Ranma's leg shook anxiously as he sat on Kasumi's bed, a lot had to be dealt with timely.

"Okay so as we all know I argued with Akane last night, nothing out of the usual one could say but it did have one good tidbit of information." He sighed. "She's aware of the scheming."

The rest of the group shared a look, as if he had just pointed out the obvious.

"Not a surprise, you haven't exactly been quiet about it. I swear Ryoga's done a better job of being less suspicious than you, and it's Ryoga, up until recently he would have given her his deepest darkest secrets if she asked." Nabiki scoffed, a soft 'hey!' was said by Ryoga but easily tuned out by her continuation. "But I guess that makes sense, she isn't super dumb if she's any sort of suspicious. Did she tell you what she knows about the surprise exactly?"

Ranma rolled his eyes, ignoring the growing feeling of incompetence growing within him. "Well, she doesn't know the details so that still leaves room for surprise. We just have to make this even more spectacular, something that she wouldn't expect."

"I can definitely do that." Nabiki crossed her arms, the confident look on her face was just as strong as ever. "I'll take over from here, you focus on making Akane not hate your guts by tomorrow."

"She doesn't hate me-"

"It's okay, you don[t have to explain." Ryoga interrupted. "You just have to not be yourself for one day."

The group of 3 began to empty the room as Ranma felt an irk of annoyance at their dismissiveness. This whole thing wouldn't even be happening without his decisiveness and grouping, and now they were kicking him out of the whole planning now that it was time to make the final adjustments. Like they know anything, it wasn't the typical argument this time 'round.

"Fine, you guys take over my plotting then!" He yelled out, though they casually ignored him.

Ranma leaned back, feeling his back rest on the soft covers of Kasumi's bed. The room was exactly how he would've imagined it being before he had actually step foot in it: clean, feminine, decorated with books and cute knickknacks; comforting. The door had a sign with her name on it just like the rest of the Tendo children, though it was written elegantly. He closed his eyes as he dreaded the rest of the day, wishing he could stay in the comfort of his almost-sister's room.

"Ranma, what are you doing?"

Ranma shot up and felt his face contort to show anything other than discomfort. "Oh hey, Akane, what's up?" He laughed nervously.

"Waiting for you. We have school and Kasumi wouldn't want you to skip, she cares a lot about you and your grades, you know." She rested her hand on the doorknob, coming closer into the room.

"Yeah, I'm aware." Ranma sighed, standing up and patting down the place he had laid on, as if he was never there to ruin her sheets. "We should get going."

The pair went out in silence, only speaking to say goodbye to Kasumi and Ryoga on their way out. Their usual walk now felt heavy for Ranma, filled with a tension of awkwardness. Everything is fine, Ryoga and Nabiki don't know anything about us, she doesn't hate me.

"So..." Akane began. "Sorry about yesterday, I got a little heated."

Her fiancee stopped in his tracks. "You're what?"

"Sorry. I shouldn't have turned it into a confrontation last night so I'm apologizing."

Ranma came down from the fence and placed a palm on her head.

"You feeling sick or something? You never say sorry?"

A gust of wind blew through, rustling the tree as the silence grew louder.

Akane felt her anger boil. "God, I can't even apologize without you trying to insult me and my character." She punched the fence, leaving a dent as she began to walk off.

"Ah, wait, I didn't mean it like that." He caught up to her. "Sorry, I just... don't know what to say to that."

"What do you mean?" She stopped, glaring daggers at him. "Ranma, I don't need you to know what to say but at the very least I need you to know what not to say!"

"Well what do you want me to not say?"

"I can't believe I have to spell it out to you. When I'm apologizing, don't call me names, don't insult my character, and listen, I'll even tell you that what I do want: What I do want you to say is something as simple as 'I understand'."

"But that's weird."

"How?" she rubbed the bridge of her nose and but a hand up. "You know what, never mind. It's too early in the morning to handle a talk like this." To handle you.

"For you maybe, I'm always ready." He prided.

"Oh really, you want to have a conversation on how you piss me off and possibly talk about feelings? In what universe."

Ranma paused as she went on her walk. In an infuriating way she had a point, he most definitely did not want to talk about the very thing he had spent the last year avoiding or anything near the subject of their feelings towards the other. Really, in the name of his pride nothing was more mortifying than having a serious conversation about their actions towards the other. How could he solve this problem while not affecting his pride; something that Ryoga had said a 2 days prior to this morning came to mind.

"Why can't you at least be nice to her?"

A faint feeling of nervousness set on him as he stated:

"Let's skip today."

"What?" She stopped, pausing to raise an eyebrow at him. "Ranma, I told you this morning you know how Kasumi is with school and-"

"Well deal with that later, let's just try and lighten up. We won't talk about anything heavy, a strict no serious conversation truce for today." He smiled. "Come on."

Akane tilted her head in consideration. On one hand, she was annoyed and knew this wouldn't solve the problem. On the other... It could be fun, playing hooky. It has been a while since she had done anything irresponsible especially with Ranma, so maybe it could be fun. After all, what's wrong with ignoring your problems with a person just to have fun every once and a while. She looked away, a bit flustered by her final decision. "Fine... Okay, but just this once."

"Sweet, let's go. I'll show you fun places to go during school hours." He beamed. "But first we should get changed, first rule of playing hooky is to not look like a student."

"Sounds good, but where at? We can't exactly go home and get changed, Ryoga and Kasumi will catch us."

Ranma cocked his head, with a curious tone in his voice. "I know just the place, don't worry."

"Ranma, are we seriously at your mother's house ransacking." Akane whisper screamed.

The pigtailed boy didn't bother to pass an acknowledging glance towards her but merely focused on pulling out clothes that he thought would be best for the day.

"Well, Akane, it's technically not ransacking if I live here." he said at a normal volume. "Also, don't worry about being quiet, she's out right now."

She crossed her arms. "If she isn't here why did we climb in through the window?" Akane shook her head, not the main concern. "But you don't live here."

"I have a room don't I?"

She slapped his head, though with little force. "You have no shame." The young girl peered over her fiancé's shoulder, curious as to what exactly he kept. "I didn't even know you had clothes here."

"Mostly stuff I use on days I don't do things, like this track suit." He stuck out his tongue, shoving it down further in his drawer. "Not stuff I'd actually be caught wearing in public, I have expectations to uphold."

"Yeah, self-absorbed ones." she giggled to herself. "So we're wearing your rejects?"

"It's not all rejects."

"They might as well be."

"No, I have other stuff here that I could show my face in, a lot of the girl clothes I got with my mom when she thought I was Ranko are here." He opened the drawer below the current one, showing the collection of skirts and frilly items. "You can wear these today, though they may not fit in places you need them to." Ranma snickered.

"Haha, how funny, keep it up and you may be lucky enough to wind up in the hospital." Akane gritted her teeth as she came closer to the drawer of clothes. These are kinda cute.

"You say that but you wouldn't." Ranma pulled out an outfit for himself, at last settling on something he deemed good enough. "I'm gonna go get changed, you have fun, the looser fitted bottoms are on the left." He teased as he exited the room.

"Oh go die." She shook a fist before rolling her eyes in defeat, deciding this was not a fight worth her time. "Whatever."

Akane looked through the drawer, all very cute clothes in her opinion. Despite Ranma saying that they were from the Ranko time of his life, she recognized many from previous schemes he had done. Like the outfits he wore whenever he was trying to deceive Ryoga, thinking:the Yoiko outfit might be a good choice, it was cute. She set it to the side before continuing, finding the sailor uniform he used while they went to go save Shinnosuke's life, though she quickly set it back in the drawer. It's cute, but the opposite of what I need today.

Throughout her search for an outift Akane found herself distracted, recalling memories of the outfits and wondering to herself when he had used other ones. Eventually she was able to get back on track, settling on an unfamiliar skirt and shirt near the back of the drawer, assuming it was from one of his Ranko-Nodoka excursions. She quickly changed and left his room, creeping down the stairs.

"Ranma," Akane called out, looking around. "I'm ready."

The 17-year-old peered around the living area, it was well kept and homey despite it barely having any residents. Though that was expected, Nodoka did live alone for most of her married life, she must know how to fill in the space.

"You finished? Took you long enough." Ranma walked in. "Let's get going, she'll probably get home soon."

"Okay." She looked into the mirror on the other side of the living room, smiling at her reflection. "I look cute don't I?"

"What?" His face reddened at the question.

"Cute. I think I do." She approached the mirror, thus coming closer to Ranma though she paid him no mind in her admiration. "Where did you get this anyway? With your mom?"

"I don't remember." He scratched his head, sneaking a look at Akane as he feigned recalling. "But yeah, probably."

Akane finally looked at him, smiling. "You look a little flustered there."

"I am not! Let's just get goin'." Ranma grumbled. "If we're gonna get scolded might as well actually do stuff."

The two wandered the neighborhood before finally reaching the downtown area, talking about simple things such as what would Kasumi make tonight or when their fathers would return from their trip.

"I'm surprised your dad was the one who offered to go on the trip, usually it's just my dad and me." Ranma rested his hands on his head. "I don't think I've ever heard of you dad goin' on any before or after we came here."

Akane closed her eyes, attempting to recall any instance but none came to mind. "Yeah, I don't really remember him going on any trips either, but that makes sense since he had to run the dojo and he can't exactly leave the parenting to Kasumi."

"At least not more than he already does." Ranma chuckled.

"He fills in the dad role is what matters." The young girl waved off her fiancé's input. "But yeah it's weird, maybe it's because Kasumi's an adult now."

"Or maybe cause my mom's around."

"Either way, it's nice to not have our dads around right now. They were getting a little pushy about another marriage attempt." She shuddered. "I can't even imagine what those weirdos would do if we tried again."

"Surely it wouldn't be too bad, they've calmed down since then the initial attempt. I'm guessin' that they feel confident in stopping us so they're chilling out with all their scheming for the time being." Now it was Ranma's turn to shudder at the possibility of what Akane was thinking. "I have to believe that they're not plannin' anything big behind our backs."

They both shared an understanding sigh; their situation was complicated but at least they had a common ground of fearing their friendly enemies.

"So where are we going anyway? We've just been walking around for 15 minutes and I'm not so confident that this is all playing hooky is." Akane looked around. "You have anywhere you usually go?"

He shrugged. "Eh, I kinda just drift around when my friends and I usually go out." Ranma looked at his surroundings, the city was calmer during school hours but felt just as crowded. "Why not the arcade? There's barely gonna be anyone there and the owner doesn't call kids out when they're skippin' class."

Akane stopped as the faced said building, lights flashing with the inside barely allowing sunlight in despite the big windows around it, while the colors gave the eerie feeling of nighttime. "I've never been in here, looks shady."

"Shady is just another word for unexplored." He coaxed.

"It most definitely is not, Ranma."

The overly confident young man slung an arm over Akane's head, using it as a makeshift armrest. "Come on, it'll be fun and it's full of competition. Fun competition." His smile widened as he looked down on her. "I know you like good ol' fashioned competition."

"Mmm... I dunno." She rested a hand on her cheek, her eyes creeping up at Ranma's, making eye contact as she quickly looked away embarrassed as she realized the close proximity. "Okay, fine, sure, sounds fun."

"Really? I seriously thought you'd say no." He looked at her shocked, not expecting her to agree so easily during an ongoing conflict. Ranma pulled away from the shorter girl, an unexpected feeling of embarrassment taking over him as he realized how close he had gotten to her so casually. "It's on me but just know that these guys are desperate enough that even you can extort them."

Akane rolled her eyes. "I'm above that, unlike you." She walked past him through the sliding doors, an odd waft hitting her face. It's kinda musty in here. She quickly dismissed the thought as she examined the area, looking back at Ranma who was standing by the entryway. "You're not gonna leave me alone here right? Like you're not gonna wander off."

"Do I look like Ryoga to you?"

"Of course not, if it were Ryoga with me than I wouldn't even have to ask, he'd stick to me like a lost puppy."

"What other choice would he have." Ranma laughed. "But yeah, as long as we don't run into anyone we know we'll have zero chances to get separated."

The two walked around and settled on an ice hockey table, which Ranma explained was a new addition to the arcade.

"So what you're saying is that you don't have a lot of experience with it?" She reached out towards the table, slightly cold to the touch. "Let's start with this one than, since we'd be on a little more equal footing."

Ranma smiled, reaching out for the table as well as he had a feeling of confidence take over. "I dunno, I'm better at games than you in general so I'm not too sure you'd win."

"Sure, but I have a feeling that I can get you with this one. Pay the fee already so we can find out." Akane took up one of the figures on the left side, waiting as Ranma inserted the 100-yen coin into the slot, sliding out a few pucks. "Consider it a rematch from when we first met."

"See, I knew you'd like this place." Ranma set one of the pucks down, readying himself to begin and thinking of what move to start with to throw her off guard. "Competitive nerds flock to places like this." He prodded.

Akane steadied herself, preparing to take on Ranma in what felt like a martial arts challenge. "Says the one who brought me here, not much of an insult when you're the only reason we came in the first place."

"Yeah, well when you're great it doesn't matter where you spend your time, you're still cool." The young man arched forward as he began to figure out his strategy. "So unlike you, I don't have to worry about stuff like that."

Akane felt an irk of annoyance hit the back of her head, showing in the slight twitch to her eyebrow on her otherwise unwavering cocky expression. "I'm gonna make you eat your words, just you wait."

"I don't think I have that much time." He hit the puck straight ahead, completely catching her off guard. "Haha, see! I already scored on you."

The young girl felt her face heat up though quickly recovered from the shock and went to retrieve one of the pucks. "That isn't fair, I'm gonna serve this time, you cheat."

"Sore loser much, but sure if it'll make you feel better." Ranma's head tilted upwards, exuding his ego further to not only her but to those around him as well, a simper coming to tie the expression together. "We are Anything-Goes students, or at least I am."

He's just trying to catch you off guard, get you unfocused. Akane took a deep breath, her chin pointed downwards as she calmed her rising temper. "You're just scared that I'd beat you fair and square so you like playing dirty."

"Whatever helps you feel better." Ranma steadied himself for the upcoming round. "Let's go, we ain't got all day."

Akane didn't offer a response, finding it best for her focus to not acknowledge his attempts to get a rise out of her. Instead, she placed the puck on the table, feeling the cold air hit her fingers briefly as the puck sat in front of her, the figure now behind it as she began to think of a strategy. Perhaps his snide comments could help her. With as much controlled force as she could offer, she hit the puck straight ahead, easily being blocked and rebutted back towards her becoming a continuous cycle quickly speeding up and attracting a few onlookers. Finally, she was able to get in what even she would call a lucky shot, though she would never admit to it, especially to him.

"That was just a lucky shot." Ranma said a bit short of breath.

"Whatever helps you feel better." Akane teased in between gasps, though quickly straightened up, contradicting her lungs demand for rest. "Come on, let's finish this game we only have one puck left."

Ranma, who unlike Akane, had quickly recovered from the exhaust smiled, reaching towards the last puck, setting it down with a clank on the cold playing surface. He calmed his annoyance and reclaimed the earlier confidence as he readied for the last play. "Ready then?"

Akane nodded, the winning strategy had finally struck. "Always am."

The puck flew across the short surface at a superhuman speed, Akane barely processed the puck before hitting it back just in time. Thankfully for her stamina, the hits were consistent more or less from then on. A window of opportunity to break Ranma's focus arised.

"You know, my ex recently gave me a love note." She hit the puck with all the force she had in her right arm.

"You're what?" Ranma froze, barely noticing the puck scoring on his end.

"Just kidding." Akane played off her comment as it had hit Ranma what had just happened as soon as the words left her mouth. "Ranma, I don't accept love notes, so I don't know why you stopped."

The pig-tailed boy gasped. "You cheat! I can't believe you'd play so dirty."

"It isn't cheating if you're an Anything-Goes student, it's allowed." Akane pumped a fist up. "I won, loser!" She roared, catching more attention from other players.

"I want a rematch, Tomboy!" Ranma dug in his pocket, inserting another 100-yen coin and receiving 3 more pucks and immediately slamming one on the playing surface. "Get ready to lose!"

"And get ready to eat shit." Akane readied herself. "Let's get it on."

Ranma grumbled. "I hate it when you get cocky."

He sent out the puck with an excessive amount of force, flying to the other side quicker than he had initially intended. Though to much of their surprise, Akane hit it back just in the nick of time. Maybe it was the high of the first win, but she had been able to keep up, the scene caused an mini audience to form as the speed of the puck picked up, barely touching the surface at all.

"You know, Ryoga doesn't only do your laundry, he started doing mine too." Akane said quickly, aiming to hit the goal on the other end.

This lie didn't offer much of a verbal response but a bit of a physical delay, opening a window in the impossible game of speed where the puck made it into the goal. The score garnered another burst of happiness from Akane and another embarrassed reaction from Ranma.

"Alright, that's it I'm no longer taking it easier on you."

"Great, neither will I then."

Akane grabbed the puck and presented it around to their audience. "Ready?"

"Born ready." Ranma cracked his neck, attempting to reclaim his previous cool. "I won't fall for your lies anymore."

Akane set the puck down, a droplet of sweat forming on her temple. I don't need to lie to win, just catch him off guard, easy peasy. "Sounds good to me, tough guy, I'd much rather not have to lie to beat you."

The pair made eye contact, a twinge of anxiousness creeping over the other respectively. Akane set her figure down and arched forward as she set her focus on the prize on the otherside of the table. I've gotta win this, she thought, taking aim and hitting it with the same force as she had previously. This felt so serious yet simultaneously so silly, she thought to herself, they hadn't had much time to play around despite the somewhat peace they had gained since the wedding fiasco. She had begun to take more importance to her school life and was not only busy with schoolwork and extracurriculars, but training as well. She let out a giggle.

"What's so funny over there?" Ranma returned the puck at lighting speed, almost making it into the goal.

"Nothing, it's just this has been the most fun I've had in a few months just with you." She said, keeping her focus on the puck.

"Really?" Ranma hit the puck with less force than before, much more interested in the friendly conversation Akane was now offering him.

"Yeah, we've been so busy lately with other things." Akane grunted as she hit the puck back, quickly adjusting to the changing speed. "So, maybe this wasn't one of your bad ideas after all."

Ranma dwelled on what she was saying, his initial reaction was to ask what she meant by 'this wasn't one of your bad ideas' but decided that would end in an argument and possibly the inclusion of serious topics, and more likely her skipping out on him. "This is fun." he said, deciding it was the safest choice.

The game eventually sped up again with the win on Ranma's end, which was full of gloating and fist pumping along with a few bills being passed around in their accumulated crowd, bets the spectators had placed on the game.

"Let's go eat, celebratory breakfast!" Ranma cheered, though that smile devilishly turned into a snicker as he looked over at Akane. "Or a pity breakfast for you, better said."

"Oh would you shut it!" Akane huffed as they walked out of the arcade. "I'm surprised you're not gloating more, you know since you're not telling the whole city." she sneered.

"I mean, we do have a truce and I'm trying to prevent anything that could lead to its compromise." He hummed, looking around playfully before settling his gaze on his fiancée. "Unless you're okay with a little more bragging."

Akane held a hand up. "I'm not, let's just go celebrate your win over food..." a prideful smile creeped on her face. "Well, technically you didn't win; we tied."

Ranma grimaced. "I technically did, cause the first round didn't count."

"Oh, really, how come?"

"Cause we both cheated that round, using our life's teachings as a way to gain a point in a table hockey game." Ranma clenched a fist, feigning an overly dramatic expression of disappointment as he closed his eyes to seal the deal. Though when he heard no reaction, he opened an eye, a wave of embarrassment hit him. "Really? No reaction?"

"Well, I know you're just being stupid, so why get mad." Akane sighed, though a satisfactory smile spread across her face. "I also know that no matter how much you hate it, it was still a tie."

Ranma rolled his eyes, annoyed. "Fine, sure whatever floats your boat. Let's just go eat."

"Sounds good, where at?"

"Well, the Nekohanten is open." He suggested, fantasizing at the idea of the food. "I could totally go for some of their pork baozi right now."

"Definitely not, if Shampoo sees us together she'll just figure out a way to piss me off." Akane shuddered. "Anywhere else?"

Ranma hummed, looking around for ideas, "... Well, anything you want in particular? Ideally cheap."

Akane shrugged. "Anywhere we don't know anyone."

Her fiancé placed a finger on his chin, what would be the perfect place where there would be little people and cheap food options. A lightbulb. "I got just the place, just don't be put off."

To say that Akane was put off was an understatement, no she was straight up uncomfortable.

"Ranma, how did you even find this place?" She looked around, nervous. "Actually, better question what is this place?"

The unbothered young man gave her an awkward look, knowing that she may not like the answer. "It's a bar, technically but it's also a restaurant that my pops took me to when we first came to town. It looks a little... intimidating but as long as you leave by like 6 pm it'll be fine."

Akane took a look around, there certainly weren't any people she knew around the restaurant and all of the people around looked too tired to care about her. Despite the faint smell of alcohol and the dim lighting it was mostly clean.

"I swear if I die I'm gonna kill you." She glared.

"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you. Let's go." Ranma led the rather unsure tomboy to the counter, where a waiter who was wiping counters quickly noticed the upcoming pair.

"Welcome back, surprised your dad ain't here. What can I do for you today?"

Ranma grinned. "We'd like 2 omelets please." He ordered, briefly whispering over to Akane. "You gotta try it."

Akane nodded as he finished the order, ordering 2 orange juices which were immediately handed to them as the waiter went on about his business. She looked down at her cup and then up to Ranma as she played with her straw.

"I never expected you to know a place like this, and that guy recognized you too."

"Huh, yeah, sometimes I come here to eat with pops. You know when he's up for not dining and dashing, but even if he is I end up paying so we can come back." Ranma took a sip from the straw.

Akane took another look around, maybe it wasn't as bad as she initially thought. It did serve breakfast after all, the best meal of any day, and what kinda of bad place would taint that. A few minutes of waiting and their food had arrived, garnished with a drizzle of ketchup, something that she didn't think they would do without asking. Still, it smelt good.

"Try it, you're gonna love it." Ranma said.

The young girl took a careful spoonful and examined it, unsure. It smelt good but that didn't always determine taste. "Mmm, how are you sure?"

"Because I know you just enough." He looked at his food, taking a big spoonful and eating it heartily.

Akane took one final sniff before taking the spoonful of omelet in her mouth, surely since Ranma was eating it it couldn't be that bad. As soon as the food reached her taste buds her mind had been made up: It's good! There was a bit of cheese inside that made it feel like it was melting in your mouth, warm and tasty with a comforting texture. "Holy crap."

"See, what did I tell you! I knew you'd like it." Ranma prided.

The two continued eating gleefully, Akane savoring every bite while Ranma wolfed down the rest of it. As she finished, Ranma attempted to keep a conversation of sorts going, seeing that this was the best opportunity to have a good time with Akane. Natural and away from an audience to intervene.

When he thought about it, and allowed himself to accept it, he liked her company, especially when she wasn't misunderstanding or accusing him of anything he had said or done. He liked her company even more when she was happy, smiling and enjoying something with him. A pause as she continued talking about whatever to steal a glance at her. She's cute when she's like this.

"-what do you think?" Akane caught his glance, making him snap back into reality.

"Huh?"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Were you paying attention at all?"

"Would it be better to lie and say yes or tell you the truth?"

Akane rolled her eyes, pushing her plate away and flagging down the waiter. "Can we get our check?"

"I swear I was paying attention in the beginning of the conversation, don't be so offended." Ranma pleaded, watching as the waiter came over. "Something about your friend...?"

She sighed as the waiter came over, quickly pointing over at Ranma, an annoyed tone to her voice. "That guy over there is paying."

"I've been demoted because I got lost in thought?!" He made eye contact with the waiter. "She's unbelievable."

"What's more unbelievable is your attention span, which borders that of a fish."

"At least I don't look like one." He stuck out his tongue.

"Care to repeat that?!"

The two glared at each other, as if trying to telepathically insult the other. They were cut short by the curt laugh of the forgotten waiter.

"I'm sorry, you two are just so funny." He slapped the check on the table, while making a poor attempt to hide his amusement. "Have a good day, kids, sorry for laughing."

The two shared a look as he walked away. Ranma picked up the check. "What a weirdo."

"Total weirdo"