Chapter 2: "The Beginning"

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Akane was leaning patiently against the fence while she waited for Ranma. "That baka better hurry... Still can't believe I'm letting him go through my stuff like this... but he's right... as usual... And I know he's just as tired of our parents pushing us together as I am..."

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-A few moments earlier.-

Akane was fuming. There was no way she was going to let Ranma go through her stuff.

"Akane, you know as soon as they know about the training trip they're going to try and force us together. We'll be having ANOTHER wedding. Wasn't the last one bad enough for you?"

Akane thought back to the previous wedding. It had been a disaster. Nabiki inviting all of the other suitors / fiancées / whatever you want to call them. Akane was angry. But why? It wasn't like she wanted to marry that baka. Right? "You pervert! You honestly think I want to let you go through my stuff?" She was clearly avoiding talking about the wedding.

Ranma shrugged. "Do you want to go on this trip?" Akane simply nodded. "You know if they find out one of two things will happen. One, they'll keep us here and throw a wedding. Two, someone is bound to follow us and ruin the trip." Ranma smirked. "Besides, I've already taken care of everything. We just have to get your stuff and leave."

"What do you mean 'taken care of everything'?"

Ranma just avoided the question. "Well, are you going to let me get your stuff or not?" Akane sighed and nodded her head.

"You're still a pervert." Ranma simply rolled his eyes.

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Ranma silently leapt up to the roof. Once he made sure nobody else had noticed, he hung down outside Akane's window. As quietly as possible, he opened the window and swung in. He smiled as he noticed a picture of them from Christmas sitting on her desk. He had to pull himself away from Akane's soft green eyes that he was so prone to getting lost in. But of course, she didn't know that – as a matter of a fact, nobody else did. With a sigh, Ranma started to pack a bag for Akane for the trip. He felt like such a pervert when it came to... 'certain parts' of what she would need packed, but they were necessary.

Ranma tossed the pack over his shoulder and leapt out the window and over the fence to see Akane down the street where she was waiting. Akane nodded and took the pack from Ranma. Ranma picked his own pack up and the two set off for wherever it was Ranma was planning on them going.

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Akane was starting to get tired. Well, can't really say starting to get tired. She was exhausted. Her side hurt. She had already lost track of time. "How does he do it?" she thought as she noticed Ranma was just barely breaking a sweat.

While her attention was on Ranma she didn't see a rock. Before she could hit the ground or catch herself, Ranma caught her. Once she was standing back up Ranma kept walking. "Only a little farther Akane... hang in there…"

They continued walking for what seemed like just under an hour when Ranma finally slowed down his pace. "There's a clearing up ahead. We'll use that as our camp." Ranma looked over at her. "You okay, Tomboy?"

Akane's aura flared up for a second and then went away. She was too tired to even mallet him at this point. "Baka. I'm fine. I can take care of myself."

Ranma simply shook his head and kept walking. "Looks like this is going to be more difficult than I thought" Ranma sighed and reminded himself why he was doing this. I don't want to see her hurt. She needs all the training that she can get. After all, Shampoo and Ukyo are NOT going to be happy about this. This? Just what is this? Me training her? Or could there be more to this than even I planned? That kawaiikune tomboy? Well, she is kawaii when she smiles. What am I thinking! There's no way I – " Ranma's thoughts were cut off before he could even finish.

"Hey Ranma, so why did you wait until now to finally take me serious and start training me?" Akane couldn't take it any longer she had to know. "I mean, why not earlier? Why not before we went through what we did?"

Ranma stopped walking. He had been trying not to remember about Saffron. He had to use the Art for more than self-defense – or even protecting the weak. Well, sort of. He was protecting Akane. But it went beyond simply defending her, he had to kill. He killed to keep her safe. It didn't really make a difference if Saffron would be reborn or not. He had killed him. No martial artist should ever have to use the Art to kill. "At least, not an honorable one…"

For a second, Akane regretted asking Ranma the question. She knew how much that had torn Ranma. Even if he denied saying it, she knew she heard him say those three words. The three words she had been waiting to hear for a long time. Ranma had told her that he loved her. If only the baka wouldn't keep denying that he said it. It hurt her that he waited until he though she was dead.

Ranma looked down at her. He looked right into her deep green eyes. "I know I should've trained you before. I'm... I'm s-s-sorry..." Ranma forced himself to look away and continue into the clearing.

Akane silently followed him. "He apologized? I wonder what's going on with him..."

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The clearing wasn't huge, but then again it wasn't small. There was already an area that looked like it was for tents and a circle of rocks for a fire. Akane dropped her pack and sat on one of the logs sitting around the fire pit. She yawned. It was nearly dark and they had been walking nearly all day.

Ranma picked up Akane's pack and carried it closer to where the tents would be set up. After setting both of the packs down, he opened his and pulled out the two tents and started setting them up. Akane was startled at the speed that Ranma could set tents up.

"Of course, I'm sure there's a Saotome School of Anything Goes Camping." Akane couldn't help but grin at her thought.

Ranma was lost in thought. He knew he wanted to train Akane. He knew she should be the best out of his fiancées. The word was disgusting to him at this point. Being engaged isn't supposed to be like this. Even with arranged marriages, there is usually only one fiancée. Not 2. Not 3. Not however many that poor excuse for a pop had gotten him into.

How was he going to train her though? He knew she probably couldn't go through training at the same pace he did. Hmmm… What did she need work in most? She hits hard enough. That's for sure. She's slow though. Not to mention how mad she gets.

"That's it! First goal will be to get Akane to control her anger. Oh boy. This won't be fun."

"Hey Tomboy!" Ranma shouted to Akane from beside the tent. Akane jerked up, her blue aura surrounding her.

"What do you want Baka?" Akane shouted back to him as she approached him, mallet in hand already.

"Oh nothing. Just wanted to show you what I'd train you with first." Ranma stood in his relaxed stance as always.

"Oh, and what's that? Going to insult me? That's the training you're going to do?" Akane's aura grew.

Ranma simply shook his head. "Yep. You get angry too easy. You can't fight as well if you're angry."

Akane's aura disappeared as well as her mallet as she thought about what he said. "You fight angry all the time! How can you talk to me about being angry?"

"I get mad. I get determined. I DON'T get angry. There's a difference. Being angry clouds your judgment."

"Since when did the great baka know anything about judgment? Well I guess yours must be bad if you decided to train a slow tomboy like me!" Akane was starting to get angry again.

"Do you want me to train you or not?"

"Yeah, but you --"

"Then you're going to have to learn to control your anger. No more mallets." Ranma interrupted.

Akane looked down at the ground and nodded. "Hai – Hai Sensei"

Ranma nearly face faulted at her comment. "What's with the sensei stuff?"

"Well, you are teaching me, ne? I think it's only proper if I call you Sensei." Akane bowed slightly.

"Well then Student ya hungry?"

Akane smiled and nodded again. "Is he going to let me cook? I wonder..." "Um, Sensei?" Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Can I cook dinner?"

Ranma started to sweat. "Um. Well. Ya see. Uh…" Ranma looked around desperately for something to get him out of having to eat Akane's tox – food. How could he expect her to stop being so angry if he couldn't stop insulting her and making her angry? "Ok, but on one condition."

Akane's eyes lit up. "Is he actually going to let me cook? Wow. Who is he and what has he done with my Ran – Wait. MY Ranma? Why would I even think that? He hates me. But he is training me. Maybe this trip won't be pointless after all." Akane nodded.

"You have to try the food first before I'll eat it. AND you have to follow the instructions word for word." Akane silently fumed at his words before nodding and walking off towards their bags.

Ranma let the breath out that he didn't realize he was holding. "That went better than I thought." Ranma decided now would be a good time to take a nap. Who knows? It could be his last. He inwardly winced as he thought of eating Akane's cooking.

End Chapter 2

Up next - Chapter 3: "And the Training Begins"