DISCLAIMER: All characters in this fanfiction belong to their rightful creators and are all used without permission.
************************************************************Together Forever
Chapter 7by: Kimagure Angel
Comments and criticisms are always welcome. Flames will be returned in kind. ^_^x
During Ranma and Akane's walk from Taka's apartment, they had finalized their plans on how to handle everyone.
"Well, here goes nothing," Akane said nervously to Ranma.
As the couple stood outside the gate to the dojo, they gave each other one last kiss before heading in to face their families.
"Now remember, make sure to tell Kasumi as much as you need to to get her to keep the rest of the family busy. While you're doing that, I'll tell Mom to come up to my room with me. As soon as you're finished with Kasumi, meet us upstairs. I promise I won't tell Mom anything until you get there," Ranma finished.
According to the plan, Ranma and Akane started 'fighting' as soon as they opened the gate. No one took any notice of this except for Kasumi.
"Akane, could you come here for a second?" Kasumi asked, guiding Akane towards the kitchen.
"Oh, hi onee-chan. You're just the person I wanted to see," Akane said following her sister.
"Is something wrong between you and Ranma? You two were getting along so well before you left."
"Don't worry nee-chan. Things between me and Ranma couldn't be better. Actually, that's why I wanted to see you. You see Ranma and I have another favor to ask of you. We were hoping you could keep the family busy while we break the good news to Auntie Saotome," Akane hurriedly said.
"Oh, my. When are you two going to tell the rest of the family? Soon I hope."
"We plan on breaking it to them tonight after dinner. Right now, I'd better hurry up and get up to Ranma's room. He promised to wait for me before telling his mother. But Kasumi, could you please keep the rest of the family busy, please?"
"Of course, Akane. Now hurry up, I'll have dinner ready soon and you know how it is after Mr. Saotome starts eating," Kasumi said with a grin.
Quickly heading upstairs, Akane silently hopes Ranma hasn't started without her. When she gets to his room, she quietly knocks on the door before heading in.
As she entered she noticed Ranma pacing and looking nervously towards his mother who had her hand on the hilt of her katana.
"Hi, Auntie Saotome. You're probably wondering why Ranma asked you up here. Well, we have some news that we thought you'd like to hear about before the rest of the family," Akane said noticing how nervous Ranma was.
With a loud gulp, Ranma continued. "You see, Mother, I've asked Akane to marry me. I know we've been engaged for the last two years, but it wasn't by our choosing. But now, it's our choice and we've discovered that there is no one else we could ever spent the rest of our lives with except each other."
"Oh my son, you have made me so happy," Nodoka exclaimed. "You really are a man among men." With this Ranma turned quite red.
Before Nodoka could go any further, she was interrupted by both Ranma and Akane.
"Mother, we'd kind of like to surprise the rest of the family ourselves," Ranma said trying to quiet his mother down.
"Besides Auntie, we have more to tell you." Akane finished for Ranma. "You see we, Ranma and I that is, have decided that it might be a good idea for us to get married as soon as we can."
At this Nodoka looked at the couple suspiciously. "Son, I hope you haven't done anything to bring dishonor to the family or Akane," she said while starting to unsheathe her ever present katana.
"Mother, I would never do anything to dishonor Akane, or our family. Surely you know that," Ranma replied, shocked that his mother would think such a thing.
"I know, son. It's just that this is so sudden. For two years, both of you have been so dead set against marriage, and now to hear that you want to get married as soon as possible, I had to ask."
"That's okay Auntie Saotome, we understand your concerns. One reason we want to get married quickly is to avoid the temptation," Akane said trying to alleviate some of Nodoka's concerns while turning red in the process.
"I understand my dear. And thank you for being honest," Nodoka replied. "By the way Akane, you can call me Mother if you wish. We'll be family soon enough."
"Thank you Auntie Sao…I mean Mother," Akane said shyly. "I do have one favor to ask of you."
"What is it daughter-in-law?"
"I was wondering, well actually , we were wondering if you'd help us choose which type of wedding to have? We're not sure if we want a traditional or a western style wedding. We could really use your help. Another thing is if we do choose a traditional wedding, we're not sure if we'll be able to afford it."
"Don't worry about a thing, my dear. No matter which type of wedding you choose to have, it'll be taken care of. Now let us get down to dinner, we've kept Kasumi waiting long enough," Nodoka said rising from where she was seated.
"We'll be there in a moment Mother," Ranma said. "Akane and I have something we need to discuss before we head down."
With a nod, Nodoka left the two alone.
"Akane, we need to plan on how we're going to tell the family about our engagement and wedding plans."
"I was thinking we'd wait until right after dinner was over, before anyone leaves the table. With Mom, you know it feels nice to be able to call someone mom. But anyway, with Mom knowing about our plans, I don't think we'll have much trouble with any of them."
"Well, I guess you've got it all worked out," Ranma said, smiling at Akane. "Now let's hurry down to dinner before Oyaji eats it all." With that, Ranma gave Akane a gentle a gentle kiss, then took her hand in his and led her downstairs.
On their way down, Akane whispered to Ranma, "at least after we break the news to the family, we won't have to be so careful around them." Then she gave him one of the smiles that she knew he loved so much.
Ranma couldn't help asking himself; How does she know all the things to do to drive me crazy?
As the couple sat down at the table, the rest of the family started noticing how close they were. Before anyone could comment though, Kasumi brought out dinner.
Dinner was pretty uneventful. Every once in a while, one of the unsuspecting family members would stare over at the couple, but no one had the courage to say anything.
As Kasumi started clearing the dishes, Ranma looked over at Akane.
"Now?" he asked softly.
"Now," Akane replied, looking into Ranma's eyes for encouragement. "Everyone," she started. "Ranma and I have something we need to tell you."
Before Akane could say another thing, Soun and Genma started crying into each others arms, mumbling about how their two families would soon be joined. One look from Nodoka, though, was enough to snap the two out of their goings on.
"Go ahead dear," Nodoka said looking towards her son and Akane. "I don't think anyone else will give you anymore trouble. Isn't that right?"
Everyone at the table nodded, trying to avoid Nodoka's gaze.
Once having everyone's attention, Akane continued. "Ranma and I have decided to get married." Looking over at Ranma, she said, "we were finally able to admit to one another that we love each other."
Starting to blush lightly due to Akane's words, Ranma gazed lovingly at his iinazuke. "Now that we've decided to get married, it'll be on our terms. We're not going to be pushed any longer," he said, full of determination. "We don't want another disaster on our hands like last time," Ranma finished, sending icy looks towards his father and Nabiki.
Soun finally broke out of the shock he was in and started wailing. "My baby girl is finally getting married," he cried. His tears threatening to flood the house.
Even through all of Soun's bawling, Genma and Nabiki remained in their semi-comatose states. Neither really believing what they had just heard.
I can't believe they finally admitted their feelings for each other. Than again, I can't believe I didn't notice anything sooner. I could have made a small fortune blackmailing them to keep my silence. Nabiki thought, adding all the lost profits she could have made off this.
Genma, on the other hand was worrying about his head. Why did he have to say anything about the last wedding attempt. I hope Nodoka doesn't catch on to Ranma's meaning. If she does, she'll force me to commit seppuku. I don't wanna die.
Ranma continued, seeing Akane busy trying to calm down her father. "Mother has already agreed to help us plan for the wedding. Kasumi, Akane and I would like your help as well, if you don't mind? You've already helped us so much, that we'd kindda also like to have you help us with the wedding," he finished, scratching the back of his head nervously.
"Oh my. Of course Ranma, I'd be glad to help out." Looking over at Akane trying to calm Soun down. "I guess I'd better take Father to bed." At that, Kasumi quietly rose and led Soun to his room.
Leaning towards Ranma, Akane softly whispered, "why don't we head upstairs? We never did finish our talk last night."
Ranma now blushing furiously, was barely able to stutter "H...hai," before glancing over towards his mother who nodded her head in approval.
"Don't worry about these two bothering you," pointing a finger towards Genma and Nabiki. "I'll keep an eye on them," Nodoka finished, resting her hand on her katana.
As Ranma and Akane silently rose and left the table, the could both hear Genma and Nabiki gulp nervously in fear of what Nodoka had in store for them.
"In a way, I kindda feel sorry for Oyaji and Nabiki. Not even I want to be around when she's ticked off," Ranma whispered to Akane as they slowly climbed the stairs.
"Well, you can't really blame her. She wanted that first wedding to actually happen just as much as I did..." Akane ended, quickly slapping her hand over her mouth. I didn't mean to tell him that much.
Before Ranma would say anything, he looked deeply into his fiancée's eyes. As he gazed into her eyes, he decided that they'd better sit down before taking this conversation any further.
A bit worried, Akane let Ranma into her room, closing the door behind him. Before she got a chance to say a thing, Ranma spoke up.
"Akane, let's sit down. We need to talk," Ranma said guiding Akane over to her bed.
Oh, no. He's going to call everything off. I just know it. Akane thought. Tears now starting to form in her eyes. "Ranma, I…I…I didn't mean to say anything about that," Akane finished, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
Oh, man. I knew I should have said something sooner. Ranma thought, reaching over to pull Akane into his arms. "Akane, please stop crying. You know how much I hate to see you cry." Taking a deep breath before continuing. "I wanted that first wedding, too. I hated how everything started falling apart from the very beginning. I hated myself for not being able to tell you how I felt about you then." Ranma finished with a sigh of relief.
"You really mean that, Ranma?" Akane asked, calming down a little as she looked up into his face.
Meeting Akane's eyes, he saw how vulnerable she was at this moment. Softly he answered her, never looking away. "Yes I do. I always have. You may not remember much about that finally battle with Saffron, but I do. All too well, as a matter of fact. When I thought I had lost you, I kept trying to imagine what life would be like without you here with me. I can still remember crying out to the kami to let you live. While I was holding you, I started to think that if you died, there'd be no reason for me to continue living. Right before you regained consciousness, I started thinking that you were dying and I never had a chance to tell you that I loved you. Much of the rest of what happened in China is still a blur. Remember when we got back to Japan and the day that was supposed to be our wedding day. As soon as I saw you and how beautiful you looked in that wedding gown, I knew I wanted to have only you by my side for the rest of my life. If it hadn't been for Pop, Nabiki, and everyone else, we would be husband and wife right now." Ranma stopped, realizing how much of his feelings he had just revealed to her. Then he realized that he was crying. Slightly embarrassed by showing this much emotion in front of Akane, he started to turn away from her, trying to hide his tears.
Akane, seeing Ranma start to turn away from her, quickly wrapped her arms around his shoulders and started crying softly against his chest.
For a while they just sat there holding each other, comforting each other. It had been nearly a year since that incident in China, yet this had been the first time that either of them had brought up what had happened then.
"Damn it, Akane, I could have lost you then. You would have thought I'd have learned to tell you how I felt. But no, it takes me almost a whole 'nuther year because of my stupid pride. I almost lost you once because of it. I don't want to ever come close to loosing you again because of it. You're my life, and I don't know what I'd do without you," Ranma said. The weight of holding all this in, finally lifted.
"I'm not going anywhere, Ranma. Ever since you've came, things haven't been the same. With us, everytime we'd show the slightest bit of affection towards one another, someone or something would always get in the way. There was one time when I thought I had almost lost you. Remember when your mother first found out about your curse? Well, when she asked to see you and your father alone, everyone thought the worst, including me. We all thought that she was going to make you perform seppuku. All I could think about is how empty my life would be without you to share it with," Akane was barely able to say before breaking into fresh tears.
For a while, neither of them were able to say anything. They continued holding each other, trying to reassure the other of their presence. Before too long though, both decided it would be best if they turned in for the night. Not really wanting to leave each other, they reluctantly parted.
As Ranma headed out of Akane's room, he leaned down and gave Akane a tender kiss. Hesitant to leave the warm embrace, he softly whispered to her, "I really better be going. We need our sleep 'cuz we have school tomorrow. And I was thinkin' that maybe if we got a chance, we might want to confront Ukyo and Shampoo. They deserve to know, though I must admit, it won't be easy."
"I know, but it needs to be done sooner or later. And frankly, the sooner the better," Akane replied. "Right now, though, I wish you didn't have to go to your room. But we don't really want to upset Mom. Especially not when she has that katana on her," she finished with a soft giggle.
"Well I guess I stalled long enough. Oyasumi, Akane," Ranma said giving her another kiss. "I love you," he whispered, hugging her tightly to himself.
"I love you, too," returning the hug. "Sweet dreams, Ranma."
Ranma slowly released Akane from their embrace and headed towards his own room.
As Akane got ready for bed, she thought back to all the things that had happened that day. She thought of all the things that Ranma had told her and all the things that she had told him. Laying down on her bed, starting to drift off to sleep, one last thought came to her. The memory of what had passed between them this morning.
Ranma, in his room, unrolled his futon. He was glad he no longer had to share a room with oyaji. As he finished dressing for bed, his mind started to imagine what life would be like once him and Akane were married. He had been doing that a lot lately. Soon however, he too was fast asleep. Thoughts of Akane monopolizing his dreams.
