Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the sole property of Rumihiko Takahashi and I hate her! No wait, I love her because she created Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha but I also loathe her because she won't give them to me!!!

Someone's Kiss

One-shot

By: Ridikulous

()

"Tonight is so beautiful..." Akane whispered to herself, her head tipped back and gazing at the star-studded sky in wonder and awe, her arms supporting her from behind. Brown eyes were somewhat wide and glowing with fascination, mouth curved in a sweet smile.

She had all the night to herself. Alone and peaceful, Akane sat unmoving and relaxed on the roof tiles, forgetting the uneasy edges pressing to her bottom as she was awestruck by the sky. Tonight was one of those rare nights when the sky was completely clear of clouds, allowing the stars to flicker down on the little people on earth.

Akane had taken advantage of the early retreat of her family to sneak up on her roof and just marvel at the things around her that she took for granted. Like this perfect and tantalizing view of the inky expanse of sky that seemed like an endless road scattered with broken diamonds.

Does a star feel lonely even when surrounded by Friends, like me?

She let the cool breeze wash over her, lifting the silky short strands of her hair and swirled it around her raised face.

Akane thought of her day. It had been relatively normal, even for Nerima's standards. The townspeople had gotten used to strange and powerful creatures suddenly attacking the Tendo dojo ever since that fateful day the gigantic panda and red-haired girl had arrived. There had been no fighting inanimate objects coming to life, vengeful fiancé's thundering through the school walls or hateful anti-Ranma enemies trying to kidnap her for she was the liability and the weakness.

At that last thought, Akane snorted in disgust, her brown eyes narrowing in annoyance. She hated being used as bait, as if she was nothing mare than a lure to complete their revenge on whoever that loathed, but it was mostly against Ranma. They couldn't see that she had feelings too and Akane got deeply hurt whenever she gets kidnapped and adding further proof that she was defenseless, useless and weak.

Then Akane abruptly shook her head, whipping her hair wildly about her as if she was trying to literally shake the depressing thoughts that threatened to wash her overboard, destroying the perfection of the night.

None of those thoughts tonight, Akane warned herself, glaring at the mental image of consciousness and sending her quailing away to a dark spot in her mind.

Instead, Akane deliberately steered her mind to the only perky moment of the day. During a break in class when her friend, Sumire, had opened a new topic within their circle that day.

Kissing.

While Akane had remained quiet and listening, her friends had regaled stories of their first, second and so on and so forth kisses. The nervousness they had felt as they watched wide eyed the lips of another human being of the opposite gender come closer and closer to theirs. All of them were blushing and giggling and only Akane had not volunteered any information or memory since she was still innocent in the acting-part but never on knowledge. They did have a Sex Education subject in school and were taught many worldly things and preventing tremendous mistakes from happening.

"You know, I realized something," Sumire had said earlier, Akane recalled, as something very important. "Guys don't care about rhythm or variety or permission, all they care about his taking pleasure for themselves. So it's up to us girls to guide them in the proper and equal way of kissing!"

They had all cried in agreement through the excitement of it all and the other students had watched them with curious eyes and Akane had her friends had laughed like they just shared the world's greatest secret.

It'd probably feel like rose petals whispering...

There was that intensified feeling of curiosity again, to know first-hand how it would feel to have another set of lips against yours. The boys at school, lord knows, tries time and again to try and kiss Akane but luckily for her, the boys in school were weak in martial arts and thus failed in their marked attempt. Besides, Akane was saving her first kiss for someone special. Someone like...

"Watcha doing?" a loud and clear voice suddenly asked from behind her and Akane sharply looked over her shoulder, visibly tensing, her hands fisting to punch the stranger.

But when she saw who it was, the silvery moonlight bouncing against his figure and shimmering around him like a hoary aura, Akane relaxed but let her exasperation show in the furrowing of her eyebrows.

Someone like...

"Ranma! It's you! How dare you sneak up on me," Akane accused with a slight frown as she felt some of the night's intimate pleasure disappear. She followed him with her eyes as he sat down a few feet away from her, sitting Indian-style and arms crossed against his chest. He was wearing his nightie, a tank top and black string pajamas. He wasn't bothered by the night's slight chilliness.

The cold didn't bother Akane so much too because the morning had been quite humid and it was refreshing to be out in the open and just reveling in the cool night breeze.

Ranma lifted his broad shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. "I didn't sneak on you. You just weren't paying attention to your surroundings, as usual." He smirked but his voice and eyes seemed strangely subdued for once.

Akane let the jibe pass since it wasn't worth ruining her lovely night. Her eyes wandered to the bunched muscles on his chest and arms and to her mortification, her face reddened because of the sudden and surprising surge of attraction in her.

True, Ranma was a really good-looking and powerfully built guy but still...Ranma was still...Ranma, the jerk, the hentai, the insensitive creep and the inexcusably arrogant "master of martial arts."

Akane sighed helplessly and turned away from Ranma's tempting form and gazed back up at the sky. To her mild surprise, the sky seemed darker and inkier than it had been moments ago and the stars were more brilliant as well, contrasting magnificently with its natural backdrop.

Why am I so aware right now?

"You're invading on my private moment, you know," Akane mumbled softly, allowing the wind to carry her words away. Ranma heard anyway. His deep blue eyes slid sideways and regarded her with a closed expression. "So? It's a free country and a free roof," he answered dryly then looked away.

It was happening again.

Whenever Ranma and Akane were within five feet of one another, they could never have a civilized conversation without it ending in some bitter argument and someone getting hurt very badly – mostly, the hurt was from Ranma.

Maybe it was time to try and reconnect their friendship a bit. And Akane had a plan on how to, erm, jumpstart it. At first thought, she just ignored the suggestion as it came to her mind as outrageous and totally out of character but as Akane reluctantly mulled the idea, she realized its sudden appeal and benefits. Though the reasons of those advantages were thought upon quite cynically.

She surreptitiously took a peak at Ranma from the corners of her eyes and was startled to find out that he was doing exactly the same thing. Both of them turned a bright shade of red and looked away at the same time.

After a long moment of silence, Akane took a deep and courageous breath and turned slightly so she faced Ranma. She gazed at him intently and he finally faced her as well, wariness bright in his eyes and the tense stiffness of his shoulders.

"What?" he asked suspiciously.

For you to just accept without asking...

Akane looked down and for a moment, lost herself in the intricate cracks of the tiles and the decaying of the jagged edges.

Ranma coughed and peered at her curiously, trying to understand why she was so strange. Akane snapped out of her improper fascination of tile patterns and flushed as she struggled to let out the idea twisting and truing in her mind. Good god, how will Ranma react to this? It was too bold, too daring and totally too uncharacteristic of a tomboy like her for him to actually accept.

But she had nothing to lose...perhaps except her dignity but what the heck. He teased the dignity out of her daily anyway.

"Akane?"

"Ranmawhydon'twekiss" she said in a breathy rush, her words tumbling over one another and Ranma's eyebrows snapped together in bewilderment. "Huh?" he brilliantly replied.

Wetting her lips, feeling the rise of anxiety and uncertainty in her, Akane forced herself to repeat the dreaded words more clearly and audibly.

"Ranma, why d-don't we...we k-kiss?" She still finished the last part in an uncertain hurry.

She watched intently his reactions.

First, there was blackness since the words hadn't registered yet. Then came the realization as it lighted his eyes and then the unadulterated and unhidden shock as meaning pierced through his one-celled brain.

"WHAT?!" Ranma practically shouted but he was rooted to his spot on the ceiling. A few dogs in the distance barked in response to his holler and I flinched. For a few minutes, I tensely waited for the household to explode in rudely awakened people.

Akane glared at him. "Shut up! You're going to wake the entire neighborhood!"

He glared right back at her. "Well you're the one demanding me to kiss you!"

She glowed red with anger and embarrassment and she hissed, "Let me just explain! So shut up and listen clearly."

It must have been an effort but Ranma shut his stiff jaws together and glared at her, waiting for her so-called 'explanation.'

Sometimes you make me feel like an idiot...

Akane took a steadying breath and tried to explain in a calm and collected way.

"Um, it's like this. This morning, Sumire was, uh, talking about," she blushed darker, "kissing. And um, I was wondering what it would f-feel like to get kissed." She stopped and intentionally avoided looking at him, opting instead to stare at her hands.

Ranma coughed. "And you want me to kiss you so you'll know how it will feel?!"

Akane bit her lip. "Well, we are, er, fiancé's after all and it...would be a favor. You know?"

A stressed hush followed and Akane grew more and more strung. Dismay and horror filled her as the silence grew tauter and longer and Akane cursed herself for even thinking of such a shameful suggestion.

An eternity later...

"Well, okay," Ranma slowly accepted, color rising to his cheeks and he was looking at some point in the horizon like it was even more interesting than what he had just agreed to.

Akane looked up slowly, eyes implausibly wide and tentative, mouth agape with astonishment.

"Wha...? Wha...? REALLY?!" She was rendered speechless, quite a rare feat. Did Ranma just agree to it?

Only one way to know for sure...Akane drew in a shaky breath and closed her eyes, titling her head upwards and every muscle in her body tensed and quivering in anticipation and fear. Ranma looked taken aback at the suddenness of it all but after a moment's hesitation, he did the same thing. He closed his eyes but lowered his head instead. They were both facing fully together now, their arms pressed stonily to their sides as their faces inched closer and closer with each hasty breath they took.

Their lips were mere inches away from touching when suddenly and together, their eyes snapped open wide, their eyes filled with contrasting feelings. Something flickered in Ranma's eyes and Akane stored it in her memory a moment before their lips gently touched.

And everything seemed to have grounded to a halt.

The cold breeze had disappeared and the surroundings were intently silent and the sky and stars were no longer shining with light and guidance and all of them seemed to freeze, waiting for the couple to break away and resume time.

Everything seemed to center on the two persons gently kissing on top of one of the houses.

Their eyes were wide and staring deeply into the other's as their lips warmly press together in the gentlest and sweetest kiss as old as the cherry blossoms itself.

Then, breaking the extraordinary and almost magical stillness of everything, a falling star sailed through the sky as if a special blessing from the gods above.

Akane and Ranma pulled back at the same time, blinking wildly to banish whatever secret emotions that had lurked in their eyes when they had shared an intimate and milestone moment of their lives.

It was Akane's first kiss and she brought her fingers to her lips, grazing against them softly, feeling the tingling warmth that had lingered. Her face was lightly blushing but not in embarrassment. That had been...She swallowed and looked at Ranma who was possibly as scarlet as her. And judging by the look on his face, it had been his first true kiss as well. Shampoo and countless others had kissed him on the lips before but he was forced to do it and this time, it had been on his own will and no one forced him to do it.

Ranma cleared his throat and suddenly stood up. "I...uh..." he reddened some more, "gotta go! I gotta wake up early tomorrow. You know, for school."

He quickly jumped down the roof and unto the ground below in an almost feline grace that still amazed Akane up to now. He looked up at her, still sitting on the roof and illuminated by the two-fold shine of the moon, brown eyes luminous and pink lips slightly agape.

Before he hastily went inside, Ranma managed to say in his haste, "That was...um...er...you know." Then he was gone.

Akane swore she saw that his face had completely turned the color of a rotten tomato but she was sure her face was burning the same color as well. She smiled softly and went back to her original position, slightly leaning back with her hands supporting her from behind.

"I know, Ranma, I know. I thought so too," she whispered to no one in particular since Ranma had gone inside already.

The stars smiled fondly down at her and Akane closed her eyes, feeling the chilly breeze cool her hot cheeks and she grinned back.

A kiss does feel like rose petals...or maybe it was just you...

My first one-shot! Please tell me how it was or if it was well, you know, like my other works, horrible and frightening. Helpful criticism is widely accepted but rude reviews are just hurtful. Please be considerate, okay? After all, this is my FIRST ONE-SHOT.

Please don't blame me for the OOC-ness and weirdness and totally corny and unattractiveness of the story! Domo arigatou, minna-san!!!