Friends Part4

by Belphera


As they got to the limo, Ranma smiled as he saw his mother. Nodoka
Saotome was a woman of early forties and didn�t look a day over 30. She
was dressed in a beautiful Yellow dress and she carried the family
ancestral sword.

�Mom!� Ranma cried and went over and hugged his mother tightly.

�Ranma, it�s so good to see you again.� Nodoka said as she hugged him as
well. After a few minutes, they let go and Nodoka straightened out her
dress and smiled towards Ryouga.

�Hello Ryouga, my grandson and granddaughter miss their father a great
deal.� Running out of the limo two children hugged Ryouga.

�Daddy!� they cried. Ranko smiled and joined her children in welcoming
back her husband. Ranma walked over to the happy family and picked a
little girl up.

�Hey Lisa, how about giving your Uncle Ranma a kiss?�

�Oka� Unca� Ranma!� Lisa gave Ranma a big sloppy kiss on the lips and
held onto her uncle. Turning towards the rest of them.

�Okay guys but I told my fianc�e and her sister that We�d meet her at
the Galleria by the skating rink in another half an hour.�

Sitting down by the Ice rink, Akane stared out at the young couples
skating across the smooth surface. So many of them were so in love. If
only she could find such a man for herself, she would be in heaven. The
way he would hold her as they skated gracefully across ice. Looking up
at the man, he leaned down for a kiss-.

"Akane! I'm finished, let's go out." Kasumi's voice broke through her
daydreams. Sighing she stepped onto the ice with Kasumi. However
something lingered in her mind, The man looked somewhat like Ranma.
Shaking the thought from her head, she pushed off to join Kasumi.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma, Ryouga, and their families arrived at the Galleria and looked
around for Akane. Nodoka was anxious to meet the woman who had finally
captured her son's wild heart. Walking towards the center of the huge
mall, Ranma fidgeted a bit. He wondered what his mother would say when
she met Akane? Would she believe them? Nearing the center of the mall,
he saw a slight crowd gathering. Peering down, he suddenly had a loss of
breath. In the center of the rink was Akane flowing along the ice as an
angel would on ice.

"Wow! I didn't know Akane could skate like that!" Ryouga exclaimed.
Turning to face Ranma, Ryouga and the others briefly noticed that he was
no longer there. The ice had slowly become more and more empty as people
left to watch Akane skate.

"Where'd he go?" Ryouga asked. Ranko and Nodoka both smiled at each
other, fully aware of where Ranma had gone. Looking back over to the
rink, the rink was now empty. Akane was the lone figure spinning in the
center of the rink as she slowed, a figure skated up to her.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Akane never felt this free, as she skated to the music that flowed
through her body. Suddenly she felt herself being held by the waist.
Looking up, she saw Ranma.

"Giving your private show eh?"

"What?"

"Haven't you noticed all the people looking down at you?"

"No, I just love skating, I haven't felt this free in such a long time."

"Come on, let's skate. We'll give mom a good show."

"Your mother is here?"

"Yeah, come on, let's give everyone a show they'll never forget."

"Heh, we need some music."

"All ready thought of that." Ranma grinned as he turned towards the side
of the rink. Whistling, a slow melody started up as Akane recognized
this song as one of Ranma's favorite songs. Smiling at Ranma, she nodded
as they danced.

Gliding across the ice, she allowed the music to control her as she
skated with Ranma. She felt so warm in her heart as they skated around
the rink. Bursting with joy, she spun through the air with Ranma. She
didn't even have to think about what to do as she flowed. Together they
moved as one, using their martial arts training, they skated as
professionals might.

Ranma was in heaven, he hadn't felt so happy in such a long time. The
feeling of Akane against him and skating with such passion was absolute
joy. Somehow he managed to compliment Akane's movements perfectly, he
just let the music and her body guide him into this dance. It had been
such a long time since he had done this. As the song reached it's
climax, he burst off the ice with Akane in a spin. Landing, he picked
Akane up by the waist and threw her up into the air and catching her as
she fell. As the song ended, he looked down into her eyes and saw her
full trust. With passion coursing through his body, he bent his head
down and kissed her. All around them, the crowd burst into applause.
______________________________________________________________________________________

 Collapsing on her bed, Akane was exhausted. After they got off the ice,
Ranma's Mother, Ranko, and Kasumi dragged her off to search for a
wedding gown. But what she wondered about more was why Ranma kissed her
in front of all those people.  She enjoyed it, because it had been the
first time in a while she could skate with her full body attuned to the
music and the ice. But there was something else there. She Ranma kissed
her, she returned his kiss, as if she truly wished it to be.

But that was absurd, She could not have an feelings other than very
strong friendship towards Ranma. The only reason she kissed him back was
because of the moment. That was it. Not because of Ranma. Slipping into
the covers, she stared at the ceiling. Suddenly there was a knock at the
door.

"Come in." The door opened to reveal Ranko, Ranma's sister. Bouncing in,
Ranko was obvious excited. But then again, Ranko was always such an
active girl with limtless bounds of energy.

"Akane! I just wanted to tell you I'm so happy for you!"

"You've already told me Ranko."

"I know, but I always suspected something like this!"

"This?"

"Oh, you know, you and Ranma. Everytime I came over here, Ranma always
did little things that showed how much he loved you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh he would always try to keep close to you. He also gets this twinkle
in his eyes when he looks at you."

"Oh right, of course. Me and Ranma."

"This is so great though, we'll be sisters!"

"I know, but I've always considered you a younger sister for a while."

"Oh Akane, I just can't stop being happy, Mom's also really happy. She
seems to like the fact that you're a Tendo."

"Yeah, Kasumi told me that your father knew my father."

"You don't sound strange Akane, what's wrong?" Turning to Ranko, Akane
faltered a bit at her inquisitive look. Why did Ranko have to do this to
her? She hated being put on the spot, and she really hated to lie more
to Ranko. Swallowing nervously, Akane smiled,

"Nothing is wrong, I'm just nervous."

"Oh okay, so how did Ranma do it?"

"Do what?"

"Propose silly!"

"Well, he-um- we were on the beach- and-"

"He proposed on the beach? There's my brother for you, such a romantic."
Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Ranma poked his head in.

"Hey sis! Lisa and Ryu want you to tuck them in." Getting off the bed
Ranko walked towards her brother.

"Okay bro, and don't try anything funny with Akane. Save it for the
honeymoon." Ranko said sassily. Narrowing his eyes, Ranma lunged forward
and his hands went to his sister's stomach as he tickled her.

"And as if you waited!" Ranma said as he continued his relentless
attack. From behind, a punch knocked Ranma into Akane's room.

"Serves you right for molesting my wife!" Ryouga said with a toothily
grin. Getting up, Ranma heard Akane and Ranko snicker at his punishment.
Smiling evilly, Ranma jumped onto Akane and tickled her.

"Heh, laugh at me huh?" Ranma said.

"Stop it!" Akane said as she laughed, Ranma always did this to her
whenever she was nervous or depressed. Somehow it always either soothed
her or brightened her up. Managing to grab one of his arms, she tried to
toss him off. But Ranma was quick and tried to get out of the throw. So
as a result, they both fell off the bed with Ranma on top of Akane.
Looking down at Akane's carefree face, Ranma bent his head down and
brought his lips upon hers. Akane was a too shocked to do anything, so
she did the only natural thing. Wrapping his arms around Akane's back,
Ranma caressed her back and brought her in closer. When they broke the
kiss, Akane looked at Ranma for a few seconds before her went limp.

"Akane?" Ranma said a bit worried. Getting off of her, Ranma gently
shook her.

"Well bro, it looks like she fell victim to your kiss." Ranko observed
from the door. Looking up Ranma blushed a bit.

"Yeah well, we should leave her so she can sleep." Ranma said as he
picked Akane up and laid her in the bed and tucked her in. looking on
her peaceful face, he bent down and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Good night, Akane." Ranma said as he stood up again and closed the door
behind him.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday came all too quickly for Akane. After an entire day of wedding
gown shopping, Akane was bushed. But now, Akane had her nosy sister to
deal with. Sitting inside the airport terminal and waiting for Nabiki,
she began to wish someone had come with her to pick her sister up, at
least then Nabiki won't be as brutal. But Ranma had to tie up some loose
ends before he took a few weeks off. Ryouga had taken Ranko, Lisa, and
Ryu to town and the beach. Kasumi and Nodoka went into town as well to
do some shopping.

Unnoticed to Akane, two pairs of eyes watched her from afar. One pair
belonged to a wizened woman who seemed to be quite old. The other
belonged to a beautiful woman with a body men fight wars for and women
everywhere killed for.

"Is that the one?" The elder one asked.

"Yes Great-grandmother. She's the one who is engaged to my husband." The
young woman said angrily.

"She seems harmless enough."

"Then I kill her."

"No, this is not China, we cannot just kill her."

"Then how we get husband back?"

"We'll find a way. I have many tricks up my sleeve, so fear not."

"Okay Great-grandmother, I trust you."

"Good Xian Fu."
______________________________________________________________________________________

Akane looked around for her sister, as the people filed past her. That's
when she saw her. Immediately Akane felt upstaged by Nabiki. Her sister
was wearing a business suit, but with a very short skirt, and a very
tight blouse. As she walked, men walked into walls and women shot
hateful glares at Nabiki's direction. When Nabiki finally reached Akane,
Akane could see the smirk on Nabiki's face.

"So where's your 'fianc�'?" Nabiki asked haughtily.

"He had to work." Akane responded.

"Sure� So how have you been?" Nabiki asked.

"I'm fine." Akane asked with a confused expression. Noticing the look
that Akane gave her, Nabiki looked hurt.

"Hey! Just because I think you're lying about your fianc� doesn't mean
that I don't care about my baby sister, does it?"

"I guess." Sighing inwardly, Akane thanked god that Nabiki hadn't been
more harsh. "Come on, let's get out of here. And you can finally see
where I live." Turning around, Akane lead Nabiki out of the airport.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Sliding down into the tub, Akane let all her grief out. After She met up
with Nabiki, they went to meet Nodoka and Kasumi. As soon as she got off
the car, Kasumi and Nodoka immediately whisked her off to go shopping
again. They both seemed to have limitless energy as Nodoka and Kasumi
went from store to store. The worst thing was that for every dress that
they made her try on she had to make up some kind of excuse as to why
she didn't like it. And during all this time, Nabiki was off to the side
laughing her head off.

She just wished Ranma was with her to endure all this. Because whenever
she was with Ranma he was always so confident and strong, it just made
her feel like she could face anything. Also Ranma always knew someway to
cheer her up. That's why Ranma was such a good friend. Suddenly there
was a knock on the door.

"Akane? There's a phone call for you." Kasumi's voice filtered through.
Groaning, Akane swore that if another person congratulated her on her
engagement, she was going to scream.

"I think you might want to hurry, it's Ranma." Throwing on a robe, Akane
rushed out the door. Flying down the hallway, she passed Nabiki.

"My, my, my, you must be really in love with this guy or just trying to
break your neck." Nabiki drolled. When she finally reached the kitchen,
she picked up the phone, she calmed her breath first.

"Ranma?"

"Akane? You sound breathless, anything wrong?"

"No, I just sprinted from the hot tub."

"So has everything been okay today?"

"Yeah, your mother and Kasumi dragged me around town all day looking for
wedding gowns." Leaning back a bit, Akane was not surprised to see that
Nabiki had taken up a comfortable seat on the couch in the living room
intent on listening in on her conversation with Ranma. Grinning, Akane
returned to the phone.

"I didn't see anything you'd like except for the frilly red garter
belts." Then she laughed in a low husky tone. In Ranma's office, Ranma
immediately shot up.

"Akane? You haven't been making pina colodas again have you?"

"No, but I I think blue would look better on me don't you think. I also
so this really nice blue teddy that I *know* you would like."

"You know Akane, keep talking, I am finding this very interesting."
Ranma said as he pictured Akane in a very sexy blue teddy.

"I think I'll go with blue, because red is so scandalous, don't you
think? Maybe I'll get the teddy for the honeymoon." Akane said with a
purr. In the living room, Nabiki made a sickening moise.

"I take it your sister is there?"

"Oh Ranma how do you ever know these things?"

"I'm just a genius."

"So, what did you want to tell me?"

"Well, I want to take both our families to a nice restaurant for
dinner."

"Are you sure you're up to that? Where are we going to eat?"

"It's a surprise, just be ready by six."

"I'll see you then." Hanging up the phone, Akane smiled at the phone.
Ranma was doing so much for her. As soon as is was over, she'd have to
think of a way to thank him properly.

At Ranma's office, Ranma hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair
and stretched. Relaxing he smiled at the thought of Akane wearing blue.
She had worn a very beautiful blue dress on the one occasion that she
went to see a play. However, he had teased her and so she never wore
blue again. Behind him Kaori came in with his letters opened. Placing
the mail on his table she smiled at Ranma.

"Your fianc�e is doing you good."

"How can you tell?"

"Well they say the bride usually glows when they speak to their fianc�,
but quite frankly I've never seen anyone glow as much as you were when
you talked to Ms. Tendo." Looking surprised, he felt his face. Glowing?
No way. Why would he be glowing?
______________________________________________________________________________________

Akane rummaged through her wardrobe trying to find a decent dress to
wear to dinner. After half an hour of looking through her dresser, she
sighed in frustration. Nothing! Everything she wore was either too
casual or too much for school. Then she spotted it. It was wedged
between her raincoat and winter jacket. Pulling it out, she looked at
the dress, wondering whether or not she should wear it. She had bought
it on a dare when she was shopping with some of her friends. The dress
would fit her nicely and she had almost worn it to the faculty party
this year. But she wasn't comfortable with the idea of exposing this
much cleavage and skin to the men she worked with. Putting the dress on,
she viewed herself in the mirror. Smiling to herself, she enthused. She
did look good in blue! The dress had met her every expectation. It
showed off every curve of her body. The dress was a bit daring because
it had no shoulders. The skirt went al the way down to her ankles and
had a slit up to her knees.

Posing in front of the mirror, Akane did not notice Nabiki come in at
watch her.

"I never knew you to expose that much cleavage." Nabiki pointed out.

"Well, today I'm going to dinner with my fianc�, so there's a
difference." At that, Nabiki's eyes narrowed.

"Come off it sis, who is this guy? Some teacher you hired to pose at
your fianc�. Just so you could get closer to Kasumi?" Akane gritted her
teeth in anger. How dare Nabiki do this to her. She was hurting enough
without these jabs at the fact that she could never get a real fianc�.

"Why no sister dear, in fact he is a powerful business man, head of a
large corporation."

"Yeah right. Whatever, next thing you'll be telling me is that he want
to have kids with you right?" Akane held her tears back from the
onslaught of Nabiki's speech.

"You know Akane, I never thought you would go this low as to fake Kasumi
out with this nonsense." Akane's temper finally snapped at that
statement.

"You are being so unfair! True, I may not be as smart as you, or as
pretty as you. But Ranma loves me for who I am, not for any artificial
reasons like a prettier face or a better body. He loves me! And if you
can't handle that fact, then why don't just leave me the hell alone!"
Nabiki cringed back a bit from Akane's outburst and tried to calm her
younger sister down.

"Fine, fine, just calm down, I was just a bit rash. I'm sorry." Nabiki
soothed. Biting back her outburst, Akane sighed , this lie she was
keeping up was simply tearing her up on the inside.

"It's okay, it's just that with all the pressure of the engagement and
then your comments I went a little berserk."

"Don't worry about it. I'll make the comments after I meet him. Ranma
right? Sounds familiar, does he own a large interior decorating
business?"

"I don't remember."

"Well, anyway, let's see if we can do something about that hair, it
looks too plain."
______________________________________________________________________________________

Half an hour later, Akane tiptoed into the bathroom, and looked into the
mirror. Her hair looked like it just met a UFO.  There was so much
hairspray in her hair she almost felt it seeping into her scalp. Filling
the basin up with water, she wondered if Nabiki was trying to ruin her
night with Ranma. She wondered where Ranma would take them to. The times
when Ranma and her wen out, they went to some casual places for dinner
or lunch. But this time, Ranma said "nice" and whatever Ranma considers
a "nice" restaurant is usually a fancy one.

Twenty minutes later, she comes out of the bathroom with her hair down.
Going to her room, she prepared to put on the rest of her make up. When
she get to her room, Kasumi and Nabiki are already there.

"Akane! What did you do? All that hard work I put in!" Nabiki exclaimed
when saw Akane.

"I'm sorry Nabiki, it just wasn't me." Akane countered.

"I think you look very pretty, Akane." Kasumi assured.

"Thanks sis." Akane said as she sat down in front of the mirror.

"You didn't say that I looked pretty!" Nabiki complained.

"You always look pretty, do we always have to say it?" Akane said
testily, as she applied some make up.

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Now, Now Nabiki, Akane's right, you always look fine."

"Hmph!" Nabiki looked at Kasumi and just sat on Akane's bed. She was
wearing a black dress that showed off most of her backside. Suddenly
there was a knock at the door. Akane finished putting on her make up and
sprinkled a bit of perfume on herself as she got up to answer the door.

"Akane?" Ranma's voice came through the door.

"Coming." Akane answered as she made sure everything was in place.
Opening the door, she saw Ranma in a green silk-buttoned shirt, a dress
jacket, and khakis.

"Akane! You wore blue after all!" Ranma beamed at Akane. Looking up at
Ranma, Akane couldn't help but feel weak in her knees.

"I just wanted to please you." As she said that, Akane realized just how
true it was. She wanted Ranma to be happy, and she would do almost
anything to make sure of it.

"And you did, Akane. You look beautiful." Ranma said as he leaned
forward to kiss Akane. Akane knew that Kasumi and Nabiki were both still
behind her, but she didn't care. When the kiss ended, she turned around.
She almost laughed out loud when she saw Nabiki's expression.

"Nabiki, this is Ranma." Akane said as she introduced Ranma.

"Ranma Saotome? As in the multi-billionaire?" Nabiki said with her eyes
still wide and her mouth gaping a bit.

"That would be me." Ranma replied with a boyish grin on his face.

"You're Akane's fianc�?"

"Yep. Akane's a wonderful woman to me."

"How could I have missed this!"

"What?"

"All those news reports on you and your new fianc�e! They never found
out exactly who she was! And it was Akane this entire time!"

"Well, I have a certain ways of dealing with the press and paparazzi.
Let's just say they don't want to mess with someone who could almost
level a mountain, break all their bones and still have the lawyers to
get away with it."

"I see. I think I need to sit down." Nabiki said absentmindedly.

"Really, that's too bad, I have reservations at a great restaurant
overlooking the harbor."

"In Houston?"

"No, San Francisco. My pilot has already preped the Leer Jet. My mother
will meet us there in half an hour. The helicopter has already arrived
to take us to the landing strip."

"Leer Jet?"

"Yeah, you know as in plane?"

"Oh my."