DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ranma 1/2. Nor do I own any other recognized series/characters that may appear in this story. Characters and series elements are copyright of their respective owners.


A/N: This is what I affectionately refer to as my mushy chapter. Relationships are further defined and Ranma and Akane have a cute little scene at the end. I must admit however that my favorite scene in the whole chapter is Ryouga's latest crossover encounter. Enjoy!


"Yo, mornin' everyone!" Ranma casually waved to the crewmen as he entered the studio and headed for his trailer. A smile graced his lips as he reached for the door handle, his spirits still up from the night before. Without hesitation, he tossed his bag inside and turned to head for Wardrobe.

Ranma's muscular form disappeared behind the wardrobe curtain as a blush covered the cheeks of Akane who had just caught sight of him as she entered the studio. She walked slowly around the set, lost in thought. Her blush never faded as moments from the night before flashed through her mind crystal clear. She recalled many wonderful moments, but two stood out among the rest. A soft smile appeared as the first of the two thoughts commanded her attention....

---

Akane hesitantly raised herself from her seat at the table, her eyes fixed on the small jewelry box Ranma had dropped. She silently walked over to it, kneeling down to pick it up. her hands fighting with her mind as she told herself she had no right to open it, her mind eventually giving way as curiosity commanded her hands to allow her eyes a glance inside. Akane's gaze fell upon the small golden necklace inside, a locket at its' chain's center. Her eyes danced along the chain as the light reflected off it, only to widen in near shock as she noticed a small engraving on the locket's heart shaped form. 'Akane'. She slowly closed the box and returned it to its' precise position on the floor, her movements shaky as she returned silently to her seat.

Taking her fork, she lightly stabbed another morsel of food to give herself something to do. Partly because she wanted to seem occupied at the table upon Ranma's return, and partly in attempt to get over the shock she felt as her mind tried in vain to put the pieces of the puzzle before her together, of course too flustered to have any results.

Ranma walked back into the room and noted Akane finishing off her drink. To his horror, he also noticed the box on the floor. However, Akane hadn't seemed to, so he quickly nabbed it and pocketed it once again, the momentary panic subsiding. Akane had deliberately averted her gaze and when she heard Ranma sit back down, she felt it safe to look at him once more, though she was working overtime to keep a blush from showing. Ranma smiled weakly, still embarrassed at what could have happened as he handed Akane three pieces of paper held together by a paperclip. "Hope ya like it." he said earnestly as he felt her take the pages from him. Akane spent several minutes nodding lightly to herself as her eyes traveled down the pages. Ranma felt an agonizing silence while he waited for her to finish. Though she tried to read at an increased pace so as not to keep Ranma waiting to long, she really was enjoying the piece. Her eyes widening once again as she came upon a paragraph halfway through.

'He watched her from afar. That feeling of being between asleep and awake enveloping him as he felt it must be a dream to be in the presence of such beauty. His life scarred by unhappiness, her light giving him a reason to get up in the morning. He wanted to call out to her. Tell her he was there, waiting for her. But it was the same story every time. She was not his.'

Akane handed the papers carefully back to Ranma who for his part refrained from letting his nervous anticipation reach the surface. *Please like it...* he thought as he took hold of the papers. Akane's praise meant the world to him and the knowledge that she even read one of his stories was enough to make his heart soar.

"Ranma, that was really well written. I'd like to read some more sometime." Akane felt her cheeks flush. She knew the story couldn't be about her because of the date at the top. Ranma had barely met her when it was written. But the words she read played over and over in her mind, coupling with the sight of her name on the locket to make her heart skip a beat in wonder.

Akane sighed as she reached her trailer, sitting gracefully on her bed as she came back to herself, taking a chance to take some last minute glances at the script.

---

Ranma exited Wardrobe just in time to spot Shampoo, a huge smile on her face being the first thing he noticed. Smiling he walked up to his best friend. "Heya Shampoo! Why the 'I'm so happy, I could burst' face?" Shampoo playfully rolled her eyes and let the teasing go. She was in way too good a mood. "Very funny, you. Can't a girl be happy coming to work?" Too caught up in her happy thoughts, she gave her best friend a small hug. Ranma smiled and returned the hug, then headed for the set, motioning for Shampoo to follow so they could film their first scene together. As the director called 'ACTION', a figure stood off to the side. Mousse watched thoughtfully, his gaze not straying from Shampoo as he tried to go back to studying his script. Too bad his eyes wouldn't cooperate. He thought back to the previous night as he watched Shampoo and Ranma film their scene.

---

Shampoo smiled as the waiter departed from their table after Mousse paid the bill. Mousse noticed her smile and rose from his seat, gently pulling her seat out for her and taking her coat as she stood, before holding it forward for her to slip into. "Should we adjourn?" he offered as he held his arm out to Shampoo.

"Yes, thank you, Mousse. That was a wonderful dinner." The two exited the restaurant as Shampoo noted the absence of Mousse's car. "Mousse! Your car!" Mousse smiled at the concern, but put up his hand indicating she needn't worry. "I slipped out halfway through dinner and asked the valet to park it a few blocks away. He's a friend of mine. I thought we'd go for a stroll in the park on the way to the car."

Shampoo beamed at Mousse's every word, her self control wavering as she barely held herself back from glomping him. Shampoo's glomps were enthusiastic on and off camera and she didn't want to scare Mousse away. "That would be quite nice." she replied with a smile. The two strolled arm in arm through the moonlit park, Mousse finding himself stealing occasional glances at Shampoo in the moonlight, until finally they reached Mousse's car on the far side.

---

The drive home was a quiet one. Each one lost in their own silent thoughts about what they had learned that night in talking with the other. Shampoo had learned of Mousse's preferred solitary lifestyle, his daily routine and how he liked things just so. She'd also managed to get him to open up about such things as his love of martial arts and zen, his passion for hai-kus and his goals as an actor after their contracts were up. She had been surprised at how much he opened up to her, but was definitely pleased. Had Mousse known what Shampoo's thoughts were on the drive home, he would have seen the pleasure in the smile on her face.

Mousse for his part had unintentionally uncovered some of Shampoo's insecurities. She had told him of things that no one knew, save for perhaps Ranma. Stories she had divulged of her past had revealed a lack of faith in herself and her ability to attract someone, and he had learned of her secret fear of aggression toward her as well. These things puzzled him, not expecting a woman as seemingly strong as Shampoo to possess them. Then he thought back to Ryouga's verbal attacks toward her and frowned. Mousse was however, satisfied with his efforts to 'make it up to Shampoo' for his early unkindness toward her. All in all, the date had gone well. A soft smile on his lips proved his opinion on that. Mousse pulled up in front of Shampoo's house and walked around the car to let her out. "I trust you enjoyed the evening." He felt a tinge of nervousness while waiting for her to reply, though he couldn't pin his finger on the reason why.

"I did. Thank you Mousse. Dinner was wonderful and the park was lovely. I had a very nice evening with you." Mousse felt his cheeks grow a little warm as he escorted Shampoo up the steps to her door. Without a second thought, he leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. Stepping back and bowing a goodnight, he got in his car and drove away.

His thoughts slowly fading back to reality, Mousse let out a small sigh. His script held tightly in his hand he turned away from the scene being filmed before him. For the first time in the completely organized and comfortable routine that was his life, he felt utter confusion. Something new was entering his long ago established routine. Something he wasn't ready to face yet, but would never dismiss. Determined to get his mind to return to his work, he headed for his trailer to go over his script in solitude.

---

Elsewhere in the studio, a pair of sleepy eyes slowly opened, only to be met with almost complete darkness. A very woozy and confused Ryouga tried to place his surroundings. He could piece together very little. Only that there was no light, save for two small patches directly in front of his eyes, and that when he moved, every inch of his body seemed to meet against some sort of barrier. *Where am I?* he thought, quite in character. He squinted to see through the small areas before his eyes, sensing movement. As he did this he fell forward and felt his arm move along with whatever barrier was around him. Ryouga got a small hunch and decided to try standing up. Upon doing so he could feel the barrier around him move along with his entire body, and he could vaguely make out the outlines of his arms through the patches of light in front of him. *I'm.....inside something.. What the?* "Oww!!"

Ryouga hit his head on something weird the moment he straightened his body fully upright. Wincing slightly he could hear voices echoing around him. One was the booming voice of a grown man, while the one that followed seemed to belong to a young boy. "Okay, let's make sure the big guy's sound system works before we get him on-set. Lemme have a sound check, kid. Just say one of your lines from scene two."

"Okay sir!" Ryouga heard what sounded like the sound of a mic too close to a speaker as the young boy's voice delivered the line requested of him. No longer an echo from outside, the dialogue hit Ryouga's ears at startlingly loud volume as if spoken from only millimeters away. "Brother, you shouldn't do that. The General wouldn't approve."

"EEAAAAGHHH!!!!" Ryouga jumped up with a scream as the sound pierced his eardrums. His head once again hitting something hard as he heard the mic distortion sounds a second time. Only then could he barely make out a figure stepping toward him, a flood of light hitting his eyes as the next sight he saw was that of a boy not much younger than him, looking at him sternly and holding what looked like an armored helmet. As he looked around to see more people surrounding him, voices once again spoke up, this time without the echo from before.

"Ed, what the hell is going on out there!? Mind telling me why my most important prop was moving on its' own!?" Ryouga looked at the teenage boy before him, his golden hair hiding very miffed eyes as a frown grew on his face. "Some idiot hid in the armor, chief. Not my fault!" the boy looked Ryouga right in the eyes and continued. "Hey you, that's an expensive prop. You don't go playing hide and seek in it! And your fat head nearly wrecked the helmet's speaker. Get outta there!" Three crewmen lifted Ryouga without warning out of the large suit of armor and placed him on the floor, shooting him similar glares. Ryouga for his part, found himself staring back at the large prop he'd just been pulled out of in utter awe. *That thing is huge! And what was that weird marking I saw on its' interior?!* he thought, shock still present on his face. However, much more evident than shock were embarrassment and confusion at the entire situation. Ryouga could do no more than simply turn to the cast and crew with an apologetic bow. "Sorry. I uh.. got lost."

The boy the director had referred to as 'Ed' rolled his eyes and grabbed some ink and wood kindling from a nearby shelf, then placed it on the floor. Shooting yet another miffed glance up at Ryouga, he clapped his hands together and placed them on the ground. Ryouga covered his eyes immediately as a blinding flash seem to come out of nowhere. As he felt the light die down again, he dropped his hand back down only to see the boy standing again and holding a map out to him. "That's a map of the studio. Find where you're supposed to be on there. Now get going, this is a closed set!" With that, the same three crewmen rushed the perturbed and still very confused Ryouga out the set's door. Mumbling to himself he turned the map sideways and upside down a few times and proceeded to take three more wrong turns before disappearing from sight.

---

Nabiki walked up to the director after being called in for her first scene on the Tendo home interior set. She had just taken her place at the dinner table and was looking around the set as she awaited the director's call for the scene to start. Akane, Ranma, Kasumi and Soun entered the set and took their respective places for the scene. Kasumi, who had just started feeling the effects from her latest caffeine fix leaned over toward Nabiki. "The scene's about to start. What are you looking around for?" A distracted Nabiki came back to reality and shook her head lightly. "It's nothing. Sorry for distracting you Kasumi." "Forget it. Just keep your head together and let's get this scene over with.." Kasumi retorted in her usual snobbish manner, her momentary almost in character concern gone in an instant. Nabiki sighed and rolled her eyes slightly just as the director spoke up.

"Annnnd ACTION!" As the actors delivered their lines taking cues from each other for timing, Nabiki waited for her turn. After Ranma finished speaking his latest line, Nabiki picked up her cue and spoke her dialogue. Upon finishing her line, the prop department, who had been using Nabiki as a cue, set off a small explosive that caved in the Tendo living room wall. The rubble cleared and Nabiki spoke her next line. "Ukyo, you really need to learn the concept of a 'door'.."

Everyone stared. The dust from the rubble settled as Shampoo stood there joining the others in their puzzled stares as a shocked Nabiki brought two fingers to her mouth, realizing her mistake. "CUT!!"

---

The director shot a similar look at Nabiki and motioned for the prop department to move in and replace the wall. "Okay people, take five. That's one for the blooper reel I guess. We'll pick the scene up in 20 minutes once the wall's back in place." Ranma followed Nabiki off-set and caught up with her just in time to see her will away the last of her embarrassment.

"Yo, you okay?" Nabiki looked back at him and uttered a soft almost monotone reply, once again glancing randomly around the studio. "I'm fine....." Ranma sighed at looked at her seriously. "Ya don' hafta tell me what's wrong. But don' lie...." Nabiki shrugged softly and pointed to a spot out of the way where they could talk. Following her lead, Ranma joined Nabiki on a small ledge outside the makeup department. "I feel badly okay... I agreed to go for coffee with Ukyo and some of her friends last night. Things didn't go so well. For her.." Nabiki glanced at the floor, filled with guilt and worry for her friend. Ukyo had been a pain over the last few months, but she didn't hate her.

"An' yer worried cause she ain't here yet, right?" Ranma surmised. All he would receive was a half-hearted nod. Ranma put his hand on Nabiki's shoulder. "Cheer up. Ya were honest with her. All ya can do, really. Ukyo's a big girl, she'll be fine." With that, Ranma stood up and offered a smile, then turned and headed for his trailer till the scene could resume.

---

Soun was in one of the makeup chairs when he noticed Mousse next to him. "You look deeper in thought than usual m'boy." he offered. Mousse simply nodded, his attention elsewhere. Soun looked at the script held tight in Mousse's hand. "Studying next week's scripts again, hmm? Admirable!" Mousse was only registering half of what Soun said and his verbal response showed it. "Hmm? Oh, yeah sure.. Excuse me please." He got up and quickly bowed to Soun, then left the makeup tent, only half finished prepping for his upcoming scene. Soun watched Mousse leave and nodded his approval to the fellow actor. "That boy is always so focused." he thought aloud.

---

Mousse stood off to the side as the actors were called back and the scene resumed. Mousse's gaze fell on the wall, almost looking through it as the scene began, the rubble falling halfway through to reveal Shampoo standing behind it in her classic stance. "NIHAO!!!!" was the only line of dialogue he even heard, the rest just seeming like silent mouth movements as he got lost in his own reverie. His gaze never left Shampoo from the first second she came into view. A million questions ran through his mind as he wondered why she suddenly held his attention so firmly. Only when the director yelled 'cut' did Mousse awaken from his dream. He turned to go, heading for his trailer just as the actors began walking off-set again. Shampoo barely caught sight of him departing as he vanished behind the sound booth.

---

"Akane, Ranma, come here for a second please." Ranma and Akane looked up from their respective locations as the director called over to them. Ranma was halfway to his trailer and Akane had just come out of Wardrobe having changed for her next scene. Two calls of "Yes?" simultaneously hit the director's ears as his two stars headed toward him, just off-set.

"Yes, well. The head writer just handed me a draft of one of our future scripts. I'm not sure it fits the characters so I'd like you two to play out the scene as sort of a test run. What do you say?"

Two nods were received and the director called for the set of the Tendo Dojo interior to be brought in. He then handed a copy of the draft for the two actors to look over while he checked with a crewman to see that all was ready.

Ranma's eyes took on a look of extreme nervousness as he read the script and a similar expression could be read on Akane's face. Before either could notice the blush on the others' features, the director came back.

"Ready you two? Just pretend like this is a normal take. Everything's the same. Just no cameras rolling. Oh, and Ranma, I'll need you to help me with a few screen tests of possible new cast members later. Anyways, ACTION!!"

---

Ranma came running at almost full speed through one of the doors of the Tendo dojo, then proceeded to boredly go into some stretches on the floor. Soon Akane came running in as well, mimicking Ranma's entrance almost exactly. "Geez, what took ya so long? Not much of a race, Akane." Akane frowned slightly and retorted back at the cocky victor. "Yeah, yeah, you won already. You don't have to be such a jerk about it!" Ranma smirked. Something about hearing anyone admit he'd won made his cocky grin even wider. Standing up smugly, he turned his back to her, his hands behind his head as he began to gloat. "So where's the prize ya promised me, huh? C'mon, pay up Akane. Heh!"

Now it was Akane's turn to smirk. Ranma may have won the race, but she was about to win the battle. Casually, she stepped up just behind him and said in a slightly smug yet sweet voice "Your prize is..." Ranma smirked in anticipation "...a kiss."

"GAH!" Ranma all but fell on the floor as he heard that, swerving around to check if he was talking to Akane or some possessed spirit doll. Or worse, Shampoo doing a far too convincing Akane impression. To his relief and then dread, it was indeed Akane. "Y...yer serious?" A very wide eyed Ranma held himself back from his initial instinct to reach out and feel her forehead.

Akane couldn't help but smirk, amused at Ranma's romantically challenged typical reaction.

"Mhmm. Too bad you don't have the guts to collect." she shot back playfully.

"DO TOO!" Ranma's pride got in the way just long enough before he realized what he'd said and looked down at the floor, shuffling his feet. "Errr.. uh... I mean.. that is..... if you don't mi... Erm, yer not gonna hit me if I... y'know...are ya?" Ranma's face was growing dangerously close to being as red as his chinese shirt as he stared at Akane, half out of pure disbelief and half out of nervousness he'd not felt in a long time. Akane had once dared him to kiss her. But this was different. This time it almost felt like she was asking.

Akane rolled her eyes and put her hands briefly out to the sides to show absence of mallet. "I'm sorry if kissing an uncute tomboy is too painful for you!" she stated, her emotions starting to get to her. Quickly, she hid them away again and finished her reply. "But no, I won't hit you."

Meanwhile, behind the character facade, the real Ranma was sweating bullets inside. It was only a scene, but he was actually going to get to kiss Akane. That thought alone was sending his head swimming. He had to use all his training as an actor to keep his concentration. *Oh man... I wish this was real...* he thought, his hands nervously fidgeting inside his pockets. The fidgeting was called for in the script, but as Akane noticed it, she began to break character on the inside as well, Ranma's pockets bringing back the memory of the jewelry box she'd seen. *It's just a kiss, it's just a kiss...* she assured herself.

"Close yer eyes..." Ranma said softly, his concentration demanding he return to the script. Akane closed her eyes as told, her dialogue done for the scene. This left her mind free to wander over thought after thought. Every moment the two had shared over the past few days dancing in her mind. The image of the golden necklace flashed through her mind just as Ranma brought his lips nervously down on hers.

Her blush intensified further than the script called for as she felt Ranma's kiss. Ranma who had closed his eyes as well, found himself turning what was supposed to be a nervous peck into a gentle yet love filled kiss as his lips pressed further against Akane's. *I love you, Akane* he thought silently as he commanded himself to break the kiss, not wanting to take it too far away from what the scene had asked for. Akane once again opened her eyes as she felt Ranma's lips slowly leave her own. She stared back at a now back in character, nervous Ranma, his head down as he blushed horribly. Ranma was just about to speak his last line when the director unexpectedly intervened. "CUT!"

---

Ranma and Akane looked over at him as he walked on-set and shook his head. "Thanks you two. That was fine, but it's just not working. Akane, your character would never actually ask Ranma to kiss her. I'll have to have a word with those writers. This is is a martial arts romantic comedy, not a sappy romance novel... Take your breaks till after lunch, both of you." With that he walked off.

Ranma stood up and shakily held out his hand to help Akane to her feet. Hiding his embarrassment, he simply smiled to her and turned to head back to his trailer. Akane just stood there, staring silently at the figure growing further and further away from her, only then licking her lips slightly at the kiss she'd received, her mind now filled more with questions than answers. *Ranma.....*