Author's Notes: I am terribly sorry for the long wait. I'd already finished the fourth chapter weeks ago, but it had a totally different content. After hours of contemplating, I decided that it wouldn't do, so I replaced it to come up with this.

Disclaimer: Not mine, not yours, but hers. But Avery's my creation, and let's just leave it to that.

The Diary of Akane Tendo

Chapter Four: Tutor, Tutee, and Kiss Stealer

Saturday, December 4, the little balcony outside my room

The winter breeze is making me shiver right now.

Fresh air always does me good. I mean, even though Japan already uses electricity-run cars and all that electricity-run stuff so what we breathe is pollution-free, there is still a considerable amount of carbon monoxide in the air that might harm us and disrupt our bodily functions.

carbon monoxide is CO

sodium hydroxide is NaOH

hydrobromic acid is HBr

And that's about the end of my knowledge in the present science lesson. This is because I haven't been able to concentrate with my lessons on account of the fact that I (together with Avery and Ranma) am the present subject of most school gossips. The fresh winter air sort of dilutes the pollution in my brain in order for me to think straight, because for the past few days I have earned enough credit in being a crazed lunatic that I wouldn't be surprised if I'd become like, Kodachi Kuno's roommate in the psychiatric ward.

It was early, early, early in the morning. And since I slept late last night, I expected to wake up around 12 noon. Seriously. Just after writing the last word in this journal a great sense of fatigue rushed into me, out of nowhere. But I didn't. Wake up late, I mean. Because suddenly, without warning or reason, I sat up on my bed. I wasn't even sweaty or anything; I didn't have any nightmares last night. I just abruptly sat up, just before the sun rose.

So I woke up, right? And I asked myself, as the pink sky greeted me a good morning, how and why I responded to an invisible stimulus with such a sudden action. It was so unexplainable. And until now, it still freaks me out, because nothing I know about psychology could clarify it. Maybe… maybe it's an omen that I am near death or something. One morning, I would do the same thing and sit up all of a sudden, only it's going to be my soul doing that and my body would still be lying comfortably warm on my bed.

No, make that comfortably cold.

Because maybe the reason for my death would be the fact that I forgot to close my window or the door to the balcony one winter night when a wild frosty storm attacks Nerima. I had frozen to death. And so my soul would bid farewell to my helpless little body with these words:

"Sayonara, little girl who was stupid enough to have forgotten to close her windows on a cold, raging winter night. You earn the title of little frozen snowdrop now."

And then I'd give the world a last pained smile before floating towards the heavens.

Oh, how I wish my death would be as easy as that. Because, you know, I've always liked peaceful deaths. Not the type where the cause of one's death was eating a dish with poison and vomiting until there's nothing else to vomit, or having been strangled to death by a foe or by a devious plant (Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix – Mr. Bode was strangled by Devil's Snare! I would never want to die like that) delivered anonymously by the said foe.

Why do my thoughts drift off a lot nowadays?

Okay. So I woke up. And since I was confused because I didn't know the reason why I sat up so quickly, I donned my gi and headed to the dojo. It is my sanctuary (well, next to my room). Whenever I feel depressed or angry or whatever emotion I am feeling that needs to be let out, I punch and kick and practice my katas until I feel better. So that's what I did this morning in order to let my libido out (psychology: libido is the general suppressed energy inside any living creature, and not just sexual as other people think. Two claps for Dr. Phil). Only I don't know where the libido came from this time, unlike last time when I went screaming into the night, because as I said I wasn't angry or anything this morning.

After sweating it out, I took a bath. I shampooed my hair and used my favorite berry-scented soap on my body. I pulled on my beige capris and slipped into my striped orange tank top. I felt as fresh as a field of flowers right after a morning drizzle. And I felt even fresher when I stepped out the room to my little balcony.

Yet now, I still can't put my finger on why I felt weird, troubled, disturbed. I know I'm making a big deal out of this, but heck – this has never happened to me before. Not when I first met Kuno, not when I realized the unkind fact that I've been playing male roles in school plays for, like, EVER.

I mean, okay. It's not as if I'm that unlucky.

1.) Even though my mother is not alive anymore, I have a father who loves me as much as she loved me. And I know that mom's watching over me all the time.

2.) Even though I can't cook, I have Kasumi to feed me whenever I am hungry. And yes, her cooking is excellent that if ever she opens a restaurant in Nerima, it would soon be the biggest restaurant chain in the whole world.

3.) Even though I am not actually the best martial artist in this dojo, I can still kick any hentai's ass big time.

4.) Even though I am totally distracted with my lessons nowadays, I am still smart enough to cope up with them when I am feeling a little better already (I hope).

5.) Even though Ranma and I have been forced into an engagement that we hated at first, I think both of us are getting along fine these days. He has actually turned a little sensitive and has apologized for some of his mistakes; he aided me when I much needed his help, like yesterday when the headache took over me and he carried me home. He even kissed me on the forehead in the process, which was really, really, really (1000x) sweet and spine-tingling in this totally positive way! If I didn't know better, I'd have thought he's under some kind of mind control, but whatever.

6.) Even though it is utterly disgusting, despicable, dislikeable, etcetera, I have a horde of hentais welcoming me everyday in school, ready to obey my every command. They'd probably jump into a lake full of crocodiles and/or leeches for me.

I mean, okay, I'm not that evil as to tell them to do that, but I'm just stating facts here. Luckily enough, half of them are not at all bad looking. It's just the fact that they're in the Furinkan High Hentai Horde that makes them such turnoffs. But really, not all of them are ugly. Some of them might be the type girls in school would want to go with to the dance. Deduce conclusion: I am not that unlucky after all.

Oh Kami-sama. I just remembered.

THE WINTER DANCE!

It's in less than a week and I still don't have a partner – Ranma hasn't asked me yet! I hope he remembers, the forgetful baka. I mean, after what happened yesterday, he isn't supposed to forget to ask! Or, you know. Avery. But I will resort to him only when–

Oh Kami-sama again.

Avery and I are supposed to have a study session today at 10! He offered to tutor me because he noticed that I started having difficulty concentrating on our lessons on that day when he helped me with science during study period – the time Ranma gave me a stupid reply when I asked him to join us, thus disabling me from concentrating on what Avery was telling me about oxygen, hydrogen, calcium, nitrogen, and dysprosium (aka the O H Ca N Dy elements, the ones whose discovery and properties I should have memorized a long time ago).

So that's what I woke up so early in the morning for! I have no date for the Winter Dance. And I completely forgot about the study session with Avery (who, I just remembered, asked me yesterday if we were really just friends. Oh, crud). These things have been tugging on my unconscious. I am so hopeless.

I have absolutely no reason to present how I forgot. If I were a woman who had just recently reached her half life and is on her menopausal stage, being forgetful might be excusable. But unfortunately, I am not a woman who had just recently reached her half life and is on her menopausal stage. I am, instead, a tomboy whom nobody wants to go to the dance with. A tomboy who, moreover, has so much libido inside of her that her only defense mechanism functional is screaming out loud in the middle of the night (suicidal threats included).

Oh, what am I thinking?

I am Akane Tendo. Akane Tendo, the girl whom "Kami-sama has never burdened with unbearable things," the girl who "should be confident with herself because she's one of the best girls around," the girl who is "smart, strong and cute," the girl who is "cuter than the cutest thing there is."

Someone's knocking at my door. It's Kasumi. I go inside my room. She says that Avery's here!

Saturday, the big marble balcony outside Avery's mansion

I have seen the world's goodness in Avery's eyes. It's like I've been living in the dark, with only a few stars twinkling dimly above me in a great big blanket of night sky, until Avery came, gave me a super telescope, and made me focus on a particular little star, only to realize that it is actually another sun, blazing with all its hot gas glory – only it's a bazillion gazillion miles farther.

So I was writing in my balcony when Kasumi knocked and told me that Avery was waiting for me downstairs, right? I immediately thanked Fate that I'd planned a feel-good day, that I was wearing nice clothes, and that I smelled like a basket of sweet berries. I mean, what were the chances? If it was any ordinary weekend, I'd still be in my pajamas, smelling like the day before.

Carrying my school stuff, I rushed downstairs (with my heart drumming against my chest, because I didn't know what to do or how to act on account of the fact that he asked me the "Are we just friends?" question yesterday) to find Avery sitting by the dining table, facing the koi pond outside. His peaceful emerald orbs reflected the color of the green grass, and I was just thinking, Oh Kami, he has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. They are the perfect complement to his brown hair. They are the perfect complement to his pale face. They are the perfect complement to his pink lips. His eyes are perfect.

In fact, they were so utterly perfect that I was already lost in their perfection before I noticed that Avery was looking at me already.

"Akane?"

I observed the way they widened in bliss when they saw me. And then my attention traveled to his lips, which were actually very nice. They look like if I kissed them, they'd be very soft. They opened and closed for a second ("Akane…" he called out. I was almost embarrassed, because staring at a boy's lips with him catching you red-handed is actually worthy of the adjective embarrassing), and it was then that I snapped back to reality.

"Oh!"

"Are you okay?" he asked, smiling his Avery smile as he got up, approached me, and carried my stuff.

"Y-yeah." I shook off the temptation of looking at his lips once more, and smiled back. It may have been a little tense because of the aftershock of yesterday's tension, though.

We made our way outside the house and were almost there at the gate, when we heard a loud SPLASH from the koi pond. I rolled my eyes, because whoever could it be but Ranma and Uncle Genma sharing their father-son affection, their daily routine every morning? Avery and I hurried to the pond where we saw a giant panda sitting miserably in the water ("Whoah! You have a panda here?"), with a smirking Ranma a few feet away. Before Ranma could throw a wicked remark, the giant panda pulled a Bruce Lee and attacked (with matching hand actions; if it had made the "Hiyaaa!" sound, it would have been a perfect spoof).

"Isn't Ranma going to get hurt? Pandas can be very aggressive," Avery noted, his tone more curious than worried.

I giggled. "Don't worry, that panda won't kill him."

Turns out, Avery was totally amazed that the panda knew wicked martial arts. He said he's seen trained pandas in the circus, but none of them were as amazing as the one in front of him, delivering jabs and kicks – practically sparring relentlessly with a human, and having enough skills to cope – until it flew (after Ranma kicked its stomach) and landed right on the spot in front of where Avery and I were standing.

"Hah!" Ranma gloated. I guess, because of the bursting feeling of victory into his heart, he didn't see us until he actually jumped right next to Uncle Genma. "Pop, you're really–"

"Hi, uh… Ranma Saotome," Avery greeted warmly. Yes, that was the first time they met face to face and exchanged a few words with each other. And I was so worried that it would lead to monosyllabic replies from each other, or, Kami forbid, words that aren't even in the dictionary. Even I felt the tension between the two of them. What's with guys, anyway? Why do they always see each other as rivals in some twisted, if not rational, way, and would even find something to fight about when there is none? And with the way things were going in my mad imagination, it was like I was transported to the Stone Age.

The way I could have seen it if they'd been heating up:

Avery: Hi, dugh… Saotome. Ungga.

Ranma: Hanabishi. Ungga (red aura glowing around body).

Avery: Dugh… fight panda dangerous.

Ranma: Me strong. Ungga. Me beat anybody. Me beat you. Ungga (thumps on chest wildly).

Avery: Me not doing anything. But since you ask, will give you what you want. Dugh…

Ranma: (takes out heavy wooden club) Me stronger than you.

Avery: (brows furrow) You not have manners, fighting in front of girl (turns around, looking at me).

Ranma: Dugh… Ungga (lunges at Avery anyway).

AND THANK KAMI-SAMA THEY DIDN'T HEAT UP. I didn't want cavemen fighting in the vicinity of my home, for crying out loud. More importantly, I didn't want to see Avery and Ranma exchange sparks of anger between their eyes, because they are both good people and there is like, totally no reason for them to fight.

Except for me. That is, if ever Ranma and Avery are both madly in love with me and are fighting for my affection. Which, of course, the chances are totally nil. Nada. Haha. Because if even one of them does love me, he'd have asked me to the Winter Dance a long time ago.

Anyway, Ranma looked taken aback, seeing Avery with me. "H-hi… what are you doing here?" His tone, thankfully, had no indications of anger or any related word.

"I'm just fetching Akane because we're going to study at my place. Want to come?"

Unlike the last time when I asked Ranma if he wanted to study with us, he didn't say "Kawaiikune!" due to any unstoppable impulse of his. He didn't get a chance to say anything, actually, because when his mouth opened as he was about to answer, Uncle Genma the panda landed a kick on his stomach and sent him flying towards the koi pond, continuing the sparring.

Avery didn't want to go because he was anxious about the battle, but when I saw Ranma transform into female upon hitting the water, I insisted that he would be okay as I put my hands on Avery's shoulders and pushed him outside where a black limousine was waiting for us.

The trip to his place took almost half an hour. I was figuring that maybe his place would be a haunted mansion or something, that's why it's far.

But more important thoughts were running through my head – I was thinking about Avery (who sat just inches beside me, with the Glade-scented air filling the small gap in between us) and how nice he's really been to me. There's nothing I could be uncomfortable with when it comes to him. Well, maybe nothing, except the fact that he's done so many good things to me and I haven't even repaid his kindness.

UM, AND HELLO, AKANE, THE WHOLE "ARE WE JUST FRIENDS" THING THAT HE WROTE IN THE NOTE YESTERDAY, I reminded myself. No way was I pulling a forgot-because-of-menopause stunt.

"I hope you're not mad about yesterday," he started softly. He took his eyes off the city outside and looked at me. "It was just meant to be a joke to cheer you up. The whole time you were in the clinic, my conscience was killing me."

A joke. It was meant to be a joke! I should have seen it coming – Avery was so not the trouble-maker type. When things were grave, such as the incident yesterday when I was in a really tight spot, he wouldn't make things tighter for you. Instead, he would loosen things up to help you breathe. Yesterday, he did it with a joke. A joke that I had totally misunderstood because I was caught up with so much negativity.

"I tried to catch you after school, but–"

"Avery."

"–you were sleeping in the clinic and I didn't want to wake you up–"

"Avery!" I said a little more insistently than I intended that he blinked his beautiful emerald eyes wide open in surprise. "I'm not mad. NOT, okay? Not mad. If I were, I wouldn't be here, wouldn't I?" I flashed him an assuring smile. It was like the two of us have been reversed – it was always him who flashed me assuring smiles that made me feel comfortable or calmed me down or made me feel less tense or made me feel okay. Deep in my mind, I was grinning, because he heaved a sigh of relief (which was so totally audible considering we were inside the limo, an enclosed space) that made him look like a child who thought he was in hot water until his mother forgave him.

"Thank you," he murmured, his eyes serene.

"No, Avery, thank you. I don't know how to… how to repay the kindness you've shown me, even though we've known each other for just a few days. You were always there to help me and all, but I've never done anything in return. I feel pretty uncomfortable when I'm with you because of that." I looked outside the window.

A thorn off my chest. And I just realized it now, but I've been hoping he'd ask me out to the Winter Dance in the limo. I was all, ask me out NOW. Now, Avery. Ask it already! Before the deadline arrives and I wouldn't have any date for the dance, because everyone else is taken.

Well yeah, there's Ranma. But at that moment, since Avery was right there, I had to hope for the nearest thing that could happen.

"Akane," he started. I looked up at him and he was smiling at me with his eyes blazing green as always, which made him look really cute. "I don't want anything in return. And besides, your company is everything I need. It's more than enough. You know, when I moved to Furinkan, you were my friend since the first day. I don't think you've realized, but it means really a lot to me. It's more than I could ever ask for."

I smiled back. Avery Hanabishi is such a great friend. Dr. Phil doesn't have to psychoanalyze him and tell me that for me to figure it out.

So I'm here in his mansion (no, it isn't haunted after all) on the third floor balcony. The place is located somewhere on a hill, and the view's great – there's this cherry blossom forest, evergreens, trees with golden leaves falling, trees without leaves at all, and all that nature. It's a sight for sore eyes. Avery fulfilled my wish – to see from a high place the view of nature's colors. It had been chilly when I first stepped into the marble balcony, considering that I was wearing a tank top and it was December and we were atop a hill, but Avery let me borrow a white fur overcoat that feels so familiar… like a giant bun warmer.

The table in front of me is occupied by school and reference books and notebooks. So far, I've memorized the periodic table of elements, the history/discovery of the O H Ca N Dy elements, the quadratic equation, and all about muscle cramps. We've already started on Fidel Castro and did an advance reading on a part of Cuba's history.

I've got to hand it to Avery - he really does know how to study. He's not here because he went to get a Philippine history book from the library on the second floor. And he did it by himself considering the fact that this mansion has many servants. I mean, if I lived a life like this, I'd have abused it before you could say "Winter Dance."

Oh, Avery's here, carrying a book as thick as an elephant's trunk. He says that after we summarize Ferdinand Marcos, he's going to accompany me back to my house. Calling this guy assiduous wouldn't bring him justice. Honestly!

Saturday, Avery's limo

It's like 5 pm. Avery did say when were studying that he'll have me home before dark, and he kept his promise. I wish he didn't. I'm going to miss the big bun warmer slash white fur overcoat that's wrapped around me right now. I wonder if it's made out of real polar bear fur. That would have to be bad, because killing animals for clothes is evil. Then I'd have seen something bad in Avery. I mean, okay, it's not as if I'm looking for a teeny tiny hole in Avery's perfect personality, but I've been thinking… if he didn't have any flaws, that would make him not human!

But if he's like that now, I wish he'd be not human all his life. He's sooo nice. He's the reason why I feel sleepy now – sleeping in this totally warm, positive way – because we ate so much Italian and French delicacies prepared by his chef (yes, he has a personal chef) and drank some red wine (it's good for the health!) while we were studying. He's the reason why I finally caught up with the lessons in school, because he's been patient in teaching me. And he is such a great teacher – even if I were the dumbest person on the planet, I bet I could still learn the quadratic formula and the periodic table of elements if he taught me.

He's gazing outwards at the orange sky, his eyelids drooping every now and then. We're both tired and sleepy. Our brains need a rest.

Come on, Avery, ask me out for the Winter Dance already. Ranma should have when he carried me home, but he didn't. I wonder when he's going to ask me out… but you! You're right there beside me. You can just whisper if you want…

It's so quiet.

Saturday, my room

My heart is beating fast. Twice as fast. Oh Kami.

I don't really recall what happened in the limousine after I wrote in this diary. I figure I had fallen asleep before I got home. That's not really a matter for my heart to beat twice as fast for, I know. And it actually isn't the reason why I'm out of breath now, as that abnormality can be easily predicted considering the fact that I've been so negative the past few days, because negativity can lead to abnormality, which, if I defined it right now, would be finding something like falling asleep in someone's limousine worthy of a double-time heartbeat.

No, it's something like waking up under a thick white fur coat inside my room, with Ranma Saotome slowly leaning his face towards mine, his blue-grey eyes half-closed, and P-chan squirming from under all the fur and squealing angrily, attacking Ranma and finally waking me up.

"Ranma!" I gasped.

"A-Akane, I can ex–" He couldn't continue because P-chan was scratching his face, which was blushing with the shade of a ripe tomato. "Stop it, pig!" He struggled and succeeded in taking hold of P-chan, throwing him outside the door, and locking the knob.

Shocked. I was shocked. It was almost a miracle that I could still talk. "What were you doing?" I asked quietly.

He inhaled deeply, desperately, about to say something – but words never left his mouth. "I-I…" he stuttered. He breathed in again. "When you arrived, Avery was carrying you because he told me you fell asleep inside his car. He gave you to me and so I carried you… he went back to his car and got your school stuff with that fur coat, and I led the way here to your room. He dropped off your books and told me…" he paused, vacillating, and then went on: "He left. I laid you there on your bed, and since it's cold I covered you with the fur coat Avery handed to me."

"What were you doing?" I asked again, without any tone of anger in my voice. Truth is, I was too shocked to be angry, to scream hentai, to ponder whether what he did was bad or good. I don't even know if I would have been angry. "What were you doing sitting on my bed and letting me wake up with your face inches from mine?"

He blushed even redder.

"Y-you were… you were sleeping, and I…"

Found you attractive, sleeping serenely under the all the fur? Found you irresistible, tempting? Am in love with you? Wanted to ask you to the Winter Dance, and thought that a kiss would be a good introduction and one of the most romantic ways to wake me up?

He made weird sound, sort of like a cross between gulping, being choked, and a whimper.

I knew there was no way out. He HAD to say it. He just had to. Whichever of the reasons I had thought of, any one of those! My hope was as high as it could be, the type where it could only be concrete if it stood on top of Mount Everest (sorta like a millisecond before an orgasm, come to think of it. Oh, not that I've experienced it before, but I've read about orgasm in Cosmopolitan).

Until a BANG on my door startled the two of us. And for the first time, Ranma looked really, REALLY glad that P-chan had interfered. "P-chan's trying to bash the door off," he said, but rather sheepishly. "I'm going now… goodnight." Without taking a last look at me, he hurriedly opened my window and jumped, along with his pigtail, blue eyes, and blushing face.

I gaped after him with my mouth open as P-chan continued to bang on my door. It began to form a rhythm, actually – the banging and the angry squealing – that I started imagining myself as a tigress in the woods, chasing her prey (with bongo drums playing in the background). I was about a yard away when…

An angelic voice began singing. A fairy appeared and saved my prey from being eaten by me.

I stopped my reverie and continued to listen to the rhythm of P-chan's banging, my mouth still agape.

WHAT? What, pray tell, happened? What, pray tell, did I do to have deserved such a fate? What, pray tell, did he think he was doing? What, pray tell, is going on with my life?

I mean, okay, it's not that I'm totally against what Ranma just did. If I were the past Akane, the one whom Ranma never showed his sensitive side to, I would without thinking mallet him out of orbit and wake up the whole Nerima with my screaming of the H-word. But I'm not the past Akane. I am the Akane who's finding the new Ranma weird, who's enjoying it at the same time, who's falling slowly for him. And now that I've written it down, I can never take it back (I'm using my G-tec).

I don't even care if he doesn't ask me to the dance. I just want to CLEAR THINGS OUT! I don't want to live in a convoluted web of lies and pretensions anymore. If only people could just read other people's minds, the world would be a better place. I know I've been hiding most of the truths about myself all these years, but I give up. I totally give up. The truth is going to reveal itself no matter how you try to conceal it, just like trying to hold water with your cupped hands. It will only trickle down.

It doesn't matter if it's in the manner of writing in your diary and having people trying to read it intrusively, or getting through a mob of overly inquisitive students and having to answer all their questions on the way.

Kasumi just poked her head inside my room and let my raging P-chan in. She just told me we're going to visit mother tomorrow, and closed the door as she went downstairs. P-chan's sitting defensively against my folded leg, staring fixedly at the open window as if Ranma might come back any moment. Which I doubt he would do, because he is so vague.

I wish Mom's alive. Then I could just tell her everything, and she'll tell me all the solutions.

Saturday, near midnight

I just realized how hungry I was, so I sneaked into the kitchen in the middle of the night. And I should have seen it coming.

When I opened the refrigerator, there was a box of white chocolates (with the Jacque Torres seal). No note – just the box. How thoughtful. Thoughtful, but too nice. Too nice.

Oh Kami, I am now officially the always-look-at-the-dark-side-of-life girl. What's wrong with being nice anyway?

Maybe I'm just too sleepy. After years' worth of thinking done in a span of five hours, who wouldn't be? I mean, I just realized, and then concluded that

1.) I take back what I said about the world being a better place if everybody could read everybody's minds. Because if that would happen, Ranma would find out that I've been comparing the feeling of anxiety and too much eagerness that I felt when he was in my room and was about to say something to a millisecond away from orgasm. Kami forbid he finds out.

2.) I take back what I said about not caring if he doesn't ask me to the dance.

3.) Avery does see me as a friend – only. The reason for all the chocolate and the kindness is on account of the fact that he is rich, and he was brought up by a good family. At least I think so. Come to think of it, I appreciate him more that way than if he was really courting me, as our schoolmates have been hypothesizing.

4.) I now know why the white fur overcoat felt so familiarly warm when I put it on. The same warmth radiated from Ranma when he carried me home yesterday. I remember him taking a deep breath, and then exhaling. His body was warm. Comfortably warm. The kind of warmth that I wished would engulf me forever, that would prevent me from being a little frozen snowdrop.

And if my definition of forever can be elucidated in the sentence "It took me forever to finally realize my feelings for him," which is approximately equal to sixteen years, then I take my definition of forever back.

Because I know that I want to feel his warmth and be with him for more than sixteen years.

Author's Notes: Weeeee, Akane's admitting it… finally! And ahah, I can see you've spotted my Harry Potter reference. Teehee, just did that for fun… maybe we could all pretend that Akane's read the series, giving her a valid reason to refer to it in her diary. And whoah, the hits to reviews ratio is very… disproportional! I guess I've got more shy readers than I thought… If you've read my fic, please don't be reticent in dropping even one-liners – each one of them is special and appreciated, anonymous or signed.

DarkLunar: Whether it was your friend or you who wrote the reviews, thanks a whole lot for all of them! As I said, all reviews are appreciated. Anyway, I engineered this story thinking that Akane's had her "different" side all this time, and that everybody only knew about it when I started writing about it. Haha! (",) So it's no surprise that you feel like it's still her talking (I am actually trying my best to write in the most Akane-ish way possible)... you're not crazy.

kenshinlover2002: Thank you. Hmmm... from what I know about Ranma, he's the type who makes up his mind quickly and sticks to it (especially when Akane is involved). He'll have it all planned, do anything to boost his ego, but he messes everything up in the end because of his inability to do things right when he's in front of Akane. You'll see if he does the same in asking Akane out to the dance. (",)

Snowfox: Yep, there's more to come. Glad you think it's awesome!

Lain: Oh, but the "happy and joyful" part seems too far away from this point…

mag: Thank you so, so much.

The-Shadow002: Thanks! I did the transition of Akane's feelings very scrupulously.

Story Weaver1: I know. (",)

allergi: I think so too. That's what I'll be aiming to write about. Glad you're enjoying it!

Jace3: Looks like everybody's noticed that Akane's a little less self-confident… don't worry, maybe that'll change soon.

Priestess Kohana: Of course, Ranma will. And did you really mean you wanted Avery to DIE? That's so cruel… most people think he's a hottie or something. Anyway, thanks!