Chapter 3

Two figures were bowing in the dojo.

Both figures took up a defensive stance. Akane struck first, Ranma tried to merely dodge the blow, but Akane's follow up punch hit him in the gut. Ranma winced in anticipation of the blow that would certainly knock the wind out of him, but the blow never came, just a light tap. He looked at Akane, who only smiled and winked in response. This is how their sparring match was. Neither was landing any blows, or even aiming to connect their blows. They were both lost in their thoughts, but after twenty minutes of basic attacks Akane bowed to Ranma.

"You're good."

Akane began to walk out of the Dojo.

"I'm glad you're a girl."

"What?"

"I'm just glad you're not a boy." 'If she's a girl then they won't make us get married. I don't want to get married off on my first week of having a family. How do I even know it would be me that would be married? Well, at any rate I don't think dad is stupid enough to marry one of his daughters to a girl.'

Then Akane turned around and grabbed Ranma, who just happened to have to MOST haunted expression on his face.

"You'll probably be staying in my room, let me show you where it is."

Akane showed Ranma to her room, and slipped off quietly to let Ranma get comfortable. Akane wanted to finish practicing before dinner. Ranma was unpacking his luggage

Two men were sitting into in the room overlooking the koi pond. One of the men was Soun Tendo. The other man was a little overweight, dressed in a gi, wore glasses, and a bandana to cover his bald head.

Nabiki walked by them, and gave both of them a quizzical look.

Nabiki walked into the kitchen. "Hey, Kasumi? Who's that strange man in the dining room. ?"

"Who knows?"

With that Nabiki turned back to go to her room. "Nabiki? Could you tell Akane she can take her bath now?"

Back in the dining room the two gentlemen still sat. Now, however, they had tears streaming down there faces.

"So, my dear old friend Genma, that's what happened. The life of a martial artist is fraught with many perils."

Ranma was sitting in the furo neck deep. 'What to do? What to do? Well I guess they they'd find out sooner or later anyway.'

Just as soon as Ranma stepped to get out of the furo, Akane slipped the door open to begin taking her bath. Akane just stood there in the door way trying to get over the shock of seeing a naked male in her bath tub. Blinking, Akane didn't want to start a fight with someone that might be a family friend, or something similar. So she went to the stool and started to clean herself.

Ranma was still staring, he believed that he had been dead, but his new friend didn't even raise an eyebrow at him. 'How can she be so calm? What should I do?'

"Um. could you please leave now?" Akane was sitting on the stool with soap sods on her body. Her voice was void of any emotion.

"Err.." That's all Ranma managed to say as a reply as he ran from the bathroom and put on clothes faster than he could ever remember.

"I wonder who that was?" Akane soon stepped into the now unoccupied furo. Akane decided it definitely sucked that she couldn't tell if that guy was a friend or pervert. 'Oh, well. If he's just another pervert, he'll get what's coming to him all in good time.'

Meanwhile, Ranma was contemplating again. 'What to do? What to do? Why can't life ever be simple? Should I wait here outside the door and apologize to Akane? Or should he go to her family and tell them about my curse.'

Ranma decided to confront her family without her. If he didn't do it now, his resolution would fail, and that would be VERY dishonorable.

". and that's how we got cursed in Jusenkyo."

At that Ranma appeared in the doorway. Genma was sitting in human form talking to three of the four Tendos. Ranma was decidedly pissed that his father had explained their predicament without him. So he punched his father in the head.

"And now for a demonstration."

Genma grabbed Ranma by his shirt and threw him into the koi pond.

A red-head female burst from the pond. "What did you do that for?!?!"

"Oh the humanity! My only son is cursed to be a girl, boy you shame me!" Genma faked tears into his sleeve.

"You're ashamed!?!?! My old man's a panda!"

With that Ranma threw a bucket of water at his father.

"." Genma had tried to explain their curses, but the actual showing them made the difference. It hit Soun like a dumb bell. His son-in-law was cursed to be a girl when in contact with cold water. Would that really be so bad? How would his daughters react? He knew he was probably going to die an early and painful death because of this. He was contemplating what to do with this situation when he heard the tea kettle whistling.

Akane had taken longer in the furo than usual. She thought there was an air of preeminent doom, and it was best to stay in a nice relaxing place for as long as possible.

Finally she got out and got dressed in one of nabiki's cut off shorts and tank tops. Normally, Akane wouldn't have worn clothes like this, but she needed to go clothes shopping badly. She hadn't had the time since she'd gotten 'home'.

"So with hot water you change back into your original form?"

"Needn't be quite so hot, Tendo."

"and hot water turns you back into a boy?"

"Hot water not BOILING!"

With that as topic of conversation, Akane stepped into the room.

"Um. What's happening?"

Nabiki turned her head to Akane. "You better sit down, things are going to get interesting soon."

Akane obediently sat next to her sister, bewildered at the entire situation, and hoping that she would be filled in soon.

Her father, though, had ignored her entrance, forgotten she wasn't there, and/or forgot that he actually had another daughter.

"Your situation isn't so bad Ranma! Pick anyone of my daughters to marry. Kasumi is nineteen, Nabiki is Seventeen, and Akane is sixteen."

"No." With that Nabiki got up and headed out of the house.

"I REALLY should start supper now." Kasumi headed towards the kitchen.

That left a really confused Akane sitting by the table.

"So, son who do you choose?" Actually it was Soun talking. Ranma's really not his son in-law yet.

Akane look left and right, obvious attempts of figuring out where here sisters have gone/ who's the other choice: Figuring out that she is the only one left. Blushes and starts staring intently at the table top. 'God I wish I was out training with sensei. How could they do this to me? I've known them for five days and they already want to get rid of me?"

"Um." Ranma couldn't believe that those other girls just did that to Akane.

"So then it's decided, Akane's your new fiancé!" "WHAT?" both voices erupt from the room as the two older men start to bring out the Sake.

Later that very same night.

Akane threw herself on her bed. She was beginning to realize why Sensei had made her promise not to kill her family. Of course at the time she thought that was ridiculous, but now she saw exactly why he made her make that stupid promise. She was mulling through the days rather stressful events, when she came to a simple conclusion. Having a family is highly over rated..

When suddenly there was a light tap on the door.

"Come in." Akane braced herself mentally for whatever might be thrown at her.

Kasumi opened the door slightly, walked in, and silently closed the door behind her.

"I'm sorry."

Akane sat up slowly and let her feet dangle from the bed.

"About what?"

"I umm feel bad about leaving you like that. and I uh it was wrong.."

It was a rare thing to see Kasumi so flustered, and it was even rarer to hear her fumble with her usually motherly words. How could Akane have known this?

"Kasumi, it's ok, you don't have to be so formal around me. I'm not going to hurt you."

Kasumi flinched at the words, Akane chooses to ignore this and motions to Kasumi.

"Come sit down, I'd like to talk to you."

Kasumi somewhat nervously walked to Akane's desk and sat on her rolling chair.

Akane looked Kasumi in the eyes, and opened her mouth to say something.

"."

Akane had a million things going on in her head: a thousand question, a thousand complaints, and a seemingly a billion things that came crashing down upon her today. She knew she wanted to ask her sister something, but a trillion things came out at once, and so it sounded like silence. Akane quickly collected her thoughts and spouted off the first thing that came to her mind.

"Kasumi, will you ever love me as you love Nabiki?

"I.. I don't know.. I think that.. A little more time maybe. if only. I'll try. And you, do you love me?"

"I've love you since my first breath upon this earth. I've love you since my first heart beat. The thought of having a family has kept me alive for sixteen years. I love you, Kasumi!"

Akane got up and hugged her oldest sister.

"And I'll always love you." Akane whispered into her ear. Akane then got up and pushed the covers away from the bed.

"If you'll excuse me now, I'm very tired and would like to go to sleep."

Kasumi took the queue and silently left the room and turned off the light.

Not even five minutes later a second knock fell upon Akane's door.

"Come in."

Nabiki took a step in and closed the door, but kept her hand on the door knob. She didn't even bother turning on the lights.

"I just talked to dad. I've done everything I can to not have you and Ranma married tonight, and I will do everything I can in the future."

"Thank you so much, Nabiki."

"Hey, what's family for?"

With that Nabiki stepped into the hallway, and quickly closed the door behind her. Nabiki sighed. She didn't know what to think of her newly found sister, but she did know that she didn't deserve to be sold as soon as she finally found her way home. She knew one other thing, She had put up a great fight for Akane, but her father wouldn't give in. She did the best she could, but somehow Akane isn't going to be happy. Nabiki decided to go to bed and pray that she would survive until the morning.

About thirty seconds after Akane heard Nabiki's footsteps recede from her door, she heard a knock upon the door.

::Sigh:: 'What does a girl have to do to get a little sleep?' "Come in."

Ranma (male) stood in the doorway neither walking into the room nor making a conversation. He was just standing in the doorway in his wife beater and pair of boxers on ready for bed. Ranma just stood there.

Now, Akane was usually patient, kind, and understanding but at the moment she was having one of those days. It was one of those days that nobody wishes for, the ones that your mind later glasses over, one of those days that seemed like it was come out of a bad movie. Akane just wanted to go to bed so she could wake up and thank the gods that this wasn't true. There was one person who was standing between her and sleep, and he was standing in the doorway. Akane wanted to groan, loudly, throw something at her "fiancée" and go to sleep, but something was holding her back.

Meanwhile, Ranma was standing nervously in the doorway.

Akane rolled on her side and picked up her head from her pillow. "Come in. Sit down. Make yourself comfortable." She didn't mean for her words to sound sarcastic/mean/harsh but after a day like this even hardened martial artists have the right to show a little emotion.

Ranma slowly walked towards the desk. He finally reached the desk, pulled out the chair and sat in it. A pregnable silence ensued.

Finally Ranma mumble, "Don't kill the messenger."

Akane gave him a quizzical look, she almost didn't catch what he said. "What?"

"Um. whenyouwereintheshowerafterdinneryoursistercamehomeandshehadanargument withourparents.Theyweretryingtogetusmarriedtonight,butshewouldherenoneofthat .They wouldn'tswayintheirdecision,soIdon'thavetomarryyouaslongasasleepwithyou."

Ranma was looking at his hands and really proud that he got that out. Akane just stared blankly, for she hadn't caught a word of that.

"Please repeat that."

Ranma sighed because he wasn't very good at this.

"Instead of marrying you tonight, I have to sleep with you indefinitely."

Ranma looked up to see Akane's reaction. Her jaw was locked and her fingers were digging into the mattress, also, it was obvious that she was doing breathing exercises.

Not trusting herself to talk, she got up from her bed and motioned for Ranma to get in. When he got in, she followed, except she didn't go under the sheet. "Oyasumi nasai."

Akane fell asleep through pure determination to get this indescribably horrible day over with.

Ranma, however found that mister sand man didn't like him tonight, so he thought about his situation. He found that thinking of everything once have him an unpleasant pressure behind his eyes. So he decided to do things in chronological order.

::Flash back/ unimportant character analyses by Ranma until end of chapter in case ya like to know::

"So old man, where did you say we were going again?"

I just KNEW he was up to something. Why couldn't we have stayed in china and gotten a cure? I knew he was acting strange.

"If you untie me I'll tell you." I should never have untied him, I should've just sold him to the zoo right then.

"No where important, only to an old friend of mine's house." (under his breath with slight mumbling) "where you will marry one of his daughters" ::cough:: ::cough::

"WHAT?"

much violence ensued.

That Stupid idiot father of mine, engaging me to people without my knowledge. I'm going to kill him in our morning sparring session in the morning.

So we fought all the way here. He sure was hell bent on me coming here, I'm surprised he got that lucky shot in with the sign post. Stupid Panda.

Now's when everything went from one embarrassing moment to another. Not thirty seconds after I was conscious I was dragged into the Tendo Dojo Compound. Soun had mistaken me for a boy in my girl form and Nabiki GRABBED.MY..BOOB. and then she and then she and then she. I guess it would be easier if I thought about everybody in the Tendo family separately starting from oldest to youngest.

Mr. Tendo is a little melodramatic, and he's out of shape. He seems quite out of touch in many ways.

Kasumi is nice, but apparently likes only older men. I didn't really get the chance to know her, but I guess if I'm staying for a prolonged period of time. I'll get to know her better.

Nabiki, I don't know what to think of her. She, she, grr, SHE GRABBED MY BOOB not only that, but she GRABBED THEM MULTIPLE TIMES and she wasn't gently either. What kind of girl goes up and grabs other girl's boobs? She grabbed my boobs to MAKE A POINT. After she found out about my curse she just looked at me weirdly and pawned me off to her younger sister..

::Ranma sighed, making Akane change her position slightly making herself comfortable::

Of course, then there is Akane. I don't know what to think of her. From what I've seen today, she seems different. She didn't seem eager to meet her "fiancée", hah like anyone could blame her, but she didn't let it show. She treated me like any other guest that would have been in her house. She wasn't like Nabiki who invaded my space, or Kasumi who wanted to distance herself from me. She seemed to almost warm up to me. She seemed rather quite and shy though. Then she did something I haven't had done to me for a long time. She stood up for me! Then she wanted to be my friend! I was so happy, I almost forgot about my curse, it felt so good to have a friend. It was awkward to spar with a girl, but man she's good. I'd say we're pretty even. Though I'd have to spar seriously with her to actually know. What am I thinking? I can't hit her, she's a girl. Not matter how good she is, she is female, I can't bring myself to not pull my punches.

::Ranma sighs again, this time Akane moved her arm so that it was draped across his chest and her head was on his other arm::

Kawaii, how does she do that? When we were sparring I thought she was going to try and beat me, but all she wanted to do was be friendly. I've never felt so comfortable with a girl in my life, especially in my cursed form. I wonder what she meant when she said she was glad I'm a girl. She probably just didn't want to be engaged yet. I mean a nice and beautiful person like her can get anybody she desires, I mean with her body..

In short summary of the next couple of hours of Ranma's flashback: Ranma spends the rest of the night thinking of a naked Akane. He dwells on the naked Akane because the rest of the night had been pure hell. Might as well focus on the good.

Author's notes:

Are these required? They should be called Author's After thoughts. My opinion. Nobody cares. So why have an author's space in a fan fiction? It has nothing to do with the story. Well. I expect that it will get easier with the first day over with. The first day is the hardest, (BTW I'm terribly sorry about basically having them meet in the same manner with the same spoken lines, but why fix it if it ain't broken. I did it because it will fit in my story later on.) It's no down hill ride from here. ::sweat drop:: I should hope so after having this particular fic. Stuck in my head for close to seven years.

If you're ever genuinely confused, or something's eating at you, Review me and tell me. I'll go back, look at it, and (maybe) change it.