Chapter 10

The sun had already set in Nerima, and being a Sunday night, the streets had been deserted hours ago. Children, teenagers and adults alike had already gone home to their families and were readying themselves to rest for the night. Children fought their parents, not wanting to go to bed just yet. Teenagers prepared their uniforms and school bags for tomorrow, and adults coordinated all of these efforts in their homes. Everyone was calling it a night in Nerima in anticipation of the beginning of the workweek. Everyone, except for two teenagers who laughed and chased each other in the night.

"Did you really have to flirt with the security guard, Akane?"

Ranma huffed and puffed behind Akane, allowing her to get ahead of him so she would not see his jealous face.

"Come on, Ranma! I was only trying to avoid our parents being called to pick us up at the mall office. Can you imagine how much trouble we would be in if the guy called our parents and told them we were detained for PDA?" Akane laughed, remembering what had occurred.

After coming out of the movie theater, they had stopped at a vending machine to buy a drink. Seeing no one else was around, the teens attempted to kiss each other behind the vending machines. To their luck, their efforts had distracted them from seeing the wet floor sign behind them and Akane slipped, taking Ranma down with her. A mall cop heard the ruckus and the screams, and he was not convinced that the scene of a boy on top of the girl had been the cause of an accident.

Akane turned back to see her fiancée still running after her, but not really trying to catch up with her. When she finally reached the gate of the Tendo residence, she stopped and rested her back against the fence. She took a moment to catch her breath, but she had still not finished giggling at the situation from which they had just escaped.

"There were other ways to get away from them, you know?" Ranma asked as he finally caught up with her and stood in front of her, leaving her pinned between him and the wall. He stared down at her, admiring the view.

She was wearing simple clothes –shorts, shirt, and sandals, clothes that no one would think to wear to a first date. However, when you are sneaking out of your marriage-crazy parents to date your betrothed behind their backs, dressing up would only cause unwanted attention you could not afford to attract.

Her cheeks and eyes were slightly red from all the laughing she had done, and a few tears of laughter had escaped her eyes. She used her hand to fan herself, finally feeling the heat rising from the entire ordeal at the mall. Ranma stood there watching her every move, still not believing that he and Akane had gone out.

Akane, who had finally caught her breath and had stopped laughing, lifted her hands to his neck to adjust his collar that had been disarranged during their encounter. "What other ways are there? You mean, you beating the shit out of them so they don't remember who we are?"

"That's one."

Akane rolled her eyes. "You can't expect to solve all your problems with violence, Ranma." She said as she finished fixing up the collar of his shirt. When she began lowering her hands, Ranma caught them in his and took them to his lips, placing soft kisses on her wrists. Akane followed his movements, still failing to believe how natural his touches felt to her. "It's like I'd always felt something for him."

He closed his eyes, kissed her knuckles on both hands, and opened his eyes to stare at her without letting go of her hands. "Akane, before we go in, I need to tell you something."

"What's that?"

Without his eyes leaving hers, he whispered his thoughts to her.

"It's about…Jusenkyo."

"Oh. What about it?"

Ranma hesitated for a second before he continued.

"I never really thanked you for your help. If it hadn't been for you, I'd…never…Well, we wouldn't be here right now."

Akane gave him a half-smile, lightly squeezing his hands. "Don't be ridiculous, Ranma. You would have found a way to…you know…I trusted you would bring me back."

"No, Akane. Don't say that. It was you who helped me through it, not…not the other way around. And, what you heard from me…what I denied before the wedding…"

Akane silenced her fiancée by getting on her toes and pressing her lips on him for just a moment. The boy immediately closed his eyes and returned the quick kiss.

"Akane…I want you to know…"

Akane shook her head. "Not now, Ranma. Not until I can return…"

Ranma closed his mouth. He understood her concern. She knew that he had declared his love for her, and she knew that he knew the cat was out of the bag. However, somewhere along the road, Akane's feelings had been diminished to the point that she could not utter those words he wanted from her. He was disappointed to know her feelings for him were not as strong, but in a way, he was happy that he would have the chance to make her fall for him all over again.

"Without mistakes, this time."

"I understand. You won't regret it, Akane."

Akane nodded, knowing she would not regret it. After spending the day with him, she questioned herself why she had not fallen for the boy since day one. His charm was one to be reckoned with, and even though arguments were bound to happen, they only added excitement to what she believed was the best relationship she could ever have.

"Why didn't I see this before?"

After a last long kiss, Ranma carried Akane to her window, leaving her inside before making it to his own room. For the first time ever, Ranma could not wait for morning to come. He could not wait for them to walk to school, to spend their lunch together, to walk back home, hand-in-hand. For the first time, in a long time, everything in his life was all right.

xxxXXXxxx

Ranma and Akane walked down the path to school in their usual spots on the fence and sidewalk, respectively. They waited until they were a few blocks away from home before Ranma jumped down from the fence to walk next to Akane, holding onto her hand as he did. Akane smiled to her fiancée, showing him she was as thrilled as he to walk to school together.

Even though their families had no idea about the change that had occurred between them, practically overnight, they knew the school would be the safest ground to spend some time together. Nabiki and Kuno would graduate at the end of the semester, and Akane and Ranma would become seniors next year. Ranma could not wait for high school to end so that he could take the next step in his engagement with Akane.

As they approached the school entryway, Ranma pulled Akane behind a tree, cupped her face with his hands and pulled her up to kiss her. Akane giggled as he did, and scrunched the sides of his shirt in her hands. She mentally categorized this type of kiss from him, as she had done the ones from yesterday. This one, she would call the I-wish-I-could-kiss-you-longer-but-we-gotta-go-to-school kiss.

Not letting go of her face after the kiss ended, he spoke.

"Akane, I need to ask for a favor?"

"What's that?"

"I haven't spoken to Uc-chan since…well…I…she might be mad at us for a while. Don't take anything she says seriously, please? Shit! Don't take what anyone in this fucking school says about me and other girls seriously. The only one that matters to me is you, OK?"

"Ranma, I don't understand why –"

"Akane, please. Just trust me on this, OK?"

"OK."

With a quick smile to each other, Ranma and Akane walked around the tree and made their way inside the school, walking next to each other as any other day.

"Akane! Over here!"

Akane saw her friends running towards her after they had waved at her. In front of the couple stood Yuka and Sayuri, visibly riled up about something.

"Hey, girls! What's going on?"

The two girls looked at Ranma and waved at him. They did not notice anything different with them, so determined that their conversation was not going to affect the boy.

"Akane, did you call that hunk Orochi? He musta been waiting by the phone for your call!"

Akane flinched at the statement, and wished she had never accepted the senior's phone number at all. She felt Ranma's gaze on her and saw him cross his arms on his chest.

"Oh! I…didn't even think about him at all. I had other things on my mind, this weekend."

"Like what? What can be more important than a sizzling senior who has the hots for you?"

Ranma did not say a word but refused to walk away from the conversation. Akane had not mentioned any Orochi or anything to him. They had spent together the entire day, giving her plenty of time to bring up a detail as such. Akane scratched her head wondering why Yuka and Sayuri had the worst timing, ever. Then again, they had pushed her to give Ranma a chance. Their current actions could not be anything else than an attempt to test the waters between them.

"Other things, you know? I don't think about boys all the time."

Yuka suddenly noticed that Ranma's posture was not a relaxed one, and his eyes were glued on Akane.

"Ranma, are you OK?"

Ranma responded to her without removing his eyes from his fiancée. "Yeah, just dandy. Hey, Akane, maybe you want to go back to your trip with the debate team, uh? This Orochi guy sounds just charming."

Akane glared at him for an instant, but her anger was gone as quick as it had appeared. She should have told Ranma something about Orochi, but she did not think it was relevant, especially since he went to another school, and the fact that she had no interest in him.

"Oh, Ranma! You don't have the slightest! He spent most of the trip with her. He even saved her from drowning in the pool!"

Ranma clenched his jaw. "He touched her? He touched her while wearing that thong?!"

Akane could see Ranma's anger rise by the minute. She knew he did not do well with jealousy, and his possessiveness was tenfold when it came to her.

"Jeez, Akane. Do you still have this guy's number? I should drop him a line and thank him," he spat between his teeth.

At this point, Akane's anger returned. Had he not been the one who just told her to ignore gossip about him and other girls? Why could he not do the same for her?

"I'm sorry, Ranma, but I threw away his number as soon as I came home."

"Did you, really? Oh, shucks, and here I was dying to meet this guy."

Sayuri clasped her hands. "You're in luck, Ranma! You can meet him today!"

"What?"

Both girls giggled as they turned around and pointed to the school entrance. Their fingers pointed to a tall boy resting his back against a pillar right before the steps to the main door. The couple looked up and saw the boy, making Akane cringe.

"What…what's he doing here?"

"He transferred to school today. I bet he's been waiting for you. He hasn't moved from there since he got here."

"Oh, brother! Ranma's gonna kill him," Akane thought as she eyed her fiancée from the corner of her eye. Before Akane could utter any calming words to her boyfriend, she felt herself being dragged closer to Orochi's location by Yuka and Sayuri.

"W-what are you doing?"

"What do you think? He's waited long enough, uh?"

"No! Wait! Stop!"

"Don't be shy, Akane. Ranma doesn't mind, do you?"

Ranma was too angry to talk. His eyes were glued to the man that had a smile on his face the moment he had realized Akane was being dragged his way. The pigtailed boy clenched his fists as he took a step closer to Orochi, but was suddenly stopped by someone bumping into his back.

"Hey! Watch out, would ya?"

"Sorry, Saotome! I just…wow…"

"Hiroshi?" Ranma took a moment to stare at his friend who looked like he had been too distracted by something to even care who he had just hit. "What's the big idea?"

"Nothing…just…isn't that one of your fiancées, Saotome?"

"What?"

Ranma's eyes followed the direction of Hiroshi's staring until the found a familiar face in the crowd. The girl's soft eyes met his glaring ones. He cracked his knuckles with his clenching and unclenching fists. The skin on his hand still burned with the sensation of her neck surrounded by his almost deadly grip.

"What the fuck are you doing here? I thought I told you to keep your distance."

The girl flinched for a moment but regained her confidence almost immediately. "Shampoo do same thing Ranma do here."

"And what is that? Are you here to pick a fight with Akane? Have you forgotten what I'd say I'd do to you?"

"Shampoo no forget. She here to learn."

"What?" Ranma took a moment to stare at Shampoo's attire; she was wearing a Furinkan High uniform. "Learn? Do you mean…?"

"Aiya! I come to school, just as airen."

"Great! First that Orochi bozo, and now Shampoo." Ranma thought as his face turned around, suddenly remembering whom his first objective had been. Akane, Yuka, Sayuri and Orochi were nowhere to be found.

Ranma turned back to Shampoo. "I don't care what you do here, just stay away from me and Akane. If you try anything funny with her, my hand will find a way to your neck again, and this time it won't stop."

Even though Shampoo was giving Ranma an angry look, inside she was screaming. This was the first time she saw him since she had beaten Akane at her house, and it was obvious he had not forgotten the incident. After a few days of discussing the situation with Cologne, the Chinese women decided to change their strategy and have Shampoo be near Ranma in a way he could not avoid.

The tardy bell woke up Ranma from his thoughts, making him rush inside the building. With Shampoo near, the last thing he needed was being kicked out of the classroom for being late. He could not afford to leave Akane alone.

"I have to talk to her. Akane, why can't we ever get a break?"

A/N: Did you all really think that I was going to make it easy for them? Psh, come on! You all know me better than that ;)