Disclaimer - I don't own Ranma 1/2

Chapter 12 – A frog and a pig

They ran to the edge of town and started following the river up to the mountain. "Ranma, where are we going?"

"There's a nice spot I know. I like to go there when Dad drags me to the mountains to train. We can eat lunch there and then maybe do a little balance training or something."

"Sounds great."

Almost an hour later they arrived at the spot. Akane remembered the area from when she came up here with Ranma and his father to train for his fight against Ryoga. Ranma found a comfortable place to sit down and reached out for her. Pulling her down she landed on his lap rather unceremoniously. She felt his breath on her neck and then he was kissing along her neck and jaw.

"Akane?"

"Hmmm…?"

"Thanks for ya know…. "

"Thanks for what?"

"Dragging me to see Dr. Tofu."

"I almost didn't. I wanted to get mad at you and storm out the door, but well, I don't know it just seems easier to tell when you need me to control myself."

"Today would have been really bad at school."

"Ranma I wish I could do more."

"Thanks"

"Will you tell me again?"

"Tell you what again?"

"How you feel."

A small smile appeared on his face and he blushed, "I love you."

Akane smiled back broadly, "I love you too."

"Even when I am an idiot?"

"You're my idiot."

"And you're my tomboy."

"No more lying to me, about anything. Okay?"

Ranma wanted to immediately agree but then he thought of Ryoga. That damn bastard refused to tell Akane he was really her P-chan and he had promised to keep the secret. Since he made that promise Ryoga had behaved so dishonorably in Ranma's opinion. He nuzzled her chest, was in her room while she changed, and slept in her bed. He felt bad that it was his fault in a twisted round-a-bout way that Ryoga was cursed but if he saw Ryoga again he was going to make him tell her somehow. She deserved to know.

"Ranma?"

"Ummm…. I can't really make that promise."

"Why not?" Akane could feel herself getting angry. It was a simple promise to make.

"Well, um, I can promise to tell you anything about myself. Does that help?"

"I don't understand."

"Well I sorta made a promise to keep a secret for someone and even though I don't want to keep it anymore I feel like I have to."

"Does this secret involve you?"

"Kinda"

"Does it involve me?"

"Yes"

"Then I really want to know."

"I made a warrior's promise and it feels dishonorable to break it. The person I am keeping the secret for hasn't behaved honorably and I don't like it but if I break my word then I am being dishonorable too."

"If I figure it out then you won't have broken your word."

"I gave up on you figuring it out a long time ago. Besides it won't stop you from being mad at me."

"Can you give me a clue that won't mean you have broken your promise?"

Ranma thought carefully for a few minutes before finally talking, "Ummm… well you know everyone who ended up going to China with the guide's daughter, Plum, right?"

"Yeah. Shampoo was taken there by the birdmen, Mousse insisted on going to rescue Shampoo, your dad and you went to save Jusenkyo and help the guide." Akane thought for a while, "Oh yeah and Ryoga went to help too."

"Everyone who went with Plum had something in common. Even saying that feels like a betrayal. I need to stop."

Akane frowned and thought for a while. "Okay, I won't bother you about it."

"Please when you do find out, remember this conversation."

"Okay, I promise." Akane smiled at Ranma, "A warrior's promise, I will remember this conversation."

He laughed and hoped it helped because the next time he saw bandana boy he was making him reveal P-chan.

Akane got their lunches out of her bag and sat down beside Ranma. They relaxed and ate while talking about her training that was needed. He was trying to figure out how to train her for Kodachi's spiked clubs and razor hoop. He wasn't as worried about the ball as that mostly just had to be dodged. The stupid thing exploded so dodging was harder than a normal ball.

"We need to figure out a way for you to get close to her. If you can get within striking distance of her then she will be toast. She is good at getting out of range though."

"What about tying myself to her if I can? Like Ryoga did to you the first time you fought."

"It is really risky but it would make it hard for her to get away from your strength, which is why Ryoga did that. Remember though, it didn't work for Ryoga in our fight."

"That is because you are a more creative fighter than Ryoga."

"Of course I am."

"Nice to see your ego back again." Akane stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now you are just trying to distract me." Ranma grinned evilly as he pulled Akane back onto his lap and showed her exactly what he thought of her tongue.

They broke apart with a gasp, desperate for air. "I thought we were here to train, not make out."

"Hmmm… I think you are changing my mind."

She arched her eyebrows at him, "I am changing your mind?"

"Maybe, stick your tongue out at me again."

She scoffed and pushed away from him. She stood over him with her hands on her hips, while he rolled with laughter on the ground. "Idiot."

Ranma finally got himself under control and went to find some training tools. He brought back sticks and he broke a couple of limbs to acts as clubs. Then he walked over to a boulder and broke it with his fist, then gathered the smaller pieces.

Nearby Ryoga was walking through the forest with no idea if he was going in the right direction. Akari's farm should be around here somewhere. I should visit with her for a long time and then I will be able to finally give up on Akane. He heard the distinct sound of a boulder exploding and decided to investigate. My dear Akane, Ranma will never be good enough for you but I want you to be happy and if he is the man to make you happy then I shall not stand in the way. As he got closer to where he thought the sound had come from, he could hear voices. The voices sounded a lot like Ranma and Akane but they should be in school and all the way back in Nerima. Besides, why would they be out here in the woods? Ranma wouldn't be stupid enough to take her on an extreme mountain training trip.

What he saw when he found a clearing near the river left him standing in shock staring at the pair. Ranma was throwing rocks from a broken boulder at Akane and she was deflecting them with a couple of pieces of wood. She was steadily retreating as Ranma threw more and more rocks. She was successfully dodging or blocking most of the rocks and none were hitting her with enough force to hurt her very bad. He watched Ranma use up the rocks and still grabbed something on the ground. Ryoga didn't know what it was but it didn't fly like a rock. Akane missed it and it smacked her directly in the face. He started to run towards her to see if she was okay when he heard Akane yell.

"YUCK, WHAT WAS THAT?" She looked at the ground where the item had fallen and only saw a small frog. "DID YOU JUST THROW A FROG AT ME?"

"Um… I think so, I ran out of rocks and saw it sitting there."

"GROSS!" She tried to wipe her face off but could feel dirt on her hands from the makeshift clubs. "Ugg I am going to wash my face in the river."

Ranma glanced around and saw Ryoga standing there as if he had no idea what to do. "Hey Ryoga, what are you doing here?"

"Ryoga?" Akane looked back from the river, "Hi Ryoga, are you already back?"

"Uh yeah, I guess I made it back. Are you guys training out here?"

Akane smiled, "Yeah, we skipped school and came up here to train away from everyone. I have to duel Kodachi tomorrow."

Ryoga dropped his pack and stormed over to Ranma, grabbing his shirt. "Why is she dueling Kodachi? She is going to get hurt. She has no business dueling anyone."

Ranma was about to pummel Ryoga when a rock hit him in the head. Both guys looked over at Akane, who was marching over to where they stood. She took hold of the back of Ryoga's shirt and pulled him to the ground, which pulled Ranma down too since he hadn't let go of him.

"I accepted the challenge and I am sick and tired of hearing how I shouldn't fight, shouldn't defend myself, or duel anyone. Ranma thinks I can beat her and that is all that matters. I can fight and I will fight because I am a martial artist. I am done listening to people who think I am too weak to defend myself. So shut up Ryoga and either help me train or leave."

Both Ranma and Ryoga just stared at her dumbfounded. Ranma didn't think she would ever talked to Ryoga that way, she was usually irritatingly sweet to him. Meanwhile, Ryoga couldn't believe such a sweet girl was being so stubborn.

"Uh… uh… How can I help?"

"You can stand behind her and keep her from backing up. She is considerably stronger than Kodachi so she is supposed to be working on getting in closer."

"No more frogs! That wasn't nice to the frog."

Both of them laughed at her. "Ok I won't throw another frog but I can't promise no spiders or …"

Her club knocked him back into a tree.

"I can break a rock into more pieces." Ryoga used his break point attack to shatter the boulder so that Ranma had plenty of small rocks to use.

"Here they come Akane."

They started again but each time she tried to back up Ryoga put his hands out and stopped her. He saw her starting to back up again and put his hands out but also said, "Akane, get mad and hit them back, don't just deflect them."

She narrowed her eyes and focused on them like they were baseballs or volleyballs and tried to direct them back at Ranma. Each time she got a solid hit on one she took a step forward until she was forcing Ranma to back up. Ranma ran out of rocks and was forced to advance on her. He tried kicking the clubs out of hands but she pull one out of the way and hit him on the shin hard with the other one. He flipped back away from her again and she threw a club at his head. He saw it coming and picked it out of the air and advanced again using the club.

She was forced to parry his attacks with the club. He combined his fastest attack with the club to give her more attacks to dodge and parry. She backed up and tried to remember how Ranma had dealt with the 1000 clubs attack from Kodachi in the gymnastics competition. He hit her hands with something and forced her to drop them. She leapt back and grabbed one of the larger rocks from before and aimed at his arms. He deflected the first one but didn't see the second one coming and she was able to disrupt his attack.

He stopped and just grinned at her. "Excellent!"

"Yeah Akane that was really good."

"Thanks Ryoga. You really surprised me with the chestnuts attack Ranma. I never thought you would use that one."

"I didn't extend it far enough to hit you. I just wanted to worry you a little."

Ryoga frowned, "That was a really risky move."

"Not really, I watched her movements really closely."

Ryoga stood face to face with Ranma, "If she get hurts I will kill you."

"I won't let her get hurt."

Akane was ready to throw rocks at them again when it started raining. She was considering if she should still the throw the rocks when instead of guys fighting she heard girl Ranma's voice and a squeal.

"Now where are you trying to go?"

Akane looked closely at the scene, Ranma had his foot on P-chan's tail and Ryoga's clothes were in a pile on the ground. Everyone who went to Jusenkyo had someone thing in common. Shampoo is cursed to turn into a cat, Mousse turns into a duck, Genma a panda and Ranma a girl and now she was staring at what used to be Ryoga. "Ryoga? P-chan?"

Ranma was worried about the look in Akane's eyes. He couldn't read it, he couldn't tell if she was going to break down or explode. He approached her cautiously after he tied P-chan to a tree. "Akane?"

"I … I … why didn't he tell me? YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME."

"I wanted to, every time you hugged him I wanted to kill him. When you took him to your room it drove me insane."

"I took him to bed with me! How could you let me?"

"I snuck in several times trying to get to him. Instead I got called a pervert."

"YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST TOLD ME."

"WOULD YOU HAVE BELIEVED ME?"

"Yes… no… I don't know."

"Akane, please remember the warrior's promise you made to me."

Akane paused and forced herself to stop and think. What all had Ranma said? She replayed the conversation in her mind and finally one thought stuck out from all the others. If I break my word I am being dishonorable too.

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I kill him?"

"You should probably hear the whole story first but Ryoga probably deserves to be human for the story."

"Make him human."

"Um… Akane, it's still raining and we have no hot water."

"Fine. Let's go home and I will put on a POT of hot water and we can have pork tonight."

"Um… Akane, you're scaring him."

She glared at the shaking little black pig, "Good."

The little black pig passed out. Ranma looked down at him and decided that was probably for the best and stuffed him in her backpack along with the stupid pig's clothes. They cleaned up the site and walked home.

"Akane?"

"What?"

"How mad are you at me?"

"I am angrier with him."

"Okay." She didn't dare ask anything else and being a girl meant that holding hands was definitely out of the question.

Akane spent the walk home going over everything Ranma had told her about how he didn't really want to keep the warrior's promise but she knew his honor meant a great deal to him. She had promised to remember the conversation so she replayed it over and over again in her head. He had looked so frustrated with keeping it. As she thought more and more about it she also remembered every time he had chased the pig around her room or told it to behave. He often called the pig Ryoga and had even called Ryoga P-chan. He had helped her rescue the pig even when he didn't want to. She really wasn't going to be able to stay mad at Ranma. She was also worried that if they went to bed mad he might have another bad night. Dr. Tofu had told them it would be good to spend time doing something nice together before bed.

She felt really stupid for not figuring it out sooner. P-chan never let her give him a bath and she would often see Ryoga and P-chan in the same week but never at the same time. Ranma even had pointed out that they both got lost easily. He must have been so tempted over and over again to break that promise. Ranma always blushed and turn away when she wasn't decent and often had given her his shirt. Ryoga in pig form had often been in her room when she changed and she never paid attention to whether or not he watched. He really did behave dishonorably. Why had he started doing that? She could understand that sometimes she just found him and picked him up but so many others he would jump into her arms and snuggled into her… oh my god.

"Where is the pig?"

Ranma took several steps backward and threw her hands up, "What's wrong?"

"He purposely snuggles into my chest! Just like Happosai does."

"Why do you think I hit him so many times?"

"But I always hit you after you did that."

"It was worth it."

"I never knew you were protecting me."

Ranma nonchalantly shrugged and kept walking.

Akane reached out and stopped her and pulled her closer. "I forgive you. I wish you had told me but I understand that your honor is important to you. Can I hug you and give you a kiss before we get back to town?"

"You don't have to ask. I'm okay with it and thanks for not staying mad at me very long."

Akane pulled Ranma to a tree and smiled evilly, she liked watching Ranma's eyes go wide. She pushed her up against a tree and tilted her mouth against her fiancé's. She felt Ranma's arms go around her neck and play with her hair much like she often did to male Ranma.

Their embrace was interrupted by a shrill squeal from inside Ranma's backpack. "Hmm…. Guess you were too rough for Ryoga." Ranma took Akane's hand and both of them had trouble not giggling until they got to the edge of town.

When they arrived home Akane immediately put on some hot water.

"Akane! You are home sooner than I thought you would be. You look really angry is everything okay?"

Akane turned to Kasumi, "Did you know Ryoga and P-chan were the same? That Ryoga is cursed like Ranma?"

"Oh my, I guess that makes sense but Akane he sleeps in your room."

"I am going to kill him."

"Oh my."

"This deserves something stronger than 'oh my' sister dear."

Kasumi giggled. "How about if I say that I don't feel sorry for what is about to happen to Ryoga. Any man who tricks my sister like that deserves whatever happens to him. Akane, did you know Ryoga has a crush on you?"

"No, Ranma didn't tell me that either."

"Don't be too mad at Ranma."

"I've already forgiven him. When I thought about it, he always tried to keep Ryoga from doing the perverted things that he did."

"I really like this change in you little sister. You have matured a great deal since you returned from China. I only wish that it hadn't taken something as awful as what happened there."

"Thank you. He loves me you know."

"I think he always has, ever since you asked him to be your friend."

Akane looked surprised. "But that was the first day we met and I thought he was a girl."

"How many friends has he had over the years? You freely offered to be his."

"Why do you think he chose me? I am not as good at martial arts as the other girls or as pretty."

"Don't sell yourself short but I think it was really because you were honest with him. Oh maybe not about your feelings and your wishes but you never tried to trick him into marriage or dates. You just aren't a fake person Akane and that is more attractive than any pretty figure."

Akane beamed at her sister. "Thank you, I needed that."

Upstairs Ranma was holding down P-chan so that he couldn't run away. "Stay still and face the consequences of your actions like a man."

Akane came in with the kettle and started to pour it on P-chan. "WAIT!"

"What's wrong?"

"Give me the kettle and turn around."

"Wha… why? OHHHH," She blushed and quickly turned around.

Ranma pour hot water on himself and then Ryodga and finally handed Ryoga his clothes. "Akane you can turn around now."

While Ryoga was dressing she had been getting mad again thinking of the times he saw her naked or nearly naked. "How could you do that to me? I thought you were my friend."

"I… I… I'm… really…really sorry. I'll do anything for you to forgive me."

"I don't know if there is anything you can do. You let me think P-chan was a pet. You had chances to tell me but you never did. You made Ranma keep his promise not to tell."

"I'm sorry. I usually looked away when you were dressing. I liked being near you because you were so nice to me."

"You did it because you have a crush on me," both Ranma and Ryoga gaped at her, "Kasumi pointed it out today."

Ryoga turned very red and slowly nodded.

"So that means you were happy to be cuddling my chest and sleeping in my bed."

"Actually," Ranma interrupted, "I can't believe I might stick up for Ryoga here, but apparently sleeping with you is dangerous."

"What?"

"Uh yeah, Happposai used a sleeping incense on you and tried to sneak and sleep with you. Ryoga and I worked together to get you away from him but he managed to get the best of us. When he tried to cuddle with you, you rolled over on him, kicked him and punched him."

Ryoga dared to look up at Akane, "Yeah, I got beat up several times at night."

"You deserved every lump."

He returned to looking down at his lap, "Yes"

"You never told me about Happosai doing that."

"Well since he didn't enjoy it very much and had so many bruises we figured the old pervert got exactly what he deserved. You were fine."

"Ranma you should have told me."

"Okay, I won't keep something like that from you anymore. Although if the creep does anything like that again then I will simply kill him."

Akane nodded curtly and returned to facing Ryoga. "I may forgive you Ryoga… eventually, but not today or anytime soon." Again both guys were shocked at her words, "I don't like what you did and I don't know if I will ever feel like being close friends with you again but it isn't worth staying mad about it, especially since the man who tried to stop you from doing it is the man I fell in love with, not the man who snuck into my bed. Tricks do not work to win someone's love. Being honest is best."

Ranma smiled at Akane. She understands why I love her over all the others. He wasn't sure how she figured that out but he didn't care. "Ryoga, time for you to leave. I want my fiancé all to myself."

Ryoga slowly stood up and with his head down walked to the door. "Thank you for keeping your promise Ranma. Akane, I really am sorry."