Note: These characters don't belong to me, they are someone else's property!

" " when someone talks

Italics when someone thinks

What the future holds

Chapter 5: Searching for the mirror

Akane shivered when the morning breeze gently hit her face. She opened her eyes vaguely and turned over as she felt uncomfortable. She looked around her and saw trees and the bright sky, then her brain finally woke from its slumber state and turned her from sleepy mode into panic mode in a matter of seconds.

Where on earth am I? She thought as she sat up. She turned back and saw Ranma lying beside her fast asleep. When she had a good look around she realised she was on the roof of her own house and suddenly it all came back to her. Why she was there and how she had gotten there. She then sighed as reality sank in.

She and Ranma had went to hide on the roof, planning to stay awake and wait for their chance to get the mirror back, but both of them had fallen asleep.

She looked at Ranma as he gently snored, he looked so peaceful, like he didn't have a care in the world. He looked kind of cute when he was lying in a such and vulnerable state. When awake he was always on guard, as if constantly waiting for something bad to happen. She had guessed his vigilant nature had been the result of the way in which he had been brought up, with Genma dragging him to all sort of inappropriate places and having to face troubles that luckily she had never had to endure in her relatively safe and happy childhood.

She didn't really want to wake him but she felt they had already wasted enough time. "Ranma, wake up! It's morning!" She tried to sound chirpy.

Ranma didn't move and she started shacking him "Wake up dumbass!"

Ranma finally opened his eyes and started rubbing them "Geez Akane, you could be a little more gentle"

"I'm tired of being stuck here with you, I just want to get going!" Akane replied hastily.

"Charming! Who's in a bad mood this morning…" Ranma said whilst yawning and stretching out. He looked up at the sky "I think it must be around 8am"

"Who knows how long we will have to wait for them to leave the house..." She sighed .

"Don't worry, future you will probably go out for a jog or something and future me will probably go to the dojo for a work out" Ranma explained.

"I think future you will probably remain in bed sleeping like you always do!" Akane said.

"Hey, I like morning workouts!" Ranma protested.

"Yes, morning workouts that start at noon…" Akane chuckled.

Ranma knew he was being mocked but gave her a half-hearted smile and sat down. They sat in silence for half an hour until they heard something. They very carefully peeked over the edge of roof to see what it was.

Future Ranma and Akane were in the yard dressed in sporting clothes and stretching.

"Ready for the morning jog yet?" Future Ranma asked.

"Yup" Future Akane answered enthusiastically.

Up on the rooftop Ranma grinned "Told ya they would be going out for a jog! Isn't it just great when I'm right?"

Akane sighed in defeat.

Future Ranma and Akane walked to the gates, Future Ranma opened them and they both walked out. Once the gates closed they felt safe enough to jump down and sneak into the house through an open window.

"I can't believe I'm trying to rob my own house…" Akane said as she walked up the stairs.

"It's a crazy world Akane, you should know that by now..." Ranma said as he followed her.

"Not sure how long we have so let's make this quick. You look in the bathroom, Kasumi and Nabiki's room. I'll look in my room, my dad's room and your room" She said decisively.

They each went their own way started searching. Akane decided to go into the Saotome's room first. It was pretty bare just as it had always been. The Saotome's didn't really have many possessions and so their room reflected that. She could tell that this room was now being used for storage as there were piles of boxes filled with books, clothing and other trinkets. It took her a good while to look through it all but after a fruitless search she decided to move on to the next room.

Her dad's room had totally changed. The decor and furniture was now modern and bright in contrast to the more traditional look she was accustomed to. The first thing that caught her eye was the big double bed in the centre of the room. The sheets were ruffled and had obviously been slept in the previous night. At each side of the bed there was a small nightstand, on the right hand side one there was an empty glass and a cell phone, on the left side table there was a book, a half glass of water an alarm clock and a framed photo. Then the realisation suddenly came to her. The master bedroom must have been Ranma and hers now. Her cheeks blushed.

She walked over to the bed, sat down and picked the up the framed photo in disbelief. It was a wedding photo. I wasn't just any wedding photo… it was HER wedding photo.We're married... She thought as she blushed. It was a lovely close up shot of them together. Akane couldn't believe she was seeing her own wedding photo. She was pleased to see that she looked genuinely happy on the picture, beaming in fact. She looked completely gorgeous in a western style dress and a white flowers in her hair, which was a bit longer than her current length. And Ranma…well...Ranma looked as handsome as ever wearing a tuxedo and his charming smile.

Akane couldn't help but smile looking at the picture. They looked how she hoped any newly wed couple should look. Joyful, hopeful and most importantly, in love.

Akane continued admiring the photo, smiling until a voice broke her giggly trance.

"Hey 'Kane, I didn't find it, how about you?" Ranma said as he walked in the room.

"Eh? Uh…well no, but I'm still looking in here" She said with a slight blush.

"It looks to me like you were chillin' out here. You know we don't have much time, come on get moving!" He said as he began looking through the closet.

Akane was still fascinated by the photo and didn't seem to take much notice of what he had said. Ranma noticed her distraction, walked over and nipped her nose between his fingers "Hey, what's the matter you tomboy?!"

"Ouch! That hurt!" Akane said as she placed the photo back down.

Ranma saw the photo and his expression changed, his eyes open wide and his eyebrows arched.

"Oh, is that our…uh..." He said hesitatingly .

"That's our wedding photo, well one of them anyway" Akane said as she stood up and started searching nervously.

"We look quite good. I look great as always...but strangely you look cute…" Ranma smiled almost in disbelief.

"Idiot! Just start looking for that damn mirror. I wanna get out of here!" Akane answered back now completely out of her trance.

"So this is our room…" Ranma said while he was looking under the bed.

"Yes, and I bet it's this messy because of you!" Akane said annoyed.

"Hey! I'm not messy! It's pop who leaves everything lying around!" He protested .

Yeah right Akane thought to herself.

They still hadn't finished their search when they heard people walking into the house.

"They're back already!" Ranma said surprised.

"Quick, let's get out of here!" Akane said as she ran out of the room and through the first window she saw as Ranma followed her.

They were back on the rooftop waiting for them to leave the house again and hoping they wouldn't get caught. After waiting for hours they started getting bored out of their minds.

"Man I'm bored!" Ranma said yawning.

"Me too! But still have to search the whole of down stairs and the rest of our room!" Akane exclaimed.

"And the dojo" Rama added.

"Oh yeah I forgot about that one…" Akane said frustratingly.

"Hey, are you hungry?" Ranma asked.

"A little.." Akane answered.

"I'm starving! It's well past lunch time, and I haven't had any breakfast or anything!" Ranma said.

"So what do you want to do?"

"Well, looks like they're gonna be here for a while, let's go somewhere for something to eat" Ranma said.

"Are you crazy? What if someone sees us?" Akane replied.

"We'll be careful, besides we can go search somewhere a little far out to make sure no one sees us, we have plenty time anyway" Ranma explained.

"I'm not sure…have you got any money anyway?" Akane questioned.

"Yep, not much but enough for some grub!" Ranma smiled.

"Things in the future could be more expensive than you think" Akane said.

"Not that much, it's only five years ahead, so what do ya say?" He asked.

"Well since you are paying..." Akane said as she stood up.

The two made their way to the outskirts of town. They wondered a bit through the streets and nothing seemed to have changed much. They were a few more modern looking cars and 2 or 3 more shops, but not much more.

They walked for almost an hour until they thought they were far away enough for no one to see them and entered a western style restautant. Taking a seat at the back, they settled comfortably and picked up the menus.

"This is a fancy place" Akane spoke as she looked at menu "Won't it be too expensive?"

"You implying that I'm poor?" He said as he also glanced through the menu "Or cheap?"

"No. Just didn't want you spending too much" She sighed making eye contact.

Ranma met her gaze with perplexion, finally taking the time to look at her properly and realise that she was still wearing the outfit she had wore for the party. He always thought she looked pretty, but this ensemble made her look sophisticated, older and dare he say...sexy? He hated to admit it but she looked stunning in it. He felt slightly guilty for not noticing or acknowledging it earlier.

As she sat across from him, sun shining on her face, accentuating her beautiful brown eyes and highlighting the blue hues in her hair he felt the urge to let her know how nice he thought she looked. He was not great at praising or complimenting, that he knew. More so if the recipient were to be Akane. But they were alone and getting along, so he thought he'd give it a go. He had nothing to lose anyway.

"You look…uh..nice" He said trying hard not to mumble his words.

Akane's face couldn't hide her astonishment "Wow Ranma, did you just pay me a compliment?"

"Am I not allowed to?"

"It's not that, it's just so unlike you" She said her face breaking out into a smile.

Ranma shrugged in response, hoping that his cheeks weren't as red as they felt.

"Thank you" She smiled warmly and politely, almost adored him when he was nice. It was not often, so she greatly cherished his seldom acts of chivalry.

Ah that smile...Ranma thought to himself rather goofily. He was totally enraptured by it. When she gave that smile of hers she simply shone. That smile made would often take his breath away. It struck him that it was the first time he'd seen it properly since they had arrived. He lamented how most of the time he was the one that made it disspear from her face.

Akane rejoiced inwardly. He was finally being nice to her. She looked around curiously observing the people around the other tables. A few of them were couples clearly enjoying each others company. She wondered if the people sat around them would think of them as a couple too. Maybe even think they were on a date. But where they not a couple? It was a bizzare situation, to be engaged to someone but not actually be in a relationship with them. They had never been on a date before. Sure, they had been to a few places together, even alone at times, but never ever romantically.

Will he ever ask me on an offical date? It would kind of be nice if we got a chance to...Who am I kidding? It'll never happen. She thought as she turned her attention back to Ranma.

She watched him attentively as he glanced through the menu . Amused as his boyish face turned from peaceful contentment to horrified shock.

"Uh...Akane. I'm pretty poor after all so please don't order the lobster or the steak" Ranma said as he looked through the menu outraged at the exorbitant food prices.

Akane laughed at his remark "I'll have the soup"

They talked quite easily while waiting for the food to arrive. It was nice getting a moment alone to just sit and talk without the usual nonsenical bickering and insults.

Ranma quietly observed her from his side of the table. She can be so nice at times. She was such a contradiction - it was times like this he almost forgot she could ever be a violent maniac. She was so volatile. She intrigued him more than anyone he'd ever known and it drove him crazy in both a good way and bad way.

After they had filled their tummies Ranma paid and they walked out.

"Well that was good! feel a lot better now" Ranma rubbed his stomach.

"Yes, it was delicious. When I get back to our time I'm going to see if that restaurant is actually there" Akane smiled and looked at him "And thank you for buying me lunch"

"Err no big deal 'Kane" He smiled back shyly "I wasn't gonna let you starve"

"I like it when you're nice" Akane continued smiling sincerely.

"Well I'm a nice guy what can I say?" Ranma replied jokingly, trying to steer away from any serious conversation

They kept walking until they passed a big field with a lot of trees which caught Ranma's eye.

"Hey, look over there, how about we go to that field and spar for a bit? I feel like I could do with a little workout" Ranma said pointing towards the field.

"But we've just had something to eat, I'm too full to spar!" Akane protested.

"Oh come on, don't be such a lazy ass!" Ranma said as he ran towards the field.

Akane followed him and agreed to spar with him. I was never really sparring because all he did was dodge her attacks and never attack back but it felt nice to get a little exercise and spend some quality time together. When there were no fiancées or parents around to interfere or put pressure on them they would often get along quite nicely.

Time flew and after a couple of hours had passed and the sun started to set they decided to head back to the Tendo household.

Once they got there it was already dark so it was easier for them to sneak through the garden.

They saw a light in the dojo and Ranma peaked in to see who was there. When he saw his future self with future Akane he smiled, they were doing exactly what him and Akane had been doing all afternoon, sparring.

Ranma turned round and walked towards Akane who was hiding behind the tree that was beside de koi pond in the yard.

"Hey, they're busy sparring, we can go into the house and carefully look through again, see if we have better luck this time" Ranma said.

They both walked into the house and started looking through the kitchen and living room, but the mirror was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh man! Can't find the darn thing anywhere! I can't believe I could hide something so good!" Ranma said frustrated.

"Well, we've been looking down here for almost an hour. I think we should head upstairs and revise because this morning we were in a bit of a rush and maybe we missed places" Akane said heading towards the stairs.

"I dunno. I think we should call it a day, they'll be back any minute now" Ranma said worried.

"Come on, we'll hear them if they come" Akane said being the brave one this time.

They walked upstairs and back into the master room where their search had been interrupted earlier. Their future room. This time the bed was made and it looked like it had been tidied up.

They looked through drawers, boxes, under the bed, and finally they only had the big closet to look through. They opened it and started searching. They must have been really concentrating on the task at hand because they didn't hear their future selves walking up the stairs.

Ranma, as always, was the first to react and almost a second before they walked into the room he managed to push Akane and himself into the closet and close the door.

"Oh my God that was close" He whispered.

"Oh no, we're gonna get caught, they are certain to look in here for something" Akane panicked.

"Don't be so negative, hopefully they'll fall asleep soon and we can get outta here" Ranma said trying to sooth her panic.

"I can't believe this! What on earth have I done to deserve ending up in these situations?" Akane whispered in frustration.

"Hey, quit feeling sorry for yourself, I've been in worse situations than you and you don't hear me complain! Hell, I'm even cursed, and I'm sure as hell haven't done nuthin' to deserve that!" Ranma said.

Akane thought of what he had just said. Sure, he was a jerk at times, and yes, it was true he had been in an awful lot of shitty situations, but he didn't deserve them most of the time and he didn't deserve to be cursed.

"I...I've never said this before but I'm sorry you're cursed Ranma" Akane said sadly.

"Bah…its ok…I'm used to it now, not like I'm gonna to stay like this forever though…" Ranma said genuinely believing he would find a cure to his curse one day.

They both remained silent in the closet waiting for their future selves to fall asleep, but they suddenly started hearing sounds they wish they hadn't. Kissing and laughing followed by heavy breathing, moaning and groaning.

"OH MY GOODNESS, don't tell me they are…." Akane said blushing.

"I dunno…" Ranma said feeling his cheeks burning up.

The moans didn't stop, they became louder and more intense, both from future Ranma and future Akane, hers being especially frenzied.

When the noises and squeals from the springs in the mattress started following a rhythm there was no doubt that future Ranma and future Akane were making love, and passionately so at that.

"Well this is awkward..." Ranma muttered in shame.

"I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS!" Akane's face was burning so bad it could explode. She was trapped in a closet with Ranma while her future self was having sex with the future Ranma only a couple of meters away from them. To top it off, she could hear every perfect little detail of said act.

Akane just wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole.