It was hard to accept that Ranma had actually managed to make a real proposal, but for her to have risked it all and rejected him unless he agreed to an relationship on her terms was just mad.
But Ranma obviously had accepted. Akane had always feared that if she ever admitted even a single bit of her secret phantasies he would just call her pervert and be disgusted by her.
She never would not have thought that she had the courage to do something like this. She must have been very encouraged by Ranma's proposal to risk everything like this, but it appeared to have paid of.
She had expected that someday in the future, if they ever managed to advance their relationship that far, she might casually suggest playing out some small elements of her fetish in the bedroom. Just a bit of playful experimenting.
But this was no game. According to the papers in her hand it was completely real. There was no backing down, no outs or secret safewords. Akane had not known that such a thing was actually legally possible.
"Congratulations to your new slave-girl, Ranma," Nabiki had said.
Akane shivered. That was what she was now according to these documents: a slave-girl and Ranma's property.
She turned to find out Ranma's reaction to these developments and found him behind her reading over her shoulder. Judging by his surprised expression he had not remembered their new arrangement either.
Akane gave him the papers. After all they were his documents — his just like she was now.
Akane wondered what she should do now. Well, whatever Ranma told her to of course, but she did not know what rules they had set down. Could she speak unless spoken to? Should she kneel? Call him master or anything like that?
Nabiki had said that they had been knocked out right after finishing the paper work, so they probably had not actually gotten that far. Even if they had Ranma would not remember it either right now, so they would have to go over the ground rules in either case.
That reminded her of something else they likely had not gotten around to. She went to her bed and pulled out a chest from under it. Because of its big number lock, the moldy old piece of luggage was her preferred place to store away personal things in a household full of people who did not respect other people's privacy and property.
She opened it. Her emergency underwear in case of extreme Happousai was lying on top. Her secret diaries (not the ones she knew Nabiki read) were next. She began to dig.
There it was, underneath the french-maid outfit and the bunny-suit from the kunoichi incident that she had kept but never dared to wear again.
Triumphantly she took out the objective of her search. She had bought it on a lark some time ago as a reminder of her fantasies, but never thought she would get to use it for real.
She turned to Ranma to present him with her collar.
Ranma watched Akane as she searched for something in the chest she kept under her bed. This was a strange moment for her to suddenly decide to look for something, when they had so much more important things like this contract to deal with right now.
Ranma did not know what to think of it. Rejecting a marriage proposal was just the confusing sort of thing Akane would do to him, but this wanting to be a slave sounded totally unlike her.
At least he thought so. Ranma was not quite sure what a real slave was supposed to be like. He had never met any and in fact had not know that something like legal slavery still existed.
Ranma had grown up somewhat sheltered in some ways and there were a lot of things he had never learned on the road. And Nabiki had said that this slavery thing was rare, so it was completely plausible that he had never heard of it.
Not that he would admit ignorance if he did not have to. It had to be something very important to Akane for her to have acted the way Nabiki had said. Ranma would not want to risk his relationship with her if she found out that Ranma did not quite know what was expected of him now.
He would have to give it his best shot based on what he knew.
Most of what Ranma knew about the topic came from watching movies like Spartacus on TV. There were also some other sources like some of the manga Hiroshi and Daisuke had shown him, but Ranma doubted that they were very realistic.
He looked at Akane who had turned her back to him and was still busily searching trough stuff in the piece of luggage. She was always very much against any form of perversion. He doubted that she had had something like Hiroshi's and Daisuke's hentai stories in mind. She would have been more likely to start some slave-rebellion if he tried.
As he watched his new slave totally ignore him in her search he tried to organize his thoughts and feelings.
Akane was his property now. He had always thought of her as his fiancée, his uncute tomboy or simply his Akane. Now she was really his Akane and no one else could have her. As a slave she was even more totally his than she would have been as wife. A Wife still would have wanted to be her own woman, or so he had heard, but Akane was not her own girl any longer she was his girl.
Akane being his property also meant that she was his responsibility. He would have to protect her and take care of her. Ranma had always been very protective of her and held accountable for her welfare by her friends and family so this was really nothing new. At least now she would have to do what he told when he was trying to keep her safe.
That was another thing slaves were supposed to do: obeying their master. That sounded like a really good thing at first, but he realized that he would have to be very careful about what he ordered her to do. He could give no stupid or thoughtless orders as Akane might not tell him anymore when he was being stupid.
There also could be no more insults. Akane would have no anility to fight back if he insulted her. He would have to treat her with respect. If she did something wrong he would have to firmly but gently discipline her instead of teasing her until she corrected the mistake herself.
The teasing had never worked quite that well anyway even if it had been a lot of fun.
The most important part about the new arrangement was that Akane trusted him. That had always been a sticking point: that nobody trusted or believed him. Akane was now trusting him with herself. And he would have to act worthy of that trust.
All in all having Akane as his slave might not have been something that he had ever imagined, but it did have its advantages. It might be a lot of extra responsibilities, but it also meant that he was in control.
Akane had meanwhile finished her search and was now stepping towards him with something silvery in her hand.
Standing before him she wordlessly presented him with a metal collar.
Ranma took it. This probably called for some ceremony and big words, but the only thing that Ranma could come up with while fastening the collar around her neck sounded rather stupid and unbecoming for the occasion to him.
Looking her into her eyes while putting the collar around her neck he earnestly told her: "You are mine, now Akane."
Nabiki watched the two teenagers. She had expected them to fight and deny it and say all kinds of things about love and marriage that they would later find embarrassing.
She certainly would not have expected them to calmly accept things like this. Why didn't Akane protest and where had she gotten that collar?
Had Nabiki unwittingly managed to hit a lot of closer to home than she had thought?
The two had in any case forgotten that she was still in the room. They were only looking at each other.
When Ranma put the collar on Akane, Nabiki almost went into saccharine overload from the earnest big eyed looks they were giving each other. She thought she could even see some tears in Akane's eyes as Ranma completed her enslavement. When they tenderly hugged afterwards Nabiki silently excused herself and stepped out of the room.
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(Posted Wed, 09 Feb 2005 05:18)
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