KTKG: Hey everyone… I'm here, with a new chapter… I know it's been like, what?… MONTHS! Omg that's not good… not good at all… Anyways, good news everyone! I have finished my planning for this story so sit tight and since it's summer time the chapters will be coming much much quicker!

Oh yeah… thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm almost to 200 reviews! THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Enjoy!

Chapter 14!

Akane tried to hold back a sneeze as she walked into the house. "You want to come in and warm up for a while Lavender-chan?" Lavender shook her head as Akane began to remove her coat and shoes. "Thank you but I promised my mom that I would help out with dinner tonight." Lavender looked at the clock on the wall. "Wow, looks like dinner is going to be a little late tonight. I'd better run Akane. Call me later on tonight okay?" Akane nodded as Lavender left quickly into the lit street.

Once Lavender was out of sight, Akane slowly slid her feet into her favorite pair of house shoes, sighing contently as her sore feet made contact with the fuzzy fabric. "Tadaima!" She called out, moving into the hallway.

Slowly but surely she made her way into the family room only to find Ranma lounging lazily, watching TV. Peeling his eyes away momentarily, he turned to look at her. "Hey." Glancing around the room she plopped down beside him and stretched her legs out underneath the table. Meanwhile, he shifted so that he had a better look at her.

She looked extremely tired, almost as if she could just fall asleep at any moment. She turned her head to look at him and noticed that he was staring at her. "What?" He chuckled and put one of his arms on the table in front of him, resting his head in his hand. "You look a little tired there Akane-chan." She sighed and fell backwards onto the floor. "You have no idea! My feet are absolutely killing me! Dancing for six hours straight in high heels can really do a number on you!" He chuckled as he turned his attention back to the television.

For a while she just laid there on the floor with her eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the television program Ranma was watching. From the sounds of it, he seemed to be watching some kind of kung-fu movie or a martial arts anime. She smiled. That boy really did live and breathe the art.

Sitting up she surveyed the room once more. " Hey Ranma, where is everyone?" He looked at her before mimicking her earlier movements, stretching before he had hit the ground like she had minutes ago. "Well, our dads are out 'training', Kasumi and my mom decided to go to a movie, and who really knows where Nabiki is." She looked at him as he spoke and noticed that something had fell out of his pocket.

"Hm?" She picked up the small box and examined it in her hands. "What's this?" He cracked an eye open to see what she was talking about, and automatically began to blush. Quickly he sat up and took the box back. "I-it's nothing." She eyed him suspiciously. "What is it Ranma?" Her voice was firm and a bit demanding. He tried to avoid her gaze, hoping she would look away in another direction or something, but the burning sensation in the back of his head told him she was doing no such thing.

Sighing he turned back around and placed the object in question back on the table. Sliding it in her direction, he watched as her gaze traveled from him the small velvet box.

"Open it up."

Looking back at him for a second, she took the box back into her hands and lifted the lid slowly. Her breath caught in her throat as she stole a glance at what was inside.

There, lying on a cushion was a silver ring with a matching silver chain strung through it. Slowly she pulled it out, letting the chain dangle from her hand. "Wow." There wasn't really much else to say. After staring at it for a couple of minutes, she turned her questioning eyes on him and in response he smiled sheepishly. "Is this yours? It's so beautiful…" Again he blushed, a deeper red this time.

"Actually… um… it's yours."

She stared at him, confusion all over her face. Shocked, she looked at the ring dangling in her hand. "Mine?" Ranma sat up next to her, his face as red as a rose. He was silently jumping for joy because she wasn't looking at him, knowing that if she were, he would probably say something stupid and end up putting his foot in his mouth.

"What's it for?" She asked suddenly, her birthday wasn't for another month or two. She kept her gaze locked on the ring, trying to figure out what the occasion was. It didn't look like an engagement ring or anything; it actually looked like a regular old ring. From the way Ranma was acting though, the ring must be something pretty important.

"It's a promise ring."

Her head snapped in his direction. Had she heard him right? A promise ring? She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ranma… was giving her… a promise ring? He nodded and she realized that she had voiced her sudden shock out loud, and she nearly fell over. He was serious!

All of her silence was starting to bother him a bit. "Akane? …. Say something." She blinked, looked at the ring some more, and then looked at him. "Am I dreaming? Is this for real?" He chuckled. So that's what had her looking like a deer caught in headlights eh?

"Yeah, this is real… that is if you want it. You do want it… don't you?" They just sat there, staring at each other, as Ranma's voice finished echoing off the walls. Ranma's face held a look of confusion and anticipation while Akane's… well… Akane's was a bit unreadable at the moment. Ranma was getting nervous since Akane was doing that silent thing again. "Akane…?"

Suddenly Ranma found himself on the floor once again, Akane on top of him, showering him with kisses and giving him a hug that would put even Shampoo to shame.

Well… I guess he got his answer eh?

She couldn't believe what she was about to do. Honestly, this wasn't like her but then again like they say, desperate times call for desperate measures, and this was about as desperate as she was going to get.

Sucking in a huge breath, she walked into the small and subtle building. Looking around she pondered how such a homely building could house Japan's biggest lunatics. Oh well, she shrugged; such mysteries are better left unsolved.

"Aiyah! What Spatula girl doing here?"

Ukyo spun around to see Shampoo standing there, a disapproving look on her face. Juuuuuust great. "Believe it or not I came here to talk to you."

Shampoo just crossed her arms and closed her eyes, raising her head in a defiant manner. "Sorry, Shampoo very busy right now, come back later." Ukyo just gave her a dry stare. This girl had jokes. "Shampoo, if you haven't noticed, I'm the only person in here beside that old lady in the corner and from the looks of it she looks like she won't be bothering you anytime soon."

Shampoo frowned and mentally snapped her fingers. Dammit "Okay… what do Spatula girl want?" Ukyo sat herself down at an open table nearby, cracking her knuckles as before lacing her fingers together and placing them on the table in front of her.

Clearing her throat, Ukyo started into her proposal she had managed to concoct on her journey to the Cat Café. "Seeing as our truce was terminated when you were kicked out of the pageant, I have come to form a new one with you." Shampoo only eyed Ukyo in response.

"Why should Shampoo trust Spatula girl?" Ukyo blinked a couple of times at this. Oh ho, it seemed as though cat girl hasn't heard the latest news has she? Surely she would have thought that that mummified thing she called 'grandma' would have known by now. Well, looks like she would have to correct this small mistake now wouldn't she?

"Well, it seems as though Ranma has made his choice and it isn't either of us…" Shampoo's eyes widened to the size of baseballs… maybe even bigger.

"VIOLENT GIRL?!?!?!"

Ukyo only nodded, keeping a straight face, waiting for Shampoo to calm down. Once the purple-haired Chinese girl was sitting back down in her seat, Ukyo decided to carry on with the proposal. "I have a way to change his mind but in order for that to happen, I need your help." Shampoo continued to eye Ukyo but seemed as though she was interested in what she had to say.

"Once we get Akane out of the way, it's fair game." Shampoo was silent for a moment. "Okay, Shampoo agree to help Spatula girl."

Ukyo smiled, obviously pleased with the way things turned out. Maybe she should quit the restaurant business and become a business woman… yeah… eat your heart out Nabiki.

"Okay…" she started, leaning in on the table as did Shampoo so she could hear better.

"This is what we're gonna do…"

NEXT DAY

Akane wiped the sweat from her brow as she stood up. It was a rather hot and muggy day and the way things looked it wasn't going to get any better. "You look a little hot there Akane-chan." Akane looked to her right only to find Lavender standing there drenched in sweat herself. "Same to you."

The two laughed and went back to their work. Rehearsals were done and over with and the only thing left to do was advertise the pageant. The advertisers thought it would be perfect to have all of the contestants help out with the summer festival, you know, for good publicity.

Akane frowned slightly as she opened up yet another box full of Chinese lanterns. She thought that this was a rather stupid way of advertising the pageant, what ever happened to commercials? Then again, it didn't really bother her much. She enjoyed volunteering, especially when it came to summer festivals. For some reason they always made her think of her mother.

"Hey Akane, what's that around your neck?"

Akane stopped what she was doing and looked down only to see her newly acquired piece of jewelry shining in the bright sun. Lavender picked it up and inspected it slightly. "Wow, it's beautiful. Where did you get it from?" Akane blushed. "Um… Ranma gave it to me." Lavender was silent before a smile broke out across her face. Akane sighed mentally; she knew what was coming next.

Unfortunately for our dear Lavender, a certain piano player interrupted her teasing session.

"Akane-chan!"

Both girls turned to see Jun running up, and both girls had to resist the urge to rolls their eyes. Akane, not one to be rude, smiled and turned around fully to greet him. "Hey Jun, what's up?"

"I was wondering if you could help me hang some of the lanterns along the path to the Hirugashi shrine." Akane glanced quickly at Lavender who only shrugged, not really knowing what to do about the situation. Looking back at Jun, Akane decided that maybe it was okay. "Well, uh… sure, I'll be there in a minute." "Okay." With that, Jun took off in the opposite direction.

Akane heard Lavender's giggles as soon as Jun was out of sight. "Whoo boy, poor poor Akane…" Akane just shook her head in response. "I know Lavender-chan, I know." Lavender shook her head again as the two took off in separate directions.

It took Akane about a minute to get to the path Jun was talking about. Much to her dismay, she discovered that the entire path had already been strung with lanterns. "What the…"

She walked along the path, eyeing every single lantern the further she went. What was the deal? All the trees had lanterns hanging from them, there was no work to be done, so then why did… "Akane…" Akane nearly leaped out of her skin as the sudden calling of her name reached her ears.

Spinning around, Akane found herself face to face with Jun. He smiled and she sighed a breath of somewhat relief. "Oh gosh… Jun! Don't do that, you scared the crap out of me!" She placed a hand over her wildly beating heart to signal just how much he had scared her. "Sorry… didn't mean to do that." She managed to calm down a bit, eyeing him as he turned slightly around.

"Jun, I thought you needed my help but all the trees already have lanterns in them." He didn't respond and she cautiously took a step forward, trying to get his attention. She was starting to get annoyed at the fact that he had called her all the way out here for nothing. "Jun…" her anger was continuing to rise. Oh, so now he didn't want to give her a response?

She was about to tap him on his shoulder when he suddenly whirled around, his eyes locking with hers. The look in his eyes sent a sudden chill down her spine and unconsciously she took a step back, backing up into a tree. "Jun… what are you…" Her words were cut short however when Jun managed to crush his lips against hers. She couldn't do anything but close her eyes and push him away from her.

A slight clicking noise reached her ears, but she ignored it, focusing all her energy on pushing Jun off of her. Once she managed her goal, she spun around, wiping her mouth off violently. "What the HELL is wrong with you?!" Jun didn't say anything; he only stood there smirking.

After a couple of seconds, Akane decided to end their staring contest by doing what she would always do, she pulled her fist back a ways and then punched him, right in his eye. Jun let out a yell, but Akane ignored it, stomping off in the direction she had come, tears in her eyes and streaming down her face.

As soon as she was out of sight, Jun turned towards some bushes a little ways down the path, and gave the thumbs up. Slowly, Ukyo and Shampoo emerged, leaves and everything stuck in their hair, also giving the thumbs up.

"Good job girls… good job."

Okay people… this is the end of chapter 14… dun dun DUN!!!!! Hahaha…. Oh no! Poor Akane… I feel so bad for doing that… man… I'm kinda mean…. Oh well… REVIEW PEOPLE!!!