Chapter I
The Wedding Fiasco

	Furinken High, never the ideal educational establishment, felt 
particularly strange to Ranma and Akane on the day after what everyone in 
Nerima was referring to as the "wedding fiasco." All in all it was a 
quiet day: not a squabble, obsessed maniac, or martial arts duel to be 
seen. Anyone who lived in Nerima knew that the quiet itself made the day 
especially bizarre. Ranma and Akane had run to  school together, late as 
always, and everything seemed to being going well between them. Akane was 
being nice to him and Ranma hadnt said anything stupid for at least an hour.
	Things were just not normal. Something was just BOUND to happen.
	At lunch the hot gossip was that Akane hadnt beat up Ranma all 
day. The explanation, including Ranmas trip to China, Akanes near death, 
and the failed wedding, was still hush hush around the Furinken campus. 
No one wanted to be on either Ranma OR Akanes bad side at the moment, and 
they knew that ANY mention of any of these subjects was probably going to 
put the unlucky person into the hospital.
	So, when you cant get the information from the source, go to your 
second-best resource. In this case, the most reliable (but also the most 
expensive) source of information was none other than Nabiki Tendo. It 
was, to say the least, one of Nabikis more profitable days.
	Akane sat under a tree with her two friends, Sayuri and Yuka, 
eating lunch. They knew better than to even MENTION the "R-word", and 
never spoke about Ranma unless Akane brought him up in a conversation. 
So, for the moment, Akane was having a peaceful lunch.
	Akane was thanking the powers that be that her friends hadnt said 
anything about the "fiasco"; Akane didnt even want to have to think about 
it. Ranma had the chance to admit how he felt; Akane had assumed he would 
be honest with himself. Instead, he chickened out. Akane stole a glance 
at Ranma, who sat about 20 feet away on some benches talking to his 
friends, Hiroshi and Daisuke, and a few other guys. Akane saw him get up 
and demonstrate a move to the other boys.
	"What a show-off," Akane thought, thoroughly disgusted.
	Ranma was doing a good job of ignoring the whole wedding disaster 
himself. He had admitted to himself that he did love the kawaiikune 
tomboy when he held her in his arms, thinking that he had lost her. 
However, when faced with her in a bridal dress and impending marriage, he 
wasnt able to get the words out. 
	"Do you love me, Ranma? Can't you say it?" Akane had asked.
	And Ranma realized he didnt know. He didnt really know what love 
WAS exactly, or if the feeling he had for Akane was the kind of sentiment 
that led to taking her down the aisle, into his heart, and into his arms, 
FOREVER.
	Ranma was so lost in his thoughts that he didnt hear Daisuke 
asking him something. Finally, after being  cuffed on the back of his 
head, he noticed the group of boys staring at him.
	"What?!" Ranma asked.
	All the boys glanced at each other, and then Daisuke repeated, 
"We just wanted to see that move you were talking about last week, you 
know the one to avoid being hit when someone tries to punch you."
	"OH!" Ranma said, and gave a nervous laugh. He stood up and began 
to demonstrate, his face a little redder than usual.
	Both Akane and Ranma were totally oblivious to the crowd 
encircling Nabiki on the other end of the lawn. Nabiki was detailing the 
events that occurred after the wedding, and, for a fee, telling people 
that, yes, Akane and Ranma were still engaged, and no, the date was not 
yet certain. She also proffered some pictures of Akane in a wedding dress 
and Ranma in his tux to interested parties.
	"Too bad you couldnt get pictures of the wedding NIGHT!" someone 
chuckled in the group around Nabiki.
	"People, people!" Nabiki smiled, "When and if those pictures 
become available, you KNOW who will have them!"

*******

	Lunch was over, and everyone filed back to their classes. Akane 
had just sat in her seat, thanking the powers that be that she had 
survived lunch unscathed for once, when the girl in the desk next to her 
asked, "So, Akane, is it true that you and Ranma are still getting married?"
	Akane turned bright red and her eyes bugged out a bit. She 
stuttered out, "Uh... well... not exactly.... I... I mean Ranma and I... 
I mean NO!... my father..."
	"Yeah, whatever, Akane," the girl said, smirking.
	Akane stopped and blushed furiously.
	Another group of girls joined the rapidly gathering crowd around 
Akane. One asked, "Did you really almost die in China, Akane? And Ranma 
saved you?"
	Akane looked as if she would have liked to sink into a hole in 
the ground. The boys were starting to enter the classroom too, and, as 
Akane looked over and saw a sputtering Ranma surrounded by a crowd, she 
got some small satisfaction out of the fact that he was probably being 
interrogated too.
	Akane began, "I dont see how this is any of your business..."
	A girl, Miki, said, "Oh come on, Akane! We were all invited to 
this big wedding for Ranma and Akane and we were basically gypped!" 
Everyone nodded, and the girl continued, "I mean, the least you could 
have done was still had a reception, and, if not that, at least given us 
an EXPLANATION!"
	Yuka came to Akanes defense, saying, "Come on! Leave Akane alone! 
You know it was all Ranmas fault! It always is, isnt it, Akane?!"
	Akane nodded, and everyone else in the group sighed.
	"I suppose so," Miki finally said, "that guy is SUCH a loser 
Akane! I mean, he is a good martial artist, but he is a terrible 
boyfriend! Why dont you MAKE him love you, or dump him!"
	Akane rolled her eyes and commented, "Love. Right. Whatever."
	Akane just looked at the ground. The crowd continued talking and 
Akane began to look more and more troubled. Akane figured Ranma loving 
her and admitting was, at this point, just a fantasy.
	She thought to herself, "I know he cares about me... but he has 
never OFICIALLY said he loves me. Not even when he thought I was dying..."
	Akane looked over at the baka, impossible to miss in his red 
satin shirt in the crowd of black and white school uniforms. He sat at 
his desk, looking furiously at the group of boys who surrounded him. 
Ranma, of course, hadn't seemed to notice the crowd around her.
	"Oblivious idiot!" Akane muttered.

*****

	Ranmas interrogation was a bit more personal than Akanes. A guy, 
someone Ranma didnt know very well, commented, "So, man, that whole 
wedding thing was a big no go, eh?"
	Ranma groaned, "Come on man. Aint nothin personal?"
	Daisuke elbowed Ranma and asked, winking his eye, "So... dija 
do... it.. yet with Akane? I mean since you thought you would be married 
and all...."
	"Yeah," another guy added, "I mean is she as violent between the 
sheets as she is regularly? Heh! Now that would be interesting!"
	"Well, she DOES have a great body," Hiroshi smiled, a dreamy look 
on his face, adding, "What I wouldn't give to be her fiancee. You lucky 
dog, Ranma."
	At this point Ranma was totally pissed off, embarrassed, and 
confused. These guys were touching on a subject Ranma felt VERY 
uncomfortable about. Ranma jumped up, and, as usual, opened his mouth 
without thinking and shouted, "Lay off man! Like I would do that with an 
uncute tomboy like Akane anyway!!"
	Akane, and everyone else, stiffened as they heard Ranmas shout. 
Everyone turned to Akane to see what she would do. Akane looked furious. 
This, in addition to the questioning she had just endured, was too much. 
Akane got up and stomped over to Ranma and hit him on the head shouting, 
"Ranma no.... Ranma no.... Ranma no BAKA!!!!!"
	Then, tears filling her eyes, she turned and ran out of the 
classroom. Just then the bell rang.
	Ranma, a bit catatonic from Akane's clobbering, still saw the 
tears and thought, "Me and my big mouth," before getting up to run after her.
	Unfortunately, he didnt hear the bell (because the ringing in his 
head from Akanes hit was already pretty loud) and ran straight into Miss 
Hinako as he flew out of the classroom.
	"And where do YOU think you are going, Mr. Saotome?" Hinako 
asked, childlike, but looking furious and dangerous all the same.
	"Uh..." Ranma muttered, looking down at the pint-sized 
disciplinarian, and then said, "To the, uh, bathroom?"
	"Go sit down!" Hinako shouted, adding, "You should have taken 
care of that at lunch!"
	Ranma sighed, turned, and went back to his desk, thinking, "Maybe 
she will have cooled down some by the time I get home."
	He cringed.
	"Then again, maybe I'm dead...." Ranma thought.
	The tittering in the classroom hushed, not wanting to face 
Hinakos wrath, but someone in the back commented loudly, when Miss Hinako 
went to close the classroom door, "Well at least things are back to normal!"

*****

NOTE: stuff surrounded by ** means it is in another language, i.e. Chinese.

	Of course, things really werent back to normal, but everyone 
wanted to believe they were. The scene at the Nekohanten was familiar at 
least... but a certain unfamiliar feeling ran through Shampoo.
	Mousse had done it again. Shampoo sighed as she placed a cool wet 
cloth on his bruised and bleeding forehead and securely tucked the sheets 
around him.
	Mousse was knocked out cold, or else he would probably be raving 
something about her great beauty or his joy at her "tender" 
ministrations. Shampoo sighed again, pulling off Mousses glasses. She 
held them up to the light, and the myriad of cracks and chips caused a 
prismatic light to glow through the thick glass, leaving a rainbow on the 
nearby wall.
	"Great-grandmother," Shampoo turned and yelled to Cologne, who 
was busy in the kitchen creating her special Amazon-style ramen for their 
dinner.
	"Yes Shampoo?" Cologne asked as she hopped in on her giant staff, 
her gnarled body wrapped around it like monkey grabbing at the limb of a 
tree. Long swirling white hair, the only remnant of her 275-year ago 
Amazonian beauty, swirled around her like a cape. She looked down at 
Mousse, the blood from a cut on his forehead running on her recently 
cleaned pillows.
	"I see Mousse wont be working today," Cologne smirked.
	Shampoo just frowned and said, *Can you sew him up?*
	"What happened this time, Shampoo?" Cologne asked, as she 
shuffled around in a cabinet for medicinal supplies. She was always 
prepared to be amused by this obsessed would-be-fiancee of her 
Great-granddaughters. 
	Shampoo threw her hands up in the air, and then crossed them 
against her chest. She adopted a perturbed look and began, *Well today 
when I was making a delivery, two men tried take the ramen. . .*
	Cologne nodded in encouragement for her to go on.
	*And, as usual, stupid Mousse appeared and tried to stop the men. 
He never realizes that I can defend myself!*  she grimaced in 
exasperation, her hands falling to her sides in clenched fists, before 
she continued, *Mousse got wet, when he fell into a puddle he didnt see, 
and became a duck. He knows he isnt as strong in his cursed form, but he 
STILL tried to defend me! He is so stupid!*
	Cologne grimaced, her eyes narrowing as she considered the 
situation, and then she finally said, "And did they get the ramen, Shampoo?"
	"Aiyaa!" Shampoo said, slipping into Japanese."Yes they get ramen 
because Shampoo have to run back and save Mousse. Stupid, stupid, 
Mousse," Shampoo stood and walked into the kitchen, opening a sizable 
drawer. She pulled out a pair of glasses, a particularly strong pair, 
from the large assortment collected there for "accidents."
	Shampoo sat down again, placed the glasses on Mousses face. She 
dropped her hands into her lap and stared at the floor. Cologne was 
amused. She shook her head as she walked out of the room, sensing that 
the ramen was ready, chuckling. She thought, "That Mousse just tries too 
hard. That one has been trying too hard all his life, poor fool." Out 
loud she said, "I will come back to stitch him up in a while, I have to 
prepare the materials."
	Shampoo looked at her hands, still folded in her lap, time 
passing without notice. She was startled when she realized Mousse had 
been staring at her for several minutes, and one of his hands now covered 
her own. 
	Mousse smiled at her, a tight pained smile, and said, "You 
stayed, Shampoo. You took care of me. Thank-you. I only wish I could have..."
	Shampoo stood up quickly, pulling her hands from Mousses. She 
shouted at him, "How many times Shampoo need tell Mousse no need protect 
Shampoo!"
	Mousse tried sitting up, causing blood to start trickling from 
his head again, and he looked more than a bit dizzy. He said quietly, "I 
am sorry, Shampoo. Shampoo, I was only doing what I thought was right."
	"Right for Mousse, not right for Shampoo."
	He began to look pale and started to fall sideways.
	"Mousse!" Shampoo shouted, catching him before he could fall off 
the bed and then laid him back against the pillow. *You stay in bed 
Mousse! The cut is deep! Great-grandmother will give you stitches soon.*
	He just smiled that sad smile again and said, *Im all right now, 
Shampoo. Honestly I am. And I am sorry if you dont want me to defend you. 
I... I just cant seem to help it sometimes... you see... as the one you 
have chose to defend you, that cursed Ranma Saotome, has left you time 
and time again to save that Akane Tendo... someone else has to...*
	Shampoo cut him off, *Ranma doesnt love Akane! They fight! Ranma 
will realize soon that I am better, just you wait Mousse. You leave Ranma 
and I alone!*
	*Will he defend you in the crucial moment, Shampoo?* Mousse 
smiled, and added, *as I would?* And then, his eyes growing heavy, he 
sank back down on the bed and fell asleep.
	Shampoo remembered the battle against Monlon when Ranma had left 
her to fight and had gone on himself to help Akane. She had survived, and 
won, but. . . he had left her behind. However, Ranma could defeat those 
that Mousse could never even contemplate, such as Kirin and Saffron and 
others. Bah, Mousse was nothing compared to Ranma. Shampoo needed a 
strong warrior, someone who COULD protect her, or at least that she wasnt 
constantly trying to rescue as she had to do for Mousse. Mousse was sweet 
and caring, but his obsessiveness drove her insane. If but one time he 
let HER decide how she felt, she might feel differently.
	Shampoo frowned at that thought and stood, upset now, and strode 
out to the front of the Nekohantan, going to unlock her bicycle. Cologne 
called from the kitchen, "Where are you going Shampoo?"
	Shampoo poked her head back in the cafe and said to her 
great-grandmother, fury still lighting her eyes, *I am going to see Ranma.*
	Cologne smiled again at this development. She called after 
Shampoo, "Tell my future-son-in-law I said hello!"