Late at night, the air was cool,

We snuck into the swimming pool,

You dove headfirst, I waded in,

The scent of chlorine upon our skin,

The stars were bright, the water clear,

I felt your heat as you swam near,

I held my breath, you held my hand,

Moving away, further from land.

~Swimming Pool by Freezepop

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Ryouga remembered the first time that she kissed him.

It had been on one of those many beach holidays the Tendou family seemed to take. Two years after they'd met back up, two years of fighting and stupid rivalries. Two years of not really knowing what was the truth and what was part of the lies.

Two years of both of them circling the other, while desperately trying to pretend otherwise. One because of fear, of terror of a dark pit -weak girls go in the pit- and the other from confusion.

He'd tried hard to forget what she'd told him before he followed her to China, the secrets she'd given him, the name, the important things deep in her soul that he thought either she had forgotten or was repressing so badly it was like she'd forgotten.

He'd had to pretend it was all OK, that she was just Ranma and Ranma was a macho jerk that had ruined his life, not the person she'd told him she was, the name she'd given, the identity hidden far, far beneath the surface in fear. Pretend he hated her, pretend he'd followed her out of outrage and not fear for his friend.

Only seeing her in glimpses, late at night in conversation or just sitting quietly on the roof of the Tendou dojo. Sparring sessions far from the place at night where they could be themselves and could talk, but only ever curtailed. Never taking that final step, never admitting, never telling one another the full truth.

In hindsight, he should have seen how taut and stretched and frayed her nerves were before they finally cracked.

But then on this holiday something had finally snapped in her. She claimed to have been locked into her cursed form, though he knew it was waterproof soap. Mostly because in the dead of night she'd crept into his room and left it on his pillow while he pretended to sleep. He'd lain there, eyes closed, while she looked over his form. Through his barely cracked eyelid he could see her in the swimwear and oversized shirt combination she'd been wearing the entire time, even at this point in the night as her expression held something he couldn't identify. A hunger, a need, a desire to let something in her heart out. A softness he'd not seen for years. A longing.

She'd kissed his forehead and told him that she'd wait for him to catch up.

Then she'd spent three whole days teasing and flirting with him and just him, to the growing discomfort of her family and himself. Except, for some reason, Akane, who just made a few half-hearted cutting comments every now and again, like it was just some comedy routine she'd grown bored of participating in.

Eyes rolling, short hair shaking with every overacted toss, something in her eyes when she looked between the two of them seemed almost approving. She'd nodded the few times that Ranma had come on strongly to him, when he'd caught her eye in embarrassment and not wanting to come between her and her fiancé. He didn't understand. Weren't they engaged? Didn't they love each other?

He knew they felt something for each other. They were close, had to be for all the crap they'd been through. But something in Ryouga had been afraid to ask, always afraid to ask.

Late on the third night, he'd used the soap, wanting to go for a swim properly for the first time in years, and waded into the pool after a surprisingly small amount of being lost, only to have Ranma pop out from under the water and grin at him like a shark looking at its next meal.

Everything sharpened at that look she gave him, half-lidded and hungry. The stars overhead, shining pale lights. The half-moon. The scent of chlorine in the air, mixing with the scent of their skin and the cool freshness of summer nights. The clear water between them, lit underneath by soft mood lighting. The water dripping from her unbound hair and running down her body that he noticed wasn't wearing a one-piece but a bikini that left less to the imagination than his sensitive nasal blood vessels could really normally handle, but somehow he didn't immediately burst into bright red nosebleeding.

"H-hey." He said, trying not to stammer as she gave him a look that got well on the way to blasting his brain into tiny pieces. He was glad they were still at the shallower end of the pool, where they could still stand. He felt like he might have gone under from just that look alone.

"Hey, Ryouga." She said, the look still on her face as something hungry and needy and buried surfaced in her eyes. "Swimming at night?"

He nodded. "Uh… yeah. You too, I see."

"Yup. Been doing it for the last couple of nights actually."

"…Why?"

She gave him another look that questioned his intelligence. "Why do you think?"

"Uh… honestly, I have no idea." He replied. He squeaked as she moved into his close, personal space.

Then she laughed and said, "Kiss me, dumbass", and he though his heart would burst from his chest it was beating so hard.

"Wh-what?"

"I said," She smiled at him and purred the next words, "'Kiss me, dumbass'. I want you to kiss me."

He could only stare as she came closer and hooked her arms around his neck. This had to be a trick, it was Ranma and she was so close and oh god her lips were on his and…

The kiss was almost desperate, Ranma leaning into it and standing on her very tiptoes. Needy and desperate, warm and inviting, but always forceful, trying to win, to dominate. Like Ranma had always been, at least to him. He'd been surprised in the first part of the kiss but as it went on, he kissed back. Mouth open, tongue seeking hers. Fireworks went off in the back of his head. He could taste cherries on her lips, some kind of lip balm. He could smell the tang of the chlorine in the water as it dripped from her hair.

When they parted, she was panting slightly, cheeks flushed and pleasure radiating from her. "…Ranma." He whispered. Her face fell and she shook her head, staring into his eyes with those fathomless blue pools.

"No." She said, breathily. "Not my name. Not the name I told you."

"…Keiko." He eventually managed. The thrill that went through her was obvious from the shiver down her spine and the widening smile. Her eyes blinked slowly, and then.

Oh yeah, and then.

Then she was kissing him again, and he found his back hitting the wall of the pool, cracking some of the tiles behind him. Her whole body pressed against his, demanding and wild. He had to put his hands on her hips just to stop her moulding herself to him so closely.

The heat from their contacting skin, his hands on her hips, her hands on his neck, her breasts pushing against his chest through the thin material of her bikini, the sharp scent of chlorine, the taste of her lips and tongue. He felt impressions of sense, more than actual sense. The sight of her blue eyes staring into his in the dark of the night the summer, the heat of her body against his.

When they parted this time, he'd been panting too, and responding to her kiss in a way that drove heat through him. It didn't help how she moved against him.

He felt strong, small arms underneath him, lifting him onto the side of the pool. She hopped up after, straddling him and staring into his eyes. Her arms hooked around the back of his neck and she smiled slowly, languorously. Then she moved them to his chest and pushed him down so he was lying back.

"All good?" She asked. He blinked. "That was nice." She said, smiling into his eyes, half lidded in pleasure. He stared at her as she looked down at him, hair falling to frame both their faces.

"That was…" He tried to think of words, but they escaped him. Instead he just asked. "Why?"

"Why not?" She countered. "I like you. I wanted to kiss you. I've wanted to kiss you since I got this body."

"You… have?"

"Duh. I told you I liked you back in the bread wars. You're the only one who knew my secret before I got this body."

"Why?"

"Well…" She stretched the word out. "I dunno. You're nice. You're kinda sweet, and you kept my secret even though you claimed to hate me. I like your fangs too."

"I don't hate you. But I had to pretend. That's why I…" He waved one of his hands about. "You know, 'Saotome Ranma prepare to die!' and all that. I didn't like Ranma, but I never hated you, Keiko."

She smiled at him warmly, that shiver of pleasure running through her again. Her face leaned closer to his, hair pooling to either side. "Wanna kiss again?"

He swallowed. Then grinned. "Okay."

The third kiss wasn't any less intense than the first or second, and this time Ryouga let his hands wander about Keiko's body. She let him, arching her back and smiling through the kiss. Everywhere he touched her she reacted in a different way. Hands running across her hips brought a sharp intake of breath, across the small of her back led to her letting it out just as sharply.

The next day she went on and on, apparently very embarrassed in her male form, that someone had put some kind of love potion in her drink. She blamed Shampoo or one of the other people that assaulted her on a daily business, but it was like scales had lifted from his eyes.

He could see how much of it was a pretense, could see the guilty look in her eyes that she cast his way – those blue, blue eyes that never changed despite how different her two forms are in shape and hair colour. The apologies she was sending him for tricking everyone.

He had to act, too, but he was used to that. So he pretended to be surly, to be mad that she got tricked when in the back of his mind he couldn't stop thinking about the kiss, about the pressing of their bodies, nothing between them but flimsy cloth of trunks and swimsuit, of heat and soft lips against his, a questing tongue. Of the softness of her skin.

The next night, on a whim, he went to swim again, and she was there once more, doing laps this time. He watched her, how the water ran from her body, the toned muscles, lithe and perfect in this form. He felt warmth inside and flushed heat outside as he watches, a shock that he'd felt jumping his heart rate.

She turned to face him and it was there again, that look, that hungry, needing look she'd reserved for him alone.

She didn't even look at Akane like that.

"Hey." She said, maddeningly calm.

"Ah… Hey." He replied, "Nice night again?"

"Yup." She smiled at him. Compared to the smile from the other day it was a lot more casual. She treaded water a moment, then floated on her back, looking up at the stars. After a moment's hesitation, he joined her.

"So what's going on?" He asked.

"Going on?" She wondered. "I liked you, I wanted to kiss you."

"Well, you said that, yeah, but why are you being so open about it now?"

"I got fed up with waiting for your slow ass to catch up." Keiko said, her voice amused. "I've been dropping hints to you for months that I wanted more than the occasional late night talk. But I figured I'd go at your pace. Ain't my fault your pace is as slow as a fuckin' snail, Ryouga."

He bristled, but then he sighed. "I guess you're right."

"Yeah."

"So… what now?" He asked. "You're all… wound up. I can see now. But if all you're doing is pretending…"

She splashed up and then her head was over his, looking down at him. "Ryouga. Ranma is the lie. Ranma is my shield."

He didn't pry any further. The look of fear in her eyes was enough to tell him she wasn't ready to do so.

"But I want you. I know I want you to be with me." She said, looking right into his eyes. "If you'll have me."

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Keiko remembered the first time he kissed her.

Up to that point it'd been her kissing him – in the pool, on the beach, on the roof of the house, in the dojo when their makeout sessions went a little further than was probably wise but not as far as her body ached for each time they separated, breath panting, skin flushed, desire short-circuiting her thoughts and making it harder and harder to stop.

But every one of those sessions she'd initiated. She'd tried to leave well enough alone, tried to wait for him to make a move too, but he seemed entirely content to be reactive and there was a part of her that wanted him to grab her and capture her lips, push her down, press himself onto her instead of the other way around as it always was.

Keiko didn't want a submissive, shy, reactive Ryouga, she wanted the Ryouga that yelled 'prepare to die', that was strong and charming and knew what he wanted. She knew he was shy around girls but time had changed both of them. For one she wasn't just a girl anymore, but for all that he still seemed content to let her lead.

She wanted an equal, someone who'd take charge for her sometimes and give her time away from her dominance.

Keiko and Ryouga's relationship, friendship, whatever, had always been based on fighting. Fighting and somehow, water and food. The two of them would always fight, and she was happy with that. She could have a partner that she fought with abandon and could then run into his arms, neither fearing to have hurt the other because they knew each other's strengths so well.

But like every girl he seemed to meet and like, he wouldn't initiate, wouldn't fight her. Wouldn't fight for or against her, he just let her kiss him and didn't bother to start things himself. She loved when he was bashful, or shy, but those weren't the same as the submissiveness that suddenly permeated him.

She hated it.

She'd tried not to let it affect her dealing with him, but it began to sour in her stomach like bad apples, and eventually she told him he needed to figure out what she wanted, and to go away until then.

It'd hurt, it'd ripped her heart out of her chest and she was pretty sure it had done the same to him. Both had looked away, tears in their eyes, burning in their chests, and he'd gotten himself lost with almost indecent haste.

Akane had held her while she cried, miserable, in her officially- fiancée's room. She'd cried because she'd pushed him away and it was only then that she'd realised she loved him so, so much. Akane, wonderful, caring Akane who loved her like she loved her own sisters, had kept it quiet, hidden their relationship from her family who thought the two of them in love.

Which was funny, because Keiko had love in a boy with fangs and bad direction sense and Akane had her eyes on someone who was definitely not Keiko.

Keiko had thought that that was it, she'd lost her opportunity for love – who else but a boy who was permanently lost could love a freak like her, want a freak like she was? Akane had slapped her silly the night she'd said that and told her in hisses and quiet yelling that she wasn't to think of herself that way, that that was her a-hole father's programming and the terror of her mother talking.

Keiko still cried occasionally after that, but it'd been two months and she'd thought she'd squeezed the last of her tears out. Sullen and depressed, the charade of her life as Ranma somehow managed to stay on track, though she and Akane were increasingly unhappy with the situation and how gullible their family was. Neither of them could quite believe they'd kept it going this long.

No wonder they were both cracking under the strain.

So when one night she was sat on the roof, gazing at the stars, hands behind her head, trying not to think about him, she was surprised to find a fluffy-haired, fang-toothed Ryouga leaning over her and pushing her down. She'd started to rise, tears coming unbidden to her eyes proving the lie of 'the last of her tears', but he pushed her down more forcefully, eyes bright, breath soft and warm against her face.

And then he'd been kissing her, on the mouth, on the neck, making her cry involuntarily, putting a hand to her mouth to quiet the small gasps as he trailed his mouth further down until he was kissing the tops of her breasts, peeking out of the muscle shirt as they were.

Shivers had run through her entire body, a moan escaping her lips, and she grabbed his head to bring him back up to kiss those lips but he resisted, taking her hands and pushing them to the roof above her head with a thump and holding them there, daring her to try and struggle, and she realised that this was it. He'd figured it out.

Fresh tears, hot and salty, spilled down her face but this time they were tears of joy that he kissed away. "None of that, Keiko." He'd growled at her, and her skin tingled where he'd held it, a shudder going through her body at the low, bass tone.

His kisses had trailed lower until he was kissing between her breasts and she arched her back, hands still held above her. He smiled at her, slow and dangerous and moved up to look into her eyes.

"You figured it out…" She said, tears coming down again. He let go of her hands and brushed the tears away.

"I figured it out." He confirmed, kissing her lips chastely. "About a day after I left. I'm sorry it took so long for me to get back. I was in Europe somewhere, I think?"

"I'm sorry I was such a bitch." She reached her hands up to cup his face too. "I love you."

He grinned down at her. "I know." He said, and it sounded familiar, like he'd taken it from some corny film, but the words just sent pleasure tingling through her spine and a jolt of electricity in her heart. "I love you too."

If the jolt before had been a static shock, this was sticking a fork into the metaphorical outlet. Warmth spilled through her body from her chest and her breath caught. He took the opportunity to kiss her on the neck and she made an involuntary noise of pleasure again, blushing bright red. The warmth pooled around her stomach, bright and hot.

He grabbed her hands, pushed her down with a thump, and she struggled right back. His eyes widened and he fought her with his own prodigious strength. Instead she writhed around him lithely, pinning him to the roof instead.

For Ryouga, this night would always remain to him the moment his life changed from moments to moments to actually being his life, prose instead of vignettes. Everything before had felt like a blur.

This felt real in a way nothing else ever had before.

She was well on her way to kissing him on the neck, body pressed taut against his when a throat was cleared and Ryouga looked over as Keiko did. Ryouga went stock still in fright.

"Hey 'Kane." Keiko said calmly. Akane rolled her eyes.

"Keiko, if I can hear you two making out up here; I'm pretty sure others can too. Be glad I checked, everyone's asleep."

"Well then." Keiko said agreeably and leaned down to finish what she'd started. Akane facepalmed and Ryouga grabbed Keiko's hands. She growled under her breath.

"W-wait, Akane-san, it's n-not what it looks like!" He stammered. Both women rolled their eyes.

"Ryouga, I'm pretty sure it's exactly what it looks like." Akane said softly. She grinned. "About damned time."

Ryouga looked confused and Keiko smiled at him. "Surprise!" She whispered in his ear.