AN: Thanks to those who read and reviewed my last chapter. This will be a lot longer than chapter 1. Hope you enjoy.
4 days ago
Once again Ranma couldn't sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about Akane and what he had done to her. He would've never thought he would have done anything so…..perverted. He just wasn't that kind of guy. But what he had done couldn't be changed, and he just hoped that Akane didn't find out.
The next day
Currently the duo was traveling on a long, dry, well-traveled road. The Road meandered along side a river. The river, which was about 10 ft. in width, was rocky and fast flowing. On the opposite sides of both the river and the road there was nothing but a dense growth of forest that stretched on for miles.
After a while it got kind of old, and rather boring, though the weather did seem to be trying to make up for it. The sky or the little swatches that could be seen through the canopy were a bright cheerful blue. And, truthfully, the only cloud in the sky was the big black ominous one trailing after Ranma.
Genma wondered what it was about so he decided to find out.
"What's wrong boy? Your mind seems to be elsewhere today," the old man pointed out kicking the back of Ranma's head.
"It's nothin'," Ranma said, retaliating with a well placed punch to the old man's gut. "By the way pops, you never told me where we were going." Ranma muttered slowly coming out of his reverie.
"Well I may as well tell you since we're only 4 or 5 days away. We are headed to a village," here he pauses for effect. "But it is no ordinary village. It is the village of the Amazon warriors."
"Amazon warriors," Ranma asked very confused "Amazon warriors here? In Japan?"
"Yes," replied his father which didn't help his confusion at all.
Night fell
Night had fallen. You could see the clearing in which Ranma and his father were camped.
Ranma was sitting on his panda bear father, in front of the campfire, and was clearly very annoyed with him.
"Either you've gone completely off the deep end or you're lying about the Amazon village."
His father, who was bound and gagged, squirmed and growled futily from under his already irritated son.
All of a sudden, a strong, unexpected, gust of wind rattled through the trees, scattering what was left of the small dying campfire. A few bigger embers flickered and glowed before giving up and going out.
The young pigtailed boy snarled in frustration.
"Old man, I'm gonna hafta go get some ore firewood. You stay here." Ranma glared at his father letting him know he meant business. Genma stared at him for a few seconds and then nodded.
20 minutes later Ranma was about ½ a mile away from the campsite. He wasn't worried about getting lost as he'd marked each tree he'd passed by. Suddenly he heard rustling leaves. Turning to the defensive, he looked around the area he had heard the sound. There he saw a flashlight swaying back and forth. The person carrying the flash light was moving away from him. They appeared to be lost.
"Hey, are ya lost," Ranma called out. "Hey buddy I'm over here."
The light beam swayed frantically left and right before hitting him smack dab in the middle of his face, temporarily blinding him. Automatically Ranma forgot abut relying on his sight. The person started running towards him without warning. By automatic reflex Ranma dropped the firewood and took a defensive stance.
All of a sudden the light went out and Ranma was blind yet again. Without a thought Ranma prepared himself for an attack. Unfortunately he would never had been prepared for what hit him for no sooner had the light gone out than a soft hot mouth landed on his and promptly proceeded to shove it's tongue into his mouth.
Ranma was shocked. The force, of what Ranma could now tell was a girls body, had thrown him onto his back. He lay there in the leaf litter, as the tongue worked its way around his mouth. Finally Ranma pushed away the body that had thrown itself on him. Ranma shook his head trying to regain his vision anyway possible.
"AKANE," he spluttered, his brain refusing to believe his eyes.
"I'm sorry Ranma, came a soft meek voice that was, without a doubt, Akane's.
Ranma was so dumbfounded in finding her here that he didn't realize that he was hugging her too tightly.
"Ranma," she squeaked with a hint of pleading in her voice, you're hurting me."
He let go of her, backing away slowly and breathing hard. He struggled to rein his raging thoughts into any sort of coherent format. With the shock of how she had kissed him he had totally forgotten to ask her why she had followed him.
After a few minutes, once the shock had worn off he noticed that his fiancée's eyes were starting to well up.
Taking a deep breath (in order to calm his nerves) he walked closer, in the hopes of offering Akane some small comfort.
"What are you doing out here Akane," he asked softly, watching tears fall onto the front of her black and green sweater.
He asked the question again with a bit more of his usual firmness.
The tears started to cascade down the girls face.
"I'm sorry Ranma,' she sobbed sinking to her knees and rocking slightly. "I just wanted to come with you."
"Dummy, you didn't hafta come. Ya know that we were gonna come back, pops left you a note," Ranma said with his usual boldness.
"Th-that's not what the note said," Akane wailed, as the tears became twin water falls.
"Wadda ya mean," a mixed expression o extreme puzzlement and almost livid irritation.
Akane heard this and realized what must have happened. She sniffed, wiped her eyes and sat up a bit straighter. She started to explain.
A few nights ago, about a few hours before you left I couldn't sleep because I was kind of sick. I was sweating so I decided to go to the furo and clean p a little. I guess I put up the occupied sign out of habit." She smiled wanly at this"I guess I fell asleep while I was soaking in the bath.
"While I was asleep I had this dream. I was walking around Nerima, with you right behind me. I felt a hand touching me, touching my breast from right behind me. Out of habit ii turned around, smacked you and called you a pervert. The person that touched me was actually Kuno. I felt really stupid. After you took care of him I was going to thank you," she paused to sniff sadly. "But you had your back turned to me. You started to say that you had had enough of me calling you a pervert and for accusing you of doing things you never did in the first place. 'I'm sick of you Akane. I will never see you again,' were your final words before you turned and started stalking off.
"I started shaking. Feeling tears start to roll down my face as you left. Then all of a sudden I blurted out, 'I love you.' You turned and I felt warm comforting lips against mine. It was so nice. I never wanted it to end. Then I felt your warm hand on my breast, but this time, I welcomed it. It wasn't until a few minutes after that that I woke up. Not feeling worried about you leaving, I got out of the furo and was about to go back to bed. But something didn't feel right when I passed your room so I decided to check. When I poked my head through, everything was gone." At this point Akane started to shiver and rock again, holding herself. "It said that you and your father would be gone for a really long time and that you might not even come back at all!"
Tears started rolling down her face again. "It also said not to follow you no matter what. I woke daddy as soon as I read it. I also woke up Nabiki and Kasumi. But none of them seemed interested in getting you back. Daddy said that we must respect your honor and trust. Nabiki said that it might be for the best since we were low on cash. Kasumi just said that it was terrible that you left, but that we must respect your wishes. I didn't want to listen to any of them, so I packed my things and…and…," she stumbled to a stop. It didn't seem like she could go on anymore, as she sat there rocking and weeping softly.
Ranma knelt down in front of her. She didn't notice. Gently he lifted her chin so that her sad watery gaze met his own steady one. He looked deeply into her eyes as if reading the dark turbulent waters of her soul like a book. So absorbed was he in his task that he didn't realize how close their faces were. When he did realize this fact he found that neither his mind nor his body nor his heart wanted to have anything less than all that this poor, sad, quivering girl in front of him. Akane, realizing the inevitable, closed her eyes as she angled her towards his, her trust in him banishing every resistance that might have lingered.
The kiss he gave her was just as she had dreamt it in the furo-warm, comforting, and soft. Unlike the dream this kiss offered the promise of protection. It became slightly demanding as his tongue worked its way into to her mouth. Akane felt whatever worries she had dissolve as she started to do the same. No longer was it just a simple, comforting kiss. A burning passion had been kindled and their long-guarded pent up emotions thusly allowed to run freely. Akane only vaguely realized it when Ranma, rather roughly, shoved her to the ground. Shoving her legs apart, he settled himself between them.
Akane saw, in the brief moment before he restarted their little tongue war that Ranma was blushing furiously. She started blushing to when she saw this, but quickly forgot about it when Ranma started kissing her again, grinding his hips into hers.
Ranma, using every bit of strength he had pulled away, panting in both distress at pulling himself away from the thing he wanted most, and from the effort it took to do so. Akane whimpered slightly, confusion written clearly on her face. She, also, was panting hard, though more likely from lack of oxygen, more than anything else. Ranma stared at her, his body still between her legs. She saw the muscles in his face twitching, watching him fight for some resolve. She whimpered again as he picked himself up, leaving her lying amongst the dead leaves, wanting more, with a passion that left her burning.
"Ranma wait. Where are you going," she cried picking herself up and brushing typical forest debris off her clothes.
Ranma found and picked up the abandoned flashlight that Akane had tossed aside earlier. Turning to her he spoke, his words begging for forgiveness.
"Akane, this isn't the time or the place to be doing this. Let's go back to the campsite, get some sleep, and talk in the morning." With that he turned and strode along the trail he had made to leave Akane to limp along behind him.
"Ranma wait. I sprained my ankle before you found me."
""I'm sorry. I didn't know," he said before returning to her, hoisting her onto his back and proceeding to give her a ride back to camp.
Once there he set her carefully down next to his sleeping father.
"Ranma, can I sleep with you?" Ranma just stared at her stunned for what must have been at least the 6th time.
"You have your own sleeping bag. Besides, there's not enough room in my sleeping bag for-"
"Please Ranma," Akane pleaded, cutting him off, and looking at him with an expression that would have put puppies to shame.
"Okay Akane," sighed Ranma "We're gonna be pretty squished pretty tight so don't say that I didn't warn you."
Akane's expression brightened up. She promptly starts rummaging through her backpack for her PJs. Without thinking she started getting undressed with Ranma still watching. Ranma was fuming out of his ears of embarrassment as Akane took of her pants, revealing her smooth, slender legs. In the moon light, her skin looked so radiant and smooth as silk. He felt his hormones raging again as he wanted to finish what they started, but keeping them under check as he didn't want to overpower her
"Okay Ranma. I'm ready." Ranma snapped out of his thoughts realizing he was still staring at the 'Object of Desire.' Akane was just staring back at him smiling with a light shade of red on her face. Ranma walked over to the tent that was pitched, followed by Akane. It was small, just large enough for him and Akane to fit. The sleeping bag was a different matter. Ranma just looked at Akane. She motioned for him to lay down first. He did. She lay down next to him in the open sleeping bag. As soon as she was comfortable she pulled the covers over her and Ranma. But she didn't feel as comfortable. She rolled on her side, throwing a leg over Ranma's body, placed her hand on his shoulder, and finally placing her head on his chest so she could hear his steady heart beat. Ranma just lay there wordlessly struggling to keep himself from turning over and taking advantage of the situation.
"Akane," started Ranma in a desperate attempt to calm down. "Why did you want to sleep with me? I could have just given you the tent to sleep, I could have slept outside."
"I just feel safer with you. I've also been feeling lonely while you were in the house. When you ignore me, my heart feels heavy. I like having your warmth, it gives me a sense of protection, like nothing could hurt or come between us. And because I…I…you…" she jumbled her last few words as sleep took over. Ranma was feeling weary as well, from the day's events. Ranma placed an arm over Akane's Shoulder so they could snuggle closer before drifting off into a quiet slumber.
AN: first off I would like to thank my editor for helping with this fanfic. I don't know what I would do without her. I truly mean that, so please don't come at me with the claws of death, PLEASE. Also thanks again to those who took their time to read this. The next chapter will be just as long. So until next time, See Ya.
