Ranma impatiently tapped his fingers against his cheek, his head propped up in his hand. He leaned lazily against his desk, completely tuned out of whatever lesson the teacher was giving them.

They weren't late this time around, thanks to Akane's rush to get to the classroom, so the teacher had been quick to begin teaching after Ranma made his 2nd introduction to the class. There was an initial bombardment of questions after he did so, all centered on what his relationship with Akane was, but the tomboy was able to quell the rumors by chalking him up as an old family friend.

He glanced over at Akane for maybe about the tenth time in class, who was too occupied with the lecture to even notice. In order to not be late, Akane stubbornly insisted on getting to class rather than going to the nurse. Her hand was clumsily patched up with some bandages she had in her bag. She was taking notes, her eyes laser focused on the chalkboard.

Ranma felt that he should be satisfied with the outcome of events–avoiding both Kuno and their engagement being put on blast at school, but he wasn't. In fact, he was bothered. Bothered by the fact that Akane was sitting in class with her hand injured and refusing to go to the nurset. And this annoyed him because now he couldn't be fully satisfied without feeling bothered.

'Stupid Akane,' Ranma grumbled in his mind, digging his cheek into his hand and glancing over at the clock once again.

Tick tock.

A few minutes passed, the sound of the ticking clock filling Ranma's ears and making his eyelids feel heavy. He leaned further into his hand, into a slump against the desk. He always knew Akane was the studious type, but he had no idea how she even managed to stay focused during these boring, drawn out lessons. He, on the other hand, had no problem falling asleep during class.

He yawned. Perhaps a short nap wouldn't hurt…

"Who is Ranma Saotome!" a loud voice bellowed.

Ranma's eyes shot open. He, along with the entire class, turned their heads to find none other than Kuno, standing outside the classroom, fresh out of the nurse's office. Stream was practically blowing out of Kuno's nose as he seethed with rage, eyes scanning across the classroom. Ranma's footprint was faintly imprinted on the side of his face, and he was holding a wad of bandage wraps in his hands that he presumably tore from his head.

"Good grief, not you again Tatewaki!" the teacher groaned.

"Silence!" Kuno retorted. "Must I repeat myself? Who is this Ranma Saotome? The scoundrel that dared to place his foot on me?"

Nabiki sauntered up beside Kuno nonchalantly from behind. She peered into the classroom and caught sight of Ranma. She smiled at him, and he returned the favor with a suspicious gaze. This had to be all because of her. "Sorry Ranma," she mouthed, and pulled out a wad of yen, raising her other hand up apologetically. "He paid me to tell him."

Of course Nabiki still had to be Nabiki. Despite his annoyance, he was slightly relieved to have a break from the teacher's boring lesson. "That'd be me," he said, rising from his chair.

"You!" Kuno narrowed his eyes, lowering his kendo sword at the pig-tailed boy. "How dare you make a laughingstock of me, Tatewaki Kuno, in front of the entire school!"

"Trust me, I did not have to try." Ranma smirked at him, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Fiend! You will regret crossing paths with me!"

"Sure, sure." Ranma casually stepped outside to the hallway as his classmate's heads followed suit. He cocked his head. "Come at me whenever, Kuno."

"Ranma!" Akane exclaimed, also getting out of her seat. "Are you really going to fight here?"

Ranma cracked his knuckles. "Don't worry about it Akane, this guy is a piece of cake to deal with."

"You dare to speak to Akane Tendo so casually?" Kuno spat. "Who do you think you are?"

"Do you really want to know, Kuno dear?" Nabiki said, suddenly appearing and poking at her classmate's side with her elbow. "The relationship between those two?"

"Relationship?" the other kids in their class began to murmur, glancing at the two.

"Relationship!" Kuno repeated, aghast. "Pray tell, Nabiki Tendo!"

"Of course Kuno baby. Anything…" She put her hand out. "For a price."

"Nabiki!" both him and Akane shouted out, followed by the loud slam of her unintentionally pounding her fists on her desk. She looked panicked and horrified, simultaneously, at her older sister's willingness to spill the beans.

Ranma was well used to their classmates knowing about their engagement at this point. Akane, on the other hand, at this point in time, probably viewed it as a nightmare come true. They were bound to, eventually, but perhaps Ranma could spare her an extra day.

'Ya better thank me for this one, Akane,' he thought. Crossing his arms haughtily, he leaned back his head and let out a loud laugh. "HA. Don't even waste your money, Kuno! Why would anyone wanna be trapped in a relationship with a brute tomboy like her?"

Akane glared at him. "Ranma–!"

Kuno's eyebrow twitched, his hand full of yen dropping by his side before he could pass it to Nabiki. "How dare you speak ill of Akane Tendo! You shall eat your words!" he snarled, lowering his sword.

Bait taken. Smiling smugly, Ranma ran over to a window in the hallway and propped it open. He stuck a leg out and peered over his shoulder. "Ya coming Kuno? I'd like to see you try and hit me!"

"So be it, I shall cut you down regardless of where we are!"

Ranma hopped over the window edge, Kuno following in hot pursuit as he jumped out in blind fury. There was loud clamor behind him as chairs and desks were pushed aside as their classmates scrambled over to see the action. In a swift motion, Ranma then grabbed the window still as Kuno whooshed past him. Kuno screamed as he fell down, his screams growing fainter and fainter as he plummeted before landing into the pool with a splash.

Ranma pulled himself up and jumped back into the hallway, closing the window behind him just as his classmates crowded around to see what had happened.

"Ranma!" Akane came running towards him, looking shocked, with Nabiki following behind her. "We're on the third floor!"

Ranma crossed his arms behind his head. "Relax Akane. There's a pool below. Your boy Kuno just had a nice splash."

Hearing that, Akane let out a sigh of relief. Nabiki looked mildly surprised. "How'd you even know there was a pool there anyways, Ranma?" the older Tendo sister asked, raising an eyebrow. "Thought it was your first day here."

Ranma felt a chill run down his spine at Nabiki's intuition, and did his best to avoid her gaze as casually as he could. "I-I guess you could say I just pay good attention to my surroundings," he said quickly, slipping back into the classroom before either of the sisters could press on further.

Kuno disappeared after being drenched (presumably had gone home to his estate), and the rest of the school day was relatively quiet. Not wanting to stir up suspicions from their classmates from leaving together, Ranma left Akane in class to chat with her friends after the school bell rang. He walked to the school gates and leaned against it. Students were filtering through after classes ended, and they walked by, gawking at him.

"That's the new kid who beat Tatewaki Kuno, twice today!" He heard a few of them say.

"Must be a crazy strong martial artist."

Ranma smirked to himself, trying to look nonchalant as possible as he silently basked in the comments he was overhearing.

"Oh Ranma, ever the popular one today, aren't you?" a voice whispered.

Ranma nearly jumped and spun around to see Nabiki beside him, causing him to reel backwards in surprise. "N-Nabiki!" he said, more nervously than intended. The middle Tendo sister had a knack for putting him on edge, understandably so because he could never tell what scheme she was thinking.

She waved at him, smiling mysteriously. "Well hello to you too. You've been all the buzz after today after that fiasco with Kuno baby. Isn't it a shame though?"

"Wh-what is ?"

"If you'd beaten Kuno baby as a girl, then he probably would have been all over you instead of my dear sister. Kuno baby's only standard is if a pretty girl is able to beat him after all. Wouldn't that have been funny?" Nabiki looked amused at that thought.

Ranma flashed her a half-hearted grin as he let out a weakened laugh. "Yeah, can you imagine if that happened? Ha ha…"

Nabiki grinned, and tapped his shoulder as she walked by. "Well, have fun waiting for Akane Ranma. See you."

"I'm not–!" Ranma trailed off as Nabiki continued to walk away, unbothered by his outburst. He shuddered. The intuition of that girl was truly something else to fear…

"Ranma?"

He turned around, just as Akane came up to him with a puzzled expression on her face. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Nothin' much," he mumbled, not daring to vocally admit that he was waiting for her. He eyed the way she was holding her bookbag in her hand that wasn't injured. He reached out his hand. "Here, gimme that."

She looked down to where he was gesturing and then back to him. "Give you what?"

"Your bag, dummy!" Ranma spat, feeling his embarrassment be intensified by her lack of common sense. God, he forgot how she could be a dolt sometimes! He quickly walked forward, wordlessly grabbing Akane's bag from her as he did so.

"Ranma!" Akane protested, following after him. "My other hand is fine, I can carry my bag!"

Ranma kept quiet, not daring to say how he noticed by this point that she always carried her bag in her right hand instead of her left. He jumped onto the river railing on the path they usually took to go home. Akane joined him from below the sidewalk, and he could feel her eyes peering up at him. They walked a few more feet in silence, before he couldn't take her staring up at him anymore.

"What is it?" he said. His eyes were on the sidewalk, still not being able to meet her gaze fully.

Akane blinked. "Nothing. It's just… I didn't realize you had it in you to be this nice."

Ranma then shot her a look. "What's that supposed to mean? You didn't think I was nice before?"

"No, not really. I thought you were a big ol' jerk."

Ranma stopped walking, thinking back to all the times he had hurt her, intentionally or not. They've fought countless times before, and he was well aware by now that he could be a jerk to Akane. "Well. What about now?" he asked.

She pretended to ponder for a second, before flashing a gentle smile at him. And he felt himself pause. It was one of those genuine smiles that Akane would occasionally give to him that would take his breath away. She had a certain soft smile that she would only show every so often that was so full of warmth that he just couldn't help but stare whenever she did so.

Man. Maybe he really did lo–

"Still a big ol' jerk," she said, teasingly, shattering his brief moment of stupor. "That can be nice sometimes."

He scowled in response and continued walking. "See if I ever offer to hold your bag again."

"Hey, you're the one who took it from me!"

"'Course I did, how else do you expect to carry this load of junk when your hand's banged up like that?" He swung her bag around as he said this around his hand.

"Ranma!" she exclaimed. "Be careful with my stuff!"

"Quit worryin' Akane, it's in good hands with me!"

"Then stop swinging it around like that! What if you drop it in the water?"

Ranma stopped, and glanced down at the shallow waterway below them. "It'd be a real shame if I happened to fall into this river with all your homework and stuff, huh?"

"Ranma…" Akane growled. "Don't you dare!"

Laughing, he pretended to wobble on top of the railing, swaying dangerously from side to side. "Whoa!"

"Ranma!" Akane shouted in protest.

Steadying himself with ease, Ranma stuck out his tongue at her in response. "Bah hah hah, as if I'd be clumsy enough to fall off, dummy!"

Then, as if karma threw it itself, a basketball slammed into Ranma's head, knocking him backwards off of the gate. Akane watched helplessly in horror as Ranma fell into the air and towards the body of water, her bag still in his grasp. In a split second, Ranma flung Akane's bag over the gate, just in time before he submerged into the water. The bag landed promptly beside Akane, and she heaved a sigh of relief.

The basketball bounced back onto the ground and rolled a few feet before a young boy and his father emerged from their backyard. "Oops!" the dad said, looking sheepish. "Sorry about that!"

"N-no worries!" Akane called back. She then leaned over the gate, peering into the water below. "Ranma?"

Ranma, now in his female form, emerged from the water. "Just my luck…" he muttered.

"Can't say that you didn't deserve that," Akane said, a grin spread across her face.

Ranma got up and squeezed the water out of his red pig-tail. "Yeah, yeah whatever…"

"Too bad you're all wet now, huh?"

Ranma easily jumped back onto the sidewalk next to Akane, picking up her bag again. "It's fine. I'll just wash up when we get back."

"Well, actually this works out. I was thinking of stopping somewhere before I went home to get my hand checked out," Akane said, a smile slowly growing on her face as she brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I can get some hot water for you there."

Ranma curiously observed the taller girl's expression. She seemed almost shy for some reason. "Oh yeah? Where'd ya have in mind?"

"There's a clinic that I always go to. It's not too far from here. Follow me!" Akane said, picking up her pace again.

Ranma watched Akane run off, confused by her sudden change in demeanor. Then, Ranma remembered and that realization caused his stomach to suddenly feel twisted. Clinic. That could only mean…

Dr. Tofu.

Feeling a sense of unease, Ranma ran after Akane.

note: hello lovely lovely people! sorry for the wait! I had a lot of less than favorable things happen to me in the past few weeks so I've been busy and occupied unfortunately . Writing this has been a good break from life for me so I'm happy to be updating again. As always, let me know your thoughts/feedback! The nice comments have really made my day :,) so thank you all!

we're also getting to the part I've been most excited to write about and inspired all this. love the top tier arc of ranma unknowingly developing a crush on akane who was crushing on so this is my excuse to put a twist on that by having him be self-aware at this point.

cheers!