Note: First chapter is rewritten as 3/24! I did not like how I set things up my first round, so I rewrote this chapter to provide more of a set up. Hopefully this will flesh out character dynamics a bit more than my initial version.

It was a rare, quiet day at the Tendo residence.

Ranma wiped sweat from his brow with the red shirt he crumpled up in his hand, just having returned from training at the dojo. He could hear the murmur of a show playing on the television from down the hall. Following the noise, he found Akane in the living room, her head resting in her arms on the table.

"Akane?" he asked quietly.

No answer.

A popular soap opera was playing in the background. Ranma grabbed the remote from the table to turn the volume down. He then sat down across Akane, placing his cheek in his hand.

He could hear her breathing softly.

He would never, ever admit it to her face, but he liked watching her sleep. Akane always looked so peaceful when she slept (which was a complete 180 from when she was awake and upset with him).

Even rarer than a quiet day at the Tendo's was the two of them being at home alone and it being peaceful.

Ranma thought back to their failed marriage attempt from weeks ago, and wondered if this was what life would have been like if things had worked out. The two of them in their home, alone and peaceful, finally being able to enjoy the company of each other…

Akane stirred, slowly opening her eyes, giving Ranma a near heart attack. He whipped his head to the side, digging his cheek deeping into his hand as heat rushed to his face.

Marriage. What was he even thinking about?!

"Ranma?" Akane let out a yawn. "When did you get back?"

Ranma casted her a side look, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. "Just in time to see you drooling all over the table.

"What?" Akane patted her face in a panic and then scowled. "You liar. I just dozed off for a second while watching tv."

Ranma glanced over at the tv. The male lead was currently embracing the female lead, sprouting some cavity-inducing sugary nonsense to her.

"Minari, I'll never leave you. Even if the world were to stop some day, I'll never stop loving you."

"Oh, Watorou…"

He rolled his eyes. "Akane, I don't get how you even watch this crap."

"Why not? I think it's quite romantic."

Ranma widened his eyes. "Romantic? Don't tell me you're actually into this kind of stuff!"

"Well, it's nice to at least see it happen somewhere." She shot him a look. "Who knows if I'm going to experience something similar in my life."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Akane sighed, and stood. "Whatever Ranma. I'm going to go wash up."

"Akane–" Ranma stopped himself as he watched her leave. He scratched the back of his head.

What on earth was that tomboy trying to say to him? Romantic?

How many times had he gone out of his way to do something for her? Forced himself to eat her terrible cooking if it meant she would feel better? Did she know just how terrified he was of losing her at Jusenkyo?

Did he really have to spell it out for her?

He paused.

Now that he thought about it, maybe he really had never said anything…explicitly… to her.

"Ni hao!"

Ranma nearly fell over after being lost in his thoughts. He grasped the fabric of his tank top, his heart thudding in his ears.

A purple-haired girl jumped into the air from outside the front yard, somersaulting gracefully to stand above him. She peered down at him, her red eyes glimmering with mischievousness.

"S-Shampoo?!" he said weakly.

"Yes, it Shampoo!"

"W-what are you doing here?" Ranma asked. They had seen Shampoo sparsely post-failed wedding outside of the cat cafe. It felt that she had almost been avoiding seeing him and Akane after the failed wedding, so seeing her again immediately put him on edge.

Shampoo smiled widely. "Shampoo all the way from future for Ranma!"

Ranma stared at her. "The future?"

Shampoo nodded, holding out her hand. From her fingers dangled a golden pendant, twinkling in the sunlight. "Pendant of time," she said. "Joketsuzoku item let you travel in time for deepest desire!"

Time travel? Ranma had trouble wrapping his head around it, but he supposed a time traveling pendant would fit nicely along the collection of the other wacky Joketsuzoku items he's encountered so far.

Hold on. Time travel? Deepest desire?

An idea pinged in his mind.

If he could time travel to the day of his Pops and him going to Jusenkyo…then he could prevent himself from ever being cursed in the first place! Determined, Ranma stretched out his hand. "Shampoo, can I see that?"

Shampoo nodded happily and held out the pendant. "Nice!" he said, reaching over to grab it. Just as the pendant grazed Ranma's hand, she tossed it into the air and caught it again.

She dangled the pendant again, smirking. "First, Ranma do something for Shampoo,"

Ranma had a bad feeling settle in his stomach. "What is it?"

"Shampoo deepest desire! Ranma tell Shampoo he love her!" she exclaimed, diving at him with her arms wide open. Ranma yelped and rolled over, dodging her just in time.

"Wa-wait a moment Shampoo!"

Shampoo shot him an annoyed look. "Ranma no get pendant without telling Shampoo he love her!"

She dove at him again, and Ranma let out a scream.

"A-Akane!"

As if on cue, Akane reentered the living room, her hair still wet from her wash. She held a bucket of water under her arm. "Ranma!" she yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"Stupid girl still here in past too?!" Shampoo seethed, glaring daggers towards the youngest Tendo girl.

Akane raised her eyebrows. "Shampoo! What are you–"

"Shampoo send stupid girl to future later, Ranma!" Shampoo exclaimed, jumping towards the clearly distressed young man on the floor. Akane sighed, and threw the bucket of cold water at the two of them.

Ranma was now screaming again, but in a much higher tone, for a different reason.

"Meeoww!"

"C–C-C-C-CAT!"

After dropping Shampoo's cat form outside, Akane closed the door. She grabbed the steaming tea pot from the stove and walked over to Ranma, who was still shaking against the wall. She sighed and tipped the pot over the red-haired girl. "Here."

"Hot!" Ranma shrieked. Akane watched as her fiance's body instantly grew bigger and hair turned darker, before sitting down next to him.

"Finally coming back to your senses now?"

"Geez, Akane, was that really the best way you could help me?" he grumbled, brushing his wet bangs out of his face.

"Be grateful that I even helped you. I could have easily left you alone."

"Ha! Don't make me laugh, Akane." He gave her a smug look. "When have you ever been able to leave me alone?"

She shot him a glare. "Oh? It sounds like you want me to leave you alone in these situations then."

Ranma frowned. "That's not what I–"

She crossed her arms. "You do realize that Shampoo is still all over you because you've never been clear to her, right?"

"Clear?" A spark of frustration flared in Ranma. "I've told her so many times that I wasn't interested!"

"Well. You've done a real good job with that, haven't you?"

What was with her today? "Akane–"

"Ranma," she said, through gritted teeth, in a tone that Ranma was all too familiar with.

He braced himself. "Wh-what? You wanna fight?"

"She's clearly holding on to some hope because you've been so wishy-washy with who you really like!"

"What? You're calling me wishy-washy?"

She nodded. "That's right, you still haven't made it clear with me or any of these girls still after you–"

"You idiot!" he yelled, cutting her off. "Haven't I made it obvious enough that it's–"

Ranma stopped himself, frozen in mid-sentence. Akane was staring at him, wide-eyed. Anticipating.

He could feel his face heat up.

"That it's…?" Akane repeated, quietly.

Ranma swallowed. His mind was going blank.

"That it's…"

"Meoow!"

Ranma let out a scream, scrambling backwards into the wall. He jumped behind Akane, taking cover behind her as he peeked carefully from her shoulder. A purple cat peered in through the window that was left open. "S-S-Shampoo?!"

Shampoo meowed again, hopping inside and trotting towards them. She continued to meow, a loud distressed cry that sounded clearly upset.

Akane winced at the noise. "What did you do to her this time?"

"I-I s-s-snatched her p-p-endant–"

Akane craned her neck closer. "What?"

Shampoo flared her tail and hissed at them, causing Ranma to scream once again and clamp down on Akane's shoulder. "Eeek! Akane!"

Akane slapped his hand off her shoulder. "Honestly! This is so ridiculous," she muttered. Begrudgingly, she picked up Shampoo by scruff of her neck, ignoring the very vocal protests from the feline, and tossed her outside the window. She then closed the window and dusted off her hands together. "There. Now she won't be able to get back in."

Ranma heaved a breath of relief, finally being able to relax. He then immediately tensed up again when Akane plopped down beside him.

"Now," she began, focusing her attention on him. "What were you talking about Ranma?"

Ranma stiffened. "...About?" he repeated, lamely.

"The thing you took from Shampoo, stupid! What else?"

As soon as Akane said those words, her annoyed expression softened as if she too also realized exactly what the topic of their previous conversation had been interrupted at. She looked down at the floor.

The room was quiet, apart from the sound of them breathing and the ticking of a clock.

Ticking. That's right, the pendant.

"The pendant!" He took it out of his pocket, and showed it to Akane. The golden exterior shined under the light, with the hands of the clock continue to tick in a methodical fashion.

She blinked, looking at the pendant and back at him, clearly incredulous. "What?"

"This is what I took from Shampoo earlier. She said she was from the future and used this to take her back to the past. It's a time traveling device from Joketsuzoku."

To his relief, Akane seemed to get distracted by the outlandish information he just spewed out. "Time travel?" she said, bewildered. "You don't think that actually a thing, right?"

"Who knows? It's supposed to take you back to a point based on your deepest desires. I'll see if it actually works and go back to prevent my curse from ever happening!"

Akane gave him a deadpan look, as if to say 'another attempt?'

"Wait. Deepest desires…" Akane said slowly.

"Yeah, and obviously mine would be to get rid of this curse once and for all. It's foolproof!"

Rather than agreeing with him, Akane answered him with a glare. "Ranma, the fact that a Shampoo from the future came back in time for you just proves my point, you stupid jerk!"

"Wh-what? What the heck are you saying, Akane?"

"I'm saying that you've never and will never say what you really mean, you idiot!" Akane spat. "Go ahead and go back to the past for all I care." She stood abruptly, turning away from him.

Ranma stared at her, taken aback. She couldn't be crying, could she?

"Akane, wait!" he yelled, scrambling to get up after her. In his rush, he tightened his fist, accidentally pressing down on the face of the pendant. A click sound went off, and white light flashed out, blinding his vision as Akane's back faded away.

"Akane!"

Note: hello new readers and old, welcome! for my old readers, I had one chapter out, and this is the rewritten version. For my new readers, hello and welcome, I'm glad you are here!

Leave a comment if you can, I get lonely 3 But no pressure, onto the next chapter!