- Prologue

"Rain! Why does it always have to rain like that around here? One minute clear sky, the next thunder storm." After a few more minutes of complaining about the weather Ranma went back to his practicing. Although he was actually quite dry and was already inside the dojo when the rain started, it was the principle that bothered him.

"Why can't my life ever be simple? I got curses, and fiances and someone's always looking for an excuse to fight me!" He turned and looked out toward the rain, and pictured his girl half. "This is all your fault! My life was never like this till we took that stupid trip to Jusenkyo! I mean the problems started from the very beginning! First was Ryouga, then came that stupid dragon's whisker, and then of course came Shampoo and her stupid grandmother! All of this was your fault. If it wasn't for you, none of this would have ever happened. And if all of that wasn't enough it's your fault me and Akane are the way we are!"

Scene upon scene of him and Akane flashed before his eyes. Happy scenes, depressing scenes, angry scenes, funny scenes, irritating scenes, scenes that reminded him why he liked her so much, scenes that made him think she did to, and finally scenes in which he felt betrayed and hurt. "This is your fault too! Me getting all emotional over some stupid girl!"

"What should I care how she feels about me! She's just a dumb tomboy anyway! I mean who cares if she does look cute when she smiles, and maybe just MAYBE when she doesn't too? She's still a tomboy! Why does she always have to go and hit me for? I mean she never believes me, always thinking I'm some kinda pervert or something. It's not my fault I got this stupid curse! I'm always trying to avoid getting splashed and she knows that! But she always goes and calls me a pervert anyway."

"And why is she always thinking I'm trying to do stuff with Shampoo and Ucchan? If I wanted one of them id pick one. Why is she always getting jealous over nothing? I'm always doing stuff to make her see how I fell about her! Who else would eat her toxic cooking, or what about all those times I try to stick up for her, or even all those times that I pretty much said I like her?" "Why can't she see how I feel about it? I mean I try to make it obvious to her. But what if she does? What if she hates me because of my stupid curse? I mean she sure was nice before she knew about it? Why else would she go out of her way to hurt me. If she isn't trying to hit me with those stupid mallets of hers she's always calling me a pervert or something stupid like that! She must know how much it hurt!"

He stop where he was seething "NO! Stop right now! Stop acting like a girl! I hate feeling so vulnerable and the worse part is that there is nothing I can do about. If it was something else, like martial arts then I could fix it. If I had a weak spot then I could practice that area and strengthen it. But how do you fix a stupid emotional weakness. I mean I can't even fight good if Akane's around I keep feeling scared that something will happen to her! And the worse part is that not only does it not go away, it gets worse! But what do I do?"

Ranma turned to look at the rain again "well what do you think? You're a girl you got know Something!" Just then a cool breeze wept into the dojo. He could feel the crisp night air and it seemed to penetrate him to his very depths. And then he laughed "that's your suggestion?" he asked incredulously "you can't be serious? You think I should tell her?! The only thing that's gonna accomplish is her calling me a pervert, hit by a mallet and a nonstop trip directly the pond. But what if your right... What if she didn't try to hit me or call me a pervert? What if she told me she felt the same way too? Come on lets get serious here this is Akane we're talking about! She couldn't! She wouldn't! It would be nice if she did. I mean it wouldn't solve all our problems but at least either way it would remove the doubts one way or another. She probably won't take me seriously and hit me like normal... but what if..."

"What if what Ranma?"

Ranma turned around shocked. His face went pale when he saw who was at the door. He nervously asked "Nabiki? How long have you been there?"

"I just got here. Why what were you talking to yourself about?"

"N-Nothing alright. Nothing at all"

Nabiki shrugged "Whatever! Anyway Kasumi asked me to tell you that the bath is ready now so you can take your bath. It's a shame though I was hoping that with all this rain, you might have gotten wet and I could've got a few pictures of you working out. Oh well!"

Ranma quickly walked past her and out the door. with that Ranma quickly got his stuff went to the bathroom to wash up.

He finished washing and went to the tub to soak for a bit "hmm what should I do? Should I? What if she doesn't take me seriously or what if she doesn't feel the same way?" Ranma shook his head vigorously. "Stop acting like a girl Saotome! Your acting all scared again! That it I'm gonna do it... next week. NO! Stop chickening out. I am Ranma Saotome heir of the anything goes school of martial arts. I'm ain't scared of nothing! And I definitely ain't scared of no girl! I'm gonna do it tonight!" he then went on to dry up and get changed.

He walked resolutely to Akane's door and lifted his hand to knock on the door when the door opened up to reveal Nabiki and Akane laughing. Nabiki smiled at Ranma "hello Ranma. Anyway Akane I'm off to bed" she turned and walked past him and into her room.

Akane still giggling somewhat looked at Ranma and asked "yes Ranma what do you want?"

"Huh?"

"I said what do you want Ranma? Do you have something to tell me?"

Ranma suddenly backed up He looked at Akane and noticed that she was starting to look impatient. <"It's just your imagination stupid! Of course she thinks you want to tell her something your standing at her door. But if Nabiki did hear something she's probably in her room with a tape recorded or something trying to hear what I'm gonna say. Well I better wait till everyone else asleep"> "oh sorry Akane I uhh... thought this was Kasumi's room. Ya that's it I wanted to ask her something!"

Akane looked at him for a second. He was seemed like he wanted to tell her something. But she just shook her head. Akane pointed down the hall "well if you want to talk with Kasumi her room is over there! This is my room." When he didn't leave right away, she asked "well? Are you gonna talk to Kasumi or did you have something else to tell me?"

Ranma just shook his head and headed for Kasumi's room. He knocked on the door. She smiled at him when she opened the door and he went in. Akane who had been looking at him the whole time sighed, went to her bed and sighed again. "How stupid could I have been I actually thought he was gonna tell me this time. But honestly this is Ranma we're talking about. Maybe it was just my... *yawn* imagination. He couldn't *yawn* possibly... "and she fell asleep.

Once he was sure that everyone was asleep, Ranma snuck outside and onto the roof. He then headed to the position above Akane's window. "Ok I'm here, but what do say? I just can't knock on her windows and tell her I love you'. She'd think I was up to something perverted and hit me!" Ranma sat there for a few minutes thinking. After a while had passed, he shot up and exclaimed "I got it! I'll just knock on her window and say Akane we've gotta talk!' yup that'll work then I can tell her how I feel!"

A gentle wind blew past Ranma as if to remind him something. Ranma looked down and saw the pond. Ranma made a face "it won't work! She'll be like why do we have to talk now? Why didn't you talk to me earlier when you had the chance?' great what do I say to that?"

Again Ranma sat thinking. Once again he sat for several minutes. But when he rose this time he had a slight blush on his cheeks "oh man she's gonna kill me! Only reason I can think of to tell her is so no one will be able to hear us. Man she could take that at least five different ways, all bad! Oh man what should I say? Maybe I should think about it a little longer?"

He looked at the place where he sat and then back to the pond "aw skip it! If she hits me oh well! Who cares about her anyway?" Ranma then preceded to secure his footing and dropped down in front of her window.

Akane awoke to the sound of someone knocking on her window. she looked sleepily at her alarm clock. Her eyes went wide in shock <"ITS 3 O CLOCK IN THE MORNING! WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES HE WANT!"> Akane walked over to her window and flung the curtain aside. She quickly opened the window and said "what do you want? Do you realize what time it is?" Ranma gulped "um Akane it's not what your thinking. Really! I just thought that we need to talk. Akane this is important. Please don't hit me."

Akane moved away from the window and allowed Ranma to enter. "Okay Ranma lets talk but I warn you. If you do even the slightest perverted thing I'll knock you so hard into the pond you'll think you're a girl again"

Ranma gulped again "um Akane... uh well you see... that is... what I'm trying to say is . . . well ok look at it this way, we've known each other for a long time now. About a(two) years in fact. And well that's the longest I've ever known anyone except for pops that is." Akane nodded her head. <"I don't believe it! He's actually going to do it! He does like me! Finally we can stop pretending and admit our true feeling for each other!">

Ranma continued "and well ever since we got here lots of stuff has happened, some good some bad. You know what I mean? Like meeting and becoming friend with your family especially you and Kasumi, and finally settling down, and being able to make friends without fear that we may leave tomorrow and never see them again. Not to mention how much I've improved in the art while I was here. But there have been lots of bad stuff too like all those people who are always trying to get me or all of the stupid things pop got me into Ukyou and our stupid forced engagement. I mean why should we be forced to get married? I mean who are they to say who we should marry? Don't you think so?"

Akane couldn't answer, she felt as if her heart had stopped. She was breathing laboriously and a thin layer of sweat covered her entire body.

"I say we should choose who we want to marry otherwise, we'll never truly be happy. We should marry the person who we really love not just do what our pops want us to do." Ranma hesitated a moment feeling slightly scared.

Just as Ranma was about to tell Akane he loved her something smashed through Akane's window sends shards of glass everywhere. In an instant Ranma jumped on top of Akane to cover her so that none of the glass would cut her. He quickly realized that he was laying on top of her on her bed and quickly jumped off. He looked up and saw six people enter Akane's room. "Who are you what do you want?"

Five of them turned to the one in the center as if they didn't understand and needed it to be translated. The one in the center stepped forward. Her voice was alarmingly gentle, so much so one might have thought it was Kasumi attacking them. "Please forgive me for the intrusion, it was not my intension to disturb you. I had originally hoped to do this secretly and take the girl without anyone's knowledge. Sadly it seems a fight is inevitable."

Akane was furious! First Ranma woke her up in the middle of the night, then he was playing mind games with her making her think he was going to break up with her so he could get her into bed easily. After all she'd seen it done in soap opera's all the time by other perverted jerks. And finally some girl and five of her friends broke into her room, with the intent of kidnaping her. She knew it was Ranma's fault somehow but now was not the time to give Ranma what he deserved, but she could get warmed up by beating up the idiots other idiots in her room. And before Ranma could say anything she charged the nearest kidnapper.

The girl quickly learned why the mission would be harder if the girl's protector was present. So far Ranma had dodged her every move, but had yet to attack himself. She realized that he must not have been taking her seriously and was only toying with her. He was trying to make her angry so she would get sloppy. She moved back a few steps and threw what looked like three throwing stars. He quickly dodged them. Ranma stepped back. He realized that she never made a reach for them, she simply threw them.