"I can't believe it!" Soun sobbed. "My little girl is going on a training trip without me!" he grabbed his daughter's hands, nearly crushing them as he tightened his grip.

Akane pursed her lips, she had expected to be on her way by now but of course her father wasn't taking this trip lightly. She closed her eyes, sluggish, it was way too early in the morning to be dealing with this.

"It's only for the summer, dad. We'll be back before you know it." His youngest daughter consoled her father. "You won't even notice, Kasumi and Nabiki will be here to keep you company."

"Hardly." Nabiki scoffed. "I have a lot of studying to do which means that I'm not exactly gonna be around either." She shot a look towards Kasumi, urging her add in.

The oldest daughter sighed, resting a palm to her cheek. "I have plans for this summer as well. But maybe Father could spend some more time with the Saotome's, after all, Ranma will be leaving for the whole summer as well. I'm sure they'll appreciate your company, Father." She patted Soun's back soothingly.

Soun hung his head in anguish. "All of you girls are leaving me behind. I don't think you understand how much it hurts me."

The three sisters shared a look, a mutual feeling of annoyance settling in.

"Look, dad, take this as your chance to get used to it. We're not always gonna be at home with you." Akane pulled her hands away from her fathers, letting him fall forward in a kneeling position. "I can call you if it would make you feel better?"

Soun looked up with a hopeful look. "You'll call me every morning and night?"

Akane forced a smile. "Once a week, maybe, but yes, I'll call."

Soun slumped, defeated in despair and with tears in his eyes. His daughters were over it at this point, deciding that they all would let him sulk while the three sisters said their goodbyes.

First to start was Kasumi, who had grabbed her youngest sister's hands, softly in contrasts to Soun's grip, and spoke. "Be sure to stay safe, and take some pictures for me please, I rather like the countryside scenery."

Akane nodded as Nabiki stepped forward, giving her a signature smile. "Make sure not to cook on your way there, can't have your little team die off can we." She teased.

"Only if you make sure to not go bankrupt while your main sources of income are away." Akane chuckled.

Nabiki rolled her eyes, amused at her sister's willingness to joke with her. "I think I've made just enough to sail through the summer." She said.

"Not surprised, I'll tell Ranma that." Akane laughed. "Speaking of which, I have to get going. Ranma's waiting for me so we can go pick up the others. He's gonna through a fit cause of how long this is taking me." She turned around to get her backpack, checking quickly to make sure she had all her supplies.

Kasumi cocked her head to the side, shooting her sister a look of confusion. Nabiki shrugged, equally stumped at the new information.

"The others? Who all else is going? I thought it was just you and Ranma." The oldest girl asked. "Oh, you should've told me ahead of time! I would've packed you more food to share." She walked past her sisters to the kitchen counter, picking up a travel pack of food and drink she had prepared earlier this morning. Frantically, she looked for any extra space to add more food to.

Akane smiled nervously, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. "It's just Ukyo and Mousse joining us and considering they both run restaurants I'm sure they've brought their fair share of food."

"Ukyo and Mousse?" Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit of an odd combo. You, Ukyo, Mousse, and Ranma are not exactly a group I figured to make plans."

Akane waved off her sister's observation, a hint of strain in her tone as she spoke. "Well, you know how it is. The others couldn't since someone has to run the restaurants." She walked over to her dad who was still sulking, patting his back. "Anyway, goodbye, I'll be back by the time school starts, don't tell anyone outside of the family about this!" Akane quickly took the food from her oldest sister, soon bolting out of the kitchen door.

The two remaining sisters shared a common bewildered feeling, wondering if the other had noticed the suspicious ring in her voice. In the end they decided to shrug it off, after all it was out of their hands now.

--

"What took you two so long? I've been here for the last hour with Mousse in the most awkward waiting game just for you two." Ukyo chided to the two incoming teenagers.

"Hey! It's not my fault we're late! Akane took forever to say bye to her family." Ranma huffed. "I was able to go to my parents' house and back in the time it took her to finish up."

Akane grumbled. "Not my fault my dad's dramatic, you know that!"

Ranma glared down on his fiancée, ready to shoot back any insult in the name of argument but Ukyo had already had enough of the delays. "No more talk, let's just go already." she intervened.

Both Ranma and Akane gritted their teeth, still heated in their temper. But even through their anger, Ranma still lead Akane by the hand as for her not to get lost.

"How far is it anyway?" Akane asked. "I was thinking of taking this thing off at some point if it's a long enough distance."

Ukyo hummed. "Not sure. It's a bit ways up north from here."

Mousse scowled. "How do you not know?"

"Well, I know how to get there, it's just been a while." She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I know the way home by heart. We're not gonna get lost or nothing like that, I'm not Ryoga after all." Ukyo laughed.

Mousse joined in on the joke, adding a snide comment about the boy. But, unlike the two, Ranma was a bit hesitant, side eyeing Akane before letting out a nervous chuckle out of awkwardness. She didn't say anything, merely strained a smile, though still Ranma was determined not to discuss any topic regarding Ryoga any further. He had been avoiding it like the plague ever since the incidentfrom a couple months ago and he surely wasn't going to talk about him now. Ranma cleared his throat.

"So, Mousse, what did you tell Shampoo and the old ghoul to come along with us? I'm assuming you came up with an excuse."

The overly confident Amazon gave a prideful smile. "You'd be correct, for once. I told them that I'd be going home to visit my family for the summer."

"What'd they say to that?"

Mousse's smile wavered. "To not come back." He took a deep breath in an attempt to regain confidence. "But that doesn't matter, because that just means that they're not suspicious."

Ukyo scoffed. "Yeah, cause they don't care." She looked over her shoulder towards Ranma and Akane. "What about you? Did you two come up with an excuse?'

Akane shook her head no. "I only said I was going on a group training trip."

"I said the same thing. Though I did tell my mom to tell Shampoo I was going alone." Ranma laughed. "Can't have her trying to track us down."

"Right, good idea. I told Konastu to tell our regulars that I'm away on family business." Ukyo added.

The four collectively nodded in agreement, content in each other's excuses. This was going a lot smoother than Ranma had initially thought it would be, and considering the summer humidity it was practically bound to be more annoying. At first, he pictured that there would be a lot more bickering, fighting, and passive aggressiveness by now. After all, none of them wanted to be here.

"So, Ucchan, where exactly are we headin?" Ranma asked, looking around, noticing that they were still in the city. "I thought we'd be heading to the woods."

"Did I not mention it? We're taking the train up north a few hours, a lot easier and Akane could take off her blindfold." Ukyo pointed forward. "I got us tickets and everything."

Ranma thought about it for a moment, this would be quicker than he had imagined. Maybe there would be no infighting at all, the train was a pretty calm setting.

--

"Can you move your arm please?" Ranma glared towards his seatmate, nudging his arm forcefully. "Maybe we should shrink you down to a duck, be a lot more space conserving than some lanky dork."

Mousse smiled in an attempt to hide his annoyance. "I'd suggest shrinking you down, but I'd rather save my ears from being stuck with the equally as annoying higher pitched version of yourself."

Ranma frowned, sinking further into his seat to try and not lose his composure, but it was getting harder by the sweaty second. It had only been an hour into the three-hour train ride, and he was already prepared to die. No one said anything about the train seating area to be crammed like sardines, and worst of all their entire passenger car was filled to the brim. Suppose he shouldn't really complain, it was the second day of summer after all, it was hot and most folks were dying to get out of the even hotter city. But then again, it was his right to complain.

"Oh, would you two quit being so dramatic." Ukyo scolded, sitting adjacent from Ranma. "I know the space is small, cramped, and the AC isn't really working with the amount of people here but this is the most convenient form of travel. Imagine having to walk instead, it would be a lot more annoying and sweatier, imagine!"

Ranma grumbled, looking out the window. "At least I'd be able to walk away from this weirdo."

"Stop acting like a kid, idiot, I can switch with you if it would be more comfortable." Akane chimed in. "Honestly, it made no sense to make the two of you sit together in this tiny area. You hate each other and both take up so much space." She sighed.

"She's got a point, come on, Ranchan, let's sit together." Ukyo agreed. "We won't kill each other."

Ranma crossed his arms. "No, I'm fine, I'd rather die than let Mousse get close to Akane again. Who knows what evil crap he's got up his sleeve this time." He eyes his seatmate suspiciously.

"You're acting like I'm gonna murder her or something." Mousse rolled his eyes. "I've hurt her probably a total of two times... technically three with this last time. But she's been fine after every encounter."

"I think you've just proved my point further, thank you." Ranma mocked.

Mousse glared. "The only thing I'm gonna prove is how much easier it is to travel with only three people."

Ranma snorted. "You could only dream."

"Why you little-"

"-Okay, enough." Akane interjected, pulling Ranma by the forearm. "Just switch with me before you idiots get us kicked off the train."

Ranma huffed before finally getting up to switch seats, slouching in his new place next to Ukyo. He looked over to his left, seeing the content look on his new partner's face. He huffed whilst staring out the window, letting the annoyance of the whole situation fade out. It was just another two hours, maybe he could get some shut eye. Although Ranma had made a bit of stink about the switch, he was confident that Mousse wouldn't actually try anything, he had nogoodreason after all. Slowly, he closed his eyes, beginning to feel drowsy, they had gotten up bright and early after all. Ukyo'll take care of Akane if something does happen,Ranma thought to himself before nodding off.

To his left Ukyo pulled out a book she had been meaning read, even if she was currently dealing with Mousse and Ranma's mess she wasn't about to let that keep her from a long-deserved peace and quiet. Ever since she had come to Tokyo, Ukyo had stayed booked and busy. Between the restaurant, homework, life-or-death situations, and trying to get Ranma's affection she barely had any time to herself. She thought that this summer break along with the sudden peace their lives had taken on she could get some much needed 'Me-time', and even if the universe had said no in the end, that was not gonna deter Ukyo from reading her book.

Across Mousse was bored out of his mind. He didn't bring much in forms of entertainment, since he believed they would be making their way by foot not by train. What would he even do for entertainment? It had been a year since he came to Japan, and he hadn't really focused much on hobbies. Mousse looked down into his bag, pulling out the instruction manual from the love potion, he hadn't looked through it as Ranma asked him to do yesterday. He snuck a look to his travel mates, noticing Ranma fast asleep with a dimwit look on his face. Slowly, Mousse pulled the paper up, better late than never, he thought. There wasn't much else to do and maybe he should put a bit of an effort of fixing his mistake.

Next to him, Akane sat quietly. What was she supposed to do? No one told her anything and she wasn't sure if it was okay to take off her blindfold yet. Her eyes hurt from wearing it and she was bored. Akane sighed, bored more than ever when she remembered who she was sitting next to. Mousse was the original instigator of this whole mess, surely, he knew more about the situation than Ranma did.Mousse made the damn potion, he's gotta know everything I need to know. A knot formed in Akane's stomach, what if he did know everything she needed to know? Out of all the questions she could think of there was one more pressing than the rest she had: what was the deal with the attraction aspect? That's what made her the most nervous.

The tomboy dug her hands into her palms, she was a bit worried. Ranma said that she was into everyone while under the potion's influence despite Mousse telling him that it should only be towards men, which implied that girlswere included. Her fiancé had initially laughed it off saying that Mousse must have gotten the translation wrong. But for Akane it was worrisome. What if he hadtranslated correctly? That was something she was very much not ready to think-much less do anything-about should it come to light. She shook her head; maybe it would be best if Akane just asked him now.

Akane nudged her right arm, getting Mousse's attention. No better time to get a grip on my condition than now, let's just start with the small stuff. Then we can move onto the bigger issues.

"So, Mousse, I was wondering something." Akane spoke softly. "Do you know exactly how this potion thing works?"

Mousse glanced over to his seatmate. "That's what I'm trying to figure out right now." he replied in a similar volume.

"Oh, how?" She asked.

"How? Didn't Ranma tell you? There was an instructions manual that came with the potion supplies."

Akane frowned. "No, he mostly just gave me the run down, not much on details."

Mousse scoffed. "Of course he didn't. Well, Akane Tendo, I have the very annoyingly long manual right in front of me, why don't you ask away."

The shorter girl paused to think, of course she had a billion things she wanted to ask at the same time but Akane only had one mouth. She took a quick breath; it was best to start off small.

"Where did you get it from?" She asked.

"Taiwan." He responded.

"What do I act like when I'm making eye contact?"

"Aggressive." Mousse pushed his glasses up.

Akane paused, a little upset at the answer he gave on the last one. "Like, scary aggressive or uncomfortable aggressive?"

"What are the chances of you being angry at my answer?" Mousse asked.

"High." She crossed her arms.

The Amazon staled for a moment as he tried to find the right words. "It's scary and uncomfortable because you're usually so reserved when it comes to romantic advances."

Akane weighed the response in her head, ultimately deciding it was a tolerable answer. "Smart choice of words, congrats... what's an example of it?"

Mousse raised his eyes from the paper to turn his head towards Akane. "Do you not know what's going on when the potion is active?"

The shorter girl shook her head no.

"Well," he spoke. "What do you experience when your affected?"

Akane paused to think. "I'm not sure, I think I just experience things differently. I figure because when I tried to confront Ranma about yesterday morning he looked confused." She uncrossed her arms. "So, I'm only asking you this so I can confirm my suspicion."

"Makes sense." Mousse took a moment to recall the previous day. "That morning we decided it was best to try and confine you to your room so we took you in and told you we were going on an errand."

"Really?" Akane gapped, reaching over to grab his sleeve.

Mousse nodded but quickly realized she couldn't see him at all; he cleared his throat. "Yeah, what do you think happened?"

Akane didn't respond immediately, but slowly let go of his robe that Mousse calmly smoothed out. She sighed. "I thought we were just hanging out together, our conversation was normal until you guys left me behind." She furrowed her eyebrows. "That's what threw me off in the first place: why were we together?"

The taller boy shrugged. "Oh well, now we know." He returned to the task at hand. "Is that all you had to ask me?"

Akane pursed her lips, tugging his arm and signaling to get closer. She hesitated, leaning in as she whispered. "It's a private question."

Mousse felt his face get hot, his mind immediately jumping to conclusions. "How private?"

"Very private, to the grave private." She said in a hushed tone.

The two remained in their position, completely unaware of their surroundings as a very curious chef sitting across from them glanced forward, her interest piqued. Initially she had tuned them out since it couldn't be anything worth eavesdropping, but the quieter they got, the more interested Ukyo became.

Ukyo lowered her book, passing looks in between her two spectacles of curiosity. "If you guys are looking for privacy, I'm more than happy to give you guys some." She giggled. "Y'know, that is before Ranchan wakes up."

The two seatmates spun their heads to face Ukyo, caught off guard of their sudden interruption from Ukyo. As if they had forgotten that they weren't alone on the train.

"Wait..." Akane began. "He's asleep?" she asked.

Ukyo deadpanned. "You didn't notice?"

The shorter girl shrugged. "I can't exactly see him taking a nap right now."

"Of course, but I thought you'd put two and two together than the cart was a lot calmer than before." Ukyo crossed her arms. "But if it would help, he'll probably be out long enough for you to ask your 'private' question." she said in a suggestive tone, a mischievous smile at the end of it.

Akane frowned, picking up on what Ukyo was implying. Ultimately, Akane decided she was in no position to pick a fight. "If there's one thing I know about Ranma it's his ability to take the deepest naps." She paused, slowly resting her hands on her lap before facing down. "But no thanks, on the off chance that he does wake up he'll throw a fit."

Ukyo hummed. "Right, but are you sure? You sounded a little stressed out when you were trying to ask Mousse your question." She leaned forward. "It's okay if you two want some alone time."

Mousse rolled his eyes at the brunettes final suggestion, thinking it was best for his sanity to ignore it. "Are you sure you want to wait on the question? I probably have an answer."

The shorter girl furrowed her eyebrows in consideration. The question could wait; besides, she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the answer. "... I'll just ask you when we get to your hometown."

"You sure?" He asked.

Akane shrugged. "Always am."