Ranma 1/2: Video Reminder
(OK, titles aren't my strong point)

Written by: Xason Nexus (Xasonnex)

Disclaimer: Ranma ain't mine. Akane ain't mine. Ukyou ain't mine (much as I wish she were). Get the picture? Oh, OK, I don't own the Ranma Universe, and I am not making any profit. PLEASE don't sue me Takahashi-sama, Vid, Kitty, or anyone else.

Though I like the manga better, an element in this fic is derived from the anime series, so I guess this story takes place after the end of the anime series. Eh, can't win 'em all. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

"Whoa!" Ranma yelped as his footing nearly gave way. He glanced down past the edge of the Tendo residence roof, then carefully made his way to the peak.

"Man," he thought, "I haven't almost slipped like that in a while! What's wrong with me?" He sat down, allowing himself to think. "Ain't nothin' wrong with me," he realized. He thought back to mere minutes ago, to the reason he didn't have all of his coordination.
"That kiss, man, that was something. I can't believe we did it." He thought back to the moment he had just shared with his fiancée, a kiss that was a lifetime of months in the making. His first kiss. Sure, he'd BEEN kissed before, but he'd never kissed back. He'd also never initiated the kisses. "And, somehow, none of Ukyou or Shampoo's kisses have made me weak in the knees. I should have known it'd be the
tomboy that took my strength…she's knocked me for a loop often enough by hitting me, why not emotionally too?" Still, this time, there was no pain involved only pleasure... He chuckled to himself as he muttered, "Should have known it'd be Akane."

Said fiancée was reveling in the moment a bit differently.
"Ki-ya!" She yelled, knife hand chopping a couple of concrete blocks. When only one broke, she hardly noticed. "That, that JERK!" Akane slumped back into a sitting position. "How could he do this to me?"
she asked to nobody in particular. "First he kisses me, then he leaves me and heads off to the roof! And he thinks that just because we kissed, that I'm going to just go up there and spill my guts out to
him!" She sighed, and thought to herself, "No, he expects me to go up there because he dared me to, and he just followed through on a similar dare."

She reached up absently to her lips, that were still tingling from the kiss. Her tongue didn't quite feel normal either. "But he took months to finally come through with his, and he gives me a time
limit?!"
"HA! That jerk, I'm gonna go up there and give him a piece of my mind!" She yelled, drawing on anger to give her strength to make the short trek. She almost didn't realize that she was doing exactly what she needed to do, go up and talk (though at the moment she thought the conversation was going to be one-sided). She didn't realize that the hand that had failed to chop through a second concrete block was
getting red.

Tatewaki Kuno didn't know exactly why, but the hairs on his neck suddenly stood on end. Setting down the new poem he was working on, he drew his arms across his chest and began contemplating.
"Whatever could have sparked the sixth sense in I, the great Tatewaki Kuno?" he thought. After utilizing the deepest thought he was capable of, ten seconds later (what, you thought it would be longer?) he came to a decision, and his bokken was in hand a split second later.
"Something must have happened to either the Pig-tailed Girl or Akane Tendo!" he exclaimed as he ran out of the Kuno estate. "And I, Tatewaki Kuno, the Blazing Sun of Furinkin High, cannot allow it!" He ran blindly down the streets towards the Tendo dojo, a fury in his self-righteous eyes. He ran fast and hard, turned a corner, and ran directly into a quickly outstretching fist.

Ryoga Hibiki didn't know where he was. This was a constant frame of mind for him, but sometimes he needed a release.

"Where the heck am I?!" He yelled to the sky, thrusting his fists out to the sides. When he felt a "Thump" on one of them, he looked over to see a now unconscious Kuno sprawled on the ground. "Stupid," he muttered, "why couldn't the idiot have watched where he was going?"

"Ranma!" Akane yelled as she swung up onto the roof. She looked around, saw him, and started heading in his direction. "What is going on with you?! How dare you put me on the spot like that?" She
was standing in front of him now. "You realize how long it took you to finally act on that dare? And you put a time limit on mine?! You, you..." Akane balled up her fists and almost sent Ranma into lower Earth orbit, when she saw his face was now the same it was when they started talking earlier. She halted just long enough for him to speak.
"You knock me away now, and you don't get your answers." He said flatly. He saw the fire go out in her eyes as her arms fell to her sides. "So," he began. "You come up here to get answers? You know what I want." Ranma was relieved he got her to calm down, in his present shape, the landing from one of Akane's punches would have hurt a lot more than usual. He tried to focus on getting his body to stop feeling so unsteady and he waited for her reply.
"Why?" she asked as she sat down next to him. "Why do you want to know now? It's not fair holding something like this over my head. I mean," she dropped her head as she talked, "what do you want to know so much?"
Ranma took a deep breath. "I wanna know exactly what I asked, how you feel about me. I know it's kinda sudden and all, but I need to know."
"Ranma...I can't... I don't know how I feel about you. Maybe if you'd asked me before we... kissed, I could have given you an answer. But now," the next part he could barely hear, "I don't know anything."
Ranma felt bad, his fiancé was slumped over and speaking softly. He knew he was asking a lot out of her, but he'd realized today that the things you put off till tomorrow can be put off until the tomorrow that's always in front of you. Those things you had to get out of the way now, because you may not get a second chance to do them right.

"Akane, it's OK," he spoke softly to her, placing his hand on her back, "until today, I didn't know how I felt about you."
Akane looked up at this, wide-eyed. "Ranma? What do you..." she was cut off by his hand.
"Akane, why do you always get jealous whenever another girl latches onto me?"
"I do not get jealous!"

The fire was back. Normally Ranma would yell back. Normally he'd add fuel to the fire until it exploded. This time, he kept his cool and hoped it would cool her down. "Akane, it's just you and me now. If you want the truth from me, you're going to have to give it yourself. I won't open my...heart to someone who's still closing theirs." He saw the surprised look on her face that bade him to continue. He did, hoping that his blush wasn't too red. "You do get jealous. You don't do it when you see Kuno or Ryoga glomp another girl, and you don't do it when you see a guy glomp my girl form. It's something you only do when I'm the guy, and you aren't the girl."
She turned her head and quietly digested this. So he'd seen her pattern. "Wait a minute, what pattern?" she thought. I don't act any different for him than I do for..."
"Don't go trying to deny it, 'Kane. I tried to do the same thing. It hurt more than helped." He took his hand off her back and leaned forward, trying to see her face and he spoke. "If ya still can't figure it out, then how about telling my why you are so determined to cook food for me, when you know you can't... I mean, still have a lot to learn, even though you're getting better?"

He was still there, so she must be thinking, he realized. Usually, he'd be in a world of hurt by now with the cooking comment.
Akane was thinking so much her head was about to hurt. Why DID she do those things? There wasn't a sound between them for several minutes.

The busted pipes in the Nekohanten's kitchen forced Cologne, a duck and a cat to share the second floor of the building as they awaited the plumber's arrival. Odd that it had happened at this time of night, keeping Shampoo and Mousse in cursed forms unless they left the building, which meant getting wet. And Cologne had warned Shampoo not to go out, she'd seen Happosai especially drunk a few minutes
earlier, chased by a crowd of angry girls and his own two students. A drunk Happosai was not something someone risked when they had a human body like Shampoo's.

Ranma could see the confusion on Akane's face as she thought.
"This must be how I looked a few hours ago," he thought. "She looks like she's about got it. There's gotta be something I can remind her of to push her into finally realizing, one way or another."

He didn'tnhave to think back long. "Akane," he began, "I kissed you because of a dare you gave me. So why did you take over after I started it?"
Akane couldn't take it, clear thoughts or not, she had to respond to that. "Because I'd wanted to kiss you that day and felt cheated when it never happened! I mean, I, uh,.." "Why did I say that?" she asked herself. "Did I really want to... back then? Before?" As soon as she asked herself, she finally knew the answer.
The hard part was going to be saying it.
"How do you really feel about me, Akane?" Ranma asked one last time. "Man, if she ain't answering this time, she ain't gonna," he thought.
Akane took a deep breath, made sure her purchase on the roof was secure, then answered. "Ranma, I see you as an egotistical, overbearing jerk, who can hardly keep his mouth shut, has three fiancées, a freeloading father, and a curse that makes life a living heck for him and everyone around him!"

She saw Ranma's eyes flinch a little as he looked down. "You insult my looks, my cooking, and just about everthing else that's related to me! The only reason I don't hate your guts is because sometimes, you ARE in the right, and when I really need you, you are there. Other than that, I see no good qualities about you at all!" "Except that you are extremely handsome," she thought. She hated doing this to him, but he asked for it. Her eyes started watering as she saw his dejected look, and he began to get up.
"Oof.." he huffed as Akane tackled him back down to a sitting position. He missed her look of desperation in her eyes, as she continued to hold him around her waist. He was too lost in his own grief. "Akane really don't like me..." he thought.
"Don't leave now you jerk, I'm not done!"
Ranma closed his eyes. "Great there's more. Least now I might be able to pull off a good Shi Shi Hokodan..."
"Ranma, that's how I see you. SEE you. And that's why it's so hard, so hard for me when I realize that I Lo, Lov..."
Ranma opened his eyes with a start. Was she saying what he thought she was saying? He looked down to her, to see her head buried in his chest as she was trying to get out those last elusive words. He put an arm around her back, and one hand through her hair behind her head. Akane looked up, and he noticed that there were tears in her eyes.

"Akane," he whispered.
She looked him dead in the eyes. "Ranma, I love you. I don't know why, but I love you so much!" With that, her resolve disappeared and she burst out crying into his chest. He could hear her soft voice, saying "I love you so much," over and over, like each time could be the last she could say it. He wasn't surprised to find his eyes watering as well.
"Shh... Shhh... It's OK Akane," he said softly as he rested his forehead on top of Akane's head, still buried in his chest. They set a new record for them, staying in each other's arms for no less than fifteen minutes before Ranma finally broke the silence. "So," he whispered, "You still want to know why I didn't kiss you before?"
He lifted up his head.
She followed suit, looking up into his eyes. They both noted that the other had been crying. Both had red, puffy eyes. Akane gave a slight smile as she nodded.
Ranma smiled back. He took a breath and looked to the sky. "It wasn't clear until I saw myself on that tape," he replied. "Seeing myself from the outside made me realize just how much I HAD wanted to kiss you that day. And that's why I couldn't." He looked down to see the confusion on her face. "You see, a kiss under those circumstances would have been meaningless. I didn't know how you felt about me, and I really didn't know how I felt about you. But I did know that when we did kiss, I wanted it to really mean something. I didn't want to kiss you to prove a point, show you that you couldn't challenge me to do something I couldn't. If I were to kiss you, I wanted it to be for the right reasons."
"But you just kissed me less than an hour ago for the same reason." Akane's voice was unsteady, but she had to say something.
"Naw, the reason wasn't the same. This time, I did it so that I could make absolutely sure how I felt about you. It's the one thing I couldn't be sure of, until now."
Akane moved back a little, to see his face better. "And now?"
Ranma raised his hand and caressed her cheek. "Now I know," he slowly brought her face to his, "that I could never love anyone else more than I love you. I love your shortcomings as much as I love your strengths." Their faces were less than an inch apart. "I love all of you, my uncute tomboy of a fiance."
"Ranmumph..." Ranma interrupted Akane before she could object to his playful jabs with a kiss. It didn't take long for her to respond the same way she had before. Ranma drew her further towards him and sat her on his lap. As they embraced, the night wind played lightly with their hair, the soft moonlight only accenting their features more, when they took the time to look. It didn't happen often.

"Saotome?"
"Yes Tendo?"
"You just feel something?"
"Only joy at the fact that this angry mob," Genma motioned to a crowd that included the entire Nerima Wrecking Crew except Ranma and Akane, including the Amazons and close to a hundred angry women, "has banded together under a single cause!"

That single cause was taking an incredibly drunk and beaten Happosai, placing him in three increasingly larger steel safes, and dumping him into the sea. They were standing by the docks, about to accomplish said feat.
"Indeed, Saotome. This could lead to be a great day for all of us! It is too bad Akane and Ranma aren't here to see this!"
"Right, Soun, my friend, they wouldn't want to miss this for the world!"

"I wouldn't miss this for anything in the world," Akane murmured into Ranma's neck. The two had moved their activity into Akane's room due to a cooling night air. They hadn't done anything beyond kissing, and a little bit of talking about things they'd never talked about before.
"Mmmm." Ranma didn't know what happened to all of his strength, all he knew is that his body didn't want to move away from Akane. He did know that if he could, he'd stay there forever. But since he couldn't, he was going to make the most of it, every second they had together tonight. He noticed something in the soft lighting. "What happened to your hand?"
"Hm? Oh, I got kinda mad at you after you left me in the dojo. Unfortunately, I found out when my heart isn't in something, I can't do it right. I couldn't focus enough to break a brick."
Ranma took her hand and kissed the slightly injured part. "You sure are a violent one, tomboy."
Akane narrowed her eyes, yet smiled as she spoke. "And do you mind that?"
"I told you," Ranma replied as he drew her closer, "I love every part of you. Even your violent tendencies."
"I'll ask you again in the morning, when I'll have to hit you for making us late for school," she quipped.
"What makes you think we're gonna be late?" Ranma followed Akane's eyes to a clock that read 2:17 am. "Oh." Ranma perked as he heard sounds from the outside. He broke the embrace with Akane and slowly stood up. He went over to her window where he saw their fathers, bruised and battered, following a still drunk, but above water Happosai. "Well, looks like it's time for me to head to my room. They find out we were together, we'd be married before we knew it."
"Would it be so bad?" Akane asked, standing behind her fiancé.
"Us married? No. Us married on their terms?" He gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "I'd rather do things our way."
"This is going to take some getting used to."
"See you in the morning, or at least when we wake up."
"Goodnight baka."
"Goodnight, uncute fiance." With that, Ranma made the short trip out of Akane's room and into his own. Before falling asleep, he looked up at the ceiling. "Thanks, future Mother-in-Law."

End, chapter 2

Authors notes: Well. Thanks for the great responses to Chapter 1, I hope Chapter 2 lived up to it. I hope you people realize that this is the most I've ever written in a 24-hour period before. I don't know how other people do it! If you'd like, I can continue this series, but it will be a while. I have an idea or two...Let me know what you think!

November 2023 notes: I'm trying to reformat these for easier reading.