For those of you who did see this the first time aronund, keep
reading. I've changed it some already. ^_^
	I had the misfortune of posting this when the FFML was being
particularly blitzy, and it doesn't seem to have reached most people.
Didn't get it back myself....
	Well, I realize it may be a bit late to offset the emotional havoc
wreaked by Zen's...er, controversial masterpiece, but hey, every bit
helps, right? ^_^ This is the continuation which got launched by the now-
defunct "Three Sixty". I've dropped the ueber-angst aspect; I was getting
tired of it anyways. Well, I hope you enjoy this one. And don't be
expecting frequent releases; I'm trying to firmly establish this fic
before really getting it out. This is just a teaser/bit of relief from
TBE.

alhuang@hcs.harvard.edu
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/

  Inspired by _A Lesson in Love_, TMTC/TPOH, the writing style of
Matthew Trotter (who in turn attributes that to Pratchett--though I'll 
probably not live up to either), and other excellent Ranma fics out
there. You might note that this draws a bit on some of my other Ranma
fics. Well, that would only happen if you guys read my stuff, which
sometimes I'm not so sure about. :)
  You know the drill, characters and universe belong to Takahashi-san
and all that stuff. Sue me, and you won't be getting much money.

And now, Oddzilla Productions presents....

"These are the Days to Remember" by Andrew Huang

<...>: thoughts
*...*: sounds

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-Oh What a Night

  Step. Step. Gently, now. Step.

  "Hmmm...."

  This wasn't the way the evening was supposed to end.

  Step. Step. Step.

  No, not at all.

  "*giggle* Wha'cha thinking, Ranma?"

  But we get ahead of ourselves. Let's go back a bit.

***

  It was the night of a dance being held by Furinkan High School, for
all of its students. In a certain household in that school's district, a
small argument was raging.

  "Why do I have to go with hiemr?!" No, that's not a typo, that's two
different voices saying the same thing except for the last word: the
male voice said "her", while the female voice said "him".

  Tendou Soun immediately flopped down at Akane's feet, begging, "Oh,
please, please, please, my dear daughter, I beg you..." all the while
threatening to create an environment that would facilitate the growth
of athlete's foot. It didn't take very long before she gave an
exasperated sigh and nodded.

  While that went on, Ranma was swatted at with signboards saying, {It
is your duty to your fiancee!} while growls of a panda were projected at
him. He easily dodged the swings, laughing.

  "Gotta be faster than that, Oyaji! And there's no way--"

  At this point, Soun turned to Ranma to do some persuasion. However, as
Ranma was not his daughter, there was no groveling, but rather, a demon
head screaming, "YOU WILL DO AS YOU ARE TOLD, BOY!!!"

  After Ranma extracted his head from the ceiling and stopped his
shaking, he agreed.

  Ranma and Akane (and peripherally, Nabiki--but that's not important
for the moment) were now walking to Furinkan.

  "Idiot."

  "Tomboy."

  Just the usual walk to Furinkan. No one got hurt--yet.

  Once at Furinkan, the three piled into the gym, along with about three
quarters of the population of the high school. Some techno piece was
playing, at drive-by window-breaking sound levels. Ranma grumpily sat
down at the side of the gym. Akane joined him.

  "...."

  "?"

  "..said, I...."

  "...hear y...."

  At this point, the two decided to leave the gym so that they could
actually communicate.

  "I don't want to be here."

  "Well, it's too late now. We're stuck here...otherwise, I think our
parents will pound you.

  "Why is it that _I_ always get yelled at, and not you?"

  "Maybe because I'm a cuter girl than you give me credit for."

  "Heh. Whatever, kawaiikunee." *smack* "Ow! Hey--gack!"

  "What? What is it?"

  Ranma ducked behind a table and pulled Akane down with him. "Shampoo's
here."

  "Great. The Chinese bimbo. If you go anywhere near--"

  "Hey, I'm the one who hid us, didn't I?" Akane decided not to answer.
The two watched as Shampoo searched around, holding...some food
container. Whether or not it was drugged was a toss-up.

  Finally, Shampoo left the area, walking into the gym. Ranma and Akane
sighed in relief, But, perhaps, it was a little too soon for Ranma.

  "Ranchan!" Oh, dear. At least, Ucchan and Akane got along somewhat.

  Akane was smoldering a little already, vowing to crank him one good
when Ukyou grabbed onto him. But....

  "Heh, Ucchan, how's it going?"

  "Okay. I'm kinda tired, though. Not sure why I came here.... Hello,
Akane."

  Akane decided to calm down a bit. "Hello, Ukyou."

  "Gosh, it's been a hard day." Ukyou slumped down into a chair.
"Business was crazy. I don't know _why_ so many people were coming in
today...so, how's it been for you guys?"

  Both grumbled at the same time. "Don't wanna be here."

  "Parents forced you, huh?" Two heads nodded simultaneously. There was
silence from the little group for a while...until a few people walked
in--with food. And punch. Ranma's face brightened.

  "Well, as long as we're here, might as well make the most of it!" He
headed over to the food. Akane and Ukyou looked at each other, then
shrugged. They headed over as well.

  Ranma had downed a piece of cake when he heard a cry of pain next to
him. Akane! "What! What is it?!" He whirled to see his fiancee gasping
for breath, then rushing over to the punch bowl. Ukyou stared at a piece
of sushi in her hand.

  "Well, she ate one of these...looks like there's a _lot_ of wasabi
in it."

  (For those who don't know, wasabi is this green paste made from
Japanese horseradish; if you exhale the wrong way while eating it,
you'll never have stuffy sinuses again.)

  "Ahh, couldn't be that bad." He snatched a piece himself, popped it
in his mouth, and chewed. "Ur-K!"

  A bomb detonated. Fortunately, that area had been cleard by the
police. Meanwhile, back at Furinkan, Ranma learned the hard way that the
sushi was indeed over-wasabied. He decided to join Akane at the punch
bowl, where she was downing her third cup and about to go for a fourth. 

  He hurriedly dipped a cup for himself, and took a swig. Then he spit
it right out. "Whoa!"

  Ukyou darted over beside him. "What? What's wrong?"

  "Smell." He tilted the cup towards Ukyou's nose.

  "Yow! There's sake in there!"

  "Probably something stronger than sake. It reeks!"

  "Wha? What was that?" Akane wiped her mouth and rejoined the other
two.

  "Uhm, Akane, how much did you drink?"

  "I lost count at the fifth cup. Why?"

  "Oh, damn."

  "*hic* Woo, excuse me. What's wrong?"

***

  No doubt, the atomic sushi and the spiked punch were meant to be a
paired effect.

  "*giggle* Hey, this is fuuuuuun. *hic* Hee!"

  Which brings us to the present, a sparse fifteen minutes after leaving
the house. Remember that scene from the first season of Ranma 1/2? The
piggyback bit after a visit to Toufuu's? Reverse the roles for both and
the gender for one, and you have a general picture of what was happening
now. Ranma wisely (Ranma? wise?) decided to take Akane home quietly
before something really bad happened.

  "That's nice, Akane." <I really do not believe this.>

  "Wow. I never knew being drunk was soooo nice. I gotta do this again."
Akane raised her head from Ranma's broad shoulders and nuzzled his hair
a bit. This scene was now reaching past bizarre.

  "Sure, sure...." Ranma wasn't really listening, which normally would
have earned him a smack upside the head at the least. However, very
fortunately for Ranma, Akane made a pleasant drunk. Very pleasant.

  "'N' thanks for carrying me back...but I still want to stay a little
longer!" Yes, she had only now realized that.

  Ranma decided not to answer. Akane made up for the silence by humming
one of Kasumi's cooking (heh) tunes, punctuated with a hiccup here and a
giggle there.

  <I'm _so_ glad she's not getting angry at me like usual. You know,
maybe I should get her drunk more often.> He chuckled slightly at the
thought.

  Finally, after a bit, they arrived back at the Tendou's. The fathers
had gone out to a bar to celebrate their victory against the forces of
stubborness, and Kasumi...was, well, her location could be revealed by
the screams of agonized patients as pressure points unknown to the Fist
of the North Star were jabbed blindly.

  Ranma carefully ascended the steps, walked into Akane's room, and
gently set Akane down on her bed. Unsure what to do next, he looked
around for a moment, before just deciding to settle down here for a few
moments and make sure things were okay.

  "Akane? Ummm...."

  "Yah?" She smiled. It was _that_ +smile+. It really caught Ranma off
guard.

  "Uh...umm...that is...are you feeling okay?"

  "Sure! I feel great! Never better. *giggle*"

  "Oh, well.... Okay." Ranma relaxed a little. If she hadn't hit him by
now, he was entitled to let down his guard a bit. "Figures a tomboy as
slow as you wouldn't taste sake in there until it was too late." Oops.
Letting down one's guard in moments of relative safety is okay, but he
probably went a little too far. He cringed, in that Pavlovian way, but
no hammer/fist/table/instrument of doom was coming. He opened his eyes
to see Akane pouting at him.

  "*hic* Well, I couldn't help it. That was a llllllot of wasabi!" A
tear glimmered in her eye.

  "I'm sorry! Sorry!" For once, Ranma was given the chance to apologize
before reaching mid-level crusing altitude. Plus, it was harder to deal
with a crying Akane, rather than an angry one. It was a strange thing for
him, overall.

  Akane's face brightened immediately. "Oh, well, then. That's okay.
But you also drank some yourself, ya know. Baaaaaaaaka. *giggle*" She
+smile+d again, idly fingering the skirt of her dress, that yellow dress
with the suspenders over her fine blue satin blouse, the one dress which
showed her legs off so nicely. Her cheeks were a bit flushed from the
alcohol, giving her face a beautiful glow. Her eyes sparkled with the
forgotten tears, catching Ranma's in her gaze.

  Part of Ranma's mind instantly liquified. You know, the part which
always insisted that he have nothing to do with this sexless tomboy. The
part which survived the collapse was mumbling "kawaii" in its near-
meltdown state.

  "Ummmm.... Ummmmmmmmmm...."

  "Wha? 'S all you can say is 'ummm'?" She teasingly poked him in the
shoulder and let her hand fall in his as he reached to catch it. So
delicate, when not clenched in a fist.... Ranma's mental processors
still hadn't quite recovered, but....

  He leaned over slowly...slowly...ever so slowly...in a pace which
would madden most people reading this fic...confused, Akane didn't move
away, but just blinked as he came closer...and touched his lips to hers.
With only a moment of hesitation, Akane responded to his kiss.

  Was this of free will? Depends on your definition.

  A few seconds after lip contact, the goo in Ranma's head resolidified
and realized what was going on. Ranma's head jerked back suddenly as the
now-awake part of his mind screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He dropped
her hand and stood up, backing away in shock. Akane, similarly, was a
bit surprised, but not as much as Ranma. She looked up at the retreating
form of her fiancee.

  "That was nice." She +smile+d yet again. Then she passed out.

  Ranma paused for a second, torn between running away and first
checking to see if she was okay, _then_ running away. The matter seemed
to be decided for him once he heard her soft snores and the gentle rise
and fall of her chest (ahem, don't be staring at _that_ now, boyo). He
quickly darted out of the room, down the stairs, out the door, and onto
the rooftop. He needed to do some thinking, and the top of the Doujou
was the best place for that.

  Back inside, Akane slumbered peacefully, as the alcohol slowly worked
her internal systems over in that wonderful way that alcohol does things
to a sleeping human. Also, if one listened carefully, a bit of weeping
could be heard. Nabiki had tailed them back, after seeing them leave...
and found her camera empty of film. Oh, the horror, the horror....

---

[1] I would do footnotes, but that would _really_ be pushing the Trotter/ 
Pratchett angle.
.
.
.
Waitaminut....

------------------------------------------------


>From Andrew Huang, Taiwanese-American-German-Scot Harvard Student :P
Brought to you by his computer, Oddzilla
Oddzilla says, "Ryouga and Ukyou! Ukyou and Ryouga!"
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/
Kurimoto Shiro's manager, DBTFH; Harvard Anime Society, Secretary