Ranma 1/2 Overtime: Chapter 6

Pillow Talk of the Newlyweds! By Xasonnex

Disclaimer: All named characters are owned by either Rumiko Takahashi herself, or one of her partners in media. I make no claim on them; this story is not for profit. Anyone who has not yet done so should read as much of the official Ranma manga by Viz as possible, even if you've already read translations and synopses online.

"H-hey Akane."

Her husband's voice brought Akane Tendo back to reality. "Hi," she replied. She shifted to lean slightly against the doorway. "I didn't know if you were still awake or not."

"Yea, well I guess my mind ain't ready to sleep yet, 'cause my body sure is." Ranma kept looking at his newlywed partner. "Man, that nightie don't cover much," he thought.

Akane looked at his side. "I see you've saved me some space," noting that he'd left enough space next to him for her.

"Yea," he replied. "Mom kinda insisted that I let you sleep in here." He peeled off the cover to invite her. "Y'know, if you don't wanna, we don't got to sleep together. I, uh, I could sleep on the roof."

"Oh," Akane replied with her eyes hooded. "So you don't want to sleep with me, is that it?" Despite their newly admitted love, the anger still came quickly to the new Mrs. Tendo.

Ranma raised his hands in defense. "No, no. That ain't what I meant." He could feel a bead of nervous sweat on his forehead.

"Good. Anyway, don't be stupid." She let her comment linger a little too long.

"Oh, so now I'm stupid?" Ranma rose to the perceived challenge. This was an Akane he could deal with better than 'the wife'.

"No stupid, I just said don't BE stupid. The roof's still wet from the rain. You wouldn't want to be out there even if I took you up on the offer." Akane crossed her arms to accentuate her point.

"Oh, right," said a deflated Ranma.

"Besides," Akane was moving to her side of the futon, closing the door behind her. "It's not like we haven't slept in the same tent before. This is no different."

Actually, Ranma could compile a list of differences, but wisely kept quiet about that. "Yea, I guess so."

Akane plopped into place and covered herself. "Good, then that's settled."

"Yea," Ranma responded, settling back in himself. He looked over at Akane. "So, uh, how do we do this?"

"Do what?" Akane replied nervously.

"How do married people say goodnight to each other?"

Oh," Akane replied, keeping her relief in check. "We, uh, say we love each other, maybe hug, and say goodnight."

"Oh, OK." He took a breath. "I l-love you." Even in the darkness one could tell that he was blushing beet red.

"I love you too," was Akane's reply, almost too soft to hear. With some hesitation, she leaned over and draped an arm across his chest and hugged him. "Goodnight."

Ranma didn't know quite how to respond to this hug. He decided to just hug back at her arm. "G'night."

They lay together, Akane's arm not yet retracted, her on her side, and him on his back, looking at each other. Neither could close their eyes, even though it was late and both were tired. Akane gave a weak smile and Ranma responded in kind.

Then it happened. The full weight of the day's events fell upon Akane. She couldn't help tears coming to her eyes.

Ranma noticed. "Hey, you OK?"

Akane blinked, causing the first two tears to stream across her face. "Did we really do it Ranma? Did we really just get married?"

"Yea, we did." He looked at her with concern on his face. "You ain't sad about it, are ya?"

"No, no I'm not." She sniffed and yet more tears fell. "It's just that, that I didn't think this would ever happen! I mean, after China and Kiima and Saffron and..." She hugged him tight and buried her face in his chest.

Ranma had put a lot of effort into not thinking about the past week's visit to China. It was unavoidable now, with Akane beginning to bear her soul to him about the experience. His own eyes got misty. "Hey now, you're OK. I've gotcha. Saffron didn't win, I did."

"But he could have," came a muffled voice. "He could have killed you or I could have died and then I'd never get to tell you just how much I love you!" She lifted her head to look at his, tears streaming. "I'm not just saying it, Ranma." There was a look of desperation in her eyes as she tightened her grip, afraid he'd leave if she didn't. Softly, her voice hardly finding itself, "I love you Ranma. I love you more than I ever thought I could, more than I ever hoped I could. I don't ever, ever want to lose you." She hugged him again and said with a somewhat forced smile, "Even if you do tick me off sometimes."

Ranma turned to face her completely and returned the hug in full. "You ain't loosin' me. I'm not goin' anywhere." He fought back his own tears. "I really can't remember if I said I loved you when I thought you d-d-died. But I do. I've just been afraid you didn't love me back, or, or..."

"Our parents would force us to get married if we admitted it," Akane finished. "We're still not ready for this, Ranma. We're still so young..."

"Yea, I know. But we are, so we'll deal with it." He tightened his own hug. "We got all the time we need to deal with it."

"We do," Akane agreed, not quite believing it. "I'm sorry for crying like this. This isn't how our first night together is supposed to go."

"'S fine." e broke his part of the embrace, trying to turn his head so that Akane didn't see his misty eyes. "we should probably try to get to sleep now."

"You're crying too." Her reluctance to let go let her see his face.

"Yea, well you're not the only one who's glad we got another chance." He smiled at her. "Besides, it's only cryin' if the tears leave your eyes, so I ain't cryin'."

"Whatever," Akane smiled slyly as she let go. "I wouldn't tell anyone anyway."

"Yea, you say that now, but the next time I tick you off..."

"Better be a long time off, Ranma." She placed a finger on his lips. "I'm serious. I like being happy with you a lot more than being mad."

"Yea, me too." Ranma laid back for a good night's sleep and Akane did the same. In the distance they could hear the summer cicadas singing. At some point Nodoka turned off the light outside their room. Now the couple only had moonlight to gaze at each other by, if they so chose. Minutes passed with only the occasional shuffling under the covers for comfort. Despite the silence, neither Ranma nor Akane could quite find sleep.

Ranma was the first to break the silence. "Akane?"

"Hm?" It took Akane a few seconds to stir. Although she hadn't been asleep, she'd been closer than Ranma obviously was.

"Your turn."

Still squinting her eyes, she shook her head to clear it. "What?"

"I told you when I started liking you, now it's your turn." He was on his side looking at her.

Akane thought back to their conversation on the train. "I asked when you fell in love with me. You didn't answer the question completely."

"So?"

Akane was fully awake now. "So I don't owe you an answer."

"That ain't fair," Ranma whined.

Akane propped her head up on her hand, now facing him. She grinned like a Cheshire cat. "I'll make you a deal, interested?"

"I'm listening."

"I'll tell you to the best of my ability when I fell in love with you if, IF, you tell me one more thing."

"What's that?" Ranma was very curious at this point.

"Why haven't you tried to kiss me today?"

Ranma face-faulted. "What?"

"I don't think that I stuttered."

"Well, yea, I heard you. What brought this up?"

Akane held up her other hand and started counting off on her fingers. "Let's see, for one, you love me. Two, I love you. Three, we're married. And four..." Akane made sure she was looking her in the eye. "I've already gotten up the guts to kiss you."

"Well, I, uh, guess I haven't thought much about it."

"So even though you love me you can't see yourself kissing me?" Akane let a dangerous edge accompany her voice.

"Yea, well no, I mean, I can see myself trying to kiss you." Ranma was beginning a nervous sweat.

"Just 'trying'? And why only trying?"

"Because you'd clobber me!"

"Would I?" Akane had to admit two things: First, that she could see his point of view, and second, that it was FUN to tease him like this.

"That's the only way I see you respondin'. I mean, we've hugged and stuff, but kissing..."

"I've been open to it before," she reminded him. "I wouldn't have used the tape in 'Romeo and Juliet' if you hadn't come up with the trick first and whined about doing it in the first place."

"That wouldn't have counted. It was just a play."

"Then how about after you fought Mikado? It was just you and me then, and I was willing."

"Yea, well I guess we weren't alone long enough."

"Look, are we going to have to list every time that I might possibly have been interested to get it through your thick skull that I haven't always been a hundred percent against it?" Akane fought to keep from getting mad, as she could understand Ranma's reasoning.

"No, I get it. It's just that I ain't good at knowin' when it might be a good time to try. And before today I've been afraid we'd be forced into marriage if we did it."

"Well, we're married now, so try to keep in mind that now there might be times where it might be OK to try."

"Oh, OK. I getcha."

"Good," said Akane as she turned to sleep on her other side. That had been fun, watching Ranma fumble all over himself. Once again though, Akane was kept from her slumber.

"Well?" Ranma asked.

"'Well,' what?" Akane turned to face her husband.

"I told you why I ain't kissed ya. When'd you fall for me?"

"Hey, I never said when I'd tell you. Not tonight, but maybe tomorrow, if you're good."

"Don't make me wake you up right after midnight," Ranma threatened with a hair of amusement in his voice.

"You do, you die. Besides, that wouldn't be very 'good' of you."

"Gotcha." Ranma kept looking at his wife. "By the way, that's a, uh, nice nightgown you got there. Where'd you get it?"

"A gift from your mother." "Among other things," she mentally added.

"Guess I should've figured. But you do look nice in it."

Akane blushed slightly. "Thanks, but don't get too used to it."

"Huh?"

"It's a little too revealing to wear around home," she elaborated. "And I don' feel comfortable in it."

"You look comfortable."

"Physically I am, just not mentally."

"Oh." As Ranma saw Akane close her eyes and roll onto her back, an idea came to him. He waited until she looked comfortable. "Hey, you still awake?"

"Still a little, thanks to you."

"Sorry," Ranma said soft-spoken. "For that, and for this."

"What do you mmph ..." Before Akane could finish her question her lips were stopped by Ranma's own, their pressure both gentle and deliberate. For the first time, it was Ranma kissing a girl and not the other way around. That thought sent sparks flying through Akane, who could hardly register how the kiss actually felt. Before she could regain her composure and feel the kiss out, Ranma stopped. Her eyes opening, she slowly turned her gaze towards her husband. "Ranma..." came the almost whisper.

"Wow. I, I uh..." Ranma stuttered. "S-sorry about not givin' ya enough warning. Or askin' for your permission." He took in the shocked reaction on Akane's face and continued. "You're not mad, are you?"

Akane brought her fingers up to her lips, feeling where Ranma's had just been seconds before. "A little."

"Oh."

"It was too short..." Akane added, in a voice she hardly believe belonged to her.

"I just thought seein' how we just talked about it and all, you wouldn't... wait, what?"

"It was too short," Akane repeated, still unsure why the words were coming out, even as true as they were.

"Yea, well it was longer than the one you gave me."

"Was not."

"Was too."

Akane could hardy look at her husband as she felt the mother of all blushes coming on. "Really?"

"Well, at least it felt that way to me," Ranma responded, both in words and matching blush. "That one felt too short, not mine."

"Says you."

"Yea, says me."

"Well, I guess we both got what we wanted, just not at the same time."

"Why not?" Ranma asked before he could stop himself.

"What do you mean 'why not'? Because we didn't give each other time to respond."

"Well, do you want to?"

"Want to what?"

"Give each other time to respond? I mean, the other two don't have to count. We could, uh... well just because we already kissed each other don't mean... well we're married now, so time..."

"You want to kiss again." Even though Akane tried to make it a question, it came out a statement.

Ranma nodded. "We k-kiss each other an' don't stop till both 'o us are done. That'll be what we say our first kiss was."

Akane found herself inching closer to Ranma. "I... I think that works for me."

"OK, yea sure. Works for me too." Ranma slowly closed the gap. "Here goes, I guess."

Akane closed her eyes. "Yep, here it..." And before she could finish, it began, their first mutual kiss. Their lips met and Ranma closed his eyes, concentrating on the sensation, matching what Akane was already doing.

Ranma's arm moved of it's own accord, reaching over and snaking around the waist of his wife. Akane responded by reaching around his back and pulling him atop her. By the time the newlyweds broke to catch a breath, they were embraced like the lovers they always should have been. Neither content yet, their first break was short.

Akane found herself giving in completely to Ranma's whims, with both of her arms holding him close. Ranma propped himself up on one elbow as he gently cupped Akane's face, holder close as not to break their kiss. He held steady simply taking in the feelings of simple kissing and enjoying it for all of it's worth.

Akane moaned softly in delight as their lips felt each other out. As their passion intensified she could feel Ranma's heart beating through her own chest. She moved her hands to his shoulders, beginning to feel the strong arms that had carried her to safety so many times before.

Ranma was lost. He'd never let himself go like this and did not know what to do next. The spark, the fire, was there and he knew what he wanted to do. He knew of many things he wanted to do but dared not. Akane was ready for what they were doing now, and so was he. He did not know, however, what he was truly prepared to do next, and he had no clue how ready Akane was to proceed further. He decided to keep on going like this and enjoy the ride.

When Akane's hands slipped to feeling Ranma's biceps she did not know, but she enjoyed feeling them Why had they denied themselves for so long? Why did they let their stupid pride get in the way so much? Akane felt like all of her cares and worries no longer mattered. This was heaven, finally having Ranma all to herself and taking advantage of it. She liked this. She wanted this.

"Why hasn't he taken it further?" she wondered. That thought made her take a mental step back and examine the situation. Ranma for his part was acting the perfect gentleman, his hands never strayed from where they were supposed to be, and he was keeping his lips closed in kissing. Whereas Akane... When did her hands start slipping under his tank top to feel his chest? Had she really pulled him on top of herself? All that worrying, hoping that Ranma would let them take it slow, and here she was enticing him. With some mental effort, she ended their kissing by lightly pushing him off.

Ranma felt Akane pushing him off and reluctantly stopped kissing. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring into Akane's, seeing for the first time just how much she loved him. He tried to find his voice. "That was... uh... Wow! I mean..."

"I-it was everything I ever hoped my first kiss would be," Akane almost whispered in response. "It was good. Too good."

"You want to take it slower?"

"Yes." As Akane continued Ranma could see a slight hurt in her face, as well as some fear. "You don't mind, do you? I mean, if you REALLY want to..."

"hey, don't worry about it." Ranma felt a weight lifted from his chest. He didn't know what he'd have done if Akane hadn't stopped when she did. He pushed off from her. "We got all th' time we'll ever need."

Akane smiled, he wasn't hurt. "Yes we do."

"We should get some sleep now," Ranma said, though unable to get his body language to match.

"Yea," was Akane's response. She didn't, however, seem to mind that he was still hovering above her, suspended by his powerful arms.

"Right." The (not so) poor sap was still frozen.

"Uh, can you sleep like that?"

"Not really."

Akane started to lightly push him to the side. "Lie down. I can't use you for a pillow like this."

Happy that Akane still wanted to be in contact with him, Ranma complied. "OK."

Akane snuggled close to her husband and did as she said. With an arm draped across and her head resting on his chest, se closed her eyes and sighed contentedly. "Good night."

Ranma closed his eyes and enjoyed the contact. "G'night."

Comfortable in each other's arms, sleep finally found both. They dreamed good dreams, unaware of how chaotic the next day would be.

End Chapter 6

Next: "Schoolyard Announcement!"

Author's notes: And here it is, only a day after Video Reminder 4! I hope you've enjoyed these last three chapters, as it may be a while before chapter 7 posts. I've learned from my mistakes and will no longer post "cliffhangers" unless I already have the next chapter ready to go. As always, C&C are welcome, and reviews are always appreciated (they keep me going, don't you know). Have a nice day (or night, depending on when you read this)!