Stars and Snowballs
P-Chan ran as fast as his little pig feet would take him. It seemed like Kuno had been chasing him around the ship forever! He just wanted to get back to Akane's room now... even if Kuno followed him. Akane would protect him...
This hallway looked familiar! P-Chan hurriedly looked at the cabin numbers. 32... 34... 36! P-Chan tapped the door with his feet and snorted softly. The door opened quickly and slammed shut.
Kuno entered the hallway seconds later. Where was the stupid pig?? It was supposed to help him find Ranma and the lovely pigtailed girl! Kuno turned in every direction but saw no one. Little did he know that three pairs of eyes were trying to watch him through the peephole of cabin F-36...
"You there!" someone shouted. "Are ya Tatewaki Kuno?"
Kuno turned around. He saw two gruff security guards standing near the staircase. They must have found Ranma or the pigtailed girl! Kuno raised his head with pride. "Yes, I am Tatewaki Kuno. Have you found my pigtailed girl??"
The first security guard snickered. "Actually, we've come to tell ya that ya've been commanded to leave the ship tomorrow morning. Ya've caused too much trouble for the passengers."
Kuno was horrified. "YOU FOOL, MY FIANCÉE HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!"
The security guard shook his head. "Ya were already told that your `kidnapper' is not on this ship! Now, please show us your room! We will be taking ya and your belongings to a new cabin."
As Kuno was dragged down the hallway, he had very evil thoughts in his head... "RANMA! RANMA! RANMA!"
~*~
Ranma, Akane, and P-Chan moved away from the door. Each one gave a long sigh of relief. Kuno was finally gone (or so they thought). Suddenly, they all took in their surroundings. Ranma saw P-Chan, and P-Chan saw Ranma. They glared at each other.
It would be a long night.
~*~
Kuno sat in the dark in his "new cabin." No windows and no color (sound familiar? It was a lot like Akane's room!). Saying that Kuno was angry would be an understatement. He was completely furious. "Ranma Saotome!" thought Kuno. "I will not let you see those security guards drag me off this ship! I will not surrender! WE SHALL SEE WHO IS VICTORIOUS!" shouted Kuno.
"Will ya shut up?" called one of the security guards.
So, in the darkness and silence, Kuno brainstormed his revenge...
~*~
In the morning, the ship arrived at Skagway, Alaska. Only moments after the ship docked, an alert looking Kuno began to sneak down the ramp. He had put all his important belongs in his carry-on bag and left everything else behind. It would be worth the revenge on Ranma.
When he was about the reach the land, he saw the two security guards running down the ramp after him. "Come back here, ya maniac!"
But Kuno kept going. There seemed to be nothing in sight except for ice, ice, and more ice. After running for a few minutes, he saw the border of the town up ahead. Despite his fatigue, he scampered as quickly as he could into the first building he saw... "The Glacier Resort & Spa."
~*~
An hour later, Akane, Ranma (male), and P-Chan walked off the ship. Ranma and P-Chan were still giving each other dirty looks, but Akane pretended not to notice.
After walking towards the town for a while, Akane began to get tired. They stopped by a park, and Akane said, "You go ahead to Nabiki's hotel; I'm too tired."
Ranma was hesitant. "Are you sure?" he asked.
Akane nodded. "Yeah. And take P-Chan too- it looks like he's getting cold."
Ranma shrugged. "Okay." Despite P-Chan's non-verbal protests, Ranma took P-Chan from Akane and continued to walk to the town. "Be nice to P-Chan!" Ranma heard Akane call as he walked through the snow.
~*~
Nabiki sat in her hotel's lobby, reading a magazine, as she waited for Ranma and Akane's arrival. She suddenly saw a familiar figure above her magazine... "L'il Kuno," whispered Nabiki.
Kuno was looking around the hotel lobby frantically (for nothing in particular). He felt a tap on his shoulder, and as he cautiously turned around, he saw Nabiki Tendo.
"Hey there, Kuno," said Nabiki.
"Nabiki," Kuno cried, "where is RANMA??"
Nabiki pretended to look thoughtful. "I'm not sure, Kuno," Nabiki answered, "but if you want, you can fly back to the Tendo house with me, and Ranma should be there."
Kuno was extremely confused, but he nodded his head vigorously and declared, "I will defeat Ranma Saotome once and for all, and reclaim my pigtailed girl!"
Nabiki shrugged. "Then come on, I'll get you a room." As they walked to the front desk, Nabiki added, "Of course there will be a price for my services..."
~*~
As soon as Ranma and P-Chan were far from Akane, Ranma looked at P-Chan and sneered. "Ryoga, you're not going to see Akane for a looooong time..."
In the blink of an eye, Ranma tossed P-Chan in the air and kicked him into the far distance (a twinkle appears in the spot on the horizon where P-Chan vanished from view).
Then Ranma continued to Nabiki's hotel, without P-Chan.
When Ranma arrived in the lobby, Nabiki was (once again) reading a magazine. After hearing that Akane wasn't with Ranma, Nabiki said, "Come on up to my room, Ranma."
While Nabiki led Ranma to her room, Ranma noticed that Nabiki didn't seem like she knew where she was going... but oh, well.
They finally arrived in front of a door. "This is it," Ranma heard Nabiki mumble to herself.
"OPEN UP!" Nabiki screamed.
"What's going on...?" Ranma asked with anticipation.
"I'M IN THE SHOWER!" a voice screamed back.
Ranma immediately recognized the voice, and was gone from the hallway before Nabiki could even explain.
~*~
Akane looked at her watch. Where was Ranma? He had been gone for so long. "Hmm, maybe the town was further away than I thought."
At that moment, Ranma raced up to where Akane was sitting. "I'm back! And you'll never guess who's at Nabiki's hotel! I can't believe what she did! She told me that she was taking me to her room and it turned out that she was taking me to-"
"Ranma," interrupted Akane. "Where's P-Chan?"
"Oh... P-Chan... umm..." Ranma mumbled. All of the sudden he couldn't think of what to tell her as a cover-up!
"Ranma! What did you do to P-Chan??" yelled Akane angrily.
"...P-Chan... got lost!" Ranma cried.
"I don't understand why you hate P-Chan so much, Ranma," shouted Akane. "But it's not fair for you to be so mean to him! He's just a pig, and you're a human! You can't take advantage of him like that! I can't believe that you've gone so far as to..." Akane turned to Ranma with tears brimming in her eyes. "What did you do to him, anyway?!"
"I... umm..."
"I hate you, Ranma!" cried Akane. "You always mess up everything for me!" Akane made a snowball and threw it in Ranma's face. The ice-cold snowball melted on Ranma's warm forehead and turned him into a girl. Akane turned to run back to the ship.
~*~
When Kuno went down to the lobby, Nabiki was waiting for him. "You picked a really bad time to be in the shower. Ranma just stopped by. He was outside the door when I called to you."
Kuno's face filled with rage and frustration. "Why didn't you tell me?!?"
"Because it would have given you away! He didn't know you were here! If you had just come and opened the door, you would've caught him off guard!"
Kuno sighed. "Then where is he now?!?"
Nabiki shrugged. "Probably getting back on the ship..."
"THAT STOWAWAY! HE SHALL NOT WIN THIS FIGHT!" Kuno stormed out of the hotel.
~*~
P-Chan was lost in the middle of nowhere. There was no hope of him finding Ranma and Akane again for quite some time. However, for the sake of all P-Chan/Ryoga fans, he did make his way back to Japan a few weeks later (this is starting to sound like the ending of my fic. It's not the end yet!).
~*~
Akane was running so fast that Ranma couldn't catch up to her. "Or maybe," Akane thought crossly, "He doesn't even want to catch up to me." Akane sighed. "Oh, Ranma, I'll never know if you like me or hate me. I wish you'd do something to show me that you do care."
As Akane walked up the ramp to the ship, she looked back, hoping that maybe Ranma was right behind her, on his knees begging for her forgiveness. However, she couldn't see Ranma anywhere. "I guess he doesn't care about me after all," Akane mumbled while she went to her cabin.
Akane locked her door and flopped down on her bed. "Well, Ranma," thought Akane. "If you want to save our little relationship, you'll have to make the first move. I give up."
~*~
Kuno was racing towards the ship when he saw it begin to pull away from the dock. "Nooooooooooo!" screamed Kuno, but it was too late. The ship was headed toward Ketchikan, Alaska, and Kuno was stuck in Skagway with Nabiki and an extremely lost P-Chan.
~*~
After getting hot water and returning to his male form, Ranma paced the deck of the ship. He couldn't believe how stupid he had been! Since Akane didn't know that P-Chan was Ryoga, she didn't know that Ryoga would (hopefully) be able to find his way home. Akane probably thought that P-Chan was lost forever.
"Akane will get over it," thought Ranma. "She's such a macho chick; she can deal with anything. Wait a sec," reconsidered Ranma. "That's not true." Ranma sighed. He could feel his face burn with shame. "I really hurt her today. Come to think of it, I really hurt her feelings a lot."
Ranma tried to remember stuff from his psychology classes. "I got rid of Ryoga because I was jealous," Ranma mumbled. "I wanted Akane for myself." Ranma gulped. That was a hard fact to face, but it was true. "So what's Akane thinking about me right now? Does she know that I got rid of P-Chan because I... I care about her?" Ranma looked at his feet. It was time to show Akane what she really meant to him.
~*~
Akane was still sulking in her cabin when there was a quick knock at her door. "Maybe it's Ranma," thought Akane with irritation. "He can see how horrible he's made me feel." She went to the sink and put water on her cheeks to exaggerate her tears.
But when she opened the door, no one was there. Except on the door, there was a white Post-It note covered with sad faces. In messy handwriting was written:
Dear Akane,
I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. I was wondering if you could join me for dinner at the restaurant "Candlelight" at 7:00. Please come.
-Ranma
Akane was extremely surprised. Ranma sounded so sincere. Part of her wanted to decline the invitation just to hurt Ranma's feelings like he hurt hers. Nonetheless, something told her that she had to go.
~*~
Ranma peeked out of the window in "Candlelight." Akane was standing right near the door, wearing her best kimono. Ranma couldn't help but think how pretty she was. He took a deep breath and stepped outside of the restaurant.
"Hi, Akane," said Ranma, hoping that his face wasn't red with embarrassment.
Akane also seemed slightly nervous. "Hi, Ranma," muttered Akane. "Umm, thanks for inviting me."
Ranma grinned sheepishly. "Uh, come in!" And he led her to the back of the restaurant, where a room filled with candles, flowers, classical music, and wonderful smells awaited them. On the floor was a low table, and on two opposite sides there were tatami mats sprinkled with rose petals on the ground (sound familiar? It was copied word for word from Chapter 4!). Akane was startled. Had Ranma truly done this for her?
(An image forms in Akane's mind. Ranma and her are eating a delicious dinner when five concubines walk into the room and sit by Ranma. "Who are they?" Akane asks. Ranma snorts. "My concubines. Move over, this is their dinner." The concubines kick Akane out the window and into the sea. "Ranma!" screams Akane, but there is no answer. "I thought you loved me, Ranma, but you'll never love me, will you? I hate you, Ranma! I hate you!")
"Akane? Are you okay?"
Akane came back to her senses. "Yeah, I'm fine," Akane insisted severely, still remembering her contemplation.
"Whatever," Ranma mumbled as he motioned for Akane to sit down.
Once they had ordered their food, Ranma folded his hands and glanced at Akane nervously. "Umm, Akane, I wanted to talk to about... about what happened earlier today."
Akane nodded her head.
Ranma looked down at his miso soup. "...I'm really sorry about P-Chan. I guess I was... just jealous. I didn't mean to hurt you." Ranma's face reddened even more. "And... I'm sorry about all the other times, too. Every time I call you `macho chick' or `tomboy' and everything. I just don't stop to think if it will actually hurt you or not." Ranma gazed into space. "You probably think that I'm only your fiancée because my pop is making me marry you. But... that's not true." Ranma stopped and looked at Akane.
She was crying. Her cheeks were wet and her eyes were flowing with tears. But Ranma could see that Akane was smiling.
The food arrived. Before they began to eat, Akane whispered, "Thank you, Ranma..."
Ranma smiled back at her, and Akane blushed. They started to eat.
~*~
After dinner, Ranma and Akane walked out onto the deck.
Ranma took Akane by the hand and told her to look up at the stars. "What do you see?" Ranma asked her.
Akane tried, but she couldn't see anything except for the glimmering lights among the sky. "I don't know," she mumbled. "I just see... stars."
Ranma thought for a moment, and then whispered, "That's what I used to see, too. But Kuno told me that if you look carefully, you can see that the stars form a heart."
Akane stared into the sky, looking for the heart. Suddenly, she could see it! Wait... was that an A & R in the middle of the heart? No, she must be seeing things... "Do I love Ranma?" Akane asked herself. "I don't know," she thought. "Is this what love is?"
Ranma looked out upon the sea. He had to say it... but what if she didn't love him back? What if she really hated him? "Okay... I need to calm down," thought Ranma. "Just... go... for it..."
"I love you," whispered Ranma and Akane at the same time.
Ranma and Akane faced each other. "Really?" Akane asked him.
Ranma blushed. And nodded. And smiled.
P-Chan ran as fast as his little pig feet would take him. It seemed like Kuno had been chasing him around the ship forever! He just wanted to get back to Akane's room now... even if Kuno followed him. Akane would protect him...
This hallway looked familiar! P-Chan hurriedly looked at the cabin numbers. 32... 34... 36! P-Chan tapped the door with his feet and snorted softly. The door opened quickly and slammed shut.
Kuno entered the hallway seconds later. Where was the stupid pig?? It was supposed to help him find Ranma and the lovely pigtailed girl! Kuno turned in every direction but saw no one. Little did he know that three pairs of eyes were trying to watch him through the peephole of cabin F-36...
"You there!" someone shouted. "Are ya Tatewaki Kuno?"
Kuno turned around. He saw two gruff security guards standing near the staircase. They must have found Ranma or the pigtailed girl! Kuno raised his head with pride. "Yes, I am Tatewaki Kuno. Have you found my pigtailed girl??"
The first security guard snickered. "Actually, we've come to tell ya that ya've been commanded to leave the ship tomorrow morning. Ya've caused too much trouble for the passengers."
Kuno was horrified. "YOU FOOL, MY FIANCÉE HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!"
The security guard shook his head. "Ya were already told that your `kidnapper' is not on this ship! Now, please show us your room! We will be taking ya and your belongings to a new cabin."
As Kuno was dragged down the hallway, he had very evil thoughts in his head... "RANMA! RANMA! RANMA!"
~*~
Ranma, Akane, and P-Chan moved away from the door. Each one gave a long sigh of relief. Kuno was finally gone (or so they thought). Suddenly, they all took in their surroundings. Ranma saw P-Chan, and P-Chan saw Ranma. They glared at each other.
It would be a long night.
~*~
Kuno sat in the dark in his "new cabin." No windows and no color (sound familiar? It was a lot like Akane's room!). Saying that Kuno was angry would be an understatement. He was completely furious. "Ranma Saotome!" thought Kuno. "I will not let you see those security guards drag me off this ship! I will not surrender! WE SHALL SEE WHO IS VICTORIOUS!" shouted Kuno.
"Will ya shut up?" called one of the security guards.
So, in the darkness and silence, Kuno brainstormed his revenge...
~*~
In the morning, the ship arrived at Skagway, Alaska. Only moments after the ship docked, an alert looking Kuno began to sneak down the ramp. He had put all his important belongs in his carry-on bag and left everything else behind. It would be worth the revenge on Ranma.
When he was about the reach the land, he saw the two security guards running down the ramp after him. "Come back here, ya maniac!"
But Kuno kept going. There seemed to be nothing in sight except for ice, ice, and more ice. After running for a few minutes, he saw the border of the town up ahead. Despite his fatigue, he scampered as quickly as he could into the first building he saw... "The Glacier Resort & Spa."
~*~
An hour later, Akane, Ranma (male), and P-Chan walked off the ship. Ranma and P-Chan were still giving each other dirty looks, but Akane pretended not to notice.
After walking towards the town for a while, Akane began to get tired. They stopped by a park, and Akane said, "You go ahead to Nabiki's hotel; I'm too tired."
Ranma was hesitant. "Are you sure?" he asked.
Akane nodded. "Yeah. And take P-Chan too- it looks like he's getting cold."
Ranma shrugged. "Okay." Despite P-Chan's non-verbal protests, Ranma took P-Chan from Akane and continued to walk to the town. "Be nice to P-Chan!" Ranma heard Akane call as he walked through the snow.
~*~
Nabiki sat in her hotel's lobby, reading a magazine, as she waited for Ranma and Akane's arrival. She suddenly saw a familiar figure above her magazine... "L'il Kuno," whispered Nabiki.
Kuno was looking around the hotel lobby frantically (for nothing in particular). He felt a tap on his shoulder, and as he cautiously turned around, he saw Nabiki Tendo.
"Hey there, Kuno," said Nabiki.
"Nabiki," Kuno cried, "where is RANMA??"
Nabiki pretended to look thoughtful. "I'm not sure, Kuno," Nabiki answered, "but if you want, you can fly back to the Tendo house with me, and Ranma should be there."
Kuno was extremely confused, but he nodded his head vigorously and declared, "I will defeat Ranma Saotome once and for all, and reclaim my pigtailed girl!"
Nabiki shrugged. "Then come on, I'll get you a room." As they walked to the front desk, Nabiki added, "Of course there will be a price for my services..."
~*~
As soon as Ranma and P-Chan were far from Akane, Ranma looked at P-Chan and sneered. "Ryoga, you're not going to see Akane for a looooong time..."
In the blink of an eye, Ranma tossed P-Chan in the air and kicked him into the far distance (a twinkle appears in the spot on the horizon where P-Chan vanished from view).
Then Ranma continued to Nabiki's hotel, without P-Chan.
When Ranma arrived in the lobby, Nabiki was (once again) reading a magazine. After hearing that Akane wasn't with Ranma, Nabiki said, "Come on up to my room, Ranma."
While Nabiki led Ranma to her room, Ranma noticed that Nabiki didn't seem like she knew where she was going... but oh, well.
They finally arrived in front of a door. "This is it," Ranma heard Nabiki mumble to herself.
"OPEN UP!" Nabiki screamed.
"What's going on...?" Ranma asked with anticipation.
"I'M IN THE SHOWER!" a voice screamed back.
Ranma immediately recognized the voice, and was gone from the hallway before Nabiki could even explain.
~*~
Akane looked at her watch. Where was Ranma? He had been gone for so long. "Hmm, maybe the town was further away than I thought."
At that moment, Ranma raced up to where Akane was sitting. "I'm back! And you'll never guess who's at Nabiki's hotel! I can't believe what she did! She told me that she was taking me to her room and it turned out that she was taking me to-"
"Ranma," interrupted Akane. "Where's P-Chan?"
"Oh... P-Chan... umm..." Ranma mumbled. All of the sudden he couldn't think of what to tell her as a cover-up!
"Ranma! What did you do to P-Chan??" yelled Akane angrily.
"...P-Chan... got lost!" Ranma cried.
"I don't understand why you hate P-Chan so much, Ranma," shouted Akane. "But it's not fair for you to be so mean to him! He's just a pig, and you're a human! You can't take advantage of him like that! I can't believe that you've gone so far as to..." Akane turned to Ranma with tears brimming in her eyes. "What did you do to him, anyway?!"
"I... umm..."
"I hate you, Ranma!" cried Akane. "You always mess up everything for me!" Akane made a snowball and threw it in Ranma's face. The ice-cold snowball melted on Ranma's warm forehead and turned him into a girl. Akane turned to run back to the ship.
~*~
When Kuno went down to the lobby, Nabiki was waiting for him. "You picked a really bad time to be in the shower. Ranma just stopped by. He was outside the door when I called to you."
Kuno's face filled with rage and frustration. "Why didn't you tell me?!?"
"Because it would have given you away! He didn't know you were here! If you had just come and opened the door, you would've caught him off guard!"
Kuno sighed. "Then where is he now?!?"
Nabiki shrugged. "Probably getting back on the ship..."
"THAT STOWAWAY! HE SHALL NOT WIN THIS FIGHT!" Kuno stormed out of the hotel.
~*~
P-Chan was lost in the middle of nowhere. There was no hope of him finding Ranma and Akane again for quite some time. However, for the sake of all P-Chan/Ryoga fans, he did make his way back to Japan a few weeks later (this is starting to sound like the ending of my fic. It's not the end yet!).
~*~
Akane was running so fast that Ranma couldn't catch up to her. "Or maybe," Akane thought crossly, "He doesn't even want to catch up to me." Akane sighed. "Oh, Ranma, I'll never know if you like me or hate me. I wish you'd do something to show me that you do care."
As Akane walked up the ramp to the ship, she looked back, hoping that maybe Ranma was right behind her, on his knees begging for her forgiveness. However, she couldn't see Ranma anywhere. "I guess he doesn't care about me after all," Akane mumbled while she went to her cabin.
Akane locked her door and flopped down on her bed. "Well, Ranma," thought Akane. "If you want to save our little relationship, you'll have to make the first move. I give up."
~*~
Kuno was racing towards the ship when he saw it begin to pull away from the dock. "Nooooooooooo!" screamed Kuno, but it was too late. The ship was headed toward Ketchikan, Alaska, and Kuno was stuck in Skagway with Nabiki and an extremely lost P-Chan.
~*~
After getting hot water and returning to his male form, Ranma paced the deck of the ship. He couldn't believe how stupid he had been! Since Akane didn't know that P-Chan was Ryoga, she didn't know that Ryoga would (hopefully) be able to find his way home. Akane probably thought that P-Chan was lost forever.
"Akane will get over it," thought Ranma. "She's such a macho chick; she can deal with anything. Wait a sec," reconsidered Ranma. "That's not true." Ranma sighed. He could feel his face burn with shame. "I really hurt her today. Come to think of it, I really hurt her feelings a lot."
Ranma tried to remember stuff from his psychology classes. "I got rid of Ryoga because I was jealous," Ranma mumbled. "I wanted Akane for myself." Ranma gulped. That was a hard fact to face, but it was true. "So what's Akane thinking about me right now? Does she know that I got rid of P-Chan because I... I care about her?" Ranma looked at his feet. It was time to show Akane what she really meant to him.
~*~
Akane was still sulking in her cabin when there was a quick knock at her door. "Maybe it's Ranma," thought Akane with irritation. "He can see how horrible he's made me feel." She went to the sink and put water on her cheeks to exaggerate her tears.
But when she opened the door, no one was there. Except on the door, there was a white Post-It note covered with sad faces. In messy handwriting was written:
Dear Akane,
I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. I was wondering if you could join me for dinner at the restaurant "Candlelight" at 7:00. Please come.
-Ranma
Akane was extremely surprised. Ranma sounded so sincere. Part of her wanted to decline the invitation just to hurt Ranma's feelings like he hurt hers. Nonetheless, something told her that she had to go.
~*~
Ranma peeked out of the window in "Candlelight." Akane was standing right near the door, wearing her best kimono. Ranma couldn't help but think how pretty she was. He took a deep breath and stepped outside of the restaurant.
"Hi, Akane," said Ranma, hoping that his face wasn't red with embarrassment.
Akane also seemed slightly nervous. "Hi, Ranma," muttered Akane. "Umm, thanks for inviting me."
Ranma grinned sheepishly. "Uh, come in!" And he led her to the back of the restaurant, where a room filled with candles, flowers, classical music, and wonderful smells awaited them. On the floor was a low table, and on two opposite sides there were tatami mats sprinkled with rose petals on the ground (sound familiar? It was copied word for word from Chapter 4!). Akane was startled. Had Ranma truly done this for her?
(An image forms in Akane's mind. Ranma and her are eating a delicious dinner when five concubines walk into the room and sit by Ranma. "Who are they?" Akane asks. Ranma snorts. "My concubines. Move over, this is their dinner." The concubines kick Akane out the window and into the sea. "Ranma!" screams Akane, but there is no answer. "I thought you loved me, Ranma, but you'll never love me, will you? I hate you, Ranma! I hate you!")
"Akane? Are you okay?"
Akane came back to her senses. "Yeah, I'm fine," Akane insisted severely, still remembering her contemplation.
"Whatever," Ranma mumbled as he motioned for Akane to sit down.
Once they had ordered their food, Ranma folded his hands and glanced at Akane nervously. "Umm, Akane, I wanted to talk to about... about what happened earlier today."
Akane nodded her head.
Ranma looked down at his miso soup. "...I'm really sorry about P-Chan. I guess I was... just jealous. I didn't mean to hurt you." Ranma's face reddened even more. "And... I'm sorry about all the other times, too. Every time I call you `macho chick' or `tomboy' and everything. I just don't stop to think if it will actually hurt you or not." Ranma gazed into space. "You probably think that I'm only your fiancée because my pop is making me marry you. But... that's not true." Ranma stopped and looked at Akane.
She was crying. Her cheeks were wet and her eyes were flowing with tears. But Ranma could see that Akane was smiling.
The food arrived. Before they began to eat, Akane whispered, "Thank you, Ranma..."
Ranma smiled back at her, and Akane blushed. They started to eat.
~*~
After dinner, Ranma and Akane walked out onto the deck.
Ranma took Akane by the hand and told her to look up at the stars. "What do you see?" Ranma asked her.
Akane tried, but she couldn't see anything except for the glimmering lights among the sky. "I don't know," she mumbled. "I just see... stars."
Ranma thought for a moment, and then whispered, "That's what I used to see, too. But Kuno told me that if you look carefully, you can see that the stars form a heart."
Akane stared into the sky, looking for the heart. Suddenly, she could see it! Wait... was that an A & R in the middle of the heart? No, she must be seeing things... "Do I love Ranma?" Akane asked herself. "I don't know," she thought. "Is this what love is?"
Ranma looked out upon the sea. He had to say it... but what if she didn't love him back? What if she really hated him? "Okay... I need to calm down," thought Ranma. "Just... go... for it..."
"I love you," whispered Ranma and Akane at the same time.
Ranma and Akane faced each other. "Really?" Akane asked him.
Ranma blushed. And nodded. And smiled.