After some helpful comments, I have fixed up chapter one, as
can be seen on the page for those of you who read it or were
interested in reading it. (http://elena.ff6rpg.net/counp1ch1.html)

Again, this is a rather long fic that takes place after the manga
and the anime. I missed one important point, though, in the
introduction to chapter one. I'm basing this fanfic on the idea that
Ranma and Akane are now 18, and in their last year of school.
Nabiki is out of school, and Kuno...well, you'll find out what 
happened to Kuno later on ^-^ So I am changing the world a bit,
but I don't think it's anything incredibly illogical. The manga 
happened in two years, Takahashi just forgot to have them
age. (Which may very well be her only mistake. Ever.)

Also, I made an error with Akane's appearance. I gave her grey
eyes. I didn't realize until I was far into the fanfic that her eyes
are actually brown (they even looked grey to me in the anime, 
until a friend told me otherwise and I looked at screenshots). I
could change it all to brown, but that would take a lot of time. 

Finally, I previously had all their thoughts in italics, but 
seeing as how that just didn't work last time, I'll just use
underscores. Now, without further ado from the
nit-picking author...

(Comments and criticisms are welcome, and you can send them
to the list or to me, it doesn't matter either way.)
------------------------------------------------------
Title: The Countdown to Matrimony (Ch. 2 of Part 1)
Anime/Game: Ranma 1/2
Author: Denise Cameron aka Elena99
------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: The Difference Between Water and Chocolate

Ryoga looked at the crushed cup in his hand, and let a low growl rise
up in his throat.

"Damn that Ranma, why do I let him get me riled up?" He asked, picking
up the pieces and putting them aside. He had a small cut on a finger
now, which he quickly pressed a bandanna against to stop the bleeding.
It wasn't serious, but annoying all the same.

It wasn't that he didn't want to confess to Akane. He did, more then
anything. He certainly didn't want Ranma to have her. However, there
didn't seem to be much he could do about that, lately. Despite what
Ranma had said, him and Akane were getting...closer. He could feel it,
hear it in Akane's voice, see it in her eyes. The truth hurt, but a
part of him still wanted to hope that he had a chance.

His other hand idly went through his coat pockets in search of her
picture, but his fingers fell on the wrong one. Pulling out the paper,
he was surprised to see a picture of Akari, who knew about his curse,
and liked him still. Loved him even. Why couldn't he love her back?
She was cute, funny, devoted, and interesting. Why did his heart still
pine away for Akane?

The zipper to his tent made a sound, and he looked up quickly.

"Who is it?" He asked, his brow creasing. He didn't think it'd be
Ranma again, but he could never be sure.

"Knock knock, Ryoga. It's Nabiki Tendo." Said a female voice. Akane's
sister. Ryoga put away the photo, and watched as Nabiki made her way
into the tent, more clumsily then Ranma. Making herself quickly
comfortable on the bedding, she tucked her legs under herself, resting
one hand on the ground.

"Oh. Err, hey, Nabiki. Can I, uh, help you?" He asked. He tried to
remember a time when he actually had spoken with Nabiki alone, and
couldn't remember one. Unsure of how to deal with this visit, he tried
to keep his composure, and rested his hands on his knees.

"Help me? But I'm not the one who needs help." She said cryptically.

"What are you getting at?"

"I'm gonna make this short, Ryoga. You've got a problem, I know. Now
normally, I wouldn't go into other's affairs, but this does involve my
little sister. I don't want her to get hurt, and having to hurt you
would, naturally, hurt her. She's so kindhearted that way." Nabiki
sniffed, and shifted her weight. Panic rose up within Ryoga, without
any thought of wanting to contain it. He allowed his hands to ball up
into fists, his muscles to tense, and his face to harden.

"You're not going to tell her, are you?"

"Of course not! That would make things complicated. At least, I
wouldn't tell her right out. Akane needs to be told the truth, from
the source. That being you. No, for this Ryoga, I have another
idea...one that will lessen the hurt you need to go through, too."

* * *

"Ahh..." Said a very satisfied male as he stepped out of the hot bath.
Drying off his hair first with a towel, Ranma unplugged the drain with
his toe, and watched as the still steaming water swirled away.

On his way home he had been careless, and was sprayed with cold water
from an old woman who had been watering flowers. Before he knew it, he
had been the she again. Ranko, the red-headed, busty, pig-tailed girl.
Despite the annoyance of changing, it didn't deter him much this time;
he had been on his way home, anyway.

After getting dressed, he stepped out of the bathroom and headed down
the hall to Akane's room. He first noticed the empty food dishes on
the tray on the floor, and his stomach reminded him that he was
hungry.

"Akane ate without me? I didn't take that long." He muttered, walking
up to the door and looking at the small plaque on it. It was in the
shape of a cute duck, with the name Akane inked in English letters.
She always did like cutesy things, despite being a tomboy. Akane was
such a contradiction.

"Hey, Akane?" He called, knocking on the door twice, sharply. When ten
seconds passed without an answer, he knocked louder.

"Akane? It's me. Are you in there? You're not mad, are ya?" He called
through the wood, and received silence in return. He looked up at the
sign once more, debating on what to do. He couldn't just walk into her
room...could he? Wouldn't that be an invasion of her privacy? But he
didn't even know if she was in there.

"I'm coming in!" He said, deciding. Grabbing the knob, he turned it,
pushing the door open slowly.

"Hello?" He called through the opening. No one was there, and he
pushed the door all the way, seeing her notes on the desk. When he
walked in further, he saw that his notes were piled in the corner, as
well. Akane's school dress was folded on the edge of her bed.

"Huh. Guess she got sick of waiting." He said, taking a look around. A
part of him told him to leave the room, immediately. This was a girl's
room, he wasn't supposed to be there. Yet that part in itself made him
want to be there. If it was Akane's room, wasn't it different? Or did
that make it worse? It was just Akane, after all.

_She'd kill me if she found out.._

There wasn't much in the room of interest to him, just a bed, and
desk. A chair, a dresser, typical bedroom items. A few stuffed animals
sat in the corner, and he recognized a items that he had given her.
Such as the picture frame from Christmas, still sitting on her
dresser, and a plushey that he had won for her at the carnival last
year. He tried to think of things that she had given him, and couldn't
remember if he had kept anything. He had to at least still have the
scarf...right? Suddenly wondering if he did or not, he left the room,
closing the door behind him and jogging down to the room he shared
with his father.

Going straight for the dresser, he opened the drawers and began
tearing through them. Winter clothes, summer clothes, fighting
clothes, odd pieces he couldn't recognize. Soon clothing littered the
floor, but he still hadn't found it.

"Come on, I gotta still have it...somewhere..."

"Gotta have what, boy?" Said a man, walking into the room. Ranma
didn't stop, and didn't even turn around. He didn't have to turn
around to recognize his father's voice, and he certainly didn't want
his father to see his eyes widen.

"My...gi. Ya know, the other one." He said, in a forcefully annoyed
voice. He pulled out another few articles and then finally saw it. The
scarf was stuffed in the lowest corner of the middle drawer, behind an
old pair of pants and a slipper. He sighed with relief at seeing it,
and began to put things back in the drawer.

"You mean this one?" Asked Genma, his voice suspicious. When Ranma
turned around, he saw him pointing to a gi that was hanging up on a
hook on the wall, belt and all. Sheepishly, Ranma put a few more
articles of clothing away, then walked over to it.

"Yeah, that one. Close the door, will ya Pop? I'm gonna change." Said
Ranma. Before Genma Saotome had the door half closed, Ranma had his gi
on, and was opening it again to run out.

"Hey, aren't you going to clean this up?" Called his father.

"Later! Training's more important, right?" He shot back. He thought he
heard his father protest, but couldn't hear what it was.

_That was close. If Pop knew I was looking for something Akane gave me,
he wouldn't shut up about it._ Taking a quick turn, he headed for the
front door, wondering what he should do. It'd be odd for him to wait
upstairs for Akane in his gi, and he wasn't sure if he should go out
looking for her yet. She was probably mad at him anyway, for what he
had said earlier. He thought about going back to ask his father if
he'd seen her, but decided against it.

"Looks like I'm training then." Mumbled Ranma. It felt too quiet to be
in the house anyway. Where was everyone? He hadn't seen Nabiki or
Kasumi, and Mr. Tendo didn't appear to be around. He knew his Mom was
out at their real house, supervising the renovation, and the old freak
hadn't been seen in two days. _Guess it's just one of those days._

When he got to the dojo, he heard sounds coming from within. Slowly,
he opened the door, and peered into the familiar room. When he saw who
was there, he became quiet and still, watching with a blank expression
on his face. It was Akane. For a moment he just watched her, tumbling
around in her gi, her hair pulled back with a bandanna. Despite how
clumsy she was sometimes, she could be graceful. When she tried. He
watched as she sparred her shadow, and then moved on to some mid-air
flips. She was getting better at those, lately. When she landed on the
fourth time with her back to him, he slipped into the dojo and slid
the door shut.

"Who's ther-..Oh, hi Ranma." She said, turning around. Realizing that
she didn't appear to be mad at him, Ranma relaxed. She walked to a
nearby shelf to pick up a small towel, and began wiping the sweat off
of her face.

"Yo, Akane. I thought we were gonna study?" He asked, approaching her.
Her face was flushed from the workout, but otherwise she didn't look
very winded.

"Sorry, I got tired of waiting and thought I'd come out here for a
while. It's hard to sit down for too long. Where were you?" She asked,
finishing with the rag.

"With Ryoga. Just took longer then I thought it would." He said. It
was the truth, mostly at least. He watched as Akane sat on the floor
and began stretching her short legs. Not wanting to have to look down
to talk with her, he sat down as well, but didn't stretch. He was too
hungry to do any exercises, but he had to stay for a while because of
the damned gi and his father.

"Oh. And you changed because you got your clothes dirty?" She asked.

"Somethin' like that."

"As long as that's settled." She said.

A sudden noise from the side of the room caused Akane's face to turn,
and Ranma looked over as well, wondering if it was his dad coming to
berate him about the mess of their bedroom. The door had opened, and
one of Akane's sisters, Nabiki, was standing there, an eyebrow raised.
Realizing how closely they were sitting to each other, Ranma and Akane
immediately stood up, backing away from each other a pace.

"So this is what you two do in the dojo all the time. Makes sense."
Said Nabiki, as though she had just solved a mystery. Sauntering into
the room, she stuffed a hand into her pocket, and pulled out a piece
of paper.

"We weren't doing anything." Said Akane defensively. Almost wanting to
echo her words, Ranma opened his mouth, then immediately shut it.
Adding more fuel to Nabiki's fire could be dangerous; if he acted like
something had happened, she would probably jump to conclusions.
Grunting instead, he looked at the paper that Nabiki was now holding
up in front of their faces. Why did Nabiki have to always be so
assuming? It frustrated him to no end.

"A note from Ryoga?" Asked Akane, taking the piece of paper out of
Nabiki's hands. Immediately, Ranma snatched it up, and held it above
Akane's head to look at it.

"Hey, give that back!" She protested. Quickly, Ranma read the note,
and frowned. Had Ryoga misinterpreted his words? What the note said
was nothing like what he had told Ryoga to do.

"A date? He can't do that! You're not interested anyway, right Akane?"
He asked, giving her the paper. She snatched it, giving him one of her
don't-push-me looks, and read it over herself.

"I'm sure it's not how it looks. Ryoga doesn't like me that way
anyway, he probably just wants to talk." She said, not looking up.
Ranma rolled his eyes. _How can she be so dense?_

"So you're actually going to go?" His fists balled up, and he balanced
his weight on his toes, waiting for an answer. She looked up from the
paper slowly.

"Well I can't just leave him there. He said he'd be waiting, and if I
don't show up, he could be waiting all night." She said.

"I could tell him you're not coming." He offered. Akane scoffed.

"Why are you being so helpful all of a sudden?" She asked. Ranma
shrugged. This was getting out of control. All Ryoga had to do was
listen to him, just show up and confess to Akane. On Ranma's
territory. Under Ranma's control. What was this date crap all about?

"What, I can't be helpful?" He countered, crossing his arms. Nabiki
broke in, stepping between the two.

"Now, now, you two. Ranma, why don't you just let her go on this date
with Ryoga?" Asked Nabiki. Feeling as though he were now cornered,
Ranma stepped back, and looked at Nabiki. Her eyes were firm and
intent, as though she had other reasons that she wouldn't voice with
Akane there.

"Cause...cause he...arg, whatever. Do what you want Akane, it's not
like I care." He took a few steps towards the door, waiting for her to
call out. She always called out, but this time she was hesitating.
That just upset him even more, and he opened the dojo door much more
swiftly then need be.

"Ranma!" Akane called, finally. Ranma stopped, waiting for her to
finish.

"There's nothing to be jealous over." She said.

"I'm not jealous!" He countered. _And I'm not, either. But why does she
have to do things like that? Is she that thick? Stupid Ryoga..._

"You are too! I can tell." She replied.

"You can't tell nothin'."

There were a few seconds where he waited before taking a step outside.
As soon as he had one foot out the door, Akane began again.

"Ryoga's just a friend. That's it. So don't worry, okay? The date's
not for another few days. If you want to study still, you can wait for
me in the house, I'll be there soon." Said Akane. _Just a friend?
Stupid Ryoga. Probably didn't want to have me be around when he told
her._

"Who's worryin'? See ya later." He said coldly, waving her off.
Closing the door, he headed back to the house, realizing with a
sinking feeling that now he really would have to study tonight.

* * *

"So what was really going on, sis?" Asked Nabiki. Akane had almost
forgotten she was there.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Really. Careful, Nabiki, you're getting as bad as
Dad is." She replied, "You were talking with Ryoga, right?" She asked,
looking up from the paper. Nabiki blinked, and nodded.

"Sort of. I happened to see him when I was passing by the park. He
told me he had a message he wanted to get to you, then handed me this
paper." Nabiki shrugged

"Nothing else? It's odd that he'd suddenly want to talk to me. I hope
everything's okay." She said, putting the note in her pocket. _Maybe
it's because of the fight him and Ranma had. Those two idiots, always
fighting,_ she thought, walking towards the door.

"Thanks for passing it on. I'm going to head back to the house now."
She said, waving a hand to her sister as she opened the door and
walked out.

"Sure." Replied Nabiki. Akane smiled to her as she closed the door and
half jogged back to the house.

_I hope Ranma's over that fit he had, now...idiot, getting jealous over
Ryoga._

After entering the main Tendo house, she walked towards the stairway,
hearing sounds the kitchen; dishes clattering, and liquid being poured
into a cup. A quick peek into the kitchen confirmed that Ranma was
heating up his food from earlier, and had changed into black pants and
a yellow, short sleeved shirt. Nodding to herself, she reasoned that
she'd have about ten minutes to change before he would finish. At
most, anyway. Quickly, she ran upstairs to do that, taking the tray of
dishes with her on the way back.

Once downstairs, she found Ranma still eating in the kitchen. The
sight of him, now calmer, made her anxiety over Nabiki's behaviour
fade. She had no right to interfere like that, to just walk in and
assume, but that moment was past now. Quietly, she watched Ranma for
the moment, sitting at the table. He ate a piece of cake and had a
glass of water in his other hand; used bowls nearby showed that he had
quickly eaten Kasumi's leftovers.

"Hey, almost done?" She asked him, putting her tray on the counter. He
finished the cake in one bite, and downed the water.

"Am now." He said, then Akane's eyes moved to look at a clock on the
wall.

"7 o'clock already. We should get started." She said, watching Ranma
reluctantly get up. Nodding, she turned around, and started heading up
to her room, hearing Ranma follow. _He's not trying to get out of it?_
She thought, amazed. He usually did, unless his mother was around.
Nadoka Saotome was the only person who could do anything close to
bossing around Ranma.

"Yeah, yeah." She heard Ranma say, but he still followed her into her
room. They studied for almost an hour before Ranma left, and not
another word about Ryoga or the date was voiced.


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