Chapter 6: Running the Offense

This wouldn’t do.

Akane stood in the shade of a large tree with drooping branches and considered her situation. Until now, she’d taken whatever came her way passively, but meeting Rouge and the two bandits had changed everything.

No longer was she going to stand by and watch as events just *happened* to her. She was a royal princess, for heaven’s sake! She may not be destined to rule, but she came from a long line of Tendo kings, and no doubt all of them were frowning down on her right this very moment.

Akane cocked an uncertain eye towards the sky with some amount of trepidation. Blue sky, a few clouds floating by, a flock of small birds on the wing….nope, no angry ancestors. Still, best not to take any chances. The first thing to deal with was the arrogant, bad-tempered apprentice who was dragging her by the arm along the length of Nerima only because he was bound to her by some mystical chain. Akane wasn’t sure whether to thank Mousse for putting the geas on Ranma (because Ranma would certainly have left her to starve otherwise) or to curse Mousse for forcing Ranma’s company on her.

“Idiot Mousse!” she finally decided. “If he’d saved me the first time, I wouldn’t have this problem!”

Her current problem was crouching a few feet away, moving his hand back and forth through a wooden branch several times, with no success. “Damn, it,” he complained. “This spell is driving me crazy!”

Akane rolled her eyes. Like it was a walk in the park for her.

Ranma cursed long and steadily in a low voice. He truly was insubstantial, and could touch nothing in the real world except Akane. Not that that was so bad. The memory of kissing her, feeling her soft lips parting beneath his, caused him to draw a deep, shaky breath. For a moment, Ranma wondered if Rouge had laid the spell of invisibility on him. But no, he would have felt her try. It had to be the geas laid on him by Mousse. It was getting stronger, binding him more and more securely to Akane.

If Akane hadn’t been watching, Ranma would have been sorely tempted to throw a tantrum or pull his hair out. The stupid blind boy couldn’t even cast a spell properly, and here he was making Ranma’s life complete and utter hell.

Ranma wanted to howl. Ranma wanted to kick something. Ranma wanted to ask Akane if she knew how damn low her neckline had ripped from their scuffle with the bandits, and was she aware that every step she took flashed an indecent amount of leg through the rip in her dress?

It would serve her right if he tossed her on the ground and decided to explore that rip long and thoroughly, taking his time, gliding his hand up her smooth skin….

This is what going insane feels like, he told himself starkly.

He looked at the stick lying innocently there on the grass. If looks could burn, the stick would have burst into flame right there.

“You’ll have to do it.” He stood and glowered at Akane. “Pick up those sticks, too. We’ll need them for a fire.”

“What’s the magic word?” Akane consciously imitated Madame St Paul at her snottiest.

“Abracadabra?”

“You obviously didn’t learn politeness in that grungy cave,” Akane said with a tart sniff.

“You’ll learn the feel of my hand on your backside if you don’t hop to it right now!”

Akane jumped, fifteen years of meekness coming to the fore. But she fought it back. What would Rouge the demon do? She wondered.

Rouge would claw Ranma’s eyes out, she decided. Akane looked at her hands, shocked to see they were dirty and smudged. No claws, though.

“On one condition,” she said.

“What. condition.” Ranma ground out.

Akane pointed.

“That’s an apple tree, isn’t it?”

Ranma followed her finger up.

“Yeah, so?”

“I want some apples. I’m hungry.” Don’t explain yourself, Akane, she chided herself. If your royal princessliness wants an apple, who’s to say no?

“No.”

Akane crossed her arms.

“Well, then no fire.”

“I don’t make bargains.”

“You’ll make this one.” A thrill went through her. Somehow arguing with Ranma made her feel…alive. And she was actually winning. She could tell it by the tone of his voice. Then he looked at her, as though calculating something.

“Very well, make the fire, and I’ll help you get the apples.”

Caught in the joy of winning, Akane didn’t notice the odd wording. She knelt and began to pick up the pieces, thinking hard. Ranma was her enemy, and his master’s plans could not be allowed to succeed. As a princess, it was royal duty to foil their wicked plot.

First, though, she had to find out what that plot was.

Even as she mulled it over, Ranma concentrated. He’d used up power he could ill afford to lose by killing those two bandits who had attacked Akane, but hopefully he could still call up a heat spell, one of the first spells he’d ever learnt.

Akane watched as a small blue flame gradually lit up within Ranma’s cupped hands. He directed it towards the sticks, and soon a small fire had started up.

 “How did you come to be a sorcerer’s apprentice?” she said as casually as possible, her gaze trained on the flames.

Ranma looked up at her from his own spot near the fire.

“Why do you ask?”

“Magicians aren’t very common in Nerima.”

“Kulloden is a sorcerer, not a magician!” Ranma said scornfully.

“Kulloden is your master?” Akane prodded.

“Yes…” Well, ever since he had laid his geas on Ranma, that is. But that was different. It was the geas of a master to his apprentice, and when Ranma was a full sorcerer, the geas would disappear. In theory, anyway.

“I suppose you haven’t been with him for very long, even though you know a lot of magic,” Akane mused out loud.

“I’ve been with him almost since I was born!” Did Akane think such magic came easily? Didn’t she realize that the spells he knew took years to master?

“You look about the same age as me,” Akane said. “You’ve really been with him for fifteen years? How did your parents allow it?”

“My parents? Ha!” Ranma looked away, angry. “They abandoned me as a baby on the beach. I don’t even know them! Why would they care?”

“Really? That’s horrible!” Akane glanced up. She wondered- Did Ranma know that for sure? She wouldn’t put it past evil sorecers to lie. They probably did it all the time. But bringing that up might alert Ranma and put an end to all the information she was getting. “Was Shampoo another baby he found?”

“No, Shampoo’s mother sold her to him. We’ve never met her. She was a servant who wanted to buy her passage to another country.” Ranma had never been able to decide if Shampoo’s mother was worse, or his parents were. At least Shampoo’s mother hadn’t left her for dead.

“So you and Shampoo grew up together, like brother and sister.” Akane wondered what next to ask. She didn’t want to make Ranma suspicious, but she really needed to know what Kulloden’s plan was.

“More like two servants in the same house. We can hardly stand each other.”

“But now that Kulloden’s dead, there’s not much holding you together, is there?”

“Dead? Ha! Ranma snorted. “Kulloden’s not dead! He’s…” Ranma caught himself. Damn, he was spilling secrets to her!

Perhaps there was a way to turn Akane’s questioning around on her. He chuckled inwardly and deliberately relaxed.

“He’s a master sorcerer, more powerful than anyone else in the kingdom!” he boasted.

“Doesn’t sound that powerful to me,” Akane said. “After all, my father’s soldiers found us pretty fast.”

“It was a trap, stupid,” Ranma smirked. “Now Shampoo is princess instead of you, and you’re stuck out here, trying to trick information from me!”

Oh, he’d caught her.

“Now the apples,” she said. Any distraction in a tight spot.

“Now the apples,” Ranma agreed, an odd light in his eyes. He walked to the tree, stood underneath it, and then looked at Akane expectantly.

“Well?” she demanded.

“Well, I have no magic left, so this will have to be done by hand,” Ranma said. Akane looked closely. He was hiding a smirk.

“And if you’ve forgotten,” Ranma continued, enjoying the sight of the momentarily speechless princess, “I can’t hold the apples.”

“But I can…” he said, grinning at her. “…hold you.”

“What?” Akane stared at him. “You expect me to get them? We had a bargain!”

“I said I would help you.” Ranma couldn’t help grinning. He was enjoying this far too much. Oh, the look on her face. “I’ll give you a lift up until you reach the apples, and then you can pluck them. Unless, of course you can climb.” He knew with utter certainty that Akane had never been near a tree in her life.

She approached slowly. To give her credit, she examined the tree first. She went around it, looking at the lowest branches which were still a good six feet up. She gave him an angry, helpless look that tugged at him and stirred feelings of male satisfaction in him.

“Fine, I’ll use you,” she said. “How does this work?”

Ranma made a step with his hands.

“You step into my hands, I lift you up,” he explained. “You can put your other foot on my shoulder. I’ll keep your legs steady. Grab as many apples as you can. Throw them to the ground if you can’t hold any more.”

Akane listened with some anxiety. She took a deep breath, stepped into Ranma’s cupped palms and yipped with fright as he lifted her up. She threw her arms around his head, her fingers digging deep into the sable hair.

“Akane, let go!” Ranma, startled, used her name. “Reach for the branch above you. Trust me.”

Slowly Akane loosened her hold. She looked up. The branches were a lot closer now. Heartened, she reached up and caught them. Using them for balance, she straightened. Ranma wrapped an arm around her legs.

“What are you doing? Akane shrieked, looking down.

“I was losing my grip.” Ranma lowered his head and grinned. “You wouldn’t want me to drop you, would you?”

“No!” Akane panicked and clung to the apple branches. “Don’t drop me!”

“Then hurry up and get the apples.”

Akane looked up. Here and there, an apple hung within her reach, red and shining. Carefully, she reached out and plucked them, letting each fall to the ground as she did so. Ranma shifted his grip yet again, his hand coming dangerously near parts Akane considered very private. She looked down.

“What are you doing?!” she demanded. “Don’t touch me!”

“Sorry? You want to jump?” Ranma inquired, fighting a grin. He could feel the smooth length of Akane’s legs in his hands.

“No!” Akane crouched instinctively and stepped off Ranma’s shoulder. Losing her balance, she began to fall. Ranma’s hand tangled in her dress and caught her.

“Oh….” Akane froze, scared to breathe. In the scuffle, Ranma’s hand had somehow gotten under her skirt. His fingers were splayed against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, holding her upright.

“Ranma….” She began, a storm ready to break. Ranma recognized the warning signs.

“Oops,” he said.

Akane shrieked as she slipped further. She didn’t dare to move a muscle. Ranma’s fingertips now brushed the very edge of her underwear. She opened her eyes.

Ranma hadn’t felt so exhilarated in ages. He looked up into Akane’s eyes. She looked like a stunned deer. He wanted to laugh.

“You’re wearing silk,” he said. Ever so slowly, he brushed his fingers back and forth. Akane gasped, shut her eyes and threw her head back. Her fingers tightened on the apple branch above her, and a few more apples fell.

“Ranma please,” she whispered, terrified of saying something that would make her fall. She felt naked and extremely vulnerable in this position, poised between earth and sky, caught inescapably in the arms of her tormentor.

“Please what?” Ranma exulted in the power he suddenly had over Akane. She was so completely and utterly helpless. He couldn’t help it. He shifted his other hand to tenderly stroke the soft skin of her ankle.

Akane shivered, her eyes still shut.

Ranma propped her foot on his shoulder and drew an invisible line from her ankle, up her shin, to her knee, enjoying the feel of smooth skin beneath his fingertips. He moved the fingers of his other hand along the line of damp silk again, and slipped an index finger in. It was warm, wet heaven.

Akane shrieked and lost her balance completely, tumbling into Ranma’s arms. He caught her before she fell.

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Ooh, does this count as a cliffhanger? I can’t decide.