Ranma 1/2: The Insanity Continues

Volume 1 - Trapped.

Written by Lord Archive.

---------------------------
Author's pre-story notes:
This chapter has been MAJORLY been revised since it last appeared on the
FFML. 

This is the start of a series that begins one month after Manga Volume
number 38. I have assumed that the manga series takes place over the
period of about a year and a half. (The manga does not advance the
characters age or class level.) Ranma and Akane are seventeen and are
juniors in High School (or in their 2nd year of the 3-year Japanese High
School system.)

The series may be considered lemon scented as it will have some
references to certain characters having sex 'off screen' and fair amount
of sexual innuendoes. Actual descriptions of sexual acts will be kept in
side stories, and will not be necessary to read. (A message will appear
where the scene(s) take place.)

C&C is most appreciated. MSTing is beg for.

Characters are copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, and a bunch of
other companies and are being used without permission. I am only
borrowing them. I will return them. (Well, maybe not Ukyou ;)

------------------------------
Akane's Diary Entry for:
Thursday, January 7th.

Dear Diary,
	That baka still won't say it. It's been a month since the bombed
wedding, and he still hasn't told me that he loves me. I know he does,
diary, but why he can't admit it? I'm not going to tell him how I feel
until he does. 
	The jerk still protects me like I'm some porcelain doll, and it
annoys me to no end! So what if I nearly died twice in China, he thinks I
can't protect myself. I can take care of myself. He didn't have to stop
Kuno for me this morning, I can do that all by my self. But it does say
one thing about him though... he cares about me.
	I just wish I could get some time alone with Ranma and be able to
talk about our relationship. I doubt it will happen, though, as someone
always interrupts us.

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

Chapter 1 - The Gem.

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

It was a Friday morning in January at the Tendo Dojo. The weather was
unseasonably warm, with highs in 60 to 70 degrees forecasted for the next
couple days.

Ranma and Genma were going into overtime, trying to get the other wet.
This prevented Ranma from his usual 'open mouth, inserting foot' routine
when talking with Akane. The morning workout ended with the sweet call
from Kasumi of, "Breakfast." 

Ranma did a twist in air and landed to the side of the pond. Genma,
distracted by scent of food, belly flopped into the pond. The splash
barely missed Ranma as he dashed to the house, toward the awaiting
breakfast and Tendo clan.

"Nice dive, Pop," called Ranma smugly as he walked to his seat next to
Akane.

"When are you going to learn to watch your mouth, Ranma?" asked Akane.

"When you learn to cook," Ranma joked.

"**THUD**" resounded Akane's ever present hammer in response to Ranma's
joke. Akane muttered under her breath, "Jerk."

As a soaked panda goes to his seat, Kasumi entered with breakfast,
asking, "Does anyone know where Happosai is? I haven't seen him in days."

"Maybe he finally decide to leave us," replied a hopeful Soun.

"Naa, the old freak tried to grope me yesterday morning. So I tossed him
into a bag, attached some rocks, and chucked him into the river," offered
a somewhat smug and yet sore Ranma.

[You do your father proud, Son,]  read the sign held by Genma.

"Can this be the last we see of our dreaded master?" questioned Soun with
greater hope.

"Not likely, but at least he'll be out my hair for a coup..." answered
Ranma before he was interrupted by a shout. 

"RRRRAAANNNMMMAAA!!!!!!!"

"Back already?" questioned Ranma as he took his first quick bites of
breakfast.

"YOU SHALL PAY FOR TRAPPING ME IN THE RIVER!" shouted Happosai.

"Add it to my bill," Ranma acted disinterestedly.

Happosai responded by grabbing what looked to be a black marble and threw
it at Ranma. Ranma instinctively caught it. The marble immediately
expanded into a sphere and surrounded not only Ranma, but Akane as well.

"Wh..wh..what have you done?" stammered a shocked Soun.

"Oh my!" added Kasumi, shocked, as the sphere shrank back to it original
size. For a moment, the black marble and Ranma's and Akane's clothes
stayed in the air before falling down. Ranma and Akane were nowhere in
sight.

[Where are my son and Akane?] questioned Genma.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" screamed the demonic head of Soun.

"They are banished into the black gem," Happosai replied as he dodged
several of the Soun's demon head tongue strikes.

"BRING THEM BACK!" demanded Soun.

Soun's screaming was giving Happosai a headache, and he really didn't
want to fight the enraged father, and decide to relent, "Fine, I only
wanted to banish Ranma. It doesn't do any good to lose two beauties." The
diminutive martial arts master as he goes over picks up the gem and
starts examining it.

A few moments later Nabiki quipped, "Forgot how to get them out?"

"I just realized: I only know how to get myself out from the inside, and
not how to get someone out."

"Are they safe in there?" asked Kasumi.

"Perfectly. They need neither food nor air."

"So that's how you survived all those years in that cave," commented
Nabiki with a thought of just how valuable this gem could be.

"Oh, my baby daughter is forever lost to us!" cried Soun.

"Have any ideas on how to get them out?" asked Nabiki.

"I don't know. We could ask Cologne. It was an Amazon treasure that a
young maiden gave to me."

"In other words, you stole it from her," accused Nabiki. She realized her
chance of getting the gem later on is slim to none with the Amazons
involved.

[You forgot how to get them out!?] read a sign held by the large,
growling panda. He then used the sign to bat Happosai over Japan.

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

In a flash of light, Ranma and Akane found themselves in an impossibly
big spherical room.

"What did the old freak do to me this time?" Ranma asked himself aloud.

It wasn't until he felt a fist impact the side of his head that he
realized someone else was with him.  As he went on his short flight
around the sphere, he heard "You Jerk!  Because you just HAD to piss off
Happosai, we're both stuck here in the middle of... kami only know where
we are."

Ranma turned around to see his fiancée "A..A..Ak..Akane, wh..what
happened to your clothes?" Ranma asked and quickly began examining the
floor to avoid looking at her.

"IIIIIIIEEEEE!" screamed a very embarrassed Akane.  She noticed that
Ranma was naked as well... though, unlike her, he was doing his best not
to peep.  <At least the pervert has the decency to look away!> she
thought. "I guess whatever Happosai used to send us here doesn't
transport clothes..."

Ranma was still looking away. "I guess so... um, do you have any idea of
how to get out of here?" He closed his eyes. <I don't need this... I'm
trapped, with no clue how to escape from here. I hope Akane doesn't
think I'm some pervert that wants to take advantage of this situation.> 


Akane took a moment to contemplate the situation and looked around. "Not
a clue," she shrugged.

"Well, I'm not going to sit around waiting for someone to free us. I'll
try to break a way out," offered Ranma with a slight edge to his voice as
he began his attack on the floor.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" 

"Do you have any better ideas?" Ranma retorted as his fist started moving
faster and harder into the ground.

Ranma spent close to an hour attacking all out using all the various
attacks he knew and even some attacks he didn't know like bakusai
tenketsu. Not a scratch was made. 

Akane searched around, trying to find an exit. She walked away from Ranma
as her frustration at being trapped grew. <That jerk! Why does he insist
on pissing off Happosai? Now he's got me trapped here, alone, with him,>
she blinked, thinking, <Alone with him? Didn't I wish to be alone with
him last night? So we could talk?... It looks like my wish has come true.
Not exactly the way I wanted, but I might as well make the best of it.>
She looked up from the floor and saw an exhausted Ranma in front of her. 
Her mind reeled, <Huh? How did... I walked away from Ranma, and yet he's
in front of me.> She shrugged, thinking, <Oh, never mind. It doesn't
mater. We need to talk.>

She moved toward him. "Ranma?" she began.

"What?"

"I don't think your fists are enough to get us out of here. I guess we
are just going to have to be patient, and wait for them to get us out of
here."

Ranma's voice filled with frustration, "I can't just sit here and wait." 

"We don't have a choice. If you can't break this out of here, no one
can."

"I hate being trapped."

"I don't like it either, but it is only temporary. We can take this time
and talk alone, without fear of someone barging in or trying to listen
in. And if you don't resort to name calling, I won't hit you."

"Err.."

"It's better than beating your head against the floor." 

He smiled weakly at her joke and quipped, "Well, I haven't tried that
yet."

They started to laugh, releasing some of their frustration.

<It wouldn't hurt to try to talk to her. If I can keep from insulting
her, I might get out this unhurt,> Ranma thought, finally answered, "I
guess we could talk. Uh, what do we talk about?"

"Do you like your life?" Akane asked.

Ranma face faulted. He wasn't expecting that kind of question. "What?"

"Do you like how your life as it is now?"

"Not really?" he replied meekly.

"So why don't you do something about it?"

Ranma snorted bitterly.  "If I know how to, I would- trust me. But... I
haven't been able to make any real decisions for myself... everything
just happens around me... or to me... or because of me... but I have no
control over any of it. All I can do is try and cope."

"What do you mean, you haven't made any decisions?"

"Like it was my idea to have three fiancées, OR to go through that stupid
Nekoken training, OR to visit Jusenkyo,  OR to... to... well I just can't
make any decisions. When I get close making one, something happens that
takes it away." He punched the floor each time he said, 'OR.'

"Why don't you make some decisions now?"

Ranma cocked his head, though he still kept his eyes off of Akane's
nudity. "What kind of decisions?"

"Decisions that will make your life better."

"Like what?"

"Why... Why not decide how to handle your fiancée problem? After all,
that causes most of your problems," she asked meekly.

Ranma shook his head, "I don't have a clue as to how."

Akane scowled, "You must have some ideas."

"I could break off all the engagements," he joked.

"I wouldn't go that far!" she screamed.

He blinked, thinking, <She just wants me to get rid of the other
fiancees.> He blinked again, <Does this mean...> He paused for a moment,
"You asked me if I had any ideas. Do you have any?"

"Let see, for Shampoo we could get Mousse to help find some legal
loophole to make sure Cologne is also not a threat, or have Nabiki get
them deported. And we can try to get Kodachi committed," Akane replied
nervously.

Ranma considered this for a second.  "That cuts out the two I like the
least, but... that still leaves two of you to choose between."

Akane sighed, disappointed, "Yes, that is still a problem." 

They sat quietly for some time, waiting for the other to suggest how to
proceed.

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

At the Neko-hanten, Cologne held the gem that Happosai used on Ranma and
Akane. She examined it closely with Genma, Soun, and Shampoo present.

"Husband trapped in gem with violent tomboy. Shampoo hope he okay," said
a concerned Shampoo.

"We must get son-in-law out soon, but I must confess, I do not know how
to release them. I will check the ancient Amazon scrolls and tomes to
find a means to release them. But in the mean time, guard this gem well.
It could be very bad if it breaks or gets lost," Cologne said.

Cologne handed the gem back to Genma. 

"Shampoo, get Mousse out of his cage and have him help you run the
restaurant while I search for the solution," ordered Cologne.

"Yes, great-grandmother."

Genma and Soun left with the gem. Genma held it very carefully.
Surprisingly, they actually made it safely home with the gem.

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

Hours passed and neither Ranma nor Akane said anything.

Ranma thought, <She hasn't asked me to choose between her and Ukyou. I
don't know how to choose between them. Ukyou is a good friend and I like
her a lot... I'd rather be with Akane, though. But is Akane better off
with me? I seem to make her angry all the time, and all I want to do is
make her happy. Why does she have to take my jokes so seriously? Maybe
if...>

Ranma spoke tentatively, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why are you angry so often?"

"I'm not angry all the time... only when you do something stupid.  And
you're ALWAYS doing something stupid."

"Not always!" Ranma protested, "You just seem to find me in bad
situations I have no control over.  I can explain what happened, but you
never give me a chance.  You tend to jump to conclusion."

"Oh, really?" Akane said sarcastically.

Ranma sighed. "I wish... I would like you to give me a chance to
explain. I wish you would trust me..."

"It's hard to trust you completely. I can't believe in all the times I
caught you doing something stupid, you're completely innocent."

"Well maybe not all those times, but most of the time. Can you try to
hear me out first next time... in the future?"

"Sure," Akane replied. After a moment, she asked, "Ranma, why do you
insult me all the time?"

"Um, A couple different reasons. I only started insulting you after you
insulted me. You called me a freak and a pervert just because of a curse
I have no control over, and you never stopped insulting me.  Secondly I
use insults to encourage people. I insult Ryoga to make him fight harder,
and your fighting skills to make you want to improve."

"And my cooking."

"Especially your cooking. Now why do you insult me?"

"Well, you make me angry a lot, and... I can't think of any other way to
get you back than to insult you... I don't really mean what I say."  She
looked down meekly.  "How come you let those other girls glomp you so
much?"

"I can't stop them from doing that," he retorted defensively.

"Can't you? You can push them away."

"You think I haven't tried? How did you fare in preventing me from
hugging you when Shampoo used those mushrooms on me?"

She looked at the floor, answering meekly, "Not very well... I sort of
see your point, but can't you tell them that... you don't love them... or
at least to stop."

"I've asked them to stop, but do they listen? Nope."

"Why haven't you told any of them you don't love them?"

He remained silent, twiddling his fingers.

"Well?"

Ranma hesitated, "Because... because I don't really know what love is. I
don't feel right telling someone that I don't feel love for them if I
don't know how it's supposed to feel, do you understand?"

Akane smiled, "Well, I suppose I can understand that.  Maybe... maybe I
can help explain.  Love is... love is... well, love is when you can't
imagine what life is like without him or her. If you can imagine it, you
feel an extreme pain in your soul. When you think of the future, you
think of being with the person you love. Um... otherwise, it's a hard to
describe. It's sort of an odd feeling. You feel you need to be with the
person, to help them, to support them, make them happy when they're sad.
Um... does anything I say make sense?"

Ranma looked at the floor, saying meekly, "In a way it does. I guess
Ucchan really is in love with me." 

Akane frowned, "Do you love her?" 

"If she were to leave, I would miss her terribly, but it is not to hard
to imagine not having her around. I might be, I don't know."

"What about Shampoo?"

"Part of me would be glad to see her go, but I would miss her also. But,
I guess I don't."

"Kodachi?"

"Hell no! I even told her that I not only didn't love but I didn't even
like her."

"What about m-me?" Akane asked nervously.

"Um..."

<Maybe... maybe if I give him a hint at how I feel... he'll finally tell
me,> she thought. "Well," Akane hesitated, "I'll... tell you something.
I... I... I have trouble thinking of life without you.  Can... can...
well, can you imaging life without me?"


"Yeah...a dull, boring and lonely one," Ranma said carelessly.

A big grin formed on Akane's face.  "So... is that a yes?"

Ranma's 'open mouth, insert foot' mode kicked in, "Me?  Love a tomboy
like you?"

Akane was getting upset, but for once was giving Ranma a chance to save
himself.  "Yes, a 'tomboy' like me."

Ranma remained silent.

"WELL!?" Akane fumed.

"Um, I...  I... I..."  Ranma took a deep breath, and braced himself for
whatever Akane might do to him.  "I... guess... in a way... well...
maybe... I do."

Ranma felt a crushing force grasp him from behind.  "What the?!" he
thought.  After a moment, Akane let him free of her hug and stood up.

"Ranma, can you please tell me you love me, while looking at me."
requested Akane.

Akane helped Ranma up to his feet. They looked into each other's eyes.
<Man she sure is cute, in her own way. Just tell her. You've known you
loved her for a while. Just say it,> he thought. 

He stuttered nervously, "I.. I.. l.. l..love you." 

"I... I love you too, Ranma," She smiled.  "You have no idea how long
I've waited for you to say that!"

"Actually, I've been wanting to say it for a while," he sighed, "I was
afraid you would have rejected me."

"What makes you think I would've rejected you?"

"It just seems you're always angry at me." 

"Oh," she replied meekly. After a moment of silence Akane said, "You know,
in the entire time we've known each other. We never actually had a real
kiss nor been on a date."

"Well, um, why don't we, um,  go on a d-date S-Saturday," Ranma stammered
nervously.

"I'd like that."  A mischievous twinkle glimmered in her eyes as an...
interesting notion struck her.  "But... what about the kiss?"

"A k-kiss? If you want... I guess... we could... well... kiss now."

She nodded her head. Ever so slowly, they leaned toward each other and 
started to kiss. If they weren't already in their own world, the rest of
the world would have faded to just them. Ranma's arms wrapped around
Akane, bringing her closer. They stopped kissing as they realize
something of Ranma's anatomy pushes against Akane's waist. Ranma turned
away embarrassed.

"I thought you said I wasn't sexy?" Akane giggled.

"I guess, I was lying."

"So what happens now?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" Ranma stammered his face turning a deeper shade of
red.

"Well what are we going to do about Ukyou?" asked Akane.

Ranma relaxed at the apparent change of subject. "I'm not sure. She is a
good friend, and I don't want to hurt her."

"But it will hurt her more if you keep stringing her along."

"We'll have to break it to her carefully. I wish she had other friends
than just Konatsu and us. She'll need someone to talk to that doesn't
remind her about us. Konatsu will help, but his feelings for her might
cause a problem. It's caused me trouble in the past."

"It has?"

Ranma nodded, "How am I supposed to talk to Ukyou about certain problems
concerning you, when she wants me to dump you and marry her?"

"That can be a problem."

Time passed as Ranma and Akane were lost in thought about the turn their
relationship has taken. 

"You know something, Akane?" Ranma asked.

"What?"

"Since I met you, I've been surround by friends and enemies. Yet there
are many times I felt as lonely as Ryoga. I couldn't just go out and talk
to some one about my problems because either they had a biased answer,
didn't understand the problem, or were just to damn expensive. Despite
being here with only you to talk to, I don't feel lonely."

Akane nodded her head, smiling, "I wished we could talk like this more
often."

"Yeah, but of course someone would have made their presence known to us
before we got around to talking about love."

Akane jokingly added, "Our dads falling through the door..."

Ranma continued, laughing, "Or Nabiki's microphone short circuiting,.." 

Akane laughed, "Or Kuno challenging you or begging us for dates..."

"Ryoga screaming, DIE Ranma..."

Akane stopped laughing and asked, "Um, Ranma, why does Ryoga attack you?"

Ranma was struck cold, answering, "I can't say."

"Why not?"

"I made a promise to him not to say 'cause I have a large part of the
blame for his problem."

Akane pressed her questioning anyway, "His direction sense?"

"No, that's a family curse."

"Then what's his problem?"

"I promised him that I wouldn't tell, okay."

"If I find out he's P-Chan, you're a dead man." Her face showed it as a
joke, but her voice came out serious.

When Ranma heard this, his posture stiffened and he nervously spoke,
"Wh..Why would you say th..that?" 

"Why did you just become nervous?"

"I... I'm not nervous," he said, thinking, <Get a grip, if she finds out
now... I'm dead!>

She grabbed Ranma and turned him around. What she saw in his face shocked
her. "You're scared. Why would my joke about Ryoga being P-Chan scare
you?" she asked, shaking him violently.

"I... I... I..." Ranma lost all capacity to speak as he didn't want to
reveal Ryoga's curse nor lie to Akane about this anymore.

Akane demanded, "Tell me Ryoga is not P-Chan!" Ranma was now looking at
Akane like a deer caught in headlights. She once again shook him
violently, this time she yelled, "TELL ME HE ISN'T P-CHAN!" 

But Ranma still could only stutter, "He... He... He..." She proceeded to
throw him several feet away.

"He can't be P-Chan... I was joking, but... but..." she said as the idea
of one of her friends and her pet being one and the same started to form
into her head. When the connections were made, she screams, "MY GOD! Why
didn't I notice it before! The bandanna! That stupid bandanna. All the
times he transformed near me and I didn't notice... wouldn't let myself
notice."  She proceeded to stare at the floor for the next several
minutes. Ranma looked at her with a lot of  concern and was more than a
little afraid she might carry out her threat.

<You promised to her him out the next time. Give him a chance,> she
thought, shaking in anger,  <He better have a good excuse.> "Ranma,
how... how did it happen?" she asked in a voice filled with shock and
anger.

"Umm...Its.. kinda....like this... While I was chasing after Pop, trying
to kill him for turn me into a girl, I didn't notice that Ryoga was
standing on the cliff and I.... sorta ... knocked him off the cliff and
into the pool of drowned pig."

"It was your fault?"

Ranma nodded, his voice barely audible, "yes."

Several minutes pass before she spoke, her voice still filled with anger,
"Now I know why he wants revenge. But why couldn't you have told me?"

"I told you, it was my fault this happened. So, I promised him I wouldn't
tell. I made the damned promise before he became your pet. More than once
I came close to telling you his secret just to keep him from your bed.
But... but that would have caused damage to my honor and made me no
better than my Pop. I didn't want to find out what you would've done to
us when you found out. As it was, I still dropped more than a couple
hints."

"Why did he become my pet?"

"Um... because he loved you."

"You can't be serious!"

"It's the truth."

"Oh... What am I suppose to do about him now."

"Nothing really. Thanks to Akari, he's much more willing see us happily
married. That's what prompted the last fight. He blamed me for the whole
wedding fiasco. Not to mention the loss of the Nannichuan."

Ranma watched her, hoping he wouldn't end up dead, while Akane stared at
the floor, thinking, <What am I going to do? He asked me to trust him, but
he kept an important secret like that from me. What other secrets hasn't
he told me? Why didn't he tell me?... Because he promised Ryoga he
wouldn't tell anyone... I guess that means I can trust him with a
secret... But he should have told me! Secrets like that should not have
been kept. I should beat the crap out of him for this. He'll just recover
in a couple minutes as if nothing happened, though. I need a more
appropriate punishment...>

Hours passed as Akane, still shaking anger, stared at the floor. Ranma
watched over her. The long silence finally got to him. He had to break
the silence. Somewhat jokingly, yet also nervously asked, "Are you still
planning on killing me?"

"It depends. Think you can survive a full week of my cooking?" 

"Um, not really."

"Tough! That's your punishment." she replied, anger clearly present in
her voice.

Ranma rolls his eyes, thinking, <I'd rather she beat the crap out of me.>

Ranma sat down facing away from Akane. Their backs were a couple feet
apart. Many minutes passed, as they tried to figure out what to say next.

Ranma started talking again after a few moments, "After a full week of
cooking, you oughta be able make something edible."

"Gee, thanks!" she replied bitterly, shaking her fist. She thought, <One
more comment like that and I'll give you flying lessons.>

"Would you mind if helped? You know give some pointers."

"Can you try to keep your big mouth from saying stupid while trying to
help me cook?"

"I'll try."

"One insult and you're out of the kitchen, understand."

"Yeah."

Time lagged on before Ranma started laughing as a bit of irony registered
into his mind.

"What's so funny?" Akane asked with clinched fists.

"I just remembered what we said this morning, that I'll learn to keep my
mouth shout when you learn how to cook. And it looks like we're going to
attempt just that."

"I hope we succeed," agreed Akane, as she started to laugh.

"So do I, so do I," Ranma added before laughing again.

As they laughed, they turned to look at each other. Ranma stopped,
turning away as he remembered they still had no clothes. Akane stopped
laughing as he turned away and then giggled a little when she saw Ranma
wipe some blood from his nose.

<It's not really his fault he couldn't tell me about Ryoga. It was the
promise and his honor that kept him from saying anything,> Akane thought,
sighing, "Ranma, are there any other secrets I should know about?"

"Nope, Ryoga's curse and the way I feel about you were the only secrets I
had," replied Ranma.

"If I find out otherwise, Ranma, you may end up in a world of hurt," she
said with barely a trace of anger.

"I swear those are the only secrets I know of. But, I wouldn't discount
Pop having a few secrets about me."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," he mused, "Maybe more fiancées, he's pissed off some
demon that wants revenge, or some family curse. You know stuff that if I
found out about, I would pound him into the ground for."

"Oh. And you don't know anything like this and haven't told me."

"Nope," he answered, shaking his head.

There was a long pause of silence, before Ranma asked, "How long do ya
suppose we've been here?"

"Don't know. It's hard to keep track of time. It might have been several
hours."

"How long do you think we'll be here?"

"Maybe any time now."

"But we could be here for days."

Akane screeched, "Days! I hope not, what do we do about food."

Ranma calmly replied, "I doubt we have to worry about that."

"Why?"

"I'm not hungry. If we've been here hours, I should be hungry, but I'm
not."

"You think it's a property of this prison?"

"Yep, saves trying to feed the prisoner."

"If that's the case, do you think Happosai used this prison to stay alive
while trapped in that cave all those years?"

"Could be."

There was a very long pause before Akane said, "We're running out of
things to discuss."

"Yeah, um, well, let see..." Ranma said and then thought, <Might as well
get this part over with.> He let out a long sigh, asking, "Um, when do
you want to get... um... m.. m... married?"

"He brought it up?" Akane thought, shocked, as she face faulted. After a
long moment of yet more silence, she sat up, saying, "Not for a little
while, at least. Perhaps just after we graduate."

"That's sorta what I was thinking. But we'll still have to get our
parents to delay it that long."

"We may have to end up compromising," Akane mused, tapping her fingers on
the ground. She smacked it when she got an idea, "How this sound, if they
don't back down after a while, we'll go with mid-year break of senior
year."

"Nine to fourteen months? Sounds good to me."

She smiled, thinking, <I can't believe this is happening. He's told me
that he loves me. ME! We even set the wedding date." She pinched herself
and she continued her thoughts, "It is not a dream!" She looked down onto
herself and had another thought, "Hmm... We're alone, naked, and no where
to go... this sounds like a plot our fathers would come up with to
attempt to get me and Ranma to have sex... That doesn't sound like such a
bad idea. I've fantasized about doing this for some time now. Why
shouldn't we have sex? We love each other and we're engaged. I know he is
at least some what into the mood.> She glanced over at him with a devious
grin. A muted part of her mind wondered if Happosai's stay in this prison
had any part of her current line of thought.


Meanwhile, Ranma thought, <How did this happen? This morning it was keep
your mouth shut and the THUD of her hammer, and now we've said we love
each other and set a wedding date. While it hasn't been bad so far, I
really would like to get out of here. I'll go crazy if I'm here too long.>

Akane broke the silence when she stated, "We're alone, naked, and have no
where to go. This sounds like something our parents would set up."

"Yep. But if they did we would be out of here now."

"What makes you say that?"

"Once we said we loved each other they would have pulled us out."

"What if our means of escape is some sort trigger set off by something we
do?"

"Its possible but we've gone through the two main triggers they would
have set up."

"Yes, but not the third."

He blinked, "Third? What would be the third trigger?"

Akane shock her head, thinking, <Guess I have to be as subtle as an
Amazon.> She sighed, "Think Ranma. As I said before: we're alone, naked,
and have no where to go. The trigger might for us... to... um... have
s-sex."

"You can't be serious!?" Ranma screeched in shock.

She looked down and meekly said, "I-I am serious, besides we're
officially engaged now, our parents have absolutely no objections what so
ever to us doing it."

"This is not how I planned on this happening. I wanted it to be more...
special."

"Just doing it with you makes it special for me," she said with a grin as
she moved closer to Ranma.

-----------------------------------------------------------
********************************************
-----------------------------------------------------------

	Some time later Akane awakened and was not very comfortable. She
realized that the floor is very smooth and hard, while part of her is
draped over.... some guy. Her eyes flew open and took a quick survey. I'm
naked in a large sphere shaped room and Ranma is here also. "What did I
do?" asked aloud.

 "Hmm Akane can you keep in down. I'm trying to sleep." asked a still
asleep Ranma. His eyes flashed open and said in shock, "Akane!"

"Um.. How did you sleep?" said a rather red color Akane.

"D-Did we really do it?" Ranma stammered.

"Do what? Profess love to each other, set a wedding date, or have sex?"
she asked with a grin.

"Um, all of those," Ranma answered. He wasn't sure that this was some
dream.

She hugged him tightly and answered, "Yes, yes, and yes!" She said each
'yes,' with more enthusiasm, and hugged him even tighter.

A few moments pass before Ranma gained any of his senses. Once found, he
asked, "How long was I asleep?"

"Don't know, I feel asleep shortly after you did."

"Come up with any other ideas to get out?"

Akane shook her head, "Nope"

"So what are we going to do now, if I stay here to long I'm going to go
crazy," Ranma said as the idea of being trapped began to unnerve him.

"Well I know a couple ways of distracting you from thinking about being
trapped in here." Akane grinned devilish.

Ranma gulped, he could tell that Akane was thinking about. And what she
was thinking was still new to him and made him a little nervous, but
replied, "I-I'm sure you can."

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

Author's Note:

Again I shall beg, plead, and whine for people to give me C&C or MSTings
of this fic. (You can send it to me privately at archive@mich.com)

If you find any grammatical errors, it is not the fault of pre-readers as
I either missed or ignored their advice, or it is part of some last minute
additions.

Thanks to Brent T Neef, David A Tatum, and Rea Konecki for pre-reading
this story. If you also want to be subjected to bad really bad grammar
(Akane's cooking bad) and help me with the future chapters as a
pre-reader, write to me at archive@mich.com (please include if you are
willing to pre-read the lemon side stories).

I hope to have chapter 2 sent out in a couple days, Sunday at the latest.
If you wish to see the future chapters of this series in their draft form
you can e-mail me at archive@mich.com or go to my web page at
www.mich.com/~archive

*************  Marks where a lemon scene takes place. A note about this
scene: It takes another half-hour for the characters to start having sex
as they first talk about sex. The scene is the side story Naked , Alone,
and No Place to Go. It is not necessary to read, but there is some
important dialogue that occurs. The dialogue is of sexual nature. You can
email me at archive@mich.com requesting it or go to
www.mich.com/~archive/nakaln.txt (this has yet to be edited since the
first time it was posted on ffml).



*   Lord Archive the JAFO, furverted otaku that is addicted to Mtg.   *
***********************************************************************
*web page: www.mich.com/~archive   A Mtg page now, soon to have Anime *