WW, panda-tiney, ranmakane-4ever, nm3, Akinababy, Lady Mokodane, avolare, kiersten, Oyuki, pokey, Sieg1308, SakK, clavira89 ie people who reviewed the last two chapters, thanks so much for your encouragement. When I'm sitting at the computer, there's always ONE email that prods me to thinking-Oh, it's time to write the next chapter. It can be from any of you, but it's what works! And that's how I managed to finish this story. I read one fic where the author devoted her fic to Lady Mokodane because she was so encouraging to the author. :)
Mike: I'm glad you noticed how Ranma and Akane changed slowly into the people we know, though versions more ready to love each other. Couldn't fit any more hentai in here, sorry. I did what I could.
Shi Feng Huang: Hey, I totally agree. I did feel it was rushed. If I had the time and inclination, I could have easily added another 5 chapters, adding more depth and breadth to the story. But by this point, I was really gathering steam to finish, and just couldn't get the time to really spin out every detail, much as I would have liked to. But I do salute your insight.
Hououza : I do like your comments! Esp. when you actually comment on a plot point.
Angela Jewell: Thanks for being one of the few reviewers who do comment on plot points. I get the feeling you and these others really do read the whole chapter, and it makes me feel satisfied that someone appreciated the plot I took time to spin out, and that I don't HAVE to write a Ranma lemon that says "Ranma. Akane. Bedroom. Sex" for people to read it.
alanna28: Hm, I never thought of it that way! I guess I do tend to Akane the hero…Well, she's so neglected, it only feels right. But that's certainly a new idea for me. :)
RuedaAmbrosia : Yeah, I know you were kidding about the bribe. ;)
A/N: Okay, here is the epilogue. This story is done, finito! Whew, thank goodness!
Disclaimer: Ranma and Co. of course don't belong to me.
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Epilogue
Sounds curled in Akane's ears like wisps of smoke, but she couldn't understand them. Slowly, slowly, the sounds became clearer, though the world remained dark.
"I think I always hated him," the voice was saying. "You do make me see things differently, Akane."
She opened her eyes. It was too bright, and she squinted. Eventually, she got used to the light, and looked around. She lay on a small bed. Next to her, Ranma lay in another bed, half buried in blankets. He was looking up at the ceiling, talking out loud.
"Ranma?" she queried, wondering what on earth he was doing there. Where was her mother? Then she remembered. Oh, yes. Her heart sank all over again.
He jerked, and turned to look at her with wide eyes. "Akane? Akane, you're awake! They said you wouldn't wake up till tomorrow!" His face looked pale and drawn, she thought, as though something had used him terribly. Used him and discarded him.
"What happened?" she asked. "How long have I been asleep?"
"I promised I'd call for someone the moment you woke up," Ranma said, his grey eyes worried. "They've been keeping watch over you, but…Well, we're in the nursery's infirmary. It was the closest place they could move us after you…after you collapsed."
Akane suddenly remembered. "Kulloden," she whispered. "Is he…?"
"Yes, he's dead," Ranma replied, sitting up against a mound of white pillows, his neck turned uncomfortably in her direction.
Akane didn't know what to say. She looked down at the blankets that covered her, fighting not to cry.
"Akane, I'm…Listen, I know I've been a complete bastard…And, I'm really sorry, for everything I put you through," Ranma said in a rush. He looked haunted and his voice was quiet. "I just wanted to let you know that before…."
"Akane! You're awake!" The Queen, a nurse behind her, came rushing in, delight on her face. "Oh, Soun and I have been so worried! How are you feeling, my dear?"
Akane lay quietly as the Queen and the nurse fussed over her. Ranma watched her worriedly from his bed, but eventually he tired, and fell asleep. Akane found herself relaxing when she was no longer under his scrutiny.
"Ranma's body was exhausted from fighting Kulloden's magic, and being possessed by it," the Queen confided in Akane. "Happosai says that Kulloden's geas had been on him so long that its disappearance sapped his life energy greatly. The poor boy. He's been recovering just like you."
The poor boy, indeed. Akane snorted to herself. The poor boy had tied her up in a dungeon and left her to rot, damn him! Sure, he sounded sorry now, but why bother? He had everything he could want! Why didn't he just laugh and have her thrown out of the palace? She glared daggers at the other bed as memories of their trip together came back to her. And then memories of an entirely different kind ran through her mind, of Ranma's hand inching up her bare leg, and she flushed and turned away.
Later, Kasumi and Nabiki were brought in to see Akane. They took one look at the sleeping Ranma and talked in whispers to Akane.
"The Queen told us the truth," Kasumi said, teary-eyed. "Oh, we're so glad that people believe in our parents' innocence now."
"We had no idea that they were just forgotten, you see," Nabiki said bitterly. "Who knew spells could work like that?"
"I'm sorry, Akane, I feel as though we failed you," Kasumi said, seizing Akane's hand in her own. She smiled down at her youngest sister.
"I think it would have been better if you had never known," Nabiki interrupted. "After all, you were the princess. Anything else would be…less."
"You are mistaken," Akane said firmly. "I certainly don't think you are less. If anything, I do mourn the fact that I never met our mother." But I feel like I still have one, she added silently.
"How is Ayako?" she asked brightly, before they all dissolved in tears.
Her sisters smiled at that, and began to describe Ayako's latest antics. Akane wasn't quite ready to hear more about her birth parents, but she found it easy to talk to Kasumi and even Nabiki.
Later, when she was recovered and nearly whole, and after Ranma had recovered enough to be moved into a richly furnished room of his own, the Queen called her in to talk to her. She was dressed in black, as was Akane. The kingdom was in mourning for Prince Kunou.
"You're no longer the princess, Akane, but we've restored your parents' rightful lands to you and your sisters," the Queen said. "You are the Honourable Lady Akane now. You have your own lands."
Akane did her best to avoid Ranma and Shampoo. The latter spent a lot of time with her rediscovered mother. Akane couldn't decide whether to be jealous of her or not. After all, Shampoo's life until now had hardly been a picnic. Akane could hardly grudge her some happiness, even if the witch had planned to kill Akane.
She couldn't understand why she found it easier to forgive Shampoo than Ranma.
She was polite to him when they met, but avoided his attempts at conversation. Then finally, Akane began making plans to leave. She couldn't stay at the palace forever.
She was in her room, supervising the packing, when Ranma appeared.
"A…Akane," Ranma cleared his throat awkwardly. Damn it! He was the prince of the kingdom, wasn't he? He could act it if he had to.
She looked at him over her shoulder. As the sole heir to the kingdom, he was richly dressed in black and silver. He looked very handsome. Akane couldn't help wishing him out of her sight.
"I'm sorry…about all this," he gestured around him. He truly was, he realized. He'd caused her a lot of pain, and for what? Greed. Misguided vengeance. And his foolish actions in following Kulloden.
And now, Akane was bereft of the home and family she had known all her life. Her brother was dead. Not that that was much of a loss, by all accounts. But still…
He tried again. "Look, you don't have to leave. This is your home."
Akane shook her head. "No, it's not. It used to be. But…I have a different family. Kasumi and Nabiki met with the Queen. I was there. They've…invited me to live with them."
"In the cottage?" Ranma asked, thinking of the cramped space.
Akane smiled. "Kasumi's husband is a sailor. He will be home soon on leave. The Queen plans to give him a promotion, and she also insists on rebuilding the cottage, to make it...bigger." Akane smiled faintly, looking into the distance.
"It's all right," she said, finally. "I can't say that some part of me doesn't hate you right now for what you did, and who you turned out to be." Ranma cringed. "But," she looked up at him, forcing herself to face at least one truth. "I was never a real princess. I was too sheltered, too weak. Until you came along. You forced me to think, to plan, to look beyond my own small world."
She grinned. "Not that you did it out of any benevolent motive, but still…" She supposed it would all work out for the best. She was actually looking forward to getting to know her blood sisters better.
"I...would like to be friends," Ranma said. He approached her. "I used you horribly, I know. But I can't be completely sorry for that."
Akane blushed. To bring that up of all things. The nerve of him. And of course his words brought up all the images she had shoved to a far corner of her mind, Ranma kissing her, his hands roaming…
"I've reformed," Ranma said. "Really."
A smile played on Akane's face, but her slim figure tensed. "Really? Can the leopard change his spots that fast?"
Ranma shrugged. He found that he didn't want Akane to leave. He very much wanted to keep her around. That smile, that face, had grown dear to him. When he'd first met her, she'd seemed the most spoiled, naive human being alive, but since then, circumstances had brought out her inner strength, a stubbornness nothing could erase.
"Will you marry me?" he blurted.
Akane stared at him, shocked. All coherent thought fled from her mind. "What?"
Having said it once, Ranma couldn't quite get up the courage to repeat the insanity. But he waited for her answer anyway.
"I can't marry you!" Akane exclaimed, disbelief in her clear brown eyes. "You're the most obnoxious person I've ever met!" Was he mad? She'd kill him on their wedding night, if not before!
A dart of hurt speared Ranma somewhere around his stomach. Cracks of dull pain spread out from it slowly.
"Yeah, but…" He stopped. He couldn't think of anything to say.
"I really don't know you that well," she said, appeasing him for some reason she couldn't fathom.
"It makes sense," he forced the words past his hurt. "You wouldn't have to leave. I mean, you'll be the princess again, and queen someday, which you wouldn't of been with Kunou around."
She flinched; so did he. "I'm sorry," he said miserably. "That's not at all what I was gonna say."
"You don't have to marry me out of pity," Akane said, her gaze moving to the window. How she wished she'd left before Ranma appeared and posed his confusing questions.
She was disappointed, and Ranma's sharp ears caught it. Perhaps she wasn't so against him as he thought.
"I'll give you some time to think about it," he said. "Maybe you'll change your mind."
Akane watched in confusion as he left.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Two weeks later
"Akane! Lunch," Kasumi called from the kitchen.
In the kitchen garden, Akane was toiling away at the weeds growing around their vegetables. She pulled out a last stubborn plant and regarded the rest with irritation. "I'll get you all, just wait and see," she muttered under her breath, and stood. "Coming, Kasumi!"
"I guess now that you're not a princess anymore, you spend a lot of time on your knees, huh?" An amused voice reached Akane's ears. She recognized it immediately, and shot up.
"Ranma?"
"The one and only."
"You jerk."
"The one and only."
Akane pushed back her gardening hat to look at Ranma. He was dressed casually but elegantly in a white tunic and black trousers, with boots to match, as well as sorcerer's bracers on his wrists. He dressed nothing like Kunou, thank goodness. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, abruptly aware of her soiled gardening gloves, sweaty dress and sticky face. Probably she was sunburnt, too. Dagnabbit.
But all Ranma saw as he gazed down at Akane was the rosy glow on her cheeks from the sun, her sparkling eyes, her rosy mouth. He reached out and pushed a sweaty tendril of hair away from her face.
"Ranma, is that you?" Kasumi peered out of the kitchen window. "We're just having lunch. Do join us."
"Thank you, Kasumi, I'd like that," Ranma called back. Akane cast him a fulminating glance, but allowed him to follow her indoors.
As Kasumi served oven fried halibut and vegetable soup, Ranma told them what he'd been up to. He got daily lessons in deportment and history and all sorts of things princes had to learn. He was also apprenticing with Happosai, alongside Mousse, to learn more magic.
"It drives me up the wall!" he exclaimed. "There are a hundred different rules for everything! There are three hundred noble families in Nerima alone! And I'm suppoed to learn all their names before the Spring ball."
The Spring Ball. Akane felt a pang in her heart as she remembered the previous years, when she would eat her supper early, and her tutor would allow her to sit on one of the back stairs and glimpse the line of nobles waiting to greet her parents the king and queen. She had been especially looking forward to being allowed to dance this year. She would have been courted and feted. She shook all that off.
Akane knew she should have as little to do with Ranma as possible, but sitting at the thick, wood table, watching him, she couldn't resist saying, "I can help you with that."
"Huh?" Ranma turned to look at her. "What do you mean?"
"Well, when I was a child, my tutor showed me a rhyme that you can learn to remember the families."
"Oh yeah?" Ranma looked interested. "How does it go?" He picked up a piece of bread and chewed it.
"Let's see." Akane cleared her throat, trying to revive her memory.
Ailis arrive late,
Anders like arithmetic,
Brindells bake cakes,
Berns are diabetic.
"What? That sounds a bit idiotic, Akane," Nabiki murmured, spooning up her vegetabe soup.
"Yes, but it works,"Akane defended herself. "Once you know all thirty-six verses, you're set."
"Thirty-six verses?" Ranma said slowly, considering. "That would take a while to learn, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," Akane replied, worried that Nabiki's mocking had discouraged him.
Ranma smiled. "And you'll teach me?"
"Um, I suppose so," Akane replied. He obviously needed help.
"All right, it's a deal," Ranma said, smiling. What Akane didn't know was that the Queen had already offered to teach him the song, but he'd known Akane would know it, and he'd much prefer her company.
"Let's start after lunch, then, shall we?" Inwardly, he chuckled at his cleverness.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Three weeks later
Akane entered the palace for the first time as a guest. With Nabiki beside her, she looked around at the fairylights and gorgeous silver and gold decorations placed around the ballroom. The Spring Ball was about to start, and the Queen had insisted Akane attend with her sisters.
Smiling on the arm of her tall, handsome husband, Kasumi looked around.
"Oh, look, people are dancing!"
Kasumi's husband bent a loving glance on his wife. "Would you like to dance, my love?"
"Oh, yes!" They disappeared in the crush of people.
"I'm starving," Nabiki announced. "Where's the food?"
"It's usually near the musicians," Akane waved her in the right direction, ready to follow her. But a hand on her arm detained her.
"Akane."
"Yes?" She looked up into grey-blue eyes. Ranma. "Oh. You look very handsome." And he did. In his black, superfine tuxedo and white gloves, he looked so dashing, the dream prince of every girl. His hair was loose tonight, flowing in soft midnight waves past his shoulders. The sight took Akane's breath away.
"Thank you for the compliment," he said, humour twinkling in his eyes. "Thanks to you, I now remember the names of everyone I've been talking to. Everyone is very impressed."
"You learned very fast," Akane insisted, wondering if he would comment on her appearance. She wore a rose dress, trimmed with silver, that brought out her curves just so. Her hair, still short, had silver ribbons intricately woven into the strands.
"Your sisters look lovely," Ranma said archly.
And me? Akane wanted to scream, but she resisted the impulse.
"And you as well, of course," Ranma added, as though sheer politeness had forced him to say it. He laughed inside as he watched Akane grit her teeth.
"Thank you," she said.
Because Ranma had approached her from behind, she hadn't seen the stunned look he wore when he first beheld her. He'd had time to hide the star-struck look in his eyes.
Spending time with Akane these last few weeks, Ranma had come to the realization that he would have to force Akane into admitting that she liked him.
"Your sister certainly enjoys dancing," he said as they watched Kasumi whirl by. Akane tensed. Was he going to aske her? What should she say?
"I was wondering if you would care to be my partner …" Ranma paused. "..for supper."
"No than…Er, supper?" Akane fumbled. Supper was what one invited one's friends to. Supper was not where you danced together, but where you conversed together.
"Yes, the dance will be convening for supper soon," Ranma replied.
"Well, er." He could hardly molest her during supper, Akane decided. "Thank you, I'm honoured."
"Excellent," Ranma said. There were different ways to seduce a woman, he decided, if not with touches, then with words.
Two months later
"Akane! I've made you lunch," Kasumi called from the kitchen. "Don't forget it before you go."
"All right, Kasumi." Dressed in a light lilac gown and a straw summer hat, Akane almost skipped down the stairs in sheer joy of living.
The last three months had been very busy for all of them, what with the extra construction of floors and rooms to Kasumi and Nabiki's cottage. Now the tiny place had grown to over three times its original size, and Akane had had to stop the Queen from making it even bigger. Three stories high, it was now quite big enough for Kasumi and her husband and child, Nabiki and Akane, with rooms left over for guests and storage.
Akane had discovered that having lands also meant having to manage them. Oh, not that she herself had to do all that much. The Queen had recommended an excellent steward for the purpose, but the man believed that Akane should know everything that went on in her lands, from sheep to farms to tenants.
And in fact, she was scheduled to meet him again for another ride to view some grain fields today.
Akane picked up her lunch basket from the kitchen table, and smiled at Nabiki on her way out. Nabiki quite enjoyed their new status, and was busy examining her latest collection of hats in the parlour.
Leaving through the kitchen entrance, Akane passed through the garden and swung open the garden gate, stepping out into the small lane behind their house.
"I thought you'd never leave," growled a voice.
"Ranma!" Akane gasped as she spied the shadowy figure leaning up against the high, grey brick wall that fenced her house. Then she saw the figure next to him.
"Shampoo," she said, with much less enthusiasm. She watched as Ranma spoke a few words softly to Shampoo. He took her hand and pulled her into the sunlight. The sight brought an abrupt sense of annoyance to Akane. Why on earth was he holding her hand?
Shampoo, now looking her normal self, smiled hesitantly at Akane. She'd spent some of the last three months getting to know Rouge, her birth mother. It had turned out the before Ranma and Shampoo, Rouge had been Kulloden's apprentice.
"Who do you think took care of his things before you two came along?" Rouge had demanded with a cocked eye.
Ranma had shivered. "How old was he?"
Akane had had a question. "Why did he never kill me at birth? I would have saved him a lot of trouble."
"You were prophesied his bane, Akane," Rouge said. "Magic states that if Kulloden had killed you at birth, he would have lost his magic powers immediately. That's how magic works. It balances things somehow. Kulloden waited until you grew up, knowing he had a much better chance of success if he simply pitted his magic powers against you later on. But he got greedy. He wanted Nerima, and Ranma, and everything. That's where he failed."
Outside the garden, Ranma continued to draw Shampoo forward. Did he have to hold her hand like that? Akane wondered.
"Akane, Shampoo and I have some news for you," he said.
Abruptly, her heart chilled. Had Ranma for some reason chosen Shampoo over her? Had she kept him waiting too long? In the face of imminent loss, Akane suddenly acknowledged how much the pigtailed boy had actually come to mean to her. Was it too late?
"I'm leaving," Shampoo declared.
"What?"
"I can't stay here any longer," Shampoo looked shamefaced. "I can't face the King and Queen any longer, knowing what I did. I have to get away."
"What about your mother?" Akane asked, secretly relieved. "Doesn't she mind?"
Shampoo coloured. "No, she says that it's good that she found me, but ever since Happosai cured her, she's thinking of opening up her own business in Nerima. She thinks it's quite all right for me to go out and see the world, since I never saw much of it living on the island."
"Oh, of course," Akane murmured.
Ranma had been silent during this exchange but now he stepped forward with a smile. "Mousse is going with her."
"Mousse?" Akane asked.
"Yes," Shampoo said, blushing slightly. "He wants to see the world as well."
"Imagine that," Akane said, hiding a smile behind her hand.
Later, after they had escorted Shampoo back to the palace gates, Ranma turned to look at Akane.
"Come on, Akane."
"You know I'm meeting with my steward today," she admonished him. "I'll be late if I don't leave soon."
"I told him you'd be late," Ranma said shortly. He looked up, and his eyes glinted.
Akane's heart thumped. "W…why would you do that?" she asked. He looked down at her impatiently.
Ranma had shown up at the cottage almost every other day since the Spring Ball, on one pretext or another. Akane couldn't say she wasn't glad to see him, but her heart found it difficult to trust him. He was kept quite busy learning his new duties and responsibilities in a short period of time, something he found frustrating. More and more, Akane found herself drawing on her own knowledge to coach him through a royal ritual or teach him the reason for a boundary or custom.
It had brought them closer together, to Ranma's delight and Akane's discomfort.
He grabbed her hand now. "Come," he said. He'd learned that autocratic tone very soon after becoming a prince, Akane thought with annoyance. Then again, perhaps it just came naturally to some people.
A groom riding a horse came trotting out of the palace gates and reining up in front of the pair, dismounted and bowed to them.
"Prince Ranma, Lady Akane," he said in a respectful tone. Although Akane wasn't the princess anymore, everyone in the palace treated her with far greater respect than they ever had. They knew she had been responsible for saving them.
"Thanks." Ranma caught the reins of the horse and thanked the groom. He mounted swiftly, and before Akane could see what he was about, reached down and scooped her up into his arms.
Akane gasped, caught by surprise. "Ranma!"
The guards and groom grinned approvingly.
Ranma nudged the horse away from the gate, and let it trot down the busy fairway that led up to the palace. He'd seated Akane in front of him, and she twisted around to try and glare at him.
"What on earth are you doing?" she demanded.
"Shh, you'll see," he said, grinning. They rode out of the city centre, and took one of the byways deep into the woods. Akane started to get worried. Had her stewart really been contacted? What was Ranma getting upto? He was being very highhanded about everything.
Eventually, they rode into a glade, wild and flowering, sheltered from the forest path by broad tree trunks. Here, Ranma let Akane down and dismounted himself.
Akane swung about, her skirt flaring. "All right, now what is all this about?" she demanded, hands on her hips.
Ranma walked closer and tilted the brim of Akane's hat back. "It's been three months, Akane. Today, one way or another, you're going to answer me. And it better be the right answer. Are you going to marry me or not?" He flung his head to get a lock of hair out of his eyes, looking very much like an impatient young stallion himself.
"I…uh…" Akane stumbled, remembering the moment behind her walled garden when she had thought Ranma was going away with Shampoo. She stared up into his glorious eyes. In this light, they were more blue than grey.
"Cat got your tongue?" he mocked. "You were very vocal in the forest. Back in the city, you've become the prim and proper lady I first met."
"You mean the one you half drowned in the ocean?" Akane asked pointedly.
Ranma frowned. "You do hold a grudge, don't you?" He sighed. "Last chance. What's your answer?"
Akane refused to be baited. "Look, there's no reason for…"
Ranma's smile took on a gleeful edge. "Time's up. I guess we do this the easy way."
"The EASY w..?" Akane could get no more words out, because Ranma yanked her into his arms, and proceeded to kiss her very thoroughly. For a few seconds, Akane stiffened, afraid he was going to be rough again. But her body remembered his lips, and his fingers.
Ohhhh…
Her body began to melt against his, like butter against a hot knife. Ranma smiled against Akane's lips. Yes, he should have tried this long ago. Then he wouldn't have had to wait so long. His desire for her had only grown over the last three months. And it seemed the reverse was true as well. He smiled against Akane's lips, never ceasing his kisses.
He slipped his hands around her ribcage, his thumbs rubbing softly against the material of her dress. He dipped his head and nuzzled her neck, eliciting a moan from Akane. She rested her head against his shoulder, and sighed with pleasure as Ranma laid a soft trail of kisses across the soft skin of her shoulder. He hit a particularly vulnerable spot, and she shivered.
"Will you marry me?" Ranma murmured.
"Hm?" Akane asked, dazed.
"I love you," he whispered desperately against her hair. "Please marry me."
"What?" Startled, Akane raised her head, but Ranma's gaze avoided hers. "What did you say?"
"I said-marry me," he replied, praying she wouldn't persist.
"Before that," she insisted.
His azure eyes swung to meet hers. "I love you," he said shortly. He released her, and turned away. Akane shivered again, from the cold this time.
"Is that bad?" she asked. New tenderness for Ranma was welling up in her, from a place in her heart that she hadn't really examined before. A place filled with something she was too scared to describe.
"Yes. No. I mean, it used to be. It was not something that lived on the island," Ranma said.
"Do you mean it?" she asked.
"Of course I mean it," he cried harshly. "And so, you are going to be mine, by hook or by crook, even if I have to bynde you to me again so you never move a step away from me…"
Akane took a step closer. "You don't have to do that," she said softly. "I'm here. I'll marry you."
"Because you feel sorry for me?" he demanded.
"No," she replied. "Because, I love you too."
His eyes widened. He abruptly looked like a young boy offered something precious. "Really?" he asked. "How do you know?"
Now that Akane had discovered the secret place in her heart, she could look into it, and all she found there was love.
She stepped into Ranma's arms, and kissed him with all the passion in her young heart. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly.
He laughed, and kissed her back. "I believe you," he said. "I wanted your kingdom, but all along, you were the real prize."
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
A/N: Ooh, what an ending. Corny, maybe, but I just couldn't help it. ;) Now, what SHALL I work on next?
Do review:)