Inner Child
by Darth Wraith

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is not mine.

' ' - thoughts | " " - speaking
[ ] -Ranma's thoughts, heard by Akane

"Ite..." Ranma hobbled as if drunk back to the Tendo Dojo, after a particularly long flight via. Mallet Airlines. [Man...Akane didn't have to hit that hard...I guess I should've said her drawbacks without telling her she's fat.] He sighed. He checked the time - 11 pm - and decided to go to sleep.

Of course Akane heard what Ranma thought (because of Eggplant), and she was quite surprised at his thought apology. She blushed slightly and soon forgot about the latest argument. She too went to sleep.

"Ranchan!"

"Airen!"

"Ohohohoho Ranma-sama!"

"Come give me the love I deserve and which you always wanted to give out to us!" Ukyo, Shampoo, and Kodachi were currently chasing Ranma. Akane in a shock realized that she saw herself next to...herself? But she soon recalled about Eggplant who explained that she will experience the victim of her mind reading's dreams...if he's within a one mile radius. In any case, Ranma suddenly felt frozen stiff and in time, all three fiancées glomped themselves onto Ranma. Akane (the one in Ranma's dream), felt her anger flare up and she conjured a flaming mallet (lol she's that mad) and plummeted him sky-high. Ranma felt quite relieved that he got out of the three fiancées, or so he thought. His stomach still felt a bit tight, and ruffles of brown and purple were wiping his face. Ranma could only close his eyes and hide back the tears of anguish.

To make things worse, a storm started brewing. As soon as the rain fell, the cursed forms took over the original forms. Ranma-chan felt an odd sense of fear, followed by a purr. He screamed like he never screamed before, while Ukyo's head proceded to give him a full-blown french kiss. Akane could only watch in horror and raging jealousy as the lips started to close in. And then, the world turned black.

[Oh my god! That was the craziest and scariest nightmare I've had yet! Thank god it's not real, or else Akane will really produce a flaming mallet and I will become her test subject!] Akane heard Ranma's thought as he woke up from the nightmare. She smiled, 'At least he considered this a nightmare.' She debated whether to tell him about her secret, but common sense told her that wouldn't be a smart thing to do. Who knows what might happen if she told him...foot on brain disease? (Bad attempt at humor...sorry :P)

7:30 am...

"Ranma! Wake up!!" Akane shouted from outside the furo. No answer.

"RANMA!!" No answer. Suddenly, she got an inspiration.

"Hello, anybody there?" Akane said, trying her best to imitate Nodoka Saotome, Ranma's mother. Both Genma and Ranma suddenly froze in shock. Their eyes snapped open, and they both hurried to dump cold water with their buckets. To their dismay, and annoyance, it was only Akane.

[Wow, never thought that Akane could imitate my mother so well. Heh...she'll be a good mother someday...I just hope no seppuku is involved for our kids *shudder*. There's no way I'm like Pops. At least Akane didn't dump me with cold water; I like that]. Akane blushed after hearing Ranma's thought solioquy. Too bad his mouth wasn't the same.

"Man! Trying to imitate Mom? Hah! I could tell anytime that you didn't sound like Mom. Besides, you're such an uncute tomboy, so how could you even remotely sound like her?" Ranma stuck out his tongue to add emphasis to his insult, although his insides wrenched while saying that. Classic foot in mouth.

Akane looked like she was ready to flatten Ranma out, but she noticed a little flaw in Ranma's insult. She exploited it without hesitation. "Right, so what could've made you wake up and dump water over yourself?"

[Damn, she's good.] Ranma stayed silent, red spreading across his face of embarrassment.

Akane laughed and told Ranma to get ready. Genma meanwhile was still frowning at Akane for disturbing his precious sleep. Ranma took a kettle of hot water and poured it over himself, and tossed it to Genma who did likewise, restoring their original forms. He took his backpack and proceeded to the dining area.

"Good morning Ranma-kun," Kasumi greeted him from the kitchen.

"Heya Kasumi, good morning," Ranma responded. [If only Akane was like her.]

"Good morning Ranma!" Akane said with a light, cheery voice.

Ranma blinked. He felt as if somebody has just read his mind. He dismissed the silly notion, but in any case he answered Akane back, "Good morning!" Breakfast was another boring session, with Ranma and Genma fighthing over the food and Akane glaring at Ranma. They soon headed to school.

'Now,' Akane thought, 'Ranma's gonna be thinking lots. I will know for sure which of his fiancées he actually loves (I hope he thinks about that) and any other dirty little secrets he might keep from me.' With her mind set, she gave a determined "hmmph!" and walked briskly; like a soldier. Ranma raised an eyebrow, shaking his head. "Sooo uncute," he muttered.

As they neared the gates, a familiar shout was heard. "Tendo Akane, embrace me with all your love. Do not keep it contained! Fight that vile influence from that vile fiend known as Ranma Saotome, and when you win your love will burst like an A-bomb!" (^_^). Akane sighed and punted Kuno to air.

Ranma soon caught up with her, noticing that her hands were in a Superman-like fashion. "Err...he's gone?" Ranma squinted at the sky and noticed a faint blue and black uniform, bokken sticking out from the side. [Feh. Kuno, what a dolt.]

"Yeah," Akane responded. She put a hand on her mouth. 'He's not supposed to know!'

"Yeah what?" Ranma asked. Apparently he was oblivious of his thoughts. When Akane didn't respond he gave her a poke on the side.

"Yow! Huh...uh..nothing...yeah.." Akane dumbly muttered. "Let's go to class."

"Er...right." Ranma responded. [She can be so cute at times.] Ranma smiled at Akane, who's back was facing him.

Akane, too, smiled and blushed at the compliment. Of course, she didn't dare to look back at Ranma. 'Sure he is real handsome and muscular,' she thought, 'and that pigtail is kinda cute too, but his arrogance and jerkiness...arrgh! But he hasn't thought of me as uncute today. I'm getting so confused.'

During lunchtime, Ranma was with his two friends, Hiroshi and Daisuke, while Akane was on another table with her two friends Yuka and Sayuri. Everything was 'normal' (heh...Nerima, normal? Just like saying 1+1=4) - even Ukyo was too busy making money from her okonomiyaki to bother Ranma at the moment - when a makeshift wall burst open and a purple-haired Chinese bimbo stepped in, scanning around the cafeteria. When her eyes saw Ranma, she bounded over the tables, dropped the ramen, which landed perfectly, and glomped onto Ranma.

"Nihao Airen!" Ranma felt like he was being choked rather than hugged. He futilely tried to push away, and much to his dismay, Akane's face became beet red with anger. To Ranma's horror, a flaming mallet was produced on Akane's hand. [Oh no,] he thought, [this is just like the dream. Now she's gonna pound me. I wonder if she'll ever learn that I don't actually want to hug Shampoo...besides I never hug back! I just wish that I could hug Akane...even kiss her...I wouldn't mind if it was only a dream...] He squeezed his eyes shut, readying the inevitable.

Akane nearly forgotten that she could read Ranma's thoughts, but after hearing his thought confession she had an evil idea. She proceeded towards the entangled couple while everyone else backed away in fear and sheer excitement. Even Ukyo hesitated for a moment to glomp Ranma as Akane walked.

"Uh oh...Ranma's in deep trouble."

"Deep? You're so understating the fact."

"Hehehe. I sure think that a cold bucket of water can be very useful now."

Akane's stomping soon slowed down to a calm tiptoe. As she neared the couple. She raised her mallet, and brought it down as hard as she could. A faint "boom!" was heard. Then Akane, twirling the mallet like a baseball aimed towards the sky and punted the unfortunate body into orbit.

Ranma was still shaking when he felt a boom and his body felt loose once again. He opened his eyes to see Akane's forehead vein pop, eyebrows twitching in anger. Although a part of him felt relieved that Akane finally figured out his plight, he still felt uneasy...[after all, this is Akane...never know what she might hit.] He shut his eyes again, feeling the heat radiating from the mallet. But instead of contact, he felt the heat disappear. He looked up to see a blushing and smiling Akane, without her mallet. [She's...she's blushing?? Wow...heck...I am too!] Ranma felt his cheeks burn. Meekly, he thanked her, then quickly walked away from the scene. [Oh god...she's gonna beat the crap outta me now for sure. Probably thinks I'm some pervert or something. Must leave!] Akane never followed, which pretty much surprised everybody.

"No! The fair Tendo Akane has once again failed from willing herself against the foul sorceror's magic!" Kuno raised his bokken and struck. The wall which had a Shampoo-shaped hole was now...rubble.

"Akane! Did you like...make a love declaration to Ranma or something? You didn't hit him!" Yuka said, eyes widened.

"Yeah! Go Akane!" Sayuri screamed.

"Ranma that sly dog. Congrats Akane!" Hiroshi laughed.

"IT'S NOTHING LIKE THAT!!" Akane suddenly shouted. "I just happened to see who's at fault this time! What's wrong with that?!" Everyone snickered, but decided to leave it at that. Suddenly she recalled what Ranma had thought after Shampoo glomped the living daylights out of him. 'I wish I can hug Akane...even kiss...' Akane packed up her stuff as she thought, and when she left, she couldn't supress the blood that was rushing up her face. She gave way, and she was once again beet red. 'I would like to kiss you too, Ranma, even if it's only a dream.'

Nabiki was intrigued at the events that just occured in Furinkan High. 'Hrm,' she thought, 'this is definitely new. I'll check into this now.'

Ukyo was frozen stiff. A few boys waved in front of her face, although she didn't notice. The okonomiyaki she was cooking sooned turned black and the people quickly disposed of the okonomiyaki before a fire started off, and Ukyo didn't notice a thing. Her eyes were wide, her mouth agape, with traces of saliva running down the side of her mouth. 'Oh. My. God. This isn't happening. Akane punting Shampoo not Ranma? This is definitely not good.' Twenty minutes later, Ukyo was outside the classroom holding two pails of water on her two hands.

Duck 1: Darn, it's raining again. (Notices Shampoo in cat form). Now what kind of bird is that?

Duck 2: Look #1, just because it's in the air don't mean it's a bird.

Duck 1: Yeah well blame that on the chief duck.

Duck 2: Whatever. Anyway that animal happens to be a cat.

Duck 1: Oh right. So what in teh heck is up with flying objects these days.

Duck 4 (er..Mousse): SHAMPOO!!!!

Duck 3: Oh boy, that duck with glasses sure appears out of nowhere once he sees that cat. Shampoo, Mousse...how odd. *chuckles*

Shampoo: *swipe*!

Mousse: Ow...

NOTES: I feel like this chapter isn't really well written (but school's started, so I don't have much time to write), but I hope the plot is still understandable. And my humor...well...hehe *sweatdrops*. Anyway, Read and Review! Thank y'all!