11/01/17 - Sorry I am not done by Halloween, but I just didn't want to rush the story. I promise I will be done soon though, only a few more chapters. I had trouble getting this one going at first but then it just took on a life of its own as it all came spilling out. Loving the comments - keep them coming.

I hope you like this next chapter.

~~OO~~

Nabiki watched the scene at lunch unfold from her window on the second floor. When she heard Ranma scream that Akane was going to the party with him and no one else, she knew it was time to proceed to the next step in her plan. She gathered up her things and told her friend and right hand woman Sakura to gather the team. "We have some news to spread and I want to make sure it makes it to the right people as soon a possible. Tell everyone to meet me in 10 minutes at our normal spot."

~~OO~~

Akane couldn't believe it, Ranma had actually asked her, in front of everyone, if she would go to the party with him. It didn't matter that no one beside her actually heard him ask. The point was she was finally going to get to have an official date with him. Who cares if they will be dressed up as other people at the time, it still counted.

The rest of lunch Ranma just sat quietly beside Akane, refusing to look at anyone. He couldn't believe he had just announced that he was going to the party with Akane in front of the whole school like that, but at least she said yes. He would never admit it but he was excited and relieved that it was all decided now. Now he just had to find a way to keep the other girls from trying to kill Akane before Saturday Night. 'I wonder if I could convince her to leave town till Saturday. That may be the only way we both survive till then once everyone finds out.'

The bell rang announcing the end of lunch and everyone started to leave for their classes. Akane and Ranma took a bit longer in gathering their things and trailed behind the rest of their friends. "I hope you aren't mad at me for yelling that Akane." Ranma said, trying to figure out how she felt about it since she hadn't said a word since then.

"Oh no, of course not. I was just….surprised. I never would have expected you to do that." She said as she looked his way and notice he looked a bit sad. "But I am happy you asked" she added. That seemed to make him happy as a smile spread across his face.

"Good, I was worried you only said yes so that you didn't have to make a bigger scene than I already had made."

As they entered the school they went to the stairs, Akane had class on the 2nd floor and Ranma's was just down the hall on the first floor. "I guess since we are going together we should probably talk about our costumes" Akane said. "I don't know if you want to do a matching outfit or not but I am kind of interested in what you picked. Plus I would hate it if our outfits clashed. Or we could just make it a surprise if you want."

"Well, I was kind of interested in what kind of costume you got too. Mine's not that big of a deal so if you want me to change I can." Ranma replied.

"Ok….well I guess we should go or we will be late for class. I'll see you after school and we can talk more about it then."

By the time school was out everyone in class had heard the news about Ranma announcing that he and Akane would be going to the party together. Luckily Ukyo was out today and had missed it so the rest of the day passed without incident. Ranma knew though, that he would have to deal with her sooner rather than later, as no news about him and Akane was kept quiet for long. Then there was Shampoo to deal with. She would definitely have something to say about him going to the party with Akane.

"You think our dads would let us skip town for the next few days?" Ranma said as he walked with Akane home after school. "I don't think Ukyo and Shampoo are going to take the news well and I don't really feel like fighting them off for the next few days."

"Do you really think that's necessary, Ranma? Maybe Shampoo will not find out. It's not like she goes to our school. And Ukyo….well….yeah that one is going to be tough. But you already told her you weren't going with her right? Well maybe if we don't make a big deal out of it maybe she won't either."

"Have you meet either of them before?" Ranma asked. "Of course Shampoo is going to find out. She always finds out one way or another and Ukyo is going to be pissed. They are going to be out for blood and you know it."

"Yeah your right. Maybe we should skip town." Akane said as she winked at him as they continued walking.

When they arrived home Akane went to get her costume from her room. She quickly changed into it and rushed to the dojo. 'I sure hope Ranma likes my costume. It may not show off a lot of skin or cleavage like Nabiki's outfit but I think it looks good. I can't believe Nabiki actually helped pick it out without charging me anything.'

Ranma was already in the dojo when Akane got there. "Ranma, you ready?" She called from outside the dojo.

"Uh yeah...come in" Ranma said as he tried to adjust the sword on his belt. When he looked up he saw Akane standing in the doorway and he dropped the sword to the floor in shock. He just stood there just staring at her and couldn't believe just how hot she looked in the outfit. He had never seen her wear something so fitted and well sexy before. The high heeled boots and skin tight pants highlighted her long shapely legs. The wide belt at her waist accentuated the curves of her hips and how tone her waistline was. The way she stood with her hands behind her back forced her chest to push forward slightly, showing off just how much she had grown in the few years they had known each other. He couldn't for the life of himself imaging how he had ever considered her to have had thick thighs or a flat chest. She wore a long sleeve shirt that exposed her shoulders. He had never thought that bare shoulders could be so enticing before but he found himself desiring to run his hands along the smooth skin of her shoulders. The long vest that she wore over the shirt slightly covered her shoulders but that just made the skin still showing that much more appealing. He knew he should say something...that he shouldn't keep staring but he just couldn't manage to form any words or look away. He thought if he looked away she might disappear, as nothing that beautiful could last long in his crazy world.

Akane stood there uncomfortably under his gaze as he took the sight of her in from head to toe. She held her hands behind her back to try to keep from fidgeting with them and started to sway slightly. She felt as if he was burning a hole into her with his eyes as they seemed to be taking in every inch of her. She ran a hand through her hair and looked at her feet and started to squirm under his gaze. "Well Ranma, what do you think? Do I look...ok?" She asked as she tried to not let her nervousness show in her voice. When he didn't answer she started to walk towards him.

As Akane slowly walked towards him, the only sound in the room was the sound of her high heeled shoes against the floor boards. Ranma was amazed at how graceful Akane moved in the high heeled boots as he had never seen her wear something like that before, and here he thought she needed to work on her balance. Maybe she just needed to walk in these boots more he thought. The long vest seemed to flow around her legs as she moved, when they parted he got a full look at her legs and sucked in a breath at the sight.

As she neared him, she stumbled slightly and in an instance Ranma was there to catch her. The two teens stared into each other's eyes which were only inches away from each other. Slowly Ranma took a breath to settle his nerves he spoke. "You ok, Akane?"

Akane's heart raced in anticipation of how close they were and the fact that Ranma was now holding her in his strong arms. She looked down and brushed her hair out of her face as she responded. "Yeah sorry about that. I'm not quite used to these heals yet I guess. Thanks for catching me."

"Of course no problem." Ranma said as he continued to hold her and made no move to set her back down as he was mesmerized while looking into her eyes.

"Um….Ranma…..you can put me down now."

"Oh right sorry about that." He said as he quickly released her and took a step back to give her some space.

"Thanks." She said as she ran her hands down the side of her outfit. "Well what do you think? I'm supposed to be a pirate, Nabiki helped me pick it out. I left my sword and hat in my room though."

"You look...gr...great Akane." Ranma said as she struggled to speak as he once again took in the sight of her outfit. "Um I'm supposed to be a pirate too." He said as he reached in his pocket to pull out an eye patch to put on and grabbed his sword from the floor and shoved it into his belt.

"How much you want to bet Nabiki had a hand in your outfit as well. I was wondering why she was being so helpful lately." Akane said as she took in Ranma's outfit. It wasn't much different than his everyday clothing except he had a long sleeve white tee on with a silk red vest over top it and a long red sash tied around his waist that held his sword. She had to admit he looked awful cute with the eye patch on. "I bet you it was her plan all along to make us go together, so she wanted us to have matching outfits without us realizing it."

"Yeah I bet you are right." He agreed. "I thought something was up the other night at dinner when she kept asking me about wanting to go with you and all that stuff."

"You didn't ask me just because she tricked you somehow, did you?" Akane asked as she sadly wondered if he didn't really want to go with her and this was all just one big set up courtesy of her big sister..

"No of course not." He quickly reassured her which brought the smile back to her face. Softly he continued, "I wanted to go with you but I…..I just didn't know how to do it or if you would want to or not."

"Of course I did Ranma. I was really happy you asked" Akane said as she took a small step closer to him.

"Good, I'm glad." Ranma replied as he took a small step closer as well.

Soon they were just inches away from each other again. Ranma reached out to grab her hand and pulled her closer to him, "Akane….I…." He said slowly as he looked down at her small hand in his. "I….I really do…"

Just then the door of the dojo burst open and shattered into pieces. Ranma shoved Akane behind him as an enraged Ukyo and Shampoo stepped over the destroyed door. "What the Hell, Ukyo, Shampoo, what are you guys doing here?" Ranma yelled.

"Get your hands off MY fiancée!" Ukyo screamed at Akane as Shampoo yell "Violent kitchen wrecker no go to party with my Ranma."

"How did they find out about it so fast?" Akane asked into Ranma's ear.

He turned to look at her and they both said "Nabiki".

"I swear I am going to kill that sister of mine. Right after we deal with these two." She said as she moved to stand beside Ranma and faced off with Ukyo.

Shampoo lunged at Akane and Ranma quickly stepped in between them and took her on as Ukyo threw a hand full of her mini spatulas at Akane. Akane managed to deflect most of them but one managed to hit her in the leg and cut a hole in her pants, causing her left leg to bleed. Akane looked down at her now damaged outfit and then back at Ukyo with fire in her eyes as she rushed at her. "Ukyo! You are going to pay for that!."

Ranma heard Akane scream and turned to see her rushing at Ukyo with her familiar mallet in her hands. When he looked away Shampoo made her moved and did a roundhouse kick to his side that sent him flying into the wall. With him momentarily gone she started to charge Akane again only to be tackled by Ranma sending the two of them skidding across the room. Shampoo quickly kicked him off herself and jumped back up on her feet. "What Ranma doing? No want to go to party with pervert-girl. Go party with Shampoo much better."

"Damn it Shampoo. I'm not going to the party or any other place with you. Why can't you get that?"

"Why Ranma play hard to get? Have much more fun with Shampoo." The two of them launched into another series of fast punches and kicks, neither one having much success at landing a blow on the other.

Ukyo pulled out her giant battle spatula and knocked Akane's mallet out of her hand. Akane was at a large disadvantage attempting to fight in the boots, so instead she attempted to fight hand to hand in close quarters. Ukyo quickly realized her strategy and leapt backwards while releasing another handful of mini spatulas. This time one sliced a hole in Akane's right sleeve and another cut the top of her vest across her shoulder. The vest fell down loose around her waist where it was held in place by her belt. Akane then rushed forward intent on pounding her sometimes friend into the ground.

Ranma new that he needed to handle Shampoo quickly and help Akane with Ukyo, as she was obviously at a disadvantage in her costume. Shampoo came flying at Ranma from the left attempting to kick him while he was checking on Akane's fight but this time Ranma caught her leg and threw her across the room with all his force. The Amazon hit the wall with a thud and slid the the ground in an unconscious heap. Ranma moved to check her and once he assured himself she was ok just knocked out he rushed to Akane and Ukyo.

Akane and Ukyo were both standing apart from each other, waiting for the other to make the next move. Both girls were breathing heavy from their battle. Ukyo had lost her giant spatula and was holding her remaining mini spatulas as she grabbed her left arm where Akane had managed to land a blow a moment ago. Akane for her part wasn't in much better shape. The heel on her right boot had broken off, she had a few holes in her pants, the right sleeve of her shirt had been ripped off and her vest hung loose around her waist from where it had been sliced off. Her belt was the only part of her outfit that appeared undamaged.

"Ukyo what are you doing?" He screamed at his oldest friend. "Why are you attacking Akane?"

"Why are you going to that party with her?" She yelled back as she turned her head in his direction. "I thought you said you weren't going to the party before and now you are going and with HER! You should be going with me! I'm the cute fiancée!"

"Oh man Ukyo why do you got to keep doing these things. You are my FRIEND. Isn't that enough for you?"

"No! No it isn't. You are supposed to be my fiancée. You are supposed to marry me and go to parties with me, not her." She said as tears started to fall down her cheek.

Ranma slowly walked forward with his hands in the air to try to disarm her. "Ukyo, come on we're best friends. Don't be like this." Ranma stopped in his approach as Ukyo took a step backwards and started to look around the room as if looking for a way to escape from what she knew Ranma was about to say to her. "I'm sorry I don't want to hurt you….but I am never going to like you in that way Ukyo." As soon as the words left Ranma's lips she broke down sobbing and started to fall to the ground. Ranma got there just in time to catch her before she hit the floor and held her as she cried into his shirt.

Akane slowly approached the two and saw Ukyo crying uncontrollably into Ranma's chest. Ranma looked up at her and silently pleaded with Akane to understand that he needed to be here for Ukyo right now and to not hold this against him. Akane nodded her head in understanding, patted his shoulder in encouragement and left the dojo to give them some privacy.