A Ranma ½ Fanfic written by Sabrina Anne

Disclaimer: The characters and stories of Ranma ½ are © Rumiko Takahashi, and are used here without permission or license. This work is for non-commercial use only and is produced for the sole enjoyment of fans, not to be distributed for sale.

Hi everyone! Thanks again for reading and your wonderful reviews for chapter 3. Thank you so much for your patience, it has been one truly crazy summer. Hope you enjoy this one!

The beginning of school had come and gone and as usual after taking a big step, nothing between Ranma and Akane had changed. Each morning following Ranma's homecoming, Akane had awakened to a lingering tingling feeling in her toes and would often find herself wondering when they would share another passionate kiss.

This morning began as just another typical morning for Akane. She woke up with a smile only to realize she had been dreaming, and stretched before swinging her legs over the side of her bed. As she stood up, she turned to look at her calendar hanging over on the wall by her closet and her mood suddenly changed. It was her birthday. Ordinarily, one would be happy on the day of their birth, but for the past year, any special occasion seemed to warrant a wedding that she was not particularly ready for. Ever since the Saotomes entered their household, the smallest excuses were given to push her and Ranma into getting married. She wondered what the plan would be this year. Sleeping potions? A contest of some sort, knowing how competitive she could get? A challenge, knowing how Ranma could never turn one down? To make matters worse, her father had rented out the dojo for the day to a senior center that needed space to get together for a social event. This kept Kasumi pretty busy, as she offered to do most of the catering. Nabiki was pretty busy as well, offering to run some type of raffle to win prizes. She had been locked up in her room for days scheming up some plans on how to swindle the old people out of some more money. If her sisters were busy, she knew there would be a small chance anyone would actually remember her birthday. Her father, as much as he loved and protected his daughters, had a hard time remembering small details, such as birthdays.

With a grumble, she walked over to her closet and hoped at least one of her friends from school would remember. It made her slightly happy that at least this year their school had gotten a bit more modern as far as their uniforms were concerned. She laid out her white buttoned shirt and plaid skirt on her bed and dug out her morning jogging clothes from her dresser drawer. She pulled a sports bra over her head, slipped into her shorts and dashed down the stairs to begin her morning routine.

Ranma woke up in a cold sweat. For the third night in a row, he had the same dream:

Akane had cooked a special dinner for him.

With a shiver, he stood and stretched before rolling up his futon. He glanced over at his father, sleeping lazily outstretched across the floor in panda form. It never ceased to amaze him how much the lazy oaf enjoyed sleeping in his cursed state. Shaking his head, he sleepily walked over to the window and looked outside at the backyard of the Tendou home. Akane was just coming in from her morning jog. She looked determined and out of breath, but more attractive than anything. Her abdomen was completely out in the open for all to see and the fruits of her workouts every day were really starting to pay off. He watched her stretch her legs before running onto the porch and back in the house. From inside his room, he could hear her footsteps running down the hall to the bathroom and decided he should get ready for school too.

When they both sat down for breakfast, it was silence as usual. Ranma was there eating first. He looked up at her as she came into the living room, wearing her pendant Ranma had brought for her from his training trip. He blushed a little, the memory of the day he gave it to her fresh on his mind, and looked back down to his bowl of rice. Akane had been hoping someone would say something to her, perhaps noticing that she looked a little older? She picked up the bowl that was waiting for her and looked around at the faces of her family. They were all busy talking about what was going on in their lives. Not even a tanjoubi omedetou. Sighing to herself, she picked up her chopsticks and dug them into her bowl of rice. When everyone had finished, she took one more look around the table. Kasumi was busying herself in the kitchen again, beginning to set out some ingredients for the dishes she planned to make for the senior social event later that afternoon and Nabiki was already in the hallway getting ready to leave.

Sighing once more, she stood, grabbed her schoolbag from the hallway and slipped on her shoes. It's not that she was looking forward to some "genious" plan of her father and Mr. Saotome's, but it would have at least reassured her that someone cared. Ranma followed her on their normal route to school, but kept quiet. She stole a few glances at him and it looked as if he kept opening his mouth to say something, but he remained quiet.

She grumbled to herself, hoping it was low enough for him not to hear. This was going to be a bad day.

During lunch, Akane sat outside with her friends. They each presented her with small tokens and birthday wishes and she was grateful for having such wonderful friends that cared. Ranma sat over with some guys who were watching a group of girls sitting and talking at a nearby picnic table.

"That one's really cute, I hear she dumped her boyfriend last week."

"Her friend's cuter. You can see her bra through her shirt! Ranma, which one would you rather date?"

Ranma wasn't paying. He was still trying to think of something to say to Akane. She had seemed so different at breakfast this morning. Usually, she would chat with one of her sisters, or small talk with her father about school or the dojo, but today she was rather quiet. Too quiet to be normal. Something was bothering her.

Did I say something to her? Immediately he assumed it was his fault, but if it had indeed been his doing, he would have been sent to see Dr. Tofu by now. He scanned the courtyard to see where she was and noticed her with some friends. She was laughing and smiling with them, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Hm." He said to himself.

"So which one is it, the brunette or the redhead?"

His friends stared at him, one of them waving a hand in front of his face.

"Hey man, what the hell are you staring at?"

"I already said she was cute!" Ranma shouted, turning to look at the guys. They blinked in confusion before realizing what and whom he had been looking at.

"Ranma thinks Akane is cute!" The taller of the two, Keitome began shouting to another group of boys. The others began taunting him and immediately he realized what he had said. Ranma grumbled to himself.

"I was talking about the redhead! The redhead!" He shouted back at them. By then, most of the schoolyard had turned to look at them, including Akane and her friends.

"You were talking about Akane!" Keitome shouted at him.

"That uncute stack of bricks? Yeah right!"

A sudden flash of battle aura was caught out of the corner of Ranma's eyes.

Uh oh.

He whirled around to see her glaring at him, the bright red of her aura soaring up into the air around her.

"Uh...hey, A...Akane..." he began to say, waiting for her response.

On a normal day, Akane would have sent him flying over the rooftops. She would have punched the daylights out of a training dummy, and in about an hour it would have all been forgotten.

Today was different.

She did nothing, said nothing. She merely walked away quietly.

"Real sensitive, Ranma." Yumei, Akane's best girlfriend folded her arms and made a face at him.

"What'd I do?!"

Akane's friends had started to form a circle around him, all shaking their heads in his direction.

"Would someone just speak up?!" He turned back to Yumei who had raised an eyebrow at him.

"You mean you honestly don't know?" She rolled her eyes and looked past him to her friends. "Idiot, it's Akane's birthday today."

Ranma almost fell backward at her response. He lost his footing, and slumped down to the soft grass.

Damn it, he thought. Why do I always muck things up?

Yumei shooed the crowd away before plopping down on the grass next to him. She was sweet, but her tone was firm.

"A girl's birthday is important to her, Ranma. Even more so if there's someone special in her life."

He blushed. "But I'm not… I didn't…we're not…"

She rolled her eyes again and held up her hand. "Save it. Nobody believes that crap anyway. Now lets talk about what you're going to do for Akane."

He sighed and thought hard about what he could do. He didn't have a ton of money to buy her something, and besides, anything he did at this point would just look like he was trying to apologize for what he'd said earlier. He knew Yumei was right. After all they'd been through, Akane deserved something great for her birthday. Slowly, a grin crept across his lips and he held out his hand to Yumei.

"Let me borrow your cell phone."

Akane walked home alone. She hadn't planned on waiting for Ranma, but Yumei assured her she had given him hell for the comment he'd made, so she changed her mind and waited for him after class. She had almost forgiven him…had he shown up. Frustrated, embarrassed, and finding herself angrier than before, Akane began the walk home.

"Hey Akane!"

Almost instantly, his voice gave her goose bumps, and for a brief second she completely forgot she was mad at him.

Unfortunately, that brief second was gone and she whirled around to glare at him. He was at his usual position on the fence above the sidewalk looking down at her with a mischievous smile.

"What, you want to say something else insulting to me?" She hurled her book bag at him and watched him catch it with lightning reflexes.

"Ah c'mon, you didn't take me seriously again, did you?" He hopped down from the fence and slowly approached her, but she took a step backwards.

"I don't care anymore. I'm going home." With a flip of her hair, she turned around quickly and began walking down the sidewalk again, but not before giving him one last glare. "Don't follow me."

Ranma's eyes widened and he reached out for her arm. "Wait…" Knowing that she couldn't go home just yet, he had to come up with a plan to stall her. Quickly, he grabbed her hand and began running down the street towards the train station. "C'mon, we're not going home yet."

Before she could utter a "Let go of me you jerk!" she was whisked down the streets of Nerima.

When they got to the train station, Akane had to lean against a ticket machine to catch her breath. Where the hell was he planning to take her?

Ranma dug into his pockets for some money to buy them tickets. He had an idea and it was only a few stops away.

"Ok just a few more steps," Ranma said, his hands were covering her eyes and unfortunately her nose as she found it hard to breathe. Although the train ride wasn't very long, it had been a grueling few minutes. He made her keep her eyes closed the entire time, which was embarrassing especially when the train came to a quick stop and she didn't know where to put her hands to balance herself.

"This is really getting annoying," she said, slapping at his hands. They were so strong, and his body was just about pressed against her back as he shuffled them to their destination. "If we're so close, why can't I just look?"

"Just keep 'em closed." He said, shuffling her through what seemed to be a gate. She could hear the hustling and bustling of people; a group of schoolgirls making their way somewhere, giggling about something, a woman on her cell phone. Finally, she felt him come to a stop and let go of her, his warmth from behind her disappearing.

"Open," he said. He stood next to her, watching her from the corner of his eyes as she blinked, rubbing her eyes a bit to get used to the sunlight.

"Where….where are we?" She looked around her as her eyes drank in the sight. The gardens were beautiful.

But the most prominent sight to see was the aisle straight ahead of them of sakura trees. What seemed to be hundreds of trees lined both sides of a wide cement sidewalk.

"Koishikawa Botanical Gardens," he replied, his eyes never moving from the sight in front of them. People were spread out on blankets on the soft grass underneath the trees, snuggling with their significant other, eating boxed lunches, or reading quietly to themselves. It looked peaceful, relaxing, and breathtaking.

Ranma tore his eyes away from the trees and looked at her. Her mouth was open in amazement, her large brown eyes continuing to look across the panorama of trees.

"C'mon," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the aisle. Halfway down, he started into a sprint and pulled her further into the gardens. They stopped at a small koi pond and Ranma bought a small bag of food for them to throw into the pond.

It was all so beautiful, but Akane couldn't help but wonder….what was he up to?

Meanwhile, back at the Tendou home, plans had slightly changed. After receiving Ranma's phone call, Kasumi finished what she had to do for the senior event and began working on Akane's surprise party. Nabiki, along with Yumei and several of Akane's other friends, were in charge of decorating the living room and setting up the karaoke machine. Kasumi came into the living room with a tray filled with an assortment of rice cakes.

"Wow, it looks great in here," she said as she gave the room a look around. Paper streamers dangled from the ceiling and the sliding door and Yumei was busying herself by putting up paper lanterns.

"I hope Akane likes it after the day she's had," Yumei said as she placed a lantern in the middle of the eating table.

"Leave it to Ranma to insult her on her own birthday," Nabiki rolled her eyes and continued to tape paper streamers to the walls.

It was getting late, and Akane was growing more and more annoyed. It was obvious Ranma was trying too hard to be nice to her, but it only continued to make her blood boil. She knew deep down she should be happy that he had taken her here and was trying to so hard to be nice, but everything he did after getting to the gardens just made the day worse.

Attempting to show off his balancing skills, Ranma had jumped across the koi pond and landed on the rocks that seemed to form a circlular path to the middle of the pond. Ordinarily Ranma's reflexes would have kicked into high gear, however, he lost his balance on a rock that had just been splashed by a large orange koi and fell into the pond, splashing Akane in the process. Akane had screamed at him, after they both were yelled at by one of the garden guards for playing in the pond. Ranma, had of course challenged the guard, who in return threatened to throw them out of the gardens. Annoyed and sopping wet, Akane had dragged him, now a her, from shop to shop to find hot water, but no one would let either one of them in their shop so as not to make a mess on the clean floors. To make matters worse, it was getting late, which meant it was dinner time and it was getting cold out. Any money Ranma had left had fallen in the pond when he slipped, and neither wanted to go anywhere near the pond for fear of the guard thinking they were playing again. Finally, they had found a public bathroom where Ranma could change.

"It's not like I fell in on purpose, y'know," Ranma sat cross-legged on the ledge of a small brick wall in front of the bathrooms with his arms folded. Akane, having just dumped a large cup of hot water over him, was screaming at him yet again for being such a jerk and wanting to show off. She was shivering and had her arms folded in anger.

"Just don't do anything else stupid, will you? I'm tired of watching your back today."

Ranma pulled off his shirt and wrung it out, his white tank top still soaking wet, but this time with luke-warm water. He saw her shivering and wished he had something dry to give her.

That wasn't the only thing he wished. The day didn't really go as he had planned, and he could see a direct correlation to how the day progressed and how angry Akane was getting.

"I'm cold," she said finally after a few minutes of silence.

"You want to head home?" He looked up at a big clock on the wall of the bathroom building. The family should be ready with party preparations by now.

She nodded and began walking away quickly, her arms wrapped around herself to keep her warm. He hopped off the ledge and followed her.

It wasn't until they reached the train station when the realization hit both of them.

"You idiot! You stupid stupid baka! Now how the hell are we going to get home?!" She punched him in the chest, harder than she normally hit him and continued to scream. Ranma stumbled backward, a hand immediately began rubbing the spot she hit him.

"This is the worst day of my life!"

Ranma emptied every pocket he had, desperately searching for coins but to no avail. They had no money for train tickets to get home.

"Look, if we just get on the train and explain…" He started to say, but her eyes were already narrowed with anger, her cheeks swelling from the apparent coming of tears.

"And explain what exactly? That you're a giant jerk and you don't care about anyone but yourself? I'm wet, I'm freezing, and I'm starving. I wouldn't be any of these things if it weren't for you!"

Ranma stared at her, speechless. There wasn't anything he could say to make the situation any better.

"I'm going home, and if I don't see you for the rest of the day…." She had turned around to start walking again, but whirled around to glare at him one last time. "…well then at least one good thing will have happened on my birthday."

And with that, she turned back around, breaking into a sprint down the train station. Where she was going to go, she didn't know. Whether she had meant what she said, she didn't know that either, just that she didn't want to look at him anymore. After all they had been through, Akane had expected Ranma to care a little more about her birthday this year. Instead, he was his usual self: a macho, showoff, and insensitive, selfish jerk.

She ran until she could run no more, leaning against a building as she gathered her breath. She slumped down to the cement sidewalk and sighed. The tears had stopped streaming down her cheeks the second she left the station. Part of her felt really bad for screaming at Ranma the way she had, but running had felt so good and had lifted her spirits just enough to stop the tears. As she stood up, she realized how far she had gotten and recognized her surroundings. Just another mile and she'd be back in Nerima! With a stretch of her legs and a quick crack of her neck, she prepared for another run and made her way down the street. Stopping at the gate only to catch her breath, she proceeded to slide the door open and find her family and friends gathered around a decorated living room.

"SURPRISE!" They all shouted at her. Their smiling faces, the decorations, the food, everything about that moment made her eyes swell with tears again and in her mind, she recanted all the lousy things she had said to herself about her birthday.

"Thank you…." She said, kicking her shoes off and stepping into the living room. "Thank you everyone!"

She blinked as she saw her friends from school and her sisters, who had seemed so busy this morning, and she knew she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Her father, along with Mr. Saotome, was already drinking on the other side of the room while playing with the karaoke machine. Nabiki came up to her, putting a cardboard hat on her head.

"As much as I'd love to take the credit for this one," she said with her usual air of arrogance, "…you can thank Ranma."

Akane stared at her sister as if she had seen a ghost. Her heart sank and she remembered the awful things she had said to him, screamed at him, and all the thoughts that overpowered her mind as she turned and ran from him. How could it be that the one person who made her birthday so unbearable was also the one who made it so perfect?

Ranma had made his way home the usual way when he didn't have any money: he stowed away on the roof of the train. He kept an eye out for Akane, peeking every one and a while in and out of the train's car windows, but didn't see her anywhere. He was worried about her, worried that something would have happened to her, and knowing how reckless she can be when she was upset made him feel even worse. When he left the train station, his mind wandered back to the fight they had before she ran off. They always said things they didn't mean, always told each other how stupid they were an that they hated one another, but this time her eyes glowed with such a fierce intensity, he couldn't help but believe it. As he approached the Tendou gates, he hesitated. From outside, he could hear the sound of the party. Laughter, and music, someone begging another person not to sing anymore. As he stood there, staring at the house, more and more he realized how much his eyes were stinging with the pain of wanting to cry. He truly had wanted the day to go perfectly. It was his original plan to distract Akane just enough so that her family could prepare the party, but instead of making her happy he had caused a fight, as he always managed to do.

Not feeling much like a party, he sighed and climbed up to the roof of the dojo where he could sit and be alone.

The night sky was shining with stars, and he looked up, choosing one to focus on. He shut his eyes tight, a single tear escaping down his cheek as he thought long and hard about what he wanted to wish for. Whether he was starting to feel better or wishing on a star had regained his confidence, he wiped his cheek and slid down to the edge of the roof where he could still hear the party. Flipping off the edge, he slowly slid the living room door open and was welcomed with open arms from Akane's friends and family. Akane glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, but didn't want to make much more of it. She quickly turned back to Yumei, who was singing another song on the karaoke machine.

As Akane was getting ready for bed, she thought about how day really hadn't turned out as bad as she originally though tit had. Not that she enjoyed following Ranma around the gardens and getting in trouble almost everywhere they went, but she had to admit it was a sweet gesture to bring her there in the first place.

And then there was the party.

Had Yumei not confirmed Nabiki's statement, she would never have believed it. Ranma? Her Ranma had planned all this? She knew she had to apologize for what she said, but she was tired of the same old routine they had been through time after time: Ranma would do something stupid, she would get mad at him, then go apologize and fix everything.

"Forget it," she said aloud to herself. She walked to her window and looked out to the backyard. Everything always looked so pretty surrounded by moonlight. She stood gazing out the window until a knock on her door startled her.

"Come in," she said, turning around to see who it was, as if she had to really think about it. It was late enough that everyone in the house would have already been asleep.

Ranma slowly opened the door and peeked his head inside before stepping all the way in and shutting the door behind him.

"I know what you are going to say, but just hear me out, okay?" He was fidgeting with his fingers and looking down at his feet.

Seeing no indication that she was going to protest, Ranma continued.

"I know you had a lousy birthday, and I was really stupid today. But…" He paused, looking up from his feet to catch her gaze. "….that just seems to be how I am around you."

She raised an eyebrow. "I make you act stupid?"

"Yeah. Well, you know, if it weren't for you I wouldn't do half the stupid things I do!"

Akane was baffled. Did he really just blame her for all the dumb things he does?

"What the hell kind of apology is that?" She folded her arms and continued to keep her eyebrows raised. "I mean really, you come in here after how you acted today and blame me for how stupid you are all the time?"

He stepped closer to her. "No, see that's just it!" Sitting down on her bed, he put his head in his hands and continued. "I'm not that stupid when you're not around!"

"What?"

He looked up at her, seemingly frustrated, internally searching for what to say.

"I think I've had my fill of you for one day," she said, shaking her head at him. "I don't understand what you're saying and I'm too tired to make sense of your nonsense."

"Akane – wait. I care about you… a lot. I just get so mixed up sometimes, and…." He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly, forcing her to look at him. His heart was pounding so fast, she could feel it beating through his fingers on her shoulders.

His mind raced as his eyes closed quickly, but not before he leaned in to press his lips against hers. His kiss felt hungry, desperate. She found herself surrendering, happy he was kissing her again, and slowly leaned backward until her back was touching her bed. Ranma's body followed her, but not once did he break the kiss. Ever since the last time their lips touched, he had longed for it to happen again, and didn't want it to stop. He could feel her hands clutching his back, pulling him closer, her breasts pressing hard against him. He slid his hands to her waist and he found bare skin. His brain was screaming at him to go further, to explore the rest of what laid beneath her pajama top, but his nerves won and his hands stayed where they were.

A chill ran up Akane's spine the moment his warm, strong hands made contact with her bare skin. Something inside her urged her to grab his hands and slide them everywhere she wanted to be touched, but she knew she was getting caught up in the moment. Quickly, she broke the kiss and looked up at him. He had moved his hands to each side of her and leaned up, looking down at her. His breathing was heavy, his cheeks were flushed, and black strands fell down over his eyes.

She smiled up at him and he returned the smile before collapsing next to her, out of breath.

"Wow," he said finally. "I've been wanting to do that…all day."

She let out a laugh and rolled over to look at him. "I couldn't agree more."

He pulled a blanket over her and just looked at her. Her jet black hair was messy, but words could not express how unbelievably adorable she looked. He sat up as if to leave, but she grabbed his arm and offered him some blanket.

"Stay," she whispered. He nodded to her, laying back down on her bed and kept his distance but still faced her.

Anything for you…. His heart told him, beginning to beat faster again.

She closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

Ranma continued to watch her. He wasn't sure if this was a dream, if he had fallen asleep back in his room or if this was actually real. She was peaceful while she slept and he wished he could sleep with her every night. There was also a small part of him that wanted more, but he was willing to wait for that.

With heavy eyelids, he draped an arm around her, pulling her close.

"Happy Birthday," he whispered.

Happy Birthday.