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Crossed Lives - Part 5
  Flowers for Akane?
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Akane slept restlessly rocking from side to side. Something in her
dreams woke her with a start and she lay there breathing heavily for a
moment, before opening her eyes. Ranma was still there from last night
a blanket now tucked around him by Kasumi. The strange happenings of
yesterday came flooding back and a smile touched her lips as she
realised Ranma must have been worried about her. She was about to
shake him awake when there came a quiet knock at her bedroom door. She
gently got out of bed, walked over to the door and opened it. Kasumi
was standing there smiling and beckoned Akane to follow her
downstairs. Wondering what Kasumi could possibly want to show her she
followed.

----

The living room was remarkably tidy after yesterday, but this did not
surprise Akane, what did was the huge bouquet of flowers on the table.

<Kuno.> Akane thought to herself and started to go upstairs again.

"Don't you think you should read the card?" Nabiki asked from where
she was sitting by her father.

Akane walked over to the flowers and searched around until she found
the small unsealed envelope with her name on it. Having second
thoughts that it was Kuno who sent her the flowers she slipped the
small card out of the envelope, her hands shaking slightly.

    Akane,
    I hope these flowers can in some way make up for my actions
    recently. Whatever has happened in the past few days, I would
    like today to be special. I have reserved a table for two this
    evening and I would be honoured if you would join me.
        Love always Ranma.

Akane stood there staring at the letter, unable to believe that it was
Ranma who sent it.

"Who are they from?" Soun asked trying to sound like he hadn't already
read the note.

"Ranma..." Akane replied her mind still recovering from the shock of
receiving both the flowers and the dinner invitation.

Soun grinned at Genma and leaned over whispering, "soon our families
will be joined!"

"Kasumi, would you come with me to buy a new dress for this evening?"
Akane asked nervously.

"Of course Akane-chan, you go and get dressed and then we'll leave
right away."

Akane smiled and then hurried upstairs.

"Genma, how did you get Ranma to write that note?" Soun asked the
still grinning panda.

Genma pulled out a sign, "You mean you didn't?"

Soun shook his head and looked at Nabiki.

"Hey, it wasn't me. I'm as shocked by this as you."

They turned to look at Kasumi, who just smiled back, "Nah" they said
to themselves shaking their heads.

----

Ranma woke up feeling stiff looking up he saw that Akane was gone, he
panicked for a moment until he saw the note Akane had left him.

    Gone shopping with Kasumi, see you this evening.
        Akane.

"Looks like the flowers worked," Ranma said to himself grinning.

Massaging his neck, Ranma looked down at the bed and sighed.

"Well I guess a few more minutes sleep couldn't hurt."

Pushing the chair back under the desk and he got into Akane's bed and
drifted back to sleep.

A few minutes later a cry pierced his dreams. "Ranma prepare to die!"

<That sounds like Ryouga,> Ranma thought as he opened his eyes. <I
haven't seen him since the wedding.>

Ranma rushed over to the window and opened it, there in the garden
Ryouga stood staring up at the house. Ranma jumped out of the window
next to him.

"Yo, Ryouga how's my best man doing?"

"Today you will... What was that?" Ryouga asked his battle cry
momentarily forgotten.

"My best man! Come inside and tell me what you've been up to. The
wedding reception wasn't the same after you disappeared, pop had to
make your speech instead!"

"Wedding?... Reception?... Ranma WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I HAVEN'T
BEEN TO A WEDDING."

"Eh, are you feeling all right Ryouga? One of Shampoo's traps hasn't
misfired again has it?"

"Shampoo... Traps... Ranma I won't take anymore of this nonsense, I'll
fight you later, just tell me where Akane is."

"Oh, she's gone shopping, she probably wants to buy a new dress for
this evening."

"New dress? But I haven't even asked her out yet. Why is she buying a
new dress?" Ryouga asked getting suspicious.

"For our anniversary dinner of course, its been two months now. I
think you should come with me to doctor Tofu's so he can see what the
problem is." Ranma grabbed Ryouga's arm and started leading him
towards the clinic. Ryouga pulled his arm away from Ranma, who turned
to face him.

"I don't need a doctor. Now what happened two months ago?"

"Mine and Akane's wedding, of course."

Ryouga stood there staring at Ranma, seeing the expression on his face
Ranma backed away nervously.

"YOU MARRIED AKANE?... RANMA DIE!... SHISHI HOKO DAN!" Ryouga aimed
the most powerful ki blast he had ever made at Ranma, who had wisely
decided to run, the blast still caught him however and sent him
hurtling away badly battered into the distance.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN RUN AWAY?" Ryouga shouted in towards where Ranma
had disappeared and proceeded to chase after him... in the opposite
direction.

----

That evening a bruised Ranma stumbled into the Tendo living room and
collapsed beside the table.

"You, OK Ranma?" Nabiki asked walking over to him. "Akane will be
disappointed if you can't make it to your date tonight."

"I'll be all right in a minute. I just had a few problems with Ryouga,
he seemed really angry when I mentioned the wedding."

"Oh, the wedding." Nabiki replied trying to sound uninterested.

"Yes, I just mentioned that this is our two month anniversary and he
attacked me. Hopefully when he comes back we can sort things out..."

"I wouldn't count on it," Nabiki said to herself.

<So, Ranma thinks he's married to Akane, this could prove interesting
and profitable. I wonder how much dad and Mr Saotome would pay me to
not tell Ranma the truth. Well I'll find out when they come back from
their celebration.> The wonderful sound of money rang in her ears as
she started planning how to make the best use of this information.

"Well I'll go and get ready." Ranma said getting up, looking
remarkably better.

----

Ten minutes later Ranma was back downstairs now dressed in a black
suit with a red bow tie. He glanced at clock on the wall hoping Akane
would be down in time so they could make it to the restaurant in
time. The sound of footsteps on the stairs made him sigh in relief,
the beautiful young woman walking towards him made the sigh catch in
his throat. Akane was dressed in a low-cut blue dress which had
billowing sleeves and was rather tight everywhere else.

<She looks as beautiful as she did on our wedding day.> Ranma thought
to himself.

Akane blushed as she saw Ranma staring at her. She hadn't been sure
when Kasumi had said this was the dress she should buy, but the
expression on Ranma's face told her it had been the correct choice.

"You look beautiful." He told her, offering his arm, "shall we go?"

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I can't help feeling the 2 month anniversary is going to complicate
things! How is this evening going to end? I am going to avoid going
down the lemon path at all costs (I hope!).

Nabiki knows somethings happened in both universes now. I think it
is unlikely that things could have gone much further without her
finding out.

Does it seem like the normal Ranma is having a vacation while the
parallel one is slowly turning people against him e.g. Shampoo and
Ryouga? Does to me!
I'll bring in the parallel Shampoo in the next chapter just so life
isn't too easy for the origonal Ranma!



+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|   csuos@csv.warwick.ac.uk   matbad@dcs.warwick.ac.uk      |
|    http://www.csv.warwick.ac.uk/~csuos/default.html       |
|        Student of Akane's Cookery Masterclass!            |
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