Ranma 1/2 is the property and invention of Rumiko Takahashi. The following story is not produced for any monetary or personal gain. Its sole purpose is to entertain using the characters and plots developed by Takahashi. ALL rights reserved

Will you listen to the wind as it whispers through the trees? Can you hear what it is saying?

Chapter 6: Peek a boo!

Akane Tendo was plotting which was something usually thought of as a trait belonging to her sister, Nabiki. Akane too however could plot, it was just that her schemes were a lot simpler than her sister's and required less control. Ranma's incessant training had finally stopped but when she had thought about it last night, maybe Ranma's training had been for the better. Akane knew she had had a lot of time to mull around with questions in her head. She hadn't decided on what the exact phrasing of the question would be but she knew the gist of what she was going to ask. She would have to be sly though and she would have to introduce the topic within a conversation with Ranma.

Ranma had one weakness Akane knew of that she could use to her advantage: food. Ranma loved food. Her compliments to Kasumi about her food were ceaseless. Akane had once tried to make something for Ranma without her knowledge but the chocolate covered rice ball had turned out to be a strange green colour instead of a rich dark brown. Akane knew she had followed the proper instructions. It had to be the ingredients. They had probably been faulty in the beginning. She couldn't give Ranma anything that wasn't perfect as a gift so she had chucked the idea for later.

A new restaurant had opened up virtually overnight in the Nerima district. A year ago it had also been a restaurant but the sons of the owner had closed it after his death since neither wanted to continue the business. Another restaurant! Akane knew that Ranma would not be able to resist the temptation to sample the food. It was the perfect disguise to get Ranma alone, away from the prying eyes of her sister and her web of information suppliers. Akane's other friends were not as interested in food as Ranma was and Akane knew they would resign her invitation to come with them in favour of the athletics tryouts in the afternoon. For some reason, all her friends wanted to watch a bunch of pervert boys try out for the athletics team. At least Ranma was not like the rest of her friends. Her mind was never on boys and she hardly spoke about them unless they cornered her into saying something.

Ranma herself though had not surprisingly gathered a Ranma Saotome fan club at Furiken although she seemed unaware of their existence. Akane thought that that was probably due to the fact that she had a steady boyfriend named Ryouga -even though she denied it, Akane knew better. She hardly even gave a second glance to the boys who offered her flowers or chocolates, scratch that, she did eat the chocolates but then again all she told the boys were thank you. Those words were enough to send some of the boys fainting and proclaiming that Ranma had spoken to them. What a bunch of perverts! Ranma however never seemed fazed by their actions.

"Miss Tendo, if you would kindly pay attention to the board instead of dreaming."

"Sorry sensei," responded Akane sheepishly.

"Why can't you be more like Miss Saotome?" murmured the teacher as if to challenge Akane.

With those words, the teacher turned around and began to lecture again to the chagrin of the rest of the class. It was the last period and Akane never knew that fifty minutes could take so long. A brief glance at Ranma and Akane almost burst out laughing. 'Be more like Miss Saotome,' she said. If she had taken a better look, the teacher would have realised that the said Saotome was sleeping heavily. Her head was in a book as if she was following the lecture by reading along with the text, but Akane knew better, a little stretching and Akane could make out the two books that kept Ranma's chin above table height. The placement of her hands served to keep her head raised as if she was studying the book. Akane knew better though. If she could see through the book, Akane knew that Ranma's blue eyes would be shut and she would be in a deep sleep.

After a couple more minutes droned on, the bell rang and immediately the class came back to life after its premature death at the hands of the boring lecture. Everyone looked as if they had been injected with drugs. Their eyes were now open from their semi-closed earlier state and their limbs shook incessantly with restraint. Akane could see that most of the students like her were curbing their desire to bolt out of their seats. The teacher, glanced at the class, closed her book slowly. The sound of the book closing reverberated though the room. She had made her way slowly, antagonisingly slowly to the door. It was as if she was waiting for someone to lose their patience and bolt up. Such an act could get the entire class detention. Last period was always such a staring match. The students staring at the teacher's back and the teachers staring back at the students from imaginary eyes behind their head.

Finally the door swung closed and the class broke into an uproar. Some students dashed for the classroom door. Others took their time to pack away books and chat with friends. And others, like Ranma Saotome, were blinking their eyes, oblivious to what had happened before their hibernation was interrupted.

This certain Ranma Saotome woke up to find two brown orbs staring at him. The owner of the said orbs was asking him something and he simply nodded his head. He would have liked to just go back to sleep then. He was having a nice dream about trouncing his pops. Dreams like that were meant to be dreamt again. A vicious tug brought him back to the world.

"Come on, get up, let's go to the restaurant."

Ranma's mind was doing the calculations: Restaurant = tasty food = filled stomach

Ranma's subconscious mind was also doing some calculations: Food mentioned = stomach rumble + salivation + 'WAKE UP I'M HUNGRY' call.

Thus Ranma was up and to Akane's surprise, was pulling her out the room. Akane banged him on the head causing him to lose his grip and slump to the floor.

"You forgot our bags, baka."

Ranma rolled his eyes.

With Akane in the lead, the two 'girls' walked towards the restaurant. The other girls had asked them where they were going and, after finding out, bowed out to go to the football field where the tryouts were being held. If what had happened last time when they carried Ranma to a restaurant happened again...

Akane held Ranma's hand tightly just above the wrist area. Ranma had to remark that the girl was uncannily strong. He was a martial artist and he knew some spells, but the grip she had was inhuman. He had been pondering the spell in his dreams for days and going through its motions. Each spell had a definite starting sequence. The start showed its purpose and Ranma knew its purpose. It was supposed to draw the wind. The rest of the spell drew the wind into the spiral. The spell though was useless unless there was a strong breeze blowing. The spell could then start with the relatively weak wind and build it up over time to a stronger wind. That Ranma had covered. The second part was what confused him. He had no idea what it was. There was something to do with a circle but beyond that he did not know what would happen. The only way to know for sure would be to try it out. He would only have to show it to Dai and she would tell him, but he had not seen her for some time. He would have to go into the forest to try out the weave for the spell. Attempting an unmastered spell in a populated area was a messy thing that could sometimes become dangerous.

Where was Dai? It was not that he was missing her. If fact, he was glad that she had not showed up the following Friday after their last encounter; at least he did not have to take her out on a date again. He was worried about her though. She was his friend after all. Most likely she had been practising those new teleportation spells. Ranma knew that they were seriously draining and there was no way his level of aptitude would allow him to do one properly, but Dai was a different case. She was way better than he was. She probably burnt herself out trying to get to china and had to recuperate. If there was one thing about magic, when you used too much, you really felt the effects. Reserves took a long time to build up again.

"We're here!" announced Akane.

Ranma looked up and read the sign. "Ucchan's!"

That name, he knew that name. Ucchan's? Uh oh...Ukyou. Ukyou who he had just met last night was opening her restaurant right here in Nerima. Ranma smelt trouble and much more than that. He could smell the delicious aroma wafting out of the restaurant. His stomach rebelled and grumbled, but Ranma held firm, latching onto the doorway. He did not want to face Ucchan without the semblance of a plan.

"I'll pay!"

"Huh!" replied Ranma.

Too late! That minor distraction caused him to release his hold slightly but enough for Akane to yank him inside the doors. She shepherded him to a table at the back and they sat down.

"So Ranma what were you planning on doing before I brought you here?" asked Akane.

"Oh I don't know. Ballroom dancing or ice-skating. Perhaps beating up on my student for a little while in the Dojo!" The last part was said with a bit too much venom and Akane was visibly taken aback. Ranma regretted saying it the minute he heard the words come from his mouth.

"Sorry Akane. I'm just a bit out of sorts," apologised Ranma.

"Anything you'd like to tell me?" probed Akane.

"Nah...just me gettin' into more trouble. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh, and talking about worrying. You never told me who that girl was that appeared in my bedroom the other night when we were sleeping."

"Oh her..." replied Ranma trying to delay the answer until he could think of something to say. He blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

"Oh, that was Dai. She's a friend from china. She likes to play practical jokes."

"You have some pretty weird friends," remarked Akane.

"Yeah, I know this girl who had to fight her way through fifty boys to get to class, whose idea of fun is smashing a couple dozen bricks, who thinks all boys are perverts..."

Ranma would have continued but a mysterious hand had quickly covered the distance of the table and was firmly clamped onto Ranma's mouth, preventing him from saying anything else. When the owner of the hand decided that Ranma would not continue his discourse, she removed her hand. Ranma stared at the flushed face of Akane.

"Someone's a bit touchy," he remarked.

"For your information, I don't think that all boys are perverts!" retorted Akane.

Ranma blinked. This was a development. "So who's the lucky guy?" asked Ranma. He would like to know too. If someone had captured Akane's eye, he thought he should at least know who it was since he was Akane's best friend.

Akane's face turned a deeper shade of red if it possibly could and Ranma waited intently for an answer. Inside Akane's mind, she was preparing to give Ranma the answer. Finally she would tell Ranma...she would tell Ranma...all she had to do was say a name. Two syllables. It couldn't be that hard, could it? Akane was trying to get her mouth to pronounce those two syllables and Ranma was intently waiting on an answer when someone called Ranma.

Ranma's face turned and he waved semi-enthusiastically to the owner of the voice. He would have liked to know whom Akane had the hots for but glancing back to Akane he saw that she had turned her attention to the approaching person.

"Hello Ranma, here are your orders!"

"Hi Ukyou, didn't know you were opening a restaurant," replied Ranma before he inhaled the food set in front of him.

"Yeah it's my part time job until I start school next week."

"Where are you going to school?" asked Akane.

"Furiken High. I don't think it's very far from here."

"Really," replied Akane, "Ranma and I go there too."

Ukyou brightened. "Hey, at least I know two of the people in my class." She turned to face Akane and stuck out her hand. "Ukyou Kuonji."

"Akane Tendo."

Ukyou turned her attention back to Ranma whose plate was already wiped clean. Plate cleaning was probably a family trait surmised Ukyou.

"So Ranma, have you seen my Ran-chan yet?"

Ranma froze for a second but luckily he recovered quick enough so that it wasn't noticed.

"Nah, haven't seen him in awhile. He's pretty busy so I only see him every so often."

Ukyou looked disappointed. "Well tell him that I have an okonomyaki with his name on it."

Ranma inwardly cringed. He hated making people feel bad. "I'll tell him, I promise."

"Who's this Ran-chan?" asked Akane.

"Oh, he's my fiancé," replied Ukyou excitedly.

"Fiancé!" exclaimed Akane. "You're getting married? When?"

"Well, honestly I don't know when. From what Ranma told me, he didn't even know that we were supposed to get married."

Akane was confused and stared at Ranma hoping for a hint. Ranma for once kept his big mouth shut. He had no idea what to day and in situations like these it was best to just stay along for the ride and let things sort themselves out. Hopefully they would sort themselves out without getting him too mixed up. Why couldn't things stay simple like they did with other people?

Ukyou began to explain.

"When we were younger, our parents arranged for us to get married but Ran-chan's idiot father ran away with my dowry without even telling him of the engagement. So all Ranma honey has to do is tell Ran-chan that I'm his fiancée and we'll be fiancées again."

"Isn't that a bit old fashioned...I mean arranged marriages," asked Akane.

"Not really. Since I knew Ranma when were little I always knew that he was the one for me. He's was really cute and well, we got along pretty well together."

Ranma's head hit the table, hard.

"Hey Ranma, is everything okay?" asked Akane and Ukyou simultaneously.

"Yeah, fine, just thinking." That and he was developing a killer headache. Somehow he knew emptying the bottle of extra strength Tylenol was not going to help. Just great! His best friend from when he was young was in love with him. How many did that make now? Three! It was as if someone had stapled a sign on his back saying, 'sign up to be Ranma Saotome's fiancée,' or boyfriend if they were talking to the girls about Ryouga. Ranma held his head. He wished he hadn't promised himself not to drink sake!

While Ranma was distracted by his own thoughts, the girls were busy talking.

"So you still love the boy and you haven't seen him in 10 years!"

"Hey, it's been less than that!" defended Ukyou.

Akane slapped her head. She thought some of the girls at school crooned over boys too much. They were nothing compared to this girl. Chasing after a boy she barely knew because their stupid parents promised him to her. She hoped her father had enough brain cells to not try something that stupid with her. If she got married, it would be on her terms with a boy she wanted to be with.

Right now, Akane didn't feel like staying at the restaurant. Fortunately the order list was building and Ukyou had to get back to the kitchen. She gave her apologies and disappeared into the fray.

"Come on Ranma, let's go."

Ranma did not object as he followed her out of the establishment, his feet dragging. They walked silently until Akane had to speak.

"I can't believe she actually wants to marry your cousin!" exclaimed Akane.

"Me neither. Never thought I'd see her again. I'd like to kill pops."

Akane raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to kill your father for?"

Ranma sweated until an answer came to him. "It's the principle of the thing."

"Oh. Well, just don't take it out on my dad."

"Nah, I don't think your dad is that stupid." Ranma's mind however pointed out something to him: an opening. "'Cause if he was, then I'd be talking to a stupid tomboy."

This was exactly what he needed to get his mind off his troubles.

"Hey take that back!" shouted Akane.

"Nyah...make me!" taunted Ranma.

"Oooh...come here you! I've got a mallet with your name on it!"

"What's that, your fat and full of it!"

"Ranma! Come back here!"

"What's up Akane, too slow. Maybe I should slow down so you can catch up!"

"Oooh, wait till I get my hands on you!"

Ranma loved pissing her off. It was so easy. It was also an excellent way of building up her running stamina without her knowing it. Akane was so stubborn that she would follow the chase for miles until Ranma finally gave in and let her catch up. Of course, he couldn't go down without a fight so in the ensuing practice for him, battle for her, he would dance around and wear her down until she finally called it quits or actually got a strike in with the mallet of hers -not likely- unless of course he got distracted.

They had reached the part where Akane was busily trying to attack Ranma and force him to attack her. Although Ranma hated hitting Akane, he was technically her sensei and technically, it was his job to hit her. He was about to faint a punch to the face and follow up with a series of kicks that would have her splat on the ground when a tingling sensation came to his mind and ruined his concentration. The result was that Akane's close-in fighting trip actually connected and worked but Ranma's extended hand reflexively grabbed whatever was close as he fell- which was Akane's neck if you would like to know. Unfortunately for Akane, her extended leg that she had used to trip Ranma had not returned to the ground to stabilise her position and with Ranma's extra weight combined with her falling momentum, Akane found herself falling also.

Ranma was an experienced fighter and as such, falling for him was nothing new. His father was the master of underhanded tricks and Ranma was the fool who had been the recipient of most of them. The only good thing to come out of that was that he never fell for the same trick twice. Something his father had to learn very quickly.

Ranma hence was trying to figure out why the back of his mind was tingling and after a moment of thinking he realised that he could feel the presence of a third person in his mind?

On another day, he would have had a longer time to think about what had he had felt but today something else was going to happen. Akane fell with him and with his hand around her, she fell directly on top of him and as fate would have it her face lined up perfectly with his and she kissed him, on the lips.

Ranma didn't register it immediately since he was still busy with the sensations in his mind but when he did, his face flushed brightly and his eyes opened wide. For him, they had stayed there like that for what seemed ages. A sudden shift on Akane's part and he suddenly found himself flying. Years of instinct took over and he landed with his feet to the ground.

"Cheap shot Ranma. Thought you could take me by surprise huh! Now get back here so I can pummel you!"

'She thought that was training!' thought Ranma incredulously. 'Maybe it was,' answered part of his brain. 'It's not like you feel anything for her?' 'No, he did not feel anything for her. A couple more weeks waiting for pop and then they'd be off again. He did not feel anything for her.'

**************

Dai lay quietly on the roof of the Dojo. She was humming to herself and no one knew she was there. No one should know she was there but Ranma. The only thing was that Ranma did not know she was there. He should have known. He had practically fortified the place with wards, but nothing had attacked her. Ranma hadn't even been warned against her presence. The last time they had met, she thought that was because Ranma had not set enough wards or had not set up any specifically for her. The night of their ruined date, she had come back to the Dojo to sneak up on him while he was sleeping again.

She was cautious and wary of the ward patterns strewn across the compound. She had not earlier, when she was stalking him, or later when she wanted him for other reasons, thought about doing a sweep for the wards since no magical warning from the spells around her spoke to her of any danger. She only felt the presence of the wards around her. When she came back though, she did a proper scan of the compound and found to her amazement wards covering the entire household. Most could not affect her person if she was not using magic but some could. She had woven a spell into the air intending to set off one of the alarms and bring Ranma running to the Dojo and into her arms. The only problem was that nothing had happened. The pattern was there, but the magic had not activated it in the slightest. She reached out to it with her senses but it refused to come to life. She was even more surprised when the pattern actually started to change when she focused her concentration on it. She could change Ranma's patterns. That should have been impossible, but it was not! Impossible as it was supposed to be, she could change Ranma's patterns. In her excitement she had teleported herself right back to china, completely depleting all of her reserves but she had questions to ask. Many questions to ask and she had to have the answers! She needed those answers. Master Sung had the answers to she went to him.

He was as perplexed as she was when she told him what had happened. She had tried under his instruction to change his patterns- she had depleted her reserves so much that she hadn't the power to generate a spell. The patterns however refused to change and the shock spell did what it was supposed to do: it fried her. She was angry with Master Sung for that but then again, she had asked him for the answers to her question and this time she did not have to force an answer from him.

When she had approached him about the question of being Ranma's wife, he had immediately gone into the monk mode: prayer and silence = still thinking. She wanted an answer though and after the first night, she had to get...determined. Master Sung had lasted a long time she had to admit. Pouring boiling water on his head while freezing his feet and wailing so loud that everyone left the temple for five days was a bit much but on the sixth day the wailing did get to him and he broke down crying. Dai knew then that she had won. She spent the next few days trying to re-hydrate herself though.

The answer was there though, right in her face, and in the end she did not need Master Sung to tell her. Ranma was magically linked to her. It was the only answer. It was the only way she could do what she did with his spells. It was the only way she was able to cast those spells on Akane's sister. Ranma was part of her and she was part of him or that's at least what she thought it was. She didn't want to think about it in too much detail after that because she was that excited about the prospect of her being with Ranma.

It would take her a long time to gather power for a teleport so she had decided to use the considerable amount of wealth she had amassed from stupid men trying to harass her and put it to good use. She had actually travelled for the first time in a long time and had actually taken a trip by boat across the ocean. Her stomach heaved at the thought. It was not something she would try again. The trip had done its purpose though. She was back in Japan and her energy had risen to a high enough level for her to cast spells again.

She had arrived at the Tendo compound and had not found Ranma's energy signature anywhere. That was not strange since she knew from the beginning at the temple that he was bound to a wandering life and had to get out a lot. What was strange though was that while she was sitting on the roof she had suddenly felt a tingling at the back of her neck. From her experience with spells, it felt like a binding. It felt as if someone was reaching out to her and trying to talk to her without talking. Could it be Ranma? It had to be Ranma.

She embraced the sensation and found herself feeling something. She was feeling something or someone else, as they were exercising, no make that fighting. That had to be Ranma. She was sensing Ranma! Then they were falling, then they were...they were what! Ranma was doing what! Wait! There was something else there too. Dai could not believe it. She had to speak with Ranma, privately.

She realised that she could sense his approach. She watched as he entered the gateway. She could sense him but she could no longer feel what she had first felt.

************

Ranma entered the house but he could sense that someone's eyes were on him. Someone was watching him, but he did not know who it was. The tingling sensation was still there and he could feel it stronger now. What was that and what was causing it?

"Ranma? Ranma! Hey Ranma!"

"Huh, what?" he asked as Akane finally caught his attention.

"You okay?"

"Huh...uh...I don't know. I think someone is watching me."

"How can someone be watching you?" asked Akane incredulously. "We ran straight here plus we're inside the house."

"No they're watching, I can feel their eyes."

"No one's watching you Ranma. Trust me. You're just feeling a bit paranoid," comforted Akane.

"Yes they are! I can feel them looking for me...Akane get back!"

Someone was in the Dojo. He could sense their presence. He could sense their ki. Ranma bolted for the Dojo and rolled into intending to at least surprise the intruder. Instead, he was the one surprised.

"Dai?"

"Ranma...do you feel it?"

He did not have to ask what she was talking about.

"What is it?"

"I don't know," she responded truthfully. "It has something to do with the spring. Here, touch this..."

He recognised the pattern.

"Come on..."

He touched it, and it moved.

"It..."

"Yes, and I can do the same for yours."

"What can you do?" asked Akane who had no idea what was going on. Both of them stared at her then focused their attention back to the other.

"Can we stop the tingling?" asked Ranma.

"Don't know any spells that would...wait, let's both try to stop it. Think about stopping it."

They both closed their eyes and concentrated and the tingling began to dissipate until it was gone.

"It worked!" exclaimed Ranma.

"Yep, cause I'm the best," responded Dai for which Ranma gave her a displeasing glare.

Dai returned his glare. Then a thought came to her. She started to think about sensing Ranma's presence and his thoughts again and the tingling came back. It was apparent from Ranma's face that he was also feeling it. She then concentrated and tried to suppress the tingling and the thoughts of Ranma. Predictably the tingling ebbed away again.

"So let me guess," started Ranma. "When we start thinking about each other too much, we can sense the other person and when we stop the tingling goes away."

"Smart Ranma. Actually using your brain. Well I'll see you later, I have some other business to take of."

Ranma looked surprised.

"Yes I know other people in Nerima besides you."

Ranma blinked and Dai decided to just teleport away instead of using her feet. She had enough of ground transportation for one day.

"I need a bath," muttered Ranma and left Akane alone in the Dojo.

Ranma Saotome sat at the table in the guestroom. The sun had set while he had been bathing and uncharacteristically, he had not gone outside to bid it farewell. He sat on the chair and stared at himself in the mirror. He only had on a vest and a pair of boxer shorts. Akane had seen him in this many times and had been persistent about getting him pyjamas but Ranma had finally managed to convince her the other night that he felt comfortable in them, which was true. Mr. Tendo was the only male in the house and he usually went to bed early so it was just the girls up at night, specifically Akane and him.

Tonight though, Ranma was uneasy. Those few nights when he had those dreams had been unnerving, but now he found out that Dai could sense his presence. He knew too that she could sense his thoughts and use his patterns. Thinking about it made him both angry and tired. The one true place of privacy he had was his brain and the thoughts therein. He knew now that someone could sense what he was thinking and he was none too happy about it. The only good thing about it was the fact that he could also sense Dai's thoughts and emotions when she was trying to sense his. He did not like the implications of what could happen with this kind of connection.

Ranma covered the mirror and placed in back in a drawer. He then put his hands on his head and tried to massage his face. He was surprised when he felt two hands slither across his shoulder blades and begin to massage them.

"Mmm..."

*************

Akane Tendo had stayed a while longer in the Dojo. She knew something had happened and she knew that it had affected Ranma greatly. The look in Ranma's eyes when she told her that someone was watching her was of a caged animal trying to get away. She felt the tension release somewhat from Ranma when she found out that it was Dai but Akane knew that Ranma was troubled.

During their talks, Akane knew that Ranma had taken care to hide as much of her past from her as she could. The answers were always truthful but Akane knew that there was something the girl was not telling her. Akane did not want to pry however. Ranma would tell her in her own time.

Right now though, Akane was worried about the girl. The depression on her face was quite evident when she had left the room. Dai might not have noticed it, but Akane had been with Ranma long enough to notice when Ranma's mood changed.

Akane would have actually gone into the bath with Ranma but she knew the girl liked her privacy. In school, she was either the last or the first to bathe, dress and bolt out of the changing room. She was always out by the time the first few girls were arriving or now coming in when the last were leaving. Ranma seemed to never bathe when anyone, including her, was in the bathroom. Akane just waited until Ranma left and took a quick shower. She got Kasumi to make two cups of hot chocolate and walked quietly up the stairs and into Ranma's room since the partition was still open.

Akane frowned. Ranma should have noticed her by now. She saw the girl rubbing her temples, her long red hair unbound and uncombed. Akane softly rest the cups down and crept up behind Ranma. She placed her hands against the girl's shoulders and rubbed them, eliciting a response. Akane massaged them pretty well then handed Ranma one of those cups of hot chocolate. One made especially for her.

While Ranma sipped, Akane began to brush her hair lightly. She could feel the tension ebbing from the redhead and soon enough, the chocolate began to have an effect as Ranma began to nod. Kasumi had suggested that Akane give Ranma some of those sleeping pills and Akane noted that putting them in the chocolate had been a wise choice. She doubted she could have convinced Ranma to take some of those pills.

With Ranma softly snoring, Akane took the cup from her hands and rest it on the table. That done; she tied Ranma's hair into a simple ponytail from just above the base of her hairline. Ranma had called her a strong girl many times and she used her strength to her advantage as she picked Ranma up in her hands and placed her on the futon. She covered her with the blanket and sat in the chair the redhead had previously occupied. She sipped her hot chocolate as she observed Ranma sleep.

Peaceful. Ranma looked peaceful sleeping. That was the difference. During the day, Ranma was full of energy but at night, she slept peacefully. The cold wind blew from the open window chilling her slightly. These nights had been a bit cold for some reason but Ranma always insisted on keeping her window open. She remembered a time when on cold nights her sisters and her would pile together in a bed and fall asleep under the covers while telling stories. That had been two or three years ago, but Kasumi had grown up in that time and Nabiki wanted her independence. Akane was glad that the girl was staying at the Dojo. There were many things she could talk to Ranma about that she couldn't with her sisters. Kasumi was too much of a mother now and Nabiki was usually unapproachable. Akane rest her cup to the side of Ranma's and then climbed in under the covers. She hoped Ranma's father would not come soon to take her away. Akane enjoyed having someone else to talk to around the house. Putting a hand around the redhead, Akane nuzzled into the pillow and promptly fell asleep.

*************

Dai Lin released her control from her position. She was far enough from Ranma so that he would not feel her but she knew more about magic than he did. She had stretched out her mind to the patterns on the wall and had changed some of the unnecessary ones to a simple spell. Ranma might deny it, but Dai knew some things about him now that he refused to acknowledge himself. Someday, when they were married he might thank her for that subtle changing of the pattern.

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