Disclaimer:

See chap 15

---

Fires an orbital rocket skyward, which races past Hououza's Ion Cannon. A mechanical arm reaches out, grabs him, and drags him inside. Said rocket them blasts earthbound, and crashes into the ground at full speed.

Gobstopper: "Okay! He's down!"

---

Having finished shoving her bed up against the bedroom door, and judging that neither Nabiki nor Ranma's mother would be able to jump out her window without breaking limbs, Akane found herself wishing she could roof hop.

"But what is he after?" Nodoka wanted to know.

"Mrrrowrrrrr…" scratch scratch at the other side if Akane's door.

"Me," said Akane.

"You?"

"Yes, well, um…" Akane paused, thinking. "How much do you know about the Neko-ken?"

"Ranma explained how he… attained it in detail, but says he does not remember what he does when he is 'neko.' "

"Right. Well, uh, when Ranma goes cat, he always… goes to someone he trusts, like…"

"Like a car going after it's owner, or the person that feeds it," supplied Nabiki, who never took her eyes off of the door. The sounds of Ranma scratching at the other side were very nerve-wracking, even for the Ice Queen.

"And that person Ranma trusts…?"

"He, um, always comes right to me," Akane mumbled, embarrassed.

"Ah, so, why don't we just let him in, and calm him down?" Nodoka asked, sounding relieved.

"Mrs. Saotome," Nabiki drawled, "there is the minor detail of Ranma's kill-or-mate potion. While Akane might end up bedded (Akane turned a very dark red), from previous experience, I will end up bedded and dead. And Ranma might be able to let you near him, but that's only because you scare him. Neko-Ranma doesn't respond very well to threats, and will probably turn on you."

Nodoka frowned. "That does present a complication."

"Obviously. Past that, this door isn't going to hold up to his claws for more than a few minutes, so we have to think of something. I do not see my future as being clawed and screwed by a potion-mad kitty-man at all."

"Claws?" Nodoka said, surprised.

"Chi claws," Akane responded. "The first time I saw him use them, he tore up the gym floor and Kuno's bokken, before shredding an entire tree like a scratching post. Right before he tried to use them on Mr. Saotome."

Nodoka looked to be deep in thought, as the scratching grew louder, and Ranma's yowling more pitched. Nabiki was giving the window an appraising look. If Ranma and his father could live through it…

"Tell me," Nodoka whispered to Akane, dragging her off to one side. "What brings him out of, um, 'neko'?"

"If he goes to sleep, he usually wakes up normal. Or the curse. If he changes, it snaps him out of it."

Nodoka smiled. "I think I know how to get Ranma to go along with your little plan. And how to get him out of the house."

---

Akane was perched on the window ledge, staring at the ground below. "This is really, really stupid," she told no one in particular. Nabiki was hiding under the bed, as it sounded like Ranma had started using the claws on the door. She could hear the grooves being cut in.

"You sure you know how?" Nodoka asked again. She didn't want Akane to end up with a broken leg.

"Yeah, um, Ranma showed me." Well, that was reasonably close to the truth. It would take too long to say explain that she had taken Ranma's memories of it, and had later asked about it. He did say it was easier than it looks… He just said that I think about it too much. So I just have to not think.

Riiiiight…

Nodoka reached into her kimono, and pulled out a blue handkerchief, handing it to Akane. The she shoved her out the window.

"Hey!" Akane yelled as she plummeted feet-first to the ground. She caught herself, and was amazed to discover that she was fine.

"See?" Nodoka called down. "If my son taught you, then you're fine!"

Akane grunted in response. Yeah, I might know how, but that doesn't mean I had any practice!! "When it turns red!" Akane yelled back. Nodoka smiled, nodded, and threw the other three bottles down at her. Akane took a moment to make sure she had the right ones.

I think I might be crazy, she thought. What am I thinking?

"Ranma!" she called. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty!" She waited, listening.

Nodoka's head appeared at the window. "He's coming! Go!"

Akane spun on her heels, and ran.

I must be crazy. This has got to be stupid.

---

I AM crazy! Akane thought to herself, panicked. What was I thinking?! This is stupid!! She spared a glanced behind her, and found a male neko-Ranma chasing her. No way am I really outrunning him, no way! I think he's playing or something! Stupid cat!

Neko-Ranma might have been playing in chase, but the expression he wore left no doubts what he was going to do when he caught her.

Well, at least I found out that I can roof-hop if I'm running for my life!

More than that, she hoped she was heading in the right direction. If she got lost now or took a wrong turn, this would be over before she could correct it and go in the right direction.

Ahead, beyond the tops of the roofs, she saw her destination. Oh, thank god! Relief flooded through her, but she heard neko-Ranma pick up speed. Apparently, the chase was over, and he wanted it to end.

Stupid cat!

Four more rooftops…

Jump.

Three more rooftops…

Jump.

Two more…

Dammit, she should feel him right behind her!

Jump.

Last roof…

Almost! Almost there!

Jump- SLAM!

Oh, shit!

Ranma had her. She glanced back, struggling. Neko-Ranma had her pants in his jaws, and was trying to haul her back into the middle of the roof.

Damn, damn, damn!

She lashed out with a foot, and neko-Ranma let go as her foot collided with the top of his head.

Got to get up! Run, got to run! Akane scrambled to her feet, racing for the roof's edge. Something hit her feet, sending her sprawling, and she fell, heading for the street below. Ignoring the pain coming from her right ankle from the bad landing, she bolted across the street, throwing the trash can she had hit up at her pursuer. There was a dull clang as it landed on either side of her, cut in two by neko-Ranma's claws.

Akane vaulted the fence she ran into; she just needed to make it to the other side-

No! she thought, realizing that she was caught again. She hung upside-down on the side opposite side of the fence. Neko-Ranma was there, perched on top of the fence, hands digging into her pants. She could feel the chi-claws digging into her skin, scratching her. It didn't feel serious, just light enough to hold onto her clothes. He had a mouthful of cloth from where he had torn her clothes when she had kicked him on the roof, and an insane look in his eyes.

Akane pulled herself up, struggling against neko-Ranma's attempts to pull her back over the fence, and grabbed him by his shoulders, yanking him forward. His back claws dug into the fence, holding him in place. He snarled at her.

"Come on, dammit!" Akane swore, pulling as hard as she could. The fence began to give under their combined weights and the constant pulling, all centered on the spot where Ranma had his claws. The metal gave with a loud screech, and they both shot downward.

---

Sometimes she woke naturally, but those were few and far in between. This time, Ranma woke the way she thought she usually did.

Confused, cold, and wet.

And underwater.

She scrambled for the surface, and came to the annoying conclusion that there was no chance of drowning, as she could stand waist high in the water.

Where in the world…?

"Don't look! Close your eyes! I hope…" said a voice behind her.

Akane? She felt something press against her eyes. It wasn't the usual blindfold, this felt thicker, and it had to be tied in a knot for it to stay in place.

"Hey, Akane?"

"Yeah, Ranma?" Relief was evident in her voice, apparently glad Ranma was no longer a c-cat.

"Did I…?"

"No, I don't think anyone was hurt. Kasumi, Daddy, and Mousse barricaded themselves in the dojo, and Nabiki and your mom were hiding in my bedroom. You might have hit Shampoo, but I don't think you really hurt her."

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Where are we?"

"The canal."

Why the canal? "The koi pond would have worked too," he said. Crazy, insane neko-Ranma on the loose? Jeez, talk about taking a risk!

"Yeah, well, I thought it might be too small to trick you into falling into!" Akane snapped, sounding irritated as she marched towards the water's edge.

"Akane, wait!" Ranma sloshed towards the sound of water splashing as his fiancée waded through it. Damn, feels like my gloves have holes in the fingertips. And my shoes. Why do my shoes have holes in them?

She dropped a hand on Akane's should. "Sorry. You're right. I probably would have just jumped right over the pond."

Akane stared. He's apologizing?! "No, that's alright. Besides, I needed to get you out of the house."

"Eh?"

"Come on, dummy," Akane said, pulling at Ranma's arm.

"Where arewe going?" Ranma asked as she allowed herself to be dragged away.

"You'll see."

---

Getting there took a while. Akane's newly-learned roof-hopping skills, even she had to admit, were dubious at best until she got some real practice in. And she didn't want Ranma to carry her for obvious reasons.

So they had to walk. Five minutes into it, with Akane answering all questions with "I'll tell you when we get there," Ranma had had enough, picked Akane up, slipped her around onto her back, and vaulted onto rooftops.

"Ranma, put me down!"

"You're wearing gloves too, ain't ya? Just hold on, watch where you rest your head, and point me in the right direction."

Suppressing the urge to throttle the man she said she loved, even if he was currently a girl, Akane started issuing directions.

---

"Jump. A little to the right. Jump. Jump. To the right. Jump down to the street. Jump far. Jump up to the roof. Jump. Jump. Turn all the way to your right. Jump. Jump…" This was one of the stranger things Akane had ever done. She felt like she was trying to give directions to a blind man, which technically, she was really doing.

"Jump. Jump. Turn just a little to the left. Jump. Little more left. Jump. Jump…"

They had been up on the rooftops for longer than she wanted to think about, but that was alright. She could see the destination Nodoka had thought up just a few more roofs ahead.

"Jump. Jump farther, big gap. Jump. Jump. Jump like you're crossing a street, big gap. Stop. Jump down to the ground, it's two floors below, like my house. Put me down, we're here."

As soon as they hit the ground, and Akane was off of Ranma's back, she punched Ranma's shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"That's for scaring me when you picked me up!" Punch.

"OW! Hey, that one hurt! Quit hitting me!"

"That was for scaring me half to death chasing me across the roofs all the way to the canal!"

"I didn't know what I was doing, Akane! I was in the neko-ken, remember?!"

"And this," Ranma flinched, but Akane gripped her, and squeezed her with both arms, in a hug. "Is for carrying me all the way here, you overgrown muscle."

"Wasn't nothing," Ranma objected, but didn't move to stop her. Point in fact, she didn't move at all. But that was probably a side-effect of her arms being pinned to her sides, and Akane being taller than her. "So… where are we?"

Akane let her go, and spun her around. "Take a peek and see. There's no one here but us, I promise."

Ranma paused, but then raised one corner of her makeshift blindfold (which she thought smelled kinda like her mom). She blinked, startled. "How…?"

"Your mom suggested it," Akane said, anticipating the question. "She thought we could use a break from everyone else. And this seemed like the only place we could go where no one would look for us, because it's supposed to still be under construction."

"It looks fine."

"Yeah, the work was done yesterday, apparently. But your mom wanted to wait to tell you as a surprise, or something. She thought this would be a good place for us to go to… talk things over, without being interrupted."

To surprised at being at his own house to notice the hesitation in Akane's voice, Ranma said, "Yeah. That's why you took me all the way to the canal, huh? Crazy risk."

Akane, interestingly, didn't take offense to that, since she had many thoughts along the same line.

"The way my luck goes, I'm surprised we didn't run into anyone on the way here," Ranma said, still looking at the house he hadn't called home in over a decade.

Akane blinked. "Hey, yeah." It does seem like every time Ranma steps foot outside the house, someone finds him.

In fact, on the race to the canal, they had passed over Kuno, who fled in fear, only seeing Ranma, and believing that the "murderous cat-demon" was having some sort of fit, which he did not want to be a part of. They had also passed over Cologne two blocks from the canal, who did not notice them only because she was too busy trying to find her great-granddaughter, to save her from any harm she might be placing herself in, so she could kill the girl herself (or say she was ranting out loud, anyway). The trip over to the Saotome house had included a pass by a hospital, where they, just for a second, were perfectly level with the room Kodachi was staying in, recovering from being struck by lightening multiple times, which, while it baffled the doctors as to how it had happened, they did not find too odd. This was Nerima, after all. Five blocks from the house, they passed by a small wooded children's park, where a tiny black piglet had been wandering for a whole day, trying to find the way out of the woods he thought was at the base of Mt. Fuji, and desperately trying to find a way to pin another hell on Ranma. He was, for the most part, succeeding.

It never occurred to him to stop and think about why a doctor had been outside the Tendo house not even ten minutes after he had been kicked out. If someone had bothered to tell him that it was Ranma who placed the call to him, he would never have believed you, or screamed about not needing other people's pity, certainly not Ranma's.

Not that people explain that kind of thing to small piglets, anyway.

Still on the 'why didn't we see anyone we knew' train of thought, Akane wondered briefly if something was keeping everyone away from them.

---

The few Chaos gods who were still sleeping at their desks woke up with a violent sneeze.

---

Nah, Akane decided, it's not like there was some powerful force conspiring to give them some time alone.

---

The Kami of all Kami, ruler of the Gods and All Creation, scrambled for a tissue.

His secretary looked up for a second as she typed out a memo. "Bless you!"

---

Jeez, it wasn't like the whole universe was keeping an eye on them, or something.

---

The galaxy seemed to blink. At least, that's what many astronomers swore. If they had ears that were capable of hearing it, they'd have heard the damnedest sound through their telescopes.

"ACHOO!!"

---

"Can I…?" Ranma started.

"Go ahead. We both know you want to," Akane said, smiling. Ranma wanted to explore his old home. If it made him happy, Akane sure wasn't going to object, no matter how long he took.

It would be half an hour before she wondered if something had happened to him, and went inside to find out.

She found him in a room on the second floor. He was just finishing retying the makeshift blindfold, telling Akane that he had heard her coming. He must have hit the kitchen for a kettle for Ranma was again a boy. The room was bare; only a ready futon was in it. Ranma was stretched out on it, flat on his back.

After a moment of silence, Ranma spoke as if he wasn't really addressing anyone. "This was my room."

"How can you tell?"

"I looked around. There's a guest room, but it's not really set up. It has two futons stored away in the closet that don't look like they've been used longer than I've been gone from here. There're a couple other rooms that could be bedrooms, but they don't even have that. Most of the furniture ain't here. I'm guessing mom went and put it somewhere until the work was finished. This is the only room that has something in it, and it's just the futon."

Akane leaned up against the frame of the sliding door, hands clasped in front of her. "So if this is the only room that has something you can sleep on in it, how do you know it's not your mother's?"

"Room down the hall kinda smells like her perfume."

"Could have been a sitting room, where your mom spent a lot of time," Akane pointed out.

"That's downstairs," Ranma replied. "This room was mine. I know it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just am."

"Ranma…" Akane said, feeling a little annoyed.

Her fiancée sighed. "The closet," he said simply.

Akane turned her head towards the open closet door. Hanging inside was a tiny gi, small enough to fit a five-year old. "Yours?"

"Don't know who else it could belong to. It's also got my name stitched into the sleeve…"

"Knew you couldn't have figured it out all by yourself. Had to have it thrown in your face. May I?"

Ranma tilted his head at her. "May you what?"

"Come in? It's your room, right?"

Unseen, Ranma rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Come on in."

Akane smiled, and walked through the door. She dropped onto the floor next to Ranma, laying on her back. She reached out, and took his gloved left hands in hers. Wait, she thought, didn't he have holes…?

"New gloves?"

"Yeah," Ranma said. "Mom gave me a spare set when she gave me the others. Can't do anything about the shoes. Wish I could."

Akane glanced down. In each of his shoes were five side-by-side holes. She giggled, unable to suppress it.

"What?" Ranma demanded.

"Back claws," Akane said, smiling. "You tried to hold onto the fence with your back claws to avoid falling into the water."

"Back claws, huh?" Ranma said. "Didn't know about that. I guess since c-c-… they got 'em, so do I."

"Guess so. Wait here, I have to make a phone call."

---

Elsewhere…

Cologne dragged her screeching great-granddaughter down the sidewalk by her tail, yelling in mandarin.

>Stupid, foolish child! What were you thinking?! Trying to get yourself killed, huh?! You're lucky I don't send you back home and forbid you from ever leaving the village.>

The screeching continued, unabated by Cologne's ranting.

>I cannot believe you went to him as a cat. You're lucky to be alive. If he's gotten loose and gone and killed someone, I'm going to kill you!>

More screeching and yowling.

>Oh, shut it. It doesn't hurt that much. And the bleeding stopped already. I gave you the last of the healing powder. In a few hours it'll be finished healing; you'll probably have a scar. Now, we're going back to the Tendo's, where you will both apologize to Ranma for being stupid enough to visit him in that form. If he's been snapped out of it, that it. If not, you will use that little cat nose to sniff him out!>

---

Cologne arrived at the Tendo dojo just in time to see Nodoka Saotome hang up the phone.

"Where's Ranma?" she rasped. She'd been yelling at Shampoo in mandarin and snapping at strangers who stopped to stare in Japanese the whole way.

Nodoka turned, and smiled pleasantly at Cologne, who had several cat scratches on her face. "Sleeping, according to Akane."

"He's upstairs?"

"Oh, heavens no. When Soun, Kasumi, and Mousse locked themselves into the dojo, Nabiki and I ran into Akane's room. Akane was outside, and ran off, but Ranma chased her. She just called to say that he collapsed after five minutes, and is currently sleeping in the park. I guess the potion and being a cat was too much for his mind to handle at once. Akane says she will call again after he wakes up."

Not able to discern any lies from Nodoka's face, Cologne accepted it, hook, line, and sinker.

"I wish to see him," she said. "Which park are they in?"

"Oh, dear. Akane didn't say. She just told me Ranma collapsed, and the she said she had to go, to make sure no one disturbed him. I think she was calling from a payphone."

Unable to locate Ranma, Cologne started grinding her teeth.

"That's fairly bad for your teeth, you know," Nodoka said.

Cologne simply sat down and stared at the phone, as if willing it to ring. Shampoo had passed out from the pain of having her tail pulled, and until she woke up, there was no way she could locate Ranma.

Under her breath, Cologne muttered curses in Chinese.

Nodoka smiled, and patiently watched her cup of yellow-stained tea.

---

"NO!"

Akane sighed. She had been expecting that response. "Ranma, listen…"

"NO!"

"Really, you're being unreasonable." She'd been at this ever since she had gotten off the phone with Nodoka, and told her to keep everyone away, and to watch for the yellow potion to turn red.

"NO! HELL NO! SHIT NO! FUCK NO! N-O! NO WAY! NO WAY IN HELL! UH-UH! NOT A CHANCE! NOT IN THIS LIFETIME! GODDAMMIT, I SAID NO!"

Akane felt horribly upset at his reaction. She should have made him promise to wait for her to finish explaining before she started to talk. Unbidden, a few tears started to roll down her cheeks. "Dammit, Ranma, I'm just trying to help!"

The sound of Akane crying brought Ranma's tirade of the many forms of 'no' to an end. Handling crying girls was not something he was good at.

"N-now, Akane, don't cry, I didn't mean…"

Akane looked up at Ranma with tear-filled eyes. Ranma didn't have to see to know what it looked like. He could see the expression she was making in his head.

"Will you let me explain before you keep saying 'no'?"

Her light sobbing immediately prompted Ranma to say, "Yes." Dammit, I hate when girls cry!

Akane's sniffling dropped to almost nothing. "Ok, um…" Er, I really didn't think he'd give in that fast… "What's the thing you don't like about this the most?"

"Amazon potions! I've had enough of them!"

"They didn't make them."

"They didn't?"

"No. I looked them up."

Ranma turned a frightening shade of green at the prospect of Akane-made Amazon potions.

"OW!! What did ya hit me for?!"

"For making that face! I didn't make them, Kasumi did!"

Ranma rubbed at his shoulder absently. "Oh. Um, look, I'm sorry about that…"

Akane sighed. "I know my cooking isn't… isn't really good, but I'll work on it, ok? I think I've got a few tips from your brain on it, so I'll try to read the labels before I add them, alright?"

Ranma looked at her in silence for a moment. "If you promise to read them before you add them, and you try it before you give it to me, then I'll eat your cooking."

"Really?"

"I promise."

"Thank you, Ranma!" Akane briefly squeezed her fiancée in a hug, to which he blushed slightly, but hugged her back lightly.

Akane pulled back first. "Something wrong?"

"Not used to it," was the prompt answer.

Akane blinked. "Maybe you should explain what that means, because I'm not quite getting it."

"Well," Ranma said, idly scratching the back of his head, "it's just… I'm not used to people being, uh, physical and all. I mean, the other day, when we got together, it caught me by surprise… wait a sec, don't get all mad at me, alright? Stop the growling thing; you know I'm not all that great at saying stuff! I'm not saying it's a bad thing! I want to be with you, it's just that I'm still getting used to it. If I'd have hugged you a week ago, you'd have knocked me into a wall! I'm just trying to get used to the fact that you're not gonna do that anymore. I hope not, anyway."

Akane sighed. "Look, I know I have a temper. I told you that I might… I might lose it from time to time, but I promised I'd try to hear you out from now on, and that I wouldn't go off on you so much. It's just kind of annoying how much I have to make sure that we don't accidentally brush against each other all the time."

"Yeah, now you know what it's like."

"Excuse me?"

"… um, can you forget I said that?"

"No."

Ranma laughed nervously, sweatdropping.

"Are you going to make me ask you what that meant?"

"Probably," Ranma muttered under his breath, but not quite quiet enough.

"Ranma…"

"Look, it's um… you know that I love you, right?"

"Mm-hmm…"

"And that I've loved you for a while…"

"Mm-hmm…"

"Well, how hard do you think it was for me to love you, and know that if I even looked at you wrong, you'd knock me from here to Hokkaido?"

Silence dropped again for a good minute. Ranma started to get the impression that Akane was crying again, since she wasn't talking to him. He was trying to figure out what he could say to make her feel better (it was taking some time to think of something), when he felt his hand being picked up, fingers slipping into his.

"Akane?"

"Shh," was the only response he got. He felt his hand being guided, and then come into contact with something. He was surprised when he realized that it was Akane nuzzling her face into his hand. She let go of his hand, and he began pulling it back, only to have Akane seize it again, and hold it against her cheek. When she let go, Ranma left his hand in place, Akane nuzzling into his hand. She took his left hand, and brought it up to the side of her head. Ranma placed it against her face without being forced to, this time. Akane smiled, and he could feel it forming around his fingers.

"I'm not hitting you," she said softly.

For once, Ranma had nothing to say.

"I love you," Akane said, still quiet.

Ranma sighed, but it sounded content. "So, what's your big idea with even more Amazon potions?"

Akane pulled his hands away, and set a few pieces of paper in them. "These are what I had Kasumi make for me. She slid behind him, out of his line of sight, as Ranma pulled up a corner of the makeshift blindfold to read them.

---

Nodoka frowned. Her tea, or rather the potions in her tea, was still yellow. Really, what was taking them so long? Her tea was getting cold. Cologne probably would have noticed she wasn't drinking it, but she was in the process of trying to convince Shampoo to let her splash her with water so she could track Ranma and simultaneously keeping one eye on the phone. Shampoo didn't seem to want to go after Ranma until it could be proven he was not currently neko. Since all she had was the word of Akane saying Ranma had passed out somewhere, she wasn't budging.

"Ranma might awake now, still neko, hurt Shampoo!"

"Just find him, don't attack him!"

"Neko-Ranma know Shampoo near! No find neko-Ranma until someone say Ranma normal!"

With another frown, Nodoka took to staring at her tea, and blinked in surprise when she found it was a pleasant red color. She wondered how Akane had convinced Ranma to take those potions, considering the kinds of luck Ranma had on the past concerning the Amazons and their strange concoctions. Ignoring etiquette, Nodoka promptly drank the entire thing in one large gulp. She felt a slight tingle take over her skin, then fade away.

Not too bad, and at least the tea had still been warm.

---

A/N

Ah, I did finally finish! I just had to bang out and publish that Evangelion one-shot that was circling in my head before I set to getting work done on this chapter. Thank you all for the great reviews!

Er, LunaBOB, you're not really gonna lock me in a cage and poke at me with things until I write the next chapter, are you?

sweats nervously