Note: These characters don't belong to me, they are someone else's awesome property! (Thanks Rumiko Takahashi!)
Chapter 15: Epilogue
A year later...
"Akane! Ranma! Over here!" Yuka waved her arms up high so that they could spot her amongst the crowd.
"Hi Yuka, is Sayuri not here yet?" Akane asked as she greeted her friend with a cuddle.
"She is, but as usual she sneaked off with Daisuke to find some dark quiet place to make out in"
"Oh"
"You know now that you two are a proper couple and Yuka and Daisuke are also loved up I feel terribly jealous. I desperately need to find myself a boyfriend!"
"You can have me!" Hiroshi said as he approached the group and patted Ranma on the back to greet him.
"Urgh...no...I would rather become a sad old spinster!" Yuka pulled a face of disgust.
"Well baby if you ever change your mind I'm here waiting with open arms" Hiroshi said as he tried to embrace her but failing when he received a slap in the face.
"Geez I was just joking Yuka, no need to hit me that hard" Hiroshi said rubbing his freshly slapped cheek. "Anyway have you guys been here long?"
"No, we just got here" Ranma said as he handed Akane a drink he had just purchased for her.
"It's still strange to see you two act like a real couple. I thought that by the end school you'd either be married or you would have killed each other. And here you are, unmarried and alive, how wrong was I!"
"I may still kill him yet" Akane said laughing jokingly.
Sayuri and Daisuke finally made an appearance and joined the group.
"Hi guys! Eeee can you believe our high school life is finally over!?" Sayuri said as she locked arms with the girls. "Time sure does fly when you are having fun!"
"I know, doesn't seem like two minutes ago that we were standing right here at last years party while my idiot cousin was up to her no-good meddling!" Yuka as she recalled passed events.
"Hey some good did come out of it, Daisuke and I are now together because of it"
"True, at least something good did come out of it...unlike you two who had that massive fight remember?" Yuka said looking towards Akane and Ranma.
The couple gave each other an awkward look and Akane tried to deviate the attention from them "Yeah well we did fight a lot back then, thankfully we've both matured in time for graduation"
"Well I say as the last night of Furinkan High students we should get very drunk and do a lot of stupid things that we will not remember a thing about it the morning!" Hiroshi said raising his drink and taking a big sip.
"Easy tiger...if Principal Kuno sees any drunken antics going on he will shut this party down. Last year's party was quite eventful, I would like this year's to end nicely for all of us this time" Yuka said as she took Hiroshi's drink away from him.
After having some good laughs reminiscing about their high school years with their friends, Ranma decided he wanted to have Akane all to himself for the rest of the night, so he took her by the hand and lead her away from the crowd that seemed to be getting crazier by the minute due to the increased alcohol consumption.
He wanted to have serious conversation with her and had been rehearsing his words in his mind for a while. He found it much easier to talk to Akane than what he used to, especially since their return from the future.
A year had passed since their eventful trip to the future. Things had changed so much in that space of time. As promised, Ranma had broken his engagements to Shampoo and Ukyo. Kodachi was never an official fiancée so he just told her to find a life and leave him alone. It had been a hard tumultuous time to say the least, but things had settled down eventually.
They had started getting a long much better, the insults had almost, but not completely vanished. There were still arguments and fights but they always ended quickly as they enjoyed making up too much. They had kept their blossoming romance a secret for the first six months, but when Nabiki had found out so did the rest of Nerima.
Their parents had been overjoyed and surprisingly had agreed not to hold a wedding until they had finished College. Yes, they were both going to College. Akane had been really excited about it, Ranma not so much, but he had gotten an excellent scholarship due to his incredible sporting abilities so it was hard to turn down the opportunity, plus he knew that it would make his mom and Akane incredibly happy so he decided to go along with it. Luckily they were both attending local University's so they would still live at home. The plan was to start working at the Dojo part time and to then fully take over once they had finished their studies.
They had reached a quiet place and stopped under a tree.
"The last time we stood under this tree at night you were kissing another girl" Akane said seriously.
"Are you never going to let that go? I've explained one hundred times what happened" Ranma answered frustrated. He thought that kiss Meiko had surprised him with one year ago had been forgotten, but it was obvious Akane still felt a bit resentment over it.
"I know, but just being at the end of year party again, here under this tree with you just brough back memories"
"Well it's time we made new ones" Ranma said seductively as he drew her close to him and kissed her passionately.
Akane reluctantly pulled away after she had regained her senses "Hey, stop distracting me to change the subject"
"Oh come on, why stand here and argue about the same damn thing for the hundredth time when we could be making better use of our time" Ranma said trying to pull Akane back towards him "Besides she is gone now, forget about it, I know I have"
"I'm glad that stupid bitch transferred to another school"
"I love it when you get all aggressive" Ranma said smiling in awe of her.
"Well I can't help getting that way when a girl is trying to steal my man" Akane said smiling back.
Ranma chuckled at her words "You're amazing, do you know that?"
"And you are only realising that now?" Akane teased pretending to be surprised.
"No, I realised it the time you said to me 'I'm Akane, want to be friends?'"
Akane smiled happily "That was the first day we met"
"And that's the moment I knew, I knew I would never want anyone else, my heart had made it's choice...and I have loved you ever since" Ranma looked deeply into Akane's eyes as he said this hoping it would help him portray the true depth of his feelings.
"Have you just said that you...?" Akane asked surprised.
"That I love you? Yes, I did. I love you Akane" He reiterated hoping she would feel reassured.
Akane's heart was pounding, she had longed so much to hear those three words come out of his mouth. She knew that he loved her, there was no doubt of that, it came across clearly everyday and in in every action that he did, but he had never said those words out loud to her and she had needed so desperately to hear them to feel they had finally and truly settled as a couple.
Seeing her staring at him in silence had confused him a little, expecting her to jump for joy or at least say something back "I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you Akane, but I hope you knew by now that I love you. You know I'm not really a man of words, but of actions. However, I feel I needed to tell you that I loved you first before I did this..." He said taking a big breath, going down on one knee and taking her hand.
"What are you doing?" Akane asked even more surprised than she already was.
"Well what do you think? I'm trying to propose"
Akane gasped "But we're already engaged"
"Not really that valid since we didn't decide it ourselves"
"Well it was always valid to me!"
Ranma took a deep breath. It was not going how he had imagined it over and over in his mind "Are you going to let me carry on and do my speech or what? My leg is gonna go into cramp soon if I stay in this position much longer..."
"Of course, of course! Go on..." Akane said excitement building in her stomach.
Ranma cleared his throat to start again "Akane...I think you are the bravest, kindest most beautiful woman I've ever met. You are amazing. I thank my lucky stars every night for making us cross paths in this life and I'm a firm believer in destiny, and my destiny has always been you"
Akane's eyes filled with tears as he continued his speech.
"I'm sorry for all time times I've hurt you or upset you, but I swear that if you let me I'm going to make it up to you for the rest of my life. I don't have much to offer you now, but I promise I will love you with all my heart, protect you until my last breath and try my very best to make you happy each and every day, because that smile of yours is life to me. And I can't imagine my life without you in it. So...Akane Tendo, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?"
Ranma then took a little box out of his pocket and placed it in Akane's hand.
"Yes! Yes yes yes! Of course I'll marry you!" Akane said as she flung herself on top of Ranma with such force that she knocked them both down to the floor.
"I love you so much Ranma" Akane said as she began to cry, it had all been too emotional and she had dreamed of this moment for so long that she could not contain her tears.
"Hey, don't cry silly, I thought this would make you happy"
"Oh and it has, so so much, It's just I'd never thought you'd ask"
"Well I wanted to do it properly. I know we are kind of engaged anyway, but it was not by choice and I wanted you to marry me because you really wanted to, not by duty"
"Well it is official now then. I am marrying you because I want to, because I love you and because I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life of you Ranma Saotome"
They embraced and kissed and giggled and stood back up.
"Hey aren't ya going to look in the box?" Ranma said looking at the small box that was still in Akane's hand where he had placed it moments earlier.
Akane opened the box and could not help but beam at the stunning gold ring with a small but perfectly formed diamond in the middle.
"I love it, it's beautiful" She said as she took it out of the box.
"Here, give me it" Ranma said as he took the ring and placed it on her finger.
"Phew, it fits"
"It's perfect" Akane said as she held her hand out to admire it shining under the moonlight.
"I'm sorry it's not that much, but I promise I'll buy ya a much nicer one when I have more money"
"No, like I said, this one is perfect"
Ranma smiled "Glad you like it, It took me a while to choose as I have no clue about this stuff!"
"You chose this just for me so that makes it the most valuable ring I could ever wish for"
Akane gave him a quick peck on the lips "Thank you"
"Soooo...what happens now then?" Ranma said as he sat down against the tree and pointed at the space between his legs so that Akane would sit there.
"I don't know, didn't you plan ahead?" Akane said as she sat down, her back against his chest and looked up at him.
"Nah, you know me...I only planned on asking you to marry me but that's it haha" he chuckled.
"Well I guess nothing really has to change. We were already engaged in the eyes of everyone anyway. I still think we are young and would still like to wait until after we finish College before we get married. Is that ok with you?"
Ranma nodded "Anything you want"
Akane held up her hand to look at her engagement ring again "I can't believe it! I can't believe this is really happening"
"Well you better start believing it, you, my beautiful tomboy, are going to become Mrs Saotome"
"Akane Saotome..." Akane said thinking out loud "It does have a nice ring to it"
"It sure does" Ranma smiled.
They sat in silent, enjoying each other's company for a while until Ranma broke the silence when he held Akane's hand and stroked the ring which he had carefully saved up for all year.
"I meant what I said, you know? I'll do my best to make you happy and take care of you. I don't have much at the moment, but one of these days I will make our Dojo the most successful one in all of Japan. I'm also going to start competing in martial arts tournaments now that I'm of legal age. The prize money for winning is crazy big and well, you know that it's obvious I'm gonna win them all"
Akane laughed "Your ego just grows with age doesn't it"
"It's not ego when it's the truth. I'm telling ya, I'll make us rich, I'll make enough to support us and all of our family"
"Ranma, I don't care about the money, I really don't"
"I know you don't, but I do. I grew up in poverty and I will not let any of our children ever be hungry or cold or homeless. They will have everything; you will have everything Akane"
"Oh Ranma..."
Their romantic time alone suddenly interrupted by the voices of their friends calling for them from the distance.
"Looks like they are looking for us" Akane said leaning forward and reluctantly breaking the nice warm contact with her fiancé.
"Argh man...wish they would piss off"
"Ranma!" Akane protested at his harsh words "We have been away a while, they were always going to wonder where we were"
"I know, just wish wanted to spend the night alone, with my fiancée"
"That's very sweet, but we have the rest of our lives to spend together" She said as she stood up and started pulling at his arm to drag him with her.
"Come on, it will be nice to spend some more time with them, it might be our last time all together"
"Ok..." Ranma sighed as he finally stood up "Hey at least now you will have a nice memory to look back on when you stand under this tree"
Akane smiled and give him one last peck before heading back to the crowd "I love you Ranma Saotome"
"And I love you Akane"
The End.