Disclaimer: Not mine...I always return them to Rumiko Takahashi only slightly dented...

The Park

Akane sat under a tree in the park near Furinkan High School, the hood of her sweatshirt pulled up to cover her normally inky blue hair. She had left the Tendo compound earlier when Ranma's other fiancées had descended, desperate for a chance to escape the insanity for a brief time.

She smiled as she watched a group of middle-schoolers play soccer on the other side of the park. She vaguely remembered when life was that carefree, though she was willing to admit that it hadn't seemed that easy at the time. She sighed, wishing that she could have a normal life like her friends did, just for one day, when she could go shopping or to the arcade or even on a date without worrying about strange martial arts challenges and warring fiancées.

Akane stifled a shriek as Ranma dropped out of the tree above her. "Phew. I thought I'd never lose them," he panted, dropping to sit beside her.

Akane placed her hand over her heart, reassuring herself that it was still in her chest. "What are you doing here Baka?" she demanded.

"Feh." He flopped over to lie on his back with his head resting in her lap. "It's less fun when you ain't around. Shampoo, Kodachi, and Ukyo just get way too clingy without you to keep them in line, so running is usually the best way to handle them to make sure I don't gotta, y'know, handle 'em." He grinned up at her boyishly.

Akane snorted. "You are such a baka." She let her fingers stroke through his unruly hair, combing gently through the wind tangled strands.

"Tomboy," he retorted gently, closing his eyes and leaning into her caress. "You okay?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Mmm. Just got a lot of things on my mind," she replied, returning her gaze to the soccer game across the field.

"Are you worried about that Martial Arts Hairdressing guy that kidnapped you on Monday? 'Cause he sure as hell ain't coming back again, and even if he did, I wouldn't let him near you. 'Sides, the blonde's almost washed out now, so your hair'll be back to normal in no time." Ranma smiled up at her in what he clearly thought was a reassuring fashion.

Akane sighed. "D'you ever wish we could be normal Ranma?"

"Whaddya mean?" he demanded, his brow furrowing in a rather adorable way. "We are normal."

"No, I mean having a day where we don't have to worry about surprise weddings or extra fiancées or challengers from stupid Martial Arts Hairdressers. Just a day where we could spend time together and go the movies and school and parties and get part-time jobs – you know, normal things."

"Naw, sounds pretty boring."

"But don't you just want to be bored sometimes?" Akane demanded, feeling the strain of the last two years making itself known.

"Nope. Maybe I'd wish for a bit more quiet time to spend with you, but let's face it, we ain't cut out for the quiet life. Way I figure it, everyone's got a purpose in life and ours is to attract – and usually defeat – a whole crap load of chaos so our friends, like Yuka and Sayuri and Hiroshi and Daisuke, can live those quiet, normal, boring lives that everyone seems to want."

Akane blinked down at the young man. "That's pretty deep Ranma. You've really thought about this, haven't you." She was surprised when Ranma reached up and grabbed her hand.

"You think I don't wish I could give you a quiet normal life? I wish things with me were easier, but they ain't, and I can't seem to let you go, so it looks like you may be stuck with me," he said ruefully.

Akane met the regret in his eyes with determination in her own. "Ranma, if staying by your side means putting up with insanity and chaos on a daily basis...well, then I guess that's just the price I'll have to pay. You're not getting rid of this uncute tomboy that easily."

"And thank the gods for that," Ranma breathed, closing his eyes and squeezing her hand tightly.

They sat for a while in silence, Akane pretending she was watching the soccer game while really watching Ranma watch her through slitted eyes. She snorted as Ranma wrinkled his nose, trying to scratch an itch without moving. Finally, he gave in and turned, rubbing his cheek and the side of his nose against her thigh.

"You're wearing pants," he commented suddenly, his blue eyes looking up at her questioningly.

Akane looked down at her pink plaid capris then back into his eyes. "Random much? Yeah, I am. What's wrong with that?"

"It's just...I can't remember the last time you wore pants that weren't part of your gi. You know, for a tomboy, you dress awfully girly."

She bounced her knuckles playfully off his rock hard abs. "Jerk," she growled as he smirked up at her. "If you must know, I have a whole bunch of bruises on my legs that would be kind of obvious in most of my skirts, and you're the one that wanted to keep my training quiet."

Ranma's smirk shifted into a frown, and he sat up, spinning to face her in one smooth motion. Akane sighed briefly at the loss of contact before he gripped her chin with his fingers. "Did Pops hurt you? I thought we agreed that you would tell me when you got hurt."

Although Ranma still vehemently refused to train Akane, citing his inability to hit her, he had reluctantly agreed that she did need further training, as he could not always be at her side. It had taken a full week's cajoling before Ranma agreed to let Genma take on the physical side of Akane's training under his own watchfully paranoid supervision. It had been three weeks now, and Ranma still freaked out whenever the bruises started rising on Akane's pale skin.

"It's just bruises Ranma, nothing life threatening. Don't be such a worrywart. I'm a martial artist too, you know. I wouldn't even be worried about them, except that they're a bit too localized to be explained away by my natural clumsiness."

"Yeah, well, I talked to the Doc the other day and he whipped up a salve for me that's great for healing bruises. So if you don't tell me when you get bruised, how'm I gonna know when to rub the salve on?" he asked slyly, his blue eyes darkening suggestively.

"Oh, so you're going to be the one applying the salve to my bruises. Pervert," Akane teased.

Although it had been nearly a month since they'd basically admitted their feelings for each other, the big first real kiss was still hanging over their heads – and not for want of trying either. Unfortunately, every time they got close, they were interrupted – mostly by the usual suspects, although there was one time with that old lady and her ladle. Due to all the intrusions, they'd had to settle for flirting – a lot – which actually seemed to be getting them into more trouble than the almost kisses.

Suddenly, Akane realized they were alone in the park together, with no one they knew in the immediate vicinity. She licked her suddenly dry lips, noticing the way Ranma's eyes followed her tongue and darkened even more.

"What? You want my Pops to do it for you instead?" he questioned hoarsely, swaying closer to her.

"Eew! Ranma, that's gross," Akane squealed, wrinkling her nose and sighing at the loss of the mood that had clearly been destroyed by Ranma's comment. Then she met his gaze again and the heat of it sucked her in until she forgot everything but him.

She leaned forward, meeting him halfway and the world disappeared. Kissing. Lips. Ranma...I'm kissing Ranma! Feels soooo gooooooood... Akane thought. The tiny part of her mind not completely absorbed with Ranma was impressed that she could still form words.

It was not a kiss filled with the kind of desperation one would expect, considering the amount of pent-up emotion in the two hormonal teenagers, instead, it was tender and gentle and loving. When they finally broke apart, Akane sighed softly and let her eyes flutter open to take in Ranma's bemused expression.

"Wow," he croaked, swallowing hard. "That was totally worth the wait." He grinned at her crookedly and she laughed, leaning in to repeat the experience.

Millimetres away from his lips, she froze as the distinctive sound of a bicycle bell rang through the park.

"Oh hell. You have got to be kidding me," Ranma groaned.

"Arien!" called a high pitched voice. "Come out and take Shampoo to date!"

Ranma groaned again, resting his forehead against Akane's. "I really just wanna kiss you right now..."

"But we can't risk her finding us," Akane finished, the regret in her voice echoing his. She gritted her teeth against her anger at the constant interruptions to their painfully slowly developing relationship.

"C'mon, we gotta get outta here before she finds us," Ranma sighed, hopping to his feet and holding out his hand to her.

"Huh? Why do you want me to come too? She mostly just ignores me or taunts me a bit, then leaves to chase after you," Akane pointed out, not really wanting to get drawn into another pointless chase when she still had to face Uncle Saotome for more training before dinner.

"Uh..." Ranma scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well...she's been a bit...weird lately and some of the stuff she's been saying has me a bit on edge, so I ain't leaving you alone or unprotected around her, particularly when I ain't quite satisfied with where you are in your training."

He sighed in exasperation when Akane frowned up at him, reaching down to grasp her hand and pull her up into his arms. She gasped as she was cradled against his hard chest and Ranma took to the trees, moving deeper into the park. He grinned down at her before turning his attention back to their route to ensure that they didn't attract the Amazon's attention.

They heard the rustling of leaves on the path below them and Ranma froze, clapping his hand gently over Akane's mouth as Shampoo rode by beneath them.

"Shampoo know she saw Arien heading for this park, so she get rid of Crazy Girl and Spatula Girl to come meet him like he want, but where he disappear to?" she muttered to herself as she pedalled slowly by. Finally, after what felt like a very long time, she disappeared into the distance.

Ranma finally sighed in relief and took his hand off Akane's lips, looking down at her in surprise when she socked him hard on the shoulder, almost overbalancing them on their precarious perch. "What? I just had to make sure she wasn't gonna hear us and you were breathing too loud."

"Jerk. There are better ways to keep me from talking," she growled, surprising herself with a suggestive rise of her eyebrows.

"I hate to break it to you 'Kane, but you weren't exactly quiet when I kissed you. You were making these sexy moans at the back of your throat, and Shampoo's got surprisingly good hearing. I was not gonna risk her hearing that!"

Akane struggled in his arms, trying to get loose. "Dummy, put me down already. If you don't want to kiss me again, then fine, but stop making fun of me."

"Quit jumping to conclusions Tomboy. I never said nothing about not wanting to kiss you, I just said that Shampoo'd hear you." He looked down at her with a heat that suddenly made her glad he was still holding her, otherwise she'd have been a puddle of goo on the ground far below with a bruised tailbone.

"Sorry," she apologized sheepishly, biting her lip.

Ranma hopped lightly to the ground, setting her feet on the ground before pressing her back against the tree they'd been hiding in. "I've got an idea about how you can make it up to me," he grinned before lowering his lips to hers.

This second kiss was much more heated than the first, and Akane wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing herself tightly to his training hardened body. After a very long time, they separated, gasping and dishevelled.

"I guess we have to get home," Akane sighed.

"Yeah, you've got training to do, and Pops'll be pissed if you're late." Suddenly he grinned rakishly down at her, and her breath caught in her throat. "Race you home," he cried, suddenly taking off.

"Hey, no fair! You got a head start," Akane shrieked, charging after him.

Ranma's smile threatened to split his face in half as Akane chased after him, and their laughter joined them for the race for home.

AN: Wow! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter - such a great response! Another chapter has been uploaded, and I am working on the next two...hopefully I get them done soon!

If you review, there's a good chance that I will write faster...it's worth a try, right?

Thanks for reading (and reviewing)!