DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ranma 1/2. Nor do I own any other recognized series/characters that may appear in this story. Characters and series elements are copyright of their respective owners.


A/N: Okay, I promised you crossovers and they kick off in this chapter. Also, you're probably starting to notice that the characters' "real life" personalities are quite different from the Ranma 1/2 characters we know and love. In some case polar opposites. Feel free to send me feedback on my warped versions on Takahashi-sama's beloved characters. Enjoy the story!


Chapter 2

The director motioned Ranma over, explaining that since Ryouga had gotten lost again, they were going ahead to Ranma's next scene at Ucchan's. Ranma nodded and motioned for Ukyo to join him on-set.

"Okay people, this is a take. Lights, Camera one..." Two calls of "Ready" came from the crew. "Annnnnd,..... ACTION!"

Ranma walked into Ucchan's rubbing his head. Ukyo took this as her cue and began the scene's dialogue. "Hey there Ranma-Honey! What's eatin' ya?" she said with a look made up of both pleasure and concern.

"Aww man! It ain't fair, Ucchan. I try'n stop the freak from stealin' underwear an' I get malleted by Akane jus' cause she caught me with a pair of her panties!"

Ukyo immediately sported a face worthy of the phrase 'If looks could kill' as she glared at Ranma. "What were you doing with Akane's panties, you jackass!?" she screamed, her spatula saying hello to the already evident lump on Ranma's skull. Ranma immediately shot back at the accusation.

"It ain't my fault! The ol' perv threw 'em at me, okay!?" he roared as he rubbed his head a second time. Ukyo was just about to offer Ranma his usual okonomiaki special when the director intervened.

"Cut, cut, CUT!! Ranma, what's wrong with you? You're severely ticked at this whole experience. You're not supposed to be smiling!"

Ranma blinked and Ukyo followed suit as she took a closer look at Ranma's expression. The director was right. Ukyo had been focusing on her part so much that she hadn't noticed, but Ranma had had a smile on his face through the entire scene. *What's he so happy about?* she wondered.

Ranma turned a slight pink at the director's words and quickly covered it up with a cough. "Ahem, sorry. Can we do another take?" Ranma quickly forced himself to focus and put on his acting face, this time full of anger and agitation. Though in the back of his mind, all he could hear were Akane's words from before. The director sighed, but seeing all seemed ready, he called for a second take.

---

Meanwhile, Ryouga was agitated for real as he realized he was lost yet again. Luckily for him, he was still on the studio grounds. Now it was just a matter of getting back to the right set.

"Great, Just great. I'm supposed to be shooting my scene right now. I'm probably holding up the whole production." The director never did tell Ryouga they filmed scenes out of sequence when he got lost. He preferred to let the young actor think it was his brilliant directing that got the job done on schedule. Occasionally, he'd even give credit to the editing department.

Ryouga wandered up to a door marked 'Stage #6' and opened it. Inside he saw a crew much like his own, but the set design was drastically different. People seemed to be on break, so at least he hadn't ruined any takes with his entrance. He looked to his left and saw a boy his age that looked a lot like Ranma. His clothes were different, but Ryouga figured that was wardrobe's doing. Smiling at his ability to get back to the correct set so quickly, Ryouga walked up to him. The boy turned to see who was approaching him and upon seeing Ryouga, blinked in surprise, then became a tad miffed.

"Hey kid. What're you doing here? This is a closed set. There's a lot of heavy machinery around here ya'know." The boy put down a gun prop he'd been holding and walked up to Ryouga "You could get hurt if you don't know what yer doing. Ya better get going." Ryouga looked around the set. There was indeed a LOT of machinery. BIG machinery. And the boy didn't act like he recognized Ryouga either. This obviously wasn't Ranma. *Guess I shouldn't praise myself just yet..* he thought as it became clear this was the wrong set.

Ryouga bowed politely and headed out the door. As the door shut he heard the voice of whom he could only assume was the director .

"Hey, Maxwell! Quit fooling around and get over here! We're about to shoot the cell break scene!"

"Oops, sorry chief!"

---

Sometime later, Ranma was in his trailer. He had shot all his scenes and was packing up for the day. His smile was wider than ever now. He was minutes away from meeting Akane at her trailer to escort her to his home for a quiet dinner. As he gathered up the last of his things he realized his acting wasn't quite done for the evening. Although he had every intention of being himself around Akane, he didn't want to scare her away. So, he would need to use all of his skills as an actor to tone down his emotions to a level his date could feel comfortable with.

Ranma gulped. Having the word 'date' run through his mind made him nervous. He wanted so badly to make a good impression. He grabbed his tote-bag and locked the trailer.

On his way down to Akane's trailer, he bumped into something, or some one. The distracted Ranma looked up from the floor and smiled. "Sorry 'bout that, Mousse."

Mousse grinned and helped Ranma to his feet. "Best watch where you're going, Saotome. You've been out of it all day." Ranma chuckled and let the comment go. The last thing he needed was to give away what had been on his mind. Choosing to take a safer route, he changed the subject.

"Well, everyone has off days. Say Mousse, don't you have a date with Shampoo tonight? Yer gonna be late if ya stay here talkin' ta me."

Mousse rolled his eyes. "Don't remind me. I can't believe I let you set us up."

Ranma let out a chuckle as the in-character cry of his colleague played through his head. *'Shampoooooo!!!!!!'*

"Aw, c'mon Mousse. She's a nice girl. Besides, she's my best friend. I wanna see her happy. An' I know she likes ya."

Mousse nodded and stubbornly trodded off to Shampoo's trailer. As Ranma turned to go to Akane's, he heard Mousse call back to him. "Oh, Saotome.."

"Huh?"

"You dropped something."

Ranma looked back and sure enough there was a small box on the floor that had fallen from his bag. It was a tiny jewelry box that held a gold necklace Ranma had bought for Akane a year after they started working together on the series. Ranma kept it with him, never really having the nerve to give it to her yet. It was small enough that Ranma would have left it behind unnoticed. Grateful to his colleague, Ranma picked up the box, put it safely away and turned to thank Mousse. "Thanks man. I never would have spotted it." Ranma's thanks would not be received, for Mousse was already gone.

---

Finally after what seemed like the longest walk of his life, Ranma reached Akane's trailer. He knocked softly on the door and smiled as it opened to reveal the girl he longed for. She was dressed in a dolled up version of her street clothes, not wanting to put on just any old thing for a date. Her white pants and violet blouse made her look radiant to Ranma, who had used all his strength to hold out his hand to her politely without grabbing her in a hug. Akane smiled and held her black leather purse to her as she took Ranma's outstretched hand and exited the studio with him on their way to the parking lot.

Ranma held the door open to a red mustang convertible that had the license plate bearing his name. Akane smiled and slid gracefully into the passenger seat. For the first little bit, things seemed normal as Ranma's car pulled out of the studio parking lot. He weaved carefully through the hordes of fans the way he always did, stopping only briefly for an autograph or two. Ranma was used to this and considered it part of his normal daily routine. But this time he took notice that something was different. There were twice as many fans surrounding his car and the male to female ratio was a lot more even than usual. Not only that, but he noticed one of the fan girls crying out in true otaku fashion "Ohhhhhh, he's taken!!!".

That's when it hit him. Akane was in his car this time and half the horde was ogling at her, wanting her autograph. More than that, he and Akane almost looked like a couple to their fans. This made Ranma smile. *If only it were true..* he thought as he pulled his car free of the hordes, heading for his house.

---

Ranma tried in vain to keep his eyes on the road, but he kept finding himself stealing glances at Akane. A wonderful thing, traffic lights. "It ain't much further to my house." he said, breaking the silence. Akane, who had just sat there smiling at the city looked back at him and responded "You live in a beautiful district.".

"Thanks Akane" Ranma said as he promptly turned his gaze to the road in effort to hide the blush that was taking over his cheeks.

Akane's mind was still filled with concern for Ryouga's whereabouts, but vowed not to let it become obvious to Ranma. Partly because she saw no reason to ruin a perfectly good dinner and partly because she was unaware anyone knew of her relationship with Ryouga. Not that it was anything that serious. She had noticed Ryouga's tendency to move fast, but he seemed more willing to live with the moment than think of a long lasting relationship. And long lasting was what Akane wanted. Shrugging inwardly to herself, she smiled at Ranma to put any notions to rest of there being anything on her mind. He smiled back just as they pulled into his driveway.

---

Ryouga meanwhile was still wandering around lost back at the studio. He had given up for the day on finding his set, now more interested in finding a place to crash for the night. Everything was closed up and the setting sun would only provide Ryouga with light for so long. After dark, the studio was even harder to navigate than in daylight.

Ryouga wandered through a door marked 'Stage #3' and looked around. The whole place was in darkness and completely deserted. He leapt up on a support beam for a better view of where he was. Seeing mostly darkness, he could just make out to his immediate left what appeared to be a comfortable cushion inside some sort of enclosure. *Looks good enough.* he thought as he leapt down through an opening in the enclosure's ceiling and settled into the soft, inviting cushion to go to sleep.

---

"C'mon in!" Ranma called behind him as he showed Akane inside his home. Ranma walked ahead to the kitchen to get some drinks and motioned for Akane to help herself to her seat of choice in his living room. "Make yerself at home. I'll get us something to drink before dinner. What'll ya have?" he called out.

"Tea is fine, thanks." Akane answered, before she was cut off by a soft noise.

"Meow.." Akane smiled as the cat rubbed against her leg. "Why hello there. Who might you be, kitty?"

Ranma, who was bringing Akane her tea, smiled as he saw the cat. "Don't mind her, she's harmless. She probably just wants to be fed. Be back in a sec." he said as he returned to the kitchen to retrieve a small can.

Akane bent down to pet the cat as she noticed its' collar. It had a small gold heart hanging from it with the name 'Scarlet' engraved in big italic lettering. Akane blinked and smiled when she had a thought. Either Ranma was a fan of old American movies, or he had thoughtfully named his cat after his co-star. Akane softly scratched the purring ball of fur behind its' ears and sat quietly as Ranma returned with a plate of cat food which he placed next to the coffee table. As Ranma sat down, with his drink, Akane decided to tease him.

"Your cat has a lovely name." she said with a smile. Ranma became flushed as he fidgeted in his seat next to Akane. "Y.. yeah, well it just kinda came to me.." he stammered out.

Akane smiled. *This could be a nice evening after all.* she thought.