(Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters and stories associated with it.)

Akane's Rage

From the last chapter: A cackle rose from the doorway as a figure appeared, "What it means Miss Tendo, is your sister Nabiki is now Ranma's fiancé."

Nodoka picked up her katana and placed her other hand firmly on the hilt, "Good evening, Elder Cologne. I have been expecting you."

Nabiki jumped up while looking a bit nervously over at her new fiancé, "Now wait just a minute. I may like Ranma quite a bit, but we never agreed on any kind of engagement."

Ranma pointed an accusing finger at Cologne, "Yeah! Where'd ya get an idea like that? I'm starting to get tired of people trying to run my life by making my decisions for me"

Ukyo glared at Nabiki, "Nicely done, Tendo…You get rid of all of us and keep Ranma for yourself."

Kodachi was suddenly only wearing her trademark leotard while snapping a razor-sharp ribbon, "Hohohohoho! Nabiki you little witch! Did you think you could so easily take my Ranma from me?"

A pair of bonbori appeared in Shampoo's clenched fists, "Die Nabiki!"

Ranma jumped in front of Nabiki and raised his fists, "Hey! She's not a martial artist!"

A large mallet suddenly appeared, "Get away from my sister, you pervert!"

Nodoka's eyes were glowing with anger as she once again drew the katana, "Enough! This ends now ladies, unless you wish to fight me as well."

Ukyo eyed the Saotome matriarch with no small amount of caution, "I-I don't want to fight you, Mrs. Saotome. I just think something isn't right here, that's all."

The woman glared at Ukyo, "You're doing a very poor job of showing it, Miss Kuonji."

She then turned to the rest of the people, "It's obvious that we can't continue this discussion under these circumstances. This meeting is now over. Good night."

Kodachi reached over and picked up her kimono while glaring at Nabiki, "This isn't over, Tendo, not by a long shot. You will regret the day you stole my Ranma from me!"

As the "Black Rose" hopped out of the dojo and cackled in her trademark laugh, Ukyo turned before she walked out the door, "You have some explaining to do, sugar."

Cologne pointed at Ranma, "This changes nothing, son-in-law. We will return soon to discuss this more in depth."

She grabbed Shampoo's hand as she headed out the door, "Come granddaughter, we need to get home."

Shampoo began to protest, "But great grandmother-."

Cologne smacked her over the head with her staff, "Silence child! You still have much to answer to."

"Ouch! Yes Elder."

As the two Amazons left the dojo, Akane glared at Ranma, "I don't care about the engagement, but if you touch my sister, I'll make you wish you were never born."

After the youngest Tendo had left, Nodoka turned to Ranma and Nabiki, "That went poorly to say the least. I never meant for this to turn into such a circus. My apologies to the two of you."

Ranma smirked, "When you're dealing with that bunch, you learn to expect the worst."

She slid the katana once again back into its sheath, "This is getting to be a habit."

When she was finished, she continued, "Now, I'm going to leave the dojo for a while and while I'm gone, I'd like you two to talk about this. If you truly don't want to be engaged to each other, I will break the Tendo agreement."

Nabiki nodded, "That's probably a good idea for us to talk this out, Auntie. We can go over this thing right now before any more craziness gets in the way."

She turned towards Ranma and smiled, "How about it, Saotome? Feel like having a little chat?

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I'm all for getting things out in the open, but how are we going to have any privacy? You know how the fathers are. As soon as we start talking, they'll be piled up behind the door listening to every word."

Nodoka grinned evilly, "Don't worry, son. I'll see to it you and Nabiki have your privacy."

With that, she bowed to the pair and after exiting the dojo, closed and latched the door. Ranma and Nabiki stared at the door for a moment before speaking at the same time.

"Well that-."

"Do you th-."

Nabiki giggled, "Yeah, this is kind of weird. It certainly isn't what I planned on."

Ranma began to blush a bit as he fiddled with his ponytail, "Well uh, do you want to break it? The engagement, I mean?"

Nabiki smirked a bit, "Well, it's not like we haven't been engaged before, Ranma."

"Yeah, but that didn't turn out very well."

Nabiki nodded as she tapped her chin with her finger for a moment, "That's true, but there were other things at play back then. Let me ask you a question, Ranma. On the evening of that first engagement, how did you feel about it?"

"I don't know…I guess I felt okay. I mean, I knew you weren't going to be hitting me and calling me a pervert and stuff."

Nabiki took a deep breath, "Ranma, it's about time I let you in on a secret of mine. When the engagement was reversed, I was the happiest I had been in years."

"Huh? But you-."

She held up her hand, "Please let me finish. I have always regretted pawning you off onto my little sister when you first arrived. When the engagement was later switched, for the first time I began to feel that perhaps I might have a chance at finding someone to care for. It wasn't until I found out Akane was unhappy with the arrangement that I decided to give you back to her."

"So why did you sell me out to those people at school and stuff?"

"That was before we had our talk at the hospital. We're friends now, Ranma and that means a lot to me. Back when I was doing everything I could go earn money, anyone, even family was fair game."

"I guess so…."

Nabiki smiled as she took Ranma's hand in her own, "Look Ranma, let's forget the engagement a moment. Until something stronger develops, we're friends and as such, you and I will continue to look out for each other. It changes nothing, okay?"

Ranma nodded a bit, "Okay…that sounds pretty good to me, Nabiki."

Ranma frowned for a moment and Nabiki asked, "Is something wrong, Ranma?"

He looked up, "What about my girl half? How do you feel about being around a guy that sometimes changes into a girl?"

Nabiki held onto Ranma's other hand as she purred, "Unlike my little sister, I know your no pervert and that the person inside your girl half is still you. It certainly isn't your fault you have this curse, and to tell you the truth, I like the idea of having a cute little redhead as a close friend. You're certainly no pig, unlike that pervert Ryouga."

Ranma gasped, "You know?!"

Nabiki smirked as she moved a bit closer, "Do you really think that anything goes on in this house without my knowing? Until this engagement changed, I had planned to expose him in front of the entire family once we had the right moment."

Ranma's eyes widened, "What were you going to do?"

"I keep a thermos of hot water handy in the dining room. The next time she snuggled that pig into her cleavage, she was going to have a very wet, and very naked pervert on her lap."

Ranma chuckled, "I'd pay to see that!"

Nabiki smiled as she let go of Ranma's hands and loosely wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug, "So what do you think, Ranma? Are you willing to give this a try?"

In a somewhat clumsy fashion, Ranma placed his arms around Nabiki, "Yeah, sure. I guess. Damn it feels nice to hold her like this! I'm okay with it if you are."

"Alright then."

Reaching up she lightly kissed him on the cheek before releasing her hug and clasping one of his hands, "Shall we go in the house and face the music?"

A bit shocked at the surprise kiss and a bit saddened the intimacy of the contact was over, he blushed slightly, "Do-do you think it's going to get ugly? It's only Pops, Mr. Tendo and the tomboy there now."

As she led him out the door and towards the house, she chuckled, "Whatever happens, I'll back you up, Ranma."

"Wow! I can't believe this is the same Nabiki! When did she get so darned cute?"

When the couple walked into the dining room, Soun, Genma Kasumi and Nodoka were waiting at the table. Genma looked up at Ranma, "Well boy, what's it going to be?"

Ranma was about to answer when Nabiki turned and whispered, "Let me answer, okay Ranma?"

When he nodded, she turned her attention to the parents, "We have decided to give the engagement a try. I want to let everyone know that this, under no circumstances, means that we are willing to get married anytime soon. Any surprise weddings like that last mess will be met with Ranma's nearly uncontrolled rage as well as my own brand of pain. Do we make ourselves clear?"

As Ranma emphasized the point by cracking his knuckles menacingly, Soun commented, "Although I was hoping it would be Akane that married Ranma, I will agree with this arrangement as long as the Tendo – Saotome agreement is honored."

Nabiki nodded, "Now that's over with, I need to get some homework done and then get to bed. Good night all."

She then gave Ranma's hand a squeeze and headed up to her room. Ranma blushed slightly at the touch and stammered, "Uh, yeah. I need to take care of some stuff before getting to sleep as well. See ya in the morning."

Kasumi got up and picked up the last of the items from the table, "My, they seem so nice together."

The rest of the evening was spent among the parents taking part in a bit of small talk before turning in for the evening. Although both the fathers were itching to plan another wedding, the ever present Nodoka kept them out of mischief. Later that night, when the parents had gone to bed, Nabiki had just finished looking through her books when there was a knock on her door. She closed her financial tracking booklet and placed it in her drawer, "Come in. The door's unlocked."

When she heard the door open and then close, Nabiki sighed to herself, "Might as well get this over with."

She then turned in her chair and faced her visitor. "Hello Akane. What can I do for you?"

Akane was standing with her back to the door. Her fists were clinched so tightly that her knuckles had begun to turn white. Her face for once was almost unreadable, except that her eyes danced in rage.

She took a step towards Nabiki, "You have some explaining to do!"

Nabiki leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, "Why Akane, whatever do you mean?"

Akane pointed her finger at her older sister, "You know exactly what I mean, Nabiki! You arranged this whole thing, didn't you?!"

"Akane, you know I had no hand in what happened this afternoon. That was Ranma's mother's idea to change the engagement."

Akane raised her voice a couple of degrees, "How do you account for that time in the hospital? What were you doing with Ranma that afternoon?!"

She answered coolly, "Really sis, you should learn to calm down. You and I discussed visiting him that morning. Unfortunately, you and Ukyo got detention, so I went to the hospital on my own."

Akane brushed it aside by sharply waving her hand, "Don't give me that! You were holding hands with him!"

Nabiki shook her head, "Had you taken the time to listen for a moment, you and the rest of the fiancés would have quickly learned that Ranma and I were shaking hands to an agreement."

Akane glared, "You expect me to believe that?!"

As she began to lose patience, Nabiki got up from her chair and crossed her arms, "No, I don't suppose I do. But that isn't you, now is it? Instead of listening to your family explain what happened, you, dear sister, flew off of the handle and made violent threats. You, dear sister, allowed your fellow fiancés to threaten a member of your own family. And you, my dear sister, did nothing when Ranma risked opening his wounds and moved to protect me from those idiots."

Akane pointed across the room, "It's not my fault those bimbos were there!"

For the first time in many years, Nabiki began losing control of her own anger, "That's right, Akane. It's never your fault. It's always Ranma's fault."

"He's always flirting with them!"

"Is it Ranma's fault that his father has seemingly engaged him to dozens of women across the country?"

"I don't think-"

Nabiki was in Akane's face, "Exactly princess! You don't think! You never think! All you ever do is get mad and beat him up. You never try to listen to his side! Every chance you get, you jump to the worst possible conclusion and then punish him for it with brute force! You never-."

Smack!

Akanke's slap snapped Nabiki's head to one side. Nabiki turned her head back and glared at her sister for a few seconds. "Nice. Violence is your answer to everything, isn't it Akane?"

Akane turned around and was about to storm out the door when Nabiki leaned into the door to prevent it from opening, "Do you remember when he first got here, Akane? After your sparing match, Kasumi sent him into the bath to get cleaned up. You still thought he was a girl and walked in the bath, only to find out he was naked and male. You two could have kept it to yourselves as something to laugh about as you became friends. Heck, most people would call that sort of thing romantic."

She lowered her voice as she reached for the door knob, "Instead, dear sister, you poisoned any real friendship you two might have had by calling him a sick pervert and a peeping tom."

Akane's anger had now become a blinding rage. She spun around and after grabbing her sister by her arms, violently threw her against the wall. As a very stunned Nabiki slumped to the floor, Akane approached her with a large mallet in her hands, "You little slut! I'm going to teach you a lesson you're never going to forget! When I'm done with you, dear sister, you're going to wish you'd never agreed to that engagement."

With the wind knocked out of her, Nabiki looked up in fear as Akane closed in, "Oh crap…"