Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma and his friends. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Akane changed out of her pajamas and into her gi. Her heart beat a little faster just before she stepped out of her tent. She felt stupid for being nervous. It was just Ranma. When she stepped out, she saw him gazing into the trees, nonchalantly tipping a canteen of water gently over his head until he changed. She should have expected that. She knew it was part of his personal code of honor, but really, to her Ranma was Ranma. It wasn't exactly that she didn't notice the curse anymore, but she was used to it.

"You don't have to do that, you know." Akane said.

"Yeah, I do." Ranma answer, tightening the waistband of his pants and pushing damp red bangs out of his eyes. "I need to stay in practice with my girl side, too, anyway."

"Suit yourself."

Ranma looked down and shuffled around a bit before he looked at her and said "Are you ready to get started?"

Akane nodded. "Yes. What do you want me to do?"

"Catch me if you can!" Ranma called, jumping up and vaulting off the tree trunk next to them and landing on the outstretched lower limb of another tree. He stood there grinning, one hand resting on a perfectly curved hip.

Akane took a deep breath and followed. She found it wasn't too hard of a jump after all. As soon as she came close Ranma continued upward. As Akane followed, they moved faster and faster, until it was all she could do to keep track of a blur of red between branches. The less she thought about what she was doing, somehow, the easier it got. This felt almost like flying. As she reached the tree tops, she saw Ranma head downwards, controlling his momentum by lighting on and flipping around convenient branches. On the way up, she had nearly caught up with him a few times. Down should have been easier, but it wasn't. To go down, you had to look down, and looking down from this height was not comfortable. She fell way behind, feeling compelled to slow down until she could process what was happening.

Akane hopped down from a low branch to see Ranma sitting, cross legged on the ground chin in his hands. He looked up at her and gave a positively angelic yawn, perfect feminine features set in dejected boredom. "Hey, you finally made it, slow poke."

"You didn't have to leave me so far behind, you know" Akane looked at him, her hands on her hips.

"Gotta keep up, Akane. Let's do it again. This time I'm going to throw attacks at you on the way up."

And up they went, sparring the whole way. Ranma's fist came flying at her head. She blocked too slow, and at the last second, he pulled his punch completely, flicked her forehead and stuck his tounge out at her as he grabbed a branch above his head and swung himself upward again. 'Oh, it's on!' Akane thought. Springing up a good thirty feet kicking off a heavy limb and launching herself downwards in a flying kick. She thought she was going to land it, but Ranma flipped and grasped her leg between both of his, threw her and kept climbing. Akane recovered quickly and followed.

"Too slow, tomboy. You told me those thick thighs of yours are all muscle, you'd better use 'em and make me believe it."

"Ranma!" Akane felt her rage buoy her, as she flipped through the treetops after her fiance. "You are so dead."

"Am not 'cause you're soooo sloooow." Ramna taunted and began the same kind of maniacal descent he had earlier.

'Oh, I am going to hit you so hard!' Akane thought as she dove after Ranma, dodging the small branches flying toward her face using the ones large enough to grab or jump off to change her speed and direction. There was Ranma, just ahead, bouncing off the trunk of a tree almost as big around as her father's koi pond. Akane drove at him hard and managed to land a good wallop on his too cute little red head. Her fiance landed hard, sprawled flat on his back on the ground. Which, now that she thought about it, was rushing up at her face pretty damned fast. She flung her body into a roll just as she hit the ground and tumbled out of it more or less unscathed.

Ranma tensed as he watched Akane panic, ready to hop up at top speed and catch her. No, she was controlling her landing just fine.

"Gotcha" she said, still a little breathless.

Rubbing at the lump on the back of his head, he wondered idly if he'd really thought this training thing through. Well, if he was going to suffer, so was she. "Lucky shot, Akane, but the warm up's over. Let's go."

He took off at full speed in as near to a vertical course as he could muster, listening to Akane scrambling behind him. As soon as he reached the top, he made a quick descent then grabbed a few seconds rest as he waited to make sure Akane got down alright. As soon as she reached the ground, he took off again. And then he did it again. The third time up, Akane was definitely getting slower, but she showed no signs of quitting. By the sixth run through, Ranma felt like his legs were on gloriously on fire from all the jumping, and she had slowed to a mere clamber behind him.

"Akane, you okay?" He called, "Do you want me to come carry you down?"

"Don't you dare, Ranma!" She yelled "I can do it just fine by myself."

Ranma watched from the ground until she was out of sight, then bounded up to meet her. Akane got hold of a branch overhead to continue to heave herself upwards. Ranma stayed close, ready to grab her if she fell. He could see her arms shaking as she pulled herself up. The first time, she didn't quite get high enough. Just as she tried again to get herself up and over, they were bombarded by diving streaks of white. Apparently, the birds that Ranma had pissed off earlier had brought their friends this time. Swell.

"Ranma!" Akane shrieked losing both her grip and her balance as she flailed, trying to get the damned birds away.

Ranma caught her just before she fell, took her down to the ground and handed her a canteen. The stupid birds were hovering, daring them to try their territory one more time, and then Ranma realized the retribution they had planned. He pushed Akane out of the their target area in time, but he didn't quite get clear quick enough and ended up with an impressive quanity of bird crap all over the back of his shirt and his head.

"Ranma!" Akane said, looking at him with both thanks and pity, "Thank you for saving me."

"No problem." He said. "Come on, this is gross. I wanna get cleaned up."

Akane walked by Ranma's side as he led on through the forest, presumably towards a stream or something. As he walked, he rubbed at his breasts in an entirely unlady-like manner.

"You are such a pervert!" Akane chided. "Can't you at least wait until you're alone to do that?"

"Hey! I ain't a pervert. I forgot how much all that jumping around in girl form hurts after a while. Ow!" He kept massaging his chest. If Nabiki were here, Akane was sure she'd make a fortune off the pictures.

"Ranma, bras exist for a reason other than looks."

"Huh." Ranma said, as if he'd never really thought about the concept before. Then he turned to her, challenge written all over his face, and said "I'm surprised you even know, Akane. It's not like you have much of any to worry about in that department."

Akane took a several swings at Ranma, but he dodged them all and took off. Akane, still winded and sore from climbing trees all morning, darted after him with no expectation that she'd get anywhere close. A few minutes later, Ranma disappeared ahead of her. When she came to the spot where he'd been, she looked down and saw him picking his way down a rocky hill, so steep it was almost a cliff. She followed, her arms and legs so exhausted that her muscles burned and shook, her hands and feet cramping up as she gripped onto the rocks. She kept going, slipping a little until her foot touched surprisingly warm water. A hot spring? She let go and dropped into the water, which came all the way up to her chest.

Ranma, returned to his male form by the spring water, had stripped down to his boxers and undone his braid. He scrubbed to make sure he got all the bird poo out of his hair. Akane lay back in the water. It felt strange to be in with clothes on, but she didn't have the energy to worry about it. She leaned against the rocks and let the water ease her numb muscles as she watched her fiance.

Akane could hardly remember the last time she'd seen Ranma in male form with his hair down. Even with the dragon whisker no longer an issue, he almost never took it out. Every movement was fluid and gracefull, perfectly controlled even when doing something as mundane as washing his hair.

It was funny, she new him so well, that whenever she looked at him, she never quite registered his appearance, exactly. Except for that very first time, when she ran in on him in the bath, she hardly ever noticed what he looked like, exactly. He was just Ranma. Maybe that was because she didn't think of him differently regardless of which form he was in at any given time.

He dropped under the water and came up closer, only a foot or so from her, braiding his hair back into its signature pigtail and fixing his bangs a little. For an insane moment, she thought about pulling him to her and kissing him. Akane shook her head, trying to recall why that was a terrible idea, glad that the day's exertions and the hot water could easily disguise the way her body was responding.

Ranma felt better now that he'd had a chance to get cleaned up and back to being a guy again. Akane had hardly moved since she'd settled against the side of the spring. "Hey, Akane." He asked, "You alright?"

She met his eyes and nodded. Her pupils were dilated, her mouth slightly open, and her skin flushed from the hot water. It looked like her breathing was still just a little bit ragged from the run. Immediately, Ranma took a big step back and a deep, steadying breath as he waited for his body to route some blood back to his brain.

After a moment, he had regained his composure. He glanced at Akane and thanked every god he could think of that she didn't know the effect she'd had on him. She'd definitely clobber him if she had any idea. He'd be down on bed rest for another month at least.

Ranma was saved thinking of something to say when his stomach growled loudly. "Man I'm hungry. Let's go back to camp."

Akane's stomach growled in response, and she nodded, giggling.

The next day, Akane felt so sore she hardly believed she could still move. She was the first one out of bed in the morning because she needed stretch out her sore muscles. Staying still hurt. Moving hurt. Part of her wondered why she'd signed up for weeks of this. Mostly, though, the pain was proof that she was capable of doing more than she was used to. Akane wanted it to subside so she could do it all again. Maybe a soak in that hot spring would help. She carefully picked her way through the undergrowth in the pre-dawn light flinching at the soreness in her legs.

Akane stripped to her underwear and settled into the spring. She watched steam rise off the water into the morning mist, thankful for the time to herself. She so rarely got to be alone any more. Except when he was injured and had to stay home, Ranma was rarely out of earshot anymore. Akane wasn't as bothered by that as she might once have been. Since Jusendo he had been increasingly quiet and protective. It had all worked out alright. He didn't even kill Saffron, not really, anyway. He sure meant to though. Maybe that's why he was all quiet and serious all the time.

Akane hadn't thought much about Jusendo since it had happened, she realized. Maybe she hadn't wanted to. The scariest moment in her life had been when Ranma was about to be sucked into Saffron's egg. She'd saved him though.

Akane remembered the searing heat ripping through her, leaving her swaddled in her clothing and unable to move or speak. She felt numb, but fine. Ranma was there, he had her. She'd bought him the chance to get free of Saffron's egg, but he wasn't doing anything. That idiot! Why didn't he run? Ryoga got them out of there, thank god.

It wasn't until a little later that she realized they all thought she was dead. Ranma didn't say a single word. He held her, wrapped in her now huge clothes, until she felt herself moving. "Give them back!" He screamed. Was he crying?

'Ranma!' She thought, 'it's okay. I'm okay.' He couldn't hear her, of course, but the guide was telling him. And then he was holding her again looking straight at her, his eyes full of hope. She sat, able only to listen as the guide explained that she could get back to normal by soaking in the cold Jusenkyo water from the dragon tap. With no hesitation, Ranma tucked her into the front of his shirt and headed back towards the taproom, the others trailing behind.

"Just hold on a little bit longer, Akane." Ranma said "We'll have you back to normal and pounding me on the head in no time." She watched and listened as Ranma and their friends tried to get the cold tap to run until Ranma got knocked out and she was picked up and shoved roughly in a pocket.

She couldn't hear or see what was happening for a while, and when she was brought out again, Ranma was gone. Shampoo was holding her. "Akane," she said "Shampoo no know if you can hear me, but you going to help me make Ranma husband finally. Shampoo not stupid. Ranma love bitchy kitchen destroyer. I have Jusenkyo water that make you all better, but only use it to help you if Ranma agree to belong to Shampoo forever."

Akane's heart sank. She hoped he wouldn't do it. A crash sounded from somewhere nearby and Shampoo picked her up, running. There was Ranma! "So sad" Shampoo said, "poor Akane end life like this. Though she save Ranma life so Shampoo no feel too bad."

'Bitch! You wanted to get rid of me since the day you realized I was in your way!' Akane tried to shout. Nothing came out, though. Shampoo showed Ranma the Jusenkyo water and requested that he be her slave. 'No, Ranma!' Akane thought frantically 'we don't even know if that's real Jusenkyo water!' It probably was though. Shampoo would want her alive and well so that she could really rub it in.

Ranma agreed, and Akane's heart sank. 'Don't do it, Ranma.'

Wait! He was attacking. Maybe he could get them both out of this. Ranma launched eggs at Shampoo and clearly thought one hit her. 'Ranma!' Akane thought, 'look out!' Shampoo barreled down on him, destroying the jar of water and turning Ranma female.

"Shampoo trying to help" she said "as Shampoo slave, I could save you life. Now I must follow Mistress Kima's orders again" Shampoo sighed heavily and grabbed Ranma, pouring a kettle of hot water over him and throwing him onto the bed. "We replay Ranma and Juliet episode! Shampoo be good Juliet, neh? We make sweet sweet memory before die together."

"Um . . . " Ranma said, a tremor in his voice "about that die together thing . . . "

Ooh! If Akane could have smacked him, she would have. Sweet memories, minus death, were just fine, were they? Shampoo was squeezing her hard, forcing Ranma to play along. And then, of all things, he asked Shampoo to get naked. To think, she'd almost wondered if maybe these things weren't always his fault.

In her remarkably slutty hurry to comply, Shampoo thrust Akane aside. Ranma picked her up and gently tucked her back into his shirt. And there was Shampoo's extravagant bosom, and two more eggs nestled in between her breasts. Ranma had known they were there! That's why he'd wanted her to undress. He almost got a hold of one the eggs when Mousse came in to 'rescue' Shampoo from Ranma's advances and all hell broke loose again until Shampoo was freed from her slavery and they all fell down into the tap room yet again.

Ranma and Saffron were arguing, then fighting. Ranma was still holding her, but she couldn't quite keep track of all the movement and the shouting. She felt so tired. All she could focus on was how delicious it would feel to close her and rest for a little while.

Ranma's voice broke through her exhaustion for a moment. "Hang on just a bit longer, Akane!" He said. "I'll put this guy on ice in no ti-"

Akane wondered what made him stop. She believed in him. She was holding on, she just needed to rest for a minute. She heard the guide again, she thought he was saying if she went to sleep now, she'd never wake up. Ranma was calling her again, frantic begging her not to give up. 'Okay, I can do this. Gotta stay strong' she thought.

Ranma was doing everything he could to get her the water she needed to heal, but it wasn't working. Akane stopped trying to keep track of what was going on and focused on trying not to give in to the dragging weariness. She listened to Ranma's voice. For all his bravado, she didn't think the fight was going well.

The next thing Akane knew, she was falling and Ranma was close behind her, calling out. Then a wave of heat washed over her, leaving her wondering if she could possibly resist the urge to sleep any longer. If she had heard right, though, she'd just saved Ranma again. Saffron couldn't hurt her anymore, and she could protect Ranma!

The fight raged on, and Akane grew increasingly worried that Ranma wouldn't make it. Saffron threw a giant fireball at them, and Ranma froze them both. They were coated in ice and flying threw the inferno. When things settled down for a second she felt Ranma gasp, and suddenly, she knew what he was thinking. He was going to try to throw his hiryu shoten ha right into Saffron's heart. Why was he hesitating? Akane struggled to open her eyes enough to see what was going on. Saffron was invisible, cloaked in a wall of fire.

She felt anger flaring to life inside her. They'd come so far. No way this bratty little jackass was going to defeat Ranma! She felt energy building inside her, feeding a burning battle aura, and suddenly, she realize how she could help. As the ice around her melted, she let the heat of her rage drive her forward towards Saffron's voice. She could give Ranma enough of an opening to aim!

Ha! It worked. Ranma won again, and she had helped. But she really couldn't keep her eyes open for one more moment "Akane!" Ranma was close to her now, "I won! Just hold on one minute. I'll get the cold cursed water for you right away. Then we can be together again!"

Her heart swelled a sounded so nice. 'I'm sorry, Ranma,' She thought, 'I'm so tired' She couldn't resist the urge to close her eyes and sleep.

"Akane!" She could hear him, but she couldn't open her eyes, she just didn't have the strength. "Akane, don't leave me now! Not like this!"

'I'm just resting' she thought 'I'd never leave you.'

Ranma was trying to get her to the cold water. Finally, he flung another punch that had the water spiraling up towards them. Akane felt delightfully quenched. Her body was back to normal, and Ranma was holding her. Comfortable, she sank further into her exhaustion.

Sometime later, she was drifting down into welcome darkness. Ranma was still talking to her. "All this 'cause you wanted to save me. It would have been better if it were me. You should have let me die. Why did you have to get involved? Damn, Akane. You fool, why didn't you let me go?"

Didn't he know that was impossible?

"I'm sorry, that's not what I meant. What I'm trying to say is thank you. I'm so sorry, Akane, I'm so awkward with words. There were so many things I always wanted to tell you, but I could never get the words out. Over and over again, I kept trying to tell you how I really felt, but it always came out wrong. I just ended up bothering you and making you angry, but that was never what I meant to do"

Akane drifted deeper into darkness. She had imagined falling asleep in Ranma's arms so many times. The reality felt so nice, and for once he was being sweet to her.

"Wake up, Akane. There's something I need to tell you. I've waited too long to say it, but it can't wait another moment." Ranma sounded like he was about to cry.

'Don't cry, Ranma' Akane thought 'You won. I'm so happy, I just need to rest.'

"Akane?" Ranma said, "Can't you hear me?" she could feel his tears on her face, "Please, Akane. I need you to hear me now. I wanted to tell you . . . "

Akane felt a warm, golden light surrounding her. 'I wanted to tell you that I love you!' "Akane!"

Ranma loved her! Somewhere in heart she had known that for a long time, but to hear him say it . . . She felt the same glowing energy lifting her gently, and joy swelled in her heart, breaking through her exhaustion.

Ranma was outright sobbing now, though, squeezing her against his chest. She didn't want him to be sad when she was so happy. With great effort, she reached up to brush his tears away.

"A . . . A . . .Akane?" He asked, very quietly.

"Ranma" She answered, weakly returning his embrace.

"Akane!"

"Hello, Ranma"

"Akane . . . " He said again, softly this time.

"I'm sorry." Akane said trying to set him at ease. "I could hear everything . . . I just couldn't move to respond."

"Eh?" Ranma looked panicked and a bright blush was creeping over his face. "Everything, did you say?"

"Yup! Every word" she could tell that she was beaming at him. Ranma was in love with her. She was so happy.

The whole way home from China, he hardly stopped touching her. He just about always had a hand resting on her arm or her shoulder, like he had to make sure she was real. Akane didn't think he even noticed he was doing it. Every once in a while, a dark look would cross his face and he would grasp her in a crushing hug.

It wasn't until much later that she realized that she never said she loved him back. That was what she meant to say when Ranma asked her why she'd agreed with to go along with the wedding. But somehow it didn't come out right and he freaked and made her mad and everything went crazy.

Since then, things had gone back to normal, at least on the surface. Ranma didn't say as many mean things to her as he once had, but then there were whole days that he hardly said anything at all. The tension of acting like nothing had changed when everything had changed seemed to thrum in the air between them.

Bringing her thoughts back to the present, Akane massaged her thighs in the water. When she figured she'd gotten as much relief as she was likely to get, she left the spring, jumping up and shaking to get some of the water off.

Ranma slipped through the forrest, listening closely for any sound that would give away where Akane had got off to. He hadn't heard any commotion, so it didn't seem likely anything had happened to her. Was she mad at him or something?

After walking for several minutes, he heard a splash from the spring where they'd gone yesterday. Ranma took off in that direction and stopped short. He had nearly run smack into Akane, who happened to be stripped down to her underwear, dripping wet, and jiggling.

"Ranma! Did you hear what I said?" Akane was yelling at him.

Ranma hadn't found the power of speech yet, so he shook his head. Wondering how hard Akane was about to hit him and whether he cared enough to look away from the rivulets of water dripping between her breasts.

"I said what the hell are you doing here?" She rested a hand on one cocked hip and "And as you've so often reminded me, you've seen girls far better looking than me less covered up than this tons of times. So just shut your mouth, pervert!"

Ranma, not without difficulty, peeled his eyes away and turned his back. "That's right I have!" He said, and seeing her clothes, picked them up and tossed them at her over his shoulder. "So I obviously shouldn't be interested in looking at you."

"You were staring pretty hard with that stupid expression on your face for someone not interested." Akane shot back, echoing his conscience almost word for word. There was a bitter edge to her voice that Ranma didn't like. He'd tried to get things back to normal between them since Jusendo and the failed wedding, but instead of her spirited, fiery rage, he got these weird, tense responses.

"You can turn around now." Akane looked at him, "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

"Looking for you, dummy!" He said, "Breakfast is almost ready. And I think since you wandered off before it was even light out, I'm the one who should be asking you why you're out here."

"Just trying to loosen up before we train today." Akane shrugged. "I can't remember the last time I felt so sore."

"Yeah, well, that's why you're not as good as you could be." Ranma said, smirking. Akane had kept up with him pretty well yesterday, but she'd been going all out. "That does decide what we're doing today, though."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Swimming" It would help her body recover from the first day's training without feeling like he was giving her a break.