Author's note: This chapter involves some lime themes. Proceed at your own risk.


Ranma walked cheerfully through the gate at the Tendo house. He was just returning from moving out of his apartment and quitting his job. He didn't realize just how much he despised working there until he quit. He'd saved some money up, so that wasn't going to be a problem, and with luck he'd be running the dojo with Soun after not too long.

As he came through the gate, he heard Kasumi singing. He walked around to the garden, where Kasumi was hanging clothes. She was wearing jeans again, with a white tee shirt. When he'd lived here before, she'd always seemed so motherly. For the first time, he was aware of her woman side, and he liked it. He'd thought she was cute before; he never knew she was so... sexy.

Kasumi noticed him. Her face brightened. "Ranma!" she said. She pinned the shirt she was hanging and rushed over to hug him. They held eachother for a second before letting go. Kasumi picked up another shirt and began pinning it to the line. Ranma remembered something he'd seen on the bus trip. "Hey, Kasumi," he said, "we should go out tonight. There are some great places to eat along the boardwalk by the park." Kasumi smiled. "That sounds wonderful, Ranma," she said. "It's going to be our first date!" Ranma strutted inside. Oh yeah. He was the man.


Eight o'clock found them walking along the boardwalk in the park. They'd gone to eat at a great restaurant called "The 654 Club". It had been a great meal, but it was nothing compared to Kasumi's cooking. He'd told her this, making her blush. Now, they watched the boats and swimmers in the water while they talked. He'd never talked to her for any length of time; as he got to know her, he realized that he really liked her personality. If only he'd been paired with her from the beginning...

"Have you ever messed around with martial arts?" he asked. "Dad's showed me some stuff before, but to be honest, it never really interested me," she answered. She looked down at the water, as if she was nervous saying this, but he wasn't bothered. "Aw, that's no big deal," Ranma said. "Martial arts is kind of an obsession. Either you've got it, or you don't." "I've seen some of the stuff you do to train," she said, smirking. "'Obsession' is right." Ranma snickered. Akane used to say stuff like that, but she wasn't joking. As they stood leaning on the railing, Ranma leaned back to sneak a peek at her... figure. He liked what he saw. She caught him looking and gave him a coy look. He put his arm around her, and she leaned on him.

"Kasumi?" he said, quietly. "Yeah, Ranma?" "How do you think things are going so far?" he asked. "Are you happy with... us?" She nuzzled his chest. "Definitely," she said. She looked up at him and he met her gaze. He leaned over and kissed her softly. She put her arms around his neck and kissed back. When Ranma opened his eyes, he saw her smiling from ear to ear. "Ranma, that was amazing," she said, laying her head against his chest. "It was for me too," he whispered. Life was good.

"Ai lan!" a familiar voice called out. "Son of a..." Ranma muttered, turning to face the source of the previous Chinese. "Hello, Shampoo," he said unenthusiastically, "how are you?" Shampoo threw her arms around him, and he quickly pried her off. "Ranma!" the blue-haired maniac cried. "Why you not see Shampoo after you leave Akane? It not too late, you know..." "Sorry, Shampoo," Ranma said quickly, "I'm with Kasumi now." Shampoo looked closely at Kasumi. "You Tendo, no? You violent girl's sister!" She pulled back and looked at Ranma. "What you want other Tendo for? They all alike! Amazon womans make better choice!" "I'm very happy, Shampoo," he said, "I'm not going to change my mind."

Shampoo turned to walk away, but a look of menace glinted in her eye. "Ranma will have Shampoo if his new fiancée no there," she said. She spun around and launched a kick at Kasumi's face. "Shampoo, stop!" Ranma yelled, as he jumped in between to stop her. Shampoo's feet connected with his head, and the unconscious Ranma dropped into the water. Kasumi quickly sprang in after the now female Ranma, pulling her to the surface. She swam to the edge, and with some effort, managed to drag Ranma onto the boardwalk. She stood looking at Shampoo, soaking wet, with a look that Kasumi Tendo had never had in any Ranma ½ anime: anger.*

Kasumi jumped at Shampoo. "You could have killed him! What is wrong with you?" Shampoo smiled innocently. "Was accident?" she said sweetly.

As Ranma had previously determined, Kasumi had no martial arts training. It's a well-known fact, however, that all women are born with the knowledge of a single, powerful move: the bitch-take-your-hands-off-my-man maneuver. There's a funny thing about martial artists- they are trained to channel their anger in a constructive way to defeat their opponent. Kasumi was not a martial artist. Instead, she let her anger boil over, perfectly executing the BTYHOMM maneuver by punching Shampoo in the face with enough force to launch her over the railing and out into the water. She watched with contempt as the feline Shampoo paddled away.

Kasumi knelt by Ranma, but she was still out. She picked her up under the arms and dragged her toward the bath house on the beach.

Ranma awoke to warm water pouring over him. He saw Kasumi's worried face, and looking around, saw that he was in a shower stall. "Ranma," Kasumi asked, worried. He shook his head. "I'm okay, Kasumi." He tried to remember what had just happened; all that came to him was that it was something with Shampoo. "Sorry about that," he said. "Don't worry about it, I got rid of her," Kasumi said, brushing her wet hair from her face. It was at that point that Ranma became acutely aware of how Kasumi looked. Wet hair... jeans looked shiny from the water... her white shirt seemed to have changed color... it looked a bit more like her... skin. His eyes traveled down and he realized he could see... a whole lot more than he used to be able to. He felt the redness rushing to his face; Kasumi grabbed him by the shoulders in worry. "Ranma, are you going to fall?" she asked. "No," he said, putting his arms around her. "I feel... good..." He kissed her deeply, and felt her push herself against him, squeezing him tight. He looked into her eyes, seeing a fire he'd never seen there before. This was definitely the woman side of Kasumi.

The park was ten minutes from the Tendo house. They arrived home an hour later.


*Author's note: As far as I've seen, Kasumi Tendo has been angry only once: in the manga, volume 1 chapter 2, when she bitched out Genma for taking Ranma to Jusenkyo. I haven't finished the manga, so it's possible she does elsewhere and I don't know about it.

And yes, I broke the fourth wall up there. Bite me. Also, if you didn't get the reference to The 654 Club, Google it. It's a reference to an awesome card trick performed by Bill Malone.