Akane could swear on her 17 years of life she had never been this irritable. Which was odd to say, since she almost always felt irritable in way or another. But this time Akane was sure, that this was the most irritable she had ever been, and surprisingly, Ranma wasn't the reason.

"I'm so glad you've finally came 'round for a visit, my dear." Ukyo's father shouted gleefully. "It's a trainin trip, correct?"

Ukyo nodded. "Yeah, I told them that if you want peaceful this is the best place to get away from Tokyo. Besides, I get to visit you too so it's practically two birds with one stone." She said proudly.

Akane clenched her jaw as her discomfort grew. She was hot, sweaty, blinded, and tired from the trip here; she felt her head begin to pound. Screw this, being arrange married to Ranma sounded slightly better than this, this hell sent summer humidity, as long as she got be in a cool building whilst it was happening. In the middle of her internal cursing, she felt the grip on her shoulder tighten, presumably Ranma's. Her face strained, If he touches me for much longer, I'll sock him.

"So, dad, I'm sure you remember, Ranchan, yes?" Ukyo presented Ranma much to his own dismay.

Her father smiled as Ranma tried his best to avoid eye contact, pushing Akane ever so slightly forward. She was tempted to throw him across the room.

"Of course!" The bearded man walked closer. "You sure did redeem yourself these last few months, yes? Even going as far as running away from your original bride for my Ukyo, I heard." He laughed.

Akane heard a snap in her head as Ranma tried to laugh off the comment. Coupled with the heat, the eye strain, and her general exhaustion, his comment felt like the cherry on top of her anger. She slapped Ranma's hand from her shoulder, though quickly realizing her handicap was not good for picking a fight, bit her tongue. Instead of letting her natural instinct kick in Akane extended a hand, ignoring Ranma as she forced a smile while hoping that she was at least facing the general direction of her host.

"Hello, I'm Akane Tendo, your daughter's friend and her fiancé's abandoned bride apparently, so nice to meet you." She introduced herself.

"And I'm Mousse," The Amazon followed suit, tilting down Akane's hand and shoving his forward in the correct direction. "I'm not technically your daughter's friend, or anything really... maybe the occasional enemy."

Ukyo laughed awkwardly, walking towards the trio of guests and getting in between them and her father. She pulled down Mousse's hand, urging him to put it away.

"Oh, they're such jokers there in Tokyo, didn't I mention?" Ukyo grit her teeth, pushing them towards the entrance of her home. "Well, Dad, I'll get us settled in I won't keep ya from the business. See you later!" She waved goodbye, giving one last push to send them through the house entrance. She shut the door behind her, baffled.

The four stood by the door in silence, not sure who should start, that was one awkward introduction. Of course in the end the most angered was the first to start the conversation, that being Akane.

"You told your dad that Ranma ran away from me?!" She shouted in disbelief. "Last I checked he didn't run away! Or am I mistaken? Ranma, did you run away?!"

Ukyo stepped in and grabbed Akane by the shoulders. "Look, that was months ago, I'm more surprised that he remembered that from such a brief phone call." She tightened her grip. "Now, Akane, why don't we focus on how inappropriately you introduced yourself as to my dad." Ukyo seethed through her teeth.

Akane crossed her arms, unfazed by her infuriated friend. She shrugged. "It's somewhat true, isn't it? Besides, I'm not the only one who introduced themselves inappropriately, Mousse did it too."

Mousse gasped, offended. "Unlike yours, it was completelytrue. Sometimes, Ukyo and I areenemies." He scoffed. "Don't group me in with the likes of you."

Before Akane could hurl some half-baked insult at Mousse, which would only result in something bad, Ranma grabbed his fiancée by the back of her shirt collar. He sighed as Akane's anger was redirected, ignoring her and looking towards Ukyo as he asked.

"Can you let us get settled? Maybe some alone time will get her to calm down." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breathe. "We're probably just tired from the heat and the trip up here, let's just go settle down someplace."

Akane stopped fighting for a second, taking a moment to process what Ranma was saying and doing. On one hand she was angry at him for treating her like a child, but on the other... was he deescalating the situation? That was odd. New. Usually when he would try to deescalate it would involve some sort of backhanded comment, but this time he just sounded annoyed.

Ukyo huffed before crossing her arms and in a defensive tone said. "Right, best we leave her be so she can, y'know, calm down." She eyed Akane up and down at her last comment.

Immediately sensing the attitude, Akane felt riled up again. But before anymore arguments could be started over again, the group had already changed pace, moving along to the next room over to set down their things. As they made their way Akane thought to herself that she would let it go this time, but it was only because she was confident that Ranma was right and it was just the situation making them this way. She silently hoped that this would be a quick summer break.

--

The first day flew by in a flash after their initial start, at least Akane assumed it did. She wasn't too sure on her own part, but she assumed that the rest of the group had enjoyed their day exploring the area without her. For Akane the day had gone a lot slower than she had hoped it would. To entertain herself she had tried to read a few books that were in her bag, and when that didn't work, she looked around for anything she could use to do some weightlifting, which she was pretty unlucky in the search of. Which made no sense in her head, what kind of spare room didn't have any sort of workout gear. She finally just decided to lay down and wait until they came home.

Now that her headache was gone and she had tired herself from her earlier activities, she could finally think. She furrowed her eyebrows as she stared into the cieling, thinking about all the things that had sat in her head all day.

First, she was upset that her first day here had been wasted and that there was nothing that could be done about it. Second, that in a moment of weakness she had agreed with Ranma, finally chalking it up to some sort of fluk or the humididty getting to his head. Third, this blindfold thing wasn't working out for her and wasn't going to work out in the long term, but she couldn't come up with any other possible solution at the time. And finally, she was almost sure that Mousse had forgotten about their earlier conversation on the train, and she would have to bring it up again.

She frowned, maybe it was for the best, she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted the answer.

Akane rolled to her left side and stared out the window, ignoring the pain on her resting shoulder as she noticed that the sun was finally beginning to set. It was dusk and still no one was back. She had finally calmed down and yet no one was here. Truthfully, she was sick of all the waiting around and being alone, she really hoped that this was not the plan for the summer everyone had decided on, after all they promised she would

The others got to go hang around the area while she waited quietly in her room. They had promised they wouldn't let her summer be ruined but here she was, laying on a hard tatami mat in a hot room. Akane turned to her right side, staring at the door as she sighed. Maybe she was just being dramatic, it was their first day here after all. Besides, it was their summer vacation too, they should get to enjoy it whenever possible.

But why should she be left out for them to have fun?

Akane shot up, shaking her head. No, that was wrong, she knew the reason why, The humidity is really getting to my head. The young Tendo peered over towards the door, thinking, maybe she should get to eat something. After all, no one was home.

--

Ranma felt a chill run up his spine, was he forgetting something? Maybe it was the cool breeze passing by now that it was dark, it was a lot less hot now. He shrugged, the face off ahead of him was of much more interest.

"You got this, Ucchan." Ranma whispered near his friends ear. "Avenge us fallen men."

Ukyo furrowed her eyebrows as she scanned over her options. "You fallen men don't deserve to be avenged with how a couple of tweens kicked yer asses." She rolled her eyes. "Especially, you, ya lost the first round remember."

Ranma frowned at her comment but was easily ignored by Ukyo, who had found her wining card in the middle of her deck. The brunette grinned confidently as she slammed the card down, cockily sliding it across the stone ground for all to see. Ah yes, the children had given her a run for her money but in the end, Ukyo knew better than to lose to some ten year old kid from her hometown.

"Gotcha, kid." She laughed victoriously as the kid across from her throw down his cards in anger, picking himself up and trying to walk away. "Runnin away? I would too if I just got served in front of all my friends!" She threw her cards in the air, enjoying every second of her triumph.

The little boy turned around with tears in his eyes, clenching his tiny fist as he held back tears. "You-I'm gonna tell Mister Kyounji on you! Tell him some ugly old hag named Ukyo is bein a big meanie!"

"What did you just say, you dweeb?!" Ukyo saw red immediately, charging towards the unlucky kid while Ranma attempted to hold her back. "Get back here, you little-"

With her cursing and rage on full display, the other children followed the boys lead and ran off, leaving behind everything and screaming until they were out of her line of sight. Finally, Ranma let go of Ukyo, letting her stomp and kick some more in her fit of rage until finally she found enough composure to make out a tangible sentence, almost forgetting that her long-term crush was watching her lose her absolute mind over a stupid comment from a kid.

"That little kid musta never been taught any manners, cause I know that type a talk starts at home, that little..." She trailed off as she made eye contact with Ranma. "... What are you starin at?"

Ranma looked at a loss for words for a moment before bursting out in laughter, sending Ukyo into an upset as she realized how embarrassing she had just acted. Ukyo felt her face turn hot as Ranma continued to wheeze .

"I'm sorry, that was just so-so-" He began.

"-Just so what?!" Ukyo put her hands on her hips.

"-Just so stupid! You let that little kid call you a hag and let it get to you!" He held his stomach, hunching over.

Ukyo felt herself shake in anger as she began to slap him whereever she could. "This isn't funny! You'd get mad too!"

"Yeah, but not scare 15 kids off mad!" He continued to tease.

Ukyo held back a smile as her hits got less and less vicious, slowly growing into playful slaps until the two began to laugh together. She could see that it was a bit stupid, but still justified in her opinion. Finally the laughter died down as well, and they quietly began to pick up the mess Ukyo had made, smiles still on their faces.

"I never figured you'd react like that, y'know? Like towards one of us sure but towards a little kid? Caught me off gaurd." Ranma said with his back to Ukyo.

Ukyo scoffed, feeling a bit humilated after her little show. "Yeah, well, he had it comin. Little turd couldn't handle losin to someone like me, kid musta been the best 'round here before I kicked his ass."

Ranma snorted. "Sure, most likely he was, but you made fun of him while shovin it in his face, what d'you expect?"

"For him to go cryin home to his mama." She giggled, setting down a now organized deck of cards she had collected and beginning a new one. "But fair enough, I see where the kids comin from, I'll stop by tomorrow and give em his cards."

"You better." Ranma teased playfully. "And do it nicely, don't wanna be the scary ol' lady in the village."

Ukyo scowled satirically. "Yeah yeah, call me an ol' lady all ya want as if I didn't just avenge you and that duck boy with that win."

"Thought you said you weren't avengin us?"

"Well, maybe not Mousse, he almost won after all, but no matter the circumstance I'll always find a way to avenge you." Ukyo blushed, looking at the ground sheepishly as she continued. "Y'know... since you are my fiance and all. Of course, I know you'd do the same for me too."

Ranma set down his now organized collection of cards a new inches away from the one Ukyo had left, deciding it best to dance around the real subject at hand. He felt like he was getting pretty good at avoiding the who fiancee topic as of late. "I would, I could never leave ya unavenged. If you had lost I'd had challenged the kid myself."

Ukyo giggled. "You woulda lost, y'know."

"Yeah but the sentiment would be there and that's what matters." Ranma retorted playfully as Ukyo continued laughing at the amusement of the thought.

"I suppose..." Ukyo started, setting the last deck of collected cards near their designated area as she looked across the street, sighing peacefully. "It's a nice night."

"Beats the day time heat thats for sure." Ranma began to finish up collecting the cards as that earlier feeling of forgetting something came back. Was it Mousse, possibly? He hummed. "Hey, Ukyo you know where Mousse ran off to?"

"No idea, he lost and said he was gonna call it a night." Ukyo shrugged.

"Right right... Hmm." Ranma began to think, that wasn't it; what was he forgetting about?

Ukyo thought nothing of his question, feeling that this moment was perfect. When was the last time she had a moment alone with him? Not at any recent time as far as she was concerned. Ukyo had to use this, it was the perfect time to start a summer romance of a life time. Ukyo smiled slyly to herself as she turned to face him, opening her mouth to say something heartfelt and playfull, only to stop as Ranma dropped his cards, his face as white as sheet.

"What's wrong?" Ukyo said, taken aback by the sudden change in attitude.

"... Akane. She's alone! We left her alone all night and I forgot! She's bound to be pissed, or worse!" Ranma scrambled to pick up the cards he had dropped, urging her to help him. "We gotta get back to her, Ucchan, come on!" He pulled her tightly by the arm to run back to Akane.

Ukyo merely let it happen, of course, what was she thinking. With Akane here, of course it'd be difficult to get enough one-on-one time with Ranma. Ukyo pulled away from Ranma as they continued their run back home, she certainly wasn't in the mood at the moment to be dragged along to take care of his other fiancée. Sure, it was a point of worry that they had gotten carried away and left her home alone for the entire afternoon but that didn't mean anything badhad happenned.I mean, Mousse isthere.

When they finally made it home the two burst through the door, gasping as they immediately laid their eyes upon a rather questionable spectacle. The two didn't move as they watched in a horror the scene ahead of them. Both Mousse and Akane were at a physical standstill, with Akane's only obstacle being a worn chair that Mousse was using to hold her off as she had him cornered with his back to the wall.

"Oh, your home," Mousse grunted. "Welcome back, now get over here and help me!"

Akane broke one of the leg chairs, causing a yelp to escape the terrified teenage boy under her. She strained a smile. "What do you mean 'Help me'!?" She tore off another leg. "You're the one being a jerk!"

The two onlookers quickly snapped into reality and began to pry Akane off of Mousse who looked a bit traumatized by the last hour. The debacle took around 10 minutes for them to get Akane locked in a room and away from the group to get calmed down. A lot of slamming, scratching, kicking and not a single injury on Akane. The three teenagers settled in the living room to regain their stamina in a dead silence. A defeated sigh left Ranma.

"What happened?" He asked.

Mousse struggled to find the strength to speak as he slowly sank into the couch. "Well, I walked into the house to get something to eat after I ditched you two and then when I walked into the kitchen, she was just... there. We locked eyes and the rest is self-explanatory." He closed his eyes under his palms and groaned. "She chased me around the house until you two came back."

"Man, she is one scary chick when she wants something." Ukyo crossed her arms. "Imagine if we had come any later."

Mousse frowned as he set his hands to the side. "This whole potion thing is just the worst thing that could've happened. Akane's not a cute girl when it comes to flirting so when she comes on too strong, and it's not receprocated she gets angry." He looked over at Ranma with pity. "Is this how you feel all the time?"

Ranma scowled at the other boy's comment. "No, because when she gets angry at me it's over something stupid and doesn't include any of her current lovey-dovey-ness, but that's all beside the point." He sighed as he looked down at his feet, humming as he thought of what to say next. "We have to come up with a more efficient way of dealing with her, we got careless, and Mousse almost got mauled by a desperate brick."

Ukyo nodded. "Right, we haven't really discussed anyway of what the summer plan was." She spoke. "We gotta come up with a system that prevents her from runnin away, botherin others, raisin too much suspicion from the townsfolk, and keeps her and our summer plans from being ruined... or at least my summer plans."

"Ugh, talk about a pain in the neck, that's way too many variables." Mousse complained.

"Says the one whose caused this whole mess tryin to force these two together." Ukyo shot back. "Listen, let's just come up with the best way to keep this from gettin outta hand before another geniously bad idea comes to you."

Ranma sat back calmly as the other two went over insults and complaints for a moment, he laid out ideas in his head while he rolled his head back to stare at the ceiling. A thought occurred; he spoke calmly.

"What if we make a schedule."

The two teenagers across from him turned their heads to him in interest. "What do you mean?" Ukyo asked.

"I mean we take turns watching her and helping her reach whatever summer goals she had for the summer or whatever, then we can switch after a certain amount of time." Ranma sat up straight. "It can divide blame and allow us to enjoy our summer vacation a bit too."

Ukyo beamed at the suggestion. "That could totally work!" She slapped Ranma's back proudly, causing him to go forward. She looked over at Mousse with the same look. "You agree too?"

Mousse crossed his arms as he mulled the idea over in his head. "You're suggesting a babysitting schedule basically?"

Ranma shrugged. "If you gotta problem with it than you come up with somethin better."

The Amazon boy shook his head. "No problem here, but how do plan on dividing the babysitting?"

"Well go over the schedule tonight."

"That could take hours."

"So?"

"So that's time consuming."

"Are you gonna let Ucchan and I divide the schedule without you then?"

Mousse scoffed. "As if, I'll see it that we divide responsibility equally."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Great, glad you're gonna join us tonight." He looked over at Ukyo. "You got any paper we can use?"

Ukyo nodded, standing up as she walked over to the kitchen. "Just so you guys know, I expect to have the least amount of time with her." She quickly returned with the supplies needed and stopped ahead of the two to explain herself before the two boys could complain. "I'm here to visit my father and let y'all tag along to save yer asses as a friend. I had nothin to do with this magic junk and am just helpin outta the kindness of my heart, the least amount of time is the bare minimum you could do to pay me back."

The two boys grimaced but reluctantly agreed to her demand, after all she had a point. Ranma rubbed his eyelids, he just hoped his plan would go as smoothly as possible. That was a possibility now, since they were out of Tokyo after all, surely the hijinks couldn't have followed them here.

--

Only a few 50 kilometers away from the village sat a very stone-faced pig, just his luck to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hot water at hand.