Chapter 3: Fwiendship Is Whot Bwings Us Togeder Today
The next morning, Ranma was waiting for Akane at the front door when she came down for her morning jog. "Good morning, Akane. From now on, I want you to cut your jogs in half, so we can do some early morning training. I've got some good ideas on how to-" Suddenly, Ranma felt his chest and arms being crushed in the embrace of the giddy bluenette now wrapped around him. "*gasp* I kinda need to breathe, you know," he squeaked out.
"Sorry, Ranma," apologized Akane. "I'm just so excited about having a real sensei again." She gave him one of her heartwarming smiles and then headed out the door.
'Man, she's cute,' thought Ranma as he watched her leave with a goofy smile on his face.
When Akane returned home, she quickly changed into her gi and joined Ranma in the dojo. Ranma had a wooden beam on one side of the floor that he had carved (after getting permission from Soun to borrow a katana from the dojo) and sanded the previous night from the tree Kuno had cut down the day before. He set Akane to work practicing her balance on the beam in preparation for the fences. She was somewhat clumsy at first, but she showed improvement after just a few trips across as her confidence grew. After that, he showed her a couple of speed drills and assigned her to practice both training exercises on her own during her free time.
Finally, Ranma invited Akane to spar directly with him. He explained how he didn't feel comfortable hitting her with even a fraction of his power, so he had set about devising an alternate method ever since she had asked him to train her the week before. First of all, he would hold back his speed to a level only slightly faster than Akane. He then held a small water pistol in each palm. Whenever Akane overextended one of her attacks or left a bad opening, he would squirt her in the location where he would've counterattacked. In particular, this method provided incentive to avoid blows to the face. (Akane made herself a mental note to never go without a bra during these sessions.) As for positive reinforcement, whenever Akane showed an excellent attack combination, Ranma would let her hit him with a glancing blow.
They started in the dojo but soon made their way out and around the yard. Eventually, Ranma couldn't help but show off a little by making acrobatic leaps over the koi pond to Akane's frustration. Nabiki noticed this as she watched and decided to have a little fun. She waited for the right moment then called out, "Hey, Saotome, are you a martial artist or a kangaroo?" Ranma stumbled into one of his jumps and landed in the koi pond. Nabiki and Akane both burst out laughing, while a grumbling, wet, female Ranma emerged from the pond. "It serves you right, dummy, jumping around like that," commented Akane.
Ranma pulled her shirt off and started wringing it out, thereby revealing her generous assets. "Oh, my!" exclaimed Kasumi, who had just come outside to call the reluctant couple inside to take their baths before breakfast. "Ranma, don't expose yourself like that!" complained Akane as she grabbed the shirt and whacked Ranma's bare back with the sharpness of a wet towel.
"Yeooowch!" screamed Ranma as she jumped in pain. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she quickly apologized as she put her shirt back on. "I still have a hard time remembering not to do that sometimes. Mom's always on my back about feminine modesty, but at least she doesn't hit me for it," she added with a glare.
Once everyone was enjoying breakfast (with Ranma once again male), Akane voiced her curiosity over something she had noticed. "Ranma, what exactly are your shirts made of? I've always thought they were silk, but it certainly didn't feel like it when I grabbed it earlier."
Ranma chuckled. "Do you really think we could afford silk? Mom and I barely get by as it is, even with the occasional child support payment we can wrangle out of Pop. Besides, the way I attract water, my clothes would be constantly getting ruined if I wore silk. It's just a synthetic blend that looks a lot like silk."
"That reminds me," interrupted Nodoka. "That nice Dr. Tofu gave me a part-time job at a better hourly rate than the restaurant offers. Now I can quit that horrible waitress job and work close to our new home at the same time. I start today."
"That's great news, Mom," replied Ranma. "I know you always hated it when the perverts in there would grab or pinch your a**."
"By the way," added Kasumi, "Akane, on your way home from school, could you stop by Dr. Tofu's? I borrowed this book from him, and I'd like you to return it," she asked with a smile as she held up a medical text.
"Could you, um, do it yourself, Kasumi? Today's, uh, just not good for me," Akane stuttered.
"Really? Well, I guess I'll have to," Kasumi responded.
"Come on, Akane, you know you're dying to go," teased Ranma.
Akane growled and shot him a nasty look before grabbing him by his pigtail and dragging him from the table. "We're going to be late, Ranma!"
"What are you so heated up about?" asked Ranma as Akane dragged him through the streets with a bowl and chopsticks still in his hands. She didn't stop until she reached the school gate, not even with Ranma's soprano voice begging her to stop after falling victim once again to the old lady with the ladle.
Once inside, she held Ranma up against the boundary wall. "Listen, Ranma! Why don't you keep your big mouth-"
"What do you mean, 'big mouth?'" interrupted Ranma.
"I mean about Dr. Tofu and-" Akane started to clarify until she finally noticed Ranma's change in gender.
Opening the front of Ranma's shirt to expose the most obvious evidence (to an outside observer, anyway) of the recent transformation, Akane was confused about when it could've happened when she noticed some odd looks in their direction from some members of the Hentai Horde. She quickly turned around and allowed Ranma to cover herself as she asked, "So! Who's first today?"
To her surprised, the perverted boys were all weeping. "Akane, we shall no longer challenge you," explained one of the mob. Another one added, "Instead, we shall all swallow our sobs and give our approval to your engagement to Ranma."
Akane was confused, as her engagement had been known almost from the beginning, so why had they waited a week before giving up? "What in the name of-" she began, only to be interrupted by the advancing mummified form of a certain kendoist.
"So then," Kuno began. "You have all heard this rumor, this falsehood that Ranma Saotome defeated me. Upperclassman Kuno does not admit defeat!"
"Kuno was the greatest fighter at Furinkan High," explained one of the boys. "Yeah, and the greatest pervert," added another, which earned him a glare from Kuno. "If it's Ranma you've chosen, then we shall give you up," proving once and for all that they would've made good Chinese Amazons through their similar barbaric ideas of courtship through combat.
"Kuno shall not give up," contradicted the leader, who had more determination and hormones than brains and common sense. He pulled off some of his bandages to reveal his face as well as one of the large bruises that he had received courtesy of Ranma in their previous fight. "A hundred, even two hundred kicks from a coward like Ranma do not even itch!"
"Just who are you calling a coward?" complained Ranma as she stepped forward, having lost track of her current gender. "Can't admit that you lost, huh?"
Akane tried to warn her, but it was too late. Kuno's face lit up as he exclaimed, "Ohhhh! It is you, my pigtailed goddess! How I have pined to see you!"
Ranma started to get scared. "Whoa, whoa, I thought you liked Akane," she complained.
"Of course I do," replied Kuno.
"She's watching, you know," Ranma pointed out.
Akane considered hamming it up to Kuno's delusions by using Ranma to attempt to get herself off the hook, but she couldn't do that to her friend, especially one who's not attracted to any men whatsoever, let alone Kuno. "Kuno, stay away from my friend! Neither of us want to date you!" she yelled. Kuno just continued rambling as if he had never heard, proclaiming his love to both of them, until Ranma finally shut him up with a kick to the face.
Ranma sighed as she and Akane headed for the front doors. "I have a feeling that guy is going to be a major pain in the butt."
In gym class that day, Ranma impressed the class with his acrobatics on the high bar. While other boys in the class took their turn, Ranma sat down to watch the girls play baseball, leaving an opening for Hiroshi and Daisuke to approach him from both sides.
"Man, she's cute," pointed out Hiroshi as they watched Akane make a jumping catch in gym shorts so skimpy that they should be half of a bikini.
Ranma could only nod in response, as he felt his heart beat louder at the sight of Akane smiling. 'It's too bad she's already got a guy she likes,' he thought.
"So level with us," said Hiroshi. "How far have you gotten with Akane?"
"Don't play innocent," added Daisuke. "You're her fiancé, right?"
Hiroshi and Daisuke then proceeded to suggest several intimate things they thought the engaged couple might have tried, things that if described here would automatically push this fanfic to an M rating, so to preserve the T rating, such things will be left to the readers' imaginations.
[Ranma: Hey, quit breaking the fourth wall and get back to the story.]
[Compucles: Sorry, Ranma. Back we go. It's your line.]
Ranma grabbed Hiroshi by the front of his shirt and angrily responded, "First of all, I don't even know what half that stuff means! Second, despite what our parents decided, we're just friends right now. Third, even if we were in a relationship, I wouldn't do anything like that with her until and if we got married, and maybe not even then for a couple of those things. If I ever again catch you or anyone else making such perverted suggestions about Akane, I'll-"
Unfortunately, Ranma didn't get to finish his threat, because at that moment a baseball had slammed into his cheek and taken up residence.
"Oh, no!" shouted Akane from where she had fouled off the pitch into the face of her friend. "I'm so sorry, Ranma," she apologized as she ran over and helped Ranma remove the offending object. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just a bruise," replied Ranma.
"It looks pretty bad. We should have Dr. Tofu take a look at it," Akane diagnosed. "Although," she added teasingly, "I would've thought you would've been able to dodge or catch something like that."
"I had something on my mind," Ranma vaguely explained.
"I'm sorry. Does it still hurt?" asked Akane as she walked with Ranma from school to Dr. Tofu's clinic. Ranma had a large bandage on his cheek covering his injury.
"Akane, you've already apologized 30 times!" Ranma replied. "It's okay. It was just an accident."
When they reached the clinic, they saw Nodoka sweeping the front walk. "Hi, Mom," Ranma greeted. "How's work going?"
"Just fine, dear," answered Nodoka. "Dr. Tofu keeps me busy, but he isn't too strict." She then noticed Ranma's bandage. "What happened to your cheek? Is everything okay at school?" She reached for Ranma's face and tried to remove Ranma's bandage to see the injury for herself."
"Mooooom!" complained Ranma as he squirted away from her reach. "I'm fine, really! It was just a little accident in gym class. We just want Dr. Tofu to take a quick look."
"Oh, okay," Nodoka conceded. "You can't blame a mother for being a little overprotective of her only child."
Just then, Dr. Tofu appeared in the doorway. "Well, well, Ranma and Akane! This is Ms. Himura. She just started working for me today," he introduced. "Do you know each other?" He led the teens inside where they explained how they knew his new employee. "You don't say! Ranma's mother?!" he exclaimed. "I should've guessed. There's a lot of resemblance between you two, particularly with Ranma's girl form." They had explained to Dr. Tofu about Ranma's curse during a quick visit a few days ago.
"Ranma, what happened to your face?" asked Dr. Tofu as he began to prepare tea.
"Little baseball accident," Ranma replied.
"I have a balm that works wonders. Back in a jiffy," Dr. Tofu responded.
While he was getting the balm, the clinic phone rang. "Darn," called Dr. Tofu from the other room. "Ms. Himura, could you answer that, please?"
Nodoka picked up the phone and greeted, "Hello, this is Dr. Tofu's clinic. Can I help you, please?" After a few seconds pause to listen to the caller, she replied, "No, the doctor isn't too busy. Of course you can come over to return his book, Kasumi."
As the mention of her sister's name, Akane suddenly became very nervous. She turned to Ranma and quietly said, "Um, Ranma, we should be heading home now."
"Huh? Is something wrong?" asked Ranma, confused at how suddenly Akane wanted to leave.
"No, nothing like that," Akane replied.
"So, what's the big hurry?" asked Ranma. "I still need the balm the doc promised me. Besides, I thought you'd want to stay with Doc-" Ranma was cut off as Akane pushed him against the wall and covered his mouth with her hand.
"Shut up!" commanded Akane. "Trust me, your bruise will be the least of your problems if you get in Dr. Tofu's reach while Kasumi is here." Akane removed her hand and got a sad look in her eyes as she continued. "You see, Dr. Tofu really likes Kasumi, the way he looks at her, and he goes crazy whenever she's around."
"Oh, come on, it can't be that bad," said Ranma as he tried to reassure his friend.
"What are you two doing?" asked Dr. Tofu as he rejoined them in the waiting room.
"Huh? Uh, nothing," Ranma quickly replied. He turned to Akane and added, "Look, this bruise really stings. I'll just have him take a quick look, and then we can go."
"It's your funeral," Akane replied with a sigh as she resigned herself to watch his fate.
"Now let's see that bruise," said Dr. Tofu as he led Ranma to sit down on a chair. Ranma peeled off the bandage and allowed Dr. Tofu to get a close look. "Hmm, the impression of that baseball...Akane hit it, right?"
"Huh, how did..." Ranma stuttered as Akane's eyes went wide in surprise and disbelief.
"With an impression that big, a bruise that deep, who else?" joked Dr. Tofu.
"Man, she's so strong, even the balls she hits have their own identifying features," commented an impressed Ranma.
"Well, it was your fault for not paying attention," Akane shot back in a huff, only to receive a raspberry from Ranma in reply.
"You mean Akane did hit that ball? I was...I was just joking," revealed an embarrassed Dr. Tofu. "But so what, eh? What's wrong with being active? It just means you're healthy," he concluded, trying to cheer Akane up but unknowingly saying the wrong things instead.
Ranma felt heavy sympathy for Akane with the dejected look she had on her face, as Dr. Tofu turned his attention to his bruise. "Hold still now. I have to apply this disinfectant," said the doctor as he held onto Ranma's face. All of a sudden, a feminine voice called out, "Good afternoon, doctor," and Ranma's concern immediately switched from Akane's broken heart to his own broken neck as he suddenly found himself in severe pain. To his credit, he managed to hold in his cries of pain down to a simple grunt. Akane looked at him in concern, as his head was bent at what was certainly an unnatural angle. "I tried to warn you," she told him.
"H-hello, Kasumi," Dr. Tofu nervously stammered as his glasses fogged up. Things only went downhill from there, as Dr. Tofu proceeded to mistake Nodoka for Ranma, twice mistake the purpose of Kasumi's plate of cookies, twist Ranma's head just as badly in the other direction, and mistake his skeleton of all things for Nodoka. Strangely, Kasumi simply rationalized this bout of temporary insanity as Dr. Tofu being "amusing."
Akane couldn't bear to watch anymore. She put on a brave smile and politely said goodbye. Ranma followed close behind and found himself pushing through a small crowd of patients waiting outside the door for the doctor's latest bout of "Kasumi-itis" to pass, before he could chase her down.
Once Ranma made it home, he questioned Nabiki as to Akane's whereabouts, unsurprised at the answer. As he approached the dojo, he heard the familiar sound of cinder blocks being broken, which he already knew from experience was Akane's favorite method of relieving stress. He saw her depressed form, dressed in her gi, slowly walk over and lean against the boundary wall of the compound.
Ranma approached her from behind, intent on cheering her up. He tapped her on the shoulder, and started to speak. "Um, Akane," was all he could get out before she whipped around and jammed her knee into his groin with a shout. He let out a massive groan as he backpedaled away from her in severe pain. As quickly as he could, he staggered over to the front yard and jumped into the koi pond, feeling immediate relief as most of the pain disappeared along with his abused male anatomy.
Akane's face winced in sympathy when she saw who she had attacked. "I'm so sorry, Ranma!" she apologized as she ran over and helped her out of the pond. She then began to laugh at the sight of a panting and soaking wet girl-type Ranma with her neck still bent at an extreme angle. Ranma growled at how Akane apparently found amusement in her suffering. "I'm sorry, Ranma, but you just look so funny like that," Akane explained when her laughter wound down. "Here, let me help you with your neck. It's going to hurt, though." Ranma sat down and allowed Akane to put one hand under his currently lower cheek and the other on his opposite shoulder. She braced herself for the expected pain and wasn't denied as Akane used her great strength to pull her neck back into realignment. Once done, however, Ranma felt the soreness in her neck finally begin to recede, although she now had a newly bruised shoulder to deal with.
"Thanks, Akane," said an appreciative Ranma as she rolled her head around to get the kinks out of her neck. "Although, I apparently need to train you in situational awareness. At least this curse is useful for something, although I'm going to have to stay like this all evening before I'll feel safe turning back. Do you normally maim your friends when they try to cheer you up?"
"You were trying to cheer me up?" asked Akane rhetorically. At the reminder of what had happened at the clinic, Akane felt the sadness begin to return, but she felt a lot better than she had with the thought that Ranma had cared enough to help. She rewarded him with a big smile.
Ranma felt her body heat up and her heart beat faster at the sight of the smile on Akane's beautiful face and realized that her male body would probably be having an erection right now. "Yeah, um, of course," she stammered, embarrassed at how flustered she was. "I-I don't like to see m-my friends get hurt, even if it was unintentional. Don't beat yourself up about it. The doc's just not the right guy for you. He's better off with a girly-girl like Kasumi rather than a tomboy who would beat him up if he got out of line."
"What was that?!" growled Akane, certain there was an insult somewhere in there.
"Whoa, whoa! I didn't mean anything bad by it," replied Ranma as she attempted to remove her foot from her mouth. "I've told you before. There's nothing wrong with being a tomboy." She blushed as she added, "Personally, I l-l-like tomboys." Akane blushed as well when she heard this.
"Ranma, do you have a moment?" she calmly asked, finally released from the sadness in her heart.
"Huh?" replied a confused Ranma.
Akane led Ranma into the dojo, where they cleaned up the broken cinder blocks and began to spar, Ranma once again using the water pistols. "You know," commented Ranma as they fought, "Dr. Tofu is much too old for you, anyway. You said he's been treating you since you were little, right? He's gotta be at least 30 years old! He's robbing the cradle as it is with Kasumi."
Akane giggled. "I guess I never thought about it like that before."
Feeling encouraged, Ranma decided to take a risk. "You know, there are guys out there that are better for you than Dr. Tofu, g-guys that are close in age, for one thing."
"You really think there's a guy out there for me?" asked Akane hopefully.
"Out there, in here," Ranma nervously clarified.
"Oh, really?" Akane replied, making the connection, despite the fact that there technically weren't any "guys" in the dojo at the moment.
"Sure," confirmed Ranma. "Y'know, you're really cute when you smile."
Akane froze at the unexpected compliment as her heart began to pound. "Blew it," teased Ranma as she took advantage of the distraction to push Akane to the ground with a fingertip to her forehead.
"That," began Akane, who was still a little flustered but quickly recovered. "That was dirty! That didn't count!" she complained
"Hey, the school is called 'Anything-Goes' for a reason," Ranma pointed out.
"Well, in that case," Akane replied mischievously as she stood up, "take a look at this." She pulled off her belt and opened her gi top, completely revealing her chest with nothing but her bra in the way, while at the same time giving Ranma one of the really cute smiles she had just complimented.
Having been "flashed" by Akane in two different ways at the same time, Ranma could do nothing but stand there frozen in shock, completely defenseless against Akane's jump kick that sent her flying across the dojo. "Don't forget that I'm an Anything-Goes martial artist, too," Akane called out as she retied her belt and walked back to the house.
Later that evening, Akane entered her room after her evening bath wearing pajamas and slippers with her long hair braided into an elaborate bun. She thought about the compliment Ranma had given her earlier as she lay back on her bed. 'Did he mean that?' she thought as she walked to her desk and grabbed a small mirror. She practiced smiling into it to see for herself.
Suddenly, her window was open, and Ranma was standing there, back in male form. "Do mirrors always make you smile?" he teased.
Embarrassed, Akane let out a squeal of surprise and quickly dropped the mirror back onto her desk. "R-Ranma, what are you doing here?" she asked with a blush. "I see you've changed back. Is your, you know, groin okay? I'm really sorry about that, you know."
"Yeah, I'm a fast healer, even when the injury is in some kind of magical limbo," Ranma reassured her. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I really meant what I said about your smiles being cute. I wasn't just saying that to distract you. It's really a shame that you give yourself into anger so easily."
"Well, it's good to know that I have at least one friend who can help me with my temper," Akane replied. She smiled at him once again in appreciation.
Ranma was at a loss for words and could only fiddle with his pigtail and smile back until he resumed control of his motor functions and leapt back to his own bedroom window.
'It's been less than two weeks, yet Ranma has already proven himself to be one of the best friends I've ever had. I really need to do something special for him,' thought Akane as she closed the window.
Over the next month, Ranma and Akane continued to grow closer. Akane was easily Ranma's best friend, while Akane hung out with Ranma just as much as she did with Yuka and Sayuri. A couple of times she and Kasumi even dragged Ranma out in girl form for a "girls' day out," although they made sure to include some activities that Ranma would enjoy.
They fought and argued on occasion, but they always made up quickly and didn't let any bad feelings linger. They both recognized by now that they did have some romantic feelings for each other and suspected that the feelings were mutual, but between the engagement hanging over their heads and worries over what it could do to what they both considered a very important friendship, they were both too scared to do anything about it. It wasn't hard for their classmates to pick up on the sexual tension, which resulted in lots of good-natured teasing and the occasional perverted comment.
By now Ranma also counted Kasumi among his growing list of friends, although she was more of a big sister than a buddy. She was always there to listen and give advice when he felt uncomfortable talking to Akane, particularly when the topic was Akane. Nabiki was still as cold as ever, though, and he especially despised how she would blackmail him and continue to sell pictures of both Akane and his girl form. He tried to avoid her whenever possible, as any interaction he was forced to have her usually resulted in a lighter wallet. At school, Hiroshi and Daisuke had managed to grow on him. They were pretty good guys when they weren't being perverts, although to their credit they had refused to take part in the group assaults on Akane. He hung out with them every now and then, although he preferred Akane's company and not just because he had the hots for her.
So far, Ranma had managed to keep his curse a secret. The few times he had been accidentally splashed at school, there were no witnesses (outside of Akane), and she managed to change back without much difficulty except for the one time she had run into Kuno and was forced to knock him out. He hoped his luck would continue for a while longer but accepted that things were going well enough that his secret could be safely revealed if necessary.
As the calendar moved into the latter half of May, Ranma was excited about his upcoming 16th birthday and the small party his mother and the Tendos would be throwing him. As far as he could remember, he had never had a real birthday party before. He had no memories of his life before the training trip. While on the road with his father, Genma would always make an attempt to celebrate his birthday, but it was more along the lines of a quick "Happy birthday, boy," a day off from training, and a gift of extra food. Once reunited with his mother, she made every attempt to celebrate the day properly, but when she was the only one who cared, there was a harsh limit to the excitement to be had. This year, he would also be celebrating with the entire Tendo family as well as Hiroshi, Daisuke, and Dr. Tofu. In addition, his mother had agreed to let his father come as well as resume his weekend visits. Nodoka had spent several minutes warning the Tendos about what they could expect from Genma but still worried that her ex-husband would cause some kind of major altercation before long.
Finally, the morning of May 19th arrived. School was mostly the same, although he was occasionally wished a happy birthday and was happy to discover that his mother had packed an extra dessert in his lunch. When he got home, he found Kasumi in full house-cleaning-mode in preparation for the evening's festivities. He and Akane had both offered to help, but Kasumi wouldn't accept Ranma's help, while Akane was allowed to help clean the tea room and the bathroom but for some strange reason was banned from the kitchen for the afternoon.
A little while later Genma showed up, and after a quick birthday greeting to Ranma and introductions to the Tendo daughters, none of whom walked away with a good first impression of the man, he proceeded to catch up with Soun out in the yard until they decided to break out the shogi board. Shortly before dinner time, Nodoka arrived home with Dr. Tofu (having come straight from work), while Hiroshi and Daisuke both made their appearances, as well.
Dinner for ten was served, consisting of Ranma's favorite dishes. When everyone was full and the table had been cleared, Kasumi brought out a large cake that she had baked that afternoon along with a large jug of milk. Once everyone had been served their cake, Ranma was allowed to start opening his presents, which were placed in a pile in the middle of the table.
From his father, he received a dogged-eared used copy of a Jackie Chan biography that was several years out of date. His mother had warned him not to allow full view of her present (meaning Hiroshi and Daisuke), as it was for going out as his "fairer side" (to Genma's disgust and Hiroshi's and Daisuke's confusion). Carefully opening the box from the side facing him, he sighed in defeat at the cute sun dress that lay within. Soun gave him a book called "Guide to a Successful Marriage," which elicited a cry of "Daaaad!" from Akane. Hiroshi's and Daisuke's presents were even worse, as they consisted of a box of condoms and a pair of fur-covered handcuffs with key. Dr. Tofu gifted him with some charts of pressure points useful to martial artists. Kasumi offered him VHS tapes of the "Star Wars" trilogy (the "Ranma ½" manga was first written in 1987 after all, so no DVDs or the prequel trilogy), claiming that he should be able to relate to Han Solo, particularly what not to say or do when dealing with girls. Nabiki generously gave him coupons for "10% off one blackmail fee" and "buy one, get one free piece of information," as well as a couple of photos of Akane (to Akane's disgust, although Ranma slipped the photos into his pocket when she wasn't looking).
Finally, only Akane's present was left, which she had insisted on saving for last. When he opened the box, he couldn't keep the tears from his eyes from the joy he felt from this simple gift. It was a sweatband, similar to the one Akane always wore. However, this one was red with yellow horizontal stripes to complement Akane's yellow one with red stripes. Yellow material was also used to write out the hiragana for Ranma's and Akane's names listed on top of each other, followed by the kanji for "Friends Forever." Akane explained how she had ordered the custom gift a month ago after he cheered her up following their disastrous visit to Dr. Tofu (although she worded it a way that kept secret the reason she had been so depressed).
Ranma was speechless at the symbolism behind the gift. For someone who had gone nearly ten years without any real friends, this meant more to him than a hundred martial arts techniques. When Ranma finally regained his voice, he simply replied, "Thank you, Akane. This is seriously the best gift I've ever received." Akane herself was beaming with happiness at the heartfelt joy and gratitude her gift had bestowed in Ranma. 'Don't worry, Ranma. You'll never be alone again.'
A few days later, Ranma asked Akane to join him in his room. Once they were alone, Ranma cleared his throat. "Um, Akane, uh, I just wanted to say..."
"Yes, Ranma?" Akane curiously urged him after a long pause.
"Well, uh yes, you see, um, you gave me such a wonderful birthday present, and I feel bad that I didn't get you anything for your birthday," Ranma finally spat out.
"Ranma, it's okay. You didn't know. It's my fault for not telling you my birthday is April 14th until that day," Akane pointed out.
"Still, I want you to have this," Ranma said, pulling a small box from underneath his pillow and handing it to her."
Akane opened the box and gasped when she discovered a silver necklace ending in a yin-yang pendant. On the back of the pendant was inscribed the same message as on Ranma's sweatband. "Ranma, it's perfect!" she exclaimed. "Here, help me put it on."
"We can get the size adjusted if necessary. I went to the jewelry store as a girl and used myself as a model to determine the size," Ranma explained as he connected the two ends around the back of her neck. It wasn't necessary, though, as the pendant fell perfectly to just shortly above Akane's cleavage.
"Thank you so much, Ranma!" she said happily as she gave him a big hug. She considered standing on her tiptoes and kissing him, but she chickened out. 'Maybe next time,' she thought. 'For now, I'm just glad we're friends.'
Author's Notes: I'm so, so sorry that it's taken me so long to update any of my stories. I've just been so addicted to reading through old Ranma/Akane romance fics (as well as reading new chapters of many current fics), that I just keep putting it off. The good news is that my writing pace should now improve quite a bit.
While the month gap in the middle of this chapter may seem off-putting, keep in mind once again that Ranma came early in this AU. This necessitated such a gap to bridge these early chapters to upcoming events, plus it worked pretty well with what I had planned for this chapter.
Birthdays: At the beginning of the manga, Akane is already 16, while Nabiki and Kuno are already 17, meaning their birthdays are sometime between the beginning of the Japanese school year on April 1st and whenever Ranma and Genma showed up. While Ranma isn't explicitly stated to be 16 until the Age Mushroom Arc, this is commonly assumed to be the case for him as well. I'm basing these birthdays off an estimate of early June for the Saotomes' arrival in the manga, so their birthdays need to be before then. (Chapter 1 has been slightly modified to reflect this.) I chose Ranma's and Akane's birthdays pretty much at random around where the plot of this chapter was needing them to be. I've decided that April 1st, the first day of school, is a good choice for Kuno's birthday, considering what that day represents in the United States. (;^P) As for Nabiki's birthday, I couldn't care less when it is. In the context of this story, it just means that it happened some time in the two month block, but Ranma didn't really care and only put about as much thought into her gift as she did for his.
Fanon claims that Ranma's shirts are made of silk, but that really doesn't makes sense for the reasons pointed out in this chapter. I'll continue to poke fun at some of the more ridiculous fanon clichés and misconceptions on occasion.
I originally wanted to have Kasumi give Ranma the first few volumes of the Inuyasha manga, but I decided it didn't make sense seeing as Rumiko Takahashi wrote Inuyasha after she wrote Ranma ½.
Give yourself some bonus points if you figured out this chapter title is paraphrasing a line from "The Princess Bride" or if you caught my "Kim Possible" reference in this chapter. The points mean absolutely nothing, just like in "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" but it's still fun to play.
By the way, I've made myself a profile, so go check it out if you're interested.