(Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters and stories associated with it.)

Kasumi and Tofu

Tofu quietly closed the door and turned around. The bedroom was dimly lit by a pair of candles on the dresser and a nightlight near the floor by the bed, but it was not so dark that he couldn't see the young woman sitting on the bed. He stood there for a moment looking at the woman, not quite able to make her out other than she was wearing white kimono.

She lifted her head slowly, "Hello Ono."

On hearing her voice for the first time in so long, Tofu's nerves started jumping into overdrive, "Ka-Kasumi…"

She got up from the bed and gracefully walked over to him. Looking up at the man in front of her, she began, "I have missed you, Ono. Please tell me…why did you leave?"

He could see her face clearly now, framed between flowing locks of silky dark hair that softly extended down below her shoulders. Her deep brown eyes sparkled in the dim candlelight making her appear more beautiful than he had ever imagined. Tofu swallowed once again, knowing in his heart he wanted nothing more than to make this wonderful woman happy. And yet, his mind was in such a state of panic, he had little idea of how to go about it.

"I-I had to leave K-Kasumi. I c-could not c-control myself."

Kasumi gave a shy smile, "Are you talking about your silly antics? Of how you danced about every time I attempted to have a meaningful conversation with you?"

"Y-Yes, I couldn't control it."

Her eyes focused sharply, "So what are you going to do about it, Ono"

That caught him off guard, "Huh?"

She moved closer to him, her kimono just touching his clothing, "I said…What are you going to do about it? Are you going to continue to ignore me as if I wasn't there?"

"Ignore you? But I-."

She interrupted as her eyes began to tear up, "Yes Ono. Ignore me. Do you have any idea how much it hurt me to see you go off and play with your little skeleton whenever I came to visit? I heard from your own patients how much you cared for me and yet you treated me like I wasn't there. I wanted very much to get to know you and yet you just took off without so much as a word. Not to me, or anyone else."

Tears were rolling down her face as she looked down, "Do you hate me so much? Am I so ugly you can't talk with me like a normal person?"

Tofu was shaken to the core by this. Finding out he had been the cause of the pain that plagued his love shook him to the core and forced his mind to clear, "I never wanted to hurt you, Kasumi. Please don't cry."

She looked up into his eyes and searched them, "Ono?"

He closed his eyes for a moment while taking a deep breath. When he was finished, he reached down and gently clasped one of her hands in his, "I watched you grow up Kasumi. When you reached your 18th birthday, you had blossomed into the sweetest and most beautiful woman I had ever known. I wanted so much to tell you how I felt, but I am so much older than you."

Kasumi gently pulled her hand from his grasp and reached up with both of hers and grasped the lapels of his shirt, pulling him to within inches of her face, "How do you feel about me, Tofu?"

He stuttered, "I-I wa-."

Her voice was low as her deep brown eyes shimmered warmly, "Do you hate me? Do you like me? Or is it possible that you…love me?"

Tofu looked into those deep brown eyes and felt himself shiver. With a considerable bit of hesitation, he reached up with both if his hands and gently clasped her upper arms, "I could never hate you Kasumi. You were then and still are the light that brightens my life. I have always loved you, Kasumi, more than anything in the world."

Kasumi's hands were shaking as she tried to keep herself steady. She had planned to be in control of her meeting with Tofu, but hearing those words from him caused her knees to feel weak and her insides go all warm. Although she had a few more things she wanted to say, her mind was racing and for a moment, she lost the ability to say anything at all. Not wanting to fumble with her words, she pulled on the lapels and kissed him.

Tofu nearly passed out from the sudden sensation of her lips touching his. At first his entire body stiffened, but as the seconds passed, he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her. She broke the kiss after a short while and reached up and removed his glasses. Placing them on the dresser to the side of where they were standing, she moved her hands up and clasped them behind his head.

With a low, somewhat husky voice, she pulled him a bit closer, "I have always loved you, dear Ono. You kept me waiting for so long, I was afraid we would never have this chance. Now that I know how you feel, I am never letting you go."

Tofu never had a chance to comment as he was pulled into a second kiss. Powered by both their past frustrations and rising passions, it lasted considerably longer than the first.

Outside the door a middle aged woman smiled to herself as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Hearing nothing more than soft whispers from the door Nodoka turned and headed for bed.

* * *

Early the next morning, across town in a small restaurant called the Cat Café, a short and very ancient woman was pacing the floor. Although she hadn't slept at all during the night, her eyes blazed in relentless anger.

"What are we going to do? That careless little fool has ruined everything! And to think…If I hadn't picked that moment to visit the Tendo home, I would never have known the truth! By the gods I still have a hard time believing what she told me!"

-Flashback-

After Cologne and her great granddaughter had entered the café, Shampoo called out, "Good night great grandmother."

The old woman's response was quick as she rapped the young girl on the head with her staff, "Not so fast, Shampoo. We still need to talk."

Shampoo lowered her eyes, "Yes Elder."

The old woman frowned, "Elder is it? Come over here and sit down, young lady."

The tone of her voice left no doubt it was not a request and shampoo sat down with her eyes still lowered. The old woman reached over and lifted the girl's chin, "Look at me when I'm talking to you, girl. Act like the Amazon you pretend to be."

Shampoo glared at the woman for a moment, "I am Amazon warrior!"

"That's better. A warrior is not afraid to accept her punishment. I expect no less from you."

"Punishment?"

"We will see about that later. First let me tell you that I heard everything. From the moment you and your fellow ex-fiancés were brought into the dojo, I was outside observing. I suspect Ranma sensed me but chose to be quiet for the moment."

Shampoo's eyes widened as Cologne continued, "Imagine my surprise when Nodoka ended your claim on Ranma by stating the boy had not challenged you."

The girl swallowed, "I-."

The old woman raised her hand, "I'm not through here. You wrote to me in the village and told me you had a husband and that he had beaten you in a marriage challenge. After reading your letter, I was so happy, I went to the elder council and proudly informed everyone that my great granddaughter would soon be returning with her husband. We had a small party in your honor and waited for your return in the coming days. But you never came back, did you Shampoo?"

The young Amazon moved her head from side to side as her eyes filled with tears.

"We began to worry about you and I took it upon myself to come to this land and find out what happened to you and your groom. I expected to find you living with your husband and carrying his child, but that was not to be. Instead I find you here, with no husband and being kept at bay by another fiancé."

"I never did understand why it was that you didn't just attack and kill the Tendo girl. After all, she had your husband living in her home. It wasn't until last night I finally understood. There was no challenge, was there? You made it all up."

Tears were flowing freely down the young girl's face, "I didn't mean to lie, Elder. I found him when I was searching for his girl half. He was so handsome and powerful I knew right then I wanted him for my husband. But he already had a fiancé. When I attacked her, he blocked me and I was struck in the head by my own weapon."

Cologne's eyes widened in shock, "Are you telling me you attacked a man's fiancé and then claimed him as your own when you stumbled and knocked yourself out?"

Shampoo was crying freely, "Yes."

Cologne shook in anger, "Do you have any idea what you've done, child? We've always known it was going to be hard to get past the Tendo agreement. We've always known but we continued to pursue Ranma because of your challenge. But now…by the gods you have messed things up completely. You have been pursuing this boy for months, even though you have no grounds to do so. We Amazons have our own code of conduct. By falsely claiming you had a challenge of marriage when you gave him the kiss, you put yourself in serious violation of our laws. You are in very deep trouble Shampoo and there isn't much I can do to help."

-End Flashback-

Cologne eyed the phone for a moment before preparing herself some tea, "I'm going to have to contact Mrs. Saotome later this morning. Perhaps I can do something before we have a blood feud on our hands."

* * *

Back at the Tendo home, Nabiki was just waking up. Never a morning person, she rubbed her eyes and grabbed her robe to go downstairs for some of Kasumi's coffee. Once in the kitchen, she picked up her mug and poured it full while mumbling something unintelligent to Kasumi and Tofu. After her first good sip, she dimly remembered a vision she had of her sister standing in the kitchen. She shook her head and took another sip. Suddenly her eyes popped open and quickly headed back to the kitchen.

Kasumi smiled as she wrapped her arms around Tofu and kissed him on the nose, "She'll wake up once she has her coffee."

No sooner did she finish when Nabiki appeared at the doorway. Nabiki stared, wide eyed for quite a while before regaining her composure, "Well, this is certainly a surprise. My older sister lip locked with the family doctor in the kitchen."

Kasumi blushed and smiled, "Well good morning to you, little sister."

Nabiki looked from here sister to Tofu, "So how long has this been going on? You two planning on getting married?"

Tofu clasped Kasumi's hand and kissed it gently, "Not right now…but soon, I assure you."

Nabiki said nothing for a few moments and Kasumi giggled, "Oh my. I think we surprised her a bit."

She shook her head, "It's too early for this. I'm going to go sit down with my coffee and read the financials."

She looked over her shoulder as she left and smirked, "I'd tell you two to behave, but I can see it's too late for that."

Later that morning everyone, except for Akane was sitting at the table eating breakfast. While most of the people at the table were quite concerned for the youngest Tendo, Genma was busy shoveling food in his mouth as fast as he could. Nodoka adjusted her katana so that it rested against his leg and once again, the portly martial artist slowed his eating speed to a somewhat normal level. Out of habit, he reached over to grab some food off of his son's plate, only to have his hand suddenly paralyzed by a quick jab with a pair of chopsticks.

Tofu wagged his chopsticks at Genma, "That isn't very nice, Mr. Saotome. Did you know that training your son to steal food off of other people's plates might be considered a crime?"

Genma turned and noticed for the first time Tofu was sitting next to him and his son was now sitting next to Nabiki. Not only that, Akane was nowhere to be found. He added two and two together and came up with the worst possible conclusion, "Boy, go upstairs and talk with your fiancé! She's going to miss breakfast!"

Nabiki groaned, "He must have slept through the whole thing."

The elder Saotome noticed for the first time Nabiki was leaning against Ranma and he seemed to not mind, "Slept through what? I didn't hear a thing last night."

Nodoka's voice was like ice, "Husband. Do you mean to tell me you slept through the entire night?"

Genma was a bit confused at his wife's tone, "Well yes. It was bed time, and I was tired."

The woman stood up with her sheathed katana in hand, "We need to talk, Husband. Come with me to the dojo."

Genma started to open his mouth but one look at the stern expression on the face of his wife changed his mind and he got up and headed out the door.

After they had left, Ranma smirked, "I just love having mom around, don't you?"

Nabiki chuckled, "I'd love to be a fly on the wall in there!"

Kasumi was about to say something about spying on people when there was a knock at the door. She stood up, "I'll get it."

As Kasumi left, Tofu placed his chopsticks down, "We need to give Cologne a call soon. When the noon rush hits the café, she may be too busy to talk with us."

Ranma smirked, "Yeah, I've waited some tables for her there before, lunch time is the worst. When do you want to leave? We don't have any school today so anytime's good."

From behind them a tired voice spoke, "That won't be necessary."

Ranma jumped up, "It's the old ghoul!"

Cologne smirked, "Don't worry son- Ranma. I assure you there is nothing to fear from me."

Tofu had gotten up and was bowing towards the ancient woman, "Elder, it is good to see you again."

Cologne chuckled a bit as she noticed Kasumi walk over and stand next to Tofu, "It's good to see you as well, young man. I see you've made some changes for the better in your life. It's about time too."

Kasumi and Tofu both blushed a brilliant red and the old woman cackled, "Ah to be young once again."

For the first time that morning, Soun took a serious look at the doctor and his oldest daughter and the apparent closeness they seemed to be sharing. He had known, as had most of Nerima of the good doctor's attraction to Kasumi, but thought it dead after the doctor had left. Seeing the two of them standing together reminded him of the pressure he had put on Akane to wed with Ranma and how badly that incident had turned out. He felt personally responsible for her present condition and after having cried most of the night, woke with a determination to help his daughter recover.

He bowed towards Cologne, "You are welcome to visit, Elder. We had plans to contact you later today."

"Oh?"

Tofu knew of Soun's pain and continued for him, "Something has happened to Akane, Elder. She has very strange ki patterns on her body that I've never seen before. Last night she went into a rage and attacked Nabiki, Soun, and Ranma. I administered some pressure points on her to keep her calm and to limit her growing strength, but it will not last. I fear that she, and those around her are in great danger."

"I'll need to see those ki paths for myself before I can make any comment. But before I do, I need to talk with Nodoka and Ranma about a matter of grave honor."