A/n: It's been a while! I got kind of sidetracked with school that I haven't had much time to write, so I'm sorry that this is a shorter chapter. I'll admit that it's also a little rushed, but I'll explain and expand a lot more in the next one. I just wanted to get something out for people to read. Anyway enough of that, I hope you enjoy the third chapter of Served with Chashu!

It'd been weeks since he'd last seen Akane. After that pig incident, there was nothing he could to try and convince himself it was okay. Kasumi's advice wouldn't work on this occasion. He was still a pig, he'd contemplate on sneaking into the Tendo Dojo to grab his items, but he didn't want anyone -especially Akane- to see him. So he hoofed it (literally), too ashamed to even revert back to his human half, he'd roam the woods as a lost pig. If he was lucky, maybe someone could run over him and put him out of his misery. He just had to blow all of his chances. Her subtle advances, him finally not being as nervous, him thinking he had a semblance of a chance, thrown away because of the curse. That stupid. Goddamned. Pain in his ass, curse. He was practically starving himself, he'd often have some instant ramen or soup to keep him full, but he'd left the bag and couldn't muster up the courage or swallow his pride to go back. During the weeks he spent as a piglet, he realized how many predators he had, thankfully, his martial arts saved him, but living off of fish, berries, and some grass couldn't feed his enormous apatite. He'd remember the grace of Akane's cooking. The homely smell, the lingering taste, and the impression it had on him, better than Ukyo had ever prepared.

The sun was beginning to set and he ended up getting himself really lost. He had to be in the mountains again because nothing looked even remotely familiar, thankful for this, the piglet sighed to himself and propped himself up against a tree, hoping to get a little rest, until he heard the sounds of grunting and fighting, but he simply ignored them to try and head to sleep, he couldn't be bothered to deal with anyone, let alone himself or his own emotions. He could barely get sleep, the thoughts of Akane kept flooding his mind and the only thing from him doing a perfect Shi Shi Hokodan was his being a pig. Though he agreed that if he were to see her again, he'd have to do it. Honestly, he was getting tired of feeling sorry for himself, but what else could he do? The secret he kept for months, almost a year, spoiled and ruined because of his clumsiness. There's no way she'd fall in love with me now...he thought to himself, squealing and sobbing.

...

Morning came as the poor piglet cried himself to sleep. He could hear a crackling fire in the distance as well as the sound of faint talking, the cold air was being relentless this morning, he had to get warm. Attempting to follow the aforementioned sounds, he made his way to a small campground, the roaring fire was nearby and a tent was adjacent. It looked like no one was around the warm fire, so he rushed his way over towards the fire, hoping to warm his bristle (it's basically pig fur) enough to be able to bear the strong colds. Unfortunately for him, footsteps drew closer and he was picked up.

"Pa, I think I found us some breakfast!" The oh-too familiar voice cried out. P-Chan didn't protest or scream, he didn't get mad at Ranma, he just tried to accept his fate. "Pa?" He cried out again, there was no response from the old man, so Ranma simply shrugged and had gotten a kettle out. "Gotta clean you first. Lord knows where you've been..."

Hot Water.

Change.

Reaction.

"What the-?! Ryoga?! What the hell happened to you man?!" The pigtailed boy cried as he threw Ryoga off of him and onto the hard ground. Ryoga only landed with a thud, his eyes closed, unmoving. "Dontcha hear me talking to you Pork-for-Brains?" Ryoga was still silent. "You're starting to worry me Ryoga." … "Did you take a vow or somethin'?" … Ranma shrugged and continued to look at Ryoga, still in the same position.

After some time, Ryoga eventually spoke up, his voice was shaky. "I'm just done Ranma. You win." He said weakly, as he got up and left the campground. Ranma looked at him oddly and jumped in front of him, stopping him to a halt.

"What's your deal? If you sent me a challenge letter, I couldn't kick your ass, even if I wanted to. I'm stuck doing this 'fiancé training' and apparently I'm 'unteachable' so I've been stuck here for centuries!" Ryoga turned to him, So this is where you've been. "Ryoga, if you're done being depressed or whatever can we spar? I haven't fought in nearly a month!" Ryoga huffed after this statement looking at Ranma's uncharacteristically desperate look. With a sigh, he'd begin to ready himself as Ranma put on a more joyful expression. "Finally! Let's do this!"

Ranma was swinging left and right as Ryoga soaked every punch like a sponge plunged in water. He was unmoving and was obviously not making any attempts at dodging any of his attacks. Ranma realized the number of punches he was getting in and figured it wasn't normal. Not to mention Ryoga hadn't swung at him once. Maybe it's some resistance training? He tried reassuring himself, but he only looked more closely at Ryoga's face and saw a soulless expression. Ranma had eased the rapid punches, for something even a blind Mousse could dodge. The punches still landed. Worried/angered, Ranma stopped completely to fold his arms and stare at Ryoga.

"What's with you? Something bad had to happen if you don't want to kill me."

"You just won Saotome. I don't have much else to say."

"Win what? The fight?"

"With Akane's love. Yes. You have." Ryoga was beginning to walk away again until Ranma had caught up with him and stopped him. Why couldn't he just leave him alone?

"Trust me. Nothing's happening between me and that mule. She's the one that sent me here to do this crap anyway! At this point, you can have her if you wanna." Ryoga turned immediately, red in the face, scaring Ranma as a result.

"Listen. I'm not going to let you get away with saying all that stuff about Akane! It's unfair to her and you're nothing but a two-timing ass!" Ryoga huffed and swung at Ranma, him swiftly jumping out the way and landing with grace. "If you hadn't angered Akane you wouldn't even have to be doing any of this!"

"Ahhhh. So this little piggy has been eavesdropping hasn't he?" "Well, whatever Akane told you isn't all of it. What happened was an accident and that's final. I bet she's sitting at home looking at TV with everyone anyways." Ryoga started to snarl at Ranma, making him have a less than scared reaction. "What are you going to do? Kill me?"

"I can't when I'm naked." Ranma looked down and sheepishly laughed. "I'm only doing this once. This is the last time we spar. I'm leaving and plan on never returning again."

Ranma had gone inside of the tent and thrown Ryoga his iconic get-up. "You've said that like, (he counts his fingers) 1...2...8...about 37 times to me and you've never made that promise, you always ran back to Akane as P-Chan. What's stoppin' that now?" Ryoga looked downcast as he said that. The truth had hurt him more than he was expecting. Ryoga threw on Ranma's clothing -hating how it was slightly baggy on him- and threw up a stance. "Are you ready this time? No wussing out?" Ryoga curtly nodded.

Both boys were up in fighting stances. There was nothing but silence and the cold winds doing most of the talking for them as they were waiting for whoever would strike first. Ranma could tell just from the look in Ryoga's eyes that he meant business. His thoughts interrupted, Ranma received a kick to his thigh and as a reflex jumped away, but made an advance towards Ryoga who was now unmoving. Kick, Swing, Hook. All were dodged by Ryoga. It was as if it were opposite day; Ranma was getting slightly fed up, now experiencing how annoying it is for someone to dodge all of your attacks, there was another lunge, but this time he managed to uppercut Ryoga in the stomach, he flew back a few feet and skidded on the ground. Reverting to his usual instincts, Ryoga charged towards Ranma with a sweeping kick, only for him to get tripped by Ranma and land on his back. As he got up, Ranma was hovering over him, throwing him into a nearby tree and continuously wailing on him with his, "Roasting Chestnuts on an Open Fire" technique, nearly destroying the tree in the process. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Ryoga got up and dusted himself off staring daggers at Ranma. "Did I take it too far?" He asked rubbing the back of his head. Ryoga said nothing, but simply de-rooted the tree and bashed it against Ranma's skull.

"No, but I might have." And with that and a dazed Ranma. Ryoga continued his suicidal trek to where he thought were further up the mountains.

Suddenly, a sleepy Genma had come out of the tent, yawning and seeing his son injured. "Ranma!" He ran to his aid, kneeling down on the grass. "Boy! I told you to find breakfast when I woke up! You're such an inconsiderate child. Must I do everything myself?" Ranma sighed deeply.

She was staring at his bag and out the window, halfway hoping he'd wind up back to grab it, whenever he did lose it, he came back (or stumbled his way back) in about a day or two, but he was gone for weeks. Missing pet signs were everywhere around Nerima, hoping to find Ryoga to at least talk to him about it. But he never came back. For the first couple of days, she was depressed to see Ryoga at what she assumed to be at his worst. Vulnerable. As the days rolled by, however, she'd begin to get increasingly more upset. That stupid Ryoga. Slowly starting to hate his guts. Today she found herself scowling at his bag in all of its ominous glory. It was massive and a lot heavier than she would've thought. She actually fell over the first attempt of picking it up. Everyone in the family left it there off of Kasumi's request, but now it was starting to just become clutter. Nabiki had considered selling whatever was inside for a quick buck and Happosai wanted to check and see if Ryoga had any sort of "treasure" in there.

This day was different though. Nabiki was at the mall -presumably, with Kuno-, Happosai and Soun were out running errands, and Kasumi left to go see Dr. Tofu and return a book. Leaving Akane alone. Alone with the bag. It kept tempting her. The rough leather texture, the odd mustard color, its very Ryoga-ish odor. He'd been gone for weeks -nearly a full month-, no one knows when he'd be coming back. It wouldn't hurt to have a small peek. No. It would hurt, it wouldn't make sense to go through his stuff like that. However, something about it was just so enticing, this bag was like Ryoga's home. To an extent it is his home, his tent and sleeping bag are in there and presumably a plethora of food. Peeking inside of his bag would be like entering someone's house and spying on them. To her it did. It wasn't right and despite her slight bitterness towards him, she didn't have the heart.

"AIYAH! Ranma back!" The Amazon crashed through the wall in a crazed fit to see if her beloved airen was back. "Stupid Gorilla Girl. You hide Ranma." She searches around the room. "I heard rumor Ranma back in town. You know 'bout this?" Akane shook her head.

"I didn't think Ranma would be coming back now. I guess I'll look out for him then." Shampoo smiled and then frowned at Akane.

"You no eat special 'Ranma-only' noodles did you?"

"I had to. They'd go bad if I left them out for so long," Shampoo snarled at Akane and turned her bike around.

"See. This why Ranma no like you." She'd skidded out of the living room to hop back onto her bike. In the midst of the debris, a tire-tracked Mousse was dazed and making his way back to the crazed Amazon's bike. He simply quacked and bowed at Akane before leaving.

At least the dojo wall wasn't as broken as last time, she could fix that in an afternoon. But, what really caught her interest was Ryoga's bag that was now tipped over. She turned towards it and now felt compelled to open it completely.

It was mostly what she was expecting. The terribly rolled-up tent, crumpled up sleeping bag, cartons of empty ramen containers. But as she looked inside further she saw a whole scrap of papers that could make even a secretary blush. She had reminded herself that Ryoga did send a lot of letters, so it made sense, but what she didn't expect was to see the amount of balled-up papers that were addressed to her.

'Dear Akane, I've always wanted to tell you something, but I never got the chance to. I'm not good at expressing myself but here goes. I' the rest is harshly scribbled out in green ink.

'I'm just going to be straightforward. Akane. I like you. We should be friends. No, don't send that one.'

'I love you. WHATTHEHELLAMITHINKING!?' That one was crumpled up a considerable amount.

One stood out to her in particular. It wasn't addressed to her, but she continued to read it anyway.

'Well. This is just to destress. Kasumi told me to calm down more, so I guess writing out my feelings can't hurt...I think that I'm upset at myself. I'm just mad at the things that I do. I'm not good at explaining myself. Hell, even on paper I'm terrible, but this is the best thing I can do. I hate Ranma, but I hate myself more. I take my frustrations and anger out on him too often. We were finally starting to become better friends and then he just had to make Akane mad. All he does is piss me off, but I can't do anything about it, not like talking to him will help. I do appreciate him though. Too many times did the pig curse get found by precious Akane. If it weren't for him she would've found out the night I first entered her house as a pig. I still need to confess to Akane. I can't keep living like this, she'll eventually have to choose and I have a feeling that it won't be me, even though our first date went swimmingly, I still feel like she has some attraction towards Ranma. She's so passionate about him and only people love the things they're passionate about. Dammit all. Even if some miracle we do make it together, what should I say about the damned pig? I don't even know how she'll react to it. It'd be a coin flip on either her accepting it or her tossing me to the curb. Maybe I should remember what Kasumi said and try to think about the situation a bit more. As long as I just breathe and tell her how I truly feel things will work out.'

There was nothing she could think about. Her bitterness went away, but she sat there. Emotionless. Until she had ended up seeing a figure walking towards the Tendo Dojo.

She frantically (and terribly) hid all of Ryoga's stuff in the linin and walked towards him carefully. "R-Ranma?"

"Y-yes?" He said, his body away from Akane, "What?" His voice sounded different, she realized.

"Welcome back. I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"Come back inside. I want to hear about what's happened. Could you tell me?" He nodded and walked backwards into the dojo. "What are you doing?"

"It's uh-uh a posture test. Genma taught me about it while I was training."

Akane simply shrugged and welcomed Ranma inside of the house. She realized that he hadn't come back with Genma, but that was probably due to his laziness. Akane had a small walk around the room and took another look at Ranma. He looked stronger. More mature. His hair was something else though, it didn't look as scruffy as it usually was and she noticed something off with it. "What happened to your ponytail?"

"I got it cut during my training," she hummed comfortably and sat down beside him. She was looking at him yet turning to glance at the linin and that seemed to capture "Ranma's" attention.

"You know. While you were gone something happened a few weeks ago and I can't describe how I felt." He nodded and gestured for her to continue on. "Well, me and Ryoga were out somewhere and he- he ended up transforming." He was silent as he continued to wait for Akane to continue. "I-I never would've really considered it. But thinking about it, it all makes sense. I don't know what to do about it or even how to feel."

"Well, why are you telling me about it?"

"Because you knew all along and didn't tell me. You lied to me. Both you and Ryoga did," Akane started to sniffle, her emotions starting to get the better of her. "I'm not mad at either of you, because I can see why he kept it hidden. He didn't want to ruin our friendship. But, I feel like I found out more about him than I thought. H-he loved me. I had a feeling before, but I didn't think it was more than just a crush. Always running to my aid and trying to fight for my honor." Akane was silent for a moment hoping she'd get some kind of a response, but there was still mostly quiet. "If I knew I wouldn't've led him on like that. I never liked him like that, just as a friend. A best friend even. I could see our love as platonic, but not romantic and I'm not sure how I'd tell him that; well at least they're not romantic at the moment." There was more eerie silence and a huff coming from the boy. "You seem to be mad. I'm sorry to tell you this Ranma, I would've figured isn't wasn't anything serious, if you could, could you tell Ryoga how I feel. I'm not sure if I'm just about ready yet."

There was a dejected, yet affirming grunt.

"I know he's your pal Ranma, but we can still all be friends, I'm just not ready yet. I don't know how I feel."

"Well, I know how I feel."

Akane jolted at the sudden words.

"I feel like I have to throw up." He dashed out of the room immediately, if only Akane knew who she was actually talking to. His heart was torn and ripped to shreds and the only thing he could do was run away again. Maybe he'd run into a busy street for real this time. As he got up and tried to run to the bathroom he saw his items haphazardly thrown into the hall closet along with a bunch of strewn papers on the floor. Papers that have his handwriting on them. She read them. All of them. He'd made his way to the bathroom and splashed water onto his face not realizing how cold it actually was. As that occurred, Akane had tried chasing after him but was greeted to nothing but a black piglet lying on the bathroom floor. She simply stared. She stared longingly and softly at P-Chan. His response was squeals of distress and him wanting to get out, but the windows were closed. Akane was blocking the door. And he couldn't do a Shi Shi Hokodan. Akane saw him sit there in defeat and embarrassment, more than when it was first revealed to her. At least then he could run away, but what was he supposed to do now? Cower? Cry? Admit defeat?

"Ryoga...I-I didn't know that- you should've stopped me! I mean-." Her backpaddling was stopped by a singular squeal as if telling her to shut up. His love still burned for her, but at this moment, he hated everyone and everything, including his dearly beloved. "You should've just said something. I mean I'm in a relationship with a trans-aqua man after all! It wouldn't have been as different as a pig." Ryoga only heard up to "relationship". He was going to go and make an attempt to move, but all of his efforts were stopped, by his lack of motivation and will. No longer was he the determined, directionally challenged lost boy. He was the lifeless, empty hull of himself. If only his pig form knew how to do a Shi Shi Hokodan. He couldn't stop looking at her sweet face. It made him sick. For him to be this vulnerable and so...so dishonorable.

"Can we talk it through Ryoga? Just us. No distractions. I just want to know why? Why keep it a secret for so long?" There was a solitary snort and Akane temporarily closed the door to hear sounds of the faucet. There was silence from the pair. Long uncomfortable silence, which was interrupted by Ryoga's drawn-out sigh. Although he knew she knew, he couldn't come to terms with what had happened. The months of her not knowing, only for it to be revealed by his own stupid blunder. He could almost feel it coming. The tense energy slowly building up in his system, his chest feeling heavy, and seeing himself glow with ominous red chi. At this point, it was nearly out of his control.

"Akane! Leave!"

"No! Stop running away! Please talk to me!" ... "Please..." He couldn't explode. Not inside of her house and her still inside. His chi had faded and he sat on the floor. Her sweet voice was so tender to his ears, it was like a never-ending melody, yet this particular song hurt to listen to. It was strained and sounded like she was on the verge of tears. Never in his life would he think he'd cause Akane to cry.

"I'm sorry Akane. I'm just lost. And I don't just mean directionally this time. You went through my bag and found my letters haven't you?" Akane huffed behind the door, hoping her crying wouldn't be noticeable to him. "Then you know. My love towards you, the curse of the piglet. All of it." Ryoga slowly Bakusai'd the floor, slowly having no regard for the house anymore, though in all fairness the house was broken almost every week, so a small hole wouldn't hurt them. "I didn't mean to hurt your hand Akane, I didn't know I was crushing you, I was having so much fun on our date, it slipped my mind." Akane is still quiet, "You told me to stay at the bench and I was waiting for you to come, but you never did. And I find you, your nose in a book!" Ryoga's Bakusai holes were becoming bigger in size, each larger than the last, and each piling more rubble and broken tile. "Why did you just leave! If you didn't run off and look at that stupid book, I wouldn't be sitting here on the floor naked and you wouldn't be crying!" Akane ignored his observation.

"Ryoga, I had my reasons for looking at the book...if you'd let me explain for a moment-"

"No, I'm sick of this Akane! You know about my curse and my true feelings and you only learned because of my embarrassment and you snooping through my things! Why did I hide the pig for so long?"

"Ryoga, it's okay I'm sorry that I-"

"It's because I love you Akane! Alright?! There! I love you! I didn't want your feelings to disappear if they were there in the first place. I didn't want you to think of me less! Ranma has it easy because at least he's still human, but every time I'm lost as a pig I have a seventy percent chance of getting boiled alive or hunted. I have less than a quarter of my normal strength and I'm nothing but a plaything with Ranma and a...a pet for you. Your cute widdle P-Chan...My worst nightmares are coming true and you outright call me a coward. If there's anything that I can even do to redeem myself, in your eyes please tell me? Right now. I'm waiting for whatever the hell you have to say."

"I-I want to train with you. And I want you to please calm down Ryoga. I haven't told anyone this, but that book I was reading? It's a guide book and I've been trying to follow it so I can become more feminine. I was trying to figure out how to deal with situations like ours, but nothing was in there. I panicked and began to gloss through all the pages. I got so invested in reading that time passed so quickly," Akane sighed and wiped her misty eyes, "I wasn't ditching you. I just want to make sure that everything turns out okay."

"And training will help with that how?"

"So that way, we can still do things together, even if you're twelve times my strength," Ryoga slightly chuckled to himself as Akane gave him the compliment. "I'm sorry I went through your stuff Ryoga. I just couldn't help it."

"And I'm sorry I've hidden the curse from you for so long. I tried my best not to do anything bad as P-Chan," he tried humbly.

"I know, but we need to talk about this some more. Can you come out?"

"Only if you give me some of my clothes, wearing Ranma's clothing makes me want to heave."

"...and so, he tossed me his clothes, and we 'spared'."

"Did he ask about me?"

"Not until I mentioned you, but he didn't seem to care about you." Akane's face was downcast, but she shook it off immediately, "Now what do you mean by training?"

"If I'm just as strong as you or Ranma, I'll be able to start doing more things with you. You won't have to worry about hurting me."

"I'm more afraid about hurting you in other ways. I'm trying to control myself, but it's hard to do that when almost everything/everyone is out to get you. And besides, I'm not letting you do the same training I did, you wouldn't survive what I had to go through."

"Ryoga, I'm a martial artist too!"

"But you're also fragile. Akane, I learned how to get stronger based on heavy conditioning if I were to teach you how to do the 'Breaking Point' technique, you'd have to be ready to train."

"I'm willing."

"Are you really?" She nods. The childish part of Ryoga couldn't help but celebrate that she's willing to do something to keep their friendship strong. Even if it is just friendship, he'll take anything he can get from her.

"Excluding any romance, I just want to be the best housewife I could ever be and I want to just focus on myself. Training will just be another step to improving myself. I haven't done any martial arts because I started taking school a lot more seriously. I start again soon, but I'll make sure to train daily with you. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Then it's a date...P-Chan." She extended her arm out for a handshake and despite the slight tease, Ryoga accepted without any hesitance and smiled to himself. Even though the weeks building up were the worst, talking it out wasn't that bad. Why hadn't he ever done this with Ranma? It would've saved so many fights.

A/n: I know this is somewhat forced, but think of it as a compromise than an outright solution. Akane and Ryoga are still hurt by each other, but I wanted to segway into the next chapter quickly since this one was in a weird spot. Anyway, feel free to give me constructive criticism and reviews, I'm still learning and I hope to become a better writer! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!