Sendai
By M. Zephyr

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

Warning: lime scene below at the beginning of this chapter.

Chapter 14. Deepening Relationships

That night after the engagement party, alone in their shared bedroom, the two were getting ready for bed, tired but pleased with the way the evening had gone. Ranma had already stripped down to his boxers and undershirt, while Akane was still changing. She had just finished stripping down to her panties, when she heard him exclaim "Oh my God!" behind her. She spun around, to see that Ranma had a book open on the bed beside him. A book with illustrations. The book, in fact, which they had received at the party earlier that night.

She couldn't help herself. She giggled merrily, causing him to look up to glare at her. Rather, he intended to glare at her, but the sight of her standing there stunned him into silence. Granted, they had been sharing the same bedroom for several weeks now, and this wasn't the first time that he had seen her body since then, but previously it had only been quick glimpses while she changed her clothes, mostly with her back to him. He froze, unable to look away from the sight.

Akane saw the look in his eyes change from surprise to something else, which at first puzzled her, but after a moment she identified it as intense desire, even lust. She only then realized how much of herself she was showing to him, but did not move to cover herself immediately as she became mesmerized in her own turn by his noticeable reaction to her partial nudity, and grew aware of her reaction to his reaction. She sauntered over and sat down beside him, pressing her hip against his, then twisted her torso so she could put her arms around his neck and look into his eyes.

"You like what you see?" she asked throatily.

"Yeah," was the totality of his voiced response. He hesitantly moved a hand up to caress her. This was the first time he had touched her there without her bra being in the way. She moaned and locked her lips onto his, pressing herself more firmly against him. Ranma pulled her over onto his lap, facing him, and they progressed to more intimate caresses, although Akane was hampered somewhat by the cast on her arm.

"Akane?" he whispered, with a slight moan. "I'm not sure that this is such a good idea."

"Shhh," she whispered back. "We won't go any further than this, but right now I need to relieve some tension, and I think that you do too. Oh ... you can touch me there ... a little more firmly. Just pretend that it's your own body when you're a girl."

It was not long before their tensions were indeed relieved, Akane still sitting in Ranma's lap, both still wearing what they had been, waiting for their breathing and thought processes to slowly return to normal. She hugged her fiancé tightly, trying to make sure he was aware that she had no objections to what they had done, now that it was over.

"That was wonderful, Ranma," she sighed contentedly.

"I definitely have to agree with that. ... Um, but we're going to have to be careful doing this in future. It wouldn't have taken much for me to have tried to go a lot further. If you had given me the slightest indication of being willing to do so, I'm not sure if I could have stopped myself."

"I know what you mean. It wouldn't have taken much to push me over the edge, too, and I wasn't really in a mood to listen to logic."

Ranma cleared his throat. Feeling embarrassed, he said, "Well, I think I need to clean up a bit."

"You and me both," she agreed with a small giggle. Getting up, she went over to get some tissues, and then tossed the box to him. Looking over her shoulder at him with a mischievous little grin, she slipped off her panties and tossed them at the laundry hamper. Nude, she walked over to her dresser, where she bent over slightly to fetch a new pair out of the drawer. By the time she had her pajamas on and had turned around, she saw that he hadn't moved at all, even though her back had been to him the entire time. The box of tissues was still sitting, ignored, in the hand with which he had automatically caught it.

"Time to wake up, Ranma."

"Oh, um, yeah."

With a small, smug smile on her face, she sat down on her futon and watched while he stood and stripped off his boxers, Akane very much taking pleasure in both the view and the sight of the normally assured Ranma feeling self-conscious. He was well aware that she was watching him as he cleaned himself off and put on a clean pair of boxers.

"Enjoy the show?" he asked drily when he was decent again.

"Yes, actually." She was grinning broadly.

But her grin slowly faded into a more serious expression. She stood and walked over to her dresser once more. Opening a drawer, she stood in front of it and faced him, her nervousness increasing. Puzzled, he slowly sank down to his futon, sitting on it and watching her closely.

"Um, Ranma, just to be sure that you do know, I'm not ready to go beyond what we did tonight. I didn't even mean to go as far as we did. Not that I regret it in the slightest," she quickly added before he could say anything. "But I think we've both had fair warning of how easily we might forget common sense and do something before we're ready to. If that should happen, then I want you to know about these so that hopefully one of us will remember them in time."

She reached into her underwear drawer, without looking, keeping her eyes on his, and pulled out a box of condoms. She held them out for his inspection.

"Doctor Tofu gave them to me when we rearranged the bedrooms. Just in case." Her cheeks were burning with embarrassment.

Ranma was blushing too. "Oh, I guess ... that's good to know."

"I think maybe I'll call Doctor Shirayuri too, and see about getting a prescription for oral contraceptives. We'd be a lot safer that way if something does happen, and besides, it's only a couple of months before we get married and I'd want to be taking them anyway," she finished up in a rush.

Ranma bobbed his head, uncomfortable with the subject. Akane gave him a small, crooked smile.

"Still my shy little baka, aren't you? Maybe I'd better start looking for ways to cure you of that shyness, before our wedding night," she teased.

"Hey, I ain't all that shy," he replied hotly.

She smiled sweetly down at him, sitting there, then bent over and kissed him on the nose. "Whatever you say. Good-night, and pleasant dreams."

"You too."

They settled under their covers, the light turned off, and slipped into slumbers which were indeed filled with pleasant dreams for the both of them.

Weeks passed and the temperatures dropped as the year progressed into late autumn, and life continued pretty much as before, except for a proliferation of bridal magazines and the like on every flat surface in the apartment. Ranma and Tofu were seldom asked for their opinions, and had little useful to add when they were. Even though it was hoped that the worst of the suitors/rivals would no longer be a threat, the two couples decided to rent a hall in the neighboring ward of Suginami rather than in Nerima, and to provide transportation for the guests to and from the Tendo home. The actual location where the wedding would take place would be kept secret until everyone arrived. They hoped in this manner to avoid any wedding crashers.

The guest list was slowly fleshed out, striking an uneasy compromise between the wishes of the principals, who wanted to keep it small, and the desires of the parents, who seemed to want everyone in Nerima to be present. The men did find themselves roped into helping with the invitations. Emails flew back and forth steadily to coordinate the plans between the wedding and the reception (which would be held in the Tendo dojo after the wedding party returned to Nerima).

While all of this was going on, the four of them were still working at their jobs, Akane and Ranma were keeping up with schoolwork, Kasumi began taking classes to prepare for entrance exams, time was still being put into martial arts training, and such few random scraps of time remaining here and there were stolen for activities such as sleeping and cuddling.

As the end of term approached, the strain started showing the most for Akane and Tofu. This is not to say that Kasumi and Ranma were not feeling attacks of nerves as well, just that they were not showing them to nearly the same extent. Tofu began to exhibit the intermittent return of the symptoms he used to experience in Kasumi's presence. Akane was having flashbacks to the previous wedding disaster and nightmares about similar events taking place at the upcoming ceremony. Ranma in particular had his hands full trying to keep his fiancée calm enough that her school grades did not suffer.

One welcome development was revealed in an email from Nabiki, relaying information from her contacts in Nerima.

Wonderful news for Akane and Ranma:

I am reliably informed that the Nekohanten has been sold! Apparently, Cologne hauled Shampoo back to China while the girl was still recovering from her injuries, and left Mousse behind to manage the restaurant. He sold it and followed them later.

I'm also told that Ukyo isn't looking quite as depressed anymore, and that she's even been spotted going out with Konatsu. I guess this means Ranma isn't all that totally irresistible after all.

Nabiki

On the strength of this news, wedding invitations were sent to both Ukyo and Konatsu. The latter accepted, but Ukyo politely, firmly, and very formally, said "No, thank you." Unsurprisingly, there was no invitation with Ryoga's name on it.

The thing which unnerved Ranma the most was that Murphy's Law seemed to have been suspended, for a time at least. Wedding gowns and tuxedos were ready on time, floral arrangements were all confirmed for delivery, all of the invited guests sent their RSVP notes (to the Tendo home) answering yes or no. With each passing day he kept expecting something to go wrong, and was starting to get more than a little nervous that it hadn't. He had a superstitious feeling that something had to go wrong at some point, that it was inevitable, and that the longer it was delayed, the worse it would be.

The night before the first of their end-of-term exams was an especially bad one for Akane. She misplaced her English textbook and had to borrow Ranma's, she tore a hole in a favorite dress, and she was ordered out of the kitchen by Kasumi after breaking two dishes while drying them. Then, while in her room working on some notes shortly before bedtime, she broke her pencil no fewer than three times. It was too much. After the third time she began to cry softly.

Ranma closed his own book immediately, and moved over to sit beside her, putting an arm around her and holding her close. "Shh, Akane, calm down. You know that you know this stuff. It's going to be all right tomorrow."

"I know Ranma," she replied quietly through her sniffles. "I'll do fine as long as I don't let my nerves get the better of me during the tests. What I'm really scared about is the wedding ... not that I'm telling you anything you don't already know. I want to be married to you, but lately I've been wishing more and more that we had just eloped."

"Our parents would never forgive us," he smiled, "though sometimes I wish the same thing. Still, the Kuno's and Shampoo won't be able to do anything, and I honestly think Ukyo won't bother us either. That really only leaves Ryoga or the accidental chance of someone like Taro or Happosai. As for them, since the wedding itself won't be anywhere near home, I really don't think we have much to worry about."

"I know all that up here, baka," she said, pointing at her head, "it's down here that I'm having trouble convincing myself." She was now pointing at her heart.

"What, here?" he asked quizzically, as he brought a hand across and groped at her left breast.

She slapped his hand. "Stop that. You know perfectly well what I meant."

Ranma grinned. She was no longer crying, and seemed a bit calmer, which was what he wanted.

"I guess it's time for bed," she now said quietly. "We need a good night's sleep for tomorrow."

Ranma was getting worried as he felt her tensing up under his arm all over again. "Come on 'kane. It's going to be fine; you need to relax."

She sighed, and continued softly. "It's the nightmares. They're coming almost every night now, and each morning I feel like I didn't get any rest during the night. I don't know how to stop them."

Ranma just held her more tightly. After a minute, Akane turned her face up to look at him. She bit her lower lip with her top teeth. "Ranma, would you sleep with me tonight? I mean ... sleep in my bed with me, and hold me, to try to keep the nightmares away?"

Ranma looked startled, then replied, with a slight quaver in his voice. "Um, okay. Would you like me to go change into a girl? So you'll feel like there's a little less chance of something happening that shouldn't?"

Akane smiled at him gently. "No, that's okay, I trust you. Besides, I like it more to be held by this version of you."

"You might trust me; I wish that I were as sure that I trust me. But we'll do it your way."

The next morning, Akane awoke with a weight across her side and something pressed against her back. As she blinked her eyes, trying to place the unfamiliar sensations, she saw that Ranma's futon was empty and that was sufficient to recall the memory of his lying down beside her last night. A tender smile curved her lips.

‹Mmm, I feel so warm like this,› she thought to herself. ‹I hadn't realized it could feel so good just to wake up to feel him lying beside me. Oh! It worked too! I don't remember any nightmares from last night, and I feel so much better this morning.›

She lay there for about ten more minutes, just enjoying the sensations, until the alarm went off. Sighing with regret at the need to arise, she turned off the alarm and then rolled over to face her fiancé. She had learned some months previously that shaking him or yelling at him were not the most effective ways to awaken him.

She moved forward and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. "Ranma ... time to wake up."

"Hmmmmmm?" He bent toward her and returned the kiss, then sighed. "Okay, I'm awake."

Then his eyes flew upward as he realized she was lying beside him on the bed and their arms were around one another.

"Wh-wh-what? Akane, I'm sorry, I ... I ... wait a minute ... we did this on purpose, didn't we?"

"Mmm-hmmm." Then she giggled softly. "And I want to thank you. It worked, I didn't have any nightmares all night, and I feel better this morning than I have in weeks!"

"Oh, good! Then it's time for us to get over to the dojo for me to beat up on you before breakfast."

"Meanie!" she exclaimed, as she rolled over out of bed, and started to unbutton her pajama top. Just as she pulled it open, his arms came around her and started tickling her stomach.

"Who's a meanie?"

"You are! Ranma, stop!" She was starting to laugh uncontrollably. "We'll wake the others!"

"Ah, all right." He stopped his attack, and patted her bottom as he walked past her to pick up his sweatsuit and gi for the trip to the dojo. "We'll continue later."

As Ranma finished dressing, Akane suddenly realized that she was still standing there in her pajamas, with her top half off. Her mind was still frozen over the pat he had just given her - he had never before treated her body with such casualness. While she resumed removing her pajamas she thought it over and decided that she approved. After all, they were going to be married in less than three weeks, and she wouldn't want him to treat her like she was made of porcelain when the time came. She finally found her voice as he was walking out of the bedroom door.

"You just wait until later, buster! I'm going to get you back for that."

The experiment had worked so well that Akane asked Ranma to sleep in her bed again that night. In spite of his own doubts as to his self-control, he could see how much better Akane was feeling, so he agreed, and they continued to do so every night thereafter. It did not stop her nightmares completely, but it seemed that whenever one started she would somehow become aware of his protective presence nearby, holding her, and it would fade away to be replaced by a more pleasant dream.

Ranma realized that their new sleep routine might also be helping him with his own nightmares. While he had not been nightmare-plagued like Akane about the upcoming wedding, he did suffer from occasional nightmares about the cat-fist training, falling into the pool at Jusenkyo or, more recently, Akane's death at Jusendo. (He refused to soften this last memory in his mind with the phrase "near-death" instead of "death." That would seem to lessen the miracle that she was alive and with him today.) One night he started to relive her death at Jusendo, but somehow knew that the real Akane was in his arms, in their bed, and the nightmare just faded away, albeit the erotic dream which replaced it bothered him a little. He had awakened toward the end to find that he was pressing himself against Akane in much too intimate a fashion, causing him to worry once more about the extent of his self-control. He decided, however, to keep these concerns to himself.

In any event, Akane was feeling much calmer and more relaxed as she took her tests, and was confident that she had done well on them. Ranma also shared her confidence in his own results; confident not that he had done spectacularly, but that he had achieved his goal of doing better than the previous term.

After school on the last day of the term, Akane went down to the school office to make sure that they were clear on the change in her marital status which would be in effect at the start of the next term. Ranma headed outside to meet their friends, to confirm that there were no last minute questions or confusions about getting down to Nerima for the wedding ceremony. After going over the directions with them one more time, Kenji pointed over his shoulder and spoke.

"Hey Ranma, isn't that the guy you fought with last term?"

Ranma spun around to see Ryoga looking around himself, as if he found the location familiar and was trying to figure out why.

"Oh Jeez. Maybe if he doesn't see me he'll just wander off and get lost again." Saying this he ducked back toward the school doors, but it was an effort made in vain.

"Ranma!" shouted the familiar voice from behind him.

Sighing deeply, Ranma slowly turned back around. In a weary voice, he called out, "What? Shouldn't I prepare to die, this time?"

"I don't care if you're prepared or not. You forced Akane to leave her home to go off somewhere and live with you. You told her about my curse without giving me a chance to explain the truth to her! You've been doing everything that you can to try to make her hate me! This time I really am going to kill you!"

"Whatever you say, Ryoga. Follow me!"

Ranma took off running toward a side of the schoolyard which appeared to be free of fellow students, hoping to lead the apparently inevitable fight away from his friends and other innocent bystanders. The lost boy gave chase, howling with his fury.

"Stand and fight, coward!"

Ranma reached his intended destination, and with stunning suddenness stopped and spun around, launching a kick in the same movement. Ryoga realized too late that he had allowed his emotions to betray him in a fight yet again, and stumbled slightly, unable to adjust his footing quickly enough as he tried to get an arm in position to block the kick. Ranma's foot slammed into the other boy's chest like a battering ram, with the cracking sound of a rib breaking, sending him flying through the air for some six meters or so. He was enough of a martial artist to manage to land properly on his feet, however.

Ryoga took up a proper stance this time, fighting his emotions down, and ignoring the pain in his chest. He was determined to beat Ranma into a bloody pulp, then go to find Akane and beg for her forgiveness and to have the chance to explain himself. He was certain that all he need do was to confess his love for her in order to have her understand, and for her to realize how foolish it had been to go anywhere with Ranma.

Ranma was just standing there with his arms crossed. "Ryoga, I suggest you take off before Akane gets out here, she ain't forgiven you yet. Besides, we're getting married in less than two weeks, and I don't intend to take any chances by playing around with you today."

His opponent's eyes widened in shock. "Married? Nooo! I haven't told her that I love her yet! You can't take her away from me, I won't let you!" He charged in again.

Ranma dodged around the other boy's blows, while his own strikes were made with surgical precision. Ryoga felt his left arm going numb from a hit to the shoulder, a blow on his chin rocked his head back, his right thigh screamed in pain as a kick dug deep into the muscle at its back. He felt a sickening realization that Ranma must have been holding back in all of their previous fights, as his own blows were not only failing to connect, but he was only managing to block two out of every three strikes coming at him. A kick to the stomach sent him flying again, and he fell to his knees on landing, dizzy and retching.

"Give it up, Ryoga!"

"Hell no!" The boy staggered to his feet again. He settled into a stance, waiting for Ranma to attack, but the attack did not come. He realized that if he wanted a fight, he would have to take it to his enemy. He moved in warily, flexing the muscles of his left arm trying to get it back into operation. He tried his best combination move only to find it completely blocked and his legs swept out from under him. He landed heavily on his back, and an iron elbow drove into his solar plexus. It took a massive effort to continue breathing and not pass out. He looked up to see that Ranma had backed off a little distance.

"I don't want to fight you today, Ryoga. Just get up and leave."

The boy growled, and managed to climb to his knees, staring with hate-filled eyes at his rival. He started to glow green, feeding all of his despair and depression into a massive Shi Shi Hokodan strike.

"Ryoga, stop it! There's no point to this, and you've been warned what that stuff does to you!"

"I don't care, Ranma, so long as I can see you in hell!"

The green glow intensified quickly, when suddenly, from off to the side, a large red ball of chi slammed into Ryoga and threw him against the school wall. He bounced off of the wall, leaving a visible dent in it, and collapsed to the ground. The boy rolled over onto one side and looked up dazedly, to see Akane glaring down at him murderously.

"Akane!" he gasped. "Please! You have to let me explain!"

"Explain what, you pervert!" she shouted. "How you used your curse to see me undressed and to sleep in my bed! How you used it to listen to my secrets, and then tried to use them to drive Ranma and me apart! Just what do you imagine that you can explain!"

Ryoga was having trouble focusing, but he cringed at what he could make out of Akane's expression. "But I did it because I love you! And Ranma doesn't deserve you, all he ever does is insult you and fight with you!"

"Love!" She clenched her fists, and spat on the ground. "You don't know the meaning of the word! You used me, you abused and betrayed my trust! You allowed me to think that you were a friend while all the time you were manipulating me, trying to make me mistrust Ranma, acting as if he were picking on my friend and my pet for no good reason, and still he kept your dirty little secret! Ranma at his worst was one hundred times the man that you will ever be, and he at least has been growing up. I would rather have declarations of love from Tatewaki Kuno than from you!"

Ryoga stared up at her from the ground, shell shocked, his mouth opening and closing but with no sound coming out. Akane snorted a breath out through her mouth and nostrils, as if clearing them of something that smelled bad, and then spun around to put her back to the defeated young man and held out her hand toward her fiancé.

"Come, Ranma, it's time to go home. Let us leave the pig where he belongs, lying in the mud and dead leaves."

Ranma held an arm out toward Ryoga for a moment, palm out and fingers up, in a gesture of parting, a look not of sympathy but perhaps of regret and pity in his eyes. He then took Akane's hand and together they walked off, toward their watching friends and the school gate, leaving the boy behind them to wallow in his despair, unable even now to understand what it was that he had done wrong.