Disclaimer: Wow... How long has it been? I've even lost my sparkly toe socks! But I haven't lost Mousse. Or Yuka, Xian Pu, and I really, really think I have a better grasp of Ukyo- but I need people to tell me! As always- all Ranma 1/2 charries belong to Rumiko Takahashi.

Not that she'll ever catch wind of this little fic.

Please, please, please review! I want to know if I've learned anything since my creative writing class! Thank you!

He watched her with the passive calm of a winter breeze, the autumn air chilling him as his thoughts whirled. Xian Pu had given up for the evening, apparently. Thank the Kami. If she'd somehow… somehow done something to hurt her…

Not that she should matter to him- of course she shouldn't matter to him.

It was all his fault that she'd gotten involved. He watched her through the window, glasses down over his eyes. Maybe… maybe… he should say yes. As much as he hated to admit it, Ranma was right. This was... his decision. His choice.

And the thought of Xian Pu asking him, he leaned against a staff pulled from his robe. Both hands clung to it, his eyes gazing across the rooftops at the open window where he'd been spending the odd night as D-chan.

Ukyo pounced from one rooftop to the next, finally landing on the other side of Muu Tsu's roof.

"Hello, there…" He smirked wryly, not looking back over his shoulder. "Lovely night for a stroll, don't you think, Kuonji Ukyo?"

She paused midstep. "Mousse? That you?" Abandoning her pursuit of the lost boy, for the time being, she knelt beside the hidden-weapons specialist.

"The one and only." He'd been watching her out of the corner of his coke-bottles all evening… none of the other Nerimans appeared to be out, and her footfalls were too light to be confused with Ryougas.

"You're out awfully late tonight, sugar." Ukyo watched Ryouga turn a corner, and let out a little sigh. So much for finding out what Ranma had meant. But perhaps it would be easier just to ask him herself. If only he'd… he'd… She sighed softly. "Then again, I suppose I am, too."

"Perhaps that's because I'm waiting for the rain." The wind teased both of their hair, forcing them back with the bitterness for a moment.

"It's like ice out here, Mousse. You might want to get back to the Cat Café. Won't you be missed?" Muu Tsu lifted his glasses up to his forehead. Vanity, Pride? His vision blurred and distorted the blue skyline as the window fell from his vision.

"Feh. I won't be missed… Not until the morning. No… when the sun rises, then everything will go back to the way it was the day before last… and the day before that. So I'll take this evening and do with it what I please."

Ukyo slid her spatula onto her back. "How many days until this is all over? Really?"

The Amazon boy chuckled. "You're asking me? You were involved long before I was, remember? Or do I have my facts wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Xian Pu's claim on Ranma is the last, but she's very aggressive. She doesn't give up until she had what she wants…" He squinted at the windowsill, dropping his glasses into position- a shadow- there! A cat? No… a leaf. "So I have the terrible habit of fighting against the ghost of a suitor." He flipped his glasses back up to his forehead again, glancing over at the blurry okonomiyaki artist. "Perhaps you know how that is."

Ukyo's mouth dropped open. It didn't make sense. He wasn't giving up on Shampoo. His voice, his thoughts. Even so… "So this could continue for… years…"

"Years, Months, Days." A faint scent caught his nose, and he flipped his glasses down again. "If you'll excuse me…"

'thumthumthum' 'leap, land' And again… That lemon-curry scent- It would be heading towards- He spun on his heel only to see something dark crossing Yuka's roof. It was a silhouette he'd recognize anywhere. 'NO.'

Three more hours to sleep.

A shadow-figure drops to her windowsill, and her eyes almost flutter open, barely registering the scent of curry and the zing of lemon. 'So, if you can speak Mandarin…' She hadn't bothered to test it on the other girl, she knew that if there was any obstacle, it would be in the brown-haired girl before her.

"Delicious…" She spooned a mouthful into Yuka's mouth, and forced her to swallow. Her eyes glazed over- asleep, but not. Awake, but not. "You tell me what Mousse is to you."

The boy slipped silently to the window.

"He is… a dream." Xian Pu quirks her pouty lips into a smile.

"In Mandarin. Speak like an Amazon."

"He is… my dream." The change in possession was all she needed to hear. Raising a Bonbori high, Muu Tsu grabbed her wrist. "And I am nothing to him." They both turned towards the sleeping girl, watching her turn over.

"Nothing?" The mandarin word slipped past Xian Pu's lips before she could restrain it.

"Mmm… Nothing." The Amazon lowered her head in shame. What was she expecting to accomplish? Her eyes sparkled. Revenge, was it not? But this… this was not revenge. This was a defenseless child who'd never known war. She could not fight like Akane- nor like Ranma. She was…

"Let her sleep." Muu Tsu released her hand, unable to see her tears glitter briefly as she dashed out the window. There was no honor to be found in what she'd almost done.

Sparing one last glance at the drugged student, he began to follow the Amazon girl out the window. "Pleasant dreams, Yuka."

Wow. I haven't touched this thing in years. I hope that I did all the characters justice, even where changes were concerned. If Yuka hadn't interrupted them, I can promise that there would have been a scene with Xian Pu wiping the floor with Muu Tsu.

Please, please press the little button that says "Review" and make my day.