Apology Chapter 9, a ranma fanfic

I HUMBLY REQUEST THAT I NOT BE REIMBURSED FOR MY EFFORTS HERE. THE FACT THAT DOING SO WOULD ONLY DO ME MORE HARM THAN GOOD HAS A LOT TO DO WITH THE REQUEST. RANMA ½ BELONGS TO A WONDERFUL WOMAN WHO IN NOT-VERY MANY WAYS RESEMBLES MYSELF. THE PARTS WHERE WE DO RESEMBLE EACH OTHER HAVE TO DO PRIMARILY WITH SPECIES AND NUMBER OF FINGERS AND WHATNOT, THE DIFFERENCES ARE MAINLY IN THAT SHE CAN GET PAID FOR THE THINGS THAT RANMA & CO. DO, AND I CANNOT. NOT WITHOUT MY HORDE OF RABID WEASELS (AND INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW) HAVING SOME SAY IN THE MATTER. OR A LOT OF SAY, ACTUALLY.

Apology Chapter 9

A Ranma ½ Fanfic

by FrictionX42

Akane winced as the punch slammed home into her gut, but forced herself to smile so that her opponent wouldn't go easy on her again. She was happy to be sparring with Ranma, even if it was a lot more painful than she'd expected. The thought that this was Ranma at two-thirds normal sobered her even further. She was no longer angry about ranma never taking her seriously before, she was somewhat glad. A kick barely missed her left temple by less than a centimeter. Akane snapped back to the situation at hand. Now that Ranma was taking her – and her training – seriously, she couldn't afford to think about anything else.

"What'cha thinkin' about, Akane?" Ranma paused for a moment after regaining Akane's attention. He managed to avoid her response – a kick aimed at his groin – by sidestepping, but in doing so moved straight into the path of her punch. He managed to spin with it to lessen the impact, but it still stung. Ranma grimaced as he noted just how much his speed had diminished. It looked like Doctor Tofu's estimation had been about right. About a third...Jeez, I'm only a little better than Akane now... I only hope that things calm down here for a while. I better focus on this fight and then work on getting back ta my old strength quick!

The two continued to spar for the next hour or so, Ensuring that Ranma gained a better understanding of what his new limits were like. In the end, both were a little upset; Akane due to the fact that even in his diminished state Ranma could still beat her, even if just barely. Ranma was annoyed because he realized that now he wasn't as certain as to the outcome of the fight that was coming up later that afternoon. The two had decided to skip school that day in order to ensure that Ranma was ready for the fight. It had been a short and interesting talk with their fathers that morning to convince them to let them do so. Akane grimaced as she recalled the two patriarchs go on about how it was a martial artist's duty to take on any challenger, and about how the two of them locked up in the dojo would inevitably lead to the joining of the schools. Akane and Ranma had had to break off the fight at least seven times to tell their respective fathers to go away and leave them alone, twice even bodily removing them from the dojo so they could continue to practice in peace. Kasumi had finally come and redirected Soun and Genma's attention to some snacks and the shogi board.

Neither teen missed the discouraged sighs coming from the other as they stretched from their workout. Ranma caught Akane's eyes at one point and he made sure to flash her a good smile. He was rewarded when she blushed slightly and returned the smile to him. Ranma could feel the color creep up his neck and into his ears as he blushed back at her, thinking about how good Akane looked stretching in front of him. As she twisted one way and then the other, he found his gaze locked on her lithe form. Aw, man... I liked looking at her before, but now that we're getting' along... Dang it, it's getting hard – difficult! – to focus on the fight today. I better do somethin' else, quick!

Standing suddenly, Ranma glanced over at Akane. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked away as quickly as she could to avoid Ranma's gaze. He mumbled something about going to take a bath before lunch and headed for the door. He stopped when a small hand closed over his wrist. Turning, Ranma found another small hand rest against his cheek and gently guide his mouth to brush up against Akane's in a brief kiss. It only lasted a moment, but it was electrifying. Ranma wrapped his arms around her waist and the two embraced for a few brief minutes, basking in the warmth of each other. Finally, it was Akane who broke the silence.

"Ranma, thanks for finally treating me like a real sparring partner this time. It felt really good." Akane murmured into Ranma's chest as he held her close, the scent of his recent workout was nearly overpowering, but Akane didn't want to leave. She could hear Ranma's heartbeat quicken as she hugged him tightly.

Ranma, for his part, was desperately trying to think of anything BUT Akane pressed up against him. It was pleasant enough, but Ranma was already worried about his ability to handle much more of Akane being cuddly without having some serious control issues. While their restpective fathers would be overjoyed, Ranma still felt that it would be prudent to wait for a much later time. Still, it really does feel good here with her hands on my chest and my arms around her waist and her- … um, her... Ranma stiffened (er, make that froze, actually... dang.) as he realized exactly what the two bulges were that were pressing into his abdomen were. Unused to intimate female contact that he actually wanted, Ranma began to panic. His hands began to clench uncontrollably and his mouth moved to speak, but no words escaped.

Akane felt Ranma's reaction, and was unsure of her own reaction at first. There was certainly a part of her that was reciprocating Ranma's unvoiced desires, but Akane's better judgement squashed it quickly. It didn't go down without a fight, though. A different part of Akane had a very appropriate idea, however, and it was on that that Akane decided to act.

Ranma's only warning was when Akane looked up into his face and shot him an impish grin as she tightened her grip on the front of his gi. Then she dropped down onto her back and pulled him along with her. Just as he was worried that the two of them were going to get into an extremely compromising position(Nabiki and the fathers would have been proud), Ranma felt Akane's foot plant firmly in his stomach, and she used the momentum built to propel him bodily through the air and into the corner where they stored various training implements. A crash and the sound of a metal bucket overturning later, a very sodden redheaded girl glared up at Akane from the floor where she lay.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?" Ranma demanded.

Still grinning, Akane answered, "It's Anything Goes, right? Shouldn't you have been expecting it? Besides," Akane's voice dropped in volume as her blush deepened and her gaze left Ranma's, "you seemed like you needed an opportunity to cool off a bit."

Ranma got to her feet swiftly, intending to protest her innocence, but managed to stop just before getting too defensive, "I... I guess you're right, Akane. Sorry about that." Ranma sought out Akane's eyes with her own and gave her a sheepish smile. "Forgive me?"

Akane returned the petulant redhead's smile with one of her own. "I guess. You certainly weren't the only one who needed a cooling down!"

Ranma's brain immediately short-circuited. Akane's havin' those thoughts about ME too? As Ranma looked at her, she suddenly realized that she could make out some of the signs of Akane's arousal. Her cheeks were slightly pink, and her breath came a tiny bit more ragged than she really needed, given her fitness level. As Ranma's gaze shifted a little lower she noted that with the angle that she was at she could see into Akane's gi, to note that on her exercise bra there was a tiny, prominent bulge. Ranma felt most of the blood in her body shoot up into her face, as she turned a brilliant crimson. She felt her own body react, and the interior of her shirt, slick with the perspiration from exercising earlier, rubbed uncomfortably against now very sensitive parts.

Akane noted the change in Ranma's facial coloration, and followed the sometimes-girl's gaze to where it was resting steadily on her chest. Then she realized that not only was Ranma staring at her breasts, but also that the angle allowed her gaze to note what state they were in, even if covered by her exercise bra! She gasped and covered her chest with her hands, then stalked over to where Ranma was only beginning to regain control over his mental faculties. Ranma shut her eyes, having long ago learned to expect some rather harsh treatment every time Akane caught him doing anything she could misinterperet as even the slightest bit perverted. Looking down at the petite redhead's face, with her eyes screwed shut as tight as Ranma could manage, Akane had to bite her tongue to keep from giggling. Instead, she jabbed her forefinger into Ranma's forehead. Ranma, having expected a much heavier hit, snapped her eyes open in disbelief. She was about to question Akane's actions when Akane burst out laughing.

Ranma once again turned a shade of crimson. This time it wasn't so much from embarrasment as from annoyance, but Ranma noted that it have been happening far too often lately one way or the other. She opened her mouth to protest, but Akane cut her off with a finger to her lips.

"It's no big deal Ranma, I won't hit you. THIS time..." Akane said to Ranma in a saucy tone of voice. The moment Akane removed her finger from Ranma's pert lips, she replaced it with her own, pressing her face to her fiance's in a fiery smooch. That's odd, Ranma's lips feel different right now. I wonder why she's not kissing me back? Why isn't she... she... SHE?

Akane immediately broke the kiss and pulled herself away from Ranma's face. Steeling herself the best she could muster, she could only stammer, "I uh, I-I think I hear Kasumi calling us in for lunch!" With that, Akane turned and walked quickly from the dojo, her mind racing with thoughts she could not control.

A look into Ranma's mind at that point reveals a thought process that went something along these lines:

…

lunch?

Author's Notes:

*sighs* It is Ranma, after all...

Dang, after so long not updating, and then the best I can give you is a REALLY short chapter like this. Half of what I normally strive for. Sorry everyone. If you read my profile, where I often give updates to whatever's going on in my life, you'd know that RL's been kicking my in the pants lately. And not the back seat of the pants, either. Add to that the fact that this story only gets written when I feel like I can meet my standards for it- which in this case I did NOT- but I wanted to give an update anyhow. As for the content being... different... from my normal fare, let's just say that I now have a very upset Ranma and Akane sitting in the back of my mind, pouting that I didn't make it significantly STRONGER! And those two don't just sit and pout. No, pouting for them is a very ACTIVE, PARTICIPATORY activity that's very difficult to avoid if you are the one they are pouting at. I made a promise a long time ago, when I first started writing these stories, that none of them would contain lemon scenes. It is getting exceedingly difficult to live up to that [promise, but I finally had the breakthrough I needed to drive the story on for the moment. No worries, the next few scenes are burning to be written right now, but I felt that this would be a good place to end the chapter, on an interesting- and quite amusing, to me- note.

Sorry to those of you who have been chomping at the bit to learn who sent the challenge letter, you'll have to wait a little bit longer. I'd originally intended to get all the way to the start of the fight in this chapter, but those two *gestures in frustration at the two overpowered martial-artist teens* apparently wanted a little more time together. I put it down to teenage hormones finally getting to those two. It's about time.

In addition to all of my other excuses, I also have had the ideas for not just one, but TWO Naruto (which I also don't own) fanfics. Don't expect to see them anytime soon, as they are interesting, but have yet to batter me into submission as a way of forcing me to write them. Perhaps after I complete EGMA, or something.

For those wanting the lemon, I MAY write it after all, but not here. There's a spot that's much better in the next chapter for it, and I'll make clear which portion to replace with the more citrus-powered version (that I may or may not write later) in that. Incidentally, now that I think of it, FFnet doesn't allow lemons anyhow, so I suppose I'll have to find a different place to post. I suppose that if I do write it I'll look into the submission requirements for the Ranma ½ Lemon Stories Archive. Go ahead, add them to the disclaimer now, as I don't own them or am affiliated with them in any way as of this writing.