Heya! I'm glad that the general reception is positive, haha I think we can all agree on that, Mousse for as smart as he may be, did not pull a very smart move. Mild cursing throughout;;

I don't own Ranma 1/2, and enjoy!

Out of all the ways Mousse had thought he his day would pan out when he had woken up that morning, running as fast as he could from a very vengeful Ranma was not top at the top of the list...

At the current moment of time, his only thought was

'Run, keep running, don't you dare look back'

He didn't need to look back to know Ranma was on his tail, he could feel the battle aura leaking out and covering him.

He totally wasn't going to panic, and it wasn't like Ranma was going to kill him, right? Ahaha,...he was pretty sure anyway.

He was only delaying the inevitable pounding, but he'd put it off as long as he could!

~/~

Ranma for his part had started his day annoyed, from his pops antics early in the morning, to the teacher harping on him for some assignment and lecturing him on class etiquette.

The warm weather that had hit the area certainly didn't help. It only served to make him more annoyed when Shampoo showed up and started grabbing all over him.

But now he had moved from annoyed to angry.

Akane had beaten him to the immediate punch, sending him flying before he could throttle him, but as he was left alone, he put together a plan.

Or rather it wasn't so much a plan, but the simple knowledge of his enemy. He knew sooner or later he'd come back to the Cat Café and he'd catch him then.

If he were honest, he had no real reason to be mad. It was certainly Akane's right to be mad, and he was mad, for her, but it wasn't exactly his place to step in for her, that wouldn't stop him from stepping in any way.

He was mad because how dare Mousse lay his hands on her, even if he thought she was someone else, knowing it was meant someone else didn't make it any better either.

His relationship with Akane was complicated, it was in a state of being both convoluted and not.

They each had an idea of how the other felt, but their situation never really allowed for much open conversation.

Not that Ranma even knew how to put into words how exactly he felt about Akane.

Turning his thoughts from Akane to the man he was pursuing, his face hardened. It was time to end this, then wonder why exactly he felt so mad in the first place.

He had to admit, a tiny percent of his rushing at Mousse might've been because he had finally found someone to vent his anger out on. But it was also mostly the first thing, which was righteous fury.

~/~

Mousse knew he couldn't run forever, and in the current direction he was headed, it was looking to be a dead end.

Maybe he could talk him down...?

'Well It won't be the worst decision I've made today..." and with that he slowed to a stop, turning on his heel quickly just as Ranma sent a jab towards his head.

'...right, this was Ranma...'

As Ranma prepared for another throw, he gave it a shot at explaining, possibly lessening the blunt of the blow by a margin.

"Look, look, Ranma, we can-" he was interrupted with a swipe his way, and he began shifting his body to defensive.

He frowned, he was going to need to restrain him in order to make him listen to what he had to say, but even that wouldn't really make him listen to his words unless he chose to listen.

Pulling out his chains in order to restrain him, "Ranma, look, it was an accident! Really!"

Ranma grabbed the chains that held him, yanking them from Mousse's hands and threw them to the side.

"You know good and well if it had been me that kissed Shampoo, you would be in the same situation trying to knock me down!"

Mousse faltered at that because it was true, and he couldn't deny that he would've been enormously jealous. He tried not to let it distract him as Ranma took the opportunity to dive.

He just barely dodged the kick, his foot grazing his abdomen. They hadn't fought each other directly much after coming back from China and Mousse had wished it had stayed that way.

Fighting with Ranma kept him on his toes, he was no wimp but he knew he was deftly outnumbered in combat.

He gave up on reasoning and focused entirely on not getting his ass completely handed to him.

The fight went on for a while, block for block and punch and swipe for blow for blow.

At some point, Mousse slipped up and Ranma gained the upper hand with a solid punch, sending him flying backward.

His back hit a nearby tree, and he took a heavy breath. He was satisfied to find, despite suffering the final blow, he had at least managed to make Ranma break a sweat.

Sighing, he seemed truly defeated. "...I really am sorry ya know... I just thought if I did something big and dramatic, Shampoo would see how much I truly cared for her.."

Ranma gave a huff of his own, rubbing the sweat off his neck, most of his anger leaked out. "Look man, I'm not the one you should be apologizing to..."

Mousse nodded forlornly, adjusting his glasses, and trying to dust off the dust and debris he looked over at Ranma, "Um,...are we uh, good?"

Ranma gave a pause, striding over to him. Clamping a hand on his shoulder he said, "Do me a favor and never leave without your glasses ever again."

Mousse almost buckled under the pressure from his grip, his voice brooked no arguments, but after the long day Mousse had, he didn't see himself making the same move ever again.

"You got it."

Ranma smiled and Mousse thought things were finally looking up for him, when suddenly, Ranma pushed him into the small pond behind him that he hadn't taken notice of earlier.

As he fell into the water he heard Ranma say, "Okay, now, we're good."

He sighed, transformed into his duck form,

'Well...at least I made it out alive...'

next chapter is last to be rewritten, then only new stuff from there~