Real World Ranma - by Neocelestia

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ranma 1/2. Nor do I own any other recognized series/characters that may appear in this story. Characters and series elements are copyright of their respective owners.

A/N: For the ease of reading the fic, please note that dialogue will have " " around it (yes, I know that's stating the obvious..) and characters' thoughts meant only for the reader will be inside * * symbols. Hope this helps. Also, there's very slight mature content in one section of this chapter so youngsters may want to skip a paragraph. Enjoy the story!

Chapter 1

"HAPPOFIRE BURST!"

The cry came from the sky as the silhouette figure back lit by the summer sun descended from the air and onto a nearby roof.

The young martial artist who was in hot pursuit, saw this coming and jumped back in mid-flight, changing his trajectory.

"You'll hafta do better'n that, OLD FREAK! Come back here!!"

Bounding over trees and rooftops, the pair landed in a nearby park, one still hot on the trail of the other. The old lecher looked back with a twisted grin as his opponent had just launched himself off a tree branch and was in mid-air.

"Here ya go m'boy, one pair of Akane's panties!" the hentai exclaimed as a pair of lacy underwear hit the young martial artist in the face. This had thrown him off just enough to get hit by the park's sprinklers and the figure disappeared into the distance with a maniacal laugh, tossing back only a bra with the cry "A present for you Ranma! Try it on! I'll have a look see later!" as he was gone from sight.

---

"Aaaanndd.....CUT! That's lunch, people. We'll meet back here in an hour and have Ranko film her scene."

The director put down his megaphone and exited his chair as a soaking wet Ranma Saotome relaxed and walked off the set, to his trailer. "See ya in an hour." he called back to the cast and crew. As Ranma closed the door, he sighed and looked down at his clothes. The only frustrating part of the job. Half his scenes ended in him getting drenched, dunked, splashed and otherwise wet. The prop people didn't really use cold water. Who could tell on camera anyway? But wet clothing quickly becomes freezing to the body. Ranma proceeded to change into his street clothes, planning to spend a leisurely lunch without his costumed image along for the ride.

It'd been almost four years. Ranma had been in acting before, but never the title role in a hit series. 'Ranma 1/2' was one of the top shows in Tokyo, let alone all of Japan. And now it was getting public exposure overseas as well. Ranma had gradually surrendered his birth name and adopted that of his television persona. They all had. Every actor in the show had legally taken the name of their character. No one thought twice about it either. It was just easier. No one would buy a story about a martial artist named Kappei Yamaguchi.

Ranma exited the trailer and headed off to where his co-star and leading lady had hers parked, his every thought on having a pleasant break with her.

---

Ranma was about to knock when he heard muffled sounds coming from inside Akane's trailer. Without a thought, he poised his ear to the door and listened.

"Mmmm, Ryouga no etchii..." Akane said with a giggle as Ryouga smiled wryly at her. His arms were around the lovely Akane and his left hand was having a grand old time making friends with the underside of her blouse. "Hehe, you know you love it." he said with a fangy grin as his lips enveloped her neck. Ranma's visage fell as he turned and walked away from the trailer. He knew Ryouga and Akane were seeing each other. Heck, everyone had their suspicions, but he had the proof. He had heard these sounds all too often and his heart ached as each one hit his ears. The relationship wasn't that serious, but Ranma knew Ryouga was a fast mover and this only made him more filled with worry. *Aww man, why couldn't I be the one holdin' Akane in my arms..?* he thought.

"Studying the set's floor again Ranma? Have you even eaten yet?" The actor looked up to see Ukyo giving him a friendly smile. He shot back a grin hiding his embarrassment at her observation and put his hand behind his head. "Eh, I was jus' memorizin' my lines fer my next scene. Goin' over 'em in my head and all that, y'know? heh.. heh."

Ukyo shrugged. She knew Ranma wasn't exactly telling all. No one skips lunch every day for three months on purpose. And that's just what he'd done. She saw him every day, walking slow and silent as if distracted by something. But Ukyo wasn't one to pry. Instead, she patted the chair next to her and handed Ranma some take-out okonomiaki while she flipped through her script. Ranma took it gratefully and quite in-character, wolfed it down in less than a second.

"Prepping for the scene at Ucchans?" questioned Ranma. Well, more like stated. He already knew he was quite right in his observation. Ukyo only had one scene that day. "Yep.", she shot back casually without flinching. Instead her eyes darted up and down the pages and she turned the script upside down and right side up once or twice, looking perturbed. "Sugar, honey. They've got me saying this every five seconds. Are those writers smoking something? I mean my character runs a restaurant, not a candy factory!" Ukyo sighed and kept reading as Ranma let out a soft laugh and stood up to make the best of the remaining break.

---

His thoughts were trailing back to Akane when he heard yet another voice just off-set. "Aiyah! Shampoo no let Violent Girl have Ranma. Ranma take Shampoo to date."

Ranma walked over and nodded to Shampoo. "Heh, Ya'know, I almost can't tell what scene yer rehearsin'."

Shampoo rolled her eyes and smiled. If she had a pay raise for every time she'd said that line, she'd be the highest paid among the cast. "Hello Ranma. I finished lunch early, so I figured I should get these lines down before my next scene." Ranma smiled and gave her the thumbs up.

"Sounds good to me. Ain't it hard for ya to go from yer normal speech ta the incomplete stuff they write for ya? Yer real good at that by the way." Shampoo gave him a nod. "One gets used to it. I'd rather have this than Tatewaki's script. I'm terrible with Shakespearian quotes. You don't know how good you have it. At least you don't need to alter your speech at all."

Ranma shrugged absently. He didn't think much of it. The director loved what the speech did for the character, but Ranma had never really taken notice. It was too natural to him.

Shampoo looked at Ranma, only then noting he was alone. "Where's Akane? I thought you were planning to have lunch with her." Ranma's expression turned to one of sadness and he once again found himself looking to the floor. In his quietest voice he answered her. ".....I was"

Shampoo saw what her inquiry had done to Ranma and sighed, resting her hand on his shoulder. "You really should tell her how you feel." she said, adding in "...before it's too late." to reinforce the statement. Ranma blinked, then remembered he had once confided in Shampoo about his feelings toward Akane. He loved her deeply. No one knew, to his knowledge, except for Shampoo. Ranma was way too shy to spread something like that around. And every time he had wanted to even attempt to tell Akane how he felt, Ryouga was with her.

Ranma Saotome was an excellent actor. But there was one aspect of his character that he didn't need to pretend about. Whenever Ranma denied his feelings to another character in the show, whenever he showed a hint of a blush toward the girl his character was destined to marry, that was no act. Ranma gave his friend a look and forced a smile. He then stood up and headed over to wardrobe, deciding the rest of his break would be spent preparing for work. Shampoo let out a small sigh, wondering how much longer her friend would let his heart be silent.

---

Ryouga and Akane emerged from the trailer, just as the director sounded the five minute warning. Akane smiled and pointed to the corner of her lip, indicating Ryouga had a lipstick smudge left over from their visit. Ryouga in turn, licked his lips and wiped it off. "I need to go change." he said with a smile as his hand graced her cheek and he walked off toward wardrobe. Ryouga however had one thing in common with his character. His lack of directional sense.

That was one of the reasons he'd been cast. The best camera tricks in the business couldn't produce the effect the director wanted nearly as good as Ryouga could. They even had camera crews posted around the world so they could shoot off location when Ryouga got lost. All in all, he was the perfect choice for the role. Ryouga took one wrong turn on his way to wardrobe and quickly found himself lost in another part of the studio.

---

Ranma watched from the sidelines as Ranko took over from where he'd left off. She was using the Amaguri Ken to tear the 'present' Happosai left her to shreds and her voice rang through the studio with calls of "FREAK OF NATURE!!" and "I'M A GUY!". Ranma however was oblivious to this as his attention was fully on Akane who was just walking up for her portion of the scene.

Ranma felt bewitched by this goddess in front of him. His heart melted as she said her lines, the sound of her voice being all his ears cared to hear. His eyes trailed over her every feature, stopping at her lips as she spoke, and focusing on her body at her every move. He was entranced by her beauty. He didn't care what the scene was. He didn't care that he wasn't in it. All he saw was her. Ranko had just delivered her last line. 'Last' being that it was an insult to Akane, hence Ranko was being malleted into the ground. Ranma watched as the vision of loveliness arched her back, her arms caught in a breathtaking downward swing as the mallet met with Ranko's skull. Pure poetry in motion.

Everyone but Ranma cringed at the sight. He saw, pure beauty. They saw pain. Well, more the memory of pain actually. The studio had long stopped providing the prop department with real mallets. There wasn't a stunt double left in Tokyo that would accept the job of standing in for any of Akane's targets. So, instead she had since started using very realistic looking foam mallets.

---

As Akane walked off the set, and the crew readied for the next scene, Ranma walked over to her. He was far too influenced by her beauty to let shyness ruin it for him. He was going to break the ice. And the best part was, Ryouga was nowhere in sight. Akane looked over as Ranma advanced toward her and smiled. "Hello Ranma. How was your lunch?"

Ranma let that go, not wanting to let regret take the place of his current feelings. Instead, he simply went on with his intended conversation. "You were great out there Akane." he said with a soft smile. She smiled in return and reciprocated with a nod "As were you, earlier." Ranma's heart fluttered. No one's praise meant more to him than that of Akane. He was practically beaming at her words. "Y.. ya really think so?" was all he could manage to say. Again Akane nodded and he simply smiled at her. Ranma gulped and took a deep breath. *It's now or never..* he thought to himself. "Akane, ya wanna have dinner tonight?" Akane blinked. She had not expected Ranma's invitation.

The truth was, Akane had not spent much time off-set with Ranma and was more used to his in-character persona. She had grown accustomed to the insults, the fighting, the put-downs. True, it was all acting, but it was all she knew where he was concerned. Akane looked at him nervously and searched for the right response. She could almost have seen Ranma's love filled eyes gleaming in anticipation if she weren't so distracted with what to say. *I was hoping to spend dinner with Ryouga.* she thought.

"We're ready for scene 2A. Where the hell is Hibiki??" the director called. "Damned fool got himself lost again!" answered a crewman. Hearing this, Akane sighed. She knew this meant he'd be gone for the day. Perhaps the week. She looked at Ranma and smiled. *He's being so gentlemanly. Why not?* Nodding to him, she finally spoke. "Yes Ranma. I'd like very much to have dinner with you tonight."

Ranma's heart leapt from his chest and he smiled from ear to ear. "Great! I'll make you anything ya want. You choose."

Akane realized Ranma had meant dinner at his place. She was taken aback, but was not about to break a date she made less than a minute ago. She simply smiled and replied politely. "Surprise me." With that, she turned and went to make-up. Ranma waited till she was out of sight, then jumped ten feet in the air and let out a yell that was so loud with enthusiasm, one of the crewmen dropped a set prop on their foot.

"YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHOOOOOO!!!!"

And so ends part 1 of our story. Please feel free to rate and review ^_^