Ranma and Akane felt like they dodged a bullet yesterday afternoon. Nabiki forgot all about her questioning after that little 2-on-2 confrontation between her sister and Ukyo against Shampoo and Kodachi. Walking the rest of the way home with the others she didn't even bother to bring it up again. When Ukyo went her own way the younger teenagers were afraid Nabiki was waiting until they were alone to say something, but the older sister remained silent well after the three of them walked inside the house.

Nabiki's mood the next morning was certainly upbeat, but nobody except the young couple took any real notice of it. Her smile wasn't like the one she always plastered on when greeting the family every morning, or the one she wore when she was going to receive a payment from somebody, but instead the smile was as cheerful as she could make it, even her "Good mornings" sounded nicer than normal.

As of late she has been walking with the couple to school rather than going on ahead like she use to. And today was no different. Ranma and Akane were following close behind while Nabiki led the way. The three of them were keeping a wary eye out in case they were going to be attacked again. Neither of the younger teens were keen to hold the other's hand at the moment. There seemed to be some sort of an invisible wall between the two teens keeping them seperated. Even though they know both of their familes know of their feelings for each other, it still made them uneasy to show those feelings whenever another family member was around.

Getting to the halfway point Nabiki slowed down a little, allowing the others to catch up, where she then wedged herself between them. Ranma and Akane leaned back and looked at each other. They each had a fleeting thought that she was going to start asking questions again, yet they wanted to beat her to it. The two of them had discussed it last night in the dojo that if she was going to try again, they should cut her off and turn it around on her instead.

"We've been wanting to ask you something, but never could think of when the appropriate time to ask would be," said Akane, straightening up.

"Sis, you both know you can ask me anything," Nabiki assured them, smiling.

'Depending on how much it would cost us to ask, you mean,' thought Ranma, before asking flat out, "What happened yesterday morning? Why did you do what you did?"

It was Nabiki's turn to look at the ground. She was always willing to shell out the truth when it didn't concern her, with the only time she kept a secret to herself being when Ranma went to rescue Akane from Prince Tshugo. During the time they were gone other students were willing to pay her as much as 5,000 yen on their whereabouts, but all she would say was that they were on a training trip and she stuck to that story, so eventually everyone bought it as the truth. After that they never bothered to ask either Ranma or Akane about it when they got back, because they believed they'd hear the same thing from them as they did from Nabiki. Admitting the truth about herself on the other hand was never something she could bring herself to do, lying through her teeth was so much better. But today she couldn't come up with a good enough lie quick enough to accomodate the situation, so she settled for the truth in the end.

"At first I did what I had done to help you two. I was afraid that after Kuno's breakdown he was going to pull his sword out of the ground and try to seriously hurt or even kill you. That's why I stepped in when I did. I figured I'd lead him into the school hoping he would forget about his sword. When we got to the classroom I tried to shrug him off. That's when he kissed me. Of course, you two knew that already since you saw it happen. I wasn't expecting it, it came as a total surprise to me. At first it felt awkward, I hadn't done anything to deserve it really, but he kept his lips pressed against mine and it started to feel nice," she explained.

She placed a lightly closed fist over her heart, remembering the tingling sensation she felt and started to blush. She continued, "I had never been kissed before and I thought I might never be kissed again, so I took what I could get. From that point on I was doing it for myself as much as I was doing it for you two."

"So you knew we saw you kiss?" wondered her sister.

"Yeah, I did, I just wanted to see you two sweat a little bit," replied Nabiki.

"What now? Are you two gonna hook up?" asked Ranma.

"I thought it looked obvious, who knows? Today's a new day, anything can happen," answered the middle Tendo sister, putting a smile on as the three of them reach the stone entrance to the schoolgrounds.

Turning towards the school, they didn't know what to expect. Ranma thought Kuno might've twisted his version of reality so that everything that happened yesterday was just an illusion or a dream and he would dismiss it as such. Then he would start all over again and demand the boy to release Akane and the pig-tailed girl once more. The teen knows Kuno has a way of taking anything he sees and flipping it way out of context to mean something totally different than what it really meant. He's seen it before and figured it'll happen again.

Akane knew the upperclassman better than her fiance and had a better idea of what Kuno would do. Sure she thought the older teen would do the same thing as her future husband thought, but she considered that he might do what he's done the last couple of weeks. Lately when something signifcant has happened to Kuno, he has dissappeared for a few days, possibly to contemplate on things, but the thing is he has always come back the same as ever.

Nabiki on the other hand, thought she made a damn good impression on him and was determined he'd forget all about her baby sister and Ranma's female side. When the three of them turned their eyes immediately rested on a student with short, brown hair leaning against the side of the stairway leading to the double-door entrance. Then they started to glance around, but Kuno seemed nowhere to be found. Only when the guy leaning against the stairs started coming towards them did they realize it was him.

To a passerby on the street he looked like a normal student. It was quite unusual to see him in a school uniform. Outside his classes he always wore his kendo outfit with his bokken at his side. But today he has ditched not only the kendo garb, but also his wooden blade. What else was weird about his appearance was the fact that he didn't have his usual steely look of determination etched into his face. He was actually smiling as he approached the trio. Nabiki seperated herself from the others and met Kuno halfway.

"Morning, Kuno-baby," she said, greeting him cheerfully with a smile as she got closer.

"Good morning, my sweet Nabiki," he replied, smiling back.

The students standing outside stopped their conversations mid-sentence to watch the unfolding scene. Kuno closed his eyes and begun to draw breath, in what looked like the beginning of some well thoughtout poetry. Before he could utter a word Nabiki placed a hand on both sides of his cheeks and planted a big kiss on him for everyone to see. There were more than a few gasps at the sight of them locking lips. Pulling away, she couldn't help but giggle at thim, because his face was still frozen in the kissing pose. Only after a few seconds did he realize she had released him.

Obviously the kiss flummoxed considerably. He had planned on wooing her with some of the most fantastical poetry he could muster. No matter the situation, Kuno has always been able to express himself verbally. Taking a cue from Shakespeare, he could say such beautiful things that could make any girl swoon, and they did in the beginning. But after doing it for a number of years it became bothersome and boring to the girls to have to listen to his highly voluble speeches. Nowadays he can't even get a girl to stand still long enough to say what he wants. But today was different, the kiss left him at a loss for words.

After opening and closing his mouth several times like a fish, he resigned himself to instead ask Nabiki a question, "What was that for?"

"Since people want to talk about us, I figured we should give them something to talk about, wouldn't you agree?" she replied with a softness to her voice that was so unlike her.

As Ranma and Akane passed the older couple they kept an eye on Kuno, in case he inexplicably turned his attention towards them. But he was so engrossed with the lovely young woman in front of him that bombs could've been going off all around them and he would fail to take any notice of it, much less two students walking by. The younger teens met up with their friends under a classroom window close to the stairs and watched the spectacle carry on along with the rest of the students standing outside.

"Morning," they said together happily and their greeting was returned just as cheerfully.

After a minute or two, Kuno still looked like he couldn't find the right words to express himself, so he decided to throw the poetry aside, hold out his arm, which she took willingly, and the two of them walked side by side into the school.

"Guess that proves it," said Sayuri as the older teenagers reach the bottom of the stairs, "They are offically a couple."

And the others agreed with a nod, watching Nabiki walk by with one of the biggest smiles they have ever seen her wear.

--

For the remainder of the week nothing anybody said negatively about Nabiki's hooking up with Kuno could upset her or bring her down from her emotional high. Yet she made mental notes of who said what. Just because she was the happiest she's ever been doesn't mean she couldn't continue with her normal lifestyle. She was going to let the intial and overwhemling joy of being in love fade away before returning to business as usual. She was going to make the naysayers pay in time, just not right now, because she had her hands full with keeping Kuno in order.

Every morning for the next three days she has had to stop him from spouting out poetry before he could even start. Before the first syllable could leave his lips, she would press her hand against his mouth and tell him to hush.

"There'll be time later for that, so wait, Kuno-baby," she'd say everytime he tried.

And instead of doing what he'd normally do; ignore and try again; he obeyed her request to postpone and settled for walking her inside the school arm in arm, while the other students watched. Kuno paid very little attention to anything else besides Nabiki for what remained of the school week, which was fine with Ranma and Akane. With the upperclassman distracted, life for them seemed almost normal and it didn't bother them in the least. On Friday Akane got up the courage to ask Ranma out on a picnic for Saturday at noon.

It was to be only the second date for them since their offical engagement. The last one wasn't anything spectacular, just dinner and a movie about two weeks ago. They left the house at 6:30 and were home by 9:00. They weren't dressed for anything fancy, him in one of his blue, Chinese-style shirts with short sleeves and black pants and she had on a pair of blue jeans and a tight, thinly-woven yellow sweater-like shirt. Dinner was okay. but the two teenagers agreed they rather of had what Kasumi made for the rest of the family than what they ordered. They had gone to an American-style restaurant that had been open for a few weeks. Their order consisted of a couple of burgers and fries and while they ate they discussed what movie they were going to see. Ranma wanted to see the newly released martial arts epic, he thought she might like it as well, but Akane wanted to see a romantic movie that has been getting rave reviews from all her friends. The boy didn't want to upset her by forcing her to see his choice, so he let her decide.

The movie was okay, but he would've liked it more if it had a fight scene or two and a few explosions, but he didn't tell her that. She on the other hand cried at the end when the leading roles died in each other's arms. Her tears made Ranma's shoulder damp, because she had rested her head on it. He couldn't help but to smile at her, she was clinging to his arm warmly as the last scene faded to black. Even on the walk home she clung onto him like he was going to disappear if she let him go for even a second. She finally released him when the two of them walked into the foyer, where she wished him goodnight before walking up the stairs to her room. All in all both teens had another great time together and were hoping to do it again real soon.

Nabiki had decided to stay behind for a bit after school, instead of walking home with her family. Her reason was she had some "business" to take care of. It was the first time all week she remained at school longer than need be. Ranma and Akane were sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact there was kendo practice planned that afternoon.

During the entire stroll home Akane kept asking Ranma if he'd prefer a certain dish over another and each time the choices would change.

"Relax," he'd tell her, "Make whatever you feel like making. Whatever it is I'm sure it'll be great."

But she wasn't as sure as he was. This dinner is to be the first one she'll make without any assistance from either Kasumi or Ranma's mother. Akane was afraid that without any help the meal would be disastrous and she voiced those fears to her fiance. Standing at the front door she made to open it, but before she could Ranma spun her around to face him, lightly grabbed hold of her shoulders and he gave her a quick, encouraging kiss.

Pulling away, he kept their foreheads close together and repeated, "Relax, you'll do great."

She smiled, her cheeks a little flushed and she kissed him back. "Thanks," she replied sweetly, opening the door.

--

As Kasumi was getting ready for her date with Dr. Ono Tofu she couldn't help but to feel reprehensible about what she was about to do. It has been a long time since she's done anything remotely similar and she was afraid everything was bound to go wrong. At times she wanted to stop and go downstairs to help her baby sister with the cooking, but she was reassured by Akane that everything would be alright, that she needn't worry. But that only made her worry more. The kitchen was her sanctuary, her happy place and to have someone else using it made her feel violated in some way. She also knew she deserved this date. She has stood on the sidelines and watched long enough, she wanted to have a life outside the house and she was determined to have one. It was on that reasoning she stayed in her room, away from the distractions and was able to compose herself on the upcoming date.

She came down the stairs a little after six, because she heard from Nabiki it was custom to make him wait on her. She was dressed in a long flowing, emerald green dress with matching silk shawl and ribbon tied off at the end of her long brown ponytail. She had a small white compact purse hanging off of one shoulder. Her glossy black heels made a soft tapping noise as she walked. The white diamond earrings topped off the look of radiance. Her makeup was light, she didn't need much to show off her exquisite beauty.

Dr. Tofu was standing close to the front door waiting. It was unusual to see him dressed in anything except his usual get up, but he wanted to do things right so he showed up in a dark gray suit and tie. When Kasumi came up to him, he completely fell to pieces. It appeared all the blood in his body had gathered on his face, for it was ruby red in color. His eyes became glazed as the stupor fell upon him like so many times before.

'He's losing it,' thought Ranma, watching along with the rest of the Tendo family. Akane came out of the kitchen to watch as well.

Dr. Tofu's mouth became dry and he began to sweat. He stuck a finger between his neck and collar to loosen it, but no matter what he did he continued to fall apart. With the rest of the family watching, the other knew what was going to happen. Before Dr. Tofu and Kasumi were even out the door he was going to do something that would result in something or someone getting hurt. He began to wring his hands, the fidgeting fits about to come to a head.

"Uh...um...y-y-you l-l-l-look ni-nice, Ka-ka-su-sumi," stuttered the doctor, his voice hoarse.

"Thank you," she replied, smiling sweetly at him, "You look nice too."

Her little compliment steeled his nerves slightly, but he was already too far gone to salvage whatever courage he had. Kasumi, who so often appeared oblivious to the world around her, could see something was wrong with her date. She decided to act upon a whim, she has waited so long for Ono Tofu to ask her out on a date that she wasn't about to let his shyness towards her ruin a perfectly good chance to get out of the house and have some fun. She didn't care if it was in front of everyone, she knew there was only one thing she could do to help him compose himself: she kissed him on the cheek. Just a light peck, a sweet show of appreciation for what might be a nice night out on the town.

As she pulled away, the doctor's hands stopped shaking and wringing long enough to feel the tingling spot left behind by her kiss. The other's watched purely by impluse, they waited to see if he was about to become a babbling pool of mush or not. There was something in her kiss that seemed to calm his nerves, allowing him to focus himself for the first time in her presence. The excess color in his face slowly drained away and the glazed look in his eyes faded too, leaving a look of determination in it's place. It was a sharp contrast to see him acting normal around Kasumi, almost unnerving seeing him so composed and calm. They smiled at each other, before he held out an arm for her to take. Nabiki managed to take one photo before Dr. Tofu opened the door and they were gone.

'I think they're going to be okay now,' thought Akane, smiling to herself, returning to the kitchen.

As soon as they left Soun broke down in tears, "My sweet, precious Kasumi! She looked so dignified!" He closed his eyes, but it didn't slow down the flow of his tears. "My little girl, on her first date! You girls are growing up so fast!" he continued, covering his eyes with his forearm and sobbing incessantly into his sleeve.

Nabiki rolled her eyes at her father's antics, "Daddy, give it a rest. This is why we don't go on many second dates, you embarass us and them so much they don't come back."

She glanced over at Ranma and the boy turned his eyes to the ceiling and began whistling a nondistinct tune. He wasn't about to get involved in family business. She smirked knowing he was going to keep his mouth shut.

--

Soun had managed to stop crying long enough by the time dinner was served a half hour later, though he continued to sniff occasionally. Akane came out of the kitchen carrying three plates. The meal she finally decided on was chicken stir-fry with a special sweet sauce on top. The smell was so overwhelming, Ranma could barely contain himself as she placed his plate in front of him. He immediately grabbed his chopsticks and picked up a piece of chicken covered in the sweet sauce and a chuck of rice. It was almost in his mouth when he glanced across from him and noticed Nabiki wasn't touching her food. She instead had her eyes closed and her arms crossed. Soun, who had mimicked his future son-in-law's action, noticed it too and was wondering why his middle daughter wasn't eating.

The two men lowered their chopsticks and Ranma asked her, "Why aren't you eating? Is it too hot?"

"No, it's not that. I'm waiting," she replied.

"Waiting for what?" wondered Akane, entering the living room with her own plate.

"This is the first time in a long time you've cooked without any help, Akane. I'm not eating until someone tried it first," answered her sister.

"Ah, excellent point, Nabiki. I think it is also wise for someone to try it first,"agreed her father, putting his chopsticks down and crossing his hands inside the sleeves of his muddy-green robe.

"You're both being stupid," said Akane, sitting down, "I got the recipe out of mom's notebook. She was referring to a notebook filled with her mother's recipes that was given to her by Kasumi.

"That makes it a little better," replied Nabiki, "But I'm still not eating until someone tries it first," and glanced over to the boy sitting across from her.

"You mean me, don't you?" asked Ranma.

"You are the logical choice, Ranma. You're the one who'll have to live with her cooking after you're married," the middle Tendo sister pointed out.

The teen looked at his fiancee and could see she wasn't eating either. He knew she wasn't going to start until someone tried it before her. He couldn't take the apprehensive look on his future wife's face for too long.

"Alright, I'll do it," said the boy finally, picking up his chopsticks which still had the food he grabbed earlier in thier grips. Akane and the others watched attentively as the food got closer to Ranma's mouth.

'It'll be alright, they'll see. I know, because I tasted the stir-fry before bringing it out,' thought the youngest Tendo, reassuring herself.

Ranma began chewing as the others watched with baited breath, while Akane exhaled loudly. But before anyone else could put food in their mouths, the boy blinked and with eyes wide, he fell backwards onto his back, his kness up in the air and the chopsticks rolling out of his open hand.

Almost immediately she was at his side, "Ranma!"

"What happened?" aske Nabiki, standing up.

"I don't know," said Akane, "I followed mom's recipe to the letter."

Ranma was out cold, his eyes were blank, but he had a grin on his face, which made no sense.

Then the girl remembered something, 'I forgot to taste the sweet sauce! Oh no, that's it, the sauce made the entire meal terrible!'

Nabiki and Soun joined her in surrounding the boy and the middle sister opened his mouth to examine the contents.

"The food's gone," she reported.

Akane brushed the hair out of his eyes and she asked him, "Ranma, are you okay?"

"More importantly, how'd it taste?" added the older girl.

"Nabiki, how could you ask that?" yelled her little sister.

Before the older of the two girls could answer, Ranma mumbled, "...tasted..."

"'Tasted' what?" asked Soun, encouraging the boy to speak up.

"...tasted like...heaven," finished the teen as the smile on his face grew wider.

There were three collective gasps of shock to his answer. Soun slowly turned towards his plate, picked up some of the stir-fry with his chopsticks and placed it in his mouth.

"Daddy, how is it?" asked Nabiki.

After a half minute of chewing the girl's father began to cry his tears of joy again. "Oh, Akane! It tastes just the way your mother made it!" he exclaimed, breaking his chopsticks in his tightly closed fist. Akane smiled brightly and Nabiki walked over to her plate.

"It's okay," she said flatly after swallowing her mouthful, but her sister could see she was having a hard time from smiling, watching the edges of her mouth twitch.

"I'm so proud of you, Akane! And I know your mother would be too! You are definitely her daughter!" said her father, in between mouthfuls of food.

As her sister and their father ate she remained at Ranma's side, trying to revive him. "Ranma, wake up. Please wake up, Ranma," she pleaded, shaking the boy.

"Leave him be, Akane," said Nabiki .

"How can you eat when there's someone passed out in front of you?" asked the younger girl.

"It's easy, because I know he'll be fine," replied the middle sister, "If your bad cooking couldn't kill him, then your good cooking wouldn't either."

"Hey!" responded Akane, offended, though she knew there was some truth to the statement.

Ranma has been both willingly and forced to eat her cooking; before the lessons; and he'd end up ill, but never so much as it could actually kill him.

"I'm sure he'll wake up hungry for more," Nabiki assured her.

"Really?" asked Akane.

"Trust me, he only had one bite, he's gonna want to eat more," replied the older girl.

"Alright," said the little sister, reluctantly returning to her plate.

She ate slowly while the other two went for seconds. She was waiting for Ranma to pop up and start shoveling food down his throat, but it was a good two hours before he even stirred out of his unconsciousness and she was finished eating long before then. He sat up and discovered dinner was over and Akane was gone.

"Ah, sleeping beauty wakens," said the middle Tendo daughter, unenthusiastically.

"Where's Akane?" he asked Nabiki, looking around.

"Upstairs, doing her homework," answered the older teen, flipping the tv channel.

"Dinner?" he asked.

"Over, you missed it, sorry," she told him, still without emotion in her voice.

"Thanks," he replied, quickly standing up and leaving the room.

"Anytime," responded Nabiki as he disappeared from her view.

He knocked on Akane's door as soon as he got there. But there was no answer.

"Akane?" he said, worried.

The door opened a bit and he could see half of her face and body through the gap between the door and frame.

"Oh, it's you, Ranma, hi," she said softly.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked.

"What for?" she wondered.

"For what happened at dinner," he replied.

"Why would I be mad at you for that?" she asked.

"I passed out from only one bite of your cooking!" he reminded her.

"Yeah, but you complimented the meal," she told him.

"What?" asked Ranma, sounding confused.

"You said it tasted like heaven," she answered him as if he should know it.

"I did? Huh, I must've been out cold when I said it, because I don't really remember saying it," responded the boy, scratching the back of his head.

"Are you saying you didn't like it?" asked Akane, scowling a bit, her lips pursed tightly together.

"I must've meant it, or I wouldn't have said it in the first place!" he replied loudly, trying to defend himself.

The girl's anger drained away as she responded, her gaze turning towards the floor, "That's good. Everyone else liked it, but it's your opinion I value most."

"Why's that?" he asked.

She came out of her room and closed the door behind her. "Because you're gonna be my husband. These meals are for you basically," she told him, "By saying you like my cooking, it makes me happy to hear it. Kasumi makes such great meals and I know I shouldn't compare my cooking to her's, but I do it anyway. I'll probably never be as good as her, but that doesn't mean I can't try."

She was startled when he unexpectantly wrapped his arms around her waist. She looked up into his blue-gray eyes and blushed.

"Akane, you're a great cook," he said soothingly, "Way better than you used to be."

She gave a hard chuckle to the statement.

"I mean it. Kasumi's been cooking for a long time now, it's almost second nature to her. And it's getting to be that way for you too. You watch, in a few years you'll probably forget all about how bad your cooking used to be," he assured her.

"Really?" she asked.

The boy smiled and gave a solitary nod. She smiled back warmly.

"Now, back to dinner: is there any left?" asked Ranma, letting her go and changing the subject.

"I saved your plate, it's in the fridge along with some leftovers," replied Akane.

On that note she turned to open her door, but the boy lightly took hold of her chin, brought her back around and gently kissed her on the lips.

"Goodnight," he said softly, smiling again as he pulled away.

She gave him a big smile and a giggle in return, saying, "Goodnight," before reentering her room as he went back downstairs.

Akane leaned her back against the closed door and slid down until she was sitting with her knees up close to her chest. The girl's cheeks were red and she was smiling as she wrapped her arms around her knees. She didn't know how long she sat there, hanging on to the feeling of his lips against her's, but she didn't care. The feeling was the best she could ever remember and couldn't wait to have the feeling again.

--

"Shampoo, could I talk to you?" asked the old amazon Cologne.

The Nekohanten was closing for the night and the two female warriors were cleaning up, Mousse had already left, since he was ordered by the old lady to retire to bed earlier.

"Yes, great-grandmother?" replied the purple-haired girl as she wiped down a table.

"I know you told me to disregard whatever that boy would say, but he has been so insistant on what he has been saying, that I must know if what he says is true: did he beat you in battle?" wondered the white-haired amazon.

The young lady stopped wiping for a hesitated second, then quickly said, "No. Mousse no ever beat Shampoo in battle."

"I see," replied Cologne, acting as if she hadn't seen it, "Because you do know what would happen if he did, right? The laws state that you'd have to marry him and forget all about Ranma."

"Shampoo know," answered her great-granddaughter, looking sullen.

"And that brings me to my next question: you have been leaving at awkward times after receiving phonecalls from someone and you don't come back until much later the same day. And just recently, I assume it was this same person you were talking to the other day here at the cafe. What are you two discussing?" asked the amazon elder.

Tossing aside her horrible Japanese, Shampoo decided to answer in her native tongue of Mandarin so she could better explain herself, "Honorable elder, that person is helping me come up with a plan to seperate my future husband and the violent girl. We have nearly everything planned out and are smoothing out the rough edges."

"Care to tell me the plan?" wondered Cologne, also switching.

"Forgive me, great-grandmother, but after what happened with yuor last plan I have decided to try one of my own and would feel better if you had no hand in it," replied the young warrior, "I wish to try on my own, just this once."

The old lady sighed, "Very well. Just one chance. But if this plan of yours fails and Ranma and Akane do get married, then we must return home empty-handed and you'll be outlawed by the tribe. Cologne turned towards the swinging doors to the kitchen and added, "Unless you agree to lose to Mousse again and in front of the entire tribe and settle with him."

"What you mean 'again'?" asked Shampoo, switching back to Japanese.

"My child, when one gets to be as old as I am you tend to notice the little things people do and when I asked if Mousse beat you your body language told me he did. Not to worry," said the old woman, adding the last after seeing her great-granddaughter's face, "I won't hold you to our laws this one time, but if he beats you again, you must abide by the laws."

Sighing, Shampoo says, "Yes, great-grandmother."

"Thats's a good girl, now finish up here and head off to bed," ordered the old hag, with a softness a mother gives to her child.

"Yes, great-grandmother," repeated Shampoo, returning to her duties, while Cologne left her alone. 'Can't fail with plan. It embarassing losing to Mousse first time, couldn't live with self if having to lose on purpose. No matter what, plan have to work,' thought the girl, as she set herself on wiping down the last table.