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Ranma 1/2: Midnight Encounter
By Jack Staik
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The Tendo Dojo, late at night.

All is quiet, all sleep ...

All save two.

She waits in hungry anticipation for her lover, conscious of nothing but the 
sensation of the cool sheets against her nude body.

All day she had pretended her indifference, had been cold. It had tortured her,
not being able to kiss him, to proclaim her love and devotion for all the world to
hear.

But she knew that if that happened, he'd deny everything ... as he had to do.

The window creaked open, shaking her from her silent reverie. 

It was him.

They embraced warmly,their lips meeting, their hands caressing. No words were 
needed.

Their loving was fierce, passionate, intense. As always.

Afterwards, their passions temporarily spent, she nuzzled him gently. "Beloved ... 
take me away," she pleaded. "Let's go. Now. Someplace they'll never find us."

He moaned. "I want to, ichuunohito. But you know what will happen. They'll 
follow us to the ends of the earth."

"But if I told them that we truly loved each other -"

"Would they care?"

She shook her head. "No."

They lay together in the darkness, their arms entwined about one another.

"Darling ..." he asked. "Why me?"

She sighed. "When I first met you, I was repulsed. As I got to know you, I saw 
every possible bad trait; crudeness, vulgarity ..."

She heard him breathe deeply, unshed tears in his sigh.

" ... and then I saw the true man. A warm, generous, compassionate man, prisoner 
of his curses and upbringing. The man I love. The man I want to be the father of 
my children."

He squeezed her tightly.

"No one ever affected me like you did," he murmured. "No woman ever could. 
Those others all mean nothing."

"I know," she said.

He held her close. "I'm working on it, my love. Soon, we'll be together. They 
won't be able to come between us ever again. Not your family, and not my 
enemies. No one."

"I have faith in you, my love," she sighed.

They lay together in silence, listening to each other's heartbeats, drawing 
strength from one another.

"I should go now," he said. "You know what would happen if they caught us like 
this."

Sadly, she nodded.

After he dressed, he stepped toward the window. Her arms reached around him 
and hugged him close.

"I love you, Happosai," she said.

"I love you, Kasumi-chan," he replied.