THESE ARE NOT MY CHARACTERS, THIS IS NOT MY IDEA, THIS IS MERELY ME (Frictionx42) WISHING THAT I COULD WRITE SOMETHING AS CREATIVE AS RANMA ½ BUT, BEING UNABLE TO COME UP WITH CHARACTERS OR AN ORIGINAL PLOTLINE OF MY OWN, I'M DOING A FICTIONAL WORK SPRINGBOARDING OFF OF THE CREATIVE TALENTS OF OTHERS SUCH AS TAKAHASHI-SAMA, WHO IS THE OWNER AND CREATOR OF THIS SHOW. I ONLY WISH I COULD DO IT JUSTICE.

Apology

Chapter 2: The Morning After

A Ranma ½ fanfiction

By Frictionx42

Ranma awoke earlier than normal. There was a strange buzzing noise that he was unfamiliar with. It bothered him a lot, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. More asleep than awake, he inquired groggily,

"Hey Pop, what's with that buzzing sound? It's really gettin' on my nerves."

"Ranma, quick wake up! That's my alarm! We fell asleep in here last night after we… kissed."

Why'm I hearing Akane's voice? It's Sunday, she doesn't need to wake me up today. Waitaminit, did I leave Akane's room last night? Oh boy… Ranma's mind finally registered what was wrong: this wasn't his room. He opened his eyes to light streaming in the window and realized that he was, in fact, in Akane's room. He glanced down and saw something that he had previously only dreamed about in the dreams that he had never told to anyone: Akane, lying in his arms, snuggled up to him as tight as could be. At first, he felt a little uncomfortable about it, but a second later, Akane moved slightly and then everything felt all right again. She reached up and turned her alarm off, then returned her arms to clutch at Ranma tightly. Ranma wondered why it didn't feel strange sleeping next to someone so closely, since he wasn't used to doing so. It just felt so right, being with Akane like this, and he didn't want it to ever stop. The two lay there for a few more minutes, enjoying the closeness that they felt to each other. Staring deeply into each other's eyes, the two lost themselves in time, oblivious to the outside world. Finally, it was a very flushed Akane that broke the silence.

"Umm, Ranma, maybe we should, uh, get up before you get much more excited."

Ranma inwardly cursed. Sometimes it was just so much of a pain to be a guy in the morning.

"Oh, I uh, sorry about that, it's just that it's morning, and you-" Ranma began to blush a deep red; almost as red as the hair he wore in his cursed form. He moved away from her slightly.

"Don't worry about it, you pervert." She giggled, blushing almost as fiercely as he was.

"Oh yeah, well, I thought I wouldn't have to worry about it, with how uncute you are!" Ranma and Akane chuckled quietly, not wanting to wake the other members of the household, but enjoying the time they had to spend with each other since it was Sunday, and they were the only people in the house awake, besides Kasumi. The two spoke quietly, working out the details of their plan to make sure that everything worked out the way they wanted, not the crazy ideas that everyone else seemed to have for them. After a while, Ranma stretched, and rolled off of Akane's bed, landing on the floor silently and with the grace possessed only by the most highly trained martial artists.

"Akane, the rest of the house'll be waking up soon, I should go." His face showed his obvious desire to stay, but also his understanding of his pressing need to be out of her room before anyone found out he'd been there. She glanced up at him, understanding his feelings perfectly. The entire morning had been like a dream to her. She just couldn't believe that she and Ranma had finally given up the huge charade that they had been at since soon after they met. Just when she was beginning to think that they would never be able to stand each other, Ranma went and surprised her again. As usual. Ranma began to walk towards her window; the obvious exit if one wished to be unnoticed. Akane stopped him before he could open it, however.

"And just where do you think you're going, Ranma? Aren't you forgetting something?"

Ranma quickly looked down at himself. He was wearing his white shirt and black pants, and he certainly didn't think he'd come in here last night with anything else. Akane just looked at him expectantly, with a sly grin on her face; no help there. He looked around the room quickly. There wasn't anything knocked out of place, Akane's room looked immaculate, so he didn't mess anything up while he was here that he needed to clean up before he left. Akane's gaze was fixated on him, making him somewhat nervous. After a moment she spoke, her voice low and menacing.

"Ranma, I can't believe you would have forgotten so quickly." Her eyes spoke volumes of the damage she was about to inflict on him. Ranma steeled himself for the inevitable, shutting his eyes tightly so that he wouldn't see it coming.

"I guess you need a little reminder, let's just hope that this helps you to remember next time!"

Ranma squinted his eyes tightly, certain that the mallet of doom was even now descending on his head with a force that would send any lesser man to his grave. To his surprise, the mallet didn't hit him. He was struck by something else entirely. As Ranma clenched his teeth and readied himself to take the blow, Akane pressed herself up against him, embracing him tightly, and thrust her mouth up against his in a passionate kiss that left him as breathless as it did surprised.

"If we're alone, never leave me without one of those first. Got it?" Akane grinned at him. Ranma was speechless. He stared, open-mouthed, at Akane, his mind frantically seeking to grasp what had just occurred.

"R-right, Akane, you got it."

"Now get out of here, before Nabiki wakes up and we have to give her our life savings to keep her quiet."

Ranma gave her another kiss, left silently through her window, and moved across the roof to the room in which he and his father slept. His father's massive panda form was still asleep, and Genma didn't even notice when Ranma lay down on his own pad and feigned sleep.

What Ranma and Akane didn't know was that Nabiki wasn't asleep. She was very much awake. Ranma and Akane's relationship had always left the sweet smell of profit in the air, and this morning the entire house practically reeked of it. Yes, Nabiki found herself very much awake, and she just needed a little time to figure out exactly why she was suddenly so excited. She jumped out of bed and sat down at her computer to start doing some serious snooping.

"All right, let's see what last night's security cameras picked up..."

Author's Notes: Again, sorry it's so short. This is still part of the chapters that I wrote nearly six years ago. Here's a brief explanation of why there's such a large chunk of time in between writing and posting and new stories:

There very tragic story of young author fall in cursed spring of drowned MMO Player six year ago. Is very cursed spring! Now whoever fall in spring play many MMO game all time!

I found my cure, finally. Now why's it so hard for Ranma? I'll be posting what I wrote six years ago with very few alterations, in an effort to move on to new chapters and whatnot. Until I catch up to where I've written, I'll post one or two chapters a week, depending on quality of people's comments and criticism. That does not mean if you praise it I'll post more, it means if you suggest some improvements to my writing style, I'll speed up a bit. Praise is appreciated, but I'm really more interested in becoming a stronger author (I'm 29, a bit late to try and become a powerful martial artist. Gotta be real with my plans, right?)