Disclaimer: I still don't own Ranma1/2.

Summery: After the Mousse incident, Ryouga's trying to get away from everything so he can find out why he's suddenly so distracted around Shampoo. Unknown to him, Shampoo's tracking along, intent on paying back the honor debt she owes him.

Sign
(Thoughts)
SOUNDS
+ Flashback +
Chinese

Unlikely Couple
The Ukyou and Mousse team up part 1

Staring at the vial in her hands, Akane sighed as she once more debated what to with it. She couldn't seek out the Amazon's, since it was more then likely to be part of one of their crazy plans to get Ranma to marry Shampoo. And there was no way she would allow that, not while she still had her honor and her, well, she had her honor. She didn't love him; sure, he could be nice, and of so handsome, when he wasn't a jerk, or a pervert.

Which was why she would take it over to Tofu and get his opinion on it. He would know what it was, and what to do with it and if there was an antidote for it and what that was.

There were not going to be another love pill like incident, not around her. No way. Still, knowing Nerima, it would backfire at some point, that much was sure. And that was why she needed to know as much as she could about it, to prevent things form going completely wrong.

"Dr. Tofu?" Pulling back on the door leading into the entranceway, Akane blinked once as she found herself face to face with Ranma, the boy staring at her as he was balancing a small bag on one foot, his hands stuffed into his pants pockets. "What are you doing here?"

Giving her a standard, lightly annoyed expression at the light accusation in her voice, Ranma quickly pulled out a hand and grabbed the bag from his foot. "Picking up some stuff for the old crone, what about you?"

Looking lightly embarrassed over it, Akane stepped back and allowed the pigtailed boy to step out and closed the door behind him. "Well, I'm here to see Dr. Tofu, about something important." Reaching out to open the door, she stopped as Ranma gave a concerned stare. "What, you don't think something wrong with me do you, I just need to talk to him about something."

Giving her a skeptic glance, Ranma's narrowed his eyes as he spotted the glass vial in her hand. "What is that?" Not waiting for her to answer, Ranma nimbly snagged it form her and stared at its contents. "What the, where did you get this from."

Stepping back a bit at the sudden firm voice, Akane gave a nervous shuffle with her hands as she tried to force away the voice screaming out the accusation. "It's not what you think, I just found it after Mousse dropped it."

"So let me get this straight" Ranma started off saying as he cast a casual glance down at Akane next to him, one hand trailing around the glass vial in she had picked up. "Ya saw Mousse drop that thing, and ya just picked it up."

Opening her mouth to answer, Akane blinked as the vial was snatched away from her, the glass object glinting in the air as Ranma held it up in front of him. "Be careful with that thing Ranma, you don't know what that stuff is."

Shaking the vial as a small grin spread over his face, Ranma suppressed the urge to grin as it did flash through his mind just what it was that he was holding in his hand. "Trust me Akane, I know just what to do with this thing." Pocketing it, he turned and gave a quick wave as he ran off, bag of ingredients given to him by Tofu dangling from his shoulder. "Later Akane!"

Huffing lightly as red spread across her cheeks, Akane clenched up her hands and turned to leave, her eyes narrowed as the word jerk flashed through her mind. "Honestly, would it kill him to be careful with things, knowing them, it has to be some weird love potion."

"It is." Came Ukyo's voice as she stepped out from behind a corner, her eyes reaching Akane in a matter of seconds. "And before you start yelling Akane, I have a business proposition for you." Her mouth settling into an uneasy smile of friendship, she casually walked towards the youngest Tendo daughter. "So, do you want to hear it?"

Getting a feeling of hesitation and dread, Akane couldn't help but feel just a bit curious as too why Ukyo had come to her off all people when she was known to be trying to split her and Ranma up every now and then. "What is this proposition of yours?"

All smiles at the tone of voice from the other girl, Ukyo grinned as she stopped right in front of Akane. "What if I said I had a way to get Shampoo off of our backs for good." Eyes glinting with deviousness as she spoke, Ukyo didn't give the other girl a chance to reply to her. "Just think about it for a moment Akane, I know you want to be rid of Shampoo as much as I will, and I just happen to have a way to do so."

Feeling a deep sense of dread filling her, Akane gave her best skeptic glance over at Ukyo. "So why do you need me? Can't you settle for someone else?"

"It's simple Akane Tendo." Came Mousse voice as he showed up behind her, his back straight up and his glasses pushed up on his forehead. "For our little plan to work, we need that vial back."

Staring at the half blind Chinese boy with a light tick in her left eye, Akane quickly reached out and turned him away from the light pole, her other hand pushing his glasses back down over his eyes. "I'm here, and that vial you all want, I don't have it anymore, Ranma does."

Feeling Ukyo sneak one arm around her shoulder, Akane turned her attention back to the longhaired girl smiling right at her as she began to lead her away. "And we need it, and much as it pains me to admit it, you are the only one who can get it back from him."

Opening her mouth to protest, she stopped as Ukyo gave her a very deep stare. "You will help us, won't you? After all, all we need is the vial back, and then we'll handle the rest on our own."

Smirking behind them, Mousse grinned as he watched Ukyo use her gift to convince Akane to just give them the vial, knowing that the vial would be back with them again no matter what. And when Shampoo had fallen in love with him, like she should be after all he had done for her, he would make sure Hibiki fell in love with a female pig, after all, that would be fitting him for getting in the way.

Shivering as he stepped out into the back alley behind the restaurant, Ryouga cast a nervous look up at the sky, his mind full of conflicting emotions and worry. And the wish that things could just go back to normal after this, which it was very likely, it wouldn't.

Slipping into the first move of his training exercise, the messy haired teenager with the bandanna quickly debated if he should make a break for it again, after all, Shampoo was up in the bath, and he was down here, she wouldn't be able to follow him if he did run away.

And she wouldn't distract him again, with her nice smile, that soft purple haired and the way she would stare at him from the corner of her eyes.

Shaking his head and chasing that line of thought away, Ryouga quickly slipped into his training again, using more power with each move he made, more then he really needed to.

"Well, well boy, training are we?"

Halting his current backhand/swiping blow, Ryouga glance back to see Cologne sitting on the doorframe, her eyes narrowed at him while she twirled her staff around. "Can I help you Granny?"

Giving off an amused laugh, Cologne quickly moved over to face him from the front, her eyes narrowing a bit more as her grin turned into a smile. "Well boy, I just wanted to see how much you have progressed after my training." Landing on the pavement, she held out her staff and lightly poked his arm. "And I wanted to talk with you in private, about Shampoo, and what I told you before. To make sure you understood it"

Feeling the intensity of her stare, Ryouga began to move back, knowing that this conversation wouldn't be as light as the other one had been. He stopped that though as her staff flashed through the air, aiming right at his throat. "What are you doing?"

Grinned as she watched him deflect the strike, Cologne jumped back and began to lash out again, keeping the young boy moving all the time. "You understand that you will not be allowed to watch the trial, or talk with Shampoo before it or a day after."

Knocking aside a low strike, Ryouga grunted out a confirming mutter before ducking low and trying to knock Cologne back a bit to give him some more room. "I know, but you never really did tell me what she had to do, just that it would require a lot of her, both physical and mentally."

Jumping over Ryouga's leg swipes, Cologne laughed heartily as she balanced both her staff and herself on his kneecap, her eyes dancing as she saw the annoyance flashing through his hazel colored orbs. "I would have thought you have understood it by now, for her to become an Amazon, she must either defeat the object of her humiliation, or undergo the trial of mind, body and spirit. So, she must either win over Ranma in a fair fight or."

Dropping his guard completely at the outburst, Ryouga simply stared right ahead until he felt something hard push him backwards, Looking down in surprise, he spotted Cologne's staff hitting his ribs just about enough to hurl him through the air when she added more pressure to it.

Regaining his balance as he did a back flip, the lost boy stared at her as he relaxed, giving the clear signal that he wasn't up for anymore sparing at the moment. "She has to defeat Ranma, but she's not" Cutting off the rest of the sentence as he remembered where they were, Ryouga sighed a bit and shook his head. "Sorry about that Granny, but, are you sure about that, aren't there another way?"

Smirking much like a shark, Cologne stared at Ryouga as she tapped her staff against the ground. "Well boy, as Mousse found out, she could also become an Amazon through marriage, but since the only amazons around are Mousse and myself, I think we can rule that out."

"You want me to give her some training, prepare her for what she has to do?" Muttering out the question while rubbing a hand through his hair nervously, Ryouga closed his eyes as Cologne moved up closer to him, her face showing nothing but dead seriousness.

Stopping next to the lost boy, she sighed and looked down. "That won't be necessary, as I said, she either had to defeat Ranma, or take the trial of Mind, body and spirit" Letting the statement hang in the air for a while, Cologne kept staring into the darker end of the ally, her mind already going over what she would be needing to do now that her great granddaughter had returned. "It will be up to her to decide, but even so, I fear the challenge she will face with either choice."

"What choice?" Came Ranma's voice as he landed on the ground next to them, on hand casually holding onto his bag while he had a relaxed expression on his face. "Hey, Ryouga, when did you get back into town?"

Giving the pigtailed boy the evil eye at the, from his point of view, mocking comment. "Ranma." Resulting in him spitting out Ranma's name the way someone spits out a curse, one hand clenching up as his battle aura started to rise, not quite reaching the visible range.

Across from him, Ranma, from having spent many a moments fighting or talking with Ryouga, had long ago learned when he should get completely ready for a fight, rather then when he should just be on guard. "Come on Ryouga, all I did was greet you, no reason to get your bacon all fried up."

Shutting his mouth as his words came back to him, Ranma quickly moved backwards to avoid the powerful punch moving through the space his head had just occupied a moment before. "Hey, Ryouga calm down, I didn't mean anything with it, it was just a comment."

Battle aura moving into the visible area at that thoughtless response, Ryouga was more then willing to start a small war in the back ally. "Ranma, prepare to DIE!" Lashing out with several quick jabs and kicks, he stopped as he felt something bounced on his back, the object landing on Ranma head and doing something similar to him. "Granny, what are you doing?"

Knocking out the last of the ash form her pipe, Cologne stared at each of them and shook her head. "We have more important things to discuss, like where you got this from Ranma." Holding up the vial Ranma had gotten from Akane, she gave him a serious look. "If this is what I think it is, Mousse has already reached phase two, and we are more pressed to do something before it too late."

Both boys getting the same confused expression at the same time tried their best to focus on the elder woman as she dropped down to street level. "What do ya mean phase two? And what's Mousse up to this time, another one of his stupid challenges?"

"No, it's not a challenge yet Ranma." Came eth response from Cologne as she began to move back towards the back door to the restaurant. "It is something far more then just that, the passion powder come in three phases, the first one is to increase the desires already present in the male who breathes it in."

Sucking in a breath of air at that thought, Ryouga shook his head or tried too when he remembered the look on Mousse that time when he had broken into his house. "So, he got even more obsessed from it, enough to attack and kill if he couldn't have Shampoo?"

Giving a confirming nod at him, Cologne narrowed her eyes again as she lifted up the vial. "But this, this tell me the powder had reach its cooling down phase, where the motions and behavior of the subject diminishes to a level closer to the original."

Taking a deep breath after that long sentence, Cologne began to stuff some fresh tobacco into her pipe. "But while that happens, the heighten level of obsession remains, and the affected one will be doing nothing but devote every waking moment to obtain the means to win whatever struggle must be face. And while he doesn't show it very often, I know Mousse can be very devious and clever when he wants to, so we must be extra careful."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner old ghoul, I could have helped you with it before it became this big a problem!" Spitting out the words with a lot of venom behind them, Ranma stopped as he felt Cologne staff poke him in the chest, her eyes full of anger as she glared at him. "What? You know I could have helped with this thing."

Not answering right away, but adding pressure to her staffs poking, she finally let off and turned away form him. "Ranma, it had nothing to do with you, everything related to the Amazon tripe is none of your concern, not Since Shampoo was dishonored and cast out from your refusal to accept the kiss of Marriage."

Just staring at the retreating Amazon elders back, Ranma went over the words she had spat at him in his head. Was it his fault, he had never wanted to be engaged to Shampoo, and had, well, he hadn't really done anything about it, sure he had given out an angry denial when he was pressed, but the rest of it, he was simply content with ignoring it whenever he could.

Turning his head to the side, the pigtailed boy watched Ryouga just standing there, the lost boy eyes focused on him in return. "Hey Ryouga, did you know about that as well?"

Giving off a flat glare at the open accusation in Ranma's voice, Ryouga shook his head and moved towards the door as well, stopping only as he felt Ranma grab his shoulder. "Look, I didn't know okay, all I did was help Shampoo after an incident downtown. Mousse and all that just showed up afterwards, I still don't know why they told me all of this."

But even as he muttered out that explanation, Ryouga had a pretty good idea as to why it was that way. Cologne had clearly pointed it out earlier, and even now, he had to admit it, even if it scared him.

He was feeling something for her, something more then friendship. And it felt so much like what he had felt for Akane, and yet so very different. Akane still held a place in his heart, but it was fading, and Shampoo, much as it confused him, were taking up that space more and more everyday he was around her.

Shrugging off the hand, Ryouga closed his eyes and wondered what he should do now. It was more then clear to him that if Shampoo became an Amazon again, she would go after Ranma again, and if he liked as he was begging to think, he would be right back fighting that pigtailed jerk for someone he...

"Ranma." Speaking out the name in a surprisingly non-hostile tone of voice, Ryouga didn't face him as he took the final few steps towards the door. "You should stay out of this, for your own sake."

Seeing the door close, Ranma felt like yelling at the heavens for dropping him into another fine mess, and this time, not as the center, but as one of those that got caught up in it without knowing what was going on. And he hated that feeling. It was like a weakness.

Standing silently on a rooftop, Mousse continued to stare out over the countless homes spread out in the Nerima district. His eyes half-closed as a smirk played across his face. "So, Ranma has my vial, that does present a small problem, as he has without any doubt handed it over to Cologne by now. Not to mention Akane telling us to keep her out of it, which means she'll tell him we've joined forces against him and Shampoo."

Sitting on the tiles behind him, Ukyo shook her head in a hopeless manner and stood up, her battle spatula getting returned to its place on her back. "Guess that plan a failure then, there's no chance of us getting it back now, or even getting near him." Turning to leave after making the final comment, she stopped as she noticed Mousse starting to laugh softly. "What, what is it now?"

Turning to regard her, Mousse quickly moved over and grabbed her shoulders tightly. "Think about it, Akane will be going there to tell them of our little conversation with her, and when she does so, I will have a chance to get what I want, and so do you."

Narrowing his eyes as he released her, the half blind martial artists stepped back and released a dark laugh into the sky above them. "It's so simple, I challenge them to a fight, and while doing that, you will simply retake the vial from them"

Giving a more skeptic stare at him, the crossdressing girl couldn't very well deny it. His plan did have some good points, but also a lot of room for failures in it. "You can't take on Ran-chan and Ryouga on the same time, they'll flatten you in a second."

"I know, which means Ranma will have to be convince to stay away, and the best way to do that." Mousse replied as he pulled out a note and showed it to the girl standing behind him. "Is to give him a good enough reason to do so."

Reading the note, Ukyo cast a very dark look as she folded it up. "Mousse, I want Ran-chan to be mine, but this plan, you want me to kidnap Akane, she my friend, well sort of."

Still smirking as he faced her, Mousse reclaimed the note and continued his grinning. "She won't be kidnapped, the main part is making him think we have kidnapped her." Stepping back a bit, the half blind martial artists turned around and began to run off, jumping across the street to land on another rooftop. Making sure that he didn't lose his current ally, as she still had to play out her part of the plan.

TBC: The Ukyou and Mousse team up part 2

AN: Well, I tried to come up with a good enough explanation for what Shampoo has to do in order to become an Amazon again, basically either defeat Ranma, in Amazon langue, that would be kill him. Or take some test of Mind Body and Spirit.

I hope the chapter doesn't stink too much, if it does, say so and I'll look into fixing what stink and make it better, promise. Also, I tried to see if I could write the way Ranma speaks, and I'm not sure it worked, so tell if it does. If not, I'll drop it in the next chapter.