Title: Naked

Author: Trevelyan Duke

Summary: She just wishes to know, you know? She couldn't take it if she died not knowing him. Maybe her true love was dancing naked right in front of her all along, but she was just too caught up with Ranma and his body to notice.

Author's Notes: Hahahahaha! I bet youreyebrows are twitching now, eh? I was just thinking, before apocalypse dawns unto the world tomorrow, at least I should do something nice today. So here. I am updating. Tadaaaah!

I fell in love. Kinda. Thus, yay! I go to the gym now, and I am telling you, the GYM is a cool place to expand your social network. And sorry for not updating for eons. Graduation practices were a taaaall wall that prevented me from touching my laptop. Now it's summer in the tropics and lots of island getaways and no time and reunions and blah... Gah.

Disclaimer: Junior-Senior prom. I've spent the last of my savings on my attire. Duke be poor now, an' he hunch out back, away from de people wid wallets bursting wid money.

Also: Thank you so much for the fab reviews! I LOVE you all.

This chapter is very much connected to Episode 131, Wretched Rice Cakes of Love. So you all get it now, I highly suspect. And it's sorta long, I think.

o

o

Chapter Two: Confessions

"All great truths begin as blasphemies." –George Bernard Shaw

o

o

Tip, tap, tip, tap.

"Ya think I was too hard on him?"

Tip, tap, tip, tap, tip, tap.

He lowered his hands from the back of his head and jumped beside her, joining her pace.

"Maybe he won't find his way to the dojo this time. I kicked that bastard far."

"Don't call him that," she said rather harshly, her eyes fixed on the middle of the road with a bit of absentmindedness. "It wasn't Ryouga's fault."

"So now you're defending him? And what did you do when you saw me like that the first time we met? You didn't say, 'Oh, not your fault, don't worry.' You glanced at my dick and screamed at me and hated me for the rest of the damn months!"

"And what makes you think I don't hate you now, you insolent jerk?"

Ranma was about to open his mouth but stopped.

She exhaled loudly – Oh, Ranma, not those puppy eyes again! – then smiled and hooked her arm into his as they continued walking, causing him to forget the pang of emotional hurt he felt a second ago.

"Sorry," she murmured. "I'm sorry about last night."

"What about last night?" he asked, decreasing their pace and wanting to stretch time.

"Uhm, you know… callingyousex-starvedandthewholetruelovecrap," she finished hastily. "Hurry up, we'll be late for school!"

She unhooked her arm from his and prepared to sprint, but he suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back to their slow ambling.

"Ain't you just a sweet little thing?"

"Drown me in your sycophancy and you'll find yourself naked–"

"With you in a locked room?" he suggested shrewdly, tightening his hold.

"–in your girl form with Happosai in a locked room."

He rested his forehead on her temple. "You hate me that much?" he whispered artlessly.

It had taken some time for them to get used to this kind of innocent affection, and he was not letting the prospect of Akane taking out her mallet stop him from being close to her as possible.

Because her skin was always glowing and wonderful and smooth like freshwater in the sunlight, and it was hard not to fall into a trance whenever she was near.

Or, he figured, it's her waist.

The way his arms fit just right around it, like somebody made sure it had the right circumference for his arm length.

Akane snorted, trying to cover up the tingle she felt when his breath tickled her ear. "Maybe."

"But not to the point of not telling me what the true love thing was about. Because you told me last year that you feel like you can tell me everything. So if you ain't telling me now, that would make you a liar. A big fat liar with big fat thighs and big fat arms and a big fat ass–"

She stopped (and glared), and Ranma did as well, but his arm didn't leave her waist even when he removed his brow from her temple in order to see her expression.

Her features softened as she turned to look at his façade.

A sturdy jaw framed a pair of wonderful, pinkish lips that always appeared so full and kissable whenever he pouted or smiled. His nose was the perfect length and size for his face, and it always cutely sniffed when he found something disapproving or awkward (it also superciliously stuck up in the air whenever he was throwing an insult).

And – OhmyGodwhattheheckamIdoingstaringathimlikethis and whycan'tIstopitstupidstupidAkane – his eyes. Deep orbs of blue and gray, as captivating as two crystal balls produced from the fathoms below. They were the reason why she had almost fallen deeply for him a hundred times, once he started exploring her soul with his gaze without even knowing he was doing it.

If what the poem said was true, then she and those eyes were not meant for each other. An invisible hand gripped her heart and stopped her breath and hurt terribly for a fleeting moment.

And then she smiled. It was a mild smile, and she felt that it looked grateful and comforting to him as she found herself brushing his bangs with her fingers and looking pensively at his face.

"True love was a dream," she said finally, removing his arm from around her and resuming her walk to school.

To Ranma, her smile held a tinge of regret and guilt.

"Hey, wait up!" he called, catching up with her after convincing himself that he was just seeing things. "What's with the drama? Watched too much soap operas lately?"

She chuckled. "No. I just had a weird dream last night."

"Oh, okay. So which one's weirder?"

"What do you mean?"

"I meant which one's weirder, the dream or Ryouga's thing this morning?" he asked, not bothering to hide a grin.

"Ranma!"

He laughed. "What? Don't go denying that, I ain't six! I know you saw it. And I'm sure it must've been a terrible experience – Ryouga of all people! It should have been more enjoyable if you saw mine instead…"

Punching his arm and trying in vain to suppress a blush, she scoffed emphatically, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Course ya do, you've been telling me that you know where men hide their pulsating energy and that you're not afraid to kick the life out of it–"

"Oh, shut up."

"Don't tell me that Ryouga's was the first you've ever seen!"

"Of course not!" she snapped defensively.

Ranma's eyes widened. "You've seen other men naked?" he demanded hotly.

Akane realized that the tables had turned, and so she laughed. "Well… yeah."

"Who the hell are they? Tell me so I could cut theirs off and–"

"Tatewaki Kuno, seventh grade. Our class joined some of the upper years in a trip to some hot spring resort, and the next thing I knew, Kuno was standing naked in front of me."

"Damn him! So he saw you naked?"

"No, I had a towel wrapped around my body. Whassamatter, you jelly?"

Ranma frowned. "Stop teasing. You won't be smiling when you find out that Kuno can't bear children anymore after I cut his off."

"So you're jealous?" she ragged in a high-pitched tone, playfully nudging his ribs with her elbows.

"No, I just think that seeing Kuno like that totally polluted your innocent lil' mind at an early age…"

She hah!-ed as if to say that he was pathetic as an anchovy. "Of course not. I enjoyed everything I saw!"

The back of his head hit the cold.

"You're lying."

"I'm not!" Akane said, laughing even harder. "And I was just so… amazed at Ryouga's display this morning. It was even bigger and longer than Kuno's!"

A scandalized look plastered itself onto Ranma's face. "You're friggin' impossible!"

"No, honey," she whispered in his ear, her voice low and purring all of a sudden, "just turned on."

She lightly brushed her lips against his cheek.

And with an impish snigger, she pinched the same spot – hard.

"Ow!"

Akane dashed to the direction of Furinkan High School, guffawing, her school skirt fluttering behind her.

"Come back here!" Ranma shouted, running after her. "Damn woman! You're an annoying tomboy, ya know that?"

"I do!" she answered a few meters away, trying her best to pick up speed and not fall into Ranma's hands – otherwise, she was sure he'd do something just as mean to be equal. "But at least I'm an annoying tomboy who makes you moan with desire and wet your–"

She was confident. She was fast. He couldn't catch– Oh God, Akane, run for your life!

Grab. Fumble. Rip.

Ack!

Thump.

"Damn, what was that for?" Ranma demanded.

"You almost friggin' ripped my uniform!" she whined.

"So you almost friggin' split my head open?"

"You deserved it."

Poke.

"Let go of me. And stop that."

One of his hands was wrapped around her arm. The other had a perpendicular finger that played the role of the annoying poking thing.

Poke poke.

"Are you anorexic?" he asked curiously, disturbed.

"That's my spine, stupid. It doesn't have fat. And I don't have fat, even if you poke–"

–lower. Poke.

Whack!

"OW!"

"Pervert!"

"I was just trying to prove you wrong! The world is in need of opposition, ya know. It just ain't good if everyone agrees on everything."

She jerked her arm away and adjusted her murdered collar. "And your point is?"

"You have fat." His eyes were bland and very 'the world is round and not flat, and you have fat'.

Whack!

"I didn't say you're fat, idiot! I said you have fat! Just as I have fat in my–"

Sniff, sniff.

Sakura-mochi. Sweet-smelling, carnation pink, sinfully delicious sakura-mochi. The smell was driving her insane.

Must. Eat. Sakura. Mochi!

"Get your sakura-mochi here! Guaranteed to lift you to the heavens, or your money back!"

Ranma felt Akane's aura change. It was warm and kind and sunny, and so not ogreish and flaming hot. It was pretty, what with her sweet smile, eyelashes batting, hand tugging on his sleeve.

"I want," she whimpered pleadingly, using her cutest voice possible that sounded like a munchkin princess.

He shielded his eyes with one hand. "No." The last time he ate one of those, he ended up with a big X mark on his forehead, and Ryouga, the lucky idiot, ended up with cherry blossom petal marks. Which were supposed to be the sign that he was destined for Akane. Oh gods, the magnitude of dread Ranma felt that day...

"Please? I promise not to whack you anymore. Today. Please?"

No. There was no way he was buying her rice cakes. He was broke. And he planned on not talking to her for the rest of the day for whacking him lots of times this morning.

But her voice, and her tugging, and her hand on his chest her hand on his cheek her hand on his pigtail–

No! He blocked his sight from her innocent-looking kitten eyes–

He took a peek.

"Please, Ranma-kun?"

Bat eyelashes, bat eyelashes. And the lips. Shiny.

"N-no?" he whimpered helplessly.

She beamed.

And so as the vendor appeared on the corner, Akane practically dragged her fiance to where the old man was.

"Ohayou!" Akane greeted him. "We'd like six sakura mochi, please."

"Ah!" he said, flashing her a toothless grin as he took a grumpy Ranma's money. "Miss, you're in luck."

And he winked.

Something familiar about that wink, Akane puzzled.

Receding hairline. Semi-tattered clothes, wooden staff, a big bag of stuff, probable case of osteoporosis, 'Miss, you're in luck'.

And...

Robin?

The very same robin – the one with the black spot on its chest – perched on the vendor's shoulder.

Akane blinked.

This old man, and the robin, and – where...?

The red robin was gone.

"Thanks, old man," Ranma droned in a fruitless effort to appear cheerful as he received the box of mochi from the vendor. "Come on 'Kane, we're gonna be late for – you havin' an epilepsy?"

"I'm trying (blink)... to make it (blink blink)... reappear (blink blink blinkblinkblinkblinkblink)."

Ranma's face scrunched up in confusion. Akane was blinking at the old man's shoulder.

"Ah, maybe our pretty little girl's seeing things..." the vendor cackled. "Sometimes, little girl," he began, a knowing glint in his eyes, "it's only ourselves who see what's really there. To others, what we see are... inexistent."

Incredulously, Akane's eyes traveled to the old man's face.

"Makes us feel rather special, eh?" he continued. "Makes us feel we have special powers, just like what my little grandson once claimed when he saw a floating sheet of plastic and thought it was a ghost. But in actuality it's what we see that's special, not us. The attention we give it, the time we spend thinking about it–"

"But what if..." Akane interrupted cautiously, "what if it's me who can't see things? What if it's the opposite, that it really exists but I can't see it?"

"Then you're special as well, and you share that with the object of your attention. Some would call it a delusion but in my relatively sound opinion, it's a strong bond."

"So it's not–" Akane blurted out, a strange feeling rapidly piling up within her. "It's me who's–"

"–the fortunate being for having had the chance to find something special! And when you finally see it and feel it between your fingers... there is no greater joy than that."

"Oh my God."

Fortunate being. He said fortunate being. The robin's letter had that, too!

"And so I advise you little girl, to never let it go the moment you find it."

"B-but how do I know that I've found it? What if I think I've found it, because all the signs point to it, but I wanted to see something else? What if the signs were actually wrong?"

The vendor smiled considerably. "Ah, the signs are never wrong. You just have to squint to see the right ones."

Desperate. Buzzing. "But how do I know it's the truth?"

"Look at the world!" he laughed with gusto, like seeing the world everyday was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. "Out there, around you, right in front of you is the naked truth!"

Akane was so wonderfully overwhelmed that her smile reached her ears.

o

o

"You are weird," Ranma stated, his words muffled by the two sakura mochi in his mouth as he and Akane continued brisk walking to school. "You tumbled over your head with the crap the old guy was blabbing about!"

Akane mock-pouted, hiding half a smile. "I'm sorry. But if you don't mind, please tell me... who transforms into a girl when he gets hit with cold water?"

He frowned at her. "I'm not the one who gets dicks shoved at me in the morning."

"If that happens to someone, she wouldn't be called weird. She'd be called hot. And before you react, I want to say thanks (in advance) for the compliment."

"You," Ranma forced, swallowing a huge ball of mochi into his throat, "are weird."

o

o

Akane's Friday had been great. Although she fainted earlier and was almost late for class with her hair tousled all over her head because of a little scuffle she had with her fiancé, she didn't drift off to sleep in any of her subjects and actually aced three short quizzes about the quadratic formula, Thailand's geographical features, and the properties of a laser beam, respectively. She even narrated Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 – not a line or word erroneous – with momentous emotions that amazed everyone who listened, thus earning back Fukuda the Terrible's respect.

Once or twice in the middle of class she glanced outside the windows, but she didn't see any trace of the red robins. Instead, the sky was decked with bluebirds a-fluttering, happy with their decision to migrate to the country.

But if the robins weren't there, then would that mean that they only existed in her imagination, and the whole thing about seeing her true love naked was just a fallacy?

Would that mean that­ Ryouga (Oh God, Ryouga. Why did it have to be him that she saw? Why not – oh, don't even go there, Akane) was not her true love? She needed proof!

Oh, but the old man. He was all the proof she needed.

And now all she needed to do was squint in order to see the right signs! That would be as easy as breaking a low quality hollow block.

But...

When she arrived home, she instantly looked for the red feather she put down on her desk this morning, but she couldn't find it along with the poem whose lines she couldn't really remember. Finally, she slapped her forehead – she realized that she left her window open, and if the red feather did exist, it must have been blown away by the wind.

Curse my stupidity, she mocked inwardly. A little more and she'd have been as stupid as someone who drank all the black liquid from a bottle that had a skull and a big "toxic" sign on the label.

Why did she have to be the designated cynic all the time? As if the old man wasn't enough, as if his words didn't suffice. Hah, Akane felt stupid.

"PREPARE TO DIE!"

Loud bickering from the pond snapped Akane out of her thoughts.

"Oh c'mon, Lost Boy! You know I kick perverts outta instinct especially when they make Akane faint!"

"I am not a pervert! This morning was an accident!"

"So what the hell were you doing greeting her a good morning with your erect–"

"Akane?"

Akane was at the edge of her seat listening to Ranma and Ryouga's squabbling outside the window, and she would have fallen off when Kasumi called her if she didn't grab the edge of her study table. The oldest Tendo offered her a slice of cheesecake for an afternoon snack and she gladly accepted it.

Without any homework – or anything at all – to do, Akane cleared her desk of all her school stuff, climbed onto the flat surface and folded her legs beneath her. In front of her was the open window, and it perfectly framed Ryouga and Ranma fighting in the backyard like a widescreen television that was screening the life or death fight scene between Hector and Achilles in Troy. And the plate of cheesecake she was relishing was even better than popcorn.

"Bullshit! The only reason you've been with her for the past year was because you wanted to grope her in all places with your piggy little hands while she was asleep!"

Ranma's last word came with a fist that missed Ryouga's face by millimeters. While Akane wondered what on earth her fiancé was talking about – because never in her life did she remember sleeping with Ryouga beside her – she was incessantly stuffing her mouth with the cheesy goodness on her plate as a product of anxiousness.

"Unlike you, Saotome," Ryouga replied, violently swinging his leg towards his enemy's head, "I wouldn'tdo those things even if Akane were naked in front of me and awake!"

Ranma's pigtail brushed Ryouga's foot. "Dream on, ya big loser! She wouldn't undress herself in front of Ryouga Hibiki if you were the last man on earth! Which ain't likely to happen, because you're gonna go before me on the day of the apocalypse!"

The fanged boy grabbed Ranma's pigtail in anger. "What do you mean by that, you no good, big mouthed, walking piece of–"

"I meant the Theory of Natural Selection, and since you ain't exactly on top of the food chain, you'll go to hell first!" Ranma turned, sweeping his feet under Ryouga and successfully pinning him on the ground.

"Then I'll drag you down with me because I can't stand the thought of leaving Akane with a disgusting pervert like you!" Ryouga gave his pigtailed nemesis a head butt, freeing himself from his grasp. However, he did not notice Ranma's grip on his collar, and as Ranma flew in the air because of the forceful hit his head took, he ripped Ryouga's shirt off.

Akane's jaw fell. She saw Ryouga naked again! What the heck were the gods trying to tell her, that he was indeed her true love? Where was that red robin when she needed to untie another explanatory note from its leg?

"You destroyed my favorite shirt!" Ryouga shouted angrily.

Pulling himself from the ground, Ranma snorted. "This," he said mockingly, holding up the tattered top in his hand, "is your only shirt, stupid."

"Asshole!" Ryouga lunged at Ranma with full force, preparing to use one of his most destructive techniques to smash his hated foe's face. "Bakusai Ten–"

Ranma didn't care to suppress a chortle as he simply stepped aside and tripped Ryouga with his foot. "You gotta do better than that if you wanna get your hands inside Akane's panties."

Akane felt her own anger rising as she watched her fiancé's amused face. Maybe she should reduce him to mush the moment he talks like that another time, just like the cheese in the cake…

She looked up from the plate to glower at a freshly shirtless Ranma.

Ryouga quickly got up and brushed away the small blades of grass that stuck to his face. "You're the most horrible person Akane's father could ever chose for her fiancé, violating her in word and thought! I won't let you take advantage of Akane anymore, Saotome. I swear my life on that!"

"Playing knight in shining armor, eh?" Ranma teased, not wincing an inch as Ryouga balled his fists and threateningly flexed his chest muscles.

"To the death, since I'm going against a ruthless vandal of Akane's beauty and integrity!"

"You couldn't defeat me if I were DEAD!" he scoffed, taking a step forward and positioning to fight.

"Then I'll keep trying until you die again so you can finally leave Akane! She doesn't deserve you… she deserves someone…"

"Someone like…?"

"Someone like me!" a fuming Ryouga yelled, charging at Ranma with pure fury burning in his eyes. "BECAUSE I," he grumbled, his fists turning as hard as cement, "LOVE HER!"

Ranma took a powerful punch to his stomach that knocked all the air out of him, sending him flying until his bare back hit the concrete wall.

Dropping the empty plate she was tensely gripping, Akane put a hand on her chest, feeling her heart beating hard.

OH. FRIGGIN. GODS.

Ryouga loves me.

He loves her. Her true love loves her.

One of these nights, he was going to enter her room and sleep beside her just like what Ranma accused him of doing, and then they were going to get married in one of those quickie churches in Vegas and have fanged babies, and her father will exile her from the family for not keeping her part of the pact that she marry Ranma!

She felt the cheesecake inside her tummy crawl back up her esophagus.

o

o

Something tickled her face.

She tried to shoo it away. Maybe it was just a bothersome fly, or–

Akane slowly opened her eyes.

A red feather?

Something chirped right next to her ear, and it brought her back to total consciousness. She abruptly sat up, looking around her room. It was very dark and only the streetlight from somewhere outside supplied the very dim light that helped her maneuver around the room and switch the lights on.

"You!" she gasped, seizing the red figure and settling it between two cupped hands. "Tell me what's happening! Why did you show up with the old man and then just disappeared? Gah, you're making my head spin with Ryouga and that stupid poem and– and that didn't happen to be just a dream, did it?"

It shook its head. Akane checked to see if there was any note tied to its leg, but there wasn't.

"No mysterious letter? No context clues about this whole paranormal thing? No sakura mochi gift from your master? You have to be kidding me…"

The red robin shook its head again to indicate that it was not.

"But I can't just leave things this way! I still don't know if I have feelings for Ryouga other than that of a friend, but – maybe – oh, I don't know! And I have Ranma to worry about. That stupid ape just might–"

Insistent tweeting interrupted her.

"What the hell do you want me to do, thank you for messing my brain up? I'm sorry for being a little ungrateful, but I don't even know if I'm in a stupid dream or not; the whole prospect sounds so silly… and now I don't know what to do with my true lo– with Ryouga!"

This time, the bird cut her short by intensely flailing its wings, at the same time pointing at the ceiling for some reason. A few flaps later, it made a weird gesture – it seemed to talk to the wing it held in front of him.

The unusually slow Akane took a few moments before she understood it as "Why don't you talk to him?"

She blinked.

"You know, I might consider putting you in a cage for future reference…"

The red robin defiantly puffed out its chest, emphasizing the small spot of black amidst the red, giving Akane the impression that it definitelydidn't want to be confined in a cage.

"Okay then, go. Go and find your red birdie friends and do the red birdie dance or something."

It clicked its beak as it prepared to take wing. Akane smiled apologetically, realizing how unappreciative she has been to the poor little thing. "Thank you," she muttered, patting its head. Feeling that it had done what it had to do and gotten a nice reward, it flapped its wings and soared out of the window.

As Akane looked at the bird's vanishing figure, she realized something.

Wow. I fainted twice today. And–

I'VE BEEN UNCONSCIOUS FOR HOURS AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT!

"What are you being grumpy for, sis?" Nabiki asked her younger sister, who was almost reducing her chopsticks to splinters. "Please pass the rice."

Akane glared at Nabiki and continued her business of making toothpicks as the horrible scratching sounds she was making was muffled by Genma Saotome's chomping of his and his son's food. She wasn't in the mood to eat – a mixture of hurt and irritation swirled inside of her. If she had been dead instead of unconscious, would they have missed it until her carcass started to smell?

"Do you have any idea where Ranma is, Akane?" Soun Tendo asked after swallowing a piece of sushi. "He was here with Ryouga this afternoon, but now they're nowhere to be found."

"I don't know," she said flatly, putting down her murdered chopsticks on the table. "I'm not hungry; I think I'll go ahead." She stood up. "The sushi smells wonderful, Kasumi," she added as her figure retreated to the dojo, not wanting to be more ungrateful than she was earlier this evening. "And you have a piece of seaweed on your nose, Uncle Genma."

Genma didn't mind it at all and continued wolfing down the precious food in front of him. It wasn't all the time that his son wasn't there to reduce his share of food.

So Ryouga wasn't anywhere to be found. How the hell could she ever talk to her true love if he kept disappearing and going around the world before he reappeared? Everything had started stressing her out… and when Akane Tendo's stressed out, she releases it all in the dojo. She planned to kick and punch and do katas the whole night until she collapsed, because then she'd be feeling too drained to think about anything.

The dojo was open. She entered and slid the door close behind her.

"Ryouga?"

"Akane-san!" a topless Ryouga exclaimed, startled. He was sitting in a corner of the room. A second ago he was clutching what seemed like a yellow rag in his hands, but when he saw Akane he quickly hid it behind his back like a kid trying to hide a broken vase from his mother.

"What's that?" Akane asked as she crossed wooden floor and sat in front of him.

"N-nothing!" Ryouga explained, impulsively holding the tattered cloth in front of her and then quickly hiding it back. "It's just– ah!" He swiftly clutched his hand, for it had been pricked by a needle inserted somewhere in the yellow fabric.

Akane took the item and examined it. It had been torn into just a few large pieces, so it was fixable. "This is your shirt, isn't it?"

He blushed. "It was my shirt."

She examined the stitches that Ryouga made. One sleeve was already intact and the other was halfway done, but the other parts were unfixed. "Can I sew the rest for you?" she asked.

Ryouga blushed even harder. "N-no! I mean, there's no need. I can do it myself! I don't want you wasting your time on my stupid shirt…"

"Actually," she started, smiling at him and making him blush more if it was even possible, "you'll be doing me a favor. I need some training for home economics – those stitches I made in school were horrible! I'm sure I can do a better job with your shirt. And besides, I don't have anything to do for the rest of the weekend."

"Really?" Ryouga gasped, his eyes sparkling in bliss to the point of almost crying. "You'd do that for me?"

Akane giggled. Ryouga Hibiki was just too adorable!

Notwithstanding the fact that he's my true love.

"Sure."

"Akane-san, I promise to take care of this shirt from now on! I'll wear it everyday and wash it carefully and make it last for the years to come. I promise that!"

"You do that."

"I-I'm…" Ryouga began, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry about what happened this morning. I was such in a hurry that I forgot to put my clothes on! Stupid me… you probably think I'm an uncivilized pervert…"

…like Ranma.

It was Akane's turn to blush as the image of a wet and naked Ryouga flashed in her head for the umpteenth time that day. "No, it's okay!" she insisted, shaking her head to abolish the picture. "I should have knocked first, anyway. It was nobody's fault."

"So does that mean you're not mad?"

She laughed, breaking the tension between them. "Of course not! I don't have the heart to get mad at you, ever." She laid an assuring hand on his arm and stood up. "I'll go now, Ryouga-kun."

"O-okay… thank you for forgiving me and doing this for me!" he called after her retreating figure. "I owe you my life!"

"No problem," she replied as she exited the dojo. Somehow, she felt very much better that someone in this world valued her so much like a treasure chest. It made her thank her feathered friend and the old man, wherever they were, because they helped her notice this, even though she had decided to just let things stay the way they are because she didn't want complications. Complications would just mess everything more, and she didn't want that to happen.

Speaking of complications...

Akane checked inside Ranma's room, but there was nothing there except for a pair of futons, pillows, and blankets in complete disarray. She proceeded to her room and flopped on her bed. For a second, she mentally checked her social status – it seemed that she spent most of the day in her room and not enough time with her friends.

It was the true love thing, she totally knew. It was making her crazy and act unusual and go all Linda Blair and turn her head all the way round.

"Ow!"

Akane stopped puzzling over her attitude to listen closely.

Yep, the voice was Ranma's, all right – and it came from the rooftop.

Putting Ryouga's shirt on her bed and taking one of her small packs of wet tissue, she decided to join Ranma in another one of their exchanges of both rational and irrational philosophies and humorous whatnot. If truth be told, she had actually grown to love these rooftop moments. Usually, they came there to meditate or cool down or see the stars twinkle or just have a good laugh. And that was what Akane planned to do.

Until she saw Ranma sitting cross-legged and shirtless, trying to turn his head a hundred and eighty degrees to see his wounds.

"Ryouga kicked your sorry ass?" she asked, taking a spot beside him.

"Asshole was just damn lucky," he growled.

She leaned back to see his wounds and found them numerous and huge, concentrated in the middle of his well-built back, but shallow. "Don't you think you've grown a little… Quasimodo-ey?"

"And why's that?" he grumbled, running a finger on his bare feet.

"The injuries don't look deep. Which means your back's thick." She lightly touched a particularly long gash that stretched on the middle of his back.

"No way in hell that's happening! My posture's as straight as ever. I'm just strong– GAH! Violent tomboy!"

She snorted. "It's not like I poked it hard! You're such a weakling."

"Say that again and I'll make you regret you were born."

One of the things Ranma Saotome fully hated was when somebody called him weak. Usually he gave the damn perpetrator a piece of his mind by giving him a black eye.

"You're such a weakling."

He glared daggers at her.

"Weak. Ling," she echoed, her lips forming the words exaggeratedly.

He glared swords at her.

Because, of course, Akane Tendo was someone he could never hit in the eye.

"One of these days, I'm gonna have to throw you to the sea. Because you can't swim. And then you'll drown and the sharks are gonna eat you up. So they're happy and I'm happy, and everyone lives happily ever after."

"Oh, shut up," she plainly said, opening the pack of wet tissue and sliding behind a little for better access to his back. "Your threats to me have lost their… threat. A long time ago. Instead of throwing me to the sea, why don't you just take me to some beach resort? I'll have more fun."

"And why would I do spend my money on you?" he asked derisively.

"You should," she answered as-a-matter-of-factly, "because that would be our honeymoon."

Honeymoon?

Ranma almost choked on his saliva. "But– OW!"

Akane decided that the perfect moment to daub the wet tissue to clean Ranma's wounds would be the time he was caught very much off guard. "Sorry, sweetheart, I had to do that – or else you'll get a nasty infection that would render your back inoperative for a very long time. You should thank me! I was supposed to use this tissue for my beauty regimen, but I skipped it and decided to do your wounds first."

The smell of jasmine and alcohol lingered in the air, and Ranma took it in as Akane laughed.

"Am I not just the perfect fiancée?"

He bit his lip, trying not to whimper like a girl because of the pain from the pressure she was applying to his injuries and not wanting to look like a puny kid in front of her.

"Those cuts are gonna heal in a few days," he mumbled mulishly.

After a final dab that made Ranma hastily suck in air through his gritted teeth, Akane moved back in place beside him.

"Sure they will. I just cleaned them so you won't have to struggle to do it yourself, so you can sleep well tonight. Better?"

Ranma nodded and glanced at her, and she was smiling as she put the red-tainted wet tissue inside its pack and crumpled the whole thing.

"Thanks for caring," he murmured.

"Well, that's what I do," she sighed apologetically.

"That's what I've grown used to," he hastily replied. "Not a problem, really."

She giggled, and he flashed her a lopsided grin.

"Ranma, you do know that I find these conversations silly, don't you? So… mushy, maybe a bit pointless."

"Is that bad?" he asked hesitantly.

"Silly…" she said, "but nice."

"Nice. I like that."

"You do?"

"Yep. It's only here where I can be myself and talk about what I wanna talk about. My feelings just rush outta me like water from a cotton blanket straight out of the washing machine."

"Wait. On this rooftop, you talk to yourself about your feelings?"

He chuckled.

"No, dimwit. I talk to you about my feelings."

"Really now?" she wondered audibly, her lips quirking into a flattered smile. "Just me?"

Silly but nice, Ranma repeated to himself, amused.

"Sometimes, 'Kane, I feel that I can be myself only when I'm on this rooftop with you. Not on this rooftop with Pops or Ukyou or Shampoo or – God forbid – Kodachi, or anybody and anywhere else… but on this worn out, creaky rooftop with you. I love every single minute of it… except the fighting tournaments."

Akane's heart had sprouted wings and fluttered happily in her chest.

"Me too. I love all of it except the fighting tournaments."

"Course you should! You're with Ranma Saotome, official heartthrob of Furinkan High and most wanted martial artist in Japan. Why wouldn't you?"

She mock-giggled. "Pompous ass."

"Well, at least that's better than 'disguised pervert', right?" he asked, a hint of disgust evident in his voice.

Akane groaned. "Not this again. Ranma, it wasn't Ryouga's fault, okay? I just walked in on him while he was getting out of the bathroom. It was a complete accident."

"Fine. But don't be surprised when one day you come running to me and screaming 'Kick the life outta that pervert!' nonstop for days."

"You always love kicking my perverted admirers' asses, don't you?"

"Yeah, 'cause I am the knight who will fight for your honor… I'll be the hero you're dreaming of…"

"For God's sake, stop singing! I don't want heavy rain to spoil this night!"

Ranma laughed at the annoyed look on Akane's face. "Why, what's with tonight?"

Her expression grew serious.

No, you're not going to tell him–

"Ranma, do you…

Akane, NO! Shut – oh, SHUT – up! Don't even open your mou–

"...do you love me? At all?"

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This startled Ranma – Akane had never asked that question before and he wondered what came upon her that she suddenly did – so he averted his gaze from her and directed it to a specially bright star in the dark sky. He looked like he was waiting for a sign, maybe for that particular star to fall down or rocket to some other part of the heavens. He narrowed his eyes for a clearer view and eased up after a few seconds.

"I… I don't..."

"Oh," she said in an octave higher than her normal, forcing a smile. "I'm sorry. I mean, it's been more than a year since we first met, but apparently it's not enough. I shouldn't have asked that. I can't believe I did; I feel like a prize idiot. Maybe I should go now and… and get ready for tomorrow. Wait, tomorrow's Saturday so there's no class. But still, I should go because it's getting really cold. Would that be fine if I left you here? Oh, what am I saying, of course it would be. Just take a bath if the wounds start hurting. I'll be off now. And y-you should try Kasumi's cheesecake… scrumptious, really…"

"...know," he finished.

Akane blinked.

"Oh."

She felt like a bigger prize idiot.

"And I know that you don't know if you love me, either," he added quietly.

She nodded in agreement.

"But I'd have missed out on a lot of stuff if you didn't come into my life," Ranma continued, wrapping a burly arm around her shoulders. "It's not like I'm being dependent on you or anything, but sometimes I find myself thinking how dull and miserable my life would be if I hadn't met you. Because that would mean I'd still be with brainless Pops training in the mountains, and that would just suck big time."

"Am I supposed to be happy?"

"What if I told you that I'm willing to eat your cooking and become bulimic just so you wouldn't go?"

"Would you," she began, looking strangely at him, "give up a barrel of Nannichuan just so I wouldn't leave?"

He thought for a second. And then he grinned.

"I could always go to China."

"What if Jusenkyo disappeared, and the only Nannichuan left on the planet is in that barrel?"

"Hey, you're a sadistic woman! You ain't trying to tell me that I'll never get to cure myself, are you?"

Akane chuckled, snuggling up to him. "Okay, maybe that was a toe out of the line. But what if there wasn't any choice, what if I really had to go?"

"Why are you asking that?" he asked, suddenly fearful and holding her tighter. "Are you gonna kill yourself tonight? Bloody hell, you better give it up. I'm sleeping beside you on your bed before you can do that! I'll be watching you the whole night, got that? I don't care if you call me pervert. Damn, you're such a morbid person!"

"No, stupid, of course I won't kill myself tonight! I swore that I'll cook a perfect dish first before I can finally rest in peace, or Antarctica will burn. But what if… worse comes to worst and I really have to leave? What if one day you wake up and I'm not there anymore, like maybe I just existed in your dreams and you don't really have a fiancée?"

He sighed and nuzzled his nose into her fragrant hair.

"Then I'll miss my imaginary fiancée. I'll miss her terribly and it would be as painful as hell. I'll start sleeping as often as I can so I could see her in my dreams. I'll keep teasing her and calling her names so she'd seduce me and then mallet my head, and it wouldn't hurt when I wake up. In the real world, I'll start dating lots of women and change girlfriends seven times a week…"

"Hey!"

He let out a soft laugh in her ear, making her spine shiver, just before he faced her again and saw the stars twinkling at him reassuringly.

The stars peep behind her and peer; and I laugh to see them whirl and flee, like a swarm of golden bees.

"I'll search the world for someone who looks like the girl in my dreams." Percy Shelley wrote that poem for you, Akane.

"Are you sure you have the heart to do that?" He did?

"Hell I do!" Yes, hundred percent.

"Do you really want to leave the comfort of this dojo and all the wonderful things in Nerima?" How sure are you?

"I'll buy lotsa okonomiyaki from Ucchan's, and I'll be off like the wind." Very.

"And what are you going to do when you find her?" Thanks... I guess...?

"Maybe I'll ask Pops to befriend her dad and engage the both of us." Thanks is right.

"In short?" Why?

"If you leave, you'll give me such a terrible headache and present me the trouble of looking all over for you–" That's the least you can do, 'cause I heard that he died after writing that poem. Some curse you brought him, huh?

"In short?" No, seriously, why?

"In short, I'm gonna miss you badly that it would hurt so much." Because he found you really cute. Pretty. And all the – whatever ya call 'em – synonyms.

She smiled. This time it wasn't forced or small or shy – it was wide and beautiful and very Akane.

"That will do." Really.

"Eh?" And I wish I could've written it, but damn. Good ol' Perce had to be born first.

"Goodnight, Ranma." But you find me pretty.

"Uh–" Yes. Very much.

"Sweet dreams." Thank you, then. Very much.

She planted a small kiss on his cheek before getting up and going back to her room via the window.

Stunned, Ranma gently touched the tingling spot where Akane's lips had been a second ago.

Finally, feeling luckier than ever, he beamed at the stars. He decided to forgo washing his face that night. Even if it meant skipping his beauty regimen – if he had any.

o

o

Author's Notes: Okay, so I forgot what the sakura mochi vendor looked like, so I made some typical descriptions of any old man I see walking down the street. Oh, and... I love you all. I want to take all of you home and we'll have fun in the jacuzzi and talk about Ranma and Akane and stupid Ryouga and Akane's soft, fleshy–

Ow. She whacked me. Do review... it'll abate the pain... a lot. ;)

(And Ranma? SINGING? That has GOT to be a screen-worthy moment.)