Chapter Text
Akane got back from her courses to a familiar sight taking place right over top of her family's home, and for once it felt like a good omen. Seeing Ranma and Genma training in aerial combat, seeing even a small Moko Takabisha flying through the air, was wonderful news, because it meant that Ranma was in high spirits, just like she hoped he'd be.
Of course, it was nerve wracking regardless of fortune on Akane's side. Life had a way of fucking things up around her and Ranma, and there was no way it'd take just her wishing for something to go smoothly for there to be none of the chaos. She'd accepted that by now, it was kind of hard not to after having two years to merely wrap her head around all that happened at Jusendo.
So, she'd fight for what she wanted to happen today. Akane would fight like she had all 20 years of her life. She fought to get herself into university so she could get her future career in physical education, she fought to push back a second attempt at that wedding that failed years ago, she'd fight on still.
Akane would defy fate itself if it meant she was able to propose to Ranma tonight.
Sure, they were engaged, but it was all under the lense of this arrangement between their fathers. An arrangement that painted it as a business arrangement, basically just for inheritance tax to be avoided. Something that painted Ranma as manly and rugged in a way he wasn't, and Akane as feminine and quiet in a way she wasn't. It was fiancees via lies and discomfort, the kind that stopped the two from actually dating years earlier than they did.
Akane was Ranma's girlfriend for the sake of actual love, not that contractual agreement. She would be his wife the same way. Ranma was unconventional, a dork at heart, a kind soul when his head wasn't up his ass and virtuously stubborn when it was. Whatever transaction their parents saw in getting them together, it had nothing to do with why they stuck with it. And that's why Akane, the girl, was going to be the one to propose. Maybe even with Ranma in girl form as an extra Fuck You to the rules that once repressed her.
"I'm home!" Akane called out to the relatively quiet house. Someday, hopefully soon, she could really call it hers. That was maybe a small benefit of the engagement, though definitely not a necessary one.
Of course, no one answered directly. She knew that Nabiki preferred her business courses in the latter half of the day, and that Shampoo and Kasumi normally did Wednesday date nights, so it really was just Akane, Ranma, Soun and the visiting Genma and likely Nodoka. Not that Akane was planning on staying here for long, it wasn't exactly a romantic place to propose.
"Hey, Auntie," Akane approached her future mother-in-law on the engawa, "How long have they been fighting?"
"Oh, hello dear, not too long," Nodoka smiled while patting the spot next to where she was sitting, "Genma just has… Something he needs to get from Ranma. It's for Ranma's improvement, don't worry."
"And did Ranma get told about this improvement stuff? Or was it sprung on him like usual?" It was tough being sceptical, but given what Akane's heard and seen over the years…
"It's good for him, I promise," Avoiding the question, Nodoka pulled out a tissue, "It's quite hot out, I can see the sweat on your forehead. Here, Akane. It's hardly befitting of a proper young lady."
"Oh, uh, thank you," It couldn't have been that bad, Akane could hardly feel it, but did wipe off what little there was just to satisfy the sword wielder's idea of womanhood, "I'll just go put this in the-"
"No, please, I can take it to the bin," Nodoka went to stand up, snatching the tissue, "It saves us a trip, doesn't it? I had something to do, anyway. Please, stay."
… That was weird. Like, weird by Saotome family standards. Even by Akane's friend group standards. The gender weirdness stuff was kind of normal, but taking a tissue to a bin? Did Nodoka think Akane had a fever suddenly? Sure, the 'saving a trip' thing was already an explanation, but it didn't sit right, like it was forced.
Akane's attention snapped upwards as a single word rang out through the air as Ranma fell into the koi pond: "OW!"
The cute redhead that pulled himself out of the koi pond was wincing badly, and it wasn't hard to see why. The large red gash across his hand looked pretty bad. Akane got up to run for a first aid kit, but adding on to the strangeness, her own dad was already charging from inside the house with bandages and antiseptic.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, POPS!?" Ranma shouted as the blood on his hand got mopped up.
"It was an accident, boy, I swear!" Genma said with his usual amount of honesty, a red stain on the pin he had never worn before, "You should've known better than to strike somewhere sharp on me."
"Yeah, and you shouldn't've worn something sharp at aaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The world's best martial artist apparently wasn't immune to the sharp pain of antiseptics rubbed into a wound, "What gives!?"
"Well my apologies for not wanting my son-in-law to get an infection." Soun switched quickly to wiping up what little tears Ranma had from the sting, almost obsessively.
"Yeah, well I'm a little tougher than any- Oh, 'Kane! Hey!" Grabbing the roll of bandage and wrapping it around his own hand while on the move, Ranma leapt to his feet to join Akane, "Didja just get back? How's your day? Was the bento okay or do I need to cut down on the cutesy foods?"
"Ranma, it was perfect, you did great," Akane had resigned herself to sous-chef at best a while ago, "I only caught the end of the fight. How is your hand feeling?"
"I'm probably not gonna be using it well for a few hours, but it's fine," Ranma shrugged it off, "It's not the worst pain ever, and besides, still got a hand to hold yours with, don't I?"
"Dummy." In a quick motion, Akane scooped Ranma into a bridal carry, a far more efficient way of dragging him places than by the pigtail.
"Dork." Pouted the blushing redhead. Even with the passage of time, some things never changed, like Ranma's stubborn refusal to admit he liked being carried as easily as groceries sometimes.
Technically, and only technically, Ranma and Akane had different rooms. With Genma typically back at the Saotome family home, Ranma had free reign over what was once a guest room. However, especially after his nightmares of Akane crumbling into dust at Jusendo, he had shared Akane's room a lot more, to the point that Akane was comfortable just dropping her boyfriend onto the bed before going to get changed.
"I was thinking of going for a run," Akane hummed while digging through her closet, pulling out her planned outfit, "Just down to the park, probably. Do you want to join?"
"I dunno, I'm on dinner duty tonight cos 'Sumi's out, unless you wanna have takeout or something." Ranma stretched out in a cat-like manner on the bed as he rolled to face away from his changing girlfriend.
"You don't have to get started that early, silly, we can survive with a late dinner," The plan was to get to a nicer place for dinner this evening, actually, one-on-one, "Besides, do you really think you're going to run that slow?"
"Depends, cos by the look of that outfit, you could be planning to run and have tea with the emperor on the way," Giggled the redhead, "It's fancier than your usual running clothes, what's that for?"
"Can't a girl want something with pockets just for the sake of it?" Yes, these were slightly nicer shorts, and yes, Akane was wearing a plain polo instead of the usual tank top or even graphic tee she'd normally choose. But those pockets were important, and she had to coordinate around the shorts as a result. She had to have somewhere to hold the ring box.
"Fine, lemme go change then, I'll meet ya downstairs," Still masterfully averting his gaze, Ranma left the room, "I won't be long."
Everything was falling into place perfectly. Fortune really was on Akane's side, and by the end of the day, she'd hopefully be actually, properly, romantically engaged to Ranma. A run down to the park, taking in nostalgic scenery and bantering as usual, then going to the most secluded spot they could find so Akane could make her proposal all about Ranma and no one else, just as their love always should have been. The ring, while definitely just a novel tradition from America, would seal the fact that this is for them, and not for the traditional lives they were somehow expected to have.
And then it'd just be the matter of telling friends, really. Ryoga and Akari already knew Akane's plan to propose, they were the ones who suggested it be as casual and outdoors as it would hopefully be. Akane definitely had her sisters rooting for her. Ukyo had to be talked down by Konatsu from giving a talk very similar to a protective father figure. There were a whole bunch of people who already knew that Akane was going to propose. They deserved to know if she was successful.
Akane tied back her shoulder length hair into a high ponytail so it wouldn't get in the way while running. It'd never be as long as it had once been, and it didn't have to be super short to be hers, either. She was a girl of her own making, and that was enough. Akane felt confident in her looks but could change it whenever she wanted. She was Ranma's cute tomboy, forever and always.
It wasn't the best habit to go sliding down the stair handrail, but if Ranma got to do it often, then Akane could when she felt like walking on air. It was the most tense she had ever felt while being so giddy, the engagement ring box feeling heavy in her pocket. This was it. This was actually going to be the second most important day in her whole life, the real one coming at later date.
"Comin' through!" Ranma called out, jumping straight over the staircase and landing right on the bottom with a flourish, "Sorry to keep ya waiting."
Still redheaded, still as cute as ever in that form, Ranma was in that yellow shirt with a red bow tie that felt more fit for this form than his black haired body, tucked into his long pants. It was one of his less athletic outfits, sure, but Akane was in a similarly formal-ish outfit, so the dummy probably wanted to match, regardless of how effective it was to actually run in.
Ranma honestly spent so much time in his female form, it was hardly a surprise he stuck with it for this run. Maybe he'd have changed out of it if he knew he was going to be proposed to, there was still a lot of shame that surrounded him for not being 'manly enough', but it wasn't a big deal. Akane had done far more intimate things with Ranma in girl form for her to have a crisis over proposing to him in it.
"Hey, 'Kane, you're staring," Ranma waved his unbandaged hand in front of Akane's face, the same hand that'd soon hopefully have a ring on it soon, "What's wrong? Something in my hair?"
"O-oh, no, I'm awright," It was tempting to kneel like in those foreign movies right on the spot, "You just look nice. I'm ready to go whenever you are."
"It's a good thing he isn't ready just yet!" Genma called out, fortune turning sour for Akane immediately, "Boy, here, this kettle!"
"No, Pops, I'm fine," Ranma backed off from the offered hot water pretty quickly, "I told ya, I'm happy with my curse, it's part of me, so-"
"Bah, you'll thank me for it!" The bald man continued to push the kettle towards Ranma, "Right, girl?"
"I'm actually fine with Ranma however he wants to be," It helped that Akane was very knowledgeable on Ranma's female form in a way that would make her 16 year old repressed self scream in horror, "Let's just go, Ranma."
"It's for his manliness!" Nodoka called out, and Ranma unfortunately froze. Even though it had been torn up and long ago voided out, that contract still hung over Ranma's head like the sword of Damocles, a reminder of what his parents wanted from him.
"… O-okay, sure, whatever, just lemme get changed and-" Ranma wasn't given the opportunity to get different clothes before his father tipped the kettle over him.
… Was the kettle really radiating as much heat as it felt like it did? Because Akane started sweating, and sweating pretty hard. The heat might as well have been unbearable for something that was affecting no one else. It was hot enough that, through the worst temperatures Akane had ever felt outside of certain doll-ifying extremes, she was certain she had to be hallucinating the bandage on Ranma's head suddenly becoming soaked far more red.
Oh fuck. Ranma was bleeding from his hand badly. Dizzying levels of bad. His transformation was taking longer too, like it was something slow and deliberate to shape his features instead of something as fluid as water. Red from his hair retreated into black, and almost back up through the kettle's spout like getting sucked through a straw. It was the most uncanny the curse had ever been.
And as if to add insult to injury, Genma immediately splashed Ranma with cold water.
Nothing happened.
"Our son's a true man again! Yes!" Genma cheered, "Quick, we need to gather panda sweat so we can cure me next!"
"He's bleeding a lot," At least Nodoka was aware of the bigger issue, "It didn't say he'd bleed again from it, or that Akane would pale."
"… It said so on the next page," Soun sighed as he walked in, holding open a small book, "Old friend, did you learn nothing from the Nekoken?"
"W-w-what did you do to m-m-me…?" Ranma asked shakily.
"Cured you, boy!" Even with her thoughts overwhelmed by heat, Akane still wanted to make a huge dent in Genma's smug face, "And it only cost a some blood, sweat, and-"
The kettle started crying. Something inside the kettle started crying.
"We need to get the three of them to a hospital," Soun slammed the book into Genma's chest before going to call an ambulance, "And you need to work on your patience when reading something important."
Akane passed out from the heat, but not before cursing out fortune for lying blatantly to her face about what side it was on. The ring box pushed uncomfortably into her hip.