-It belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. That lucky son-of-a-gun.
Passion Spice
It's not often my spices are tampered with. I am sure I locked the cabinets this morning before I opened the Nekohanten, and even still, Mousse and Shampoo have no way of getting inside to reach the spices. On the other hand, Shampoo has more access to the keys and is much more capable of picking the lock... or breaking the doors open. Mousse does not have the desire to use the spices, where as Shampoo has more of a motive in order to receive the attention of Son-in-law. The old woman sat atop her pogo staff and stared idly at the busted doors to her magic spices cabinet. Mousse was busy attending the customers of the Nekohanten while Shampoo had been out with a delivery. Although the girl had been gone for a substantial amount of time, it was nothing out of the ordinary. She usually would stop if she saw Ranma, or even any of his other fiance's to boast about her status as his one and only true suitor. But today she had become worried of her great-granddaughter.
Usually Cologne set the task of opening the shop for lunch up to Mousse, but he had informed her that Shampoo set to the task long before he could. This caused a slight disturbance with Cologne because Shampoo never liked opening the shop, and when she -was- given the task of doing so, she usually pawned it off on Mousse, who was more than happy to make her smile (even if it was practiced and a bit stale). Not only that, but Shampoo had made four bowls of ramen and had taken them to son-in-law, who would likely eat two bowls of the stuff before Shampoo, herself, and Mousse could each eat one by themselves. Mousse said Shampoo would be taking 'that damned Saotome' the two bowls of ramen, while the other two were for her and the 'violent girl'. Cologne could now assess what was going on. Shampoo never took Akane or herself orders of ramen unless she wanted to gain the trust of Akane by eating a bowl of ramen herself in order to show the soups were not poisoned or spiked with some type of spice. Which brought her back to the point at hand.
"Mousse! Bring the inventory slip and see which one of my spices is missing." Mousse growled low in his throat and pushed his glasses up his nose with his middle finger while looking over the inventory slip. His eye sight was bad, but he was more than familiar with the bottles and their respective place on the list.
"Granny, nothing seems to be missing." He set the last bottle in its appropriate place in the small cupboard, then shrugged as he stood, handing her the inventory slip. This information both confused and startled Cologne. She must have known I would have checked the inventory slip... She knows from the last time I scolded her for her errors. It was then that Mousse gave a thoughtful grunt that caught her attention. "Nani, bozu?" She asked, her form bouncing over to his on her staff.
"It seems the passion spice has been filled with dirt. The smell is not the same as it usually is, and the color is off, if even by a mere shade." Cologne scrutinized the small glass container and found herself nodding in agreement with the almost blind-but nevertheless observant boy.
So it seems you have come to that, great-granddaughter?
"Aiya! Shampoo bring ramen to Ranma! You eat, yes?" Akane stood in the doorway of her house, shaking her head profusely at the purple-haired amazon woman.
"No way, Shampoo!. There's no way I'm gonna let you inside my house!"
"But Shampoo make special deluxe ramen for Airen! Violent-girl Akane, you no get in way of Shampoo." At this, Akane growled, ready to pull out her mallet on the other woman.
"Or..." Shampoo gave a sing-song voice with her sudden change of heart, "Violent-girl eat with Airen and Shampoo. Is okay?" Akane thought this over, not sure whether to trust the girl or not, but then decided that if Shampoo and her ate with Ranma, that there was probably nothing to really worry about. Kasumi -had- gone out to go grocery shopping, but would be stopping by Dr. Tofu's on her way home to return a book she borrowed. That would probably take a while seeing as she would probably get him to calm down and would most likely clean up his mess. And if things went the way they always did with them, she would stay and make him dinner and would not be home until either very late, or early the next morning.
The rest of the family had been out already. Nabiki was in the center of Tokyo checking out a couple of university campuses and had planned to spend the rest of the week there before heading home to make a decision. Both her father and Mr. Saotome had gone on a training trip into the mountains for two weeks near a hot spring. Happosai caught wind that the hot spring was also a local hot spot for most of the female population of Japan and had opted to hide away in his students' packs in order to hitch a ride to the place. He'd most likely stay up there to cause havoc until they came home, which would be in about a week or so. Basically, Akane would be alone with Ranma until Kasumi got home the next morning, and she hated the idea of letting him cook and rubbing it in her face.
"Fine, but don't even think about pulling anything funny!" The amazon girl only nodded, taking in her ramen carrier into the Tendou household. Unknown to Akane, the girl had put the remaining Passion spice she found in her great-grandmother's cabinet into one of the bowls of ramen she would be giving to Ranma. Only problem was, she had forgotten which bowls had beef spice and which of the four had passion spice. She made sure to give Ranma at least one regular bowl, in case he suspected something. He could eat two bowls by himself, anyway, and would make things more believable.
On the other hand, she had put a specific colored naruto in her soup, to make sure she got the right one. She was in such a hurry to leave before her great-grandmother found her, though, that she had not enough time to do so with the remaining bowls. It would be luck if Ranma got it, and terrible if Akane did. In her flurry to pack up and leave the Nekohanten, Shampoo had also forgotten the antidote for the spice. If something -did- occur that was undesirable for herself, then she'd have to run home and get it and hopefully avoid her great-grandmother.
Mousse would prove no problem for her either way, so she really didn't have to worry about him.
"Ah, smells great, Shampoo! Good thing you came over or I would have starved!" Shampoo practically flew across the dining room to glomp on her Airen after she set her carriers on the eating table. Ranma had intended the remark to just make Akane angry. She'd been exceptionally quiet ever since Kasumi left earlier that day and he needed to hear her yell in order to get back into his own groove. But his little plan backfired on him as Shampoo showered him in undesired kisses and provided him with a very cruel look from the woman he had initially wanted to ruffle the feathers of.
"Airen eat ramen Shampoo make! You love cooking means you love Shampoo!" Ranma gave a cheeky grin to Akane after Shampoo had let him go, now sitting on the long side of the table nearest the sliding door-which was closed. Akane took her seat on the opposite side, Ranma being pulled onto the floor next to Shampoo directly across from his first fiancé.
Akane was not impressed with Shampoo's display at all. First the girl barged into her home, uninvited, and was going to-yet again-try to steal away Ranma for herself. Although Akane had reservations about her feelings toward the baka, she was sure that she did NOT want him trouncing around with Amazon women or spatula wielding chef's. She certainly hated the idea of him with a crazed, leotard clad psycho who found it necessary to scream by almost every night about her love for the guy. Akane had-had enough with his other suitors and was this - close to pulling her hair out. But then again, she was very hungry and refused to let Ranma cook. She had secretly accepted the fact that she would never eat her own cooking and was not turned off to the idea of going to Uchan's or even the Nekohanten for lunch. It just so happened that the latter got to her first.
Now she sat with Shampoo at the table, a bowl in front of her, a bowl in front of Shampoo, and two bowls set in front of Ranma. "Ranma!" Akane let the last of his name drag out with a warning tone, letting him know that she was not pleased with the closeness and friendliness Shampoo had with him.
"Airen! You eat ramen now." Shampoo's voice cut over Akane's, trying to shut her up and get Ranma to take a bite. Hopefully he had the right bowl.
"Hey, wait, Shampoo..." The warning tone in Akane's voice never faded as the girl turned around and nodded to her. "I want you to start eating your bowl first, just to make sure." Shampoo gave a mock sigh, not sure if Akane bought it or not.
"Violent-girl no trust Shampoo, but is alright. I eat and show Akane is good ramen." She picked up her chopsticks and took a hardy bite, chewed, swallowed, and then smiled triumphantly. Akane only watched her for a few minutes before finally deciding that the soup was safe to eat.
"We'll find out soon enough..." She murmured before taking a bite of the noodles with her chopsticks. "Mm... This really IS good, Shampoo." She took another bite and was astounded to say that the soup was not half bad. She had thought it would taste funny because of Cologne's strange spices she usually added to the soup.
"I tell you, Kitchen-wrecker, but you no trust Shampoo. You know now Shampoo is not bad." The purple-haired Amazon took another bite of her ramen while snuggling closer to Ranma, wanting him to eat his, "You eat now, Ranma. Here, Shampoo feed Airen before it get cold." She twirled her chopsticks in his ramen bowl and brought a twist full of noodles to his lips. Akane just gave a soft 'che' before finishing her own bowl.
Once she was finished, though, her head began to feel light and fuzzy. Her limbs turned to jell-o and her skin melted. She could feel her body slow down as if time was starting to stand still. Then she slumped, as if she was ready to fall asleep. It felt like this was taking place in slow minutes, as if she was carelessly floating away. In reality all of this took place within maybe four or five seconds, and after her small trip was finished, her senses again became crystal clear. Nani? What happened to me? Oh yeah, I forgot where I was for a second. Shampoo had not missed Akane's trip, either, and was now beginning to worry. She knew what would happen next if Akane had indeed eaten the Passion spice induced ramen and was surely worried that the girl had given Ranma the wrong bowl.
"Mm... Ranma...?" Akane watched him, her eyes burning into his skin as she imagined what it would feel like to have her skin against his. She gave a slight blush for a moment, scolding herself for thinking such things, but she soon found that she could not control herself! Her hand slid onto the table and slowly reached across to his, barely brushing against his before she sluggishly looked into his eyes. The small touch sent small waves of excitement through her finger tips and up her arm through her entire body. Again her mind pleaded with her body to stop all motor functions, but it did not comply and she proceeded to carry on with her actions. Ranma was left with a couple of noodles hanging from his lips. A soft slurp later and they were ever absent. He could feel the heated gaze Akane's orbs were burning into his own. If I didn't know any better then I'd say that Akane was puttin' the moves on me!
The hand on the table pulled back towards her body, but stayed on the table, grasping the edge as she pushed herself up. Her other hand was now placed further ahead on the table as she began to crawl onto the surface towards him. She kept her knees on the floor, her right hand reaching out to grasp the collar of his Chinese shirt to pull him up and to her, forcing him to hover over the table as she was. "Your skin is like fire..." She whispered to him, speaking so closely to his lips that hers brushed against his with every word. She was not kissing him, but merely wanting to feel the caress of his lips to hers.
"This no good..." Shampoo suddenly made her presence apparent once again, "Shampoo get antidote soon as possible. Airen-" she turned her attention from her bowl of ramen to Ranma, "Keep Kitchen-wrecker locked in closet. Shampoo go get antidote now." Ranma was too busy staring at Akane to really turn his attention to the Amazon. He was too entranced in the feeling of Akane's skin teasing his. But in the back of his mind he had registered that Shampoo admitted to sneaking something into the ramen and had accidentally given the bowl to the wrong person. That meant that Akane was acting on whatever the drug had struck in her.
"Yeah." He breathed absent mindedly toward the purple-haired girl. And with that she was running out of the house to jump across Nerima via roof tops until she arrived back at the Nekohanten.
The restaurant was not very busy and only had a couple of customers. Shampoo made her way through the backdoor, trying to be as stealthy and unseen as possible.
"My Beautiful Sham-UGH!" Mousse went smack into the floor of the kitchen with a face full of tile, his glasses cracked and smashed and his hair splayed out all around his shoulders and head. Shampoo had no intention of letting her Great-grandmother know she was back. If the old woman found out, then she would not allow her to leave. And that would leave Ranma back at the Tendou dojo alone with the hormone crazed girl.
"Aiya..." She rummaged through the spice cupboard, her slender fingers finally wrapping around a glass container. "Found antidote. Now I take to Airen so Violent-girl leave alone." She stood, triumphant and spun on her red flat heel to exit the Nekohanten.
"Shampoo, what is that you've got there." Shampoo froze at the creaky sound of her great-grandmother's voice. The older woman bounced over to the younger and snatched the antidote right out of Shampoo's delicate hand, "You know what happens when you break into my spice cupboard, Shampoo. Now you must pay me back for the Passion spice you've wasted and you must fix the cupboard and tend to the store." Shampoo opened her mouth to protest, "I cannot have you lolly gagging today, Shampoo. You have crossed me once already this morning, so do not evoke my wrath a second time." The young Amazon woman narrowed her eyes, "But Great-grandmother! Violent-girl eat spice and Shampoo need take antidote to Airen before Kitchen-wrecker too gone with lust!"
Cologne felt anger wash over her at her great-granddaughter's resistance. In an instant there was a splash of water and a sudden hissing sound. Shampoo arched her back, her eyes leering up at the old hag as she hissed. Her cat form was then thrown into a carrying basket along with a newly found duck and was tossed onto the top shelf in the kitchen. "Then I will merely keep you there. I can manage the store on my own for now before the rush. You can bring Son-in-law the antidote after we close up shop." Shampoo gave a defeated mew as she slouched in the cage with Mousse.
Back at the Tendou dojo, Akane had kept her right hand firmly grasped in the collar of Ranma's Chinese shirt. Her green sun dress was slowly being unbuttoned by her left hand, which had so far gotten seven buttons undone, showing her white lace bra underneath and the tops of her breasts to him. After the eighth button was undone, she returned her left hand to the table, helping to steady herself in the air. She again tugged him a little closer, this time her lips trailed a lazy kiss from his jaw to his ear on the left side of his face, "I want you, Ranma. Why don't you take me?" Her voice was a low whisper dripping with lust. She could feel the spot between her legs tingle in anticipation of his response. Even if he denied her pleasure, she would take him. He could reject her plea, but it didn't mean a thing to her. One way or another she would have him.
Ranma could feel the blush that washed over his cheeks and seemingly spread from the roots of his hair to down his neck. This isn't Akane. This isn't Akane. This isn't Akane. She's so beautiful. This isn't Akane. I want to touch her. Ranma reached a shaky right hand forward, "A-Akane..."
-What did you guys think of it? Give a review and tell me what you thought. All criticism is welcome and praise is more than appreciated.