Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Ranma 1/2 or Love Hina.

Pre-Read by: Zenapax

The Girls' Newest Rival: Love Affair?

Shinobu opens her eyes from her nice, relaxing sleep. She smiles, seeing Ranma next to her. She feels overjoyed that they shared a bed together. It took a long time for them to do this since he wouldn't agree at first, then he tried sleep on the other side of the room. She watches him for a few minutes before he stretches his arms and yawns. He blinks a few times before seeing her.

"Good morning Ranma."

"Good morning Shinobu." The two of them look into each other's eyes, getting lost in their own little world together. But it only last a moment when they hear a blood curling scream.

"RANMA!!!" They nervously turn towards the direction the scream, seeing Akane in the doorway. "WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING NOW?!"

"Akane! What are you doing here?"

"WHAT AM I DOING HERE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE RANMA?!" Angry, he stands up.

"Listen Akane, nothing..."

"Oh my gosh!" She turns away from him.

"Akane. What's wrong?"

"You two did something perverted, didn't you? Just look at yourself Ranma."

"HUH?" He looks at himself and notices what she's talking about. "No! It's just a wrinkle. A wrinkle! That's why it's looks all puffed up."

"I don't believe you! First, I catch you and Shinobu in bed together, then you deny the fact you did anything with her?"

"Akane listen. We..." Not wanting to hear anymore of this, she punches Ranma hard, causing him to fly into the wall.

"Shut up! I don't want to hear your lies. I'm going out to eat. AND DON'T FOLLOW ME!" She sides the door hard and leaves the house, going as far from it as possible. Shinobu, who witnessed everything, goes to Ranma's aid.

"Are you alright?" She pulls him off the wall.

"No." He grabs his arm letting out a groan. Shinobu checks him and notices a cut. She quickly rushes into her dresser and comes back with an first aid kit. "Where did you get that?"

"It's mine. Keitaro usually gets beat up by the other residents and I sometimes nurse him back." She puts some antibiotics on the cut and covers it up with a band aid. As she checks for other cuts and bruises, Ranma feels strangely happy. Usually when someone does this, they comment negatively about him. With her just making sure that he's all right, puts a smile across his face. "Feeling better?"

"Yes. Thank you." This puts a smile on Shinobu's face.

"I'm glad. We woke up late, so I'm going to get started on breakfast." She puts back her emergency kit and walks out of the room.

A half an hour later:

Shinobu is sipping her miso soup as Ranma comes in the living room to join her. Picking up his bowl of soup, she notices him sweating all over.

"Did you work out?"

"You could say that," he replies, not wanting to tell her he was looking for Akane to see if she actually left. He feels furious with her, not giving him the chance to explain. He's just thankful that no one else found them in bed. Everyone would have reacted just like her or even worse.

"Say Ranma. Do think after breakfast we can spar together? We're finished with our homework and I double checked it last night." He doesn't feel like sparing. With the anger from this morning still lingering inside of him, he might hurt Shinobu. Not only that, but he's beginning to think of her differently and wants to do something with her beside study and spar. Suddenly, he gets an idea.

"I don't feel like wasting a beautiful day like today on being struck in the house with you. Why don't we...hmm," He feels uneasy trying to tell her what he want to tell her. "Why don't we...go out? You know. Into town?" Shinobu's eyes sparkle in excitement.

"You mean it?" Ranma nods, watching her jump for joy. "WOW! What are we going to do?"

"Oh...I'm not sure." He feels awkward telling her this, seeing a look of surprise and disappointment. He wonders if she thinks he's dumb for making the this and not having a plan for anything to do. He sees her putting her bowl down on the table, smiling at him.

"It's all right if you don't have an idea all set up right now. Just being with you anywhere, doing anything makes me happy." Ranma can't help but blush. "Say! Why don't we go on a picnic?"

"Sure. I love your cooking." He says, causing her to giggle and blush.

"Is there anything special that you want me to cook?"

"Nothing really. Anything you cook is special." Ranma notices her blushing even harder.

"All right then." She grabs her bowl and stands up. "I'll start cooking the food right away." After washing the dishes, she gets to cooking. She thought of cooking some hot food, but doesn't want it to get cold. She decides to make some cold food with some rice balls and is almost done when Ranma enters the kitchen.

"Hey Shinobu. I just remembered I need to get something." She looks very disappointed at him.

"So...you need to cancel...our picnic?" Ranma sweatdrops, waving his arms.

"No! No! It's actually for the picnic."

"Oh? What is it?"

"That's a surprise. Anyway, you know the park near the school, right?" She nods. "Well, I'll meet you at the water fountain in half an hour. Is that all right?"

"Sure. " They smile at each other before he takes off.

Once she finishes making the food, she puts them all in the picnic basket. She goes back into her room and tries on some clothes. She knows that Ranma never said its was a date, but she's going to treat it like one. After trying numerous outfits, she decides to wear a red blouse with matching skirt that goes down to her knees and ties a bow in her short hair. Satisfied, she goes back to the kitchen and grabs the picnic basket before heading to the park.

^_^

Akane sits alone on a park bench, watching the people around her. Whether they are flying a kite, playing with their dogs or taking a nice walk, she wants to feel happy like them instead of her depressing, miserable self. She feels betrayed after seeing Ranma in Shinobu's bed. She knows the two of them hang out a lot since she arrived and have gotten close, but never thought they'd be this close.

"Stupid Ranma!" She cries to herself.

"What did Ranma-honey do now?" Startled, she jumps from the bench and turns around to see Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi behind the bench.

"That's not of your business."

"Oh. It look like Akane fighting with Ranma again," Shampoo says.

"Shut up! Anyway, what are you three doing?"

"We are going to fight for Ranma darling's love," Kodachi says with her signature laugh. Akane drops her head in disbelief.

"Not this again!" Listen..."

"What the?" Ukyo interrupts, giving a bewildered look and pointing at someone. "Is that...Shinobu?" Everyone turns to who she's pointing at and are stunned to realize that it is Shinobu. They don't know why she's all dressed up or holding a picnic basket, but looks very happy.

"Shinobu!" Akane yells. She sees her and runs to the group.

"Akane! I'm glad to find you. I was really worried about you." She's a little surprised to hear this.

"Thanks. Anyway, why are you dressed like that?"

"Well...you see..." Shinobu hesitates, remembering what she this morning. "Please don't hurt Ranma for what I'm about to tell you, but we are going to have a picnic together." All the girls are shocked, especially Akane. She thought that Ranma was just lusting for her, but this seems more serious then that.

"You...have a...date...with...Ranma?"

"You could say that," she says with a cheerily smile. Akane could feel the aura of the other girls. She turns to them, seeing bitterness in their faces.

"Oh no you don't, missy!" scolds Kodachi. "If anyone is going to have a picnic with Ranma darling, it's going to be me!" She takes a step forward towards Shinobu, but gets bumped by Ukyo.

"It'll be over my dead body if you think you're going to have a picnic with Ranma-honey."

"Shampoo is only one to have picnic with Ranma!"

"Then why don't we fight for it?" Ukyo ask. The other two nod. "Akane? You want in on this?"

"Better not," Shampoo says. "Her cooking more of punishment."

"You're right." Akane falls to the ground in embarrassment, then gets up, very angry about those comments. "Then it'll be the four of us."

"Four? I'm thought I'm not in this!" Akane yells

"We know that! I was talking about her." Ukyo points to Shinobu.

"Me?!"

"Why yes. You really think we're going to let you go on a date with Ranma? Well, you got another thing coming. You're going to have to fight us if you want that!"

"What?! But I don't know how to fight!" Shinobu nervously sweatdrops as all three girls are rendered speechless by her statement.

"You don't know how to fight?" They say together.

"Well, I know a little kendo, but not enough to defend my...self..." Looking at the girls, she feels something dark and evil while they hold their weapons. "HUH...why are you..." Suddenly, Ukyo throw a dozen mini spatulas at her. Luckily, Akane quickly sees this and knocks down Shinobu before she gets hit by any. They get up, brushing the dirt off their clothes.

"What was that for?" Akane angrily ask.

"Since she is the weakest fighter, might as well take her out." Ukyo takes a step forward, but Akane blocks her path towards Shinobu. Unfortunately, her efforts are meaningless as Kodachi takes her ribbon, whips it around Akane's wrist and flings her out of the way. Feeling a little pain from the fall, she slowly gets up, watching helplessly as the girls attack Shinobu.

"Dammit! Stay still!" Ukyo yells, throwing another dozen mini spatulas at Shinobu, who dodges them all. Kodachi tries to grab her with her ribbon, but moves out of the way. Shampoo throws her weapon at the young girl, but jumps back to avoid it. With all of them determine to kill her, Shinobu runs in the opposite direction, screaming at the tops of her lungs.

"SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! PLEASE HELP ME!" Watching the others chase after her, Akane notices that Shinobu dropped the picnic basket. She picks it up and looks at the contains of the basket. She feels angry that she and Ranma are going on some those of date together, not caring if she does get hurt. But an overwhelming feeling of guilt consumes her. Shinobu has treated her with respect. She's kind, helpful and had actually been thought of as a sister. Tightly holding the handle of the picnic basket, she goes after them.

It takes her a few minutes before she finally catch up to all of them. Closing the gap, she watch Shinobu trip on a rock, diving face first onto the dirt ground.

"Ha! We got you!" Shampoo cries.

"Time to die!" Kodachi yells. Akane watches helplessly as girls simultaneously jump into the air and throw their weapons at the young girl.

Note: For those of you who have been waiting all those months for the next chapter, I'm sorry for the delay & thank you for sticking by this story. You see, I wanted to challenge myself in writing multiple stories at the same time. Unfortunately, I'm more interested in the other ones I'm writing that I'm neglecting this one. The ideas from this point on are fading, but it's starting to come back to me. I can't promise much on this story other then I will finish it. I'm not the type of author who would just stop in the middle. I haven't done it with any of my other stories & I'm not going to start that now. If I takes me another year or two, then that's how it'll be. But I am going to finish this story.

GOOD OR BAD, PLEASE REVIEW =)