[soundtrack for this one: Rising Hope, by LiSA]

After a mostly sleepless night, Nabiki rolled out of bed the next morning and stood in front of her mirror again. She looked tired, but at least she hadn't been crying. She cast a critical eye over her body and decided it was high time for a bath, some hair styling, and ... as little Ranma as she could get away with today.
She rolled her eyes at that thought. The boy lived in the same house as her. How was she supposed to avoid him, move out?
Actually, that wasn't such a far-fetched idea. She would be graduating high school in a year and a half. Maybe she should talk to some of her friends about their college entrance exams, and plans for what they would do after high school. She had always intended to attend the University of Tokyo. She was sure she was good enough to get in. Once she was in, she could live in the dorms, or live off-campus with her friends. Of course, she could live off-campus with her friends regardless of what their college status was.
She smiled at that thought. It would be nice living with her friends and having a bit more control over where her life was going. It would also be nice not to live anywhere near Happosai. She would be sad to be away from her sisters and Daddy, but it wasn't like she would be leaving Tokyo, so she could still see them ... occasionally. She wasn't sure she would want to be around Ranma and Akane too much after they got married. If they got married. I don't know if either one of them are going to be able to grow up enough to actually take that step, if they date only each other. She thought sadly.
But, that was Akane's problem, not hers. She still thought things could have been amazing between her and Ranma. But, she didn't want Akane to suffer, and she didn't think Ranma would ever trust her again after the last few day's events. She couldn't say she blamed him. She was fairly certain that he had at least some feelings for her as well, but she doubted he would ever summon the courage to act on them.
With a sardonic smile on her face she walked quietly from her room to the bathroom in her robe and thought about all the things that could have been as she quickly bathed and then styled her hair. When she was done she slipped back out of the bathroom and into her bedroom again without running in to anyone. She closed her door behind her with relief. She wasn't going to go so far as to hide from Ranma, but she would be happy to avoid running in to him at least for the morning. Once he went on his date with Akane later in the day, she was sure things would be back to more or less normal again. Not that things were ever really normal around this house.
She slipped off her robe and changed slowly into her school uniform dress as she watched herself critically in the mirror. She needed to do her exercises and she needed to do something to relax and clear the stress lines from her face. She decided to go out with her friends in the evening after dinner. There were no classes tomorrow, so she could stay out late. Maybe they would do some karaoke or go to a movie.
She allowed herself to feel a little bit happy about that. She was not going to let her feelings for someone rule her life. She was able to find joy outside of being in a relationship. Hell, until recently she hadn't even wanted to be in a relationship. She had been perfectly fine toying with guys, dating them, allowing them to think she liked them, accepting their gifts, and moving on to the next guy. She'd never even allowed one of them to kiss her. She needed to regain her center and get back to being that person again. That was where she was in control. That was where she felt safe. That was where she ... didn't ... get hurt. She bit her lip at that thought, and forced herself to take slow deep breaths to calm down as the tears threatened to come. They seemed to always be at the surface-level lately. But she refused to cry today. Today was going to be different.
She took a last deep breath, took one last look in the mirror, straightened her collar, and then strode purposefully out of her room. She made her way quickly downstairs and headed straight for the front door. She would grab something to eat on the way to school. She was really hoping to avoid running into Ranma.
Of course, life rarely worked the way one wanted. As she slid the door open to go outside, she found herself face to face with Ranma, who had been in the act of reaching for the door to open it from outside. He was dressed in his Martial Arts training clothes. He was obviously coming in from his morning's training.
They both froze and just stared at each other. She saw several emotions flash across his face in rapid succession from surprise, to anger, to determination and ... was that guilt? Then he plastered a silly grin on his face that didn't reach his eyes, which stayed wary. "Hey Nabiki. I was about to go see if you were up yet. How are you feelin' today?" He asked in a forced cheerful voice.
She let go of the door and stood up straight and regarded him for a moment as she decided how she wanted to respond. He just stood there smiling at her, which made it much harder to lie to him, even though she was fully submerged in her professional persona. She decided to play it cool and responded carefully in a neutral tone. "I'm fine, Ranma, thank you."
He nodded and smiled. "Great, can we talk?" He asked as he reached over and grasped her hand gently as he said that. He didn't yank her off her feet or squeeze hard, but he did pull gently to try to get her to walk towards him.
Oh ... please no, please don't do this ... she thought desperately as she allowed him to pull her out of the door and started walking with him. He didn't let go of her hand. She didn't really want him to.
They walked in silence together as he led her around the house to a secluded corner in the back. When they reached it, he swung her around gently and pressed her softly into the small corner of the house that formed a niche between the walls for the house there and the walkway that led to the dojo. There were a lot of trees and bushes ringing the area as well. It was one of the more private corners on their family's land. He stepped close to her and grasped her hands gently as he shielded her from the view of anyone who might look their way. Her breath was starting to come quickly as her heart beat faster. He smelled good. She hated that. It would have been so much easier to pretend to be disinterested in him if he smelled bad, or he was mean to her, or he was rough with her, or ... or anything.
She looked into his eyes and did her best to ignore everything as she hid behind her professional mask up. "My my, aren't you being forward today. What's up, Ranma?" She asked as calmly as she could.
He smiled at her in what she was sure he thought of as his best lady-killer smile. It still didn't reach his eyes, that hurt her a bit. She knew he was trying to get back at her for what she had said to Kasumi. She also knew she deserved it.
He leaned in closer to her and pressed his chest against hers as he continued to hold her hands. She couldn't help herself as she started to blush from head to toe. He tucked his chin in around her neck and brought his lips up against her ear and whispered so only she could hear. "I've been thinkin' about what you asked me for on the roof yesterday if I wanted to stay your fiancé..."
Her heart leaped into her throat. Oh ... no. Oh no, please .... please no... she whimpered silently to herself.
He continued after a moment's pause. "If you were serious, would you like to do that today on our date?" He leaned back after he said that and paused with his nose almost touching hers. She could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he stayed pressed up against her. She was sure he could feel her own heart hammering right back. That was something she just couldn't hide.
It would be so easy ... so easy ... to just lean forward and surrender to what she wanted to do. She could tell that even he wanted to. He might be mad at her, and he might not love her, but she could tell that he at least found her attractive. He wasn't a good actor. He wouldn't be able to do what he was doing if he found her unattractive. At least she had that. Maybe she wouldn't be able to keep him, but maybe she could ... maybe she could ...
No! She screamed at herself. She would not let herself be pulled off her center any further than she already was. Not when she was close, so close, to fixing this whole mess and being able to move on with her life. Akane didn't deserve to be left in limbo any longer, and Ranma didn't deserve to be jerked around, and she ... she didn't deserve to suffer like this. She didn't. She wasn't a bad person. She wasn't! She hadn't meant for any of this to go so far. She just needed to stay strong a little bit longer, then it would be all over.
All over.
All over.
Forever.
She thought sadly as she stared into his eyes and wished that her life had taken a very different path from the one she found herself trapped on.
With a supreme effort of will she pulled her head back from him and whispered, "I think I hear Akane calling you."
He let his gaze stay on her for a moment longer, then he took a step back from her and smiled as he continued to hold her hands. They both knew Akane wasn't calling for him, her little sister wasn't exactly quiet. The loss of the warmth of him against her shocked her as efficiently as a bucket of cold water would have. She cemented her professional mask on her face, and forced herself to smirk at him. "You shouldn't keep her waiting, you know how she gets." She added.
He nodded and let go of her hands. "See you after school?" He asked quietly.
"Yes." She whispered just as quietly as she let her suddenly cold hands drop to her sides.
He winked at her and said, "I'm looking forward to it." Then he quickly pivoted on his heel and darted off towards the front of the house again. He didn't look back.
"I'm sure you are." She whispered after him as she bit her lower lip to keep from crying. She was pretty sure she tasted blood after a moment. She slid down against the wall on legs that would no longer support her as the adrenaline rush he had triggered left her feeling shaky and sick as it fled.
Today was going to be ... a long day.
After a minute had passed, she summoned the willpower to stand up, and did so on shaky legs. She brushed the dirt off her backside and straightened her dress with unsteady hands. She would do what she had planned for today, for the greater good. Ranma would be back with Akane by the end of the day, and life would go on. She wasn't a bad person. She told herself repeatedly as she gathered her strength to go face the day.
Yes I am. She thought miserably as she looked sadly in the direction he had left and wished more than anything else in the world that he had stayed with her.
She walked slowly for the front gate and headed for school as she warred with herself over what she wanted to do, and what she knew she was supposed to do. Kasumi's words to her last night echoed in her head over and over again as she walked. She knew what Kasumi had meant, but she didn't dare follow the advice.
The path she had chosen was the best for everyone, and that was all that mattered. It didn't matter what she wanted. Nobody loved her, and she didn't love anyone. She would become the ice queen that so many people called her behind her back. She could feel herself freezing on the inside as she took each step closer to the school and her resolve hardened. It would all be over after today. She just had to hang on. Just ... hang on. She told herself repeatedly as she walked into the school and took her seat in a daze. She could see the worried looks her friends were sending her way, but she just couldn't bear to get into it with them right now. She'd cry on their shoulders afterwards. If she let her resolve slip for even a second today, she knew she'd break, and she didn't think she would ever be able to go through this again. Never again. She promised herself, the heartache just wasn't worth it. She'd rather be the ice queen.

***

She reached the end of the day without remembering how she got there. She didn't remember class. She didn't remember lunch. She didn't remember the empty conversations she'd had with her friends. She was frozen inside. She made her way home quickly and grabbed her bike to go for a ride. She intended to just ride around the neighborhood and clear her head. She had no intention of going anywhere near the park Ranma would be waiting for her in.
Of course, what she intended to do wasn't what she wanted to do, and somehow she found herself on the street in the shopping district that bordered the park. She'd just take a quick look to make sure Akane met up with him all right. No harm in that.
Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Ranma standing in front of a flower shop a couple dozen meters away. He was buying flowers. Wow, he really is going all out for his little revenge plan, she thought. She could see that he was saying something to the shop keeper, and he was standing in an angry stance. As the shop keeper walked away after Ranma paid him, she could tell that Ranma was talking to himself. She was about to ride away to make sure he didn't see her when he started yelling.
"—ank Nabiki?! Yeah right, for what?! Ruining the rest of my life?!"
Well, she knew for sure now. The date was a trap. She wondered what he could be planning? As she rode away quickly before he spotted her, she tapped into her frozen center and held on to it. "Well, it doesn't matter ... the poor boy's plans are for naught. It's Akane who's going on the date! Sorry to disappoint you, Ranma!" She said to herself.
She stopped short just down the street as she saw Akane rounding the corner heading towards the park. Akane was dressed very cutely in her very best dress. Her little sister was wearing makeup, and she'd styled her hair. Akane was also smiling happily to herself and humming as she walked. This wasn't good.
With Ranma as visibly angry as he was, and Akane clearly looking forward to a nice date with him, she could see her plan falling apart with every happy step Akane took. She muttered to herself, "Akane... geez... she looks awfully happy." She had to change the plan. Ranma was too angry. She needed to calm him down before she threw him at Akane. If Ranma fought with Akane again, she didn't know if she would survive having to go through again what she had been through in the last few days.
She turned around and rode quickly to the meeting place. She spotted Ranma and increased her speed. She needed to distract him and pull him away from Akane until she'd calmed him down. She plastered a silly smile on her face and called out to him when she was close enough for him to hear her. She called out to him when she was close enough. "Ranma!"
As he turned towards the sound of her voice she thought sadly, I guess I have to play along with Ranma, for Akane's sake. Ranma had just managed to turn all the way around when she reached him and plowed right into him with her bike, running him over. She stopped for a moment and looked back with the best playful smile she could summon from her frozen center.
As Ranma got back up to his feet he sputtered, "Nabiki! You—you—"
She took that as her cue to get him to chase her. She pedaled off quickly as she forced herself to laugh and say playfully, "Catch me if you can!"
A moment later she felt the bike frame shudder as Ranma landed on the back of it. It was inhuman how fast he was. "Little minx! Gotcha!" He cackled gleefully and said in his fake cheerful voice. He put his hand on her shoulder. "You're gonna spend the whole day with me!" He said forcefully.
She looked down at his hand on her shoulder and said playfully, "Oh? Awfully forward, aren't we?" She then quickly looked left and tried to fake him out. "Oh look, there's Akane!"
"Where? Where?" He asked in a worried tone, as he shifted his weight to look where she had indicated.
She took the opportunity to steer under a low-hanging tree branch and knock him off the bike. She had to admit that she resented his guilt towards her sister. She knew she had no right to, but she did anyway. "Just kidding!" She called out to him as she rode away. She added quietly in a small voice as a small dragon of jealousy rose up unbidden inside her. "Serves you right." 
She winked back at him as she put distance between them. Now that she had let him vent a little bit of his frustration on her, she tried to send him back to Akane. "Hey, Ranma?! If you're so concerned about my sister, why don't you go back and apologize to her?"
He surprised her by getting back up to his feet and chasing her again. She quickly rode into a nearby hedge maze and ditched the bike in one direction while she went in the opposite direction. She was sure that if she hid from him, he would lose interest in chasing after her. Then she just had to get him to make it to the meeting with Akane before she gave up on waiting for him. Why was everything so complicated?
She jogged up one of the trails in the maze as she doubled back towards the entrance. She figured she'd let him run around in here for a while until he cooled down and then—
She stopped quickly and let out a startled yelp as she leaned back away from a hand that had burst through the hedge to her right and reached for her. It was Ranma's arm.
Ranma called out from the other side of the hedge as he grabbed for her. "There! There! There!"
What is he trying to do ... hit me?! She thought, alarmed, as she danced backwards out of range. That made her angry, but it also made her happy. If he was that off balance, it should be easy to tip him back to Akane.
Ranma then pushed his head through the hedge so he could see her, smiled angrily and declared, "You can't get away now!" He started walking through the hedge to get to her. Why was he acting so angry? Had she hurt him that bad? Or ... was it something else? "You've played with my feelings for the last time!" He shouted at her as he cleared the hedge.
She needed to calm him down, this was getting out of control. She brought her hands up to her face and assumed an innocent pose. "You mean ... when I said I loved you?" She asked him carefully.
He cracked his knuckles angrily as he walked towards her and growled. "It was all a joke to you, wasn't it?"
Oh, this wasn't going well at all. It would have been better to let him fight with Akane again than to let him get into the state he was in now. Still, she couldn't help be a little happy that he was so obsessed with whether or not she actually loved him or not, and how hurt he seemed to be when he thought she lied about it. She turned away from him and summoned her theatric skills as she said, "Ranma... I'm a girl ... do you think I'd joke about something like that?!"
She ran off at that both to put some distance between them, and to also sell her performance. As she ran off, she buried her face in her hands and fake-sobbed. "How could you?!"
Ranma was left standing there with a shocked expression on his face, stammering after her, "H-H-Hey!..."
She turned a corner and stopped to catch her breath. She had to admit, the cat and mouse game they were playing was kind of fun. Still, he was terrible at it. She said quietly to herself, "Heh! Amateur! He may be cute... but he sure is dumb!"
Ranma's voice sounded from above and behind her, "Oh, so!?" He jumped over the hedge and chased her again as she ran away. "Now you're really gonna pay!" He yelled after her.
She was trying desperately to figure out how she could salvage the situation she found herself in. Instead of bringing Ranma and Akane together again, all she seemed to have really done was get Ranma to be openly angry with her. She needed to get him refocused on Akane—
She blinked as she ran past someone, and realized it was Akane. She came to an abrupt stop and turned around wide-eyed just as Ranma reached through the hedge Akane was running past, and grabbed her little sister, thinking Akane was her.
Well ... that's one way to get him refocused on her. She thought in surprised approval as she watched him tighten his grip on her sister. He would have to realize he was holding Akane in a moment. Her younger sister had a completely different build than she did.
Ranma yelled from behind the hedge, "A-HA!" Akane just yelped in surprise. Akane probably didn't even realize it was Ranma who had hold of her yet. She took a couple of hesitant steps towards them. She hoped Ranma realized who he had hold of shortly, or this was going to turn ugly.
Ranma continued to pull on her sister, dragging her through the hedge as he cackled to himself, a bit unhinged and yelled, "I've got you now! You're. All. Mine!"
Okay, well, so much for him realizing on his own that he had Akane. She'd better help him. She shouted across the hedge, "Ranma! What are you...? What're you doing to Akane?!" She put extra emphasis on her sister's name, hoping to snap him out of it. Akane had recovered from her surprise, and she was starting to thrash around in his grip as she fought to pull away from him as she growled in anger.
Ranma continued to pull on Akane, "I told you, I'm tired of your sick little games!" A moment later, he succeeded in pulling her through the hedge, and immediately pulled her into a fierce hug. "You know something?! I love you!" He practically screamed.
Well, that had been ... unexpected. Was that his idea of getting back at her? Lying to her with the same thing she had told him? Pretty weak. She leaned forward through the hole in the hedge and watched curiously to see what would happen when he realized he had Akane in his arms. The dragon inside her, that was her jealousy, tried to rear up and call out to him that he had the wrong girl. But her ice center froze it in place. If Akane took him back right now, then it would be all over.
Neither Akane nor Ranma moved for a moment. Then Ranma pushed Akane away from him so he could look into what she assumed he still thought would be her eyes. He called out passionately as he did so. "Don't you understand that I can't ever let you go? We'll be together for an eternity!"
When he finally saw that it was indeed Akane he had in his arms, he froze with a shocked look on his face. This was it, the moment of truth. Akane had no idea he had meant to say those things to her. She would take them at face value ... she hoped. If Akane could just ignore the whole pulling-her-through-a-hedge thing, this could be where the whole mess went away. She held her breath as inside she died a little with each passing second.
Akane looked up at Ranma and blushed from her neck to the top of her scalp.
Ranma stuttered as he also blushed and said, "A-Akane...?" He then looked through the hole in the hedge to see her standing there watching them, and jumped up to bounce around shouting, "No! No! No! No! Noooooo!"
Akane was still looking up at him with wonder on her face. Well, good for her. She deserved to be happy. This should be it then, she could make her exit. She stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder and said, "I'm a witness! I'm a witness!" Then she turned and looked at Akane and said with a smile, "I'm so happy for you, Akane."
She wanted to mean it. She didn't.
Akane looked up at her with eyes shining with unshed tears and said, "Na-Nabiki...?"
She couldn't handle seeing the rest of this. She quickly turned on her heel and walked urgently away from them. "You two be good! Bye-eee!" She said as he made her hasty exit. That had been a pretty weak play on Ranma's part. She was mildly disappointed as she thought, that's his idea of revenge? What a lame-o!
She meant to leave the park quickly. But the dragon inside her wasn't dead yet. It still had enough heat left to fuel her quick turn around the corner so she could listen to what happened next. She was going to be, upset, if they didn't get back together after all this. She couldn't do this again, she just couldn't.
She heard Ranma say, "—like I said, I was just trying to trick Nabiki."
Akane replied in her usual disbelieving tone. "Oh, you expect me to believe that?"
"Hey, I don't care if you don't believe me, but it's the truth." Ranma retorted.
There was a pause, and then Akane replied in a small, cheerful voice. "You know, Ranma ... I'm getting tired of all this. Why don't we just become engaged again?"
The dragon inside her died then as the ice won. She didn't hear anything else they said as the blood rushed to her ears and her world shrank. She swayed on her feet and for a moment she was afraid she was going to faint. Then it passed a few minutes later, and she started to come out of it enough that she felt she could at least walk. There. A broken heart wasn't so bad. She could get through this.
She let a single tear roll down her cheek as she forced herself to stand up straight and turned to walk away, and found Ranma standing there looking at her with a confused look on his face.
Oh God ... please no ... I can't, I can't, I can't, Ican'tIcan'tIca— she thought in a desperate panic as she backed away from him. She even thought about running, but she knew she'd never outrun him.
He looked at her quizzically and walked over to stand in front of her as he focused on her face. She knew her mask had slipped. She tried to put it back in place, but she couldn't, there were too many cracks in it now. It was a lot harder to pretend when one was dying inside. 
When she had backed away to what she felt was a safe distance she stopped and summoned the last of her willpower to ask him the obvious question. "Shouldn't you be with Akane right now?"
He looked at her curiously as if he was trying to piece something together in his mind. He said as he continued to look at her with a puzzled expression, "Akane's on her way back home."
"Didn't you two ... make up?" She was glad Akane was happy again. No I'm not.
"Yes and no. She asked me to be engaged to her again, I gave her the flowers."
"Oh." Was all she could think to say. She tried to turn and walk away, but he moved to stand in front of her again. She looked up and met his gaze with an exhausted one of her own as her lower lip trembled while she tried to smile confidently at him. She didn't have much endurance left in her. She needed to get away from him before it was too late.
She didn't deserve Ranma, but she didn't deserve to be tormented, either. She wished he would let her leave. No I don't.
"I told her I'd think about it."
See, they're back tog—, wait, he said what? She looked up at him in disbelief as her breath caught.
"You see, Nabiki, I think I have you figured out now." He said with a small smile as he reached for her hand.
Oh no! She thought in a panic as she backed up quickly from him and held her hands in front of her face. What was going on?!
"I don't think you've been tellin' me the truth, Nabiki." He said as he walked slowly towards her while looking at the ground, but she could see that he was smiling. He stopped a little bit away from her and smiled softly. "You're very good at this kind of thing. You tell a lot of half-truths and leave things unsaid so you can claim you never technically lied. It's been really hard tryin' to figure you out. But, I think ... I think you do have feelin's for me, and everything else has been a lie."
She started to crumble inside. Everything was falling apart. Her family was going to be broken. Akane was going to try to kill her. Maybe she should just let her do it and put herself out of her misery. She locked eyes with Ranma as he finally looked up at her and grinned as he held up a single rose he had saved from the bouquet he had been carrying earlier.
She had to stop this, she had to stop this now. She didn't take the rose. Instead she forced herself to frown. "I don't know what you're talking about. You belong with Akane." She said urgently.
Liar.
"Hurry, go catch her and go home with her. That's what's best."
Liar.
"I don't love anyone, especially you, Ranma."
Liar.
As she protested, he dropped the flower on the ground and continued to step towards her while she babbled. He never let his smile slip, and never broke eye contact with her. She noticed that his smile was reaching his eyes now.
He stopped when he was less than half a meter away from her and lifted his arm to point at her confidently. "You're lying, Nabiki. I can tell you are." He said with a smile.
She blinked at that. If he could read her through her masks, then it was all over.
"You see, that's the thing that's had me confused through this whole thing. We hadn't done much talkin' before this started except stuff anyone would say livin' in the same house with someone. But ... since this started ... and we've been talkin' ... and you've said the things you've said, I have been gettin' all kinds of mixed signals. Your body language would jump all over the place, while your face would say one thing, your words would say another ... but your voice ... your voice I think was the only part of you tellin' the truth. I think ... I think this started out as a game to you, but then stuff you had been hidin' inside started to come out." He walked forward and grasped her hand and held it in his warm hand and asked as he stared into her eyes. "What do you think?" He asked softly.
"I ... I ... I don't ..." she stammered as she shook her hand loose from his and desperately tried to figure out a way to stop this and protect her sister.
"I think you really do have feelings for me."
Yes!
"And you just don't want to, or can't admit it."
Yes!
"I think that maybe ... maybe you wouldn't be as all right with it as you say, if we didn't stay engaged." He said as he blushed.
Yes!
He stopped at that and looked down at the ground as he waited for her to respond.
Her world was spinning out from under her. She knew what she was supposed to say, but she didn't know if she could any more. She leaned back into the hedge behind her and kind of sat in it as she looked at him in shock.
How ... how had he managed to figure that all out? Maybe he isn't nearly as simple as he likes people to think he is, she thought as she stared at him, more afraid than she had ever been in her life. She wanted to cry, but the tears seemed to be stuck, everything seemed to be stuck. She had a raw feeling in her throat, and she didn't know what to do. What do I do?! She screamed at herself in despair.
He walked over to her and held his hand down to her as he smiled kindly at her. She reached up with a shaking hand and took it. He pulled her up to her feet then slipped his arms around her waist. Her mask started to shatter.
He held her with his arms around her loosely as he looked carefully into her eyes. "You know, you never answered me this morning." He said in a whisper.
"Answered what?" She whispered back in a shaking voice as she avoided his eyes.
"About what you asked me for yesterday on the roof." He replied as he continued to try to look into her eyes. He finally managed to get her to look at him, and smiled as he saw whatever it was he was looking for.
She desperately tried again to get him to go back to Akane. "You mean the kiss? Ranma, you know ... you know I was just putting on an act—"
"I know ... but you still haven't answered." He said confidently as he pulled her closer.
"But, what about Akane?" She asked in a whisper as she looked away from him and tried to lean back from him, without much of an effort.
"What about Akane? I'm not engaged to her, I'm engaged to you." He said in his own whisper as he held her tighter. He smelled nice, like a cedar wood mixed with some sort of a flower.
"But ... she ... asked for you back ..." She stammered in a quickly weakening voice.
"You asked me first." He said as he leaned in towards her.
"Ranma ... " She tried to protest with her last remaining strength. He paused and looked into her eyes, looking for permission to continue, and the last of her strength gave out. She nodded once, fiercely, and he smiled. 
She couldn't do what she was supposed to do any more. She stopped leaning away from him, and instead pressed herself in to him, as hard as she could, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself up to embrace him like he was her only chance of not drowning.
She buried her face in his neck as she held on tightly and the tears started to flow. She was numb. She wanted to die, and to stay like this forever. "We can't do this..." She whispered into his neck.
He tilted his head down and buried it in between his shoulder and her own face and continued to lightly press in between until his face was right next to hers, cheek to cheek. Her tears were now smeared all over him as she continued to cry as she held on to him fiercely and let go of everything she had been trying to hide for the last several days.
"Yes we can." He whispered back to her with his lips on her cheek.
A few moments later he pulled her up higher and brushed her lips with his own and lightning struck her through the heart, and a new dragon was born inside her. He pulled back and tried to look into her eyes romantically. But she was done with that.
She lunged forward and kissed him, hard, as he held her. He pulled her in tighter and kissed her right back. It was her first real kiss. It was the strangest and most wonderful feeling she had ever experienced in her life. She was sobbing as she kissed him; her tears were mixing with his sweat, and their lips were pressed together and her mouth was open, and she was trying to devour him. He was warm, so warm, and she felt like she was awakening from the deepest sleep she had ever been in, and the dragon inside her burst into a flame to rival the sun and roared to the heavens in triumph.
And, just like that, the ice inside of her began to melt. The grief went away, the pain went away, and the awful weight lifted from her. She felt herself falling, free and falling forever. And she knew, at the end of that fall, was Ranma.
For the first time in a long time, she felt happy ... really, truly ... happy. As she kissed him with her arms wrapped around him as tightly as she could, she continued to cry tears of relief and thought, God help me, I can't pretend any more. I'm going for it!