A/N: Who ever said I was rushing it a bit was totally right! I just wanted to get this part over with. Tell me what you think of it! I hope this makes up for the wait! Thanks for reading!

"If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"

Will Rogers (1879-1935)

What did he just do? Akane was lost in her own thoughts, as Ranma started talking. She tried to listen and only heard the phrase 'getting married'. He must have told her dad about her and Suru. Then why had he kissed her? She grasped a book from behind her, and raised it above her head in striking position of Ranma. He took it from her hand gently and smiled.

"Thanks! See how well we get along? Too bad we can't have the wedding. I mean, Pop's not here to enjoy it so it wouldn' be right. Aw well, as long as I'm in town, which'll be another two days, me an' Akane here'll have to spend our time pretending to be married. Unless ya don' want that. Ya got any idea where Pop could be?" Ranma looked suspiciously at the two awe struck parents.

They started to mutter to each other,finally deciding on something.

Akane got it now, it was all part of Ranma's plan! If they pretended to be married, maybe their parents would take Genma out of hiding, and then Ranma would reveal the true fiancé of Akane's, Suru.

So Ranma could leave again, this time forever.

Suru . . .he was taking this quite well. Although, he did have a chair stuffed in his face. How did it get there? Akane decided that he must have fallen, or something. Deep down, she knew something was different about the way he acted now that Ranma was there; real overprotective, that was how. He acted a lot like someone Akane could somewhat remember. Who was it? Akane searched her brain, but couldn't come up with a name. Oh well, maybe he had known her before, it wouldn't change anything now. That still didn't excuse Ranma for what he had done; using her as a pawn in his game of catching his mom and her dad in the act.

Akane decided that she had judged Ranma differently before. He had become a little more suave around her. A few years ago he never would have kissed her. Yet today, he did it with ease and skill. She wondered how many girls he had kissed since he left.

Akane felt her cheeks burning red. Why did she feel like this, it would never be possible for their kiss a few moments ago to be anything next to the kind of 'experienced' girls Ranma could have kissed. He had probably thought she was someone else and kissed her.

Although, she did sense longing in that kiss, for a lost love, perhaps? No, couldn't be.

Akane shook off these thoughts, she had to get him out of her head. She was going to marry Suru in less than a month and here she was thinking about her high school crush. That was all he was to her, a crush. A crush that left, she had to remember that. She wondered if Ranma wanted to marry her, if he wanted to . . .

"Ranma, you jerk!" Akane mistook a paperweight for a desk and smashed Ranma into the floor.

Nodoka and Soun turned to Akane and Ranma, who stood next to each other smiling sweetly, kicking away the broken pieces of wood.

"Real couples have real fights, right?" Ranma glanced at Akane and winked.

Akane grew more and more angry. He was going to tell them the truth in a long time, puttingher through total embarrassment throughout this time. It wasn't like they were actually engaged again! She wondered why Suru wasn't getting the least bit jealous; even he wouldn't let Ranma kiss Akane! Or would he? Was he that easy going? Could he be seeing other people? No, it was Suru! That guy wouldn't cheat at solitaire, let alone on his fiancée.

"Right, I just can't wait until I marry my fiancé! Whoever that might be. . ." Akane muttered the last sentence, so only Suru and Ranma could hear it. Suru smiled. Akane relaxed a bit. Poor Suru probably didn't know what the hell was going on, but he was acting quite cool; she hoped he would understood, she would fill him in later for sure.

"My son, we have something to confess. Your father's kidnapping did not start out as a reality. It was a ploy, a simple ploy to bring our two children back to each other!" Soun barely said this before bursting into tears and running into the kitchen, leaving a nervous Nodoka to admit to everything.

She stepped up to Ranma, smiled gently, then moved on to Akane and taking her hand. Akane smiled nicely, but cautiously. Nodoka may not look dangerous, but she was. Very, very dangerous.

She took Ranma's hand in her free hand and thrust their hands together. "We did this to see this: you two together again. Not to get you married, but to stop the ache you put your hearts through."

Ranma looked quizzically as Akane stood shocked. She said it so sincerely that it had to be true. Ranma looked like he believed otherwise, how could he? She was a defeated woman who just wanted her son to stop hurting his heart; could Ranma's heart be hurting that much? Nodoka was very sincere, and Akane respected her quite a bit for that.

"Seriously?" Ranma asked coldly, forcing a deep sigh to escape from Nodoka.

"No, it was a plot to get you two to marry. It worked though! If only your father were here to participate in your wedding. . ."

Akane face faulted while Ranma simply grinned triumphantly. How could he see past that innocent face? She respected her too much and let that get in the way of the fact that Genma and her father were the possible creators of this scheme.

"What happened to him?" Ranma was now strictly business and did not let the slightest hint of emotion show.

This Ranma scared Akane. He was no fun and very sincere. It was this face that she imagined he had on when he had killed Saffron. Every night, when she thought of the expression on his face when he took a life for her, even though he was reborn, it was still scary to think Ranma would kill for her. She wanted to know what he was feeling, but she couldn't. He had hidden his feelings for her before, but sometimes he couldn't hide the fact that he had loved her. She thought back to when he had told her he loved her. Was that a dream? She had to be reasonable, he would never say that.

"Well, as he walked away to go to a hotel for a few days, he tripped in a puddle and turned into Mr. Panda. Then, as far as we know, a little boy came and took him away. You must save him!" Nodoka pleaded.

Ranma smiled somewhat and cocked his head to one side. "Sounds familiar."

"He said his brother taught him how to get a pet panda, you'll help him, won't you, mydarling son?"

Ranma nodded and looked down noticing Akane's hand, still tightly grasping his. He squeezed her hand softly and motioned to the door. As if she had awakened from a dream, she looked to Suru and he smiled and laughed.

"Want me to come?"

Akane thought for a second and her face slightly darkened. "You can't, you've got that big committee meeting with the mayor in Kyoto, and I would never forgive myself if you missed that!"

Akane suddenly realized that it would be just Ranma and her, on a trip together.

"Well how about this, I'll go to the meeting and in a week you can phone me and I'll meet you guys?" Suru negotiated, thinking up times in his head.

Akane had to smile. He thought so highly of her and trusted her with Ranma so much. Well, he didn't have any reason not to . . . yet.

". . . okay." Akane meekly said, as Ranma swirled her into him.

"Ready?" He smiled, inches from her face.

This was going to be a very long road trip!

"Yes, I just need to pick up a few things." Akane pushed away and, as she walked to the door, realized that their hands were still holding onto each other.

Ranma probably didn't even notice this. She thought about the way he acted now and thought to herself about what goal he was setting his mind to. Before Suru had come, he was acting like his commitment afraid self, jumping on tables to get away from her. Now, he was trying to make her want him, very interesting. She started to pull her hand away, but stopped; she just as easily couldn't have noticed that they were still holding hands.

When they got out of her apartment, Akane had loaded her stuff into the back of her car and Ranma had put his small suitcase in too. They had decided that Ranma would drive because Akane was way too exhausted. It was a little crazy at first, but it was smooth driving after awhile. Akanestared over at Ranma, who was making sure not to hit anything.

"Akane?"

"Yes, Ranma."

"Why do you love Suru?" He said this like it was nothing but a simple question.

Was he crazy? She couldn't answer that; she wasn't in love with Suru. That was one thing she knew for sure, but she did need him the way married people needed each other.

"Love is such a harsh word . . ."

Akane had put careful thought into that sentence, and imagined Ranma taking a long time to answer.

"Do ya prefer havin' a weakness for 'im?"

"No, I would prefer liking him, as in more than a friend. I will fall in love with him, though, just you wait." Akane stared at Ranma and stuck out her tongue for a split second.

That was so childish! She shouldn't have done that, now she had to do something very mature to show Ranma that he wasn't dealing with some high school girl.

He nodded sternly. "That's good."

"What's good?"

"I've still got time."

Akane looked over at Ranma with a skeptical look. "For what?"

Ranma smiled at her and stared her right in the eyes. She looked back for a second, then looked away, and decided that the most mature thing to do right now was to not pile drive Ranma into one the car seats.

"Why are we stopping?" Akane yawned. As she said this, sherealized it had gotten a lot darker since she had fallen asleep.

"Well, it's night an' I'm tired. As the driver, I think it's my responsibility to be drivin' in my best state. Plus, I'm hungry."

Akane sighed and sat back.

They had pulled into the parking lot of a fancy looking inn. Akane noticeda gigantic heart,that in big, red, neon letters read 'Lost Love Inn'.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

A/N: Nice name huh? What do you think of it? Like the chapter? I might forget to write the next chapter if you don't review. Next chapter hopefully up soon!