Okay, everyone!  Hi again.  I'm sorry this has taken so long to get out.  This
 is the second part to "Chance Meeting".  I've decided to call it that, because
 it's shorter than Hey, It Could Have Happened.  That can be the first part's
 name.  :)  Anyway, the reason why this epilogue has taken so long to get out
 is mostly because I'm a lazy butt, but also because I had it preread.  (THANK
 YOU SO MUCH doKuSHInsHA!!!!!  This person has made this story flow so much
 smoother!  Yay!  Arigato! )  Also, I took forever to revise it after it was
 preread.  But it's here now!  If you missed the first part, just e-mail me,
 and I'll be glad to send it to you.  On with the fic!

Disclaimer:   These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.  This fanfic is
 meant for nothing more than the further enjoyment of her creations, and I beg
 her for mercy.  :)

"Chance Meeting"  Epilogue

	Ranma searched frantically around the guest room he and his dad shared at the
 Tendo�s household.  He opened the drawers of the dresser and rummaged around,
 he looked in the closet, and he checked under the bed to no avail.  He growled
 with frustration.  "Where the hell are my lucky wristbands!?  Arg!  I always
 wear them when I have a tournament!"  He sat down on his futon heavily and
 fumed.  Nabiki, who had heard his ranting as she passed his room in the
 hallway, popped her head through the door.
	"Ranma, you are constantly whining about those wristbands.  Either take
 better care of them or get some new ones,"  she said.  Ranma frowned at her.
	"I can�t get new ones!  Those wristbands are special!  I got them�  How did I
 get them?"  the martial artist wondered.  Nabiki rolled her eyes and continued
 away from his room.  Ranma sat Indian-style on the futon and tried to remember
 where he had gotten his lucky wristbands.  They were his most prized
 possession, but somehow he couldn�t recall why they were so important.  The
 cursed boy tried to think back to the time when he got them.  He was� in a
 park?  Memories of a store, or dojo, would have been more appropriate, he
 thought, but the park was all he remembered, so he decided to go with it.

	Akane entered her room and looked around wearily.  She knew that this time of
 year meant spring-cleaning, but she didn�t look forward to clearing out all
 the unwanted mess her room had managed to accumulate.  The girl sighed and set
 herself to the job by attacking her chest of drawers.  *I guess the best thing
 to do is take out all the drawers, clean everything out of them, organize, and
 then put them back,* she decided.  The Tendo sister pulled out the first one
 (a sock drawer), and after realizing that it wasn�t very dirty, shoved it back
 into the dresser.  The drawer to the right of it, though, was a junk drawer.
 She removed it from the dresser and set it on the floor.  She began
 withdrawing all its objects, placing them in piles and throwing away the
 trash.  *School supplies here, jewelry here, toys here, trash�* she repeated
 to herself as she looked at each item and place it in the correct area.  As
 she was getting to the last few things in the drawer, she lifted a
 handkerchief and noticed something glint from underneath it.  
	"Hmm?"  she sounded as she lifted the small circular object to the light.  It
 was a shiny gold ring.  "Where�d this come from?" Akane wondered to herself.
 "I don�t remember buying it but it seems very familiar�"  Forgetting the
 cleaning, Akane stepped carefully around the mess on her floor, and flopped on
 her bed.  She gazed at the ring in her hand.  Images associated with the ring
 appeared and vanished in her head, straying at the fringes with her memory.
 Unable to connect them together, the short-haired girl concentrated harder on
 remembering.  The ring evoked strange emotions from within herself which
 confused Akane, and she was determined to figure out why.

	Meanwhile, Ranma had managed to recall a bit more of the memories.  He and
 his father had been camping at a certain park in the Nerima area.  It was one
 of the places he and Genma had stayed quite a while at.cause it was one of the
 places they had actually stayed quite a while at.  *Probably because Pop
 became friends with the food cart owner there and got free food practically
 every day,* Ranma thought with a smirk.  *At least he didn�t sell me off that
 time.  But still, what does all this have to do with my lucky �bands?*  He
 looked around the room and suddenly he saw the wristbands in question lying on
 his book bag in the corner.  Relieved that he would have them for the
 competition coming up, he rose and went over to pick them up.  As he slipped
 them on he carefully examined them for the first time in years.  They were
 black, well-worn, and fit perfectly.  Suddenly, another memory was triggered;
 one of a little hand holding his wristbands towards him in offering.  He
 followed the hand slowly to a corresponding little arm, to the sleeve of a
 little yellow gi, to the face of a little girl�  Ranma�s eyes widened.

	Akane, who was much better than Ranma at thinking and other such activities,
 had already managed to remember several instances in which she had worn the
 ring when she was little.  She knew that someone had given it to her as a
 gift, she just couldn�t remember who or why.  *For my birthday?* she asked
 herself.  *No.  Then a holiday perhaps?  No, not that either.  How about some
 personal reason?*  That sounded right to her.  Akane slid the ring on to her
 right ring finger.  It fit perfectly.  She couldn�t shake the feeling that the
 ring meant something that only she and the person who had given it to her knew
 about.  Akane tried to think back to the earliest day she could remember
 having had the ring.  Yes!  It was coming back to her now.  She knew that she
 had had the ring when she was eight; she remembered having it at a park.  If
 fact, now that she thought of it, that park was where she had gotten it�
 from� from� a boy?  *I thought I always hated boys.*  The female martial
 artist chuckled inwardly.  *Well, not this boy apparently�  What did he look
 like?*  Akane thought back to that day and slowly a figure began to resolve in
 her head.  A little figure, with black hair, and standard gi, and a� pigtail?
 Akane�s eyes widened.

              Ranma leapt up from where he sat and ran through the door of the
 guest room into the hall.  He suddenly stopped and stood still.  *What am I
 doing?*  he thought.  His first impulse had been to run into _her_ room and�
 what?  See if she looked the same?  Of course she did; he knew exactly what
 she looked like.  But suddenly to him she wasn�t the same anymore.  Now she
 was someone who he had often thought about when he was on the road and lonely,
 someone with who he had always felt a special connection.  They had traded
 gifts to prove that connection!  *Did she still have _it_?* Ranma wondered.  

	Akane hopped up from her position on the bed.  She flung the door to her room
 open and rushed out into the hall, where she immediately stopped.  *Where am I
 going?*  she asked herself.  *That baka doesn�t even remember.  What would I
 say?*  Yet she really wished that he did know.  I would make things different
 somehow.  He was the first boy she had genuinely liked.  The young woman
 turned her head wistfully towards the guest room, but something blocked her
 view.  With a sudden intake of breath, she realized it was Ranma.  He was
 staring at her and subconsciously fingering the wristbands he was wearing.
 His eyes moved down to her hand where he noticed the light reflecting off her
 ring.  His lips parted and his eyes got even bigger.  *He knows!* Akane hoped.

	Ranma had been in the hall for some time before Akane�s door had suddenly
 flown open and she had hurriedly stepped out.  Then she had just stood there
 without noticing him.  He looked at her silently as if he were seeing her in a
 whole new light.  His eyes slowly moved down to her hands, and� there it was!
 Ranma had never seen her wear it before.  *Could she have remembered?*  he
 pondered.  He returned his gaze to her face and found that she was now
 watching him as well.  Neither spoke nor moved.  They stood like statues just
 observing each other.  Finally, Ranma made the first move, stepping toward her
 hesitantly.  Akane followed suit, moving slowly away from her door.  Their
 eyes were locked onto each other and both were turning beet red.
	"H-hey," the teenage boy said weakly as the two stopped a few feet apart from
 each other.
	"Hi," Akane responded.  She could feel her skin burning.  More time passed
 quietly.	"Well, uh, gotta go!"  the dark haired boy stammered and he turned to
 flee down the stairs.  Akane gawked at the now empty spot where Ranma had
 been.  Her brows quickly knitted in a furious glare.  *What was THAT? *  she
 yelled inwardly.  *I�m sure he remembers, so why didn�t he say anything?
 Grrr, that jerk!  If he were still here�*  A large hammer appeared from
 nowhere in her hands but vanished as fast as it had materialized, since her
 target had already run out of sight.  *I gotta cool off,* the upset girl told
 herself.  With that, Akane went into her room to grab her gi, and then headed
 toward the dojo.

	Ranma looked off into the horizon from his position on the roof of the Tendo
 household.  He always came up here when he needed to think about his problems.
 Now he had a big one.  He knew Akane remembered their first encounter; the
 ring and the way she blushed (very cutely, he added to himself) proved it.
 But instead of saying anything, he had run off!  *Well,  what would I have
 said anyway?* he pondered.  The emotions involving that far off day had acted
 like a catalyst, releasing his true feelings towards Akane which he had
 desperately tried to hide away.  But he couldn�t deny them anymore.  *I� I�
 l-� lo-� love her already!  I hope she isn�t hurt.*  Suddenly the sound of a
 door slamming emanated from just below him, and Ranma looked down to see Akane
 stalking into the dojo.  He narrowed his eyes with determination.  *It�s now
 or never!* The martial artist leapt off the roof.

	The youngest Tendo sister was still angry as she performed a kata in the
 dojo.  How could that nice little boy possibly have turned into the
 insensitive jerk he was today?  Although now that she looked back, she could
 see the similarities in their personalities.  She just hadn�t allow him to
 open up like he had before.  *Perhaps it�s me who�s changed so much that I
 can�t see Ranma�s good side now,* she grudgingly considered.  *But he can
 really be rude and insulting sometimes!  Ooh, it makes me mad!*  Akane lashed
 out harder and her kata became uncontrolled and sloppy.  Her punches and kicks
 flung about wildly in her effort to work out all the anger inside her.
	"That�s not how you do it," a quiet voice said from the door.  Akane turned
 around and saw Ranma calmly entering the dojo.  "You should do your punches
 like this," he continued, smiling.  The pigtailed boy leapt up and flipped in
 the air, landing a few scant inches in front of her.  Before she could react,
 Ranma drew his fists back and performed a double punch, each balled hand
 shooting out, past either side of her torso.  It was all so fast she never
 even had time to get ready, and she was confused besides.  *What�s he up to?*
 she asked herself.  Ranma was still smiling enigmatically, and as his hands
 returned from the punch, they latched onto her waist and pulled her along.
 Soon the boy had her held to his chest in a hard hug.  Akane�s mind went
 reeling.  She had dreamed Ranma would someday hold her like this, but she had
 just about given up on it ever really happening.  Her anger dissolved into a
 warm feeling and the short haired girl pressed into her fiancee tightly.
 "Akane," he murmured into her soft hair, "I- I- I love you, you incredibly
 cute tomboy."  The girl smiled and looked up into Ranma�s blue-gray eyes.  
	"I love you too, you sweet baka," she replied.  After a few moments the pair
 let go, and stood back a little ways.  Ranma�s smile had turned into a silly
 grin, but a thought entered his head and he became serious.  He blushed a
 little as well.
	"You know," he stated, "we are fiancees.  Better make it official, ne?"  With
 that he took her dainty right hand and slipped the ring he had given her so
 long ago off her finger.  He then held her other hand and slowly put the
 shining jewelry piece back on, it its correct place.  Akane stared at the
 beautiful object gleaming on her hand, once a symbol of friendship but
 suddenly of much more.  Her eyes glittered, brimming with emotion.  Suddenly,
 a noise from the door interrupted their private moment.  Nabiki leaned against
 the door frame and regarded them through half-lidded eyes.
	"Wow, Ranma," she commented, "those wristbands really do bring you luck,
 don�t they?"  That said, she strolled back out the door, probably to go see if
 these new events held any advantages for her.  Ranma and Akane looked back at
 each other, smiling widely. 

The End

Author's Notes:  Alright, it's finally out!  I hope you enjoyed it, and C+C is
 always welcome.  :)  I'd appreciate any responses, even if it's just to say
 how you felt about it.  I was contemplating going on from here with more
 chapters, but now I think it feels finished.  Well, I guess that's it.  Have a
 nice day!