Hello, I'm back! Summer break is going by so quickly :(

Please leave a review if you want! Hopefully I caught most of the grammar mistakes, but feel free to point out if I didn't!

Akane noticed that Ranma seemed to be rather uncomfortable sitting in their living room. His lips were seals shut while he kept shifting around, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. She couldn't blame him. He was smack dab in between her older sisters, Nabiki and Kasumi. Meanwhile his father was caught up in telling a wild story to her father, and the two were loud with random inside jokes and laughs, no attention being paid to their children around them.

Taking matters into her own hands, Akane stood up. "Dad, can I show Ranma our dojo?"

Soun stopped talking to look at his daughter. "Hm? Oh yes, that's a great idea, Akane."

Akane grinned and motioned for Ranma to follow her. The pigtailed boy looked rather grateful to leave and quickly hurried after her.

Soun grinned at Genma from across the table, in tearful joy. "Look Saotome, our children are already becoming friends!"

"How great is that, Tendo!" Genma exclaimed, sharing the same sentiments as his old friend.

Akane opened the door and led Ranma into the Tendo Dojo. The large, wooden space greeted them, and Ranma seemed amazed by every nook and cranny in the building.

"It's my dad's dojo," Akane explained. "It's been passed along every generation of our family so, that means I'll be next to own it!"

"Aw, that's cool. Pops doesn't own anything like this," Ranma said.

After letting Ranma admire the dojo for a few more moments, Akane gave out a suggestion. "Do you wanna spar a little?"

"Spar?"

"You're a martial artist right? I'm one too." She grinned. "Let's test out our skills with each other."

"Alright!" Ranma got into a fighting pose and cocked his head at her, smirking. "Come at me then."

Akane was slightly taken aback by the sudden change in his attitude, but quickly shook herself out of it. She readied herself into a fighting stance, and decided to make the first move to give herself an advantage. It'd be easy. Akane had fought tons of mean boys before at school, and she knew Ranma couldn't be that much better than those bullies.

Akane charged in to punch Ranma, but the boy suddenly jumped into the air to dodge. It happened much too fast, and Akane only saw blur before she felt his feet use the back of her head as a springboard. She stumbled from the impact, tripped on nothing, and then fell on the floor, face down.

"Aw, jeez, Akane, you get knocked out by something like that?" Ranma exclaimed incredulously, now standing over her.

Akane groaned and slowly got onto her feet. Bruises were definitely going to form on her legs, but she was used to getting hurt after getting into so many fights at school.

"You're a bit of a klutz, aren't ya?" Ranma said. "The way you fall proves it!"

"Klutz?!" Akane yelled, irked by his comment. She had expected him to ask her if she was okay, but then he goes and insults her? The nerve! She hit Ranma on the head. "Who are you calling klutz?"

"Ow," Ranma yelped and scowled. "Not only are you are a klutz, you're violent too!" Akane swung at him again, but Ranma jumped backwards and laughed when he saw the angry expression on her face. Grinning, he took off running, and yelled, "Try and catch me, Slowpoke!"

"Get back here!" Akane shouted after him.

Ranma's creativity was endless in coming up with dozens of names to call Akane and poke fun of her. She would beat him up in response, but he kept at it, making fun of her whenever he had the chance. He probably got some sick satisfaction from seeing her get angry and getting hit by her. All the other boys who picked fun of her or her friend would stop after a hit or two, but Ranma was relentless.

Akane had been honestly annoyed by his behavior. That was the case, until one day she found her friend, Sayuri, give a boy from their class a hug after school ended. And it wasn't just any boy- it was Shou, the class bully who had been picking on Sayuri since the beginning of the school year. Akane froze, staring at them in disbelief as Sayuri parted ways with him. Akane watched wordlessly as Sayuri waved to her and then skipped over to her to leave the school building together. "What was that?" she asked.

Sayuri blinked blankly. "What was what?"

"Why'd you hug Shou from our class? He used to tease you so much until I knocked some sense into him."

"Oh. He's my boyfriend now," Sayuri said nonchalantly.

Akane stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"Yeah, boyfriend!"

Akane felt as if her world had been turned upside down. Was Sayuri crazy? "How-why? He made fun of you all the time!"

"Here's the thing about boys, Akane." Sayuri grinned. "Boys will tease you if they like you. That's what my mom said."

"Is...is that true?" Akane said slowly, eyes widening.

"It sure is!" She winked. "Look at me and Shou now! He confessed to me the other day about that, and now we're dating! If a boy ever has the guts to tease you, then you know!"

"What if they call you mean nicknames?" Akane asked. Her mind instantly wandered to Ranma and his endless teasing of her.

"Oh, then the boy really likes you!" Sayuri narrowed her eyes mischievously. "Why? Could the Akane actually have a certain boy in mind?

Akane shook her head furiously. "No, it's nothing like that!" she protested, lying. Thankfully, Sayuri moved onto another topic, and Akane tried her best to be engaged, but the whole time her thoughts were elsewhere. As in they were on a certain pigtailed martial artist.

All of Ranma's relentless teasing of her... Could it be that Ranma actually… liked her?

"Hey, the Macho Jock is back!" Ranma greeted, waving a friendly hand. A boyish grin was on his face as usual, but it seemed more exuberant to Akane, and she realized it really suited him. Usually,this was the time Akane would retort back in anger at his nicknames and beat him up. Instead, her mind instantly thought of what Sayuri told her, and she felt herself turn red and just stared at him.

Ranma's grin faltered, and he looked weirded out by her unusual reaction. "Hello? You there, Akane?"

"Yea-yeah!" Akane felt embarrassed. She forced her face to twist into a petulant, angered expression, hopefully similar to how she usually looked. "You jerk!"

Ranma lightened up a bit at her response. "Even your reactions are slow now, Slowpoke!" He stuck out his tongue at her, and bolted away.

Usually, this was the point when Akane would get mad and chase after him, even though the boy was much more nimble than her. But It happened again. Her face heated up and she did nothing as her heartbeat sped up at hearing the nickname Ranma called her on a daily basis.

Now knowing that the relentless teasing Ranma did to her actually meant that he liked her, Akane found that she couldn't act normal around him. She tried to, by acting angry and hitting him as she once did, but it was all pretend now. She felt more and more drawn in by the boyish energy he had and (dare she admit it) actually started to find him somewhat attractive.

But she was Akane, the infamous girl who beat up boys at school. She couldn't tell anyone the emotional turmoil she was going through because of Ranma. She had a reputation to keep!

Pain erupted through her left arm, and Akane bit her lips to keep herself from crying. She laid sprawled out on her back in the dirt, the result of badly failed attempt to learn how to climb a tree like how Ranma had shown her.

"Aw jeez, Akane, you klutz!" Ranma hollered from above, high up on a tree branch. He quickly made his way down to the ground and crouched down next to her. He immediately softened up. "Hey dude, you alright?"

Akane nodded. "I'm fine, don't worry!" She tried to get up but visibly winced when she tried to use her left arm.

"No you ain't," Ranma said, frowning, and placed his arms behind her neck and knees to hold her. Despite being shorter than her, he picked her up with ease, mindful of her hurt arm. Akane stiffened at the contact. Her head was against Ranma, and she could feel warmth coming from him and the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. "Ranma," she said quietly. "My arm hurts but my legs are fine."

He shook his head and smiled apologetically at her. "Still Akane. It's sorta my fault that you got hurt."

"But-" Before Akane could get out what she wanted to say, Ranma leapt into the air. She screamed, using her hand to clutch onto Ranma for dear life as he jumped his way across buildings to take her back home. But her screams quickly turned into laughter as she felt an exhilarating rush, with the wind messing up her short hair and the town of Nerima and its flickering lights being their background. Before she knew it, she was back home, and she would have hugged Ranma if it wasn't for her arm still being in pain.

A part of her wanted to relive the moment all over again after it had ended, but she didn't want to face her dad's rage at her broken arm again.

Little after two weeks of the Saotomes staying with them, Akane heard rapid knocking at her window that woke her up late at night. She yawned, slowly sitting up to see what was making the noise outside. She nearly screamed when she saw Ranma's face outside.

Quickly, she opened the window, letting the pigtailed boy crawl inside. "Ranma!" she said in a hushed whisper and flicked on the lamp on her desk. "What are you doing?!"

Ranma was wearing a rather big backpack on his back and looked uncharacteristically sad. "We're leaving right now. I just wanted to say bye," he said quietly, his eyes downcast.

"Leaving?" Akane repeated. "Right now?" Saying the word herself made her heart plunge. She knew this day would come, of course, her father had said that the Saotomes were staying for only a little bit, but she didn't expect it to come so soon, to come right now.

"Yeah." Ranma shuffled his feet on her carpet. "Just the other day, he said he saw someone who looked like they were from the Yazuka he stole from. He doesn't want your pops to freak out or anything, so we're leaving without telling him. He left a note for your pops to read later though."

"Aw, Ranma…That really sucks," was all Akane could muster up. What was she supposed to say in this situation? She gulped. "Will you... ever come back?"

Ranma sighed. "I'm not sure… I have no idea what my Pops has in mind right now."

Akane stayed quiet, the sinking feeling getting worse inside her. This might be the last time she would see Ranma. The last time. No more name calling, teasing, fighting… To be perfectly honest, she was going to miss all of it... and miss him. But what was she going to do? He was leaving now, for who knows how long, and what was she supposed to say to him that would be the perfect way to say goodbye?

That she… liked him back too?

Ranma was blabbering on about something, but Akane had zoned out. She took in a deep breath.

"Ranma."

The boy stopped talking to quirk his eyebrows at her. "Yeah?"

She paused, but pulled herself together. She could do this. "I think…" she said slowly. "I like you." She held her breath.

Ranma blinked. "I like you too, Akane. You're a fun person to be around. But yeah, as I was saying, my Pops-"

"No, dummy! I like you more than a friend!" she hissed.

Ranma stared at her. " More than a friend…?" The gears seemed to click in his head, and he let out an uncomfortable laugh and took a step back from Akane. "Aw, geez, sorry Akane, I know I'm attractive and all but I don't think I like guys like that."

The only sound that filled the air was the rustling of the oak tree's branches outside Akane's window. "Another… guy?" Akane repeated, dumbfounded. "You think I'm a guy…?"

"Yeah?" Ranma scratched the back of his head nervously, seeing much his short-haired companion was shaking. "Aren't ya, Akane?"

"Ranma! Time to go!" Genma shouted from outside.

"Okay, Pops!" Ranma yelled. He turned to Akane and gave her one last smile. "Looks like it's time for me to go. See ya, Akane!" Before Akane could say anything else, he hurried out the window and disappeared from her room.

Akane, in a fit of bewildered rage, ran towards the window, banging her hands on the still and shoving her head out. "RANMA, YOU DUMB STUPID IDIOT!" she screamed. "I'M A GIRL!"

She grabbed the closest thing near her without looking, and chucked it as hard as she could out the window. But it landed pointlessly on the ground with a loud thud.

Ranma was gone.

Akane couldn't help but cry herself to sleep that night, and she swore to herself, that she would never like another stupid boy like Ranma ever again.