Okay, for those who are giving C and C on my fic, thank
you very much for doing so, but one thing. If you see
a recurring error that I'm doing, you only need to tell
me the one time, you don't have to show me every 
instance of it :-) And I know I've taken a few different
turns then others would expect, such as Ukyo knowing
about P-chan, but well...this is how I see the Ranma
world. Okay, the Ranma manga and anime squished
into one. Everyone has their own interpretations, and
while I appreciate knowing what the general 
interpretation is, I do also have my own ^-^  Anyway,
enough of Denise ranting, here's the next chapter...

------------------------------------------------------
Title: The Countdown to Matrimony (Ch. 2 of Part 3)
Anime: Ranma 1/2
Author: Denise Cameron aka Elena99
------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: By the Beat of my Heart

"Gonna kiss you now, hold you now, this is love we've found
Even if it's just in my dreams
Come on hold me now, real tight now, let me show you how
Fine I say, have your way, I love you."
-- "Love Panic", Ranma 1/2

Outside Tendo Dojo, Monday evening....

Akane had written out her invitation to Kuno, and had seen Ranma's
invitation to Kodachi. Both had them meeting at the Furinkan High
School gym, at seven pm sharp, at different entrances. Akane had made
hers short and simple, barely implying that it might be a date. Even
that had been enough to disgust her; just the thought of Kuno's
reaction sent shivers down her spine. She didn't even have to imply
with Kuno; all he needed was her name, a time, and a location, and
he'd be there. With bells on, and no doubt flowers and many the
lecherous thought.

Ranma had less trouble writing the invitation to Kodachi, though. He
had doodled on the invitation, more then hinted that it was a date,
and added that she should leave her weapons at home. He doubted she'd
actually listen, but it had been worth a shot.

Now, as the heat of the day was lowering towards the coolness of
evening, Akane wailed on a small dummy made of wood and straw,
preparing for the fight tomorrow. It would be easier if they could
just get Kuno and Kodachi to sit still during the spell, but both were
so stubborn that they didn't want to take chances. The plan was to
basically have Ranma subdue Kuno, while Akane fought Kodachi. Once
knocked out, they could tie them down, which hopefully would keep them
in place long enough for Gosunkugi to perform his spell. The plan was
basic, and easy to do, but something about it had made a small knot of
guilt form in Akane's stomach. It didn't matter that she hated the two
with all her being; there was just something wrong about sneak
attacking people, then putting a spell on them. It wasn't right. But
it had to be done, and even Ranma had looked willing to go along with
it, despite being suspicious. He had also had a good point; neither
knew what else to do with the Kunos. So Akane took out her
frustrations on the dummy, punching it with all her might, and
ignoring the small scrapes and cuts that it was giving her callused
knuckles.

Fifteen minutes, he needs. I'll knock that Kodachi out for fifteen
hours, if I have to, thought Akane, landing a rather brutal kick. But
she would need more then just physical strength with her. Kodachi was
a dirty fighter, using poison often, like a coward. Akane wasn't fond
of cowards. Both her and Ranma would be carrying antidotes to the most
common poisons she used, but there was a chance she'd use a new type.
She was extremely dangerous, and Akane would have to be fully prepared
to deal with a complete looney.

Not far behind her, she could hear Ranma still sparring with his dad.
They didn't maintain their position like she did; instead they fought
all over the Tendo yard, unable to contain their fighting spirit to
one place. She didn't even know why he was training so hard; Kuno
would be easy.

Something about this whole thing still seems far too easy..., she
thought, punching the dummy, then picking it up for a throw. Though
the post was firmly in the ground, it was easy for her to pick up;
with a small cry, she spun, and hurled it as hard as she could.

*SPLASH!*

"Akane! Whadja do that for?" wailed a suddenly female Ranma. She
didn't have to look at the koi pond to know that Ranma was probably
standing in it now, glaring at her, while Mr. Saotome laughed a short
distance away.

"Well you should pay more attention! I just got too into it,"
apologized Akane, walking up to the pond. You mean you got distracted.
Idiot. Akane struggled to contain her brief fit of temper at the
upcoming situation. She hadn't meant to hit Ranma, even if no real
harm had come from it. Still, there could be a situation where she
lost control of her anger, and something bad did come of it. Guiltily,
Akane shot Ranma an apologetic look, which was mostly ignored. It
certainly wasn't the first time Ranma's curse was activated at the
hands of Akane; she was able to squish away most of the guilt,
reminding herself that Ranma should be used to it by now.

Mr. Saotome sat on the porch now, resting. She could feel his eyes on
them, but didn't pay him any mind.

"Ya seem ready for Kodachi, anyway," commented Ranma, jumping out of
the pool and sitting down on one of the large rocks that surrounded
it. Taking a seat beside her, Akane dipped her bare feet into the
pond, feeling the heat and blisters slowly melt away.

"I'm more then ready. I'm still worried though, Ranma," she said,
moving her feet back and forth slowly in the cool water. It felt so
good on her tired feet; she hadn't realized how hard she had been
working. A quick look over at Ranma showed that she had been working
hard, too. New cuts graced her hands and one half bare shoulder, and
there was a rip in her shirt. Akane fought the urge to fuss over the
wounds; they were small, and there was no blood. It was all
superficial.

"You got nothin' to be worried about. I'll be there, remember?"

"I know, but..."

"No buts 'kane. You trust me, right?" asked Ranma, leaning over to
meet Akane's eyes. Her face was so determined, so sure of itself.
Akane found herself having a hard time going against such
determination

"Well...yes," she replied, in a voice too low for Mr. Saotome to hear.
Ranma's eyes were so full of spirit. Akane thought of telling her
about the ball of guilt that was residing in her stomach, but found
she just couldn't.

"Good. And now I need some hot water, no thanks to you," said Ranma,
getting up.

"Hey, umm...we still need to study tonight, don't forget," called
Akane. Ranma jumped up on the porch, then turned around to look back
at her, her red hair and clothing dripping.

"I won't. I'll be up to your room soon, 'kay? I just need to change."

"Okay," agreed Akane, looking back to the koi pond. She still had her
feet in it, and lifted one up, splashing it back down into the water.
I hope he's right about all this.

Getting up, she grabbed the dummy that had fallen to one side of the
pond and put it back in it's rightful place in the ground. When she
walked over to the porch, she saw that her own father had joined Mr.
Saotome, and that they had started playing a game of Go.

"Saotome tells me you both have a fight tomorrow, Akane," said her
father casually as Akane grabbed a towel and wiped her feet dry. Her
father had been a lot more pleasant as of late, she noted. Still
obsessively asking about her and Ranma, but more pleasant.

"It's nothing big, Dad. We're more then a match for them," she
boasted, automatically getting into a fighting stance to show off. At
the word we, her father's face lit up like a Christmas tree, and he
turned to his old friend.

"We! You hear that Saotome? My little girl said we! Ahh, it's so good
to hear my daughter and your son joining forces."

"I'll second that, Tendo!"

"Oh please, Dad, it's not like it's a date or anything. We're just
going for a fight," said Akane, walking towards the stairway. Why did
he always have to twist everything? Her father did have more of a
right to be happy, but the old reactions still came; plus it was
annoying, having her father be emotional over her and Ranma. They were
barely emotional over each other most of the day. If they could
contain themselves, their fathers could.

"Not a date? Then what are these invitations?" asked Nabiki, walking
into the room with the invites between two fingers. Akane snatched
them up, checking them over to make sure they hadn't been altered.

"Don't go in my room when I'm not there!" said Akane, as Nabiki ducked
around, letting her to go upstairs, "And it's not a date! Just part of
the plan," she called, not waiting for a comment from any of the
three.

Once she was out of sight, Akane leaned against the wall, and exhaled.
Another fit. That made two within what, ten minutes? This guilt must
really be getting to me...I shouldn't have snapped at them like that,
she thought. But they had been asking for it. A fight was a fight; she
was not a little girl, she certainly could go to a fight without
girlish thoughts entering her head. She was a martial artist. It
annoyed her that the fact was overlooked. Yet, it still didn't warrant
a temper tantrum, she had to admit. It was something she needed to
work on.

As she walked past the bathroom she heard the water running in the
shower. Assuming it was Ranma, she walked into her room, putting the
invitations back in place on her desk before changing out of her gi.

"It's not a date," she told her mirror, checking her reflection. She
wasn't wearing anything special, but found herself scrutinizing her
appearance anyway.

And I need to stop doing that! It's just Ranma. He liked me well
enough when I didn't make sure every hair was in place before he came
into my room. I don't need to fuss over myself for his sake. For good
measure, she misplaced a few hairs, then nodded to herself before
sitting at her desk.

"A real date would hopefully not involve us beating up Kuno and his
sister. In fact, I'm pretty sure a real date only involves two
people," she said sarcastically, pulling out her notebooks and a
pencil and putting them on her desk. She saw that Ranma had dropped
his bookbag on his usual chair. Maybe he stopped by here before
heading for the shower. Save himself a trip downstairs, she thought,
looking at it. The bag was like hers, except that hers had a few tear
marks in different places. They were both school issue, but Akane had
hers a few years longer then Ranma had. She found herself tracing the
seam of it with her index finger. It was soft and worn, like good
leather. She stopped when she heard a knocking at the door, followed
by the knob slowly turning.

"Ranma? Is that you?" she called over her shoulder, picking up her
pencil.

"Yeah. It's okay to come in, right?" he asked, with the door already
partially open and his head sticking through.

* * *

"It's fine," said Akane, waving him in. Ranma closed the door behind
him, then picked up his schoolbag, holding it on his lap before he sat
down. Opening it, he grabbed a pile of notes and books, setting them
on the desk and eyeing them distastefully. Yuck, it's History night,
ain't it. And Physics. He felt Akane still looking at him, and looked
over at her from the corner of his eye.

At least there's one good thing about being here.

He liked how Akane looked, after she had been fighting. Alive, and
healthy, so full of spirit and power. Even now, her cheeks were still
pink, and she had a spirited glow about her. When he first met Akane,
he had been unsure about whether he could like such a macho girl. She
broke bricks with her fists, yelled, fought, and was overall only
identifiable as a girl by her looks. But he had come to realize that
he didn't really like it when a girl was too girly, either. Akane was
a nice balance. Most of the time, anyway.

They went through the usual steps of studying; picking a class,
reading over the notes, making sure to do the questions that had been
given in class. There were always questions. For the most part, Ranma
wasn't even sure they helped. But questions they answered, and notes
they studied, while more and more his mind drifted back to fighting,
and Kuno, and finally ridding himself of an annoying pest after over
two years of...

"Ranma? Are you daydreaming?" asked Akane. Ranma noticed that he was
twirling his pencil in his right hand. Putting it down, he gave Akane
an innocent look. It wouldn't be the first time she caught him
daydreaming rather then studying.

"Me? Never," he said. Not convincingly enough, but after quirking an
eyebrow, she didn't continue on with any sort of lecture. Instead, she
put down her notes, then turned around to face him.

"You're not...worried, are you? Because if you're worried..."

"Worried? Course not. Uhh...are we talking about school, or the Kunos
here?" This time he was sure he saw Akane smile before rolling her
eyes.

"I meant the Kunos. Anyone who gets bored enough to twirl his pencil
while studying isn't worried about school. Unless you've given up on
school and just don't care anymore," she said, sitting up straighter
as though that thought had just occurred to her.

"I'm doing fine, Akane. You've been saying so yourself. And I wasn't
worryin' about the Kunos...just thinkin'. It'll be nice, to finally
not have them following us around. And you only have to worry about
one side of each of them. I've got Kodachi trying to seduce me as a
boy, and kill me as a girl because she thinks the girl is keeping her
from the boy. And Kuno...ugh," he said, sticking out his tongue and
making a face as though he were going to be sick. He was rewarded with
a giggle from Akane.

"Oh, but I've been dealing with Kuno for much longer then you have.
Him and Nabiki have been in the same class since I was nine or ten. In
fact, there was only a year when we were in different schools, when he
went on to be a freshman in high school and I was a senior in junior
high. He still came by personally at lunch times to humiliate me,
though," said Akane, looking at the ceiling as though she were viewing
old memories. Ranma leaned his elbow on the desk, his face in his
hand, watching her as she talked about it. He could just see it in his
mind, too. A mini Akane, still the same tomboy as ever, running from a
mini Kuno with a toy sword and a rose for his 'love'. He found himself
chuckling at the thought, then Akane's face reddened.

"Well if you're just going to laugh at me..."

"I wasn't laughing at ya. Just the image...Kuno, mostly. So he's
always been a loverboy?" he asked. Akane nodded more solemnly this
time, crossing her arms.

"He started liking girls before the girls even started liking boys. I
think there was a whole two years before the other boys realized why
he was going after girls with cooties."

Ranma tried to think back to his times at school. There weren't very
many memories, at least not the sort Akane was talking about. So many
different places, and no time to get used to one. He had never thought
of it as a bad thing, though. He wasn't sure what it was. It was just
how he had grown up; on the road, training with his Pop.

"I've only been to all boys schools, before Furinkan. That is, when I
went to schools. Pop homeschooled me for a few years...as well as he
could, anyway. I was in a lotta different schools, when we got the
chance," he said, trying to remember how many different schools he had
been to. Most people, who had attended the normal amount of time,
seemed to have two or three different ones. Ranma, however, couldn't
even remember the names of all them.

"Oh? But I thought you and Ryoga had been in one for a while at the
same time."

"That was later on. When I was a kid, we were back and forth between
Japan and China. I lived in the same town as Ukyo, in Japan, for a
little while. But I don't think it lasted more then three years. I
think I was...ten, when we moved on. Pop homeschooled me for a few
years, then when I was...fourteen? Around there anyway. We lived near
Ryoga, he was practically my neighbour. I didn't actually get to know
the guy until the last month of school there...then when I was 15, we
were off to China again. Jusenkyo happened when I was 16...and you
know the rest," he said, seeing that Akane was attentive throughout.
The conversation felt different to him. They didn't talk about their
childhoods often; just vague descriptions, or small detailed events
taken out of context if there was a need for it, then nothing more. In
fact, only Ukyo and Ryoga knew anything about his childhood in any
sort of detail, and that was just the parts that involved them.

"That's only three schools though, Ranma," she said, and he noticed
that she had been counting on her fingers. Ranma grinned, shaking his
head.

"No, that's three districts. You probably won't find this too hard to
believe, but...I got in fights a lot. Not starting them, just
finishing them. Too well. I got moved around a bit. S'why Pop gave up
on public schools for me for a long while. He always said that a true
martial artist can't learn well strapped to a chair in a building,"
said Ranma, leaning back in his chair. It always made him restless,
being inside. Having to sit down, and behave, and raise his hand when
he wanted something. It was so much easier to run around outside, or
maybe he was just too used to it, now.

When he looked back at Akane, she was smiling at him with a look of
envy on her face.

"It must have been nice. No siblings to worry about, no dojo to uphold
the honour of, no legions of boys - or girls, in your case, pre-curse
- to fight off. Though it does explain how you turned out; brash, and
uncontrollable. Like a...like a hurricane almost," she said. Ranma was
unsure if that worked out to a compliment or an insult, and decided to
take it as something in between.

"I dunno if it was nice...I guess I just never thought of it. It was
life. Like how I never thought about Mom, until I realized I had one.
I knew other people had mothers, and that I probably should, but Pop
never mentioned her. So, I didn't ask," he said. Akane's eyes saddened
slightly.

"I can't imagine that. My mother was so important to me...then when
she died, I...well, all of us, really...adopted Kasumi as a mom. I've
always had a mother figure. But you....you just had your father," said
Akane. Seeing a bad mood coming on, Ranma straightened, and tried to
put a confident look on his face.

"But I still turned out okay, didn't I? Maybe brash and
uncontrollable, but...that's not really so bad, is it?" he challenged.
Akane considered this for longer then needed, which took his
confidence down by a notch.

"It's not bad at all. In fact...aside from a few occasions...I like
that about you. You can't be controlled, and you won't be controlled.
You're your own man, and you don't conform. That can be a very good
quality," she said. A very good...did she just... Ranma looked at her
silently, then nodded, feeling suddenly shy. Yup, that was a
compliment alright. But how can I answer that? She just insulted me
and complimented me in a way that still made it alright...if I try
that, I'll just get her mad.

"Don't give me that look. I said it was good," she defended, taking
his silence the wrong way.

"I know. I'm not...damn," he said, aiming his gaze at the desk as he
fished for words. Where were the words? He wasn't a sentimental idiot,
but he also wasn't cold as ice. It was a good chance, now, to
reciprocate how he felt. He could do it without looking like an idiot,
if he could find the right way to say it. But as usual, his vocabulary
failed, and he became frustrated.

"Ranma? What is it?" she said, leaning towards the desk to try to meet
his eyes.

"Nothin'." The look had done it. Something about how she had tried to
look right at him, to probe, to see what he was thinking always made
him push his feelings down further.

"It doesn't look like nothing," she countered, and Ranma frowned. Nah,
I can't do it now. I'll just look like an idiot...

"I just lost my train of thought, is all," he finished, and noticed as
an oddly dissapointed look came over her face.

"I see. Well if you find it again, let me know, okay?" she asked.
Ranma sighed, but nodded.

"Yeah. I, uh, I will." 

But they didn't discuss it again, that night. Ranma couldn't decide if
that was a smart move on his part, or a true sign that Akane was right
about him being a wishy-washy idiot.


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