Note: Since this fanfic is starred by Shampoo and Mousse, all text is
supposed to be in Chinese, and that's why Shampoo is not speaking her broken Japanese dialect, Okay? Hey, you don't believe Shampoo and Mousse think or speak in Japanese when they're alone, do you?
Note: This story is set a few days after the end of the manga in
volume 38.
Final note: I know Shampoo and Mousse have Chinese names like Xian pu
and Mu tsu or something, but I will not use them here, the truth is that I don't know how to write their Chinese names properly, sorry!
You all know it, Ranma is a trademark of Viz and was created by Rumiko Takahashi, and therefore, all the characters in this fanfic belong to her.


HIDDEN MEMORIES
BY
DR_FACER


Nights at the Nekohanten were always cold for him, especially since he
had to sleep in his duck form inside a cage under the kitchen sink. Sometimes, when he was lucky, they let him share Shampoo's father's bedroom. Those nights were not frequent, and even when that room's floor was still cold, it was nothing compared to the cold he had to endure in the kitchen, where he had spent entire nights shivering, sneezing and freezing, with nothing to cover himself but his feathers.

Mousse was glad that today he got to sleep with Shampoo's father. It was still cold, but his sleeping bag was doing a great job keeping him warm, unfortunately, he couldn't sleep, his insomnia was worse than ever this night. He sighed, insomnia was not strange for him, he had suffered from it since he was three. Mousse turned to his left, closed his eyes and covered his ears with his pillow, Shampoo's dad was snoring like a truck again, no surprise here, it was Sunday after all, and every Sunday night he and Cologne spent some time drinking sake and talking until midnight, those nights, Shampoo's father snored like a wild bear, probably because of the sake, but it still was a lot better than the cage in the kitchen.
Mousse opened his eyes again, it was useless, he couldn't sleep at all,
he then used the only effective remedy he knew for his insomnia and began to think about his dear Shampoo, he wondered why she had to be so obsessed with Saotome. At least Ranma had kept his distance from Shampoo in the last days. "Mainly because of what she did in his wedding." Mousse thought, but she was never like that before. When they both lived in China, Shampoo had been a lot different, then, for some reason the day he first met Shampoo came to his mind, his devotion to her was so strong that he still remembered that day after all these years.

Mousse let himself get carried away in the river of his memories. There,he was once again a child, practicing with the wooden knives his father gave him a week ago in his third birthday. He had discovered that the hidden weapons style was not that hard, and his dad said he was very talented and that he was proud of him, the little boy that was Mousse was very happy about it and since in that moment he felt invincible, Mousse decided to venture out of his house all by himself for the first time, he exited the house when his mother was cleaning and walked to the training grounds.....

Mousse was playing with his knives on the way to the training grounds
when he heard something, he analyzed the sound and soon he knew what it was, someone was crying.
Mousse went to where the sobbing was coming from. He had to climb a rock and jump down on the other side, when he did however, he found nobody, but the crying was louder.
He adjusted his glasses and carefully observed his surroundings, there
were a few rocks, and a large bush, he saw the bush moved a little and went there. To his surprise, all he saw was a little girl with blue hair sitting behind the bush, she had a cut in one arm, and her face
had some nasty bruises. Mousse felt bad for the poor girl and placed a
hand on her shoulder. "Why you cry?" He asked.
The girl jumped quickly on her feet. She had never been caught out of
guard by another boy, and after all she had been through this day, this only added more to her dishonor. "You don't care!!" The girl said wiping away her tears.
"Hurts?" Mousse asked, pointing the cut in her right arm.
"Amazon no hurts" The girl answered. "Amazon strong!"
"You fell and cut right?" Mousse said, he was getting curious, his
mother wasn't an Amazon, but his father's sisters were, and Mousse always thought they were weird, and this girl seemed no different. "I help."
"NO! I hurt when training with great grandma!"  The girl tried to walk
away, but she could only limp and fell on her butt a few steps after, then she began to cry again.
Mousse ran and helped the girl to stand up. "I told you I help." The
girl tried to push the boy away, but she was too weak for that and ended up leaning in his shoulder as he took her somewhere.

Mousse finally arrived to his house and saw his mother was waiting for
him. He gulped, his mother seemed very mad at him, but when she saw Mousse was helping a little girl, she rushed to meet him and carefully carried the girl inside.
"Is she fine?" Mousse asked when his mother finished treating the cut on the girl's arm.
"Don't worry honey, your friend will be fine soon." His mother said
calmly and then she looked at him. "So tell me, what where you doing out of the house all by yourself, young man?"
Mousse didn't answered, he instead looked at the girl that was sleeping
in his bed, for the first time, he noticed how cute she was, even with her bruised face.
"I made you a question Mousse!"
Mousse fell from the chair he was sitting on when his mother shouted; he promptly got up and answered. "What? I helped girl, she fell from rock!!"
"I know Mousse, just for that I'll forgive you this time, but if you
ever leave the house alone again, I'm going to give you the spank of your life!!" She said.
"Now come, let the girl rest."
"Can I stay here?" He asked.
His mother looked at him; Mousse had that determined look in his eyes,
and she knew he would do it anyway. "Yes, you can stay here, but don't be noisy, she needs to sleep." She said and left the room.
Mousse sat in the chair and kept watching the girl for a while, but he
soon got bored and started playing with his knives again. Trying to find a way to pull them faster from his sleeves, he was so focused on his exercise that he didn't noticed when the girl awoke.
The first thing the girl saw was a boy pulling knives out of his robes,
she stared at him for a moment, then she realized that she wasn't in her house and did the first thing she could think of, scream hard. "MOOOMMYYY!!!" She yelled and caused Mousse to fell from the
chair one more time. "Hi, feel better?" He said and smiled as he got up.
"Where is mom? Where am I?" she shouted.
"Don't do that!" Mousse said covering his ears.
He was going to say something else, but his mother entered the room and
sat besides the girl. "Hi, cutey, how are you feeling?"
The little girl looked at the woman with glasses, she was smiling like
her mother; so she couldn't be a bad person, the girl smiled too. "I'm fine, but I want my mom!!" She sobbed.
"Of course my dear, we'll take you with your mother, but you have to
tell us your name first, right?" Mousse's mother said.
"I'm Shampoo." The girl answered and stopped sobbing.
"Well, nice to meet you Shampoo." Mousse's mother started, but then she
remembered that she had heard that name before, wasn't it the name of matriarch Cologne's great-granddaughter? If that was the true, this girl had to be taken to her family as soon as possible! "Tell me then Shampoo, your great grandma is matriarch Cologne?"
Shampoo felt very happy, this good woman knew her great grandma! "Yes!
Cologne is my great grandma!!"
"How nice!" Mousse's mother said. "Are you hungry Shampoo? Food will be
ready in a few minutes, you can eat here before we take you to your mom."
"Yes, I hungry!"
"Good, wait here and we'll eat when my husband comes." The woman looked
at her son.
"Mousse, take good care of her!"
"Yes, mom!" Mousse answered as he watched his mother leaving the room,
he then turned when he heard that Shampoo was chuckling. "What's so funny?"
"You are Mousse?"
"Yes, so?" He asked.
"Your name is funny!!" Shampoo said and started laughing hard.
Mousse smiled, she was so cute when she laughed, he stared at her until
she stopped.
"Shampoo's a fun name too."
"What!!?" The girl said while frowning. "Shampoo name of great Amazon, I have honor to have the name!!"
"Really?" Mousse asked and changed the subject to something less boring
than names.
"Wanna play?" He said while pointing to his box of toys.
Shampoo looked at the box, it was small and had some cute wooden cars
and a few puppets. "Yes I want!" Shampoo said and ran to the box picking a small truck. "I never play before!"
"Never? Why?"
"I train all day."
"Oh, well let's play."
The two kids played for a long time until Mousse's father came and they
were called to the table. Shampoo ate with a very healthy appetite, and Mousse's mother was touched; if even half of what she had heard about the training this girl was facing was true, then this girl was suffering a lot. So she might as well try and make her feel comfortable
for a while. "How do you like my cooking Shampoo?" She asked. "Is it good?"
"Very good! I only eat good food when I train all day and I don't cry, I wish I could eat like
this always." The little girl suddenly stopped. "I can't eat this, great grandma will punish me."
"Oh c'mon honey, it'll be our secret!" Mousse's mother said.
Shampoo nodded and smiled. "Yeah! A secret!" She picked her chopsticks
again and resumed her eating with the same enthusiasm as before.
After the family finished their meals, Mousse's father went to talk with his wife to the kitchen and sent the two kids to play to Mousse's bedroom. Mousse never knew what that talk was all about, and didn't care, he and Shampoo played with Mousse's toys for another while when someone interrupted them, it was Mousse's father. "Well boy, I have to take your friend home now, say goodbye to her."
"It's still early dad!" Mousse said.
"I know, but it's getting late and Shampoo's mom must be worried."
Mousse nodded and looked at Shampoo. "Goodbye Shampoo, hope I'll see you soon."
Shampoo smiled at her new friend. "Bye Mousse, I'll see you soon too!"
"Okay Shampoo, time to go." Mousse's father said as he took Shampoo's
hand and guided her out of his son's bedroom.
"Wait mister! I want to say thanks to Mousse."
The adult let the girl's little hand go and leaned his back on the wall.
"Fine then, just be quick."
Shampoo ran towards Mousse and took the boy's hands in hers; Mousse
blushed badly.
"Thank you!" Shampoo said and kissed Mousse's left cheek.
The poor boy blushed even more, and his face suddenly resembled a big,
shining tomato.
"I-I-it was nothing." Mousse managed to say and looked at the girl.
"Thanks."
"See you soon Mousse!" The girl said and giggled, then she left the room with Mousse's father.
That night, Mousse had his first meeting with lady insomnia, he spent
the whole night reliving the sweet innocent kiss Shampoo gave him, and a feeling he had only felt for his
parents began to ache in his chest..

Mousse sighed. "Why can't it be that easy now?" He asked himself as he
scratched his forehead. "If only Shampoo remembered that day as clearly as I do." He thought and curled himself in his sleeping bag.

Shampoo hated Sunday nights. Why did her father and great-grandmother
had to choose this particular day to drink their sake until so late? "Because the Nekohanten is closed on Mondays you stupid!" She answered to herself; it wasn't the fact that her father and great-grandmother drank a little sake every Sunday what made her angry, it was the fact that she had to stay awake so late to clean the mess they did, also, she normally had Mousse to help her, and somehow; Mousse actually behaved himself normally on Sunday nights, not glomping her or screaming how much he loved her every five minutes.
Yeah, she almost enjoyed his company while cleaning the kitchen these nights, but her great-grandmother let the stupid sleep in her father's bedroom and she had to clean all by herself. "Stupid Mousse! I should have him clean all this!" She said as she tried to clean a particularly
stubborn spot of dried sauce in the floor. She stopped, the damn spot
wasn't disappearing no matter how hard she tried. Shampoo sighed and sat in the floor, the spot reminded her the first time she cleaned a kitchen, it happened a long time ago, and was a punishment set by Cologne after her first fight with Mousse. Shampoo closed her eyes
and recalled the events of that day.

In her memories, Shampoo was a little girl again, and was playing with
Mousse in the kitchen of her house, she was startled because Mousse told her that he loved her and wanted to marry her, but she remembered she had to explain Mousse the rules of the Amazons. It was incredible that Mousse had never heard them before, but she understood, Mousse's mother was not an Amazon after all, and she wouldn't know anything about the laws.
"Are you sure, Mousse?" A three-year-old Shampoo asked.
"Yeah!" The boy answered and prepared himself for battle.
"Fine!" Shampoo shouted and jump kicked Mousse, but he dodged and
counter her attack with a kick of his own, Shampoo couldn't avoid it and got hit in the chest, she was hurt, more in her pride that in her body, no other boy in the village had ever landed a hit on her; she was faster and stronger that those boys, Mousse couldn't do that to her! Shampoo felt something rolling down her face, a tear? Yes, it was a tear, she wiped it and looked at Mousse, he had dropped his guard and was apparently worried, how dared he! Nobody felt pity for an Amazon! Shampoo attacked again but Mousse dodged all her attacks very easily. And, to further her humiliation he was not attacking her! What an insult! Shampoo stopped. "Why aren't you fighting? Are you afraid?" She asked.
"I made you cry." He said.
"We are fighting!" Was Shampoo's answer.
"I can't hurt you." Mousse said and just stood there, immobile, waiting
for her to finish the fight, and she did, she snatched his glasses and with a well-placed kick she floored Mousse and won the fight.
"YOU'RE STUPID!!!!!!" Shampoo yelled and tossed his glasses to the
floor, and then she ran out of the kitchen just to run into her great-grandmother; who was just around the corner.
"What's the matter great granddaughter?" Cologne asked.
"A stupid boy fought me and lost!!" The little girl said.
"Oh, well where is the boy now?"
"In the kitchen."
Cologne went to the kitchen and saw indeed a little boy who was crying
and searching for something. "Is he the boy, Shampoo?" Cologne asked.
"Yes, great grandma" Shampoo said as she picked Mousse's glasses from
the floor and handed them to him.
"Don't help him!!" Cologne said. "He is not worthy of even look at you!"
"But he's my friend!" Shampoo argued.
"Stay away from him!!" Cologne ordered.
"But." The girl started to say.
"You won't obey me? Then you will be punished!" The elder Amazon said
and raised her staff above Shampoo's head, who just stood there waiting for the impact.
"Leave her alone!" A childish voice demanded.
Cologne who had kept an eye on the boy, laughed. "You are a not welcome
here anymore boy! Go away!"
"NO!!" Mousse said with grim determination. "You won't hurt Shampoo!!"

Cologne saw something in the boy's eyes, something that she would never
see again, not even in the eyes of the man she would claim as Shampoo's fiancee in the distant future. She only had seen that once before when she was young, in the eyes of the man who married her sister, a warrior with such a big determination that no one could defeat him, could this
boy had it too? no, of course not, Shampoo defeated him. He was only
another male servant, that was all. And for the thing she saw in his eyes, she must have made a mistake, so she threw the boy out of her house, but not before warning him to never come back.
"Now Shampoo, as a punishment for letting such a weak man in my house
you will clean the whole kitchen, and I want it spotless!!"
"Yes, great grandma." Shampoo sadly answered.

Shampoo started to rub the spot again. "Problems! that's all you've ever give me Mousse, nothing but problems!!" She said and kept rubbing the stupid sauce spot.
She realized how much Mousse was like this dried sauce spot on the floor. Just like the spot, Mousse wouldn't go away that easily, no matter how hard she rubbed. "Stupid Mousse." Shampoo said and smiled.

Mousse was finally sleeping when a horrible sound, like a boar screaming in pain, awoke him again. "Damn old man! he must have drank a lot of sake tonight!" Mousse thought and silently cursed his roommate, now it would take him a long time to even get sleepy, he thought about Shampoo again, maybe that could help him fell asleep faster. He
remembered all the times he had fought her over the years; he could have won all those fights with a single blow, but he could never force himself to hit her. Every time he was about to do it, the image of her crying after he kicked her in their first fight destroyed all his
courage and he had to let Shampoo win. He had been a fool, it was just a matter of time for another man to defeat Shampoo; and it happened, that cursed Saotome stole Shampoo from him! And for some reason, Shampoo preferred Ranma over him! True, Saotome was a superior martial artist he had to admit it, but he never loved Shampoo! He just was nice
when Shampoo forced him to or when he wanted a free meal! And still, she had fell in love with such a disastrous man instead of him! The man who had ever worshiped her and respected her! Mousse smiled. At least Saotome never had an experience with Shampoo like the one he had, he might have been kissed by Shampoo, but he never kissed her, and he
almost did. Mousse's smile grew even larger at the memory of that failed kiss, it had been in a festival when he and Shampoo were both thirteen..

Mousse couldn't believe that Shampoo had actually agreed to go with him
to the festival. Since she defeated him, she had been usually mean to him, especially when that dried up monkey for a great-grandmother she had was around; but today she was being incredible nice to him! just like a dream turning into reality! He looked at the beautiful dress she was wearing and blushed. He had nearly fainted when he saw her waiting for him in the town entrance, she was gorgeous! As the evening went by, he won a few prizes for her in the festival's stands, nothing hard considering his ability at throwing objects. And she looked very happy with her presents, Mousse hadn't seen her smile so truly in years, and the fact that he could make Shampoo happy meant so much for him, then her voice called him.
"Mousse, the fireworks will start soon, let's go find a good place to
see them!"
"Sure, how about the roof of my house?" He offered. "It's not too far
and we could get a nice view."
"No, I want to stay here in the town square where the festival is."
"What about the roof of your place?"
"Yes! that would do fine, that was a great idea, thanks Mousse!" The
young Amazon happily answered.

Minutes later the couple was sitting in the roof of Shampoo's house,
from there they could see everything and everyone, and the night sky was open without a single cloud. Shampoo was very excited, and Mousse was glad that all her family was visiting the neighboring
towns, Mousse knew that Shampoo had been alone for two weeks now and
that her family wouldn't be back in yet another week; he understood that she felt very lonely and that that was the reason she accepted to come to the festival with him, but he didn't care. As long as he could be with Shampoo, he was ready to do anything, no matter how low or
dishonorable it was.
"Mousse! you're missing the fireworks!!" Shampoo shouted.
"I'm sorry, I was thinking." He said and then pointed to the sky. "Look
at that one, it's beautiful!!"

Shampoo looked at the sky again, the last firework was indeed beautiful, it was like a
waterfall of shining red and green water falling from the sky. She wowed at the sight, no matter how many times she saw something like this, she was always amazed.
The fireworks continued for a while and when they ended Shampoo decided
that this was the best time to ask him. "Mousse?"
"Hmm? What is it Shampoo?" He said while he cleaned his glasses.
"I want to ask you a few things."
"Like what?"
"Your father, what he thinks of the Amazons and about yourself."
"Oh, what about my father?" He said.
"Well, we know he doesn't really like the way we live here in
Joketsuzoku. And that he says we're a bunch of barbarians; even though his sisters are Amazons, he keeps trying to release our village men from what he calls a life in hell! Do you know why he thinks like
that?" Shampoo asked.
"Yes I do." Mousse answered. "My father told me about it once, he said
that when he was a child, he read a book left here by a lost traveler. In it there was a description of the Chinese revolution and its ideas, my father was so captivated by the book that his way of thinking changed forever or so he says. Later, he left the village and vowed to
release the men of Joketsuzoku from their captors."

Mousse made a short pause to see if Shampoo was paying attention. When
he was convinced that she was, he continued. "During his absence, he trained in the Hidden weapons style from the neighboring village and studied hard under a school teacher who lived there; also, he married the teacher's daughter, later he came back here and tried to free
the men, which is what he has tried to do since then. And as you know,
my father also runs our village school, a place that you've never visited Shampoo." Mousse explained.
Shampoo blushed. It was true that she had never gone to school, but her
great-grandmother and her mother gave her all the education she ever needed; besides, the school charged a small fee to the students. It wasn't high at all and everybody could pay it, but the true was that she didn't liked school. Not even when her friends said it was lots
of fun. As the great- granddaughter of one of the most powerful elders, it was her duty to be as strong as possible, so she was always training and never had the chance to go and check if school was really as fun as the other girls said.
"What else you want to know Shampoo?" Mousse asked, snapping Shampoo out of what she was thinking.
"Well, if your father thinks like that, then why did you decide to live
by the Amazon laws, ah?" She said.
"Because that's the only way I could marry you Shampoo."
Shampoo sighed; she was expecting something like that. "If that's true,
then why do you keep losing all of our fights?"
"I can't hurt you, that's why! I'm not a brute!" Mousse exclaimed.
"Besides, how do you know if I'm losing on purpose?"
"C'mon Mousse, I'm not stupid! You're obviously as good a fighter as me, and with those weapons of yours, you could have won a long time ago if you have really wanted to."
Shampoo said while frowning. "Maybe you don't really want to live by the Amazon law, or maybe you don't really love me as much as you say!" The young Amazon hoped that with this Mousse would finally stop pestering her once and for all, but.
"Just give me another chance!" He practically begged her.
"Fine, tomorrow at noon." She said. "But if you lose, you'll have to
promise that you'll never fight me again! got it?"
Mousse nodded. "Okay, I promise." He then changed his gloomy face and
smiled. "Want something to eat Shampoo? It's on me!"
"Good! I'm starving!"
Shampoo and Mousse had dinner silently, when they finished, Shampoo
asked Mousse if they could go to the town square and sit there for a while. The square was the same place the annual Amazon tournament was held and the big ring set in the middle was a prove of it. "Only three more years, then I'll be able to enter the tournament." Shampoo whispered.
"And you'll be the champion, I'm sure of it."
"You heard me?" Shampoo asked.
"Yeah, I did."
"But how? we're not even sitting close!"
"I might have bad eyesight Shampoo." Mousse explained. "But my other
senses are above average."
"Really?"
"Yes, I can smell, hear, taste and feel a lot better than most people."
He explained.
Shampoo looked at Mousse attentively, she wondered if he was saying the
truth. "Mousse, tell me something." She said as she sat closer to him.
"What?"
She slowly cupped his face in her left hand. "How does this feel?"
"Sha-Shampoo-What-are-you-doing!?" Mousse said, he was now blushing harder than ever.
Shampoo giggled. "Just checking if you're really that sensible, that's
all."
"Well I am! Now stop joking!" Mousse shouted, but then he held her hand
with his own,
softly but firmly. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to shout you Shampoo. But
thanks for that, your hand was so soft, like anything I ever felt before."
Shampoo tried to take her hand back, but Mousse's grip was too strong,
and not only that, but Mousse was slowly moving closer to her; she used her right hand to push him away from her, but she couldn't. He held her right hand too and continued his advance.
"Shampoo." Mousse said softly.
"Mousse, I think we should." She stopped. Mousse's face was almost
touching hers, Shampoo tried to kick the boy away, but her body didn't listened, she couldn't move. For some reason, she was frozen. She tried to scream, but only a soft moan made his way out of her lips. Her lips, they were almost touching Mousse's now. Shampoo felt like crying, why
wasn't her body doing what she wanted? Why was it betraying her? She
tried to move away, but again it was useless. The worst part was that Mousse was not even forcing her, she was doing it by herself! Shampoo felt her face moving to the side so Mousse could kiss her easily; she closed her eyes and felt that all her conscious efforts to push Mousse away had also vanished She knew she didn't wanted this, or she did? She
couldn't make her mind, and the warm she could feel coming from Mousse's lips was not helping, it was like if she could feel all the love he claimed to have for her in that warm.
Shampoo gave up and slowly moved forward, her lips were now barely touching his and the kiss seemed inevitable.
"BIG SISTER SHAMPOO!!!" A voice yelled.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!?" Another voice finished

Mousse and Shampoo jumped away from each other. Mousse fell from the
bench headfirst on the floor and almost broke his glasses and Shampoo almost had a heart attack; what, or rather who had seen her? Shampoo looked to her left and saw her two little 'sisters'
RanRan and LinLin staring at her. "RanRan, LinLin it's not what it looks like!!" Shampoo desperately shouted.
"You almost kissed that loser!!" RanRan said.
"We'll tell your great grandmother!!" LinLin finished.
"NO, YOU WON'T!!!" Mousse shouted fully enraged. "Now go away or I'll
crush your little heads!!!"
RanRan and LinLin blinked and did what Mousse said. Somehow, the glow in his eyes
scared them enough to obey him. "We'll get you for this loser!!" Was
what the twins said before leaving.
Mousse turned to see Shampoo, she was on her knees and she was crying.
Mousse kneeled besides her, not daring to touch her. "Hey Shampoo, are you all right?"
*SLAP!*
Mousse fell backwards; in all these years, this was the first time
Shampoo had actually slapped him. She usually punched him, kicked him or threw him around. But never, ever slapped him. Why did she slapped him now then?
"You think you're very smart, Mousse?" Shampoo said.
Mousse, who was kneeling besides her again and was now touching his
right cheek, asked.
"Smart? what are you talking about?"
"You wanted me to willingly accept a kiss from you in public." She said.
"If you have succeeded, I would have been cursed with you as my fiancee. But luckily you're so stupid that you can't even do something as simple as a kiss right!!!" Shampoo shouted.
"Fiancee." Mousse said then heard the sound of feet moving away, he put
on his glasses and saw Shampoo, who was walking away from him. "Wait!" He called, but she didn't stop and ran towards her house.

"That was both the luckiest and unluckiest day of my life." Mousse
thought and sat. Shampoo's father had been snoring louder than before and Mousse was now sure he was not going to get some sleep if this continued. "I know! I'll go downstairs and make me a tea with the sleeping powder Shampoo bought the other day, that'll sure make me sleep!!" Happy with his idea, he left the room and headed for the kitchen.

Shampoo had finally finished cleaning the kitchen and was heating some
water for tea, she enjoyed drinking a cup of tea before going to sleep. And she was now sitting on the small table behind the counter. She watched the steam coming out of the kettle and she began unconsciously to play with a knife in the same way Mousse would have if he had been here, how was that trick with the knife he taught her a couple of years ago? Shampoo moved her hands slowly trying to remember the trick and after a few minutes she gave up, how the heck did Mousse moved the knife so it appeared on your other hand? She tried to remember and her mind drifted until it reached the memory she was looking for, the day Mousse had showed her the trick for the first time, it was the same day the annual martial arts tournament for the males of Joketsuzoku had been held; she had been there mocking Mousse but...

"A loser like you shouldn't enter this tournament Mousse!" Shampoo said. "You can't possibly win!"
Mousse grinned. "Maybe, but considering I'm underage, I already have
accomplished something by been here."
Shampoo was silent. He was right; even if he lost in his first fight,
Mousse had already defeated a high number of adults just to be admitted in the tournament at the age of fourteen. She herself had tried to enter this year's female tournament, but failed to defeat her mother and thus she was rejected. Mousse on the other hand had it easy, men in the village were all lousy warriors with the exception of a few and all of them were not even in her own league. Mousse on the other hand, could held his own against her for a while, to think that Mousse was actually stronger than her a year ago, what a joke! Now Mousse was
defenseless against her, hidden weapons or not. However, if he won this
tournament, he would become a very respected member of the male population of the village and most of the weaker Amazons would like to marry him. That was, of course, good. That way the stupid would let her alone for a change.
"Hey Shampoo!"
"What do you want"
"Want to see a neat trick I learned a few days ago?" Mousse offered
"Sure, why not?"
Mousse moved his hands quickly in a circular motion, and a knife
appeared. Then, before Shampoo could move, he had the knife at her throat. Then he moved his hands faster than before and suddenly the knife was in his other hand. "Pretty cool, uh?"
Mousse asked. "It's great to scare your opponents at close quarters."
Shampoo was impressed. Since when Mousse was so fast? When he challenged her last week, he was weaker than a year ago, like if he had been out of practice. She decided that this tournament would be interesting after all; but she couldn't let Mousse think she was
impressed, she put on her best 'I don't care' face and answered. "Stupid trick, it won't help you in battle."
"Well, I don't think so." The young Amazon answered, and made his way to the ring.

Shampoo watched all the combats and as she expected, Mousse won all his
fights with ease, and most of all the young girls were quite amazed with him, herself not included of course. She watched how Mousse dished out his last opponent with a simple kick and heard the announcement: Mousse was now in the final match! Shampoo couldn't help it and an
almost imperceptible smile made its way on her mouth.
"You sure are lucky Shampoo." A girl said behind her.
Shampoo turned and saw a face she didn't liked at all. Her closest rival in the aspects of beauty, strength, speed, techniques and lineage, was in front of her.
This girl's family had a status almost equal to Shampoo's, not that she cared at all. "Oh, hi Navel." Shampoo said and faked a smile as best as she could. "Why do you think I'm so lucky?"

"Just because." The green haired Amazon said. "The best single male in
the whole village is in love with you and no matter how much you insult him, he always comes back to you, that's why."
"I don't love Mousse!" Shampoo answered.
"Then would you mind if I have him?" Navel asked. "I'm sure he could
defeat me in a fight, and if he loses, I'll be more than happy to accept a kiss from him in front of everyone."
Shampoo frowned, even when she didn't noticed that she did. "Fine! Do
what you want!
I'll be happy to have Mousse out of my life!! I'm sure I'll meet a man
who is much more stronger than Mousse someday and that he won't be a blind stupid either! And that man will be my husband, not yours!!"
"You don't have to get mad you know." Navel replied. "Look, the final
match is starting!"

The two young amazons looked at the ring and watched the fight. Mousse's opponent was a mature man who happened to be Navel's father, the current champion who was defending his title. Shampoo wished for Mousse to win, The fact that Navel's father was a greater warrior than hers was something Navel always used to humiliate Shampoo, and the blue
haired Amazon hated it; but if Mousse won the fight, she could not brag
about her father anymore.
The fight lasted for only five minutes. In the first four, Navel's
father had the advantage, but in the final minute, Mousse stopped holding back and fought all out, finishing his opponent using the same trick with the knife he had showed Shampoo before the tournament started; using it to distract Navel's father and then kicking him unconscious.
"YEEESSS!!" Shampoo shouted. "How's that for your big, invincible among
men father, uh, Navel?" Shampoo yelled in ecstasy, but she stopped when she actually noticed Navel was not paying attention to her. Instead, Navel was drooling over Mousse. "Hey!, I'm talking here!" Shampoo screamed.
"He's so perfect!" Navel said without taking her eyes from Mousse.
"He's a blind jerk!!" Shampoo answered.
"So what! He defeated my father!" Navel shouted. "He's more than worthy
to be mine!"

Shampoo couldn't say anything because Navel bounced to where Mousse was
and glomped him, trying to force him to kiss her. Shampoo threw her Bombori and knocked Mousse out, angering Navel, who almost gave Shampoo the kiss of death, but instead she just smiled and challenged Shampoo to a fight for Mousse in the next female tournament and Shampoo agreed. After that, Shampoo saw how Mousse's father carried his son away. Later, she too walked to her house along with her great-grandmother.
"Shampoo, why did you accepted a challenge for that loser?" Cologne
asked.
"Because Navel's family is a rival of ours, great-grandmother. I thought I should teach her whose family is the strongest." Shampoo answered.
"I see." Cologne said ."And what moved you to knock out that blind fool
before he could actually claim his prize?"
"That, great-grandmother, is something I don't have an answer for."
Shampoo said as she walked with Cologne, who remained silent and along her great- granddaughter, she admired the landscape around the village..

Shampoo wasn't happy at all, she really disliked to remember something
that involved either Navel or her family, so she discarded the memory and filled her cup with the now ready tea. "Stupid Navel, I hope she falls in the spring of drowned cockroach." Shampoo whispered.
"That's not very nice of you."
Shampoo turned and saw Mousse leaning in the kitchen's door. "That's
none of your business!"
"I'm sorry, so you were thinking about Navel?" Mousse asked.
"I don't want to talk about her right now!" Shampoo said.
"Okay."
"What do you want Mousse, can't sleep?"
Mousse yawned and then he said. "Well, that's the problem, I'm having
other of my insomnia nights."
Shampoo sat and looked at Mousse. "Why don't you have some tea?"
"Thanks, can I take a little of yours?" He asked hopefully.
"Yes, but not much." She said and Mousse served himself a cup.
Mousse and Shampoo were now sitting in front of each other, holding
their tea and staring at each other's eyes. "So, why can't you sleep?"
"Want to know the truth?" Mousse said.
"Yes, tell me." Shampoo answered.
"To make it simple, because of you." Mousse said.
Shampoo laughed. "Because of me?, I know your senses are good but I
wasn't doing any noise at all!"
"It's not like that." Mousse explained. "I said it was because of you."
Mousse answered emphasizing on the last word.
"Oh, I get it now." Shampoo said. "So you still love me and all, right?"
"I have been thinking about that a lot lately."
"And what have you discovered?" She asked.
"That I'm running out of options." He said sadly.
"It's not like if you had a lot to begin with."
"Shampoo, do you remember the time we went together to that festival and saw the fireworks from the roof of your house?" Mousse asked. "Remember what happened in the town square?"

Shampoo frowned. She remembered that, even when she had tried to forget
it for a long time, she still remembered every sensation of that 'incident' with Mousse. "Yes, I remember, so what?, we were very young then."
"But you didn't pulled back when I tried to kiss you." Mousse said.
"Does that mean you were going to let me do it?"
"I was not! you must have drugged me!"
"I did not! But think what you want." Mousse said. "Anyway, can you
remember what you asked me about my father?"
"Yes, I can; but that has nothing to do with."
"It has." Mousse interrupted. "Shampoo, I decided to live as an Amazon.
I defied my parent's wishes just to be with you, but it has never been enough. Did you knew that I believe in the same ideology as my father?"

Shampoo was startled. She never thought about Mousse's family a lot,
heck! She even forgot he had parents sometimes!
"No, I didn't knew that Mousse, so that means you have only pretended to be an Amazon male all this years?"
"Well, for most of the time I did." Mousse explained.
"Most of the time?"
"Yes, when you were with me, then I didn't pretended, in those moments,
I was an Amazon for real."
"You can't do that, you can't be an Amazon only part of your time!"
Shampoo said, concerned by what she had just heard.
"Shampoo, I have something very important to tell you." He offered,
considering that this was the best chance to tell her.
Shampoo was worried, what had gotten into Mousse changing subjects this
quickly? "What kind of thing?"
"It's like this." Mousse began to explain. "According to the law, I
can't claim you as my wife because of Saotome, and my only option would be to kill  or defeat him, right?"
"Well, yes, that's right."
Mousse pulled Cologne's book of Joketsuzoku's laws from one of his
sleeves and smiled.
"Ah! But not anymore my dear! I have found something rather interesting
in this old book from that great grandma of yours, in fact, it's so interesting that it wasn't in my own book."
She didn't wanted to know what he had found, but still, she asked. "What is it Mousse, what have you found?"
"Look at this." Mousse pointed a small paragraph in one of the book's
last pages, Shampoo read it and paled, this couldn't be true could it?
"So, as you see here, Saotome's claim on you is minor and I have priority because I won the Joketsuzoku martial arts tournament of my gender."
"But he also won a Joketsuzoku tournament!!" Shampoo shouted.
"Yes, he did. But it wasn't the tournament of his proper gender. He won
when he was in his cursed form which means he was female!" Mousse strongly argued. "Besides, as Navel told me, he entered the tournament for invalid reasons!"

Shampoo felt an ache in her head. "And what does Navel knows? She was
hardly conscious at the time! I crushed her in the semifinals!"
"I don't care if you crushed her in the bathroom!" Mousse said. "She
told me that Saotome entered the tournament to avoid proper punishment for stealing the first prize, and a dishonorable motive is invalid! The book says it!"
"But you still have to defeat him." Shampoo said and smiled evilly.
"Not necessarily." Mousse said and flipped the pages of the book again,
then he pointed another paragraph. "Read this."
Shampoo's face paled more. "This can't be true!"
"Oh, but it is my dear Shampoo. As you've just read, all I have to do is to prove that I am at least as good a warrior as he is and his claim on you will be as good as gone!"
"No!" She sobbed.
"Yes! I don't even have to defeat or kill Saotome! All I have to do now
is to manage a draw with him in a fight and then defeat you! Then I will finally have the right to call you wife!!" Mousse answered.
Shampoo thought that it wasn't as bad as it seemed, Ranma was
continually training and increasing his strength; Mousse would never have a chance to manage a draw in a fight with her husband to be anytime soon, so she relaxed. There was no way that Mousse could lay a claim on her.
"You seem to trust a lot in Saotome." Mousse said.
"He will always be better than you! I don't have to worry!" Shampoo
answered.
"Are you really sure you don't have to?" Mousse said and left the table.
"I'm going to try to sleep now, you should do the same." Then, he exited the kitchen and left Shampoo alone.
"Stupid Mousse." Shampoo whispered as she put the cups and the kettle in the sink, when she finished; she finally went to her bedroom, really needing some sleep.

The next day, Shampoo entered the kitchen still a little sleepy. Her
great-grandmother was there already and her father was sweeping the restaurant entrance, but there were no signs of Mousse anywhere. "Good morning my child, how are you today?" Cologne asked.
"I'm fine great grandmother, by the way, where is Mousse?"
Cologne handed Shampoo a note addressed for her and she quickly read it.
"Training trip?"
Shampoo asked.
"Yes my child, and he also left another note for me, it had some very
intriguing information about the law."
"Don't tell me he did it!" Shampoo thought.
"It appears that Mousse has the right to have priority in case he
decided to claim you as his wife."
"But I don't want to marry Mousse!" Shampoo shouted.
"Don't worry, he has to challenge son in law and draw with him, that's
something Mousse will never be able to do, no matter how much he trains or where." Cologne finished and smiled.

Later, Shampoo was walking alone through the streets of Nerima and found herself thinking about Mousse. She sighed, Mousse was really like a stubborn spot, he wouldn't go away so easily no matter how much she tried, but then again, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. Shampoo smiled, what kind of training was Mousse doing by now? And when would
he come back? Curiosity was killing her, especially because she wanted
to know if he would actually break his record against Ranma, could it be that Mousse could last for at least five minutes? Well, sooner or later she would find out, it was after all, just a matter of time.

END

Well, this story kind of feels incomplete; I think I'll write a sequel
for it later.
Facer.
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