****Note: Yes I know that all these characters and more belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. She is a god send to us all!!!

When I Thought I'd Lost You

Ch. 7

For the rest of the day, Mousse refused to see anyone else in his room with exceptions for doctors and nurses. Finally everyone just went home, seeing that they were getting no where fast.

It was night before long and a blanket of dark-blue black mottled with white specks settled over the sky. The moon rose high into the night sky, shining brightly like a street light down upon the city.

Mousse lay upon his bed and staring up at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep and he couldn't figure out why. Why was it so hard for him to accept that he wouldn't fight again? Could he still win over Shampoo without fighting? He turned his head to the left and looked to the window. Should he return home to China? Forget about Shampoo and become a normal Amazon male as so many had tried to convince him to be years ago?

Stepping out of bed, Mousse walked to the window while pulling a chair behind him. At the window, he stared down at the ground level as he sat down and studied the area. He noticed there were many purple lilac trees mottled about the grounds. The light from the moon made the trees seem to glow with a unnatural radiance. Their color, Mousse recognized, was the same as Shampoo's hair.

"Mousse? What you doing up?"

Mousse toppled over and fell off the chair as he heard that familiar voice suddenly speak out to him from the dark.

"Sh-sh-sh-Shampoo! Wha-what are you doing here?" He fumbled to stand up but only managed to succeed in falling down again with the chair. Shampoo walked over and grabbed his arm, pulling up to help him stand.

"I...I not know. Shampoo just go out for night walk and then Shampoo at Mousse's door."

"Then you're here for no reason at all?"

"No, I hear that... Akane tell me you no want to fight anymore. Is true?"

Shampoo looked up at Mousse, his face awash with surprise. Mousse couldn't speak. There was Shampoo, looking up at him, without hateful eyes, but with eyes full of worry. He realized that she hadn't removed her hands from around his arm and he could feel the warmth emanating from her hands and how soft they felt against his skin.

"Mousse? You hear me?"

"Oh, ah yeah, umm," Mousse's mind raced to find an answer without being distracted by Shampoo's touch.

"Yeah, I guess it is true. I'm not going to fight anymore."

"Why?"

"I always lose, my fights against Ranma are futile, and...my health has turned to the worse." Mousse looked away from Shampoo and stared down at the floor.

"I not understand. Doctor remove tumor."

"There could be a second time, the doctor told me so. He said that I could relapse if I take too much stress again."

"How you stop fighting after all you do?"

Mousse wretched his arm from Shampoo's grasp and walked back to his bed.

"It was just not good enough. I was never good enough to ever win." Mousse sat down on the bed again and stared at the wall, away from Shampoo.

Shampoo pursed her lips and took a breath. She stared at him for a moment and then pulled up the chair beside his bed.

"Are you sure you want to leave all that behind you? All that you learned and spent your life for?"

Mousse's ears perked as he recognized Shampoo's change to Mandarin.

"It doesn't matter anymore Shampoo. If I have nothing to do it for, then what does it matter. Even you see me as a failure."

"But, I don't!"

Mousse turned back over to look at Shampoo.

"Come on! You do, I know it! Ever since I came here, you've always seen me lose and I've always been a failure. I never did anything right."

Shampoo looked down from Mousse's gaze and to the bed sheets. "There was one time that you weren't a failure to me Mousse."

"Oh, really? When was that? When I lost every match to Ranma?"

"You don't remember? What about Togenkyo Island or have you forgotten about that so easily?"

"Togenkyo? That was when...when I fought that Bird Man wasn't it?"

"And did you win over him Mousse?"

"Yeah, I guess I did. It was a lucky chance anyway. Why would you remember such trivial things anyway?"

"Because...because you saved me, Mousse."

"Shampoo?"

"That time, you came to my rescue. You saved me, you overpowered that thing and saved my life!" Shampoo quickly pulled her head back up at Mousse and looked into his eyes. He suddenly realized that there were tears forming in her violet eyes and threatening to rain down her cheeks. He was taken back, was this really the same girl he had known for so long, daring to cry because of him?

"Mousse, on that day, I was actually scared. As an Amazon warrior I shouldn't have been, but I couldn't help it. I was hoping so much for Ranma to come and help, but he didn't and you did. Then he was about to kill me and you suddenly attacked him with all your strength and you beat him. During everything that happened, I was scared."

"Shampoo, I never knew."

"Of course you didn't! You think that I would let out my feelings so easily for anyone at that time? NO and I have hardly ever let out my real feelings because thats the way of the Amazon woman." Shampoo paused and looked back down at the bed again, digging her hands into the sheets, "When you were stopped by the Bird man, with those acupuncture feathers all over you, I was...I was scared that I would lose you most of all."

"Why...why would you be scared to lose me? A failure?" Mousse turned away and looked to the wall.

Shampoo quickly stood up, while knocking over her chair. "BECAUSE, YOU BLIND DOLT," Shampoo yelled as she reached over and grabbed his head, turning it towards her, so their faces were only a foot apart, "IT'S BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!"

Mousse could only stare at Shampoo and blink. She had finally said those words to him that he'd been dying to hear for so long and now, he couldn't figure out a thing to say to her.

"You-you-you love ME?"

Shampoo stepped back, releasing his head and bringing her hands together on her chest.

"I...I...I...don't believe I just said that."

"Shampoo, don't back away from me."

Mousse scurried out of his bed and was instantly in front of Shampoo. He placed a hand on her shoulder and used his other to slowly lift up her chin, so that he could look her in the eye.

"Shampoo, you have to tell me. This is something that I've been waiting to hear from you for years and now I do. Tell me, please tell me that you aren't lying, that I really heard you say those words to me and that you mean those words. Please say I'm not dreaming."

"Mousse, when you collapsed that day, I thought I had actually lost you. Then even after the operation, you wouldn't wake up and I still thought that I would lose you. You don't know how much has been going on inside my head these past days." Shampoo pulled herself from Mousse's grip and walked over to the window, "And everyday, every minute, I was thinking, will Mousse wake up? Will I see him awake today? And every time I came in here, you were still asleep."

"Yet now I am awake and you don't have to ask that question. But, you haven't answered my question, Shampoo. Did you mean it when you said you love me?"

"Do I love you? That question has been bouncing around in my head for so long and I still don't know the real answer."

"But you just said-"

"What I just said was on impulse, it came out of my mouth before I could think."

"But the things you say on impulse is what you truly feel inside!" Mousse walked over to Shampoo once more and turned her towards him, "Your impulse tells the truth."

"But what if my impulse is wrong, Mousse?" Shampoo said as she tried to turn away, but was held in place by Mousse's grip.

"How can it be wrong when you're following your heart and not your head? Why do you think that I followed you here and have constantly stayed by your side? I followed my heart and not my head."

"But, but, but-"

"But nothing, Shampoo! Do you love me or not? Because if you don't, then you should have just let that tumor kill me. If I have to live, knowing that you won't ever have feelings for me, then I don't want to."

"Mousse..." Shampoo stuttered and looked back up at his face. The tears that had been forming in her eyes, began their torrent down her cheeks. Shampoo burst out crying, burying her face in Mousse's chest and wrapped her arms tightly around his torso. She felt her knees go weak and she slowly dropped to the floor, taking Mousse with her. Mousse had been surprised by Shampoo's sudden burst into tears and then he felt her slowly drop as if her legs couldn't hold her up anymore, and taking him down with her. Mousse slowly dropped down with Shampoo until they both sat on the floor, Shampoo still holding his chest and crying. They sat there on the floor not moving, until Shampoo was able to take a deep breath when her tears slowed, yet she still held tightly to Mousse.

"Mousse...I love you." Shampoo whispered to his chest.

"What did you say?"

Shampoo lifted her head and found Mousse's expectant gaze. " I love you Mousse."

"You mean it?"

"Yes, I mean it Mousse."

Mousse brought a hand to Shampoo's face and wiped a stray tear from her face.

"Then why were you crying?"

"The tears made me tell the truth." Shampoo sighed and placed a hand over top of Mousse's, "Do you know how long I've held in those tears? How long I've wanted to just cry and cry? When that first tear came, I knew I couldn't hold them in any longer. Then as I held you and cried, all my emotions came rushing to the top from where I had forced them down. And I realized that I really did love you Mousse. It wasn't just a figment of my imagination or a fake feeling."

Mousse stared at Shampoo, her eyes shining, he realized, with love for him. He pulled her into a tight hug and stroked her hair.

"I promise I won't make you cry again Shampoo. I would never want to see you unhappy again. Your smile is the light of my world."

"I know Mousse. I just couldn't bring myself to see that earlier. I was so blinded by our past and the Amazon way...I couldn't see the real thing sitting right in front of me."

Shampoo reached up and placed both hands around Mousse's face. "To think that I thought I had actually lost you that day, but now I have you again." Shampoo brought his face toward hers and kissed him deeply on the lips. Mousse was stunned for a moment as Shampoo suddenly kissed him, but he closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around Shampoo and held her in their kiss.

***Oooh, dun dun dunnnn. Shampoo reveals her true feelings to Mousse, but what happens after? You'll just have to wait until the next chapter is revealed to you!!! Thanks so much for reading and please review, review, review!!! You do not know how much it makes me happy to see new reviews in my story stats. So to me when I see more reviews I'm more eager to end the story, no reviews and I take longer to write it. And when I get this story done, I will be advancing to my 2 other Inuyasha fan-fics that are partly done on paper (like this one was) and will be soon published on here. Happy reading!!

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