Later that night Akane found Ranma's room, she had been quite surprised that it was the same one Ryoga stayed in even though she'd never been inside before she had, had to lead Ryoga to it often enough to know it was his room and where to find it. She raised her hand to knock on the door only to stop at the last second.
She was unsure if she should do this, she still didn't know where she stood with Ranma and with Ryoga been his roommate, it only made things worse, she began to retract her hand from the door only to be surprised when the door opened and Ranma stood in the doorway, not making a single movement after opening the door and he didn't seem surprised to see her, Akane put that down to Ranko telling him before she got there, little did she know Ranma could smell her on the other side of the door and decided to answer when Akane appeared to be having second thoughts.
They made eye contact, Ranma's deep cyan blue eyes drew Akane in, she could see and feel the darkness behind them but it didn't bother her, in fact his eyes seemed almost comforting as they drew her in, little did she know that her eyes were having a similar effect on Ranma.
'Why is she so interesting? Why? I should despise her for what her family is and was and yet I can't even bring myself to hate her…what is wrong with me?" Ranma screamed within his eyes, after a couple minutes Akane averted her gaze, blushing a deep crimson.
"You want something?" Ranma asked, feigning ignorance, Akane returned her gaze to Ranma, her blush began to deepen as she began to ask her question.
"Ranma…would…you…spar with me?" Akane stuttered.
"Sure, where and when?" Ranma asked, seeming to be completely calm with the subject been discussed, when in fact within his mind it was absolute chaos as he tried to make sense of why he felt this way around Akane instead of the hatred he should feel.
"Really?" Akane asked, her voice full of hope, showing how eager she was which only caused her blush to worsen.
"Yeah…besides I'd like to see how your style compares to mine" Ranma admitted, not letting on the reasons for wanting this information.
"I guess it would be interesting to see which style of the Anything Goes is better" Akane admitted, remembering how good Ranma had been in their spar the other and how it appeared as though he had been playing with her and she was more than eager to see what he could actually do.
"By the way I thought you said you were the last practitioner of your style?" Akane questioned.
"Yes?" Ranma asked, beginning to see he made a major error with the little sister story.
"It's just…I saw your sister practising your style" Akane stated.
"Oh…you mean Ranko, she doesn't practise the Anything Goes beyond the basics, she prefers to practise our mothers sword techniques" Ranma replied.
"Oh…so who is your mother?" Akane asked, suddenly very interested in learning about Ranma's upbringing, especially when she considered the fact that Ranma not only practised the believed long since dead style of Anything Goes but now his mother had her own style as well.
"Gone" Ranma replied, his tone filling with emotion that he tried to hide as he remembered the last couple seconds of his mother's 'life' before she crumbled into dust, the worst day of his life and what made things worse was the festival was coming up again.
Akane's eyes dropped when she heard Ranma's reply and tone that filled it that had failed to be hidden, she knew what he meant and she knew how he felt, her own mother had died years ago and she still hated talking about it.
"Oh…I'm sorry" Akane replied, her voice becoming a whisper.
"You didn't know" Ranma replied, surprising himself when he remembered who he was talking to.
"I guess that's something else we have in common" Akane sighed, Ranma raised an eyebrow at this, which Akane saw "My mother passed away when I was young…disease took her" Akane said, her voice threatening to break.
"Yeah…I guess it is something else we have in common" Ranma sighed "Except you still have a father, mine died in the war and my mother was murdered right in front of me" Ranma said, his hands becoming fists as reality once again set in that he was truly alone.
Akane was surprised by this and began to understand why she had felt such darkness within Ranma, he was alone all he had was his sister and she had admitted that they rarely saw each other except every few years and unlike her Ranma didn't have his father's presence or two sisters who helped care for her and keep the family afloat.
Ranma's eyes widened as he realized what he had just told her 'Wait…what the hell, why am I telling her this? All this time I haven't even told someone that my father died in the 'war' never mind telling a girl I met only a day or so ago that my mother was murdered and that I have lived alone…what is going on here?' Ranma screamed within his mind.
"Why am I telling you this?" Ranma asked allowed, surprising the youngest Tendo.
"What do you mean?" Akane asked, Ranma looked her dead in the eye.
"All my life I have never told anyone about my mother or my father or anything that slightly touched on my family or lack of it yet you…I've told you stuff that has never left my lips before…why?" Ranma asked becoming frustrated; Akane hesitated for a minute before replying.
"I don't know" Akane replied her voice barley a whisper as she realized how close she been to telling Ranma about her life since her mother's death about what happened to her family, how her father only seemed to return once in ten years after that time and that was to end the vampire race, he and so many others had been a part of the 'murder' as Ranma put it of the last two vampires in existence, she was about to tell him this and she didn't even know his name.
"Ranma…what was your family name?" Akane asked.
"No…that is something…it's just too painful Akane, I'm ronin now and that's what I will be always" Ranma replied before mentally adding 'At least until I grant my mother's wish and the vampire race returns'
"Oh…sorry…but why is your name…'painful?'" Akane asked in a confused tone.
"Let's just say it's all I have of my father and one of the few things my mother left me" Ranma replied "See you tomorrow night to spar" Ranma stated before closing the door.
"Oh…okay" Akane said hesitantly as the door closed, once it shut Akane waited a couple minutes before taking her leave, hoping to avoid bumping into Ryoga.
A/N Sorry it's so short, plz review.
Chaosqueen: I tried to come up with another pairing besides RanmaxAkane but it was the only pairing that would fit this storyline, this is my first serious RanmaxAkane pairing and it will remain that way, besides I think I owe it to all the RanmaxAkane fans for all my Akane bashing and fanon Akane in my other fics.