand Man.
PS: This is just a side project, away from my Passion Spice story. I was having a little trouble with moving forward with that one, so I decided to get this out of my system before continuing that story.
ANYWAY! Review, please!