Tears were trickling for Soun's eyes as he and Genma slowly crept up the stairs. They'd given the kids a week to be alone doing whatever fake married couples did. Hoping against Kasumi's wishes that soon they would be boasting about being soon-to-be grandfathers and the like.
"Are you ready, Saotoma?" The long haired man asked as they stood in front of Akane's door. "This is the true test to see if we have finally succeeded."
"Indeed, Tendo." Genma nodded, "if the boy is any type of a man, he'll have made a move on Akane by now."
Taking in a deep breath, Tendo grasped the doorknob and slowly twisted it open. At first, he only opened it a hair, knowing what a light sleeper both in the room could be when they needed to be. After no lamps, insults or angry children slammed the door open or shut, Soun pushed it opened a bit further.
Poking their heads through the crack, Soun and Genma squinted their eyes, attempting to focus on the bed in the early morning light.
Smiles begun to creep on their faces as they could see to sleeping forms on the bed.
Stepping into the room boldly, their dreams shattered. Both Ranma and Akane were on the bed all right, but one was at the foot of the bed curled up in a small ball to keep warm and the other one was leaning against the wall at the head of the bed.
"NO!" Soun wailed, jerking the sleeping couple out of their rest.
"Huh--wha--?" Ranma's words fumbled out of his mouth, eyes wide and trying to find out what he needed to attack. His blue eyes slowly began to adjust and the first instinct was to check Akane. The girl was just as baffled, sitting up with a look of shock and then annoyance.
"Dad!" Akane ground out, "what are you doing in here?"
Ranma's attention went entirely to the two weeping forms in the middle of the room. Then his annoyance snapped to attention. "Pops…." there was no friendliness in his word.
It was a warning.
It was a red flag.
It was a promise of pain.
It was the only thing the fathers needed to hear before making a hasty exit.
"What's wrong with them?" Ukyo asked, sipping on the tea Kasumi had given her a moment before.
Two running, teary faced men had just flown past them with the excuse of going to a local friend's house to play Go.
Nabiki, with biscuit in mouth and calculator in hand, shrugged. "Maybe they just saw what you paid me to see."
The chef's face soured. "Thank you so much for reminding me."
"They are married now, Ukyo." Kasumi pointed out gently, "it is bound to happen."
Ranma and Akane soon made their appearance. The girl was stretching and complaining about a stiff back, while her 'husband' muttered about his neck.
"Good morning you two!" Kasumi greeted cheerfully. "Did you sleep well?"
"Did you sleep?" Nabiki asked.
Akane glared at her for all the younger girl was worth. "We feel asleep playing a game of 'go fish'."
"Yeah, I was winning too until she started snoring." Ranma replied smoothly, sitting down at the table for breakfast. Oh but he missed Kasumi's cooking fresh. The oldest Tendo daughter had enough foresight last week to prepare things that could be heated up in the microwave.
"I do not snore."
"How would you know? You're asleep at the time."
Akane's eye flickered with her anger but she couldn't rebuttal that one.
Ukyo raised an eyebrow at the married couple, they weren't acting like newlyweds did. Weren't they suppose to be falling over each other? Purring words of love? Heck, the girl wasn't picky, she'd even go for a purring insult!
But there was nothing like that between the two. They were who they always had been, insulting and angry.
Maybe there is still hope, the chef thought with a smile in her cup.
"I have to go!" Nabiki announced in her normal bored tone as she dropped her calculator in her satchel.
"Go?" Ranma's eyebrows came together. "This early?"
"Have all sorts of things to attend to," she quickly pinched his cheek. "My dear brother-in-law."
Ranma grumbled and massaged his abused cheek.
"You're mad." Ranma stated two days later as he and Akane lay in bed. It wasn't just the fact she'd only snapped at him all day, walked in on her slightly crying to herself, but the whole fact that she was now tightened into a little ball to avoid touching him at all costs.
"I'm not mad." As predicted, Akane lashed the words out.
The boy sighed, this scene was getting old. "Come on 'kane, you can at least tell me what happened in class that made you so mad."
She was deathly silent. Not a good thing for Akane to do seeing that in Ranma's experience with this girl deathly silent meant some one was soon to wish for death not too silently.
At length, she sighed, "don't worry about it."
Aw, there was another thing she wasn't doing. She wasn't saying his name. Ranma hadn't been sure about it but every time he was addressing her, she'd call him a name of the good or bad variety (mostly the bad).
"Come on, tell me."
"You wouldn't understand." At least she was admitting there was a problem. That was a start, wasn't it?
"You are talking to the magnet for water, whackos, jerks and bad luck. And fiancées, who could ever forget that herd. What wouldn't I understand?" Ranma snorted in insult and added, "besides being normal."
Again, the silence ate up most of the time. Shifting impatiently, the boy let out a slightly frustrated noise, "fine, when you feel like you want to tell me just wake me up." With that he rolled over and tried to block out her dreary presence.
Akane felt the tears start to sting her eyes. This wasn't as easy as Ranma tried to make it sound. She couldn't tell him about it, most likely it would hurt his feelings. She bristled under the thought, should she really care if it hurt him or not?
…Yes. She tightened again, she did care whether she hurt him or not. And hearing how greatly disturbed Akane was about being called during roll, 'Saotoma Akane' was just too much. They had been told, by Nabiki of course, that the marriage had officially taken place and Akane's name was no longer 'Tendo' but 'Soatoma'.
They weren't really married, so it was going to be a pain to explain to the school that after changing her last name, they'd have to change it again when ever Ukyo decided to leave them alone.
Of course, Akane thought somewhat bitterly, that chef might never leave!
Would that be bad? To be 'stuck' with Ranma and have all the other girls leaving her alone? Well, who cared if they left her alone as long as they left him alone. If they thought for one moment after all these weeks she was just going to forfeit her Ranma to them, they had another think coming!
She screwed her eyes tightly together to try to get some sleep.
They pooped open a second later when Akane realized she referred to him as 'her' Ranma. It was a bad habit! It felt nice, like a warm bath after a snowstorm type of nice but weird.
As long as she never said it out loud. For the first time in two days, she smiled.
Another day past, and another night they were in bed.
Ranma could only take so much and three days of complete silence (except for acid replies) was his limit. He had only a few choices, try to get her to talk by getting her mad or glare at the ceiling or go to the dojo at close to twelve in the morning to practice, burn off energy, and hopefully tire himself out beyond all hope.
Without a word, he quickly shifted over Akane making sure to barely touch her and made his way to the door. As he opened it, Akane's voice made him turn around with a blank expression.
"Where are you going?" Her voice was timid and Ranma almost let it get him to stay to be nice to her after she'd been so unbearable. Almost.
"Somewhere warmer." He clipped and then shut the door with a harsh bang. He'd probably get yelled at by Nabiki later, but right now he could not care less.
Warmer? Akane wondered. It was perfect in her room, why'd he have to leave to get warm? With the slamming of the back door, Akane cringed. Oh, she thought, he meant the cold shoulder.
Now she went from worried to highly upset. Flipping over on her other side, Akane reached out a hand absently to rub against the empty sheets were Ranma had been only ten minutes ago.
What a jerk. What a loser. What a jerk of a loser. What a loser jerk.
But she still wanted him back. This was like a wicked déjà vu. Rolling her eyes, she flung the blankets off of her, slipped on a robe and slippers and padded her way down to the dojo. There was no pausing at the door like last time, she slid the door open and shut it quietly.
His eyes flickered over to her for a moment, his eyes narrowed for a second. Jerking his head away, Ranma continued his warm up followed by his normal work out. If she wanted to be here, so be it but it didn't mean he had to acknowledge her.
Too bad for him, after about thirty minutes of her brown eyes fixated on his every move he finally had to ask. "Why are you here? Am I keeping you up?"
She might have said yes just to be a pain, but the truth was when he really was practicing hard, he barely made a sound. Ranma could band and thump if he tried, but his level of mastery allowed him to appear almost like a hologram or a ghost. Something she truly appreciated, but she'd never boast his ego that much.
"No," Akane said, locking eyes with him. "Go ahead."
He snorted and turned to continue his workout. If she wanted to sit and stare, he wouldn't complain. If she started to complain, he'd just leave. An hour flew by without noticing it, Ranma half guessed it was a one or so in the morning.
He kept his back to the girl who had followed him as he plucked his towel off the floor and wiped his face free of the sweat. Ranma turned, more agitated that she wasn't in bed getting rest for school and was ready to let it show when the words stuck in his throat.
Akane lay on her side, in a fetal position. An arm tucked under her head, the other one cradled next to her chest. She looked---cute.
Sighing, Ranma figured it would just be his cooling down exercise or stretch and quickly and silently picked up his sleeping 'wife'. Heat rushed to his cheeks as she rub her face lightly against his chest, as if getting comfortable.
The things he did for this girl was unbelievable! Carefully flicking the lights off and making it out the door without waking Akane up, the bright flash of the camera certainly was unexpected and unwelcome.
"You two just looked so cute." Nabiki gave her typical smirk.
"Na-NABIKI!" Akane could sleep through a train most nights, and thankfully this was one of the nights. Ranma's shout didn't even cause the girl to stir. "What'dya do that for?!"
The smirk deepened, "for waking my up in the middle of the night." There was a definite warning in that tone of voice, Ranma wasn't as stupid as to miss it.
The pigtailed boy glared at the brunette as she quickly made her way back to the house, swinging her camera by its rope.
He'd really have to let her have it one day. One day when he had a severe death wish.