Over the next week they hadn't seen neither hide nor hair of Mascara and Akane was starting to think that maybe she had gone back to china. She hoped this was true with all her heart, but still something wasn't right. Ranma's physical health seemed like it had completely crashed yet again. Every time she checked his bandages she noticed that his wounds had reopened and weren't healing anymore. The last time she had noticed this she had asked him he felt fine and he had replied with yes, but Akane wasn't so sure.

Akane knocked on the door and this time she was going to pressure him into telling her everything. 'No more secrets from Akane,' she thought as she entered the room. She looked around and Ranma wasn't there, she swore he had just told her to enter, well maybe he didn't. She walked over to the window and looked out; did he go up on the roof? How was he well enough to get on the roof? Akane climbed out the window and looked up and saw Ranma looking up at the stars.

She climbed the rest of the way up and sat next to him and he didn't even seem to notice that she was there. So she just pulled her knees up to her chest and looked up at the stars with him. A few moments later she could see Ranma move out of the corner of her eye but she kept her head up. The next thing she felt completely surprised her, he had just put his head on her shoulder. Trying her hardest not to move Akane kept looking up at the stars.

"Your chunky man arms are very comfortable," he said only partly joking.

"Ranma seriously?" Akane had a hard time getting mad at him for some reason; normally she would have slapped him by now. She decided 2 could play at that game she leaned her head to rest on the top of his fluffy black hair. "Your fat head is pretty comfy too."

"Why thank you," Ranma said with a smile, he liked this better than fighting with her. Ever since Mascara had come for some reason being around Akane was calming but around people like Ryoga he felt really jumpy and on edge.

"Are you going to stay here this time?" Akane asked closing her eyes knowing what the answer would be, 'until he gets married'.

"Until I keep my promise," he said feeling weird talking about it but it felt so natural now.

Surprised Akane lifted her head up and so did he as she looked at him with a funny look. "What promise?" Akane had no idea what he was talking about, she doesn't remember a promise. Maybe he promised to help Ryoga with fixing the place up a little bit or teach him a new move.

"To marry a Tendo girl," he said trying to hold back a smile thinking about how much creepier it would be if he did smile. He was fine being creepy but he didn't want to scare away Akane, then he would never feel that soothing feeling again. When Akane didn't say anything he went on still hoping not to scare her, "And since Kasumi is already married and Nabiki is who knows where that means…," he waited for her to fill in the blank.

"Me?" Akane said quietly, was he really saying all this stuff right now? Ranma the boy who always made fun of her and fought with her on everything? The boy she had always secretly liked and behind closed doors she cried because of a broken heart? "You don't have to fulfill that promise if you don't want too Ranma," she said thinking that this was some sort of trap. "Did my dad offer you lots of money?"

"Akane your dad doesn't have any money," Ranma said as he was starting to think that maybe he was wrong about Akane's and his chemistry.

"Did Ryoga give you money?" she asked there had to be some catch to it.

"Akane, why would Ryoga give me money to marry the girl that he's always been in love with?" Ranma had to snort at this one. Ryoga acted as if he didn't care about Akane but they both knew he still did, he still did everything she asked him to do.

"I don't understand then," Akane said out loud but not meaning too.

By this point Ranma was ready to just say forget it and go back to his room, but for some reason something inside him compelled him to stay and keep talking. Old Ranma would have ignored this instinct and done it anyways, but this Ranma knew better than that.

"Ranma, you really don't have to marry me if you don't want too, we are free to choose who we love and who we want to marry and who we want…," she was stopped by something soft hitting her lips. She closed her eyes and it embraced it because it only lasted for what seemed one second. When she opened her eyes she looked up at Ranma who had a completely serious face.

"Good night Akane," he said before walking over to the edge of the roof and hopping down.

Akane sat there in silence, did he just kiss her? Now she was completely dumbfounded, maybe Ranma really did want to be with her? Maybe it wasn't money or a promise or anything like that; maybe he truly liked her now? Akane let her body fall back against the cool roof, she needed to cool down.

"Damn it, I didn't even talk to him about his health like I was going too," she said quietly punishing her-self. She had gotten all caught up in what he had said about marriage, was that his proposal? "If so that was an awful one."

Later that night Akane woke up from a dream which as soon as she woke up she couldn't remember. She sat up and grabbed the glass of water off her desk and took a sip, before she looked at the clock. It read 2:47 in bright red neon numbers. She rubbed her eyes and laid back down and tried to go back to sleep wondering how she had fallen asleep in the first place. She remembers being restless and all she kept doing was thinking about Ranma's kiss, and then she started to try to remember what it felt like.

"ARGH," she screamed through her teeth, now she was never going to get back to sleep because she was thinking about it again. Not feeling tired she got up and decided maybe some jumping jacks would do the trick? She got up and started to do jumping jacks while turning in a circle, when she was facing the window she had to stop. She ran over to get a closer look and saw the reason why Ranma's wounds had reopened; he was outside sparing with the air.

Akane couldn't believe this, how was he supposed to fight anyone with open wounds even if he was strong enough to fight? She rolled her eyes and watched him train with himself until she felt tired. She looked back at the clock and it read 4:56 am. Deciding that he was probably going to bed soon and he would see her Akane quickly ran and jumped back into her bed and tried to think about nothing until she fell asleep.

A/n: Sorry this took so long to get up. It's the end of the semster and i was writing papers like crazy and i got a little writer's block but i knew i had to get a chapter up so i pushed through it. hopefully you like?