Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma or any of the characters, they belong to the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi.
oOo
The rest of the evening continued as before, merry laughter filled the dojo, as the younger ones sat together at the table while the parents had already turned in their bedrooms or dozed off in a drunk sleep. After their little encounter, both Ranma and Akane felt even more relaxed, Ranma telling more ridiculous stories of his journey. Akane laughed and jokingly teased him about how many words came out of his moth for the fact, what little a talker he was indeed. As the hours past, one after another took off to go to bed, until only the two of them remained at the table. They had not even realized that they were deep into their conversation when Ranma noticed the song of a larch outside. "Yeez, it's almost dawn" he stated, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. They whispered their ways into the house, ascending the stairs together. As they parted at Akane's door (that would thankfully reveal a room that was not connected with another thanks to a hole as Nabiki did not pull off her plan) he hesitated a second, trying to say the right words. As if feeling his insecurity, she smiled warmly without saying a thing. He returned the smile and went off to the Saotome guest room.
Despite his fatigue he laid down staring at the ceiling resuming the evening. It was all like before. He had feared a wave of anger from Akane but instead she had welcomed him with warmth. Damn, she wasn't even mad about the moxibustion move he did on her. That fifteen minutes her legs remained paralyzed she remained seated on the veranda door where Ranma had carefully set her, squatting in front of her to be able to react right away in case she might lose balance (which was a challenge when seated but not completely impossible for the dork she was). Before that, he had held her unwittingly long in his arms, and she had not complained a bit about it. It was as if they were both consumed in their auras, embracing every bit of touch they felt from another. Feeling the smooth skin of her bare legs made him feel fuzzy, he had the urge to caress her skin, but he didn't dare although she wouldn't have felt a thing in her state. Her weight (he has held her one hundred times) seamed so light and her body so delicate, he was afraid of dropping her like porcelain. It reminded him of Jusendo, were he had held her motionless body for minutes, thinking he had lost her. Back then she seemed ever so fragile and old fears started rumbling in his stomach. He shook his head in the dark as if to supress these thoughts, she was home, safe, and now he was back to take care of her, stronger than before and ready to defend her against any enemy. He brought the sight of her smile on her doorstep back to his memory, her eyes sparkling in the dark and her lips knowingly smirking. He exhaled deeply "What are you doing to me…." He sighed when closing his eyes to escape into a deep sleep.
oOo
It was almost noon when Akane woke to the noise of rattling kitchen ware. She donned her gi and jumped down the stairs lurking into the kitchen where she found her eldest sister and her betrothed flirtingly washing the dishes together. Of course, Tofu had spent the night with his parents in the newly renovated attic, that temporarily served as another guest room. Their wedding was about three weeks ahead and there was a daily increasing tension in the air between the two whenever they were together. Obviously, Tofu had overcome his obnoxious behaviour in the presence of Kasumi for the most part; still, he remained nervous and clumsy around her. To that day, Kasumi was not allowed to his doctor's office when patients were coming in during opening hours. Both families were praying for improvement after the wedding.
Akane snatched a piece of fruit unnoticed and rushed to the dojo. She was yearning for a run to warm her muscles, but the weather today was already humid and hot anyways and she had a feeling the dojo was already occupied by someone, she had a score to be settled with. And she was not mistaken. Ranma faced the shrine in a lotus seat position, sunk in meditation. He must have taken this pose not too long ago, as he was still glistening with sweat. He wore gi pants and a black tank top which revealed an inviting look onto his broad shoulders. His sweat formed pearls on this bronzed skin. He looked so smooth and tangible, Akane felt a dazzling tingle in her lower stomach. She recalled the scene from the past night, Ranma messing with her on the grass and paralyzing her, just to pick her up ever so softly and holding her for almost five minutes close him. In his strong arms she felt so safe, it did not matter that he had just bewitched her of her ability to walk, the warm sensation of his body, close to her gave her wings to fly. To make things not to awkward, she had refused to gaze back into his eyes but made some jokes as to release the tension, which was rather appreciated from him. However, despite facing his back, she could now take a close look onto her fian… opponent. She tried to bring her thoughts back to her initial plan. I am going to fight him; I need to concentrate. But she could not oversee his somewhat more accentuated muscles and grown shoulders. Is it possible he had physically changed that much during the past weeks? Or have I failed to have a close look at him for so long? True, she had given him little attention lately, but she felt literally perplexed by the thought of having neglected him that much. Unwillingly her thoughts wandered off to what his chest and stomach might look light which caused a little sigh of hers. Gaah, get a grip of yourself, girl!
"Hm?" Ranma turned to look at Akane. He grinned. "I felt your presence. Hard to meditate when being observed." He jumped up and strolled towards her. Reaching her at the doorstep he gripped a towel, to wipe the glistening pearls of his forehead and neck. The top revealed the upper accentuation of his chest muscles, Akane mustered them, wanting to swich roles with one of the sweat pearls sitting on his skin. "What's with the gazing? Thought you'd be up for your morning run."
"I don't feel like running." She lied. She entered the dojo, easily sliding in a split next to him. He whistled marvelling. "And I am warmed up already. Some sparing could do good, though." She peaked up at him. "What do you say?"
"Sure thing. I'll give you couple more minutes to get ready."
"Hai." She nodded happily and did some more stretches. Now it was her facing the shrine, trying to collect her thoughts and condense her fighting aura while he stood there watching her in her gracile movements. She must have trained the past weeks, he thought to himself. Yesterday, she occasionally mentioned how she had picked up on her work out again (without mentioning the true reason and the immense intensity of her training), and he had gotten somewhat curious on how well she would perform. Her white gi (it must have been a new one, as it shown like freshly fallen snow) was widely cut giving sight onto her collarbones and her new black belt , not half as washed out as his, was wrapped tightly around her small waste. Also, her legs seamed slimmer in these pants. Her short hair fell into her gracious long neck. He cut of his focus, realizing that he was distracting himself. Damn, all that lonesome training in the woods had left him sensitive to female appeals, even those of a tomboy like Akane, he told himself. That must have been it, he was simply over-sensitive, that will wear off in a couple days.
She turned to look at him with cocky grin. "Free combat?" He sensed a hunger in her eyes and agreed with a feisty laugh "So be it. But don't you cry when I beat ya ass."
They stood apart from each other, Ranma took on his defence stance, still smiling at her. "Come on brick-girl, I ain't got all day." That was her signal, she immediately picked on his insult (that she anticipated) and lit up her battling aura like a cold flame. He whistled again as he started to dodge her starting attacks. Genuinely impressed by her ferocity, he shouted "Not bad so far, you could make more use of your legwork though". It was compliment in his opinion, to her it sounded like a scolding. Once again Ranma had used this session as an opportunity to teach her from above. She let anger get ahead of her and intensified her attacks, attempting to follow Ranma's hint to through more kicks. All he did was dodging her punches, not caring to go into offense himself. "Why don't you fight, I thought you were up to it" She complained. He remained cool lifting an eyebrow at her. "You know my principles. I don't hit girls, no matter how tomboyish they are." She broke of her attack, gasping, yet not out of breath. "How else can I get better, if you don't even give me the possibility to get to my limits." That got to him. It was the exact same reason, he had left Nerima, because he needed challenge. He had not thought that she might feel the same way when it came to her training. His expression became stern. He stayed calm for a minute as if in thought, then calmly declared. "You sure this is what you want… Cuz once I'm turned on, you can't turn me off so easily." Almost taken aback, she nodded. She swallowed hard and stood in defence, waiting. Finally, he would regard her as his opponent, apparently her skills have proved him that she was worthy. First slowly, imperceptible, then with accelerating impact, his battle aura grew hot around him, like an ambient flame. Akane was both, excited about the immense presence of his aura, and weirdly aroused by it. She tried to feed her dwelling emotions to her own aura und used the boost to once again through a hard punch at him. This time he did not dodge. He caught her arm with his right hand, clinging hard onto it. She felt his hot hand through the fabric of her Gi and his eyes staring right into hers. Again, she felt the arousal inside of her, due his sheer touch. They both grinned at each other. "Try me" She gasped throwing a kick towards his head, barely missing his nose by an inch. They started a dance of kicks and punches which they both either dodged or blocked. Ranma fought only with a portion of his strength, yet at least he fought, and Akane had to try her best to keep the pace. When he felt that her exhaustion was near, he decided to lid it up a bit more. Let her see what she got from all her teasing, he thought with a cocky smile, increasing his speed.
His aura exuded a boost of energy, so that she decided she had no other chance than to dodge his attacks if she wanted to avoid being knocked out. He threw punches and kicks towards her, knowingly aiming at spots not in the centre of her body to give her the chance to evade safely. She managed to do so but became aware of his incredible speed and found it increasingly difficult to keep up the pace. She started moving backwards, facing her aggressive opponent while trying not to get hit. It felt like his aura was still increasing and his punches became faster by the second, although obviously missing his target on purpose. Finally, Akane found her back on the dojo wall, having no possibility to further evade, so she stood there with wide eyes looking at Ranma, who stoke out for his last punch. She was perplexed by the way his eyes fixated her, there was no description for the emotions that were hiding behind the baby blue eyes of his. She felt her arousal has maxed to a new feeling she has never felt before. He directed his punch into the wall next to her head. He had trapped her between his hands and the wall, he calmly stated "Gotcha" as if to highlight his victory over her. They stood not even an inch apart from each other, puffing and staring at each other, while he captured her between the wall and his body. His aura still hot, mixed with hers; he'd felt her aura changing throughout the duel, what was initially pugnacity quickly morphed into an aura he was not able to define but it felt thrilling, even arousing. It was mesmerizing how strongly their energy fluxes mingled, causing an out-of-the-world sensation for the both of them, although Akane was not as experienced in feeling and reading auras like he did.
He felt her presence before him, they were closer than yesterday: chest to chest, hip to hip, face to face, their chakra points just centimetres apart. He realized that she was not in a stance of defence: She looked at him like hypnotized. Suddenly aware of their closeness and that he was the one initiating it, he pulled away an inch, yet suddenly felt her hands lifting to his chest, grabbing onto his shirt as if to say: stay. Her big hazel eyes seemed to devoir him, he was not capable of interpreting them, but they were screaming something. Breathing became hard, the urge to close the gap between their bodies unbearable. His last though was Now or never when he focussed her inviting lips, slightly parted, when his mind shut off and his body took control over his doing.
The past couple seconds felt like an eternity to Akane. He would not dare to break of their closeness just now, so she just had to get hold of his chest. Her fear he would let go of her was so agonizing, her heart felt like it was kept in claws. When the fear in his eyes fade away and made room for a, new, bold expression, like the one he had shown to her on the weaver's festival in spring, she felt her knees weaken like he used that moxibustion on her again. As he leaned in forward, she closed her eyes to concentrate all her senses to the contact on her lips. Both could almost feel each other lips and taste their sensuality…
Kasumi's voice ripped them back to reality. "Lunch!" They were startled, Ranma immediately jumped back and scratched his neck. "I guess I won, didn't I" He looked at her, trying to figure out what had just happened. Akane, blushed and averted her gaze. "Well, I let that one count, but in a real combat I would have blown back." She lied.
"Come on..." She rushed out of the dojo making a face and sticking out her tongue. "Baaaaa-ka"
He was left standing there, unable to believe how he could ever curse Kasumi's cooking as he did now.