Worried was an understatement. Stressed would be too mellow. But nervous? That would suit it just fine.
"You want us to get married?" Akane forced a nasty face. "We can't, we have to finish school first."
"Yeah, we can't." Ranma made an x with his arms, sticking his tongue out, keeping his cool as best as possible. "Too much stuff goin' on, we're 3rd years soon and can't afford to be dealing with the craziness of... well the whole getting married thing."
"But we thought the 2 of you were getting along after last year's birthday event." Nodoka placed a hand on her cheek, turning to her husband calmly. "Dear, did you lie about them being closer?"
"I swear, Soun can vouch for me." Genma slapped his long-term friend. "Right?"
"It's true, the kids have been very peaceful lately. Akane has only broken one door so far this year in a fit of anger." He spread his arms and expressed an overly dramatic worried look on his face. "She hasn't broken that little since she learned how to break them!"
Akane slammed her fist on the table, alarming the bickering duo and the surrounding group. She sighed as her temper cooled, inhaling before settling back down in her seat, reclaiming her calm. "In my defense, I don't break them on purpose, but that's beside the point: Ranma and I are not getting married." Akane looked straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with said fiancé. "At least not right now."
The adults in the room lit up, as if they had just heard the best news of their lives.
"You say not right now, so that means a little more time and you will?" Nodoka's eyes shined.
"The school will live within you two, hurrah!" Soun cried, joined by an equally overjoyed Genma. "Let's celebrate."
The soon to be 18 year old martial artists grimaced, sharing an understanding look at the other.
"Well, we'll leave you all to celebrate." Ranma stood up, backing away to the exit. "I'm gonna go to the training hall."
"And I'm going to go finish up some homework, goodnight everyone." Akane followed behind.
The pair left the room together, largely unnoticed by the adults celebrating amongst each other as the two headed in the same direction of the training hall. Ranma had slid the doors shut as Akane entered to turn on the lights, both letting out a sigh of relief as they settled in the dojo.
"Geez, way to make it obvious, Akane." Ranma said near the middle of the room as he laid down. "'At least not now'? Way to give 'em hope."
Akane rolled her eyes and followed him on the way down, choosing to sit up in a relaxed position as she ran a hand through her short hair. "Well at least I said something, unlike you who sat there looking like a fool." She shrugged. "I mean, what else should I have expected? You to come up with a better idea to deal with our parents?"
The young man groaned, rolling over close to her. "I'm not the one who loves said fool." He smiled up at her, but was quickly met with a distasteful hand on his eyes, blocking Ranma from seeing Akane's flustered expression.
"Yeah yeah, you sure do love saying that huh." She removed her hand and playfully pushed his face away, eliciting a giggle from both parties as they smiled at one another. Akane pushed his hair away from his eyes and smiled. "I wouldn't worry, if we don't get caught we'll be able to push it off until we're adults and then-"
"-no more parental interference." He smiled, grabbing her hand lightly. "We do what we want."
"And if we want to get married, we will. All smooth sailing from then on." She sprawled her legs out and laid herself parallel to her partner, returning her hand back to him, ever so slightly touching his right hand.
The two laid together calmly, enjoying the shared quiet of the training hall. Ranma then began to think: how much had happened in the last year that had led them to this peaceful moment.
--
7 months prior, beginning of summer break; July
"You menace!" Akane whacked him with the broom. "You. Unbelievable. Bastard." She said in between hits.
Ranma attempted to run away, but the last 2 months of training had done more to Akane's strength than he was willing to admit. "I. Didn't. Mean. It." He said in between hits.
Since the whole birthday fiasco, the two had been having their mutual good moments of civility with much less of their previous hostility. But of course, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and their hostile moments were certainly a lot more intense than they were prior.
"You didn't mean to share a bed with Uyko? Lies!" She raised her arms with one final vengeful hit locked and loaded. "And here I thought we were on better terms."
"Wait!" He held up his arms, in a pathetic groveling pose below her he smiled nervously. "Can't we talk this through? There's a lot more to the story."
Akane paused, considering the idea. Slowly lowered her arms glaring down at him. "Talk."
Ranma let out a sigh of relief. A minute more of life. "Okay well, I didn't notice her crawling into my bed in the middle of the night. I swear she probably did it to piss you off, I had no part of it and you know so." He chuckled nervously, a cold sweat beginning to form on his body. "You were in the room with us, come on."
Akane furrowed her eyebrows. "Fine, okay I believe you."
The pigtailed boy grinned as he stood up. "Thank you, it won't ever happen again I swear."
"Yeah, it better not." She relaxed her stance, her eyes falling beyond her pathetic fiancé and onto the main reason for this early morning brawl. "Ukyo, please stay on our side of the room." Akane chided with her hands on her hips.
"Y'know maybe if you didn't sleep like a rock you'd have been able to stop me from rolling on over." Ukyo yawned, paying little to no mind to the angry host ahead of her. "Anyway, what d'your sister make for breakfast? It's good to let others take care of you every once and a while but I still wanna make sure that it's up to my tastes."
The shorter girls eyebrow twitched. "I dunno, but I'm sure it'll be up to your liking."
"How are you so sure?"
"Because, freeloaders don't have much a choice."
"...Right."
The trio of teenagers left the guest room, dressed and with the broom in hand on their way to breakfast. Despite the earlier months of peace, the riffraff had seemed to be coming back slowly, peaking just the other night with Uyko coming by uninvited to the Tendo household due to a rodent infestation in her restaurant. She said the problem would be dealt with in the next day or two and needed a temporary place to stay until then, promising free food for when the restaurant was safe enough to have customers.
Of course, the Tendo's had taken her in. But due to what happened the last time that Ukyo had stayed, they found it would be best to keep Akane, Ranma and Ukyo in the same room for minimal issues. But in the end, minimal issues isn't exactly a commodity in the area and there was still a bit of an early morning tussle.
"So, where's Konatsu staying during all of this?" Ranma asked on the way to the dining room, trying to ease any left over tension from earlier. "Swear, I haven't seen 'em in forever."
"That's cause he's on a camping trip until the rodent issue's been dealt with." Ukyo smiled. "He insisted so y'all wouldn't have to deal with two more folks to take care a."
"That's sweet. When Konastu comes back you should have them swing by, it's been a while after all." Akane chipped in. "I swear Konatsu gets prettier every time I see them."
"Well Konatsu puts a lot of time into his appearance, habits are habits, y'know." Ukyo said.
The two girls giggled, leaving Ranma bewildered at their ability to act so friendly with each other within less than 3 minutes of this mornings fight. Well I guess there's no hard feelings since neither of them got beaten with the damn broom.
The three had made it into the dining room in better moods than previously, arriving to see the 3 adults of the household already seated and their food already served. Noticing that there was a missing person at the table, Akane guessed that since Nabiki had been busy preparing to go to college soon she had opted to skip out on breakfast that morning in favor of studying.
"Good morning, how did you three sleep last night?" Kasumi greeted, her eyes landing on Akane with the broom in hand. She smiled. "So that's where the broom was."
Akane returned the gesture, a bit flustered, muttering a pathetic explanation to her older sister before going off to return the item as the other two sat down. Quickly they had all settled in their seats, eating quietly to themselves.
"So, what do you kids plan on doing today? Something as a group, or will you be lazing around all day?" Soun asked.
The teenagers shared looks, they hadn't discussed anything previously so they all answered separately one by one.
"Gonna go train in the dojo, visit my mom." Ranma said first.
"I'm gonna go check in on the restaurant and Konatsu, maybe I'll try and fix a few things in the building." Ukyo stated second.
"Going on a run and then training in the dojo when Ranma's finished up." Akane picked a bit of fish. "What about you three? Anything for today?"
Both men shared a look briefly. "Shogi." the two fathers said in unison.
The table looked over at Kasumi who was the only person left without a plan in and, on further inspection, had dressed up in pants and a pink button up under her apron. She put a hand on her cheek and smiled.
"I'm going out." Kasumi beamed.
"With who?" Soun asked.
Kasumi shrugged. "Just friends, it's been a while and we're in desperate need of some catching up, so we set up today for some long needed fun. So in warning to you all, I won't be here for the majority of the day." She looked over at every individual to confirm their attention. "I hope you'll all be okay with it, I'm not sure if I'll be back in time to prepare dinner but for lunch be ready to eat out, to eat leftovers, or feel free to fix something yourselves." She warned.
"Sounds good to me, Sis. You should enjoy your day." Akane set her chopsticks down as the others agreed in unison. "I got to get started for the day, have fun."
After quick goodbyes, Akane prepared herself in her workout clothes and running shoes, determined to accomplish her workout goals for the day and subsequentially begind her goals she set for summer break. Though the break was short, Akane was prepared to use her time wisely with her new routine until she was able to be proud of herself and finally prove how strong she had gotten.
But of course, that was only a part of her motivation, the other part was pure spite. Spite first towards Ranma and his fiancée's who often put her down for not being as strong as them, then towards any previous enemy that had so easily kidnapped her like Pantyhose Taro, and last but not least, towards Ryoga who had lied to her for a year of who he was. Thinking about him made her blood boil. Sure, beating him to a pulp had helped and had almost left her ready to forgive and forget the whole thing but both the rage and embarrassment had conjoined with her spite, resulting in the need to prove that she can kick his ass if he ever tried anything of the sorts again. So until Akane made it to her end goal she had no intention of being anything more than civil with the boy.
Akane shook her head, it was distracting to think about spiteful things during her runs, much better to keep her mind clear. But her focus was short lives as her attention quickly diverted to a familiar male Amazon in a seemingly down attitude sitting on the park bench. She decided to walk over to see if she could help, they weren't on the worst of terms after all.
"Hey, Mousse, what's wrong?" She tapped his shoulder, catching her breath. "Did something happen with Shampoo? She kick you out again?"
Mousse looked up but solemnly returned his gaze to the dirt below him. "Hello, Akane, and yes she did." He sighed, sadness surrounding him. "She got mad at me this morning and banished me for the day."
Akane took a seat next to him, offering a consoling hand to his shoulder. "I'm sorry, that must be awful. Is there anything I could do to help?"
"No no, it's alright I wouldn't wanna bother you." Mousse wallowed dramatically into his hands.
"Oh, okay then I can just leave you alone if that's what y-" Akane began to stand though just as quickly Mousse had grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her towards him much to Akane's discomfort.
"Well since you're offering I could go for some breakfast, she kicked me out before eating." He looked up.
The tomboy raised an eyebrow as she pulled her hand back, offering nothing more than an awkward smile with her response. "Alright then, we can go to my house then I'm sure there's something we can get for you."
Mousse smiled as he followed her home in silence, at last it was the day he had been waiting for. Yes, for the last 2 months Mousse had spent his time gaining information and collecting the ingredients for his plan. He had watched and determined his victims' schedules for the last couple months and was right about Akane's training habits, all of which starting with a morning run through the neighborhood. All he had to do after that was to catch her attention and get her to lead them to Ranma so he could complete his foul plan of forcing them together for his gain. Yes, against all moral reasoning and the illegal imports he had to push past, Mousse had concocted a temporary love potion. Even if it's temporary, it'll work long enough to get them to be official so Shampoo can finally give up any hope for Ranma.
Mousse began to smile to himself as a sinister laugh threatened to escape him, but he quickly regained his act as he remembered the end goal. Don't get ahead of yourself, not yet. He cleared his throat. "So Akane, how's it been for you lately."
"Um well lemme think..." Akane put a finger to her chin. "No offense, but less depressing than it's been for you."
"Ah, that's wonderful to hear, how so?" His face twitched in annoyance at her comment.
"Well, Ranma and I are getting along better than any other period of our lives, Nabiki's been keeping to herself lately because she's studying for college, and all the trainings been showing lately." The shorter girl beamed, flexing an arm muscle simultaneously as she continued. "I mean, it's been a little rowdy but that's to be a normal part of our lives by now, right?" She laughed.
Mousse looked down at her, when he thought about Akane was a very bubbly person when she wasn't being tested, how funny. "Things have been a little strange around here for a while now."
"Well, you can't even say it's strange anymore it's just new normal at this point." Akane joked as they shared a smile. "Ever since the Saotome's came here we've been cursed by all sorts of oddities."
"Aren't most of those weird things from Ranma? Or did the panda also have a part in it?"
"From what Ranma says, his dad is the one who put him in most of the situations that led to all the troubles in his life." Akane chuckled awkwardly as her eyes finally caught the Tendo household entrance. She quickly sped up her pace as Mousse followed, preparing himself to pull off his plan as she continued. "We're here, finally, let's see what Kasumi has in the kitchen."
"Ah yes thank you. By the way, Akane, is Ranma home?" Mousse asked as he looked around the house, he usually didn't see it this put together, usually it was in some sort of rubble. "I wanted to ask him something now that I'm here."
Akane opened the fridge as she quickly looked over its contents quickly pulling out a bit of last night's left overs. Akane was glad that she had been right about the food and didn't have to disappoint him after making him walk all the way here. She pulled the food out as she hummed. "I'm not really sure, I didn't leave too long ago so I'm assuming he's still home, I'll try to go look for him. Enjoy your food in the meanwhile, I'll be right back." Akane handed him the food.
Mousse smiled as he received the food. "Sounds good, thank you."
The Amazon watched as his host left the kitchen to the dojo, when he was sure she was gone Mousse ran towards the fridge for a beverage, anything to mix with his potion for him to serve them. He pulled out a pitcher of what he smelled to be orange juice and quickly found cups to serve them in. Mousse served equal portions in each cup and very carefully pulled out his concoction of immorality, pouring droplets into 2 of them which left him with just enough to tie up any loose ends that could appear. He looked down on them, proud and confident of this scheme. That should be enough to do the trick.
"What are you doing?" called out a voice.
Mousse quickly whipped his head back. "Oh, nothing." He pushed his glassed up his nose. "I served drinks for us if that's okay."
The engaged pair looked at each other as they shrugged thinking nothing of his awkwardness, merely chalking it up to his typical dorkiness. They walked into the kitchen and towards the table, taking a seat.
"Man, I didn't even get anything done until you called me over." Ranma reached towards one of the cups, much to the surprise of Mousse. "Unexpected to see you today, Mousse." he said.
"Wait!" Mousse shouted, a familiar dread taking over him as he looked down on the glasses. Which one was mine again? "One of those is mine."
"They're all the same portion, aren't they? I'm sure it doesn't matter." Akane reached for one, taking a sip and quickly letting out an unintentional burp. Her face went red.
Ranma was quick to laugh, distracting him from the cups as Mousse decided to make a decision that would make or break his plan. "Oops." He said as he pushed the table forward, knocking over one of the glasses closest to Ranma. The laughing stopped as the two boys scurred, one to clean and one to leave the spilling area.
"Dude!" Ranma yelled. "What's your deal?"
"I'm sorry, it was an accident. You can have the last cup I'll just serve myself another one" Mouse defended as he began to clean with a nearby rag.
"Not to be mean or anything but that didn't look like an accident." Ranma grabbed a disposable towel and began to help with the cleaning process. "I mean, that was a very calm oops."
"It was very genuine though." Mousse added.
Ranma stopped, looking straight into Mousse's eyes. A bit of the dread shown through his face as Ranma frowned. "This feels suspicious."
Mousse opened his mouth but was quickly interrupted as Akane's head slammed unto the table, spilling the last of the drink from the collision. They whipped their heads towards her, surprised.
The two stared at Akane in silence. Maybe if I can lie my way out of this, Mousse thought to himself as he smiled slowly at the opposing party across from him. "She's fine."
Ranma felt his face tighten. "What did you do?"
The two began to circle around the table at a stand still, as Ranma prepared himself to use force for an answer. Mousse began talk. "Okay well, remember those months ago when I asked you two to become official so Shampoo could move on? You two were at school and I popped in?"
Ranma glared. "Vaguely, what's your point, freak?" The pigtailed boy cracked his knuckles.
"Ha ha, well I may or may not have been plotting to get you two with a temporary love potion long enough for me to accomplish said goal." Mousse paused. "You know, this can be a positive thing if you let it be. Look I got some of the potion left over" He laughed nervously, pulling out the vile with a little bit of his concoction swirling inside.
Ranma had felt his anger reach a climax as he climbed over the table and swiped the vile from Mousse's grip in one hand, throwing it out the window. He snatched the Amazon by his collar with the other hand next.
Mousse screamed frantically as he put his hands up. "Wait! I can fix this!"
Mousse fumbled around as Ranma stared at him, unsure if he would believe him. Slowly Ranma let go of him as Mousse had found what he was looking for, pulling out large piece of paper and extending it. Ranma peered closer, annoyance hitting him as he looked at the paper Mousse was holding out.
"How am I gonna read this, it's in Chinese." Ranma glared.
Mousse huffed, so annoyed not even looking up from the paper. "You'll just have to trust me if you want me to fix this." he said
"I'd much rather just learn Chinese than trust you to read this." Ranma insulted.
"Well learn it then!" Mousse stuck his tongue out.
"Oh, would ya quit bein' smart and just read it already!"
"Just gimme a sec I'm trying to find it."
"Well hurry it up, we don't know when Akane will wake up."
"Shut up and let me read then." Mousse flipped the paper over, skimming the instructions before finally finding what he had been looking for. Mousse then smiled with relief. "Aha! Found it! 'What to do when only one person consumes the product'." His smile then faded as he read on, the little hope the text had given him vanishing.
"... Well what's it say?" Ranma raised an eyebrow.
Mousse looked up. "You're not gonna like it, lemme say." He laughed nervously, briefly stopping as he continued reading. "You're really not gonna like it."
Ranma looked over at Akane, feeling his annoyance rising quickly with the new information. "Oh, do tell."
Mousse took a deep breath as he translated. "If consumed by only one party, the victim will fall in love with any individual that they make eye contact with that is the gender of their attraction. Depending on the will power of the victim, their rationality will be limited to brief moments of no eye contact." He squinted. "Notes: this spell does not work on direct family members; if said situation happens you can't technically sue us." Mousse pushed his glasses up. "This is bad."
A short-lived silence ensued between the two as they looked over at Akane. She stirred much to the panic of the two boys; frantically, they began to yell as anger and fear rose amongst both boys.
"Where the hell did you get this thing?!" Ranma yelled at Mousse, their previous standstill across the kitchen picking up where it had last left off. "You are so dead!"
"Don't panic, it only lasts a few weeks." Mousse circled slowly, a bit panicked now. "I'm sure it'll be fine by the time summer break ends. The box said 4-5 weeks."
Ranma stopped as he, yet again prepared himself to attack Mousse. "You do know why that isn't the main problem?"
Mousse back up against the wall, thinking of his best defense options. Considering that he knew how pissed off Ranma could get when others messed with Akane's safety, Mousse was thinking that the best option was to try and run away and sort this out later when he was in a better state of mind. "Okay well, it should settle your anger at least a little bit." Mousse bargained, faintly hearing Akane begin to wake. "Also, let me restate, when you really think about it this could really work in your favor." he smiled nervously.
Ranma stared ahead, his anger finally peaking as he cracked his neck. "I'm gonna send you back to the Nekohanten as duck soup."
Just before their fight broke out the two boys had came to a stop, as they had finally noticed Akane completely awake now. All of their anger returned to panic as they stared at her blank face, frozen, too afraid to move from their stance. Finally, Ranma smiled nervously, he put his hand up and waved as Mousse slowly began sliding closer to Ranma to get a better view of Akane.
"How you feeling over there, Akane?" He chuckled faintly.
Akane grinned. "Wonderful!"