"Ukyo, please, try to understand what I am going through!. Ranma has not talked to me since that incident happened! This is getting out of control! He is not talking to me! He is not looking at me! He is acting as if I don't even exist in this damn world!"

Ryoga said in a panicked whisper tone, he was sitting beside Ukyo as they both waited for the class to begin. Ukyo sighed feeling bored and replied in a low tone,

"No wonder, honey! You did messed up big time that day!"

Ryoga growled frustratingly, "I KNOW THAT, ALRIGHT!..."

He lashed out but stopped when he saw the entire class turned their attention to him. He nervously smiled at them and looked down embarrassed.

"Well, ... maybe I will talk to our class teacher today. I need to change my sit immediately. Anyway, why did you even change your seat beside Akio?" Ukyo mumbed loud enough so Ryoga could hear her clearly.

"Give me a break, would ya?" Ryoga moaned and said in a pitiful tone, "First Ranma and now you too. You guys dont like me at all!"

Ukyo looked at him and asked him,

"Have you tried to talk to him?"

Ryoga looked up at her and said,

" I tried millions of times, damn it, he just plain ignores me all the time!"

"So, what do you want me to do then?"

"Talk to him for me! Tell him to forgive me and talk to me! I know he listens to you." Ryoga said in a desperate tone.

Ukyo sighed and gave him a hard stare,

"I would have talked to him, but nowadays he rarely gets any time to talk to me anymore!"

"Then what should I do then?"

At that exact moment Akane and Akio entered the classroom. Akane waved at Ukyo and Ukyo smiled and waved back at her. But when Akane's eyes fell over Ryoga, her smile vanished immediately. She looked away from him and walked towards her seat.

Ryoga growled seeing Akane's reaction and hissed painfully,

"I am gaining haters nowadays! You asked me why I changed my seat; it's because I didn't want to upset Ranma more by sitting near her! Damn it!"

Ukyo giggled and said,

"Hey, I have an idea! Why don't you talk to Akane and ask her to help you out in this matter. I am sure she would love to help you, and Ranma would definitely listen to her.."

" Haha, very funny! As if both of them are eagerly waiting to talk to me! Ya right.. !Thanks for nothin'!" Ryoga gumbled , he rested his chin on his bent hand and saw Ranma entering the classroom.

Ranma slowly entered the classroom and took his seat beside Akane. They exchanged smiles with each other as they began to casually chat with each other. After sometimes, their professor enterd the classroom as the class began with a shocking news for all the students.

"I hope you guys are ready for the surprise test that will be held this friday!"

Whole class started mumbling in shock of the news as the teacher announced again,

"Don't panic now, it's a practice test before the main exam. As you all know, the first semester's exam will be held very soon. So this test will give you guys a glimpse of your progress. So, I hope you guys will prepare yourself for that.. Let's begin today's lesson then…"

After the class Ended...

"Oh Jeez!" Ranma whispered to himself, feeling frustrated. He still couldn't think of any plan on how to help Akane with her job and now he has to think about his exams too.

"What happened, Ranma? Is there anything you need help with?" Akane whispered, feeling concerned for him.

He sighed and looked at her with a drained smile on his face.

"It's alright! I will manage.."

"Okay... see you tomorrow then, bye."

Akane said cheerfully as she waved at Ranma.

"Ya, take care you too."

Ranma called back to her, smiling and saw her walking out of the classroom with Akio by her side.

"Ranchan? Are you ready to go home now?"

"Home?! Ranma turned to face Ukyo, dumbfoundedly.

Ukyo glanced at him happily and said,

"Well, we need to talk about the upcoming exam. I told you that I will come to your house for a group discussion, did you already forget about it?."

Ranma scratched his head in confusion and said,

"Oh yes, about that, uhhh Ucchan, can we do that tomorrow? I have plans for today.."

"But, Ranchan.."

"Please, please please, Ucchan..!"

Ukyo sighed and said,

"Alright! Tomorrow then.. Anyway; Ranchan, can you give me five minutes, I want to talk to you about something."

"Yeah tell me.."

Ukyo hasited at first then said,

"Please dont get mad at me. It's about Ryoga."

Ranma happy smile instantly turned into foul one as he asked,

"What about him?"

Ukyo sighed deeply and said,

"Honey, I know he is an idiot and he deserves to be ignored after what he did to Akane. But at least try to come to talking terms with him. Look, please don't think that I am talking on his favour, but just think about it this way; if he wanted he could have call your parents to rescue him that day, but he didn't. And its all because he didn't want to spoil your freedom, Ranma!"

"Maybe he did that because he didn't want his money flow to stop.."

That paused Ukyo fully as no word came out from her. Ranma shook his head in disappointment. He patted her shoulder two times and said,

"We will do our group discussion tomorrow.. Okay?"

Ukyo smiled at him and nodded,

"Okay, Ranchan.."

The next day

"Ranchan!"

Ranma stopped running and turned around to face a furious-looking Ukyo.

"Hey Ucchan! What's up!"

"Where are you going? ! We need to study together today!"

Ranma hesitated a bit and said,

"Oh about that, can we do that tomorrow, please?"

"Tomorrow? Again?! But we won't have enough time to prepare ourselves, Ranchan..!"

"Sorry, Ucchan! But I am in a bit of a rush toady! See ya tomorrow..."

"No, Ranchan! Listen to me.. Hey!"

Ranma didn't stop to listen to her ; he called out bye to her and ran out from there.

"Gosh, what is wrong with him!" Ukyo fummed to herself.

"I don't know, but he is sure acting crazy!" Suddenly Ryoga appeared behind her, making her jerk slightly.

Ukyo growled at him,

"You scared me, jerk!"

"Sorry!" He smirked and asked her again,

"Did ya talk to him about me?"

Ukyo folded her arms infront of her chest and said,

"I did.."

"Really! Then what did he say then?"

"He is still angry at you. I tried to convince him but he is not ready to listen to me. I am sorry, sugar.. Anyway, try to prepare yourself for the test, it's important too, you know."

Ryoga grumbled nonchalant words and looked completely devastated. He nodded his head at her and silently walked out from there..

Day before the exam

"RANCHAN!"

Ukyo fummed angrily as she desperately searched for Ranma. After a long search, when she couldn't find him anywhere she gave a frustrated sigh and gave up on looking for him. As she was turning a corner, she suddenly bumped hard with non other then Ryoga.

"Hey, whats up!" Ryoga asked casually.

She growled angrily and replied hotly,

"I am so angry right now!"

" But why? What happened?"

"I am trying to get Ranchan to study with me for last two days and he is escaping every time I reach him! And today he has completely vanished into thin air!"

"Well, he is acting weird lately. I wish he talked to me like before then I would have known what he was upto.." He replied with a sad low tone.

His tone sounded so hurtful, she felt pity for him and said,

" I wish I could help you with that, honey. Anyway, I should go and prepare for tomorrow's exam, do you need any help with it?"

Ryoga looked at her and said,

" Nah, I am a born pro, I can manage these sums with my eyes closed! I think I should go and see what Ranma is upto.. I have to find it out.. So, bye.."

Ukyo didn't say anything, she shook her head at him and sighed defeatedly.

Ryoga gave up looking for Ranma a long time ago. He searched for him everywhere possible, but he couldn't find him anywhere. Tired and drained, he slowly started to walk towards his apartment. He was passing some busy stores on his way. Then suddenly he stopped when he saw a woman leaving a store with bags in her hand. He immediately recognized that person, he smiled with relief and called out to her to stop her.

"Miss Akane! Please Wait!"

Akane was stunned at first, but she slowly turned and became more stunned when she saw who just called her.

"Ryoga?" Akane's surprise immediately turned into a frown. She growled and looked away from him again.

"Miss Akane , please.. I need to talk to you." Ryoga asked in a desperate tone as he reached her side quickly.

"What is wrong with you? Why are you calling me "Miss Akane" suddenly?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

Ryoga cleared his throat and said,

"Because I don't wanna mess with you anymore. I have caused so much trouble already."

Akane rolled her eyes at him and said,

"You are weird..! You don't have to call me that. Anyway, what do you want to talk about?"

Ryoga took a deep breath and said,

"I need your help, Akane. After that incident with you, Ranma had completely stopped talking with me."

"How can I help you with that?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"Only you can help me! Please can you ask Ranma to talk to me?"

"What! Why would I do that? You should do it yourself!"

"I tried, trust me; I did! But he is not listening to me! Ukyo also tried to convince him but he didn't listen to her as well! You are my only hope left, Akane."

Akane paused for some moment and said,

"Ranma works for you, doesn't he? How can he avoid talking to you then?"

At first Ryoga became confused. Then suddenly he remembered everything and said in haste,

"He does all his work for me, but avoids talking with me. Look, Ranma is like my own brother. We grew up together and we never saw ourselves as different from each other. That's why it is bothering me so much that I have hurt his feelings so much that he is ignoring me now! Trust me Akane, I am really very sorry for what I did with you. If you want you can punish me; but please please help me with this matter.. I beg you please,Akane! I am sure he is going to listen to you if you tell him. Please, help me."

Akane didn't reply to him immediately. After some moments of pause, she said,

"I don't know who gave you the idea that he will listen to me! Anyway, I am in a hurry, tomorrow is our test. I have to go now."

Saying that, she left in haste; leaving a devastating-looking Ryoga standing alone on the busy street.

Friday, the day of the exam…

Ranma was looking hard at the question paper as if looking at it forcefully would help him answer all the difficult questions. He sighed defeatedly and started writing whatever came into his mind. After some minutes of writing and scrubbing, he huffed and gave up.. He put his head down on the table, his feelings fully drained out. Then he felt a slight push on his shoe. He looked down and saw Akane was trying to gain his attention. He peeked at her and saw her as she tried to watch him from the corner of her eyes. Akane looked down at her paper, and put her hand over her forehead. With her face covered from the professor's view, she looked at Ranma and raised her eyebrows at him. He could clearly tell by her expression that she was concerned for him. Ranma fearlessly looked at her, his head resting over his arm sideways. He smiled at her lazily and shook his head. Akane blushed at the intense way he was looking at her. She looked down feeling hot suddenly, and tried to concentrate on her writing again.

Ranma took a deep breath and sat straight up again. He was holding his pen with one hand and with the other hand he was supporting his chin as he loses himself in his train of thought.

These last three days he restlessly searched from place to place to find a proper job for Akane. He did find decent jobs for her; but when he heard the salary they were willing to pay, he lost all his hope. He didn't give up though and continued his searching. But every time the results were the same. He didn't have any idea that only being able to work on the weekends and being a student has extreme disadvantages when searching for a job. He even asked Mr Kuonji for any availability for jobs in his department. He became so desperate that he almost asked his uncle to create a position for her. But he couldn't do that because he knew if he did that Akane might get angry at him. She had trusted him with her secret, he also knows she doesn't like it at all when anyone sympathizes with her situation. That's why he restrained from asking his uncle and kept looking for a job and failed miserably.

In these few days, he realized one thing very deeply, how fate had blessed him with everything that he needed. He never once had to work for anything. And when he thinks about the struggles this Tendo family is going through because of money, just thinking about it makes him feel utterly devastated. If he wished he could pay all the remaining fees that are needed to be paid for Kasumi. But that would mean that he might have to reveal his real identity to Akane. It also has a risk of losing her as well and he also can not be sure of, after knowing about his secret, whether she would take the help from him or not.

He sighed defeatedly and looked at his paper. He was hoping for a solution before tonight, but he has failed to do so. He checked his wristwatch, and thought to himself.

'I still have a few hours left before she goes to her shift! I have to get out of here quick!.'

With hard determination, he grabbed his pen and paper and wrote down every answer at a record speed. He then quickly turned to look at Akane and whispered to her,

"See ya later, tonight.."

Akane turned to him in confusion, but before she could understand anything;he stood up in haste and walked towards the professor. He handed over his paper to him. The professor looked surprised, he looked up at him and asked,

"Finished already!?"

Ranma gave him an unsure smile and said,

"I tried my best. Uhhh, I have some emergency, sir. Can I leave early today?"

The professor fixed his glasses and said absentmindedly,

"Alright, if you want to leave , you can go.."

"Thank you for understanding.."

Ranma slightly bowed in front of him and ran off from the classroom.

His mission to search for a job for Akane failed miserably and as a result, he was again sitting at the bar as he witnessed Akane serving some customers. Things were going fine until he saw she had to serve some perverted customers, who were making sickening comments behind her back.

"Did you see her, man?"

"This is what I am doing,buddy! Seeinggg her, yum yum yum!" The other cunning guys said, hissing.

"She is damn hot! Just look at her figure.."

"Haha! You are practically drooling over her, man!"

"Ohh man! I wish she changed her white apron to a golden one! I would be more than happy to spend all my life savings on her!"

"Same here, buddy! She is worth every penny I have.."

"Hey, Shut up, she is coming back.."

Akane came back to that table and started putting their orders into the table.

"Here you go, sir! Please enjoy your food."

"There is something missing here.." One of them said with a sly smirk.

Akane looked confused as she quickly checked their menu again,

"I am sorry, sir. But I think everything is delivered here."

"Where is the dessert?" Another one asked with a sneaky tone.

"Ummm.. Sorry, but you haven't ordered any, sir. Do you want to place your order now?"

"Yeah sure, lady! Can we have those pouty red lips as our desserts…"

"And many more of your sexy figure.."

They asked while laughing as they made horney sounds and giving her hot looks up and down.

It didn't take long for Akane to understand their motives. She took a deep breath to calm herself, she calmly looked at them and said,

"I will ask my colleague to bring you the menu again. Please wait.."

"Oh no! We don't need your colleague, we need you, madmazel!" One of them said as another one joined saying,

"Why don't you do us a favour and change your apron to golden? We have enough savings to make your future beautiful!"

"Yeah, a sexy girl like you shouldn't wear a white apron like this!.. And we promise.. we will be gentle with you, sweetheart…"

Akane grabbed the tray tightly in front of her chest as she heard them laughing loudly. She didn't say anything to them because she was bound by rules. Here, if they had dared to touch her she could have taken action against them; but she couldn't do anything if they teased her vocally. She looked down angrily and left the table in haste. She started to feel suffocated as she rushed to the staff room. Once the door was closed she couldn't hold her emotions anymore as her anger as a form of her tears started to pour out from her eyes.

"Juliet! You okay, dear? What happened to you?"

Mellow along with her other colleague rushed to her side.

Akane bits her lower lip hard and said with a frustrated sob,

"That…. That table no 5; those guys were so perverted!"

"Have they tried to touch you?" One of her colleagues asked in concern.

"No..but,.." She couldn't finish as suddenly the staff room's door opened in a rush.

"JULIET! COME HERE QUICKLY!" Joe shouted out in a panicked tone.

"Why what happened?" Mellow asked, alarmed.

"There is a big fight going on! Ranma is fighting with those table 5 guys! They were making lewd comments after Juliette left and he couldn't take it any…"

Akane didn't stand there to hear the rest words from her. In her dismay, she completely forgot about the fact that Ranma was sitting right next to that table and he must have seen and heard everything that happened. She ran with all her might and reached that place quickly and her heart dropped by the scene she witnessed there.

Ranma was single-handedly beating all those jerks who teased her minutes ago. Tables were destroyed, chairs were demolished; she could see him struggling to keep fighting with all those people all by himself. But he looked completely blind with his outrage as he punched them nonstop.

A loud thud shook her shocking stance; she called out to him and rushed to his side in urgency.

"RANMA! NO!"

She yelled fearfully as she reached his side swiftly and hugged him from behind. Another two guards came as they tried to stop those other guys to stop fighting. Ranma growled at them and said in an angry frustrated tone,

"DON'T YA DARE TAKE THEM AWAY! I AM NOT FINISHED WITH THEM YET! HOW DARE THEY SAY THOSE WORDS TO HER!"

"Ranma, NO! Please, please STOP!"

Ranma's constant resistance had made it hard for Akane to keep Ranma from advancing towards them. His resistance was so strong that Akane couldn't hold him back as he ran towards them and grabbed one of those perverts' collars tightly. He punched him again and rushed to punch another one. But before he could reach that half-senseless jerk on the side, Akane quickly reached him again and this time hugged him tightly from the front. Ranma roared angrily and tried to move out of her tight grip, too furious to stop himself anymore.

"Ranma, please.. Please stop, I beg you.. I am okay.. I am okay. Please calm down. Please please don't fight anymore. Please stop it…"

Her whispered plea didn't go unnoticed by him this time. He was breathing hard as he looked down at her. She was hugging him with every power she had, her eyes closed, her body shivering with fear as she continuously begged him to stop. Ranma gave a big breath and closed his eyes to calm down. Akane looked up at him with tears in her eyes, to make sure he was alright.

"Ranma.. Oh Ranma.. Are you okay?"

Ranma opened his eyes and looked at her, hard. Then without any words, he held her wrist tightly and dragged her out with him.

Akane started walking along his side. She looked back and saw all the disasters that had taken place at that neat restaurant. They left the place in a hurry and kept walking at the same quick pace. She could tell that he was still furious and that's why she kept quiet and follwed his lead. But after some moment her wrist started to feel pain at the tight grip he had on her. She couldn't take the pain anymore as she said with a shaky tone,

"Ranma..Can you slow down, please? You are hurting me.."

Her tone made him pause quickly. He gave a shaky breath as he immediately pulled his hand out from her wrist. She started rubbing her wrist slowly as he looked at her with guilt and bitterness. He could tell that she was crying before, her miserable state made him lose his temper again. He never felt this helpless before. He growled angrily and cursed loudly,

"DAMN IT! LORD, DAMN IT!"

He looked away from her and started walking ahead of her, his whole body stiff and tense.

Akane heart started beating hard seeing him like that! She quickly rushed to his side and without any word, she hugged his arm tightly and continued walking by his side. They kept walking silently that way. Their hands tightly interlocked together and as they walked silently. Eventually both of them calmed down, their movements became slower.

After a while, they saw Akio waiting for them at the usual meeting point. But when he saw their unusual closeness, Akio rushed towards them and asked them,

"What happened to you guys? Are you okay?"

"Akio.." Akane started to say.

"Kane.."

Akane paused and tiredly looked at Ranma. His eyes were filled with guilt as he looked at her and said with a broken whispered tone,

"I am sorry, ... I couldn't find ya a job this week. But I promise you, I won't stop until I succeed.."

Akane's lower lip trembled as she tried to say,

"Ranma please, you don't have to.."

Ranma laid his hands on her cheeks and said with a tired smile on his face,

"Take rest now, I will see ya tomorrow…"

A/N: Thank you for your support! With all the love and encouragement , I think I am back on track again :)! Pinklover, Baybyface, Vanesa112, Sandy, James birdsong; thank you all so much for your comments :).

I hope you guys enjoyed reading so far. Please don't forget to let me know. Take care. Hope to see you all soon ...