Arc II: Chain Reactions
Chapter: Nightmares
Ranma Saotome was not a happy man. He was currently perched in a tree so he could keep an eye on his fiancée. He was doing it for her safety and was definitely not stalking her, despite how it looked.
He had already watched as she had inadvertently caused an accident. A small group of bicyclists came towards her and the lead rider - along with several others - had become distracted when she had turned to wave at her friends who were approaching her. The men had craned their necks around to keep an eye on her as they passed and veered directly into a parked car. The lead rider went flying over the hood and landed on the other side of the car, the people behind him not fairing much better as they ended up in a heap.
While he was annoyed that they were checking her out, he couldn't really blame them. He had also been distracted by the way her breasts seemed to bounce as she waved, the movement causing the bottom of her shirt to ride up, revealing even more of her toned stomach. In his...excited state, he gripped the four inch thick branch he was using for support a little too tightly and broke it, almost falling out of the tree as a result.
Since she rarely wore anything that tight, it was obvious she had no idea how her body looked when she moved. Ranma grumbled to himself as he jumped from the tree to the nearest roof so he could follow the girls along their route. He would leave the riders to sort themselves out.
He watched as his fiancée walked away with her friends, completely unaware of the devastation she left in her wake. The trio walked down the street and stopped when a little boy ran up to Akane, a small bunch of flowers in his hands. Ranma was pretty bad at guessing the age of little kids, but the boy seemed to be around six; he still wore denim overalls and - even from where he was perched - he could tell the boy had his two front teeth missing.
When Akane squatted down to speak to him at eye level, the boy seemed to become shy and started to blush before handing the bouquet to Akane. Ranma was too far away to hear what they were saying, but he watched as the boy started to toe the ground with his right foot and pointed behind him. Ranma moved his eyes in the direction the boy gestured to and scowled when he saw a blushing male waving hesitantly in their direction. Akane gave him a small wave of her own before turning her attention to the boy again. A moment later she stood up and held the little boy's hand as she walked him back to the flower cart.
Ranma's jaw clenched as he watched Akane carry on a conversation with the flower guy. The annoying idiot was clearly trying to flirt with her, but was doing a horrible job of it. He kept rubbing the back of his neck and a blush had formed on his face before he suddenly burst out in loud nervous laughter while waving his arms wildly around.
To Ranma's surprise, and irritation, whatever he said caused Akane to giggle.
Damn, he wished he could hear what they had said!
After a moment, it looked as if she was trying to give the flowers back and the florist seemed insistent that she keep them. After a small grateful bow to the florist and wave to the little boy, she walked back to her friends. As they rounded the next corner, he watched as Akane turned and gave the daisies to Yuka, who sniffed them appreciatively.
He followed them until they hit the mall. Finding it harder to tail them with so little coverage, he grabbed a bottle of water from a nearby table and ran into a store. Ranma came out a moment later with his red hair in two braids, large eye glasses perched on his nose, wearing a big flowered hat and a puffy sleeved dress. The outfit was perfect and he was sure Akane wouldn't see through his disguise.
It was easy to find Akane and her friends again. They seemed to find every single store window fascinating and stopped at each one to ohh and ahh at whatever was on display, so they hadn't made it very far. At the window of a pet shop, Akane had bent over to coo over some puppies in the window and they began climbing over each other at the attention from the three girls.
The visual seemed to be too much for one gangly, pimple faced teen who had just stopped walking to stare at them, his mouth agape and his eyes seemed to pop out of his head, completely forgetting about the ice-cream cone he was eating. He stood there watching them for so long that his ice-cream started dripping all over the floor. Ranma watched as the girls moved on and the boy had still not moved a muscle. Narrowing his eyes, Ranma walked by casually and when he crossed the other boy's path, he quickly flipped the teen's hand up, causing him to splatter his own face with what was left of the ice-cream. Ranma smirked and muttered, "Pervert," as he walked away.
Thankfully, the trio had apparently decided to watch a movie and headed into the theatre. That made it much easier for Ranma to keep an eye on his fiancée. He paid for a ticket and sat in the back row with a clear view of Akane. He had then endured the longest two hours of his life; the three girls had decided to watch a romantic comedy. He tried his hardest not to pound his head against the wall at the inane things girls considered romantic and/or funny.
Even though he could turn into a girl, he would never understand them.
Today had been the most frustrating one of Ranma's life. He hated having to watch other guys flirt with Akane, but he couldn't rush in - as much as he wanted to - to beat the crap out of them because she had no idea he was following her. He couldn't just demand that she go home, since he had learned that trying to order Akane around would only backfire on him. And if she found out he was following her, she would insist that he leave her alone and then she would have been left unprotected. With her luck, it would have been then that some psycho would run up to her and demand that she marry him and try to take her away by force. No, he had to stay hidden for as long as possible.
Plus, those other guys didn't technically do anything wrong. They had been, for the most part, respectful of her. The one guy who tried to put his arm around her had said arm twisted behind his back and his face pushed into the nearest wall before Ranma could even blink, much less move.
During dinner, when Ranma asked her if anything interesting happened during her day, she just shrugged and said no. It made him wonder if she was being modest or if her days were full of people offering her flowers and flirting with her. The thought had made him angrier than he had any right to be.
After he had time to think over the events from this morning, he was sure this whole fiasco could be placed on Nabiki's shoulders. It wasn't a coincidence that she left the table right after his fiancée and neither Akane nor Kasumi owned that type of clothing. He just didn't know what he did to piss Nabiki off and what her endgame was. He concluded that he'd find out soon enough, so it didn't matter for now and he let it go.
He wondered why Akane went along with Nabiki's plan, but it didn't take him long to figure out that she did it to teach him a lesson. And it worked. After today, he would never call her unsexy again. Partly because it wasn't true, but mainly because he couldn't take it if she decided to teach him another lesson. If he had to watch one more guy hit on his fiancée, he would lose it. A guy could only take so much.
Then a strange thing happened, the neurons in Ranma's brain started firing and synapses connected at a rapid pace as his mind connected the events of today with why he had been so angry at Ukyo's assessment of what he really cared about in a fiancée.
He had been subconsciously worried that Akane agreed with the okonomiyaki chef. It was really simple now that he figured it out and he cursed himself for being so dense.
After thinking it over for a while, he knew that Ukyo was kind of right; he did mention looks and cooking ability when he talked about the girls. He just didn't think that anyone took him seriously, especially not someone who was supposed to be his oldest friend. Since most of the rude comments he made were directed at Akane - focused on her looks and her lack of cooking skills - would she also think that was all he cared about?
Akane knew him better than that though - she knew him better than anyone - and she couldn't think that, right?
But what if she did? His comments today must have bothered her if she decided she needed to make a point. After all that he had said to her, he really couldn't blame her for her reaction.
Suddenly a string of memories hit him.
Macho Chick. Built like a stick. Dumb as a brick. Thighs are too thick. Can't even kick.
Cute fiancée meet uncute fiancée.
Ryoga's an idiot, to drown himself over a chick like you.
A gi is the only thing that looks good on you.
Who'd want to look at your tatas anyways?
The weight of all the things he had said to her hit him like a punch to the gut. Had he gone too far? Did she hate him for it? Did he ruin any chance he had with her?
It was a beautiful day and Ranma was taking a walk through the park. He looked down and realized that he was holding someone's hand. Looking over, he saw Akane walking next to him, her eyes closed as she tilted her face up to enjoy the sun. She was wearing her white dress again and she looked absolutely beautiful.
As they walked, they saw a swing set and Akane giggled and ran over to sit on one of the swings, yelling, "Push me, Ranma!"
He spent what felt like hours pushing her back and forth, just watching her face light up in happiness. When he sat next to her, she gave him a smile saying, "I'm so glad that you finally love me. All the work I put into my appearance and all those cooking classes finally paid off."
Confused, Ranma looked at her and realized she looked different. Her breasts were absurdly large, and her waist practically nonexistent. Her lips were engorged, her nose slimmer than it normally was, and her eyes were even rounder than usual. He pulled back in shock.
"Wh-what happened to you, Akane?" His hand reached out to touch her, but he stopped himself.
"What do you mean? I look great, don't I? I had my boobs enlarged, a rib taken out so that I finally have a waist, the fat suck out of my thighs, collagen injected into my lips, my eyes and my nose done. I did it all for you. It's what you wanted, right?"
Ranma shook his head in horror. "No..."
Akane gave him a sad look. "Well, what's wrong with me now, Ranma? Whatever it is, I can change it," she said pleadingly.
This isn't right, he thought as he gazed at her, horrified.
Suddenly Akane stood up and she was wearing the white halter top and low rise jeans again. "Is this better? Do I look sexy now?"
Ranma's heart raced as he looked around franticly, trying to figure out what was going on.
Suddenly her body became still and stiff, her arms stuck at a ninety degree angle, her body gained cartoonish proportions, her mouth moved into an expressionless smile. She had turned into a life sized plastic doll, her eyes glazed over. Her head swiveled eerily on her neck until she was staring at him though blank eyes.
"Or would you prefer me to look more like this?" Her voice echoed as it came from her unmoving mouth.
His eyes widened in terror as he desperately tried to figure out what was happening.
"Or how about this?"
Suddenly, her body seemed to shrink. Her clothes fell soundlessly into a puddle on the floor. Akane was naked and six inches tall again. She floated there momentarily until her body started to fall slowly to the ground.
"NOOO!" he screamed as he dove to catch her.
Once she was in his hands, he realized they were no longer at the park but were in the middle of a cave. Looking around he saw a statue with a broken dragon's head spouting water next to a statue of a phoenix. Sprinting forward, he jumped straight into the stream of water, changing instantly into a girl and causing Akane's dehydrated body to grow back to normal size. He held her in his arms, happy he was able to revive her.
But something was wrong. She wasn't waking up. He shook her slightly, screaming her name. Begging her to come back to him.
But this time it didn't work, she didn't wake up.
Suddenly, he was in a graveyard, standing in front of a pile of freshly dug dirt, looking at a headstone that simply said Akane.
He fell to his knees and screamed.
In his bed, Ranma woke up with a jolt, sweaty, and panting. His heart was beating so fast and loud that he could hear the thumping reverberate in his ears. The nightmare had been so real. He had not felt so scared or empty since that damned cave in Jusendo. Even now, just thinking of the fear and pain that had coursed through his body back then, when he had thought he'd lost her, was enough to make his blood run cold. When he began to shake, he brought his knees up to his chest and placed his hands on the back of his head, curling up in a protective ball. He began to rock back and forth as he whimpered.
She didn't die. It was just a dream. She didn't die. She's fine. She didn't die.
Unable to calm himself down, Ranma jumped up and out the window, making it over the roof and towards his fiancée's window. He needed confirmation that she was okay. He needed to see her beautiful face with his own two eyes, to hear her breathing, to touch her warm skin. He needed evidence that she was really there with him.
When he leaned over the roof just to peek inside, his heart began racing in fear when he noticed the window was open. What if someone had snuck in while he was sleeping?
Panicking, he jumped into her room only to find Akane's bed empty.
He scanned the room, but found no sign of her and his heart stopped.
Waking up in the middle of the night was becoming the norm for Akane. Her dreams were no longer peaceful, full of images of herself in miniature being carried around tucked in the front of Ranma's shirt. She could do nothing to help him as he fought a giant bird. Terror filled her, as she wanted to scream and shout, but her shrunken body was unable to respond to her demands. She was forced to watch as Ranma fought for both their lives, feeling utterly helpless, unable to help the man she loved.
It was almost the same dream every night; sometimes she was the doll and sometimes she was watching it all unfold in front of her like a movie. The horror and agony were so real she woke up disoriented, her chest constricted as tears streamed down her face.
The first few times she had the dream, she tried to force herself to go back to sleep, but the dreams would just continue from where they left off. She found the only remedy for her nightmares was to walk to the kitchen, drink some nice cold water and take a small walk through the house. By the time she went back to bed, she would hopefully fall into a dreamless sleep.
Akane had just opened the door and was walking back into her room when she noticed someone standing there. She tensed, readying herself for an attack, when she realized it was her fiancé.
"Ranma? What are you...?"
She was unable to finish her question, finding herself suddenly being pulled towards him into a bone crushing hug. He was holding her so tight she was having trouble breathing. She was just about to yell at him for scaring her when she noticed that he was trembling and murmuring to himself.
Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his middle and started to stroke his back, making comforting sounds. They stayed that way until Ranma was no longer trembling and his breathing had slowed.
She pulled away from him slightly, trying to take a look at his face.
"What's wrong? Did something happen? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. You...you were gone. I-I came in to check and you were missing. I thought..."
Ranma started shaking again and was unable to finish his sentence. Akane wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled his head into the crook of her neck and started to rub his back again.
"Shh...I'm fine. I'm right here."
She moved out of his embrace and led him over to her bed, her arm still around his shoulders. Propping her pillow up, she sat down close to the wall and pulled him down next to her. She once again put his head on her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him. Sensing that the worst had passed, Akane attempted to find out what was wrong.
"Was it a nightmare? Do you want to tell me about it?"
Ranma only shook his head violently.
Akane just sat there with him for a while before she decided to ask a question that had been nagging at her all week. If she didn't ask him now, she may never be able to do it.
"Umm...I was just wondering if everything is ok? I haven't seen you much but you seem to have been...distracted all week."
She had hesitated asking this question, not knowing what his response would be and fearing the worst. He still hadn't told her about his date with Ukyo and there was a possibility that he could have decided to begin a relationship with her. She was being rather pessimistic, but if she was right, she would rather learn about it from him and hear it sooner rather than later. She'd deal with the heartache if she had to. It wouldn't kill her.
Or at least not all of her.
Not receiving a response, she said quietly, "If it's personal and you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."
Ranma definitely did not want to talk about it. In fact, he wanted to avoid it at all costs. If he told her about Ukyo, he wouldn't be able to help himself from asking her about what she thought. With the dream still vivid in his mind, he was just so scared that she would agree with the chef and that she would never forgive him. But if he didn't ask her now, he may never know how she felt. Not knowing how to say what he needed to, he began telling her about his entire trip to Ucchan's.
"Well, the other day, I went to Ukyo's and well…"
Akane closed her eyes, bracing herself for the worst when Ranma mentioned Ukyo.
No matter what, I will be happy for him. Eventually, she thought to herself.
But as Ranma relayed his story, her mood changed. She started out thinking their miscommunication was humorous and felt relieved at his lack of interest in the "date". But as he continued his story she became irritated at Ukyo's presumptuousness and then down-right angry when she found out that she threw herself at Ranma. Not to mention the irrational jealousy that was quickly taking over. She had to remind herself that Ranma had turned down the chef's advances so the jealousy was misplaced. Ultimately, she landed on indignation when she heard Ukyo's thoughts on what the deciding factors were in the so called "fiancée wars".
Ranma had finished telling her about the encounter with Ukyo the other day. He had hesitated on telling her about the attempted seduction, but decided it was better to tell her the truth now. If she found out about it later - and with his luck, she would - there would be hell to pay. He was pleasantly surprised that she didn't overreact or accuse him of any wrong doing. When he finished his story, he paused, once again scared of asking her if she felt the same way Ukyo did.
After letting herself seethe for a few minutes, Akane blurted out, "That's just stupid."
"Huh? What's stupid?" Ranma asked in confusion.
"What she said, it was stupid and insulting. Of course looks are important. I mean you've got to at least be attracted to someone if you are planning on…umm…having children with them. And yeah, cooking is important; otherwise what will you eat every day? But that's not all that matters to you!"
"It isn't?" He asked hopefully.
"Well no, I don't think so. You want someone who understands you, who understands that even though you say stupid things, you don't always mean them. I mean, I hope you don't mean them. And you need someone who is going to tell you that you are being stupid when you deserve it - not someone who's just gonna agree with everything you say – but will still be there for you when you do stupid things anyways because you're so damn stubborn.
"You need someone who understands that martial arts are important to you. That will understand that you will want to go on training trips, but stops you if you plan a ten year journey. Someone who knows you're too stubborn to ask for help even when you need it…"
Akane stopped ranting when she realized what she was saying. She was glad it was dark because her face was so hot she thought her hair would catch on fire. She couldn't believe that she had said all that. It was the truth, or at least she thought it was, but it was still mortifying to admit to, since it showed him exactly how often she thought about him. Worse, how often she thought of what he would need in a wife. She suppressed a groan and mentally started kicking herself.
Ranma was grateful that they were in the dark so he could hide the huge smile on his face. She didn't hold his words against him. Better yet, it seemed that she somehow saw through all his macho posturing and really understood him.
Maybe now would be the right time to tell her how he felt. Or at least hint at it. But he was too scared to say anything and with his history of saying the exact wrong thing and her tendency to misinterpret his words in the worst possible way, he thought his fear was justified.
They sat there for a while, one feeling mortified and the other elated.
Still berating herself for her verbal slip up, Akane suddenly realized the way she was holding Ranma and felt self-conscious. It was nice holding him like this, but what if he thought she was being too forward? The thought barely entered her head when Ranma moved away, causing her to feel rejected, thinking she had gone too far with her words. Her heart ached at the thought.
Although it felt nice to have Akane comfort him, Ranma was not one to be coddled so he sat up straight and propped himself against the headboard next to his fiancée. The dark giving him more courage than he normally had, he hesitantly reached out and put his hand over hers. He gave her a light squeeze, hoping it would somehow convey to her everything he couldn't say out loud. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of her warm hand in his.
When she felt a slight pressure on her hand, Akane looked down and smiled, feeling silly about her thoughts. It seemed that she kept overreacting to things lately, but decided to not dwell on it and just enjoy the moment. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder.
When Ranma woke up the next morning, he knew immediately that something was off. First, he wasn't assaulted by the sound of his father's loud snoring. Second, his futon wasn't nearly as soft as the bed he was on. Third, and really the biggest factor, was that he usually didn't have his blue-haired fiancée snuggled up to him.
He wasn't complaining though, this was definitely a nice way to wake up. Akane was currently sleeping on her left side, facing the wall while he was spooned behind her with his right arm draped over her stomach. He leaned in, buried his nose against her hair and took a whiff. Peaches, another one of his favorites.
If getting married meant waking up like this every morning, then it would be worth it.
When he was a little older, of course.
He was curious to how he ended up sleeping in her bed, but quickly realized that they must have fallen asleep last night after their talk. He was still pretty happy about how their conversation turned out, though he knew he still had to talk to her about one more thing. But that could wait until she woke up.
Without realizing it, he pulled her into his embrace slightly. He felt a little torn. Part of him was more than happy to stay like this all morning, cuddled with his fiancée. He rarely felt so at peace and happy to do nothing. He knew there would be hell to pay if their families caught them like this, but for once he didn't care. Not to mention the fact that Akane may beat him senseless if she found out that he had been awake this whole time. He would just feign sleep and take his lumps if they came; it'd be worth it.
But the other part of him felt guilty. Like he was taking advantage of the situation and taking advantage of her. He never wanted her to think he was one of those assholes who would try to force her into something she didn't want. He never wanted her to feel like she couldn't trust him to keep her safe.
The selfish part of him won. He was just too happy to ruin the moment. Besides, who knew if he would ever get this chance again?
He pulled her closer to his chest, making sure to keep his hips away from her. He felt that pushing her bottom towards his morning erection would be crossing the line, regardless of how tempting it was.
Apparently Akane had other plans because she pulled his arms tighter around her before wriggling her body closer to his, her bottom rubbing his groin in the most enjoyable way. His member got even stiffer as pleasure flowed through him. Ranma had to bite back a moan at the sensations that went through his body.
He had made the wrong decision. When she realized what was happening, she was going to kill him and he was going to die. But he still thought it was worth it.
Akane was drifting between sleep and consciousness, her mind processing very little except that she was comfortable and safe. Her body naturally responded by bringing her closer to the source of the comfort, but even in her befuddled state, she thought it odd that there was something hard poking her in the back. Confused, she rubbed herself against it again, trying to figure out what it was.
Her eyes flew open as she processed several things at once: the arms wrapped around her, the musky scent that could only belong to one person, and a familiar voice groaning in her ear.
She had no idea what to do. Instinctually, she wanted to scream and smack him, but she tamped that feeling down as she remembered them talking last night and figured they must have fallen asleep. He hadn't snuck into her room and tried to take advantage of her.
She knew Ranma had a hard time with physical affection, so she didn't want to do anything to discourage him. Sometimes she felt that he was really like his name sake and she had to be careful with her actions or he would become skittish.
And frankly, she was very happy where she was.
Ranma knew that Akane was awake when he felt her body stiffen after she rubbed herself against him the second time. He had tried to remain quiet, but couldn't hold back his moan of pleasure.
"Akane? You awake?" he whispered, which seemed like the thing to do in the dark, positioned the way they were.
"Yeah," she whispered back.
"We must have fallen asleep last night."
"I realized that too."
Akane stayed in her snug position, stopping herself from intertwining her finger through his and was shocked by a sudden desire to rub her bottom against him again.
But it was okay for her to be curious about her fiancé, right? After some soul searching she realized that it was, but that didn't mean she should give into the growing impulse. Instead, she decided to just focus on how nice she felt at the moment and tried to keep her body still.
He waited for the outburst but it was becoming clear that it wasn't coming. He had the overwhelming urge to grind himself against her and move his hand upwards until it grazed the bottom swell of her breast and run the other hand over the generous curve of her hips. He took a deep breath and relaxed a little, but made sure not to move a muscle, lest she think he was trying something.
Ranma was surprised that the silence was comfortable as he resisted the urge to bury his nose in her hair again.
"'kane, about yesterday? You know with that...outfit you wore?" he asked, continuing to whisper.
"Yeah?"
Akane was a little worried that he'd tell her that he liked the clothes. She just didn't feel comfortable wearing things like that. She knew she was probably being paranoid, but she couldn't help feeling that people kept staring at her yesterday. As much as she wanted him to be attracted to her, she couldn't pretend to be someone she wasn't just to please him.
"Well...I don't think you should wear that stuff anymore."
Akane's heart sunk a little. Even in that get-up, it seemed that Ranma didn't find her sexy.
"Why? You don't think I looked good in it?"
"No, no that's not it. I thought you looked...nice. It's just not you. I l-like the way you normally dress. It's c-cute."
"But not sexy, right?"
"No, but that doesn't matter. You don't need to be sexy, being...you is enough."
Akane felt her face flush as she absorbed what he said and was glad she had her back towards him. While he didn't actually call her cute, in his own roundabout way he had told her that he liked her the way she was. She was overjoyed at the simple admission but it still left one unanswered question.
"Then why did you say that?"
Flustered, Ranma said the first thing that came to mind, "I'm too young to get married."
Akane was plain confused as she had no idea how the two subjects connected.
"You know our dads. If I gave them any sign that I was interes...that we were...they'd have us married before we could blink."
While what he said was true, she saw a pretty obvious problem with his solution.
"So, you're planning on just insulting me so they don't get the idea that we li...are getting along?"
"No?" Ranma sighed. "I didn't really think it over," he mumbled.
She giggled, not at all surprised at his response.
"I'm too young to get married too. No matter what they do, a wedding can't happen unless we agree. So let's work together, okay?"
"Okay."
Ranma smiled, it was nice to think of them working like a team. Almost like they were a real couple. And he hated to admit it but Akane would probably have better ideas than he did about how to handle their parents. His plans never turned out the way he thought they would.
"Ummm...well, I guess I better go, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
Neither teen made a move to disentangle themselves.
"What time is it?"
"Still pretty early I think."
Ranma was disappointed when he felt Akane move from his embrace. She turned her body and propped herself up briefly before laying back down and facing him.
"We've got an hour before Kasumi and your mom wake up to start breakfast. It's Sunday, so they start later."
Her hair fell over her cheek when she laid down and he reached out a hand to gently push it behind her ear, causing her face to turn red again.
"Did I tell you what happened with Nabiki?"
The pair laid in bed, whispering to each other, both just happy to be in each other's company and trying to stretch out the time they had together before Ranma had to sneak out of her room again. Though this time he remembered to use the window.
A/N: With all the drama in the last few chapters, I thought we needed to end with some WAFF.
Shout outs to FireKitsune1, Flameraven1, Armichi, kraken5, Compucles, for catching the Naruto reference.
Big thanks to alwaysZutarian and PepperonyOwl for all their help in betaing my chapter through two revisions!
Original Publication Date: August 9, 2014
Revised: May 12, 2015