Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma.

Thanks for the reviews! Haven't really got anything interesting to say, so...

Here's another chapter


Cupid Inc.
CHAPTER 4 A Painful Situation

"Well, she seems fine," Dr. Tofu checked Akane's pulse, "Heartbeat's okay too," He turned to Ranma, "She's just unconscious, that's all." He smiled and so did Ranma. Then Ranma looked at the apparently peacefully sleeping Akane. She's all right.

Dr. Tofu looked from him to her and back. "Eh, Ranma?" He looked up. "Can you stay with her until she wakes up? I've got some work to do."

Ranma nodded and moved to a chair that stood next to the bed. Dr. Tofu quietly left the room. Ranma grabbed a book that someone had left on the nightstand and started reading.

After about an hour she suddenly started to blink her eyes and finally opened them. She bolted up and looked around in fright. "Where am I?" she asked.

"At Dr. Tofu's," Ranma answered, looking up from his book when he realized she had woken up.

Akane turned to look at him, she hadn't even noticed he was there and asked him, frowning, "Why?"

"I found you, unconscious," Ranma placed the book back where he had found it and shot her a worried look, "Do you know what happened?"

Akane looked confused, wincing as a pain shot through her head. She rubbed her temple to try and relieve the pain as she answered his question, "I don't know, I can't remember..."

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They didn't talk on the way home. Dr. Tofu had given Akane some painkillers for her headache and she was a bit dazed off, so Ranma gave her support. When they reached the house, Kasumi was already standing in the doorway, looking worried.

"Father! They're home!" she called into to the house, then rushed over to help Ranma, "I'll put her to bed. You go in and explain, Father is in a bit of a state." She gently grabbed Akane's shoulder and took the weight of Ranma, and headed inside.

Ranma gulped and followed them into the house. He could hear Soun wailing from the hall. He tried to sneak upstairs, but Mr. Tendo came bursting into the hall and grabbed his collar.

"Ranma, what has happened to my little girl? Why weren't you there to protect her?" he cried, shaking the boy back and forth.

Ranma sighed and let himself be dragged into the living room, where Nabiki and Genma were waiting. Nabiki didn't look too interested, but seemed to be sticking around for the entertainment.

Soun sat down and watched Ranma expectantly. Ranma sat down across Nabiki and grabbed the bowl of rice that was in front of him.

I'm starving. Maybe if I take long enough, they'll drop it and go bug someone else.

However, by the time he finished gulfing down his dinner, the rest of the family was still staring at him from around the table. Kasumi seemed to have silently come in after taking care of Akane.

"Well," Soun asked, visibly trying to restrain himself from dissolving into tears again, "What happened to my little girl?"

Ranma looked up, sighed and answered shortly: "I don't know. I found unconscious on the way home. She doesn't remember what happened."

Soun looked as though he was about to burst out in tears again. Ranma, not wanting to be there when that happened, quickly walked out of the room and into the dojo for his evening workout.

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It was the middle of the night when Akane finally woke up. Her headache seemed to have dissappeared, thanks to the painkillers Dr. Tofu had prescribed. She looked around the dark room, blinking to get her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

What? Where am I now?

As her eyes got their sight back, she realized she was in bed, in her own room as the familiar things as the rest of her furniture and the posters lining the walls came into view.

But how did I get home?

She strained her mind to remember, but the afternoon was a blur. The only thing her memory brought back was an image of Ranma, looking worried.

What did he do? Did he bring me home? He must have, who else could have?

Akane threw her legs out of bed and sat up. Immediately there went a surge of pain through her head. Apparently, her headache wasn't as gone as she had thought. She turned on the bedside lamp, again momentarily blind because of the sudden brightness of her room.

Maybe I should thank him. I defiantly need another painkiller, that's for sure.

She stood up, wobbly for a bit. When she had found her balance, she slowly made her way out of her bedroom. On her way to the bathroom she saw that the light in Ranma's room was still on. She hesitated, staring thoughtfully at his door for a moment, then sighed.

Might as well do it now.

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What could have happened? Was she attacked by something, or someone?

Ranma lay awake on his futon. He couldn't sleep; it was bothering him too much. Not that an attack on Akane was such a weird thing around Nerima. Besides the horde of boys that had waited for her every morning at school to fight for a date, there were also his fiancee's, who thought that if Akane died (or at least suffered horrible injuries), Ranma would no longer be engaged to her and he would be free for the taking. He couldn't hold back the snort. As if their parents even then would break off the engagement. If she was injuried, he would be ordered to nurse her 'lovingly' back to health. If she died, well, he could imagine them saying he should mourn for her the rest of his life (while taking care of the dojo of course).

Next to him, his father let out a loud snore, as if he was agreeing with Ranma's conclusion. Ranma shook his head in amazement. He and his father had shared a room for the entire time they had spent at the Tendo's and there had been quite a few occasions of rude awakenings by rivals, fiancee's, or just the random weirdo who had decided to kidnap Akane. Yet most of the time, his father would just roll over and carry on sleeping.

He would probably sleep through the house burning down or something like that.

Ranma rolled over and grabbed a comic from a small stack lying next to his futon. He hit his father once with it, told him to keep it down, then opened it and started reading. He had only reached the third page whensuddenly there was a knock on the door. Ranma looked up from his comic, surprised.

Who could that be? It's past midnight. Everyone is already asleep.

Not that that usually bothered his fiancées. They would burst in whenever they felt like it, night or day. He quickly got up and opened the door. To his surprise it was Akane, in her pyjamas, looking completely healthy and rather uncomfortable.

"Er, hi," he just said. What else was there to say? It wasn't like Akane came to his door every night. Now that he thought about it, this was probably the first time she did so and didn't look like she wanted to kill him. What's she doing here? He stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. Whatever she wants to say, Pop doesn't have to hear it.

'I... I just wanted to say... thanks,' Akane said, wondering why on earth she was stammering. It wasn't like she'd never thanked him before.

Ranma just nodded, scratching the back of his head with a hand, "It's okay. I mean, I couldn't let you lie there in the middle of the street."'

Akane nodded. It had been a weird day, that's for sure. She still felt a little odd after... after whatever had happened to her. There was that awkward silence.

Now what? they both thought.

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Akane fumbled with her vingers, gazing down at her feet.

Maybe I should say something. Or maybe I can just walk back to my room and go to bed.

All she ever did with Ranma was argue. So a normal chat was completely foreign for the both of them. She glanced up at Ranma and was happy to discover that he was just as uncomfortable. That means it won't be weird if I leave!

Akane wanted to move, but her legs didn't feel like cooperating. Ranma was looking at her, frowning a bit.

His eyes are such an odd colour of blue, I never noticed that before. Wait a sec, what am I thinking? Why am I thinking about Ranma's eyes, of all things?

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Mayami was running up the Tendo stairs, panting heavily.

All day there is no action whatsoever and then suddenly there is! I hope I'm not too late.

When she got to the top of the stairs in her haste she tripped over her own feet and started to fall forward. Frantically flapping her arms in an attempt to stay in the air, Mayami almost wanted to grab Akane's pyjamas.

No, can't do that, that would ruin the moment! Plus I'd probably rip down her pants. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing...

That thought hung in consideration for a moment, but she quickly dismissed it. Instead Mayami quickly pulled in her arms and slammed face-first into the landingfloor. She pried herself off, stood up and turned her attention to the two teens in front of her.

"Okay... now I got them here, what to do, what to do?' she mumbled. It had been a while since she'd last done this. "Akane has an orb, maybe I should use her.." Mayami then looked at Ranma and she suddenly remembered something. "I forgot to place an orb in his head! Phase 2, I forgot Phase 2!" She hit herself over the head with her notebook, which she carried for just these situations.

Then again, I've seen him spar and the guy's quick. What if he'd caught me before I'd entered his head? There would've been a lot of explaining to do.Maybe it's better this way.

Mayami looked at Ranma. Still, he looked distracted enough. Maybe I can try now, and I might as well plant an idea in his head while I'm in there!

She smiled and snapped her fingers. Her body dissolved into the bright pink orb.

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Maybe I should say something.

Ranma had spent the last few minutes looking at everything but Akane. He knew he couldn't hold that up forever. Still, he wished she had went to bed after her apology. Why stick around?

I'm gonna have to look at her sometime.

When he finally did, she was looking at her feet. Suddenly, she lifted her eyes up and looked at him. At times like these, Ranma admitted, he could see what Hiroshi and Daisuke kept going on about, what made Ryoga a blubbering idiot in front of her. Sometimes, in the right light, in the right situation, she looked... well... cute. Not that he'd ever let her know. He'd rather die then tell her that. Better to insult her and play it safe.

Then a voice other than his own spoke up from the back of his head.

'That's because you're just too stubborn," The voice was high, a woman's.

What? Who are you?

"Never mind me, I'm not important. We were talking about you!"

What do you want in my head? The voice was strong and demanding, yet friendly at the same time. It had an abnormal ring to it, nothing he'd ever heard before.

"Well? What are you going to do? She's still standing there you know. Waiting for you to say something. Or do something. Come on, I know you want to. I can see it. I know you deepest secrets. I know everything. Go on. KISS HER!"

Ranma mentally jumped three foot in the sky. What! KISS her! No! I won't! I won't do it! This is not the time, nor the place for anything like that! Besides, why would I wanna kiss and uncute tomboy like her anyway!

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Whoops! Mayami quickly pulled out of Ranma's mind.Way to go, stupid! It's the first rule in the book. Never go to far in a first contact. And now I'm right where I started. Damn.

Hitting herself over the head once again, she left the house in a huff, already fearing to deliver this report back to Madam.

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Akane looked up in horror. Did he really just say that?

First Ranma had just been staring into blank space, and it gotten her slightly worried, wondering if all the stress had finally gotten to him and he had snapped. Then suddenly he blurted it out. That he'd never kiss an uncute tomboy like her. Just as sudden, her pain was replaced by anger. Well fine. Like I care to be kissed by a hentai like him!

"Ranma!" she yelled and gave him a one-way trip with Akane-Airlines. The only thing left was a Ranma-shaped hole in the roof. Silence returned to the Tendo-home.

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Ranma flew through the air once more. See what you made me do? Now she's pissed off with me again!

To his surprise, there was no voice with an annoying answer. It seemed to have left just as quickly as it had appeared. Feeling he was on his way down, he decided to plan where to land. Unfortunately, the only thing below him was water.

Why does it always have to be water!


Another chapter done! If you find this one a bit short, the next one will be big I promise!

PLEASE REVIEW!

Till next time,

Ameko