Disclaimer:  All characters portrayed are the property Rumiko Takahashi
and co.  Please don't sue me.

Ranma and Shampoo

by 

Donny Cheng

Part 5

	"Ranma idiot!  Jerk!"  Shampoo muttered as she wiped down the
tables at the Neko-haten.  Why did he have to do that?  When she felt
Ranma's lips upon hers, to say that she was happy was an understatement.
Ranma then had to go and ruin it.  She frowned at the memory.  He tried to
explain to her how it was all an accident.  For a full ten minutes she
stood there listening to him stutter.  Then to make sure he got his point
through to her, he showed her on various diagrams, he seemingly pulled out
of nowhere, how it all had been circumstance.  By this time Shampoo had
had enough.  When she left him, Ranma was a quivering mass of bloody flesh
on the ground.  Well at least she could use what happened to her
advantage.  Ranma would not want Akane or Ukyo to know that he had kissed
her, whether by accident or not.  As always she felt a twinge of guilt 
about blackmailing Ranma, but she quickly brushed that feeling aside.
Ranma WILL take her on a date.  <insert evil laughter>

	Nodoka looked at Shampoo sadly.  What had her son done now?  It
seemed he was always at the heart of everything that went wrong in Nerima.
Shampoo had been in such a good mood for her first day of school.  At the
sound of Shampoo's obviously fake, evil laughter, Nodoka felt a sorry for
what Ranma had in store for him.

			* * * * *

	Ranma was surprised as he met up the girls for their walk towards
school.  They were actually all being civil to each other.  Meaning they
didn't erupt into an all out brawl when they met.  Ukyo immediately  
glomped onto one of his arms.  Shampoo didn't even look at him, much less
glomp onto him when she saw him.  She must have been still mad at him.
His other arm felt empty without her.  He almost fainted when he felt
Akane tentatively grab his arm.  Akane then stuck her tongue out at Shampoo 
Somehow he felt guilty and cringed when he saw Shampoo's furious
expression.  He shuddered as he saw her give him a Nabiki-like smirk.

	Shampoo pulls a microphone out of nowhere and points to him.  Her
voice is amplified so that it seems everyone in Nerima can hear.  "Ranma,
do you remember the walk home last night?  It was a beautiful night.
Shampoo remember it clearly.  Ranma give Shampoo a good night ki--"  Ranma
had shrugged off Akane and Ukyo and quickly clamped Shampoo's mouth shut.

	"Okay Shampoo, what do you want?"  Even though he knew Shampoo
didn't have proof, he didn't believe his other suitors would mind beating
him up anyways.

	"Ranma take Shampoo on date, yes?"  Shampoo grinned at him.

	"Uh..okay."  He didn't realize, of course, that this turn of
events would also earn him a beating from the aforementioned girls.

	Pulling Ranma from the ground, Ukyo growled sweetly at him,
"Ranchan, you're going to take me out on a date too."

	Not wanting to be left out, Akane also got him to agree to a date.
Not wanting to feel the girls wraths again he quickly agreed to all their
demands.  He would take Akane out this evening.  Tomorrow, Saturday, would
be Ukyo's turn and Shampoo's on Sunday.  Ranma looked towards the heavens
in askance.  Nothing else can go wrong, could it?  Thunder could be heard
as if in response to Ranma's silent question.

			* * * * *

	Ranma's date with Akane went rather smoothly.  Smoothly, that is,
if you would say having Kuno and Ryoga chasing after you half the night
smoothly. Akane felt, it was a pretty nice date other than those minor
instances.  She smiled as she thought of her bold kiss with Ranma at the
end of the date.  She went to sleep happily dreaming of Ranma.

	Ranma was thinking of the date as he walked home.  Akane again 
surprised him as she gave him a good night kiss on the cheek after they
spent thirty minutes at the door waiting for Ranma to do it.  Ranma had
been with Akane on dates before, forced or otherwise.  Other then the
kiss or his fight with Kuno and Ryoga, Ranma had not been very interested
in the date.  The only thing he had any interest in was his martial arts
and food.  Ranma turned his thought on Akane and the kiss.  He felt guilty
as his mind compared Akane's kiss to Shampoo's.

			* * * * *

	Ukyo watched happily as Ranma went home.  She had been in constant
delirium the whole day.  The whole date was perfect in her mind.  She
replayed the kiss she gave Ranma.  The kiss was a rather passionate one
with a little bit of tongue.   She went to sleep dreaming of Ranma.

	Ranma again walked home as he silently thought of his date.  There
was nothing special about it.  It was like two buddies horsing around and
wasting a day together.  Also, Ukyo tended to daydream a lot.  However,
that kiss at the end made him think that maybe Ukyo didn't see the date
the same as he did.  He groaned in frustration.

			* * * * *

	 Shampoo sat at the Neko-haten waiting for Ranma.  With each
passing minute, her doubt about Ranma showing up grew.  Shampoo had heard
about Ranma's other dates.  It seemed that she probably couldn't blackmail
him about the kiss anymore, as the Ranma and the other girls kissed after
their dates.  This was the first time she didn't have anything to could
hold Ranma to their date.  Surprisingly Ranma came anyways.

	"Hey!  I always keep my promises."  Ranma grinned at her.  He then
grabbed her arm and took her outside.  "There.  I took you out already, so
I've kept my promise.  Bye now."

	Shampoo was angry.  "Come back here Ranma!  We're not done yet."
She then gave chase.

	Nodoka looked on as the whole event unfolded.  She would not wish
anyone to be her son, when Shampoo caught up with Ranma.  She saw Mousse
also leave out from the corner of her eye.  Now what ever Ranma gets, he
had coming.

			* * * * *

	Shampoo eventually caught up with Ranma.  After a few beatings he
agreed to the date.  They felt awkward towards each other as they walked 
side by side.  Since there was no prize involved, this was their first 
date together where one didn't have trick the other to get what they 
wanted.  They just walked around in silence, not knowing what to do.  That
was when Mousse came along and attacked Ranma for defiling Shampoo.  
Shampoo interfered and punted him into LEO.

	Ranma was annoyed.  "Whacha do that for?  I wanted to beat him
off."

	Shampoo was also getting annoyed.  Ranma and his ego again.  
Shampoo went into ultra cute mode.  "Shampoo sorry.  Please forgive
Shampoo."  Her tone of voice was dripping with enough sweetness to cause
a cavity.

	True to form, Ranma was flustered by this and Shampoo took the
opportunity to teach him a lesson.  Somehow this escalated into another
fight between them.  However, both of them weren't very serious.  To her
amazement Ranma was actually laughing with her as they fought.  By the
time they got home, Shampoo was a mess.  She didn't want to kiss Ranma
looking like she crawled out of a garbage dump.  Ranma had then, quite
automatically, kissed her on the cheek and left.  Shampoo stood still 
standing at the door holding her cheek.

	Ranma was an emotional wreck by the time he go home.  Why did I do
that?  He had slowly gotten use to the idea of being kissed after a date.
When he didn't get a kiss, his body acted for him.  Somehow he didn't
believe in his own reasoning.  It was just that this date had been so
different.  He remembered the tricks he and Shampoo used to pull on each
other during their first date so long ago.  He never blamed her as he also
used dirty tricks against her to get the instant nannichun powder.  Heck,
he was even using a few dirty tricks during the fight today.  Besides,
Shampoo look quite cute with her hair mussed up and some smudges on her
cheeks.

			* * * * *

	The next day's walk to school was filled with tension.  None of
the girls looked at each other.  Nabiki smirked.  She loved excitement.
"So Ukyo how did your date go with Ranma?"

	Ukyo smiled at the memory and started to daydream of Ranma holding
her for a passionate kiss.  Though she didn't say anything about the date,
the expression on her face was clear enough to anyone that wasn't blind.
Dark auras formed around Akane and Shampoo.

	"Hey!  I bet my date with Ranma was even better than yours."
Akane glowered at Ukyo.

	Ukyo giggled at her.  "What?  You mean you didn't try to cook for
him or hit him."  Shampoo also giggled at this.

	Oblivious to Akane's anger, Ranma quipped, "How didya ever guess
Uuchan?"  This of course earned him a familiar greeting from one large 
mallet.

	The walked the rest of the way to school in relative peace.  Ranma
felt this was the calm before the storm.  Kuno, Ryoga, and Mousse
were all there to greet Ranma as they reached the gate to the school.
After somehow managing to survive the onslaught, Ranma stared in fear as
his suitors were crowded by every girl in school asking about the dates.
They then began to tell everyone how their dates went. The stories were
all blown out of proportion.  They ranged from a modified version of Snow
White and Cinderella to something a little x-rated (told by Shampoo).  
Each telling resulted in a punch or kick thrown in Ranma's direction of
course.

			* * * * *

	Ranma was lying in a full body cast at Dr. Tofu's clinic.  Akane,
Ukyo, and Shampoo all sat together caring for Ranma.  This truce could
only last so long.  Ranma cowered at the battle auras around each girl as
they fought to see who would feed him.  His enemies all stared at him with
hatred.  Mr. Tendo was crying at his supposed adultery.  His father was 
in panda form rolling around with a tire.  His mother was smiling at his
manliness.  Ranma look through the window to look again at the heavens in
askance.  Please, nothing else could go wrong.  The heavens thundered
again as if responding to his plea.

			* * * * *

to be continued...

C&C welcomed.  Flames not.