After interminable hours the school day ended, still with no sign of Ranma.

For Akane, trapped her private hell of fury and grief, the last bell was a blessed release. Of course, Ranma was probably still waiting for her at home, but at least she could escape the "friends" who were openly speculating about their relationship. She was running almost before she left the building, needing to race out her frustration and humiliation, lose it all in the pounding of her feet against the road, in the stretching of well-trained muscles.

It was probably not a good time for Kuno to accost her. But then, Akane would have told you that there was no good time for her to encounter her most persistent, if polyamorous, suitor.

He materialised in front of her. "Ah, Akane Tendo! Yes, run into my arms!" He flung his arms wide. "Find your solace in my love, beauteous Akane; there is no reason for my darlings to seek consolation in any embrace but my own. My arms are wide enough for both!"

As her fist caught him sharply under the jaw and sent him flying, Akane idly wondered what her upper classman was ranting about this time. Not that Kuno made much sense at the best of times. It was not worth interrupting her run.

She rushed onwards, her school bag bouncing wildly with her speed, the flow of air against her hot cheeks soothing. If she was crying at all, the tears were smashed on the breeze, and did not linger to humiliate her.

Until she turned a corner at top speed and crashed straight into a solid male form.

"Aargh!" she shrieked, tumbling headlong. The boy she had smacked into fell under her as her hands automatically reached to grasp his shoulders for balance, and she landed awkwardly, her breasts pressed against his chest and his face inches below hers.

"A- Akane!" stammered Ryoga, his handsome face deepening to red.

Akane blushed just as furiously as she clambered awkwardly off her friend, kneeling and dusting off her pinafore. But there was no reason to blush. It was not as if she had fallen into Kuno's arms and would have to spend the next few minutes violently empathising that she meant nothing by it. It was only Ryoga, after all. Ryoga was her friend, and the most pure-hearted person she knew. There was no way it would even occur to him to take advantage of an accident like that.

"I'm sorry, Ryoga," she said softly, straightening her blouse. "I'm so clumsy." Stupid clumsy tomboy, Ranma's ever present voice echoed in her head. She shook her thick crop of hair to dust the echoes away.

"You're not clumsy, Akane," Ryoga said, with husky earnestness. "You're one of the most graceful people I know."

"Eh, that's not true." She smiled gratefully at him as he rose and offered her a hand to her feet. Ryoga was always chivalrous… Such a contrast to a certain other boy. And he always made her feel better, rather than cutting her self confidence away from under her. She squeezed his hand for a moment before she released it, and his cheeks darkened further with pleasure.

"It's been a rotten day. Would - would you walk me home?" she invited, hoping against hope that her own good sense of direction would outweigh his curse. She felt a sudden need for sympathetic company. She was too old to put her head in Kasumi's lap and cry, no matter how much she wanted

"I was going to pay you and your family a visit in any case," Ryoga said gravely. Akane decided against pointing out that he was headed in the wrong direction; instead, she gently pulled him around to face homewards, and released his hand. She thought he sighed softly, but she was probably imagining it.

It wasn't as though holding the hand of a tomboy like her was anything for a nice boy to sigh over. Insane morons like Kuno did not exactly count.

"Well, oh well. That was worth returning to school for, wasn't it?"

Kuno looked up into the laughing face of Nabiki, the girl's hangers-on giggling behind her. He frowned sternly up at them.

"An inexperienced and sweet girl naturally displays a degree of fetching modesty and shyness. You would not understand that, Nabiki Tendo." He pulled himself to his feet with ostentatious dignity, his expensive kendo robes still flowing around him.

The girl shrugged, unabashed. "I think you need a little help here." She paused, her expression all too obviously calculating. "You see, Kuno baby, you forget one tiny little cog in your schemes." Some indefinable emotion glittered in her eyes. "Ranma."

"Ranma? How is that cur involved?"

She shrugged gracefully. "It was Ranma's fault that the pig-tailed girl and Akane did –" she glanced at her friends, and hesitated – "what they did. After all, he is engaged to Akane, and the pig-tailed girl…" she hesitated, a playful grin crossing her features, "acts entirely in accordance with Ranma's wishes."

"Is this true?" Kuno's brows drew close with outrage. "I will challenge Ranma, and pout an end to his domination of these precious girls! He will not be able to triumph against the skill of the Blue Thunder of Furikan High!" He prepared to sweep away.

Nabiki halted his departure, placing a small hand on his chest. Kuno was not able to ignore the call of chivalry by pushing aside any woman, even one as evil as the middle Tendo daughter. He glared down at her. "Well?"

"I have a better idea." She smiled. "I suggest you send for more funds. This may well turn out to be expensive."

Ryoga matched his pace to Akane's shorter legs. He was almost certain that they were going the wrong way, but he was not going to argue about walkingby the side ofhis beloved. Maybe she wanted to go for icecream or something first.

He tried not to stare at her, at the vivid, sulky little face with the reddened brown eyes. He was almost sure she had been crying again. He was going to kill Ranma if that was true.

Ryogamarched with his head down, trying to sort out feelings that blurred muddily into each other. Anger with Ranma, yes, but overlaid by the warm glow that suffused him whether in pig or human form, wheneverAkane noticed him with kindness. There was still abreathless, heatedhappiness at the memory of her body pressed against his, his hand being squeezed in her small one. But beneath all that...

Desperation, fading into despair.

Why hadAkane kissed Ranma in her female form? It was not really somethingRyoga could ask her outright, but it pricked poisonously at his consciousness.

"Akane," he said at last, still uncertain of the right words to use. "You know that if anything ever upsets you, or if you ever need my help, I'm there for you."

She smiled up at him through her fringe of dark hair. "Thanks. I knew I could count on you. Sometimes I think that you're the best of all my friends, Ryoga."

A shot of sweet pain went straight into his heart. Akane, of all people, could hurt him effortlessly, and kiss it better at the same time. The fact that she was unconscious of her power only made it all the more poignant. "There is nothing I can do to help you now?"

"Not really. I made a stupid mistake, and now I'm paying for it." Her voice was still soft and sad, but suddenly she paused in her tracks, and turned to face a street lamp. Her hand formed into a fist and slammed out, visibly bending the pole. Despite his concern at her depression, Ryoga was impressed by her sheer strength. "I'm such an idiot!"

"Akane, no." He reached out for her without thinking, taking one of her shoulders in each hand and turning her to face him. "Please tell me what's wrong. As your best of friends."

"I kissed Ranma." Akane sank her face in her hands, Ryoga's own hands still grasping her shoulders firmly. "I'm such an idiot… I'm so ashamed. I kissed her."

The words still cut like a scalding knife, but he blinked back the tears, and managed to say faintly. "There is no shame in that. He is your fiancé, after all." Some little voice deep inside him was screaming denial, but he could ignore it for Akane's sake.

"Didn't you hear me? I said 'her.'" Akane lowered her hands and looked defiantly up at him, her brown eyes swimming with humiliated tears. "Do you despise me too, now?"

"I could never despise you, Akane," he said. He had some difficulty speaking, but that, of all things, was true. A desperate need to wipe the pain from her eyes made him add, "What you did only proves your nobility of spirit. There is no shame in loving someone… even Ranma… for what they are, or in pitying him for his curse."

A look of hope shot across Akane's face. "You're right. If you love someone, you should accept them in any form they take." Her expression darkened for a moment. "Not that I love Ranma. But if I loved someone else, I would love them even if they were in the form of… " She waved a hand vaguely, nearly clipping him across the face. "An old ugly man. Or… an animal!"

Ryoga could not be blamed for what he did next. In fact, he did not feel he hand any control in the matter.

Akane's lips were very soft under his own, softer than he could have dreamed, and they tasted of salty tears. He held the embrace for a long moment, feeling her tense form relax under his hands, as her lips tentatively responded.

His head began to whirl. He was kissing Akane… and she was kissing back. What would he say when their lips parted? He didn't want to ask her to date with him, because then he would sound like a less arrogant Kuno. But it was probably premature to ask her to marry him. She was still in high school, after all.

She sighed against his mouth, and parted her lips. The touch of her tongue nearly made him faint.

Oh, Akane would look so beautiful in a misty veil. Or even more so in a formal wedding kimono…

He was completely unprepared for the sudden push of Akane's hands against his chest. He looked down into eyes that were no longer inches from tears, but hot and narrow.

"Is that what you all think of me?" she shouted, her voice cracking with fury and pain. "That I am so easy that I will fall into the arms of anyone I like?" She snatched up her case and ran down the street, her pinafore flapping around her.

Ryoga looked helplessly after her, depression threatening to overwhelm him. For just a moment, he had thought…

Anyone she liked? But that meant…

He turned confidently in the direction that he just knew a flower seller's stand lay.

Tbc. Ah, Ranma will actually be in the next chapter, I promise faithfully s/he'll be. ;)