I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any of its characters

-7-

Morning came, and the two awoke finding themselves still tangled together, but neither seemed inclined to move.

"Good morning, Airen."

"Good morning." Ranma pulled her in closer.

She didn't fight him, instead she snuggled in closer, pressing her body into his. Why can't I freeze time, so our moments like this could last forever. As she repositioned herself, she felt something hard by her leg and blushed.

At the contact, Ranma became self-conscious and tried to pull away. Rising from the bed, he tried to hide his physical reaction and escaped to the restroom. The separation helped him calm himself down, and after using the facility he went back to her room.

Shampoo had gotten out of bed and was folding the sheets in place when he entered. She saw him and smiled.

The smile quickly erased any embarrassment he was feeling. An alarm clock sounded, interrupting their moment. They both turned to look at the noisy device. Shampoo shut it off, and Ranma realizing the time panicked.

"I have to get to school. I'm going to be late." Rushing forward he hugged Shampoo. Kissing her on the top of her head, he hurried toward the door. "Thanks for taking care of me yesterday. I'll see you later!" he called as he hurried out of the building. In his haste, he didn't notice Mousse down the opposite street, making his way back toward the Nekohanten in defeat.

What's Ranma doing running out of the Nekohanten like that? Shampoo?! Mousse thought and rushed toward the restaurant. Inside he called out, "Shampoo!"

"Did Airen forget something?" She cried as she approached the banister. Looking down, she saw Mousse in the walkway and was immediately disappointed. "Oh it just Mousse…" She was going to dismiss him entirely when she felt his battle aura sky rocket and she realized her mistake. Hurrying she dashed into the bathroom, grabbed a pitcher, and filled it with cold water.

"RANMA!"

She could hear his scream. With the water in hand, she hurried toward Mousse. He was about to exit the building when Shampoo dumped the contents on him, triggering his curse. After he transformed, Shampoo grabbed him and locked him in a cage.

"I've come too far for you to be messing things up. You will stay here until you settle down."

The duck quacked vehemently and continuously flapped his wings in his fury.

"I see he has finally returned." Cologne said from the stairs.

"Sorry he woke you, great-grandmother."

"It's to be expected since we're dealing with Mousse. I assume Ranma recovered from his paralysis."

"Yes, the soup helped, thank you."

"Anything to help. Since you're awake. Let's get started on your training, go get ready."

Shampoo hurried upstairs to change.

"You had better not disrupt things between them." Cologne turned to the duck. "You have no claim now or ever. You have lost that right. If you harm her chances, I will see to it you are punished severely."

The icy glare she sent his way held the promise of her threat, and the duck had chills run up his body. What has been happening?

Ranma's day at school went by with the usual interruptions, which included attacks by Kuno, chi stealing teachers, crazy principals just to name a few. There's no such thing as normal at Furinkan High. Ranma thought as the day finally came to an end. He had tried to meet with Akane several times throughout the day, but she seemed to be avoiding him. Lingering on campus, he attempted to walk home with her, but after a little inquiring, he found out that she had left without him. She really IS avoiding me. Instead of going back to the Tendo household, Ranma detoured to Ucchan's.

By the time he arrived, she had already opened for business. Stepping in, he headed straight to a stool at the grill.

"Ranma honey, long time no see." Ukyo smiled over at him. "Are you hungry?"

"If you're not too busy."

"Never too busy for you, sugar. What'll you have?"

"Surprise me."

"You got it." With practiced hands, she added his batter to the grill, all while still serving her other customers. "Akane seemed rather put out today. Did you guys get into another fight?" She innocently inquired.

"You could say that. Yesterday I tried talking to her about all this fiancee stuff, but she wouldn't listen. I left to go on a walk and was ambushed by Kodachi, who used her typical paralysis powder before trying to make a move. Akane stumbled upon us, thought I was engaging in the scenario and then sent me flying. Why does she always jump to conclusions?" He didn't mean to add that last bit, it was just something on the forefront of his mind.

"I couldn't say. Does that mean you still haven't told her about your decision and plans?"

"No, she won't listen when I try."

"So she doesn't know about our...plans on Thursday?" She hesitated, too embarrassed to say the word 'date'.

"Probably not, unless someone else told her, which could explain why she's avoiding me."

"You need to find a way to tell her soon. The more time that passes, the angrier she'll be when she does finally find out."

"I know, and I've been trying. If she doesn't sit and listen today, I'll just have to tell her in front of everyone during dinner or something."

"Good luck Ran-chan." With that she served up his okonomiyaki.

Ranma ate, but his mood had soured and the food lost its taste. After he was done, he said his good-bye to Ukyo and made his way back home. He looked for Akane, but couldn't find her anywhere. When he asked Kasumi, she informed him that Akane had gone to a friend's house after school. Failing again in his task to update Akane, Ranma went up to his room to work on some school assignments he had been procrastinating on. He didn't last long before he fell asleep on top of his books.

Morning came and Genma's snoring woke Ranma. He was still sleeping at the small table he used for a desk. Stretching out, he realized he hadn't finished everything. Crap and today is the last day. Determined not to be dragged to summer classes, he buckled down and finished his assignments. Packing up his papers, he hurried downstairs. Akane and Nabiki had already left for the morning. Kasumi had set aside some breakfast for him, but Genma had found it first. Forgoing breakfast, Ranma dashed out of the house, his stomach protesting all the while. He made it just as the bell was sounding.

"Cutting that a little close." Ukyo commented.

"I had a busy morning. I had to finish up my last assignments."

Ukyo chuckled. "If you had done them earlier you wouldn't be in this predicament."

He scowled at her, but knew she was right.

"Last day over!" Ranma cried out overjoyed as the last bell sounded, signaling the beginning of their summer break. He glanced over to Akane's seat, which was already vacant. Quickly, he dashed out of the building hoping to catch her, but he saw no sign of her. Taking their normal route home proved to be just as fruitless. Where could she be? Back at the house, he found out that she hadn't been back yet, and so he decided to wait for her. Luckily, it didn't take much longer before Akane arrived with Nabiki. He rose to meet her. "Akane, can we please talk?"

She looked to Nabiki, but she offered little help, just a shrug of her shoulders. Turning her attention back to Ranma, she snapped, "Fine."

They headed to the dojo to speak privately. Once inside, she barked, "What is it?"

"I've been wanting to talk to you for a while. During my last training session, I did some soul searching, and I've come to some realizations about this fiance debacle."

Akane's expression hardened, but she didn't say anything.

"I realized that I have been acting very selfishly and it wasn't fair to you all, and I decided that it was time that I resolved the situation by making a decision."

His words surprised her, and she stood staring at him in bewilderment.

"To be fair to everyone, I decided that I needed to sort out my feelings and maybe go on a couple of dates with each to see how we'd fit. I wanted to be upfront with you all so none of you were surprised and to lessen the extent of pain that I know my decision is going to cause."

She tried to take in everything he was saying, but was too shocked.

"I am taking Ukyo out tomorrow. I just wanted you to know where I stood in all of this." He waited for her to respond, to say something, hit him, something, but she remained motionless, so he turned and walked away.