The stars shone brightly that night as Ranma climbed to the top of the Tendo roof. A cool breeze blew through, and he involuntarily shivered in his smaller form, despite being mostly dried off from being thrown into the pond earlier. Walking over to his usual spot on the roof, he sat down and laid back, staring up at the sky.
The Tendo rooftop was a bit of a haven for Ramna, as he always came up there whenever he needed to escape the usual chaos of his life to just have a moment or two of silence. With the craziness he had been through after traveling through time, he was in desperate need of a breather to think about his situation. He pulled out the pendant, which was miraculously still in his pocket.
Time travel. Crazy as it had sounded, it actually worked, and Ranma was now somehow in the body of his younger self. Except the pendant brought Ranma to the day of the engagement instead of Jusenkyo. And now it was broken and wet, so he was effectively stuck here indefinitely unless he found another way to get back. And on top of it, Ranma had already pissed off past-Akane while future-Akane was going to be indefinitely pissed off at him until he got back. Great!
"What the hell am I supposed to do then?" Ranma groaned, shoving a hand through his hair. His red hair was already a mess, but Ranma paid no heed and continued to dishevel his head. Then he paused.
'Deepest desire'.
Shampoo's words suddenly echoed in his head. Ranma sat up quickly.
"Wait a moment. Shampoo did say she would go back if she fulfilled her deepest desires," he thought out loud. "Maybe my way back is connected to that? But…" He crossed her arms, his brows furrowing.
'Deepest desires… Deepest desires…if not Jusenkyo then what?' Ranma thought long and hard but continued to draw a blank. Why had the pendant brought him to the day of the engagement instead of Junsekyo? Was his deepest desire not removing the curse? How was it related to the engagement? Was it even related to the engagement?
Did it even work ?!
"Stupid piece of junk!" Ranma hissed, shoving the pendant back into his pocket. "Why the hell would my deepest desire be linked to this day! Putting me through all that again…now Akane thinks I'm an idiot!" He let out a yell of frustration, grabbing his head in annoyance. Plopping back onto the roof, Ranma laid there, mindlessly looking up at the sky.
It was the same sky he'd seen so many times now ( sometimes even flying through it against his will), but it strangely felt nostalgic to look up at it now. It was hard to fathom that he was in the past, but Ranma had just gotten engaged to Akane, again . Except this was past Akane, who had no idea what was to come from their engagement in the next coming months.
Akane. Ranma had nearly forgotten how long her hair used to be, the hair that Akane used to treasure so dearly. She looked more youthful, not just because she was physically younger, but Ranma realized with a strange ache in his chest that it was also because she had not yet dealt with so many life threatening events yet. That is, life threatening events and Ranma's own array of fiancees constantly bothering them.
"I'm saying that you've never and will never say what you really mean, you idiot!"
"Stupid Akane. What did you mean by that…" Ranma muttered, rolling onto his side. Closing his eyes, he released yet another sigh. Ranma wondered how present Akane was doing. Was she okay? How long had Ranma been gone?
Was he really going to be stuck in the past now? Until Ranma figured out how to get back and he had no choice but to relive through everything then…maybe...just maybe...
An idea struck, and Ranma rose back up. If he was stuck here (for who knows how long), maybe there was some benefit to be found. Ranma was still Ranma. He was reliving her past, so he knew what was to come. That meant he could avoid putting Akane in dangerous situations, get rid of their crazed suitors, and maybe, just maybe, ge would also find a way to reverse the curse along the way!
Ranma cracked a wide smile at the last thought. "That's right… I still have a shot!" He chuckled to herself, slowly breaking out in full on maniacal laughter. Overzealous laughter rang out through the night, carrying itself through the streets of Nerima.
"Ranma? Is that you?"
Shutting up quickly, Ranma halted at the sound of the oldest Tendo's voice, who was now standing on the ground and peering up at the roof. "Uh, yeah Kasumi!" he responded sheepishly. "Wh-what's up?"
"It's cold outside! Why don't you go wash up?"
"Oh. Uh, good idea!"
A nice warm bath sounded heavenly. Ranma had a game plan now, but he would figure out details later. For now, a bath was much needed.
After hopping down from the roof, Ranma rounded around the corner and headed towards the bathroom door. A heavy sense of deja vu hit her as he felt steam emit from under the door, and he stopped in her tracks. He heard a clicking sound as the knob turned to open. Instinctively, he squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away as he heard footsteps emerge.
A pause. Then an inhale. "You–!"
"Wa-wait Akane!" Ranma braced himself for impact.
"..."
To his surprise, no slap to the face came.
"Akane?" he said meekly. Ranma peeled one eye open cautiously. "C-can I look?"
"Yeah, dummy, I'm wearing a robe."
"Whew," Ranma said, knowing that he was safe from being smacked.
Akane's back was against the door. Some strands of her hair were loosely hanging out of the towel she had wrapped around her head. She was studying Ranma with an odd look.
Ranma took a step back from the taller girl. "Wh-what is it? Look Akane, I, uh, I didn't mean what I said earlier–"
Akane sighed. "Can we talk for a second?"
Ranma blinked, taken aback.
Akane? Asking to talk?
This was… different.
It seemed that current events were already changing from the past. Because Akane knocked Ranma out cold earlier, she had never walked in on him in the bath. So there was no reason for her to accuse Ranma as a pervert, and thus hit the living daylights out of him.
Ranma wasn't sure of the consequences with messing up events, but it looked like he had no choice but to go along with it.
"Um, sure," Ranma finally said, after a moment of processing. "Just, uh, give me a sec to wash up."
After taking quite possibly the quickest shower of his life, Ranma stepped out of the bathroom.
"That was fast."
"What?!" Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin, not expecting Akane to be standing right outside. "I mean– yeah, I always take quick showers."
That was a lie. He took good advantage of the Tendo bathtub each time he washed up.
"Hmm." Akane said, giving him a look and then leaning back against the wall. "Is that so?"
The house was strangely quiet, as the rest were probably all asleep. Outside, someone on a bicycle went by, the wheels kicking up gravel as they passed the dojo.
Akane's eyes were on her feet, her damp hair now out of the towel and cascading around her shoulders. Perhaps because it was so strangely quiet, Ranma's other senses felt heightened, and he could pick up the floral scent of her shampoo.
'Huh. So she always used the same shampoo even back then.'
He blinked. 'Wait. Why do I even know what her shampoo smells like?!'
Ranma suddenly grew extremely conscious of the fact that the two of them were alone in the hallway, and that she was wearing nothing but a bathrobe. He swallowed, mentally shoving those thoughts aside, and averted his eyes. " Um, so, what did you want to talk about?"
She shifted slightly. "Our engagement."
Ranma felt himself freeze up.
"I know our parents have been talking about it for a while and this whole mess is their fault, but…" She turned to look at him. "Why did you choose me?"
Ranma nearly fell over.
"W-when did I–?!" he stammered, feeling a flush creep up his cheeks.
"You did, earlier. We all heard you!"
Crap, crap, crap! How was he going to get out of this one?
' Play it cool ', he thought and shrugged. "Geez, I don't know Akane. Maybe you pounding me earlier knocked the sense out of me."
"H-hey! I said I was sorry about that, I had no idea that I would beat you that badly."
"Beat me? I told ya already, it was an accident!"
She rolled her eyes. "Okay, whatever. You didn't actually answer my question."
"Like I said, I was out of my mind for a sec."
"Oh, please, you can't come up with a better excuse?"
"Like what?" Ranma leaned slightly forward, narrowing his eyes. "Is there an excuse you want to hear?"
His suggestive tone seemed to fly over her head. "An excuse? I just want you to be honest with me! Why did you pick me earlier? "
"Because!"
He paused.
Akane raised her eyebrows at him, as if to say 'continue'.
"Because, I–I…" Ranma trailed off.
What the hell could he say? That he was from the future where they were well engaged for a while and were stuck in a tumultuous phase of 'will they or won't they?
No way. He didn't need Akane to think he was insane on top of everything else.
Or that he couldn't even imagine being engaged to someone other than her?
Absolutely no way he could admit that!
"Because, what?!" Akane asked impatiently, interrupting his thoughts.
"Because," Ranma said, thinking on his feet. "Because…"
"Because... I fell for you at first sight, Akane."
"WHAT!" Ranma yelped, nearly jumping in surprise. That was not his voice, and definitely not what he was going to say. Panicked, he quickly whipped around to the source of the voice.
Nabiki, with a smug grin plastered across her face, was coming down the stairs.
"Nabiki!" Akane said. "Don't scare us like that!"
"I'm sorry, my dear lil' sis. I wasn't…" She casted a smirk at Ranma, which sent shivers down his spine, "...interrupting anything, was I?"
"No way!" Ranma responded, half laughing, which granted him a look from Akane. Although Nabiki terrified him (for good reason), a part of him was relieved that she interrupted them, saving him from a sticky situation.
Nabiki chuckled. "Well good. Rumor says that Ranma is going to join us for school, Akane."
While this news was of no surprise to Ranma, Akane looked shocked. "School?! He's coming with us?"
"Well of course, Akane, he's your age." Nabiki yawned. "Must be nice getting to go to school with your fiance, right Akane? Now those boys won't bother you anymore."
Akane made a face. "Nabiki!"
Nabiki stretched, moving past them towards the bathroom. "Well, best the two of you go to sleep soon then. Good night!"
The door closed behind her, leaving the two of them alone in the hall. Akane bit her fingernail. "School…" she muttered, eyeing Ranma, who currently didn't know if he should act just as displeased as she was for the sake of face. "You better not go around telling people we're engaged."
"You're telling me. I was just about to say the same thing," he said curtly.
"Glad we agree. Hmph." Akane turned her nose and made her way back up the stairs.
Once she was out of sight, Ranma let out a breath of relief. He was just relieved that Akane had moved on to seemingly more pressing matters rather than continuing to question him. God knows what he was about to say earlier.
Note: thanks for all the love so far on this! from here on out we're going to see some divergence from the source material so that'll be fun to get into :]
as always, let me know of your thoughts/point out any mistakes!