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Blind Date	By : PurseMonger Category: +M to R > Ranma ½ Views: 8563 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or the characters from it. I make no money on from the writing of this story.

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Sunday dinner with her father turned out to be Sunday dinner at the Saotomes. Nodoka had called and asked her father to dinner because she wanted to repay his kindness for having them for dinner the previous week and thank Akane for her help in showing Ranko around Tokyo Metro. As Ranma had already treated her to lunch, she thought the gesture was a little unnecessary, though very sweet. The blue-haired woman got dressed on auto pilot, picking out a simple knee length A-line dress in blue and paired it with black flats and a sweater before heading out with her father.

The train ride was short, which she was thankful for as it didn’t give her too much time to ponder the situation. Truth be told she was a little torn about going to dinner. On one hand she was excited about seeing Ranko and hanging out with her. She was still pleasantly surprised at how well they got along, it almost felt they had known each other forever. She had way more in common with the redhead than she had with her own sisters and was beginning to think of her as a little sister.

But on the other hand she was feeling a little conflicted over seeing Ranma. She had been surprised by her response to their kiss and hadn’t been able to get him or that kiss out of her mind which flustered her. She had never been in a situation like this before, being attracted to someone who wasn’t interested in her. It left her feeling frustrated and unsure of herself, two things she absolutely hated.

She wasn’t one to run away from her problems and she certainly wasn’t going to hide from a boy, so she would deal with her attraction to him. She just had to behave normally around him and hope that he wouldn’t figure it out.

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“Nodoka, this tonkatsu is absolutely delicious,” Soun said as he helped himself to another serving.

“Thank you, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”

“It’s an absolute treat. I haven’t had a home cooked meal this good since Kasumi left to do her residency,” he said rather wistfully.

“Why not? Akane, don’t you cook?”

“To be honest…”

“Of course she cooks! She’s just…isn’t as skilled as her older sister was. That…that was what I meant,” Soun said quickly.

He still didn’t want Ranma to know how horrible his youngest daughter was in the kitchen. If the young Saotome was anything like his father, he would decide who he married more on cooking ability than looks. He knew that Genma had considered himself lucky to have found a great cook who happened to be beautiful too.

“I’m not a very good cook,” Akane said honestly. “I try but I always end up messing up the recipes. Sometimes it feels like I need directions on how to boil water.”

The blue-haired girl was not going to mention the time she had forgotten that she set a kettle of water to boil to make tea before going to the living room to continue studying for final exams. She walked into the kitchen for a drink a while later to find she had left the kettle on the stove for hours, the water had all evaporated and the small kettle was ruined.

“If you like, I could teach you? Maybe give you a few lessons?” Nodoka offered with a smile.

“Really?” the blue-haired woman asked excitedly.

“I have faith in you.”

“Can you really cure Akane?” Soun asked excitedly.

“Geez, Dad. Bad cooking isn’t a disease,” Akane said with an eye roll before she added a little more hesitantly, “I wouldn’t expect any miracles, though.”

“Don’t worry. Ma taught this tomboy to cook, so I am sure she will be able to teach you too,” Ranma spoke up, gesturing to his sister and speaking around a mouthful of food, which earned him a glare from his mother and sister.

“Mom also taught Ranma here, and you know how thick he is, so I am sure you’ll be much easier to handle,” Ranko said, reassuring Akane.

“Oh, you both know how to cook?” she asked in surprise. The only time she had seen her father in the kitchen was when he was getting a drink or rummaging through the fridge.

“Yeah, Mom taught me because she thinks a proper bride should be able to cook for her husband,” Ranko said sweetly, though the tightness in her eyes told a different story.

“And I learned strictly out of necessity,” Ranma added. He wanted to change the topic before his mother responded, knowing that would only lead to a fight between the two headstrong women in his family. “Dad used to take us camping a lot but he couldn’t cook. So we survived on burnt rice with boiled cabbage topped with mayo.”

“Saotome, how that reminds me of our old training trips with Master Ha…”

“Shhh. Don’t say his name!” Genma interrupted as he gestured for his friend to be quiet as his eyes darted around the room for signs of danger.

“Right! Right! Of course.” Soun said quickly as he too began to look around frantically, small beads of sweet forming on his brow.

Ranma, Akane, and Ranko looked at their fathers in curiosity. While they often told stories about their training days they never mentioned their “Master” for some odd reason. The mysterious figure was treated with both reverence and horror by the two men. When it looked like they weren’t going to elaborate, the pig-tailed man decided to continue his explanation.

“Since Sis was too young to cook, I had to learn. At first all I could do was fry eggs and sausage, but that was still better than the stuff Pop could make. Ma taught me more as I grew older.”

“He’s actually a pretty good cook,” Nodoka said proudly.

Akane smiled at the older woman and asked what she thought was an obvious question.

“Mrs. Saotome, you didn’t go camping with them?”

The youngest Tendo was surprised when Ranma, Ranko, and Genma started laughing loudly.

The Saotome matriarch only smiled and said, “I’m not a fan of camping.”

“That’s the understatement of the year! Mom’s idea of roughing it is a picnic where you eat on the ground without place settings,” Ranko added, still giggling as the image of her mother wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, while chopping wood flashed in her mind.

The Saotome matriarch just smiled benignly at her family, used to how they teased her about how proper she was all the time.

“Kimiko was much the same way when she was alive,” Soun said wistfully. “She hated camping and I could only get Kasumi and Nabiki to go with me once. Akane was the only one to enjoy it but she has always been much more active than her sisters.

“I tried to teach of them the art but I couldn’t get either Nabiki or Kasumi interested in it. I insisted they both learn some self-defense to protect themselves, which they agreed to, but that was all. It was always just Akane who had a love for the art. But that wasn’t surprising as she would always run when others would walk and always preferred playing outside to being indoors. We had some wonderful times camping, the two of us, even though I never managed to cook anything more than boiled cabbage and rice myself.”

Soun had a dazed look on his face for a moment as fond memories passed through his mind before he gave his daughter a fond smile which she returned. It was no secret that she was considered the daddy’s girl in the Tendo family. Kasumi was always more like their mother in temperament while Nabiki was always an independent little girl who was fine playing on her own. Akane always had much more in common with her father than either of her sisters and they were always closer to her than he was her two sisters.

Ranma sat and listened to the Tendo patriarch, rather surprised at the new information. While he knew that Akane did martial arts, and it was obvious that she worked out, camping seemed so far from something the prim and proper girl he met at the restaurant, or the sexy vixen he met later that night, would like.

Maybe it shouldn’t have been so surprising after all, the more he learned of her the more she defied his expectations. She wasn’t like any girl he had met before. The more he knew about her the more he found himself more drawn to her and he wondered what else he would find out about the blue-haired beauty.

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The pig-tailed man stopped by his parents’ house on the way home from school later that week. He occasionally stopped by unannounced to pick up something he needed or if he wanted some of his mother’s home cooking. Today it was for both; he really didn’t feel like cooking and he needed to pick up some clothes he had forgotten when he came over for Sunday night dinner. Opening the door, a sweet, warm scent greeted him and made him smile. That wonderful smell could only mean that his mother was baking and he could look forward to something freshly baked for dessert.

He slipped off his shoes and put his bag down by the door before heading to the kitchen. As he got closer he heard his mother’s voice giving instructions before he heard a pair of voices giggling. Curious as to who else was there, he peeked through the open doorway to see who the visitor was. A small smile slowly formed on his lips as he took in the scene before him.

Ranko and Akane where in the kitchen with broad smiles on their faces while they tried to hold in their laughter. In their hands each held a rag and were busy cleaning up what looked like half a bag of flour from the counter tops, cupboards, walls, well pretty much every surface he could see. Behind them Nodoka was plating cookies from a cookie tray sheet cooling on the counter.

“What happened here?” Ranma asked as he leaned against the door jam.

“Hey bro!” Ranko greeted with a wave, her hair lightly covered in a dusting of flour.

“Hi, Ranma,” Akane said with a smile as she tucked her hair behind her ear. She too had flour over the top of her head as well as some smudged on her cheek and nose.

“Ranma, what a surprise. What are you doing home?” his mother asked, looking as pristine and put together as she always did.

“I forgot some stuff the other night and came by to pick them up.”

“Are you staying for dinner?”

“Only if there’s enough food,” Ranma replied, knowing full well the size of meals his mother made when they had a guest.

Nodoka smiled at that. “Of course there is. Akane is joining us for dinner. She came over for her first cooking lesson today. She helped prepped all the food and did a wonderful job,” the Saotome matriarch added with a proud smile.

Akane beamed at the praise, so grateful for the older woman’s patience and kindness.

Ranma walked into the kitchen, stopping in front of the blue-haired girl. He reached out and casually ran his index finger over the bridge of her nose, causing her to look at him curiously before he drew away and held up a flour covered finger in front of her face.

“And this?” he asked.

Akane blinked as she tried to focus on the digit in front of her. When she finally saw what was on his finger, she rubbed her nose a few times with the palm of her hand, trying to rid herself of the flour.

“Well, after we finished dinner, I left to take care of some laundry. Ranko apparently had the idea that they should make desert – unsupervised – and I came in to find cookies baking and the kitchen looking like a flour bomb went off. They were just putting the kitchen back to order, right girls?”

“Yeah, Mom.” “Yes, Ma’am.” Came two simultaneous responses that caused the girls to look at each other and then look quickly away as they began giggling again.

“What kind of cookies did ya make?” Ranma asked as he walked further into the kitchen and looked at the plate his mother had placed on the counter.

“Animal cookies!” Akane answered excitedly.

“Oh, right.” He pointed at one and asked, “Is this an octopus?”

“No, it’s a penguin.”

“Uh huh…and a crab?” he asked pointing to another cookie.

“It’s a lion!”

“I know,” Ranma said excitedly as he pointed at a third cookie, “It’s a water flea?”

“A rabbit!” She said, her right eye twitching.

Akane looked down at her cookies in a huff. She didn’t think they turned out that badly. In fact, she was rather proud of them, they were the best looking cookies she had ever made and he couldn’t even identify a single one.

I mean, who’s ever heard of a water flea animal cookie? she thought in frustration.

“Oh yeah, I can see that!” he said with a grin that made her realize that he was just messing with her.

Well, two could play that game. The blue-haired girl narrowed her eyes.

“These are obviously not up to your lofty standards,” Akane said haughtily and slipped the plate of off the counter.

“What?” the pig-trailed man said in surprise.

“So you shouldn’t try any.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Nope, I wouldn’t want you to get sick off of them or anything,” she said resolutely as she balance the tray on her hip.

“That’s not fair, ‘kane. Let me try just one,” Ranma whined as he tried to reach for a cookie.

The blue-haired woman deftly moved the tray to the other side and out of his reach. Amused, he tried to quickly grab a cookie from the right and then left as she continued to play keep away. Determined to beat him at the game, she put the tray behind her back.

Ranma smirked at the challenge. He moved in, effectively boxing her against the counter. He leaned close as he reached around her with both arms.

Akane gulped when she realized how close he was to her and began to blush. She had not thought that he would get so close to her, close enough that she could smell his cologne. Something musky and…very masculine was all she could think of to describe it. Flustered and only just remembering their game, she instinctively raised the tray above her head to keep it away from his grasp. However, she saw a triumphant smile break out on his face before he deftly grabbed two cookies and stepped away.

“You forgot about my height advantage, ‘kane. It must suck to be so short,” he teased with a wink before taking a large bite of one of the cookies. He chewed on it and nodded his head slowly as he judged the taste. “Not bad.”

“Really?” the blue- haired woman asked excitedly.

Could she have actually made some decent cookies?

She was so happy at the thought that her cookies came out well that she didn’t care that she lost their little battle. She quickly grabbed a cookie from the plate and took a testing bite. The cookies had a slightly salty aftertaste, which was weird because she didn’t remember adding any salt. They were also a little burnt around the edges. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“They’re slightly salty and a little over cooked,” she said giving him a disappointed look.

Ranma just shrugged. “Yeah but they’re still not bad.”

He finished off his second cookie and grabbed a water-flea cookie before leaving the kitchen and heading to his room.

Akane took another bite of her cookie. He was right, they weren’t bad just not what she was expecting. And if she were honest with herself, still the best cookies she ever made. The blue-haired woman smiled brightly as she finished off her cookie thinking of Ranma.

She wasn’t quite sure if he liked the cookies or if he was just being nice. But he took a third cookie so it was possible he really did like them and wasn’t just placating her. She couldn’t know for sure but either way, it was nice of him. She turned around to put the tray of cookies back on the counter to see both Saotome women looking at her with wide grins on their faces.

“What?” she asked a little cautiously.

“Oh, nothing dear. Absolutely nothing,” Nodoka said sweetly before checking on dinner.

Ranko just snorted and continued to clean the kitchen. Akane brushed it off as she began to help the red-haired girl put the kitchen back to sorts.

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“Hi, Ukyo!” Akane greeted as she met her friend at the train station.

They had decided to hold their weekly gabfest at the Tendo house that week, with their schedules that meant that Ukyo would be arriving at the Nerima station only five minutes after the blue-haired girl. Akane decided to wait for her best-friend so they could walk to her house together.

“Hiya, Sugar!” the chef greeted in return before they both started towards the Tendo compound.

She handed one of the two large bags filled with food from the restaurant she worked at to Akane. She knew if she didn’t bring along dinner her friend would learn to cook. Which was something she supported as a chef but didn’t want to have to eat the results of.

“So, what’s up?” the blue-haired woman asked.

“Nuthin’ really. I don’t got much time for anything more than work and my classes,” the chef said with a shrug.

“Not even Ryoga?” Akane asked, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

“Well, a girl’s gotta make time to exercise, right? And trust me, he gives me quite the workout.”

Both girls laughed as they reached the gates of the Tendo property and they both looked at each other questioningly as they heard the sound of hammering.

“I wonder what’s going on,” the blue-haired girl muttered.

Both girls walked towards the back of the dojo towards where the noise was coming from. They turned around the corner and stopped in their tracks as a very unexpected site greeted them. There, wearing only jeans and some black boots, was a shirtless man building a wooden sparring dummy. His back was towards them as he was using a rubber mallet to pound in one of the top pegs.

The two girls stood in silence and admiration as they watched the man in front of them work.

His jeans were slung low at his hips so Akane could see the top elastic of his underwear. His back muscles flexed with every swing, his back glistening in a sheen of sweat. As he worked, she could see the muscles in his forearms flex, giving her a glimpse of the power he contained in them. It was an odd thing to notice or find sexy but there it was. His powerful back muscles and shoulder blades flexed with each movement and a trail of sweat ran down his back. He bent over to pick up another wooden peg, both women tilted their heads slightly to the right to get a better view of the very firm ass presented to them.

“Wow,” Ukyo murmured, finally breaking the silence. “Who’s that?” she wondered.

“Ranma,” Akane replied automatically, her gaze still glued to the man in front of her.

“How can you tell?”

“Huh?”

“You have something you want to tell me about how you can recognize him from only seeing his naked back?”

“What?” the blue-haired woman asked as she finally tore her gaze away. “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s his hair, he wears it like that all the time.”

“Uh huh,” the chef said as she went back to staring at the man. “Damn, he’s ripped. If I weren’t already dating Ryoga…yumm.” She hummed lowly in her throat as she trailed off, letting her imagination have a little fun.

“You’d what?” came a masculine voice from behind the pair, causing them both to squeal and spin around.

“R-Ryoga!” Ukyo said in surprise as she put her hand to her rapidly beating heart. “What are you doing here?”

“I was hanging at Ranma’s when his dad said he needed help,” the fanged man replied. “Since you were busy and I didn’t have any other plans, I came along to help out.”

“Mr. Saotome is here too?” Akane asked in surprise. She was trying not to openly stare at the newly arrived male, who was also shirtless. The chef definitely wasn’t exaggerating when she said Ryoga was cut.

“Yeah, Pop’s inside,” Ranma answered as he walked over, the girl’s squeals of surprise having caught his attention. “He asked me to come help him and when we all got here, your dad explained what he needed. They stayed and helped us for a few minutes before they disappeared inside. We haven’t seen them since.”

“I saw them when I grabbed the water,” the fanged man said as he handed his friend a bottle. “They’ve been playing shogi the entire time.”

Ranma only shook his head in exasperation before taking a swig of water.

“Typical of Dad,” the pigtailed man replied with a shake of his head. “It doesn’t matter, we’re almost done anyways.”

“Really? Already? And here we came out to help you,” Soun said as he and Genma came towards the group. “Hello, Ukyo, Akane, when did you two get home?”

“A few minutes ago. We heard the noise and came out here first to check things out.”

“Isn’t it nice that Ranma and his friend came to help me out?”

“Yes, Daddy, it was very nice of them.”

“Ukyo, have you been introduced to Ranma and Ryoga?”

“Actually, I have. Ryoga and I are…” the chef trailed off not knowing what to say.

Neither of them were dating anyone else but they haven’t had The Talk yet about what that meant. So she didn’t know what to refer him as. She certainly wasn’t going to label him something he wasn’t ready for, she didn’t want to scare him off.

“I’m her boyfriend,” the fanged man said with a slight blush on his cheeks.

“Right, my boyfriend,” Ukyo confirmed with a bright smile.

“Really? That’s wonderful. I wholly approve! Such a nice, helpful young man.” Soun said excitedly as he clapped the fanged man on the shoulder.

The Tendo patriarch had known Ukyo since she was a child and felt paternally protective of her. The chef smiled even wider at this. She had always respected Soun, and with her father and him being friends, always considered him a beloved uncle, so it pleased her that he would give her new boyfriend his blessing.

“Since you are all on good terms, why don’t you four go out to dinner? It’s my treat as a thank you. Here I asked you to come help me and you boys end up doing all the work. I’m sorry about that, it’s just been so long since Saotome and I have played a game of shoji.”

“It’s alright, Mr. Tendo, it wasn’t a big deal,” Ranma said.

“Yeah, it was no trouble,” Ryoga added.

“Daddy, Ukyo has already brought us some food from the restaurant she works at,” Akane said as lifted one of the to-go bags.

“Well, we wouldn’t want those to go to waste. We’ll eat them while you guys go out,” Genma interrupted, taking the bags. “You boys deserve a reward for working so hard and I can’t think of a better one than getting to have dinner with two pretty girls.” Looking at his son, he said, “I’ll call your mother to let her know we won’t be home for dinner. If she asks, I helped the entire time.”

Ranma rolled his eyes. “Sure, Pop.”

Taking that as consent, the two older men left to let the group figure out the details. Once inside, they patted each other on the back. Things was working out even better than they could have hoped. All they had planned was to throw their children together as much as possible, hoping that they would become attracted to each other. They didn’t have a clue that their best friends would start dating each other, thus throwing the two in each other’s paths even more. It made sending them out as a group seem only natural and so neither of their children would consider it a double date or blame the fathers for trying to interfere. It looked like the fates themselves were happy with the idea of Ranma and Akane together.

Outside Ryoga asked, “So how about it? You ladies wanna go to dinner with us or you want to do your girls night thing?”

Ukyo had told him of her plans and he knew how much they both looked forward to the evening and didn’t want to presume that they wanted to just come along. The two women looked at each other for a second, having a silent conversation before they nodded in unison.

“Sure, we’ll join you two for dinner,” the chef answered, speaking for the both of them.

“Great. If you can wait about ten minutes we’re almost done and then we can head out,” Ranma said.

“Take your time and feel free to use the furo to freshen up when you’re done. We’ll be in my room waiting for you guys.”

“Great,” Ranma said as he walked away.

Ryoga waited until his friend was back to hammering before he said to his girlfriend, “Don’t think I’ve forgotten the comment you made earlier.”

Ukyo looked up at him in wild eyed innocence. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Keep that up and I’ll have to punish you later.”

The chef eyed her man and hummed lowly in her throat. “Promise?” she asked coquettishly as she batted her eyelashes at him.

The fanged man grinned and leaned over to whisper something in her ear, which caused a grin to spread across the chef’s face. Akane was surprised to see her friend blush. Ryoga pulled back and kissed her quickly on the cheek before walking away to join his friend.

The two friends stood side by side as they watched the two men work, both greatly admiring the view.

“Damn if Ranma doesn’t give Ryoga a run for his money in the muscle department. It makes sense though, considering they work out together.”

Akane could only nod as she took them both in. Physically they were very similar. Both were very fit, with lean builds, muscular without being overly bulky. It looked like they didn’t have an ounce of fat between the two of them. Ranma was slightly taller than his friend and his shoulders weren’t as broad but that barely registered as Akane stared at him.

What was it about a man that worked with his hands that was just so damn sexy? Maybe it was the thought that he would be good with his hands in a completely different way that got her so hot.

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A/N: As I mentioned in the first chapter, this story is set up like a romantic comedy, so this chapter and the next should be seen as a montage of scenes of the two bonding. It would simply take too long for me to have to set up the two of them getting to know each other better.

Another big thanks to my awesome beta reader, alwaysZutarian for her help and doing it so quickly!
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