"Wonderful?... Wonderful how?" Ranma questioned. "Like just the general feeling or like the in love feeling kind of wonderful?"
Akane pressed a finger on her chin and began to think for only a second before giving him a shrug. She leaned forward, resting her weight on her arms over the table; she sat near the edge of her seat smiling. A bad feeling began to form in both of the boys in front of her.
"I think, rather than focusing on that I should be focusing on something more important." She said. "I should be focusing on you, since I really do like you."
The color on his face drained, Ranma stumbled a few steps back as his face felt like it was about to combust from the pure shock. Only after a few seconds of his dismay, did he slap himself across the face in an attempt to snap out of his state. He pushed Mousse forward, hoping that seeing what she said to him would confirm that the potion had worked.
"Oh, Uh-Akane, what about me?" Mousse asked, quickly understanding what his role was in the present situation. "Do you like me?"
The short girl nodded. "I do. I can't believe I never noticed just how handsome you are, Mousse, and also," Akane lifted his glasses up as she paused to examine him closer. "I think you have the most charming gaze, I completely understand why you walk around blind half the time."
Mousse felt Ranma's eyes burning a hole through the back of his head, a feeling of nervousness seeped into him as he pushed his glasses back down. "Thank you, Akane Tendo. You wouldn't mind going on a date with me then?"
Akane gasped as she grabbed his hand, her voice stern and her eyes full of stars. "Mind?! I wouldn't want anything more in my life than to spend my day with you, Mousse." She stood up and pulled him over the table. "We should go right now!"
"What?!" Mousse cried out but was largely ignored by his attacker.
Just before she could pull him out of the house a very annoyed pig tailed boy grabbed him by the collar, yanking him out of her grasps and back over the table. He huffed, a faint jeer on his lips formed as he looked down at the appalled Amazon in his grip.
"Let's stay focused here, Mousse." Ranma scoffed. "Besides, you wouldn't wanna go on a date with such an uncute girl like her, trust me."
Mousse grunted and pulled Ranma's hand off of his collar, quickly adjusting his robes as he straightened himself out. "Oh, believe me, I have no interest in going on a date with her." He looked ahead at the bewildered tomboy ahead of him.
"Yet she still nearly managed to get you to do so."
"Did not! She's just a lot stronger than I remember her being is all." Mousse crossed his arms. "But now what?"
Ranma looked across from him as his eyes found Akane's, who smiled sweetly, hiding her blushing expression as their eyes met. He felt his face burn with embarrassment, this whole situation was bound to end in disaster.
Ranma sighed as he thought about his options: The first choice was to try and hide everything from the household for the next few weeks, of course this was impossible since all of the family was too nosey for him to that. The follow up choice was to just fess up and hope everyone would help him out until the potion wore off, which once again was impossible due to the fact that knowing their fathers, they would try to use it to get them married, and not to mention Nabiki, who would try and find a sick twisted way to monopolize the problem. Lastly, he could run off and hide out with Akane but once more, everyone one would find it suspicious and now he was back where he started, with the marriage and Nabiki's capitalistic abuse being his destiny.
What can I do? Ranma pondered. He looked over at Mousse with a defeated look, turning him away from Akane as he whispered. "'fraid we ain't got many options that aren't some sort of hell."
Mousse frowned. "Why not?"
"Because, there's no way I can hide this from our families and have an outcome that doesn't involve us getting married off and Akane killing me as soon as this potion thing wears off." Ranma sulked. "I wish you would've just tricked me better at this point. Curse my amazing detective skills."
"Amazing my ass, you just got lucky." Mousse rebutted, shaking his head as he began to refocus on the problem at hand. "There has to be something you can do."
Mousse looked behind himself to see Akane staring at them blankly, her sweet expression still on her face as he returned his eyes to the floor in front of him. He weighed his options, coming to the conclusion that this could be a good way to ruin Ranma's life once and for all. If what Ranma said was true than the two would be married and out of his hair, leaving him with his original intention of swooping in to save Shampoo from her despair. But a small part of him wasn't sure, of course it would be easy but he would be ruining not only Ranma's life but Akane's life as well. Sure, he didn't particularly care for her but the idea of forcing anyone to marry Ranma gave him some sort of twisted guilt.
The taller boy mulled over his feelings, was he really gonna let morality get in the way of one of his plans? Those certainly haven't stop him before. For Gods sake he made a love potion to force them together to become an item. But still, Akane shouldn't suffer entirely for this, and besides if he got on their good side, gaining their trust, maybe they would fall for his tricks better on a later date. It wouldn't hurt to help him out, just a little,He thought.
"Maybe... maybe you could just stay as girl for the next month or so? The instructions said that only people of the preferred gender would trigger a reaction which in this case is men, right? Which means that girls won't affect her state." Mousse quietly suggested. A feeling of digust taking over as he fully realized this would be helping Ranma out, the last thing he'd want to be caught dead doing. "If family isn't affected either, your only concern would be keeping her home and away from your father." He stated.
Ranma lit up. "You're right. As long as I stay a girl and keep any unrelated men away from here than I have a chance to get away with this." He smiled. "You're the best, Mousse."
Mousse pursed his lips. "Of course, we're friends after all." This better work in my favor later on.
"Oh absolutely." Ranma walked over towards the sink, turning the water on cold and dunking his head under the faucet. "So glad you're righting your wrongs, dude." The red head laughed, turning off the water as she lifted her head up to face him.
Ranma trotted over to Akane, grabbing her hands and looking her in the eyes. She smiled at her fiancée. "Akane, what are you doing today?"
Akane mimicked the gesture, squeezing Ranma's hands in return and looking into her eyes. "Hopefully spending my day with you, the love of my life." She beamed. "I know we're already engaged but I'd love to go on a real date with you."
A short silence rang through the room.
--
"You said it wouldn't work on me if I was a girl!" Ranma exclaimed, sinking down the wall. "It's working on me, Mousse!" She yelled
"I noticed, idiot, I'm not blind!" Mousse slapped the shorter ginger across the head. "There must've been something I misunderstood in the instructions..."
The two had left the kitchen, retreating to the nearby hallway as soon as the two had processed what happened.
To say that this was possibly one of the most inconvenient things that could've happened was an understatement, no this ruined any chance of keeping this a secret as they intended. This was a problem that could've stemmed from multiple different variables, such as: The instructions had lied, Akane and the potion processed Ranma as a man, or the possibility that the instructions were right and Akane wasn't only interested in... Mousse shook his head, was not his problem to deal with and was not the main problem at hand.
He crossed his arms: Is my pity for Akane strong enough to deal with this?Mousse thought, he frownedDefinitely not.
"What now?" Ranma covered her eyes.
"I don't know, but this is too much for me to help with. I can't help you with this one, you're on your own." Mousse began to walk away. "Good luck."
"You're leaving?! After you caused all of this?" Ranma stood up, pulling him back to face her. "Some friend you are!"
"It ain't my fault that you're 'Amazing detective' skills caused this to go sideways. Like you said it would've been easier if you had just let me trick you." Mousse began to walk away again. "You can figure this out."
"Hey, come back here!" Ranma launched herself as she latched onto Mousse's leg. "You can't just leave me, you're a part of this problem!"
"Don't care, let go of me!" Mousse wiggled his leg.
"I swear if you don't help, I'll... I'll tell Shampoo everything! She'll be so pissed to find out that you were gonna try forcin me and Akane together."
"I do that often enough, she'll just hit me some and forgive me in the next day or so."
"Fine, then I'll tell her all about the temporary love potion! Imagine her with that knowledge!" Ranma finally managed to pull him down. "She's much sneakier than you, so she'll probably succeed in tricking me and marryin me before I can snap out of it."
Mousse gave pause. "Well, she'd have to get the information out of me first."
"Ha! That'll be like the easiest part for her. All she has to do to get you to fess up is be nice for a bit so fat chance you'll stop her." Ranma pulled him closer. "So stop tryin to weasel outta your responsibility here and help me out!" She shouted.
Mousse scowled, begrudgingly giving in. "...Fine." He grit his teeth as he stood up. "Only because, as much as I hate to say it, you have a point."
Ranma nodded as she followed him up. "Great. Let's get in there, take her to her room, and brainstorm an idea of what to do about this." She made way back to the kitchen.
Mousse rolled his eyes but followed her nonetheless, seeing that Akane hadn't moved much from her spot except to sit back down. She quickly turned her head to the two of them and smiled, paying little to no mind to their less than happy expressions.
"Okay, Akane, let's get goin now." Ranma demanded as she pulled her fiancé by the arm. "We gotta get you in your room."
Akane yanked her arm away and pressed a hand to her cheek, embarrassed. "Just us? All alone?"
Ranma blushed but ignored her suggestive comment. "No, Mousse will be there too." She motioned to leave the kitchen. "And it'll just be you in there, Mousse and I are running off to... do some errands."
The tomboy raised her eyebrow as she followed the group upstairs. "But why can't I come along if it's just some errand? Why do I have to say alone in my room?" She protested.
"Because..." Ranma dragged out, not sure of how to expand his lie.
"Because, we're getting you a surprise." Mousse filled in. "So you can't come along."
Akane gave a sullen look before she became visibly angry. "That sounds like a big fat lie." She crossed her arms as they reached her room. "I can sniff out a lie when I smell one; I'm not stupid."
The plotting pair exchanged looks, a little taken aback by Akane's sudden brashness when she had been nothing but softly spoken since she woke up. Ranma turned the knob of the door, an idea taking form. Just to test it out a bit,she thought as they entered the room.
Ranma, still faced away from the slightly taller girl, spoke. "Have you thought that maybe we don't wanna be seen in public with such an uncute girl?"
Akane furrowed her expression as her anger took the wheel. "Excuse me? How dare you say that to me!" She scoffed, annoyed that Ranma wasn't facing her. "Fine, be like that! I don't exactly want to be seen with you two weirdos anyway!"
And there it is. She knew it, after all the instructions did say that thing about no eye contact so of course Akane had the willpower to beat it. Luck had finally turned for Ranma, at last. She turned around, a smile plastered across her face.
"You sayin you don't actually wanna go on a date with me?" She said brazenly.
Akane felt a wave of embarrassment overcome her as she began to backtrack on her previous statement. "No of course not! I do!" She looked down diffidently, flustered about the whole situation. "I didn't mean it like that."
Ranma smiled and exchanged looks with Mousse once again.
"Seems she has the willpower thing goin for her, some good news."
Mousse sighed, indifferent to the new revelation. "Maybe, but I doubt you can spend a whole summer break talking to her facing away, she'd just get suspicious."
Ranma laughed. "And super pissed," She slapped Mousse's back lightheartedly, unintentionally sending him over a few steps. "But don't worry, it can still work to our advantage."
The Amazon grumbled. "Sure, certainly won't backfire at all." He looked across the room taking in his surroundings for a brief moment before returning his attention to Ranma. "We should go, we have to make a solid plan that protects the two of you from getting married off... I can't believe I'm helping prevent this." he wallowed.
The red head felt a twinge of irritation hit her at his final comment. "I'm only making you do this cause all of this is your fault. You've made this bed, now lie in it, freak." She huffed. "Let's get going, later Akane."
Akane stood confused as she watched the two leave her room, shutting the door close on their way out. She wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but it certainly couldn't be normal. The tomboy took a seat at her desk wondering why she had been left behind and why she had let it happen so calmly. What was up with her being so docile all of the sudden? It couldn't be natural. No, there was definitely something more at hand and she was going to find out what was out of place.
--
"Okay so what's our list looking like? Who are we gettin in on this?" Ranma noticed the kettle release steam from its spout, quickly taking the appliance off of the stovetop to let it cool a bit before pouring it over herself.
Mousse rocked back and forth of the heel of the chair, sitting by the kitchen table with a notepad in hand. "Well, I obviously can't let Shampoo or the old ghoul know so all of the Nekohanten has been crossed as a 'No'. You ruled that Ukyo and Konatsu can know and everyone in the Tendo family, minus the oldest sister, cannotfind out." Mousse scratched his head with the pen he had been writing with. "There anyone else we should add?"
Ranma thought to herself as she lifted the lid from the kettle to release more steam, still too hot to pour over her head. "My parents. They absolutely cannot find out. My Pops cause that selfish old man would try and loom it over me whenever he would want something, and my mom cause she would be disappointed in me." She grimaced at the idea.
Mousse scoffed. "Didn't take you as one to care what your mom thought about you." He teased, ignoring the glare coming from Ranma's direction. "But sure whatever, both of them then." He scribbled down the general term 'parents'. He pressed the pen to his cheek, trying to think of anyone else to add. "What about that pig boy? You are friends aren't you? Is he a yes or a no?"
The steam began to fade away as the water had reached to a tolerable temperature; Ranma poured the water over her head, transforming to his male form before answering Mousse. "Kinda, it's a long story."
Mousse rolled his eyes. "I don't really care to hear it, but is he a no go or can he know?"
"Let's just say I don't think we should worry about that; I haven't seen him since Akane's party thing." Ranma crossed his arms.
"You haven't? Why not?" Mousse asked.
Ranma crossed his arms. "Thought you said you didn't care to hear it." He remarked.
"Well I care now, I'm curious."
Ranma took a pause before answering, slowly going over to take a seat adjacent from the taller boy. "Long story short, Akane found out about the pig thing." The two gave pitying looks before he continued. "So she beat him up and kicked him out for what I'm assuming to be until she's no longer pissed off."
"Which would be...?"
"A while, better said a long while, I'm sure. But just about ever since then he hasn't shown his face around here." Ranma said. "In a weird way, I miss havin him around, he was so fun to mess around with."
"Not weird, you two are close." Mousse offered. "You idiots were the only ones to consistently ruin my mood, since two of you are friends it makes sense that you feel empty with out the extra helping of aggravating and annoying to terrorized the area with." He scowled as he recalled the last year of memories inlduing the duo.
Ranma frowned. "I almost thought you were gonna say somethin meaningful." He shook his head. "Whatever, on the odd case he does show up just make sure he doesn't come across Akane."
Mousse noted on the paper. "Got it. Anyone else?"
"Hmm, anyone else falls under 'do not tell'. No one can know but the few people already mentioned."
The Amazon nodded. "Alright then." He paused. "Now what?"
Ranma gave a quizzical look. "Now what what?"
"Now what what do we do now? We figured out who to tell and Akane's locked away in her room, now what do we do?"
The pigtailed boy gave pause. "I guess... reconvene tomorrow morning. I can handle the rest of today, I'll call if anything happens."
"Sounds good, make sure to call our homeline phone since I might not be able to pick up on time."
"... You have a different landline than the one at the restaurant?"
"Of course, we're not animals, idiot." Mousse deadpanned.
Ranma rolled his eyes. "Cold water says otherwise, I think."
Mousse grumbled a bit before quickly writing the phone number Ranma would need on the small notepad he had been using, sliding it over as he stood up. "Well, I would say this was fun but I would rather die than lie like that, try not to mess up by tomorrow morning."
"Don't worry about it, there's nothing I can't handle." Ranma scoffed. "But before you go, I gotta ask you to do something for us."
"What's that?" Mousse asked.
"Try and figure out as much as possible about this potion thing, see if you can find anymore helpful tidbits or anything that could help us out."
Mousse nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
--
Ukyo wasn't used to the Tendo household being so dead quiet. Usually there was screaming, or animals, or angry girls, or screaming animals and angry girls. But right now it was dead quiet whether she was used to it or not; she slid off her shoes as she entered the entry hallway. It had been around 3 hours since she had left, surely by now Ranma had gone to his mother's house and Akane was off training in the dojo. Maybe she'd go hang out with Akane until Ranma came back home, she could also make some lunch for the both of them too.
Before she could walk across the household towards the dojo for Akane, the phone rang. Ukyo felt a bit uncomfortable answering another family's phone but there was no one else around who could pick it up instead, at least she couldn't see them around, so it would be rude to let it ring and possibly miss something important for the Tendo's.
The phone clicked as she picked it up, pressing it to her ear. "Hello, Tendo residence, Ukyo speaking." She said.
"Good afternoon, Ukyo dear, say have you seen Ranma? He said he would come by after training for a bit but he's taking longer than usual, is he home right now?"
Ukyo paused; a bit confused. "I thought that he was already over there, Mrs. Saotome. I can go check the house, see if he fell asleep or just lost track of time."
"Oh please do and send him over right away, I made his favorite and it's getting cold. Thank you, dear." Nodoka spoke softly.
Ukyo smiled. "Of course, I'm sure he'll be over in a bit. Goodbye, ma'am."
With that said the brunette hung up the phone, ending the call with same faint click it began with. She hummed, wondering, Where is he? It's not like him to be late to see his mom,she turned her body to make way towards the dojo. Though, she stopped in her tracks as she heard a soft thud from the top floor. A suspicion grew, interesting in the noise rather than heading to the dojo. Slowly she made it up the stairs, walking past the guest room as she heard another thud coming from what seemed to be Akane's room. Ukyo raised an eyebrow as she pressed her ear on the door.
"I just don't understand why you want me to wear a blindfold. Is this the surprise you we're talking about?" She heard Akane say.
"Can you stop moving, please?" Ranma spoke. "Just put it on for me, I wanna test something out."
Ukyo gasped, covering her mouth to stifle the sound before returning her attention to the pair.Best not to come to any conclusions just yet.
"Well if it's for you... I suppose it's okay. But just know I prefer to do stuff with you when I can actually see your pretty face."
A short silence came before Ranma responded. "Just... just turn around, it sounds weird when you say it like that."
Ukyo furrowed her eyebrows, she had to find out what was happening. This sounded too weird to be a normal conversation, and a little too calm to be Akane and Ranma speaking. Is this how they spoke when no one was around? She took a deep breath before slamming the door open.
"What are you two doing?" She looked down, anger festering as she saw the scene in front of her. "What are you doing with Akane?!"
Ranma jumped at the sudden intrusion, looking between both girls before answering. "It's not what it looks like." He raised a hand to cover Akane's eyes. "There's a weird but good explanation."
Ukyo looked away, not even listening to what her childhood friend was saying, only seeing that the two were sitting on her bed too close for comfort. "I can't believe it! You're doing weird pervy stuff with some macho girl behind my back." She covered her face in despair.
"No it's not like that, Ucchan-" Ranma began to explain but stopped as Akane stood up and walked over, removing the brunettes hands from her face.
Akane smiled up at Ukyo, holding her hands tightly as the two looked into each other's eyes. "Oh, Ukyo, don't be upset, it breaks my heart to see you sad like this. You're too beautiful to cry." The shorter girl pressed her hand onto the brunette's cheek, speaking softly. "I love you too much to see you sad, what can I do to cheer you up, my dear."
The taller girl looked back towards Ranma, who was wallowing in his own despair now with his eyes closed and a palm to his face, and then back down at Akane, who was looking at her in an all too familiar stare or infatuation. "What...?"
Akane softened her gaze, lovingly. "I know, why don't I do your make up. You are the one who told me it can help you feel better." She gasped, paying little attention to the growing blush on Ukyo's cheeks as she went on. "Or maybe we can share a meal together. We've never gone on a real date before so maybe we can start with the makeovers and then we can move on to a romantic dinner-"
The tomboy's fantasy was cut short by Ranma, who had taken the initiative to forcefully blindfold her, bowing his head in apology.
"Sorry about this, Ucchan, I can explain everything." He pushed her out of the door, leaving Akane struggling behind in her room. He shut the door behind him. "It's an interesting story, to say the least."
Ukyo said nothing. Still in a state of shock, she gave an unexpressive chuckle. "Oh, do tell."
