Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all the characters, trademarks etc. belong to Rumiko Takahashi and to their other rightful owners. To sum it up: I don't own Ranma

"Spoken"

-Thought-

D-Day, February 14th… V-Day, March 14th

The interlude, in which animals are treated harshly…

It was the day after Valentine's day and Ranma wasn't a happy camper. He had a severe case of stomach ache and had been on a quite bad appetite during breakfast, refusing anything aside from plain rice. This was naturally seen as an affront towards her cooking by Akane who'd been responsible for making the miso soup, there had been some yelling followed by a fist induced trip into the koi pond. Turning into girl only served to make Ranma's stomach ache worse… and didn't do wonders to his mood.

Now he was walking towards school after Akane who was still fuming at the spectacle during breakfast. He sighed, deciding that clearing the air might be best. "Look Akane damn it… It wasn't your breakfast. It's just that I have a killer stomach ache. You see it was the chocolate." Ranma realized his mistake just as the words left his mouth, Akane went stiff, then slumped, then stiffened again… oh crap now she was hurt and furious. Springing into action the pigtailed martial artists jumped in front of her, hands raised in a warding gesture. "No Akane, that's not what I meant, there was nothing wrong with 'em… it's just that I um… ate 'em all."

Akane, her previous anger forgotten gaped at Ranma, he'd eaten almost two kilos of chocolate in one night… no wonder he had complications. "Ranma no baka! What ever possessed you to eat it all, I even made a little miscalculation and made three times too much of that stuff… and you ate it all in one sitting… B-A-K-A!"

Ranma toyed with his pigtail in embarrassment. "Uh well you see, if I hadn't then pops would have found it. And he would have either eaten it and/or would have gone ballistic and then we would have been hauled off to city hall faster than we could really even blink. So I decided to destroy the evidence… so to speak." He turned around and then, while starting to run towards the school, casually remarked. "Oh and I liked the idea behind those pepper chocolates… now hurry up you slowpoke…!"

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The following week passed rather normally… Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi recovered and pestered Ranma as usual, Ryoga made his appearance again… he'd left to find hot water the day before Valentine's day and had managed to make a detour via Ichikawa, where he had almost been run over by a JSDF Type-74 Tank. This was naturally Ranma's fault, how… well only Ryoga knew, fact of the matter was however that Ranma had somehow held him from Akane's side during Valentine's day and that's the reason he didn't get any chocolate.

Then there was a major event that started off rather ominously, Tendo Nabiki was waiting for Ranma and Akane on the gates of Furinkan as they were leaving the campus. Ranma flinched at the aura of pure anger that radiating from the usually cool and collected Nabiki, she looked just like she always did but boy did she put of some heat. Nabiki fixed the now rather nervous Ranma with a freezing glare and bit out a vicious. "Akane… home. Ranma… with me, NOW!"

And so Ranma was following Nabiki, to where he didn't know… hell he didn't even know why he was following Nabiki, he knew nothing actually aside from the fact that Nabiki was way beyond pissed, which had been the very reason neither he nor Akane had tried to argue with the middle Tendo sister.

Finally they arrived at their destination, which was much to Ranma's surprise none other than the Ono bone-setting clinic. When they arrived he noticed several things at once. First the good doctor was looking downright frightening as Ranma had never seen him angry before but now… you could tell that he was almost as pissed as Nabiki. Then the neo-girl noticed something else, there on the floor… in a small cage was none other than the porcine bane of his existence… P-chan and on the floor next to the cage were a empty tea kettle and a water pitcher. He frowned, could it be that the jig was finally up and bacon bits would get what was coming to him. "So… is this about what I think it is?"

Nabiki narrowed her eyes. "So is what 'P-chan' told us true then? You knew and…"

She was cut off by Ranma though. "Exactly what did Ryoga tell you?" He had a pretty good guestimate as to what the story entailed but it never hurt to ask.

Nabiki bit her lip before answering. "To summarize… 'It's all Ranma's fault!'." Ranma smirked at this just as Nabiki continued. "But lets see, you escaped his wrath and ran from a duel, then pushed him into the pool, then you tried to molest Akane so he had to remain there to protect her, you blackmail him about his curse as he doesn't want Akane to find out as she would be crushed…"

She stopped to draw breath and continued before Ranma could interrupt. "…you turned Akari against him, you cheat around with your other fiancées, you always take all the credit for saving Akane even if it's not you who saves her… he used that birdpeople incident you had few months ago as an example and in general it's all your fault."

Now Nabiki was not stupid and knew full well that Ranma never run from anything, aside from cats and well anything generally resembling situation where feelings were involved… but he didn't run from fights, ever. Even if she had believed all that Ryoga had told her, the reaction from Ranma was somewhat intimidating… he began to glow. He took a step towards the cage and its cowering occupant, then another… Only thing that saved P-chan from becoming pork chops for real was Dr. Tofu who quickly moved behind Ranma and poked several shiatsu points in his back while saying "Calm down Ranma… remember... soul of ice."

Ranma stopped and took a few deep breaths. -Right… control… soul of ice… control… the pig must die… control… soul of ice… Ok, I'm cool…- Letting out breath he'd held he nodded, once more in control. Dr. Tofu only patted him on the back. "I take it that you disagree with the young Hibiki on several points?"

Ranma smile wryly. "Well to summarize… 'It is not Ranma's fault!'" He chuckled lightly. "Lessee, I really can't tell if I knocked him to a spring in Jusenkyo or not… he said that there was a redhead and a panda but I can't remember colliding with anyone so it might just as well be that he saw a half naked redhead chasing a panda and didn't pay attention to where he was going… you know the way he walks to streetlights and other stuff whenever Akane talks to him." There was an indignant 'BWEE' coming from the small cage which was ignored by everyone.

Then Ranma hung his head in shame. "Then comes the part where I really did something stupid, see he told me about the girl and panda thing and… well I felt really bad about it so I swore not to tell anyone about it. And then he went and ran to Akane and decided to become her pet… that's why I was in her room that night, I was trying to get him away from her bed." Now Ranma was crouching down on the floor. "I tried to drop hints and everything but she just didn't get it, you didn't get it… I should have just told her, straight out but… I just cared too much about my damn honour and everything."

He sighed "Anyway, as for the rest, well Akari knew about the curse and didn't mind but saw him cuddling between Akane's breasts so I guess if you can figure how that is my fault you might tell me too." He then fixed a harsh glare at 'P-chan' "But I can't believe he would try to claim any credit in fighting Saffron, I fought him… I killed him… I saved her…" Both Nabiki and Dr. Tofu flinched at this, Nabiki at the word kill and Tofu at the mention of Saffron.

Ranma shrugged their amazement off. "Anyway I guess it's just my word against his right now but I at least ask that you inform Akane of this today, I can't because I swore on my honour. You didn't so…" Dr. Tofu nodded in relief, he didn't know this other boy all too well but he did know Ranma, who despite being rude and thoughtless was actually a very caring person… he was curious about him fighting Saffron though but that could wait.

Nabiki began to nod too, she had to admit that Ranma's version was much more plausible. According to Ryoga, Ranma ran a veritable harem of girls and she certainly would have noticed something like that. Not to mention the staggering amount of hints Ranma had dropped over the year, hints that in hindsight made perfect sense. And she knew for a fact that her baby sister loved the jerk so now all that was left was the damage control.

Nabiki was shaken from her planning by Ranma who was standing there asking for a favour. She scowled at the boy who flinched back reflexively. "So Saotome, even if I believe you… give me one reason why I should help you." The pigtailed boy's face steeled itself into a mask of determination and he leaned in closer to whisper something into the 'Ice-Queen's' ear, her eyes widened and then narrowed again. "Now Saotome, you realize that I could just sell that tidbit of information to just about anyone…"

She tapped her teeth with one fingernail and watched in amusement as Ranma's mask turned into one of horror. "But I wont… so… Tofu-sensei, would you be as kind as to take that… walking pork to the dojo later today, it seems that I need to have a little chat with Ranma-kun." She then left the clinic with a nervously smiling Ranma in tow.

Some fifty minutes later they were nearing the Tendo dojo and Nabiki was already making mental calculations. "You know Ranma-kun, or should I say 'brother dearest'… nah sounds too much like Kodachi doesn't it, that's a seriously thought up plan…" Her voice became saccharine sweet. "And dare I say… almost too romantic, coming from you at least." She smirked at the distraught martial artists who was making hushing gestures -Always so easy Ranma-kun… but don't worry I won't blow it for you this time, I even stopped spying on your study sessions almost two months ago… though I won't tell that to anyone.-

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Akane was somewhat confused, Ranma, in a subdued tone, had asked her to come downstairs for something she should see. He had also apologized beforehand, muttering something about promise and how his own ego got in the way… it was confusing and it just got worse from there. Down in the living room stood Ryoga, cowering under a harsh glare that came from Kasumi of all people. Akane's question of "Oh when did Ryoga-kun get here?" was only met with silence and then a slowly upended pitcher of water... then there was only blackness.

Akane opened her eyes to see the concerned face of Ranma staring at her, she was in her own room and apparently on her bed with a wet cloth on her forehead. She sat up blinking "Ah I just had the weirdest dream, there was Ryoga-kun and then he turned into P-chan… but that's absurd, it would…" She got no further as Ranma continued her faltering sentence "…be just like a boy turning into a girl. I'm so sorry Akane, I really tried… I" His voice left him and he stood up. "I'll leave you to sort it out and…" He was stopped by a mallet that slammed into his skull and a scream of "BASTARD!"

When he came to he was lying on his back in Akane's room, his head hurt and his chest was wet. Akane was lying on his chest crying into his shirt, mumbling "How could he.", "I'm sorry", "Why didn't you just tell me?" and "Why, why, whyyy?" She also accentuated her crying with fists which caused more than slight pain to the downed boy.

Ranma took it all in a stride though, as Akane had apparently taken his involvement in the matter better than he'd anticipated… he gently wrapped his arms around the girl and began to rub her back soothingly. After Akane had calmed a little he began to explain his side of the story and exactly why had Ryoga been so insistent on playing her pet, something which elicited a growl of "Sukebe Buta" from Akane.

It took more than a hour to explain it all and calm Akane down afterwards, not that Ranma really minded seeing how all the explaining happened in their initial position, Ranma on the floor with Akane on top of him, his arms around her and Akane's face against his chest. Fifteen minutes after they went downstairs Ranma found himself in the same position, holding Akane who was now bawling her eyes out, this time the tears didn't stop until full two hours had passed.

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The reason for the second bout of crying was the profound sense of betrayal, when they had made their way downstairs Ryoga had tried to attack Ranma, something that was foiled by several pressure points being pushed, subsequently he'd tried to blame Ranma for everything, something that was foiled by a vicious slap in the face from Kasumi who was quite frankly ready to skin the pig alive. Akane walked over the paralyzed boy and asked in a tiny voice a very simple question of "Why?"

Ryoga stiffened and came up with nothing, tried again but still got nothing… third time's the charm though and the obvious answer of "It's all Ranma's fault!" rose to his lips. Akane with her lips trembling just stared and then in almost inaudible voice spoke again. "Don't you ever dare to blame Ranma for your own actions… you… I never want to see you again so leave and don't come back." He splashed the boy turning him into a now former pet. "And if you try to hurt Ranma for this I swear I'll make pork buns out of you."

Suddenly there were party streamers flying around, Soun bawled and Genma declared in a loud voice "Ah see Tendo-kun, the jealousy plot worked… now the boy is bound to confess his love…" There was a 'Ssshkt' sound of a katana drawn and soon the naked blade deposited on his neck silenced Genma's babble. All the females, aside from Ranma who was actually a guy even if Akane's tears had triggered his transformation, in the room were staring at the two men… the silence stretched and the two fathers began to sweat nervously. "You knew?" was asked in an incredulous tone. "You knew and still you let that boy abuse Akane-chan's trust for the sake of trying to make Ranma jealous?"

Akane froze for a moment then with tears streaming from her eyes wheeled around and ran towards the safety of her own room with Ranma hot on her heels…

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She was beginning to calm down one more when there was a soft knock on the door, but neither of them even tried to get up before the door opened admitting a rather distraught Kasumi. She smiled softly at the pair lying on the floor, some good had apparently come from the day's events. "Ranma, auntie has taken father and uncle to your house… it's not completely rebuilt but we decided that those two should help with the construction work… to give us a chance to decide how we are going to punish them." They just nodded at Kasumi who turned and left leaving them on the floor.

Akane buried her face into Ranma's, now female, chest she suddenly began to sob lightly and said between the sobs "I'm sorry Ranma… I thought you were a pervert when you snuck into my room and… I… I'm sorry."

The redhead simply smirked. "I've never snuck into your room to do anything perverted, though you probably wouldn't have believed me if you had caught me on the other times." At this Akane's grip on his chest tightened and there was a sharp intake of breath and something that sounded like "Other times?"

Ranma's smirk widened, the old Akane wasn't gone… thankfully. Then he realized that he would have to explain and fast if he wanted to keep his ribs intact. "Ah well… you see Akane, after Jusendo… I've started waking up every night around three or so, and I can't seem to go back to sleep unless I… unless I check that you are okay. I always use the Umi-Sen-Ken to go undetected when I did and then if he was here I'd remove Ryo… ah never mind." The grip began to loosen slightly. "It's a pain really, I mean having to check on you when ever you are at your friends house."

At this confession Akane suddenly jerked her hand to hair and tugged his head up so that she could see his eyes. "So it wasn't a dream?" She demanded and upon seeing the confused expression on his face continued. "Yuka said that she had the weirdest dream few weeks back, she said that when she went to get something to drink she saw something that looked like 'A pigtailed boy, namely Ranma, watching… guarding the house'. It was you right? You spent the whole night in a tree outside her house?"

Ranma blushed at this but managed to nod, something which earned him a bop on the head. "Ranma no baka… that was the coldest week we've had this winter… why the hell didn't you tell me about this." He began to mumble something inaudible and tried to avoid her eyes when the reality hit. -I would have smacked him for being a hentai if he'd told me… that's why… oh Ranma.- Akane again buried her head into his female chest and began to sob softly. "Sorry… I won't call you a hentai anymore… please…"

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Later Ranma looked around in his room, truly his now as Kasumi had informed him that Genma wouldn't be coming back, and if he did he wouldn't be sleeping in Ranma's room. The room looked somewhat empty now that there was no large panda snoring on the floor… he shrugged, and spread out his futon to the middle of the room. He stood there staring at the futon when a soft knock interrupted his musings, he raised an eyebrow as a blushing Akane entered the room, wearing her pyjamas and carrying a blanket and a pillow.

He just watched without saying anything as Akane stopped dead on her tracks, she was nervous and borderline between frustrated and scared. "I ah… I was... scared or... and I just thought that maybe I could… on the spare futon… that way you wouldn't have to get up to check on me either." Ranma didn't say anything, he really, really didn't trust himself to say the right thing, so instead he just went to the closet and retrieved another futon, spreading it near his own.

He formed a tentative smile and then motioned Akane towards the other futon, again only raising an eyebrow when Akane pushed the futons together after a moment of deliberation. He shrugged -Well there goes my sleep- As he walked to the light switch he thankfully noted that Akane was lying on the very edge of her futon, shrugging it off he pulled the switch and then flopped on his own futon… as far from the other futon as humanly possible. After several minutes of silence he breathed out a soft "Good night Akane." before closing his eyes and attempting to drift into sleep.

Kasumi was greeted with a rather heart warming sight when she went to wake up Ranma the next day. The said martial artist had moved during the night from the other edge of his futon to the other edge, where he'd met with Akane, who'd had a similar nocturnal movement. The pair was now cradled in others arms, with Akane's head resting on Ranma's shoulder and his face pressed into her hair. Kasumi only thought -Oh my!- and wowed to herself to give Ranma a lecture on proper behaviour… and on a second thought to Akane as well.

When the pair in question woke up, almost simultaneously for some reason, they sprang apart as soon as they realized the position they were in. However there were no fathers, fiancées, suitors or in general any other people there so they had no need to start loud denials. So they simply blushed and glanced at each other before both began to mumble something about 'Getting ready to school' or such and so…

The day went by peaceably, albeit the lecture from Kasumi was more than embarrassing enough. She stressed out to Ranma, later to Akane, that if they chose they could sleep in the same room but that premarital sex was a big nono.

Much to Ranma's amazement Akane actually asked him to prep the other futon when they were doing their homework. Again, he set the futon some distance from his own… only to have it moved by Akane before they got to bed. And again they set out on the opposite sides of their 'double' futon only to wake up in each others embrace in the morning. This rather humorous routine went on for a few more days until they just gave up and cuddled up side by side in the evening… only to wake up in the exact same position in the morning.

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And herein ends the Interlude: in which animals were treated harshly… It was not actually show due the multiple threats I got from the PLA (Panda Liberation Army) and other radical, extremist animal rights terrorists groups. The pig got a restraining order and a bottle of tranquilizer (extra strong ones) and a reference to a shrink, just so that he could get rid of his depression. The panda got beaten repeatedly by the flat end of Nodoka's katana and was forced to work 20 hours daily doing heavy lifting at the Saotome home rebuilding site. He was also put on an exclusive Bamboo only diet… Tendo Soun got the same treatment, however his diet consisted of water, bread and rice.

A/N…

Nothing here much, most of the notes will be in the last chapter. Including a small cultural reference on to white day/valentine's day in japan…