Author's Note: Okay before you kill me, let me explain why I haven't updated for a week. First of all, school started again, which means, of course, mountains of homework (ugh). Plus, the term is ending soon, so there's even more work than usual. Also, I'm currently in an opera, so I have rehearsals every day. And to top it all off, I was in a car accident on Wednesday (my week, eh?), so I've been dealing with that. No one was hurt, luckily, but I got some bumps and scrapes from the airbag, not to mention some very stiff muscles. Anyway, I finally had a chance to complete another chapter, so here it is. Sorry for the wait ;)

    If I'm really good, I may be able to finish typing the rest of the story this weekend, which will make updating much easier -- but I wouldn't count on it. I'll try!

    Thanks for all the lovely reviews, as usual ;)

Disclaimer: Okay, I have completely run out of ideas, so here is the most boring disclaimer I can think of -- Ranma is not mine.

Fortune's Fool

Chapter 5

The early morning sun streamed through the window onto Akane's closed eyelids. She opened them sleepily, and slowly became aware of Ranma's presence, his strong arms wrapped around her protectively, lovingly. A smile crept across her face, not to mention a slight blush, as she recalled the previous night's events, and she snuggled a bit closer, feeling as if they were the only two people in the world.

Ranma began to stir, and she turned in his embrace so that she could see his face. His eyes focused on hers, a sleepy smile playing at his mouth. He gently brushed a stray lock of hair back from her face, saying softly, "How are you? Are you okay?"

She saw the hint of worry behind his eyes, and reassured him with a smile, "I'm perfect. Never been better. What about you?"

He relaxed, "Absolutely."

"Good," she sighed contentedly and rested her cheek on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, which was strong and sure, like everything else about him. As chaotic as her life had become ever since he'd arrived, he himself was a constant. When she was in trouble, he always came for her, even if he insisted that he wasn't doing it for her sake. Even though he changed gender more often than he changed clothes, he was always sure of who and what he was on the inside. His strength was not merely physical, but strength of will, strength of the soul. She supposed it was all of this and more that made her fall in love with him.

True, he had his faults. An uncanny talent for putting his foot in his mouth was among the first to come to mind. He could also be prideful and arrogant at times. But then, so could she. Besides, without his flaws, he wouldn't be who he was. It all came down to one thing; she loved him, and he loved her. That outweighed any reasons she could think of not to be with him.

Just as she was about to drift off again, a thought occurred to her and her eyes snapped open. "Ranma, what are we going to tell everyone?" she lifted her head to look at him, "I mean, our fathers will go insane trying to get us married again, Nabiki will sell the info to the highest bidder (I don't even want to think about that), and Kasumi will -- well she certainly won't approve."

"What," he frowned slightly, "of me?"

"No, of course not of you, just of what - er - happened last night."

"Oh, good point. Well then, I guess we're gonna have to keep it a secret."

"But how?"

"Hmm," he pondered for a moment, then said, "I'll grab my stuff and go up on the roof. I sometimes sleep up there anyway, so Pop'll never suspect a thing. Other'n that it's just a matter of not telling anyone and trying to act as normally as possible. You told them you got your memory back, right?"

She nodded. "Okay, I guess that'll work; for now, anyway."

"I'd better go."

She nodded again, reluctantly. He climbed out of bed, and she watched him get dressed. Then, just as he was about to leave, his shirt half-buttoned, he paused, crossed back to her, and kissed her goodbye.

"I'm glad you're back," he muttered softly, smiling down at her, "Bye."

"See you soon," her expression mirrored his own. Then, in one swift movement he was out the window, swinging up to the roof.

* * *

Ranma arrived at breakfast after Akane, taking his regular spot beside her. Ryoga had apparently left for who-knows-where, as usual, since he was nowhere to be found. The couple carefully avoided each other's gaze, certain that they would be unable to hide anything if their eyes met. She disguised her refusal to look at him with an expression of annoyance, not unusual for her, and he merely concentrated on his food.

"So Akane, how are you feeling this morning?" asked Soun. She jumped at the directness of the question, but then realized he was referring to the return of her memory, and relaxed a bit.

"Fine, Father. In fact, I feel wonderful," she couldn't hide the smile on her face, but hoped it wouldn't be conspicuous. Ranma's face reddened slightly, as he caught the implied meaning in her words, but no one took notice.

"That's good. It's been so difficult these past few weeks."

"Yeah, it has," Ranma agreed, noticing too late the frankness that was obvious in his tone.

She hastened to cover it, "I would have thought you'd be glad to be able to spend time with your cute fiancees, without me to hold you back, hentai," Her voice was wry, as usual.

He looked slightly hurt for a split second, then caught on to the glint of amusement in her eye and countered, "Yeah right, except you still pounded me, even though you didn't remember. Stupid, kawaiikune tomb--"

"Aaaurgh, Ranma no baka!" she yelled with a slap across his face, but he noticed that it packed considerably less power than her usual blows. She polished off the last of her breakfast and got up, "Why don't you just marry one of those other bimbos then, and see if I care? Honestly, I almost wish I didn't remember you!" With that, she stormed over to the door, grabbing her bag on the way. "Well, are you coming to school or not? Baka," she muttered.

He shoveled in the rest of his food and followed her, grumbling. She rolled her eyes and they left the house. As soon as they were safely out of sight and earshot, they both burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" she asked, gasping for breath.

"Nah, it wasn't nearly as hard as usual. I just hope no one noticed," he grinned back at her, "That was kinda fun, y'know?"

"Yeah. I don't know how long we can keep this up though," She rested her forearms on his shoulders, linking her fingers behind his neck. He nodded in agreement and moved in closer, backing her against the concrete wall that lined the street, so that she was pressed up against him. "Ranma," she chided, with a sly smile, "Someone might be watching."

Casting a glance over his shoulder, he leaned in and stole a rather long, lingering kiss.

Neither of them noticed a pair of eyes go wide with shock, hurt, and frustration from the shadows of a nearby alley.

* * *

"Saotome, thou deceiver of women, namely the pigtailed goddess and beauteous Akane Tendo, stand and fight! I, Tatewaki Kuno, Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, shall cut thee to ribbons!"

Ranma stood in the courtyard of the high school, gazing at Kuno disinterestedly as he delivered his usual nonsense. He glanced over at Akane, who looked back at him, saying, "You want to do it, or shall I?"

He quirked a smile, "I've had enough of him, tryin' to keep him away from you for the past two weeks. Go ahead, be my guest." Returning his grin, she marched forward.

"It is my lady; O, it is my love! Most beautified Akane, I shall allow you the honor of a da -- Ooof!" She landed a punch right on target, sending Kuno sprawling.

"Man, that felt good!" she laughed, then murmured, "I'm back."

* * *

Instead of assuming his usual perch atop the fence on the way home, for once Ranma stayed on the ground, preferring to walk next to Akane.

"You know, what I can't figure out," she said pensively, "is how I got the idea that Ryoga and I were -- I mean that we had..." she noticed Ranma tense a bit, wondering if he was jealous. "What?" she asked.

"Uhh...nothing," he disappeared around the corner and hopped over the wall surrounding the Tendo residence, heading for the dojo.

"Oh no you don't," she muttered, chasing after him. She found him in the dojo, preparing to exercise. He seemed unwilling to meet her gaze. "What is it Ranma? What are you not telling me? Ranma--"

"You don't understand," he looked at her, obviously frustrated, but not so much with her as with himself. "I can't tell you. I...I promised," his eyes took on a slightly pleading look, "Believe me, you have no idea how much I've wanted to tell you but...you're just gonna have to ask Ryoga, that's all."

"Ryoga?" she looked puzzled, "Okay, fine, I'll go look for him then."

A moment or two after she left, he paused, considering. If she found Ryoga and he told her, she would undoubtedly be furious. She'd probably beat the living crap out of him, and he, Ranma, had been hit by her enough times to know how painful that could be -- especially for Ryoga. After all, the poor guy really loved her. 'Maybe I'd better go along, just in case,' Ranma thought. In a moment he was out the door, telling himself it was only to protect Ryoga from Akane's anger, that he wasn't the least bit worried about her being alone with him. Once she found out he was P-chan, she'd hate his guts...wouldn't she?

Despite his rationalization, he couldn't ignore the slight twinge of jealousy at the memory of Akane and Ryoga kissing only the previous night.

He caught up to her a few blocks away, staying out of sight, not anxious to find himself on the receiving end of her wrath when she located the Lost Boy. He would only step in if necessary.

* * *

"Nihao, Mousse," Shampoo said cheerfully, returning from a delivery. She whisked by him and into the kitchen. Mousse just watched her, his table cleaning all but forgotten. 'She's so beautiful,' he thought, 'and she's been surprisingly cheerful lately, since that day in the kitchen. It's good to see her back to normal after the way she was so depressed for a while. I wonder what made the difference?'

A lighthearted tune floated into the room when she began to hum an old Chinese love song, and a troubling thought occurred to the young Chinaman. 'You don't suppose she's gotten through to Ranma do you? And here I was really starting to believe he had no designs on my lovely Shampoo. But she would never hum like that for me -- only for him. Always for him.' His face fell, and he returned to his cleaning, dejectedly.

She reappeared in the main room, still humming happily, but stopped short when she noticed Mousse's expression. "What wrong Mousse?" she questioned, concerned.

"Nothing," he mumbled, too depressed now to realize that Shampoo rarely, if ever, showed concern for him. The girl watched him sadly for a moment, disappointed at his dismissal. Her demeanor did not, however, go unnoticed by the old woman who observed silently from the back of the room.

'So,' Cologne thought, 'the girl does care for him after all. Indeed, I suspected as much.'

* * *

'Akane,' The name echoed in the mind of the Lost boy as he trudged wearily along a city street. He had no idea where he was, even what city he'd managed to end up in this time, but he hardly cared. All that mattered was that once and for all the girl of his dreams had chosen his rival. He supposed that, in his heart of hearts, he'd always known that she had feelings for Ranma, but in the past few weeks Ryoga and Akane grown so close. She'd even told him that she loved him, that day in the park. Then her memory returned, and the dream that his life had become was shattered. Shattered, along with his heart of glass. He would never see her again.

"Ryoga!" He stopped, so sure he could hear her voice calling him. 'No, I'm only hearing things,' he sighed internally, shoulders slumping a bit as he made to continue.

"Ryoga!" he heard again, and turned, shocked to see Akane herself jogging toward him. He watched her longingly as she approached, finally managing to fix a sad but friendly smile on his face.

"Akane, what are you doing here? Or -- am I still in Nerima?" he asked.

She smiled and chuckled good naturedly, "Yes, you are. Can we talk for a bit? I'm having trouble sorting out a few things from when I was...sick," she took his arm and led him across the street toward the park. Ranma followed unnoticed, fighting an instinctive wave of jealousy at their contact.

"What's wrong exactly?"

"Well," she began, as the noise of the street faded behind them, "The thing is I...I'm having trouble figuring out how I got the impression that you and I were...engaged. All I know is that it had something to do with your bandana, because for some reason it gave me the impression that we had...well, y'know, been in bed together," they both blushed slightly, and Ranma's eyes narrowed, "When I mentioned it to Ranma, he got all nervous and secretive, and said I had to ask you. Ryoga?" She turned to see that he had stopped a few steps back, frozen, a look of barely suppressed panic on his face.

'She-she's asking me about...' he thought desperately, 'I'm going to have to tell her the truth! I can't possibly avoid it without lying. She'll hate me...'

"Ryoga, what is it? Tell me!"

He swallowed. He'd been dreading this for so long, and now the moment of truth had come. "Akane, y-you'd better sit down." She obliged, a look of growing concern in her eyes.

"There's, uh, something you don't know about me," he couldn't bear to meet her gaze for fear of what he would find there soon, "You see, um, awhile ago, while I was chasing Ranma in search of revenge, I, uh, happened to follow him to China -- to Jusenkyo."

"Oh Ryoga, you don't mean -- you're cursed too?" he nodded, "But I don't understand what..."

"Please," he interrupted, "Let me finish. While I was there, I, um, accidentally fell into the spring of drowned...pig."

Her confused expression slowly transformed into one of utter shock, her eyes wide, mouth agape, as she realized what he was saying, "You mean you...you're...you're...P-chan?" she squeaked breathlessly. Again he nodded slowly, and again her expression changed as shock gave way to fury, "You're P-chan?!" she shouted, jumping up to face him directly, "How could you?! I-I can't believe this! I -- you've been -- all this time?!" she covered her mortified face with a hand, still stammering, "All those-those things I said when I thought I -- and no wonder -- how could I have been so stupid?! That bandana and...and all those times he just sort of showed up...not to mention the way Ranma always treated...Ranma!!! Where is he?!" she whirled around to look for him, and the pigtailed martial artist ducked out of sight, "I'll kill that baka for not telling me!"

Ryoga caught her arm and she turned to glare at him. "Please Akane..."

"Let go of me! I can't believe you would do something like this! I -- aaaurgh!!!" she prepared to slap him, but felt her arm restrained by a hand gripping her wrist from behind. Whirling to find Ranma there, she slapped him across the face instead with her free hand, but he caught that wrist as well, on the follow through.

"Aaaurgh! You jerk! How could you not tell me! How could--"

"Akane," Ranma spoke firmly, "I promised. I was the one responsible for his curse in the first place. It was the least I could do." She glared at him but said nothing. He released her hands.

"Akane--" came Ryoga's voice from behind her.

"Don't," she silenced him with a look as icy as her voice, betrayal etched in her face. "I don't even want to look at you right now." And with that, she left.

Ranma glanced at Ryoga, who looked more lost now than he had ever seen him. It tore at his heart to see his friend in such utter despair, despite their rivalry. "Look man, just give her some time, okay. I'll see if I can talk to her." Ryoga merely dropped his chin to his chest, staring at the ground. With a last look of sympathy, Ranma turned and followed Akane.

A/N: Well, how was it? Good? Bad? An affront to the whole of literature itself? I'll do my best to update soon, and let me assure you, I still have no intention of leaving this story unfinished. I hate it when people do that ;)

Please review!