Heh... I promised myself I'd send this out the last time I could get on the
internet before Otakon. I thought that wouldn't be until noon today, and
told my prereaders so, but I miscalculated and I have to send it out at
(well, it's 2:04a here... I doubt anyone will get it for another couple of
hours, at least). So, here it is... I never got revisions from my
prereaders, so be warned.
Chapter 13
Ranma sat on the roof top, cradling Akane in his lap, stroking her hair
delicately. She had not yet regained consciousness after their duel, and
he was a little concerned. He hadn't done anything TOO dangerous, but
there were a couple of small bruises around her neck. Every time Ranma
caught sight of one of those bruises, he had to blink to keep his eyes from
watering up.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, squeezing her gently.
"You're forgiven- but like I said, you owe me another favor," Akane
whispered back, her eyes closed.
"Akane?"
She smiled and opened her eyes, sitting up. "Well, maybe getting Kunou off
my back is enough of a consolation prize for losing to you. You don't owe
me a favor after all... but that doesn't cancel any of the other things you
owe me."
"One date for a kabuki play, one trip to visit people in the hospital, and
one walk through the park coming up," Ranma said. "And are you sure you
want to forgive me for that favor? I kinda, uh, bruised your neck when I
knocked you out."
Akane's eyes widened. "Is it obvious?"
"Um... if you wear a high collar, it might hide it."
Akane nodded slyly. "Oh... well, then, we're even for the hickey I gave
you that I didn't tell you about."
Ranma looked confused. "The what? What's a hickey?"
Akane's face quirked up in disbelief. "Ranma... you can't tell me you
don't know what a hickey is..."
"Er... I can't? Um... why not?"
"Because... because... you should know already! I mean..." Akane looked
around. They were still on the rooftop. It was the top of a REALLY tall
building. She blinked. "Why are we sitting on top of a building? And...
where are we? We seem to be a little high up."
Ranma smirked a little. "Well, I carried you on to the hospital while you
were still, er, resting. I figured if you wanted to have time today to
both visit Marie and go to the park, we needed to get here pretty quick."
Standing up and offering Akane a hand, he continued, "So, what, exactly, is
a hickey again?"
Akane shook her head. "I still don't believe you don't know what a hickey
is- are you sure you aren't just trying to embarrass me?"
Ranma blinked. "Er... no, I'm not."
"Fine," Akane said, blushing. Ranma noticed Akane's eyes lose a little
focus. "Yes, yes, good idea," she muttered and started searching through
her mirror.
'Ah,' Ranma thought. 'She's chatting with Iria about something. And she's
blushing. And she said it was embarrassing....' Slowly, as the
implications started to hit, he blushed as well.
Pulling out a small compact, Akane looked at him, a sly glare in her eyes.
"Okay, Ranma- you want to know what a hickey is? Let me demonstrate..."
With that, she grabbed Ranma and started necking him. Ranma was too
shocked to respond at first, and then found that she had pinned his arms in
such a way he couldn't reciprocate. All he could do was concentrate on
that one particular spot Akane was working, and enjoy it.
When she finally stopped and leaned back a little, she inspected his neck a
little. Smiling, she opened the compact and handed it to him. "Look at
the spot I was kissing you. The mark you'll see is the hickey."
Ranma's blush grew, but he looked anyway. "Oh, those... I think I gave you
a few of those as well, but no-one should see them... um, unless you, um,
take off your clothes." He paused. "I hope no-one notices any of the ones
that are in plain sight- that could cause a lot of problems."
Akane smiled. "Well, Kunou didn't notice anything wrong- you shouldn't
have anything to worry about."
"Er, you think there's nothing to worry about because KUNOU didn't notice
anything?"
"Good point," Akane agreed sagely. "But most people miss that sort of
thing unless it's REALLY obvious or unless they're looking for it.
Besides, it goes away in a few days, anyway." Retrieving her compact, she
smiled up at him. "So, ready to visit Marie and Hideki?" She held out her
arm.
Ranma took it, and they (figuring that climbing in through a window might
be frowned upon, since the windows didn't open) walked down to the lobby
and went up the elevator to the room their friend was in.
"Hi, Marie," Akane said. Marie looked somewhat tired and unkempt, but she
stood up happily and greeted them anyway.
"Hi, Akane! Ranma. Haven't seen you for a few days, so you missed the big
news- Hideki woke up for a while."
"Oh, he did?!" Akane exclaimed. "That's great! Tell me everything..."
Ranma sat down and quickly lost interest in the conversation. Soon, with
little else to do, he decided he'd just admire relax and admire Akane,
daydreaming. He remained totally oblivious to everything else until he
heard his name.
"...and Ranma been the past couple of days? I thought you were planning to
come and visit every day!" Marie was saying.
"Oh, well," Akane blushed, looking over at Ranma. "Well, a few things
happened and we kinda were too busy with them to think about anything else
for a while."
Marie looked from Ranma to Akane and back and smiled impishly. "Let me
guess- you two started making out and lost track of time for several days?"
Both Ranma and Akane blushed deeply. "Wh... why do you say that?" Ranma
asked.
Marie smiled. "Well, for one thing, Ranma, you've been mooning over Akane
since you got here. For another... well, those hickeys are pretty, um,
obvious. And I seriously doubt you would be here with Akane if she WASN'T
the person who gave you those hickeys, so I kinda realized why you two had
been missing for the past few days from the moment you walked in."
Ranma gagged. "Argh...." He turned to Akane, raising an eyebrow. "This
is all your fault," he accused mockingly.
* * * * *
"Um, Ukyou?" Ryouga asked as she stormed into the Ucchan. "What's, uh,
what's wrong?"
Ukyou growled at him, grabbing his umbrella and backpack and tossing them
at him. "Come on, Ryouga. Cologne wants us to help track down the Oni."
Ryouga blinked. "I thought that Ranma and Akane were handling things..."
"They were. But they can't be trusted any more- so come on," she said,
grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him along.
"But I'm waiting for Akari to arrive! She told me to stay right where I
am!" he protested, digging in his heels. "And what do you mean that Ranma
and Akane can't be trusted?"
"You don't want to know."
Ryouga hesitated. "What do you mean I don't want to know?"
Ukyou sighed. "I don't have time for this. Are you coming, or not?"
"No- at least not until after Akari gets here. Maybe after she
arrives...."
Ukyou fumed. "Fine- if you won't help, you won't help. Bye." With that,
she stormed right back out of the restaurant.
Ryouga blinked. "What the hell just happened?"
* * * * *
Akane and Ranma slowly finished their stroll through the park.
"Okay, Ranma... you're forgiven now."
Ranma relaxed a little. "So we can just go home and finish off our wedding
night there?"
Akane nodded. "We will have to explain our decision about not letting
everyone know of our marraige to your mother, first, but I certainly don't
have any problems with ending our day on a, er, pleasant note."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Then the sooner we get home, the better, right?"
"Well, I guess, yeah."
"Okay." Ranma picked Akane up into his arms, holding her to his chest.
Instinctively, Akane put her arms around him. With a leap, the two of them
started hopping from roof to roof, heading straight towards the Tendou
dojo.
Ukyou, grumbling angrily about Ryouga, failed to notice the couple leaping
over her head until after it was too late to follow them, but the sight of
Ranma cradling Akane merely added to her rage. With haste, she sped back
to Cologne. The sooner this was all over and she could 'talk' with the two
of them, the better. In the meantime, it was better to channel her anger
into something more productive. Like destroying the thing that caused all
the mess in the first place.
That Oni was going to suffer.
* * * * *
Nodoka tensed a bit as she heard the door opening. She hoped it wasn't
Cologne and her charges coming back- she didn't want to have to explain
without having the Oni there to help protect her if she decided to attack
suddenly.
"Hi, mom!" Ranma called, rounding the corner into the living room. "We're
home!"
Her attitude changed. 'Ah, good- now I can ask them about their
marraige... and tell them about Cologne's visit.'
"Ah, good... Ranma, Akane- how was your day?"
Ranma and Akane smiled at each other. "It went... rather well," Akane
said.
"Yeah... and we've got something to tell you," Ranma added.
"Oh?" Nodoka said, amused. "Let me guess- the two of you got married."
"Huh?!" both of them said, puzzled. "How in the world did you figure that
out?" Ranma blurted out.
Nodoka smirked, deciding to tease them a little when she noticed a certain
mark on her son. "Well, you've got the signs written all over your face-
or should that be neck?"
Ranma glared at Akane. "I TOLD you this would cause problems!" he accused,
pointing at the hickey.
Akane flushed. "Well, I didn't know this would happen..." Muttering under
her breath, she added, "I still don't believe that it's too obvious." Then
another thought occured to her. "Besides, your mother already KNOWS we've
been intimate for a while- seeing a hickey shouldn't make her think that
we're married!"
Ranma frowned. "You're right..."
Nodoka let a giggle escape her. "I'm sorry, you two- it wasn't because of
the hickey Akane gave you, Ranma. I was just teasing you. No, it really
was because one of my friends told me..."
Akane blinked. "Oh? Who? We haven't let anyone else know yet..."
"Well," Nodoka hesitated. She didn't want to let them know about the Oni
just yet, but she didn't want to lie either- it wasn't honorable to lie,
after all. "While my husband was... away... I had to make some decisions
that required I cultivate a relationship with various legal officials- some
of whom were in charge of filing marraige certificates."
Ranma and Akane looked at each other uncertainly. "Well," Ranma began, "We
were planning to tell you anyway. But, um, does anyone else know yet?"
Nodoka smiled. "Not that I know of- I certainly haven't told anyone." Her
smile fell slightly. "But those two nice young girls who wrecked my house
stopped by with one of their great-grandmothers, and I'm afraid that I let
them know of your recent, er, intimacy."
"Ack!" Ranma cried. "Why'd you do that?"
"Um... I wasn't entirely myself when I did, and they caught me off-guard."
"Well, that'll make everything more difficult," Ranma complained. "But at
least no-one knows we're actually married yet."
Akane hesitated. "Well... maybe it'll be a good idea to let everyone work
out there anger now. Before the ceremony."
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me," Ranma began. "Akane and I would like to keep
our marraige a secret for now.... We want there to be a ceremony that you
and pops and Akane's family could all see and enjoy, but we're afraid that
if pops and Mr. Tendou find out we're planning this ceremony they'll ruin
it."
Nodoka seemed confused. "How will keeping your marraige a secret prevent
people from interfering with this ceremony?"
"Simple," Ranma said. "If we keep telling everyone we aren't getting
married, then they'll continue to try and convince us. Everyone will be
too busy trying to get us married to worry about planning the wedding. We
wouldn't have time to plan our own wedding ourselves, but we were hoping
you could do that secretly while we deal with everyone else."
"But if they know we're ALREADY married," Akane added, "then we won't be
able to use that, er, diversion."
Nodoka nodded happily. "Of course I'll help you plan your wedding! But I
can already see one flaw. You and my son are already sleeping together- I
can't see how you can convince any of the people who already know this that
you don't want to be married."
Ranma looked over at Akane. "Well, we were talking about that. We came up
with something to say that just might work...."
* * * * *
Cologne continued to pace. Ukyou had not arrived back yet. That, however,
was not what was worrying her. What WAS worrying her was that she had lost
all sense of the Oni being anywhere in the area- stretching her senses to
the limit should have found it anywhere in Tokyo, but she didn't catch a
whiff of it... and if it wasn't in Tokyo, then it was out of her reach.
That was unacceptable- there had to be some way of bringing it back, so
that she could destroy it once and for all
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee
desaix@sysnet.net
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7872
fanfics available at
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7872/fanfics.htm