Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma.

Cure Lost, Love Found

Ranma knew two things for sure. One was that he wanted to be a full man again and the other was that he wanted to keep his memories. Dilemma wasn't a strong enough word for the position he was in. Both were so important to him. He had tried to observe Shampoo to help with his decision, but Cologne wasn't allowing it. Apparently Cologne knew that the entry in Shampoo's journal was genuine and she felt bad for the pain that her grand daughter would be feeling. Soon after Genma had come out of his sleep, Cologne and Shampoo left. Ranma had just assumed that they went back to the Amazon village.

Genma was acting completely normal. He had woken up and wanted to eat and was already talking about leaving China. Ranma still wasn't ready to go. He wasn't able to decide and now he couldn't even ask anyone's advice. Ranma was all on his own in this decision.

'This would be a lot easier if I knew how she felt.' Ranma often thought this, but it would soon be too late. Now that Genma was up he wanted to get going and Ranma wouldn't have much time to get cured. If only this wasn't so hard. If only Ranma knew how Akane felt.

Akane was trying to return to a normal routine, but it was really hard with all the people missing in her life. She hadn't seen P-chan in forever, Ryoga didn't know her anymore, the Amazons were with Ranma and Ranma was in China. None the less, Akane was trying as hard as she could not to think about such things. She got up early this morning and got dressed. She walked down stairs and left the house in order to start her jog. She was taking a different route, a longer route, she thought that it would help her forget her troubles. She no longer had to see the fence that he used to walk on or the park that they used to talk in. Unfortunately, not seeing these things made her think of them. This morning was different though. She had left the house, began running, and stopped thinking. She wasn't wondering if the tape would help Ranma. She wasn't wondering if he was going to like her. She wasn't wondering how she should act when she saw him. She was just running. That is, she was just running until she saw him.

At first she thought that it was just her imagination. That he wasn't really there, but then she knew that he was actually there. He was sitting alone on a bench with his head in his hands. He looked so depressed. Not knowing if he would remember her, she approached him nonchalantly. Akane sat down next to him and he looked up.

"Akane Tendo?" He thought that he was seeing things, which was a regular occurrence.

"Hi Mousse. What wrong?" Akane wanted to know if the rest of the party was back in town, but she thought it was more appropriate to ask Mousse about his troubles.

"It is quite a long story and I'm sure that you have more important things to do then listen to my story." Akane put her hand on Mousse's shoulder.

"I have plenty of time."

Mousse told Akane the whole sordid story. He told her about the ride there, the plan, and the journal entry that was supposed to work but didn't.

"…And so I left. I couldn't take it. I had finally done it, I had gotten Shampoo to love me, and then I lost it." Akane's arm was now wrapped around Mousse's shoulder and he was leaning his head on her.

"Mousse, that's awful, but why didn't you get cured first?" Mousse sat up.

"Well, I just wanted the memories. I know that if she ever sees me, she'll revert back to the way she used to be. So I'm going to keep my memories and train until I feel that I can see her again." Mousse turned to Akane and smiled. Akane forced a smile back. She wanted to reassure Mousse but she felt so bad for him. He was so in love with Shampoo that he did the craziest things to try to win her over. It always seemed as though Mousse got the short end of the stick. It wasn't fair to Mousse that Shampoo chased after Ranma, when Ranma obviously didn't feel the same way for her.

Mousse noticed that Akane's smile wasn't genuine and he knew what she was thinking about.

"If it helps you at all, when I left, he hadn't gone through with it. In fact he was reconsidering the whole thing." Akane looked Mousse in the eyes, trying to determine if he was just trying to make her feel better.

"Really? I…I mean, what do I care? It's his choice."

"Akane Tendo, who are you trying to convince? I think it's time for you to say what you really feel." Akane looked at the ground. Tears were starting to form in her eyes. She had denied it for so long. She thought that if she didn't say anything it would go away, but it wasn't going away. If anything it was getting worse. What could she lose by just telling Mousse, she could trust him.

"Oh Mousse, it's just that, I don't know if he's going to like me."

"Well, he might not go through with it. I mean, Ranma has had this chance before and he's always given it up."

"Yes, but that was different. If he had gone through with it at Togenkyo, I would have been turned into a man and there was always something in his way, but now there's no one there to screw this up."

"Yes, but just because there isn't another person there, doesn't mean that there's nothing stopping him. Ranma is having a really hard time deciding. He wants more then anything to be a real man again, but he wants to have his memories too."

"I guess that's Ranma for you. He always gets to have his cake and eat it too. That's why he hasn't let any of his fiancées go." Mousse smiled at Akane.

"I don't think it's quite that simple." The two sat there in silence for a few minutes and then Mousse stood up.

"Thank you for listening to my story Akane, but I've taken up enough of your time, and I'm sure your family is wondering where you are." Akane just realized that she had been talking to Mousse for over an hour. She stood up too.

"Oh no Mousse, you didn't waste any of my time. I was glad that you felt comfortable in opening up to me. And thank you for all your help too, I really needed it."

"Well, thank you for opening up to me Akane Tendo. I hope I'll see you again soon, but right now I have to get some things from the Nekohanten before I start with my training. Good bye Akane."

"Bye Mousse, I hope I see you again soon." With that they parted ways. Mousse walked of towards the Nekohanten and Akane began jogging towards home.

Ranma woke up that morning and knew exactly what he was going to do. He couldn't believe that it had taken him this long to come to such an easy decision. Genma was still asleep when Ranma came into the cave, but Su-Lin was up waiting for him. Ranma sat down beside her and she poured him a cup of tea.

"Have you made your decision Ranma."

"Yes, I have." Ranma lifted his cup and took a drink.

"How did you come to your conclusion?" Ranma set his cup on the table.

"It was simple really, I don't know why I didn't do it in the first place. All I did was make a list."

"A list?"

"Yeah, I listed the pro's and the con's to getting cured. It took me a while because I wanted to make sure I took everything into consideration, but in the end, it was obvious."

"Well I'm glad you've finally come to a conclusion. Follow me." Ranma and Su-Lin both stood up.

Su-Lin began walking down the path that both Shampoo and Genma went down and Ranma followed. It was a long path, but a straight one. There were a few side paths that Ranma figured led to rooms similar to the ones Shampoo and his father had occupied. Genma didn't know about his son's plight. In fact he thought that they were in that cave because he ate some bad pork and got sick (it was the only thing that Ranma could come up with). So, as far as Genma knew, he was recovering from food poisoning. The reality of it all was Ranma's inability to make an easy decision. When he had realized what he was going to do, he hit himself for taking so long to come to a conclusion.

Su-Lin finally turned down a side path and into a room that had many jars in it. The room smelled like a mixture of flowers that Ranma couldn't identify and there was a hole in the middle of the 20-foot ceiling that lit the room up in the most interesting way. Su-Lin led Ranma to the very center of the room, right under the hole. She then walked over to one of the walls and pulled down a jar. She opened the lid and then turned to Ranma and smiled. Ranma smiled back.

"Here you go Ranma."

AN: Right off the bat I must apologize for the extremely long wait. As I said in the last chapter, I did have finals, but those are long over with. See, unbeknownst to me, my family had planned this whole vacation thing for my sister's graduation. Then I the Harry Potter book came out so I was completely involved with that from June 20 to June 23. I would have been finished with it earlier, but my friend made me take it slow, so I could savor the book. After that I started job hunting, which is a very daunting task for me cause no matter where I go, they're just not hiring. But I'm finally free as a bird and I hope to get the last chapter out by Friday (it's Tuesday, by the way). Ok, I want to explain something in this chapter. The Mousse, Akane thing, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I see them as being really good friends. Anyway, the discussion they had was actually a similar discussion that I had with a friend of mine. We're friends, but we really aren't the kind to tell each other secrets, but we had a revelation recently and that was the inspiration for that scene. Last but not least, little Ranma's pro and con list. I'm thinking of actually making a list and posting it in the last chapter, but that's debatable. So, next chapter, the Saotomes make their way back to the Tendo Dojo, and it will be raining. Oh yes, I almost forgot. I have 3 endings for this….2 of which are serious and one that is a little goofy. I'm writing up the ending that I like best and then, if you'd like, I'll put the other two up as well. Anyway, sorry again for the long wait. I hope that it didn't disappoint you, as always, please review. I love hearing what you guys think. Thanks again. Bye!