Every so often, Ranma enjoyed getting up early to train. The world was mostly quiet in those early hours, which was a nice reprise from the usual chaos that made up his daily life.

Returning back from a jog, he dabbed the sweat off his forehead, ready to wash up before school, when he heard a terrible blast come from inside the Tendo's residence.

Immediately, alarm bells rang in his head. Shampoo? Ryoga? Ukyo? Happosai? The number of culprits were nearly infinite as he rushed inside to find the source, but then he quickly remembered that none of those suspects were back in his life (yet) in this timeline. He spotted a trail of smoke billowing out from the home.

There could only be one person.

"Akane!" he yelled, bursting into the kitchen. A thick black fog covered the room, but he could make out Akane frantically fanning away the smoke that was emitting from the microwave. Now an expert of dealing with Akane's kitchen messes, Ranma quickly rushed over to the window and propped it open. He then grabbed the smoking microwave and chucked it far outside, and the smoke soon dissipated. Ranma let out a relieved sigh.

"Ranma, the microwave!" Akane yelled. Her face was covered in flour and soot, immediately solidifying that she was the one behind all this.

"Trust me, that was beyond saving," he replied, then turned to her. "What were you doing in here, dummy? Trying to set the house on fire?"

Akane drew her lips into a thin line. "I-I wasn't! I was just trying to melt some chocolates in the microwave and then–"

"It exploded? How the hell does that happen? Did you microwave the package?"

Akane stared at him blankly. "Am I not supposed to?"

"Idiot, of course not!" he groaned. "What the hell were you trying to make, a bomb?"

"I was just trying to make some cookies!"

"Cookies?" Ranma paled, recalling the horrid taste of Akane's terrible creations from his past. "F-for who? Not me, right?"

"Of course not!" she shot back, then glanced down at the floor. "It's…it's for Dr. Tofu. I wanted to give him something along with the book."

Ranma felt the strangest mix of relief and disappointment all at once. He cleared his throat, casting his gaze to the side to hide his expression. "If you're giving him a gift, why are you trying to poison him?"

"What?!" Akane shot him a murderous glare, grabbing and chucking the nearest object beside her, which smacked him in the face. Thankfully for Ranma, it was a spoon and not a knife. "How rude, you haven't even tried anything I've made before!"

"Well, do I need to when you made the place look like this?" he grumbled, earning him another glare from Akane.

"Ugh, whatever. Just leave me alone, will you?" He watched as she returned back to the counter and used a towel to wipe her face.

There were numerous poorly shaped dough creatures laid out on the counter, messily crafted by Akane. He recalled when Akane had first tried to give him cookies, and the strange monstrosities she claimed to be cute animals being shoved in his face. Ranma had shoved them down his throat despite his greater judgment just to appease Akane, which consequently knocked him out for a few hours from how bad they tasted. What other guy would do that for her other than him? 'Gee, Akane really doesn't know how great of a guy I am to do that,' he thought, rubbing his nose with his finger.

"Ranma, if you're gonna stand in the corner and laugh to yourself creepily, can you please do it somewhere else?"

"Creepy? Who are ya calling creepy?" he replied, breaking out of his thoughts.

"You of course! How long are you going to stand there?"

"I can stand here if I want to."

"Well, don't!" she snapped.

"Why not?"

"You're bothering me."

"Bothering you? I'm just keeping an eye on you in case you decide to blow up the place again."

Akane reddened at this and whipped her head back down. "Jerk," she spat out, but she continued to pound the dough with her fists.

"Uncute tomboy," he muttered. Ranma made his way over to Akane, who warily glanced at him but turned her attention back to obliterating the dough. He observed her, watching the way her eyebrows knit together in intense concentration. There was still a streak of flour marked across her cheek, and his other hand automatically raised up to wipe it off her face, but he stopped himself. He tightened his fist. 'It's not like she's even making it for me, it's for some other dude.'

He caught himself. No way. He should be glad that someone else was on the receiving end of Akane's cookies for once instead of him. Right?

Right?

But then why did the thought of Akane giving someone else cookies bother him more than anything else?

"Why do ya even like the doc?" Ranma suddenly asked.

The question caught Akane off guard, and she stopped what she was doing. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks. "Wh-what?"

"Why?"

"W-why?"

He nodded. "Why do ya like him?"

Akane blinked. "B-because…Dr. Tofu has always been kind to me and…" She scratched the side of her face. "And he's good-looking."

"Hmm," Ranma hummed, trying to look nonchalant. "Any nice and good-looking dude will do, huh? That's more shallow than I thought, Akane."

"What? Ha! I don't need to hear that from you. So what if it sounds shallow? Dr. Tofu has always treated me nicely. Unlike somebody here."

"Hey!" Ranma's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "I've been nice to you so far!" Especially when he compared it to the first time they met. He'd been using this opportunity to be as nice as he could to Akane and she has the gall to say that to him?

"Nice?" she scoffed. "You've been calling me names since you met me!"

"So what? You are a tomboy and macho chick, nothin' wrong with that–"

"And you're a big jerk!" Akane glared at him and he met her gaze with equal fierceness. Taking a deep breath, she whipped her head around, and continued to pound the dough relentlessly. He scoffed, and also turned away, but could still hear the violent thumping of her fists hitting the dough, which was growing increasingly concerning.

At this point, Akane really might actually destroy the entire house.

Taking a sharp inhale, Ranma grabbed Akane's arm, eliciting a yelp from the girl. "No need to beat it up so senselessly, Akane," he said. "Plus–" He took off the tiniest speck he could of the dough, and cautiously eyed it. Bracing himself, he licked it.

Immediately, he gagged and tossed it away. The taste was indescribably awful. Even worse than anything she had ever made for him before–maybe all those cooking classes she took from his mom actually did end up helping in the end. "You really are trying to kill the doc, aren't ya?" he managed to wheeze, eyes welling up with tears.

Akane stared at him in horror. "Ranma! It-it can't be that bad–"

He let out another cough, pounding his chest. He threw an accusatory finger at her. "You used salt instead of sugar, didn't you? And I bet you used mayo instead of butter too, right?"

"Wh-what? No!" She bit her lower lip. "Ma-maybe I did?"

"Dummy," he hissed, wiping away his tears. "Of course you did. Lucky I stopped you before you gave a piece of this to the doc or he really woulda been a goner."

Akane blinked at him, and then lowered her head. Sighing, she started rolling her doughy abominations together to form a giant ball. She carried the dough ball over to the trash can and dumped it. "I should have known," she said softly, her face downcast.

Ranma shifted uncomfortably, not knowing how to react to Akane's sudden change in mood. "Know what?"

"That I can't do this–Kasumi's always been a good cook so I thought that maybe…" She brushed her hand over her long hair. "Maybe I could show Dr. Tofu that I could also do the same."

"Well, your cooking does sucks," Ranma said bluntly.

"I know!" Akane snapped. "You and I have established that already, clearly, you jerk!"

"But, y'know." He scratched the back of his head, feeling a blush creep up on his face. "That doesn't mean that, um, someone won't be willing to eat it one day."

Akane simply stared at him. "Huh? What do you–"

"L-look." Ranma shot up, suddenly averting his gaze from embarrassment. "I'll help you."

"Help me?"

"Make those damn cookies you wanna bake so bad." Ranma grabbed a bowl and whisk. "Now watch, Akane. I'll show you the Saotome Art of Baking!" Before she could agree, Ranma stretched out his knuckles and cracked his neck. In a blur, Ranma quickly gathered the ingredients and whisked them up in a bowl furiously. He then slid the bowl over to Akane. "See, Akane? Piece of cake. Now you can shape them into whatever you want them too."

Akane blinked, processing what just happened. She sniffed the bowl, and her face lightened up. "Oh. This smells much better than what I made!" Humming, she took some dough out of the bowl. Ranma flinched when Akane started violently squishing and folding the piece of the dough she took, and within seconds she put her hand out with her creation on display. "Tada!" she beamed.

Ranma was unable to discern what the mangled creation was. "Is-is that a snail?"

She frowned. "No! It's supposed to be a heart!"

"What? How the hell is that-" Sensing a shift in energy from beside him, he squinted his eyes. "I–I guess I can kinda see it…" he said weakly, which earned him a small smile from the girl.

Ranma propped his elbow on the counter as he watched as Akane happily continued to create little abominations from the dough. Noticing the streak of flour again on her cheek, Ranma didn't think twice this time about reaching his hand out to wipe it off her face. He placed his thumb gently on her cheek, which made Akane stop in her tracks. She looked over at him, her eyes widened in surprise, and he stared back, his mouth now slightly agape.

"You–you had something on your face," he said, quietly, feeling the heat rise to his face.

Akane blinked. "Oh. Th-thanks."

He retracted his hand, and the two sat in silence as Akane continued to mold more shapes out of the dough. Ranma stared down at his thumb, and glanced over at her, noting the faint flush of her cheeks. He swallowed. Maybe if he tucked some of her hair he would be able to see her face a bit better…

"Akane, Ranma! Are you two still here?" a voice called out.

Akane perked up. "Y-yeah!"

Nabiki popped her head into the kitchen. "Oh my, good to see the kitchen's still here. We all heard the explosion this morning and ran out to get breakfast outside."

"What?!" Akane shouted. "And you all left us out?!"

"Didn't wanna eat whatever you made," Nabiki teased, sticking her tongue out. Her eyes scanned over them. "Besides, it looks like the two of you had some fun while alone."

"N-Nabiki!"

The middle Tendo sister laughed in response. "Hurry up and get ready, you two! Wouldn't want to be late for school now, right?"

Akane scowled, glancing down at the flour covering her clothes. Grumbling, she tossed the cookie tray into the oven, and hurried out to get ready. "C'mon, Ranma!" she yelled behind her.

"Y-yeah, I will!" he replied, snapping out of his trance. He warily glanced over at the oven.

Something told him that he needed to keep an eye on it or else a major catastrophe would happen.