Hi-Minna! A million and one apologies for having this out so late! I would really like to thank all of you for all your wonderful reviews for lifting my spirits! Anyways, on with chapter 5, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ :(
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Ranma was stuck to the spot, mouth agape with astonishment. Had Akane just said what he thought she had said!? His befuddled mind questioned feebly. She wanted to be closer!?!? Like best friends!?!? He mentally screamed while looking down at Akane's dark head resting on his shoulder. Ranma carefully dislodged his arm from her grasp before turning on her. "Wha- Whe-, Ho-," Ranma stuttered, his surprised making him unable to get out a coherent sentence.
Akane merely gave Ranma an innocent stare. "I meant what I said Ranma. I just decided that I was tired of us always fighting when we should be closer." She replied carefully, taking Ranma's cold hand in hers. "Like best friends." She repeated, smiling up at him, her face starting to flush slightly with her own embarrassment.
Ranma gulped at her seemingly honest reply, staring down dumbly at their joined hands. Was she for real!? Is this why she was acting so strange!? He was just on the verge of asking her this when he was interrupted by Ryoga's dramatic wail of dismay.
Ryoga glowered at the couple. It couldn't be…Akane was in love with Ranma!? The love of his life was in love with his greatest rival!? How could this be? He met Akane's gaze with his sorrow-filled eyes. He had never seen this coming…he knew that Ranma loved Akane and had thought the affection one-sided. But if Akane was happy with Ranma, then he would find a way to be happy with it. Swallowing the rising lump in his throat, he proceeded to tell Akane that. "Akane, I will not intrude on your happiness any longer." He started, looking at the sky in his usual gesture of dramatization, all the while slowly walking away. "Maybe someday we will see each other someday…sayonara." He replied as he continued to walk.
Shaking off the stupor that he was stuck in, Ranma noticed that P-chan was about to run headlong into a fountain. "Ryoga!!" He yelled in warning, attempting to get Ryoga's attention.
"Don't try to stop me. I will intrude no longer." He reasoned, dazedly walking ahead.
That idiot!!! Ranma raged silently. If Akane found out that he was p-chan, she would kill them both. He had to do something, and fast.
"Ryoga-kun, look out for the fountain!" Akane cried out, her worried gaze still on Ryoga.
"Akane!" Ranma said trying to divert Akane's gaze from both Ryoga and the fountain.
"What?" Akane asked, her gaze still fixed on Ryoga.
"Akane!" He said again, not knowing what to say to get her attention.
Not knowing what to do, he panicked. When he heard an audible splash, he grabbed Akane's shoulders, quickly turning her around, an action that surprised them both.
Akane's eyes widened in surprise. She licked her top lip nervously. "W-what do you want Ranma?"
Ranma hadn't heard a word she had said. When Akane had run her little pink tongue over her pretty red painted lips, he lost all train of thought, save those about kissing the beautiful girl in front of him.
Ranma pulled away abruptly nearly throwing his unsuspecting fiancé off balance when he realized how ridiculous thoughts were starting to become. 'What am I thinking!?' This was Akane!'
The heat that had been rising to Akane's face once she had noticed where her fiancé's gaze was concentrated on quickly started to abate after Ranma so unexpectedly released her as she stumbled back slightly to keep from falling. After steadying herself, she turned angry eyes upon the embarrassed pigtailed boy, desperately wanting to mallot his head in the cement for his rude and insulting gesture, making it seem as if he couldn't stand to touch her. "What do you want Ranma?" Akane growled.
"Umm…err…" He stumbled over his words, trying to think of a response. Nervously, he rubbed the back of his head as he gaze flew to the small fountain behind Akane. "Hey isn't that P-chan?" He cried out hurriedly, pointing to the small black piglet head sticking out on the side of the pool.
Her gaze following Ranma's outstretched arm to the fountain also spotting her small companion. "P-chan!" She gasped as she rushed over to the fountain to retrieve her pet. That done, she slowly walked back to her bewildered fiancé, the small forlorn piglet cuddled close to her chest. She tried to give Ranma her best cute look. "So…what do you say?" Akane asked in a sickeningly sweet voice, the familiar heat of embarrassment starting to rise to her face anew at her own behavior.
Ranma blinked. This was unreal! She must be up to something! Ranma's eyes narrowed slowly at the thought. "I don't believe you…you must be up to something." He said stubbornly, totally convinced now that this was all some kind of ruse…it had to be!
Akane blanched visibly as Ranma unknowingly came extremely close to the truth. "W-why would you think that?" Akane inquired innocently, forcing a smile to cover up her apparent nervousness.
"Why now? How come you didn't come to this kind of conclusion before?" His eyes narrowing even more as his suspiciousness grew.
"Because…" She started, trying to think of another plausible lie, "I wasn't ready for that yet…" She trailed off, eyeing her fiancé's face to gauge his reaction.
Ranma looked at her as if she had grown another head. The situation had gone from weird to insane in only a couple of days. He had to get away from this weirdness lest he says something that would be even weirder: that he wanted the same thing for them also. That decided, he slanted one more dubious glance in Akane's direction before heading back to the dojo, leaving behind a very frustrated fiancé.
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Once at home, Akane fled quickly to her room, closing the door behind her before burring her head in her hands, desperately trying to blot out the humiliating actions she had undergone to secure the bet. How could she have said those things to him!?
She had gone into this bet fully believing that she would come out victorious and proving that she did not love or even like her pig-headed fiancé only to be thrown into a ruse that made it seemed like the total opposite. How the hell had things turned out like this!?
Akane gave a slow, calming breath, running her long fingers through her ebony hair. It didn't matter how it turned out to be this way. What was important is that she won the bet and then everything could go back to normal. Or could it?
Shaking off a feeling of foreboding, she turned grasping the door handle prepared to go out and continue her role as the over zealous fiancé, but not before a flicker of guilt crept over her. This is not how the bet was supposed to go.
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Ranma watched his scheming fiancé descend the stairs with her newly acquired cheerfulness that seemed to have appeared in the last few days. On his way back the dojo, he found himself thinking more and more about Akane's unexpected proposal and had come up with two reasons why she would propose a proposition such as this: 1 she was plotting something, 2 she was actually serious. He choose to believe option number one; it was easier to deal with. Although he knew the first option was no doubt the correct one, he still couldn't help thinking on the second option also.
What if Akane was sincere? What if Akane really was ready to shed her violent tomboyish ways to become an eager fiancé instead? The mere suggestion scared him just as much as it enthralled him. If their relationship did elevate to this higher level, then she wouldn't hit, yell, or accuse him of things that he didn't do less often and things would never be the same. Even though it sounded great, one question still kept popping up inside his head. Would he be content with trading in his uncute tomboy for this near perfect fiancé? Damn, when had everything become so confusing!?!?
Lost in though, he didn't see Akane move over to the table. The gentle brush of her arm next to his brought Ranma back to reality. He looked up abruptly, startled at her sudden presence and moving away from her slightly in a childish like move, giving her a small offensive scowl.
Only the familiar small fire of anger burning in her eyes was the only indication that Ranma's behavior was upsetting her as she smiled and offered Ranma a plate of rice balls in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Would you like one?"
Sigh, it looked like this was going to be another weird evening.
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'Whew! I'm glad that's over for today!' Any more sweetness displayed this night and she would have rotted out her own teeth! The things she did for the sake of this bet!
After dinner, she found herself in the hallway to her room waiting for her fiancé to pass by. She had played her part well in convincing Ranma that she was her proposal was sincere…so why wasn't he believing her? Well it was up to her to prove to him that she wasn't lying, she thought with a slight wince of guilt at her little white lie (A/N: hah!), but she had to win this bet! Problem was, she had no idea how to get him to believe her.
As if on cue Ranma's head appeared as he slowly climb up the stairs, he gaze unfocused as if deeply lost in thought. 'Okay, Here goes!' She jumped in front of the unsuspecting pigtailed boy startling him and nearly making him fall back down the stairs.
"What did you do that for!?!?" He railed at Akane after regaining his balance on the step of the stairs. "What do you want anyway?" He finished irately, not wanting to be bothered with her presence at the moment.
Akane balled up her fist, and tried to be calm when he yelled at her, all the while chanting that she needed to win the bet in her head. Pasting on a tight smile, "Ranma, you still haven't told me how you feel about what I said."
So they were back to that. "I don't believe you." He said pointedly, his face fixed in a dubious scowl once again.
"Well if you don't believe me then we should…" She trailed off, searching her mind for something to suggest. "Then we should…" She trailed off once again, still not able to come up with something. Suddenly an idea popped into her head and without a second thought to what she was really suggesting, she let it fly. "We should go out on a date!" Akane finally said cheerfully, thankful that she had came up with an idea. Her cheerfulness quickly abate and her cheeks reddened when she realized the extremity of what she had just said, but knowing that there was no retracting that last statement. What had she just done!?!?
Ranma was no less stunned than she was. Akane had just suggested that they go on a date!?!? "N-no way!" Ranma cried out on instinct, backing away from Akane as if she had just turned into a hideous monster.
While Akane didn't relish the fact that she had come up with the idea that they should date, it was a way to win the bet and she needed his cooperation. She knew just how to get it too. "Your scared of a little date?"
Ranma bristled visible. "Hey, I ain't scared of no date! I just don't want to go out with you!" Ranma said defensively, winching when he saw the small but noticeable flicker of hurt in her eyes.
Swallowing the hurt and the need to smash his head in, she just gave him a look that clearly said 'yeah right.'
Ranma watched Akane as he thought more on her suggestion. Would it be that bad? Maybe he could find out the truth. "Fine you're on." He suddenly said, quickly walking to his room wondering if he had made the right decision.
Akane gave a small triumphant smile but it waned slightly when she thought about what she had done. She had gotten Ranma to comply, but was she ready for something like this? She certainly hoped so.
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Whew! Another chapter down! Sorry about the big delay guys, but I was starting to lose focus on what I wanted to do with this story. So what do you think? Please review and tell me. If you would like to be notified when I update, leave it in a review. Thank you guys so much for reading and I hope to see you next chapter!