I truly enjoy Ranma 1/2 and do not wish to offend anyone with this story. I am writing this purely for enjoyment and the hope that others will also enjoy my work. All character belong solely to the original author and I claim no part of them.

I would also like to acknowledge the fact that the original inspiration for this story came from the story 'Sharing Thoughts' by MZephyr. This is in no way an attempt to offend afformentioned author, and if I have done so I am truly sorry.

Cat Cafe

Shampoo smiled triumphantly as she stirred her newest potion.

"Great-Grandmother out today. She no knows anything about too too good plan." Shampoo wickedly spoke to herself. "Shampoo knows Airen no mean those things he says and now Shampoo get proof."

Unbeknownst to her, Moose sat quietly outside the door of the kitchen. He knew the potion she was making. He still could not believe that even after Jusendeo, Shampoo still thought that Ranma loved her. This potion would do her no good. It was obvious to everyone else that Ranma and Akane truly loved each other, even if they still had a problem admitting it to one another.

Though changes in their behavior were apparent to everyone. Their fights had become more playful or flirtatious in nature. The use of the terms 'tomboy' and 'baka' were now said without venom or animosity, it was more like they were pet names they had for each other. Sure they still argued, but they never let it get to the extremes it used to. Akane hadn't pulled her mallet out in three months and with the other fiancés staying away from Ranma, it was easier to just be themselves.

Mousse had observed the changes in their behavior. He had been there. He had heard, first hand, the anguish in Ranma's voice when he thought Akane was gone for good. Anyone with half a heart could almost feel the pain radiating from Ranma's aura. However palpable the pain had been, it was nothing compared to the relief and love that sprang forth when she spoke his name and brushed away some of his tears.

Mousse blended into the wall behind him as Shampoo ran past to answer the telephone. He was a very good Martial Artist, but he had hoped to win Shampoo's love through genuine affection, not some ancient law. Shampoo had no idea that most of the tricks she had tried to use on Ranma were deliberately sabotaged by Mousse. He quickly proceeded into the kitchen and dumped a few extra magical herbs into the bubbling potion.

"There those will turn a mind reading potion into nothing more than a harmless broth." Mousse smugly sauntered back out of the room, pleased with himself.

He had never worried about being caught by Shampoo, but Cologne was another matter. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that she finally caught him. Surprisingly enough she hadn't said or done anything to him at the time. She later pulled him aside while Shampoo was out on a delivery and told him why.

Flashback

"I have known for quite some time that it was you ruining Shampoo's plans." Cologne told him as he followed her into the kitchen upon her request.

"Forgive me elder, but you do not seem upset by my actions." Mousse hesitantly replied.

"Mousse, I knew from the very beginning that young Akane Tendo already had the heart of Ranma." Her voice deepened, showing her years. "Upon seeing them together it was obvious."

"Then why have you been helping Shampoo?" Mousse asked.

"Our ways and our people are dying out; I had to have some excuse to come here." Cologne answered truthfully. "I wanted Shampoo to experience the outside world. She needs to be able to adept to these changing times. I cannot see our people lasting unless we finally accept that things have got to change."

Mousse was shocked. Cologne was a Matriarch of Joketsuzoku and the Matriarchs had always fought against any change. Most of them, in Mousse's opinion, still lived in the Middle Ages. They wanted nothing to do with the outside world, unless it directly affected them. Mousse was smart enough not to say any of this, but he was sure his jaw was almost to floor.

"I know it maybe strange to hear me saying any of this, but it is true. I have not been around for close to three hundred years for nothing you know." Cologne smiled thinly at the awed expression on Mousse's face, but then her face shifted back to a more neutral countenance. "I also cannot be mad at you for something I myself have been doing."

Mousse's jaw really did hit the floor at this admission along with the rest of his head.

Cologne cackled heartily at the boy's surprise. "What you thought you were the only one. I admit I didn't start sabotaging her efforts until after I saw the Neko-ken, but since then I was certain we did not want that boy as a part of our tribe." Cologne once again became very solemn. "He was a force to be reckoned with back then and he has only become more powerful since. I know that I helped train him in a few things, but those techniques were necessary to help unlock even more of his potential. If it wasn't for him holding back so much on all of us now… I dare not even think about it."

"What do you mean 'holding back'?" Mousse said indignantly. He knew Saotome was an excellent fighter, but he never believed he was good enough to scare an elder.

"Mousse, Ranma has only shown a fraction of his true power once and that was just recently. You were there you seen what he did to Saffron. I have only heard stories of it from you and Shampoo. Do you honestly think that you are anywhere near his level?" Cologne inquired with grim certainty written all over her face.

"…" Was the only thing coming from Mousse, he still could not fully comprehend what he was being told.

"The only things stopping him from going all out are his self-control and his want to not seriously hurt anybody. I had hoped that Shampoo was not foolish enough to continue pushing him any further, but this is a lesson she must learn on her own. I only pray that when that time comes, he will be merciful."

End Flashback

Mousse had left the building before Shampoo came back to the kitchen. He hadn't noticed that Shampoo's delivery box was already on the counter with the compartment door shut. A bowl of spiked ramen along with the rest of Kasumi's order inside. Shampoo had marked the bowl of spiked ramen by placing green chopsticks on top of it. The rest of the chopsticks were blue or orange.

Shampoo prepared herself a bowl of what she thought was spiked ramen, and ingested it before closing the Cat Café to go make her delivery. She didn't know her own bowl was now nothing more than a regular bowl of ramen.

"After Airen eat Ramen, tomorrow we know everything everybody thinking." Shampoo hopped on her bike and headed for the Tendo Dojo. "Now Airen will now how much Shampoo love him and Shampoo will know how much he love me."

Tendo Dojo

Since returning from China and after the failed wedding, things had settled down considerably. Ranma and Akane had been getting along better than they ever had before. They were actually spending time together and they hadn't had a serious fight in two and a half months. They had given up hiding the fact that they were closer than ever before. They really had no reason to hide anymore.

The biggest difference in how their relationship was going though was the lack of suitors. Ranma had verbally attacked all the other supposed fiancés. He made sure Shampoo and Ukyo knew, in no uncertain terms, that their actions were unforgivable. Not only had they destroyed the dojo, but they had put innocent people's lives at risk. Ranma was willing to forgive a lot of things, but endangering people who were unable to defend themselves was not one of them. He told both of them to stay away from him for a good long while and so far they had complied.

The Kuno's had to be bound to chairs so Ranma could confront them and force them to watch as he transformed back and forth twelve times. Kodachi was the first to realize what they were seeing; it took Ranma sitting on the Kuno's lap while he went through the transformation to finally break through his delusions. Kodachi passed out after letting out a piercing wail, Kuno ended up becoming violently ill after Ranma got off his lap in his male form. Sasuke, while they were both still to out of it to remember, took them to a hospital in a neighboring district. After two days of incoherent stuttering, the hospital tried to perform a mental evaluation. Needless to say both failed and were institutionalized. No one really minded the fact they were no longer in the picture.

Cologne had been the next person Ranma confronted that evening. He told her he would no longer tolerate anymore schemes from the Amazons. Cologne had been expecting it to come to this, so she promptly agreed that she would no longer help Shampoo in any way. Cologne had no wish to make an enemy out of someone who had slain a demi-god in single combat. Ranma had asked if she could remove the Kisses of Marriage and Death that Shampoo had already bestowed. Cologne was hesitant before saying she would, but she needed some time before she did, so she asked for some patients from Ranma. He wasn't quite sure what was going on, but agreed.

Soun Tendo made it perfectly clear that night that there would not be another wedding until all the other suitors had been dealt with. Genma Saotome had tried to persuade him otherwise, but for once Soun actually put his foot down. He refused to have his house destroyed. Surprisingly enough, Nodoka Saotome had agreed with him. Her house had to be rebuilt not that long ago because of that idiocy, so she understood perfectly.

Another good thing was Nodoka had forced Genma to move back in with her. She was going to try to get Ranma to come too, before two pleading teenagers beseeched her to change her mind. She never revealed that Akane had come to her and begged her not to take Ranma away. Later that night Ranma came to plead his case, but he was astounded when his mother agreed to let him stay without much of a fight.

Kasumi was the biggest bombshell to be dropped. She had actually taken Nabiki aside and yelled at her, after the wedding. Everyone was shocked to say the least. Nabiki, the Ice Queen, actually burst into tears after Kasumi's verbal lashing. Kasumi had forced Nabiki to promise not to interfere in Ranma's and Akane's relationship anymore, and if she found out about anymore pictures or information being sold of the two of them Nabiki would be asked to leave. Nabiki had thrown a pleading look at her father, but he refused to meet her gaze or even speak to her that night. No one knew whether she was crying because of her scolding or the loss of profits she was going to suffer.

Three months after the failed wedding and everything was going great for the young couple. They no longer had to be afraid of spending time together and Ranma was now actively training Akane, not only in Martial Arts but also cooking. The cooking had originally been Kasumi's idea, as a way for them to spend time together without the entire family around. She was very supportive of their newfound closeness. Nabiki still teased her little sister and her fiancé and Genma was constantly trying to cause trouble.

Ranma found that now that Akane was learning to control her temper her cooking wasn't turning out as bad as it used to. Another perk Ranma hadn't foreseen was the first couple of times Akane had tried using a knife with him there, he got to wrap his arms around her to show her how to slowly run the knife through the food without hacking it to pieces. They were both decidedly disappointed when she no longer required that, but neither said anything. Akane was now able to make a half way decent meal; it had only taken two and a half months with her cooking three nights a week. Neither felt the need to tell the family about this development.

Kasumi hadn't been feeling well all day, but she refused to rest. She went about her normal daily routine of cleaning and preparing the meals. By the time she needed to start dinner preparations, she knew she would not have the strength to make the meal. She was still fearful of Akane's cooking because neither of the youngsters had told her about Akane's improvement. She knew that Ranma was still not talking to Ukyo or Shampoo, but the family needed to eat and they were the cheapest places in town.

Kasumi decided having ramen would be the lesser of two evils. She knew Ranma had also confronted Cologne after the failed wedding and that they had come to some sort of agreement. She figured that this agreement would stop Shampoo from trying anything, but to be on the safe side she had Nabiki come out to the front gate with her. She had come to the decision that for the sake of harmony in the house she would not allow Shampoo onto the property.

Shampoo saw her plan crumbling before her as she was met at the gate by two of the Tendo sisters. She tried to act innocent and friendly, but both had stood firm. They took the take out packages, paid for their order, thanked Shampoo for delivering it so quickly, and slammed the gate in her face.

To say that Shampoo was pissed at their abrupt dismissal of her would have been an understatement. Shampoo parked her bike and decided to try and make sure that her Airen got the right bowl. Before she could even prepare to jump to the top of the surrounding fence, a voice issued a warning.

"Come on this property and you will regret it Shampoo. You are still not welcome here. Go Home." The angry tone in Ranma's voice stopped her were she was.

Shampoo still wanted to jump the fence, if only to see her Airen, but something in his voice told her that she had better not. She was still mad that her plan was not going the way she wanted it to, but decided that she could always try again. She had only read enough to know how to make the potion, that there was no antidote, and that it would give the affected the ability to read other people's minds. She had seen that the effects of the potion would only last for six months after comsumption, but she failed to notice the warning at the bottom.

She figured that since she had also taken a dose of the potion she would easily be able to figure out who had taken the other. Even if her Airen had not taken the potion, she would still be able to read his mind, she did not know that the portion she had taken was worthless. She still assumed she would have her way in the end but being the proud Amazon warrior that she was though, she could not let a man have the last word, even if it was her beloved.

"Fine. Shampoo go now. But I no give up. I see you later Airen." Shampoo shouted out quickly. She hopped back on her bike and pedaled off before he could say anything else.

Ranma didn't care what she said. She didn't matter to him. She had tried to kill Akane over in China and because of that she had lost all hope of even being his friend.

He had already decided that Mousse wasn't such a bad guy. He had actually been very helpful in China and he confessed to Ranma that he had been running interference with some of Shampoo's plans. Sabotaging some of her potions wasn't the only thing he had done, he had also warned Ranma about a couple of plans involving magical items. Plus Mousse had been acting rather distantly towards her as of late. He had first noticed his odd behavior on the way home, but it had become even more apparent back here in Japan. He wasn't constantly following her around like he used to.

Ranma knew that some part of Mousse still loved Shampoo, but he had been exposed to a side of her he hadn't seen before and it obviously didn't sit with him very well. Ranma decided to put his thoughts aside for a while. It was dinner time and he could already smell the ramen. He stomach decided to give a rather noisy growl as he headed back to the house.

Kasumi had already set the table and placed a bowl in front of everyone. Ranma dug in with his normal gusto, before being poked in the ribs.

"Gomen." He sheepishly said to the girl sitting next to him.

Akane had been trying to help him learn better table manners but he still had a long way to go.

"It's ok; just try to slow down a bit. You sound like a pig." Akane quietly whispered to him.

"Oink." He playfully replied.

Akane rolled her eyes and returned to eating her own dinner.

Genma heard the banter between his son and his fiancé and leaned over to whisper conspiratorially to Soun. Soun pointedly ignored his friends scheming, but that didn't stop him from talking.

Ranma had already finished his helping, but was still hungry he was about to steal some from his pops bowl, when Kasumi set her untouched bowl in front of him.

"Here Ranma-kun. I am not feeling well and I would hate for this to go to waste." Kasumi whispered to him before running off to the bathroom.

"Thanks Kasumi." He said before tossing aside the lid and unopened set of green chopsticks.

--

In the next Chapter:

Cologne will learn of Shampoo's action. Ranma will discover what has been done to him and what he will have to do to maintain his sanity.