Ranma walked into the Tendo dojo for his usual morning training. As he walked in he was warmly welcomed by the sight which revealed itself before his eyes. Balls of holly danced along the dojo wall, stockings hanged with delight, and in the midst of it all was the Christmas tree the family put up together. Ranma decided not to train here for the fear of a rival or fiancée wold come crashing through the seasonally decorated walls, ruining Christmas for everyone. He pondered to himself as to where he could train without waking his sleeping soon-to-be-in-laws. Then an idea hit him. His training could be NOT to wake anyone up! Ranma hadn't practiced the art of ninjitsu since he and his father had to steal for food. Ranma donned Akane's yellow dojo belt upon his brow, making a knot behind his head. At least he now felt like a ninja, even if he didn't look like one.
Ranma ran past all the bedroom doors trying not to make a sound. He kicked and punched, leaped and crawled, making sure to avoid the creaky floorboards to maintain his stealth-mode. Meanwhile, Akane had just arisen from her slumber. She had noticed that she couldn't hear Ranma training in the dojo and thought he had slept in. Finally, she had the morning to herself. She walked out of her room and stretched.
Ranma was almost done. He had one more corridor to go through. It was the most dangerous one of them all because it filtered into Akane's room. "I've got to get through there as fast as possible," he muttered to himself, "or I may yet get another beating." He made a swift turn, and smashed into Akane in mid-stretch, sending the both of them tumbling through the hallway. Ranma, sacrificing his whole body, took all the hits, making sure not to injure Akane.
Finally they stopped. The first thing both of them noticed when they opened thier eyes was the plant that hung from the ceiling. Mistletoe. After a moment's silence, Ranma leaned up with Akane still in his arms. "Heh," he chuckled to himself, "I guess this is our version of a kiss." Akane could feel Ranma looking at her. She turned to him, seeing his eyes. Akane, as if waking from a trance, shook a bit and realized where she was. In Ranma's arms, his lips only a few inches away from her own. She panicked and despreatly tried to find something to escape. Akane saw her ticket wrapped around Ranma's head. "What's that?" she asked, "it looks like my belt....from my room!" "Errr..." was all Ranma could say in defence. "Why you!" she glared back at him. "Well, if you weren't in the way all the time I wouldn't have crashed into you!" Akane stood up, breaking his grasp. "Why you STUPID PERVERT!" she yelled at him ferociously. Then she saw it. It was something she hated seeing in Ranma's face. It wasn't a face of anger or hate. It was of hurt. It was of pain. A tear came to her eye when she realized what she had done. Akane dashed toward her room.
Ranma saw Akane was crying. "Now I've done it." he said, blaming himself. He couldn't stand to see her cry. He took a step forward and was planning to comfort her, but then realized that his presence could do more harm than good. He didn't want that, he thought to himself and soon retreated to his room. After a few moments alone Ranma told himself, "This is the last straw! After this, I'll never hurt her again." After what he was going to tell her.
Akane finally stopped crying, but was still mad. At herself. "Akane no baka." she muttered. *He was only trying to open up. And what do I do? Shove it in his face.* Akane thought. She was scared. Scared to fall in love with him. Scared at the fact that he might not love her when she finally did. Just then a tap came at her door. She sat up, and picked up the manga by her bed and pretended to be busy. "It's open." she finally said, preparing for the worst.
"Hey Akane." Ranma greeted, trying to see if Akane was still angry. "Hi" she answered back. "I.... I just want to tell you...." Ranma started. Akane wondered what he was going to say. An insult? An Apology? "... I.... love you. I'm sorry." He said, as he embraced her. Akane was speechless. She had dreamed of this moment a thousand times, but now she totally forgot what to do and froze.
"Uh oh." Ranma thought, "she's not responding." Akane then raised her hand above her head. "Here it comes!" Ranma thought, bracing himself, ready to take the blow. Nothing. Ranma slowly opened one eye to look at Akane's fist. He soon noticed that there was something hanging from it. It was a plant. Mistletoe. Ranma smiled, mostly in relief, then moved his head closer to Akane's. She did the same. Soon thier lips brushed each others. "That was.." Ranma started, "...kinda nice." Akane smiled, then said, "Ranma, I love you too." Their lips touched again, but this time, they stayed together.
Akane looked up, into Ranma's eyes. "Ranma?" she asked. "Yea?" he answered. "Do you really mean it? You love me?" she continued. "Of course I do." Ranma replied. "Then why did you tease me and always call me uncute?" she asked him. Ranma smiled, then said, "Because you're not cute... You're beautiful." Akane smiled, resting her head on his chest. She then realized what time it was. "We'd better go back down. We're hosting a party tonight remember? You wouldn't want Ukyou or Shampoo catch us like this." "Yea, your probably right." he replied, as they got up to join their families downstairs.
Later that night, it was time to exchange christmas gifts. Every thing was going as usual. Shampoo and Ukyou were fighting on who gets to feed Ranma, Kodatchi was laughing, Ryoga was searching desperately for Akane, Soun and Genma were drinking beer, Kasumi was serving the turkey, and Nabiki was winning money off of Kuno. Every thing was as always except for two people. Ranma approched Akane with a small package wich was seasonally wraped in green wraping paper and a red ribbon. Akane herself had a gift for Ranma as well. "Umm, here Akane, this is for you." Akane slowly opened the gift, wondering what was inside. Inside was a small metal heart-shaped locket. However, it was different from any other. It was hand painted pink with her name etched into it. This probably explained why Ranma was mysteriously wearing the cotton gloves the past two weeks. She smiled picturing Ranma trying to paint the locket. "Akane! could you help me with this?" Kasumi called from within the kitchen. Akane then gave Ranma her gift to him and then hurried into the kitchen. Ranma opened up his present. Inside was a Ninjitsu outfit she had sown. The card beside it read, "To Ranma, I think you shouldn't practice anymore. I sort of like you bumping into me."
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Usagi's note: See why I loooooooove Dino-chan's ficcies? *^___^*