I am sort of stuck on part of the next chapter of Recovering Hearts, so I am writing this to try and clear my head

I am sort of stuck on part of the next chapter of Recovering Hearts, so I am writing this to try and clear my head.

Today's Disclaimer is brought to you by the makers of eyelets. Remember, anytime you feel the need to lace up your shoes, just call and they'll be there. Also by the numbers '4', '7', '452' and the letter 'l '. Thank you, now please sit back and enjoy the show.

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Taste Test

By Queberjeque

"Oh, Ranma! Where are you?" Akane looked down at the bubbling contents of the plate she was carrying, "I have something for you."

She stopped her hunt in the living room and decided to change tactics.

"If I can't find Ranma, I guess I'll just have to ask Dad or Mr. Saotome to help me." She called out with a grin.

After just a few seconds, she was rewarded with the sound of scuffling coming from upstairs. With a grin on her face, Akane started walking to the base of the staircase. She got there just in time to observe Ranma flying through the air to land on the bottom stair, face first.

"Ah, there you are." Akane pick him up by his pigtail. "I want you to taste this for me."

"No Way!" Ranma tried to escape from her, but her hand wouldn't let go of his hair.

Akane gave his hair a good yank. "Hey! You don't have to insult me all the time! I worked really hard on this, all I want is for you to try one bite."

Ranma looked up at the quivering sound in Akane's voice and saw the tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"D-don't cry Akane." Ranma tried to think of what he could do to get out of this situation, but only one solution presented itself.

Taking a deep breath, and mentally cursing his father and Mr. Tendo for throwing him to the wolves, Ranma said what Akane wanted to hear. "Alright, I'll try one bite. But if it kills me, I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your life."

Ranma's heart skipped a beat at the look of pure joy gracing his fiancé's face. *Oh man, this better be worth it.*

Ranma walked over to the table and sat down. "Ok, give it to me."

Akane set the still bubbling concoction in front of him, then picked up a large wooden stirring spoon.

Ranma cringed as he saw the utensil cut through the frozen center of the mass.

Making sure to include plenty of the bubbling sauce, as well as the frozen lump, Akane brought the spoon up to Ranma's mouth.

"Ugh, what is it?" Ranma asked, not daring to breathe.

"Home-made ice-cream, of course. What did you think it was?" Akane explained cheerfully.

"Ice-cre…" Ranma's screech was cut off by the spoon suddenly jutting out from his mouth.

Akane withdrew the spoon and waited expectantly, watching as Ranma's eyes closed, his face scrunched up and he fell over.

After a few moments, one of his eyes slowly reopened, and peered around. "Hmmm" He sat up and started to pat himself down to make sure he was still all right. "Well that was different," He paused while his brain tried to understand the flood of information pouring in from the taste buds and stomach.

He looked over at Akane's hopeful expression. "May I have some more please?"

"Yes, of course!" Akane's face radiated sheer happiness. After numerous failed attempts and over twenty visits to Dr. Tofu to have stomachs pumped, she had finally made something that Ranma liked.

Akane looked up at the thumps coming from upstairs, but she shrugged it off and prepared another spoonful of the substance for Ranma's waiting mouth.

Upstairs, Kasumi looked around at the others, lying in uncomfortable looking positions on the floor. Walking over to her room she opened up the door and stepped inside. After she closed the door again, she looked at all of the cooking and cleaning supplies piled up around the room and smiled.

Downstairs, Happosia looked around in surprise. He had returned from his afternoon panty raid in the hopes of talking sweet Kasumi into giving him a snack. The kitchen was completely bare except for a couple of empty containers on one counter. Hope was smacked around by Confusion until he heard a voice from the next room.

"There's still more to eat if you want it, I made plenty." Hope started to get back to its feet at the thought of food. Then his brain identified the voice as Akane's.

"Sure, I'd love more." Upon hearing Ranma's reply Happosai fell over. Hope was crushed as Disbelief and Incredulity bludgeoned it repeatedly with large mallets.

Upstairs Nabiki had finally recovered from her face-fault and knocked on Kasumi's door.

"Yes?" Kasumi opened the door a little.

With a frown, Nabiki handed her older sister a large wad of bills. "I don't know how you did it, but here are your winnings. I just want to know how you predicted that today would be the day Akane learned to cook." Nabiki looked exasperated. "I mean, I took the bets over a year ago, nobody else even came close, but you managed to guess exactly!"

Kasumi smiled as she put the money in her pocket. "Intuition dear sister, intuition." Then she closed the door and sat down on her bed. Looking around the room again she giggled, "After all, Akane can hardly mess up if the only ingredients in the kitchen are the ones listed in the recipe I gave her."

Pulling the pile of yen out, Kasumi thought about calling Dr. Tofu, then she decided to walk over instead. *Hmm, maybe on the way I can get that red dress I saw the other day. Maybe that will help keep Tofu from dancing around with his skeleton. Maybe he'll dance with me instead!"

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This idea just popped into my head, as I was about to start writing something else. I had planned to write a story about Ranma teaching Akane how to cook, but instead this emerged. Oh well, I'll get to that one later. Again, any questions, comments or concerns can be sent to queberjeque@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading.

Que