Just Like a Dream

Mousse smiled encouragingly at the small redheaded girl sitting beside him. She looked like she was going to her execution rather then a for a doctors visit, she gripped his hand so tightly that it was almost painful. “It’ll be okay, women all over the world have these once a year and live to tell about it” he soothed. “Besides we looked it up online and you already know what to expect” he said stroking her hand.

“It’s the speculum thing that’s freaking me out” she explained nervously. Mousse smiled that the fearless martial artist was scared about anything other than cats and gave her death gripping hand a squeeze.

“You don’t have to do this, we can leave” he suggested.

She shook her head, “no you’re right that I should find whether I can get pregnant or not. For birth control purposes and just in case we want to....” she said and blushed when she realized what she had just implied.

“I don’t see why you couldn’t; a Jusenkyo curse is very complete. As a duck, I am a whole duck” Mousse pointed out.

“Who wears glasses, has your bangs and can still pull weapons out of nowhere?” she teased.

“Okay, I’m a unique duck” he replied. However, you’re a complete woman. You had a hymen, you have all the correct plumbing and pleasure centers and certainly feel like a regular girl to me” he assured her, causing her to blush. “You would probably even get your period if you lived as a woman, though I’d hate to see you on PMS, you’re deadly enough as it is” he teased her and she hit his arm lightly.

“Ranma Saotome?” the nurse called and looked slightly confused when a girl answered the masculine sounding name.

Ranma sat through the exam a little mystified, she blushed when the doctor, who was a friend of Dr. Tofu’s and had already been appraised of Ranma’s ‘unique condition,’ showed Ranma how to do a breast exam. She checked her weight, blood pressure and then had Ranma lie down to put the speculum in. She almost trembled with fear as it was inserted, but then relaxed. She had to admit that it was a tad uncomfortable to be pried open this way but not worthy of the fear she’d just experienced. She prayed that it would be over soon as the pap smear was taken and then the speculum gently removed.

The doctor instructed her to get dressed and join her in her office.

“Well, I was rather skeptical when Dr. Tofu told me about your unique condition, but according to your chart, you are normally a male. Everything appears to be normal, your eggs are fine and you appear to be healthy” she said.

Ranma sat forward, pink staining her cheeks “can I conceive?” she asked in a hushed tone of voice.

The doctor seemed kind of startled that a sixteen year old girl was concerned about this “I don’t see why not, you’re a healthy young woman through and through. I can refer you to a fertility clinic for further testing if you’re worried about that. Are you and your.....partner trying right now?” she asked.

“No, no we were just wondering if it was possible. You know, for the future” Ranma explained hastily.

The doctor looked at her shrewdly “you’d have to research how your curse affects your ability to carry a child to term, but from what I see, you should be able to”

Ranma felt giddy and hugged the doctor while thanking her profusely. Then ran into the waiting room to fling herself upon Mousse, he laughingly hugged her back.

“Good news?” he asked the girl sitting in his lap.

“It sounds like we can have children!” she said enthusiastically.

“Oh are we planning on doing that?” he teased her. “I don’t recall mentioning that I wanted any”

Ranma’s face fell “so don’t plan on staying with me?” she asked sadly.

Mousse hugged her again” of course I am, I’m in this for the long haul” he promised and took her hand to lead her out of the doctor’s office. Ranma glowed as they left.

“Where are we going?” she asked when she tried to pull him in the direction of his place.

“To buy condoms now that we know that we need them” Mousse replied. He noticed Ranma’s face, turned around and took her hands, “We’ll have children when we’re ready. I don’t believe in having children outside of wedlock, we can plan for them after we marry” he explained.

Her eyes softened “you plan to marry me?” she asked in a happy voice.

“If you’ll have me” Mousse replied and kissed her right in the busy street of Nerima.

Ranma woke up, not hard or experiencing the aftermath of a wet dream for once, but still no happier for it. For once this dream wasn’t about sex, but somehow it was more disturbing in the respect that it dealt this a matter that he had always secretly wondered about. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone. What if he could conceive and carry a child to term? What sort of a man does that make him if he could bear children? It shattered Ranma’s self perception completely, especially about how joyful he had been about the idea of having Mousse’s baby in the dream. Where the hell was Mousse? He needed to speak with him about this, but couldn’t seem to find him anyplace that he’d looked.

Flashback

Ranma bit the bullet and knocked on the apartment door over the Nekohanten after the restaurant had closed. Shampoo answered and glomped onto him.

“Hiya, Airen come see me?” she asked happily.

“N-no, I was wondering if Mousse is in” Ranma stammered.

“Why you want see Mousse?” Shampoo asked confused. They certainly didn’t seem to be friends and Ranma had never sought him out.

“I just had some questions for him” Ranma replied with a blush as to what those questions pertained to.

Shampoo studied Ranma, wondering why he appeared to be blushing, then nodded. “Mousse in his room, come, I show” she said and then called up the stairs “Mousse Shampoo’s Airen come see you” This caused Mousse, who’d been avoiding Ranma, to panic. He shot a chain up to hook around the large, exposed beam in his room, swung out the window and quickly climbed down the side of the building to scurry off into the night, seconds before Shampoo pushed open the door to his room. Shampoo looked surprised to find his room empty “That funny, thought Mousse up here” she said in confusion.

Noticing the open window, Ranma strode to it and discovered the chain hanging out of it and realized how Mousse had left. He wondered again why Mousse seemed to be avoiding him. “Might he have gone to visit a friend?” he inquired.

“He have no friends, Mousse normally stay in in evenings” Shampoo replied.

“Does he have a girlfriend?” Ranma asked feeling oddly disturbed by that idea.

Shampoo started laughing “Mousse, a girlfriend. Shampoo wishes! Then he no bother me anymore, Mu family mates for life” she explained. “He only go library or teach Japanese new Chinese residents on Thursdays at Chinese community center” she offered.

“Every Thursday?” Ranma asked, seizing onto this fact clinging to it like a junkyard dog.

“Yes, every Thursday” Shampoo agreed.

Ranma paused in his speculations “good to know” he replied.

End Flashback

Mousse turned pale when Ranma joined his volunteer language class. He’d just greeted his usual students when the martial artist walked in like he owned the place, with a smug smile on his face that seemed to say ‘gotcha’

“Ranma, this class is for people learning to speak Japanese; not for people who are Japanese” he snapped.

“Aw come on Mousse, I’m sure I can use the practice” he said taking a seat beside an attractive Chinese girl named Yung Ping. He smiled at her and she blushed.

“Let him stay” she implored Mousse in Mandarin. Mousse gnashed his teeth but taught his class as normal, ignoring Ranma as much as possible. After the class was over and Yung Ping blushingly gave Ranma her number and ran away giggling, Mousse approached Ranma.

“What do you want Ranma? I don’t appreciate you mocking my class, these people are here to learn Japanese so that they can learn to fit into a society that’s foreign to them and get jobs” he hissed.

“Whoa, that wasn’t my intention. I think that you’re doing wonderful thing here and I applaud that you’re so generous with your time, Professor Mu. I only came here because you’ve been avoiding me and I need to talk to you” Ranma explained. “Look can I take you for some tea afterwards?”

Mousse looked at Ranma to see if he was serious, he appeared to be “very well, but only for a little while” he said hesitatingly.

“That’s great!” Ranma said with more enthusiasm then he’d intended. Mousse just looked suspicious at his exuberance, but took him to a small Chinese restaurant nearby and ordered them a pot of tea.

“What’s this all about?” he asked sharply.

Ranma blushed and rubbed the back of his head “well, I’m having these dreams” he answered hesitantly and wondered why Mousse turned pale.

“What sort of dreams?” he demanded.

“Well, they’re rather.....sexy” Ranma explained turning the colour of a beet and then noticed that Mousse echoed his new skin tone. “They are about you and me” he admitted.

“I-see” Mousse said numbly. “In these dreams are you a girl or a boy?”

“Sometimes one sometimes the other, the dream were rather erotic...until the other night when they became more....personal, relationship wise” Ranma stammered.

“Where you had a physical examination to see if you could conceive as a woman?” Mousse said looking at him levelly.

“You’re having them too!” Ranma said in a startled voice.

“Yes, what do they mean?” Mousse demanded.

“I thought you would know!” Ranma said.

“How would I know? The person you dreamed about sure wasn’t me, I have no interest in males and haven’t ever even kissed a girl” Mousse declared.

“So you don’t know why I’m dreaming about you?” Ranma asked. Wondering how they could make them stop. “I find the dreams to be very disturbing”

“You think that I’m enjoying them!” Mousse exclaimed. “Having dreams about making love to my worst enemy is hardly the joy of my life”

Ranma looked hurt “what have I ever done to you personally to make you my enemy?” he asked.

“You stand in the way of my happiness” Mousse said, wondering why Ranma cared what he thought.

“That wasn’t my fault! My father and I misunderstood the situation and have had crazy Amazons following us ever since!” Ranma said and then realized he’d said the wrong thing.

“Crazy Amazons huh? Allow me to get rid of one of them for you right now” Mousse said and went to stand up.

“I’m sorry, please stay” Ranma said placing his hand on his shoulder to stop him. Suddenly it was as if he could see into Mousse’s very soul. Ranma started repeating what he was seeing “you have three sisters all of whom look like you. Your eleven year old sister, Aftershave is your favourite, even though she’s the mouthiest one who always embarrasses you. You’re a virgin, the only vaguely sexual experience you’ve ever had was when you played doctor with Shampoo when you were six years old. But Cologne caught you and had you caned in front of the entire village to punish you while Shampoo got off scot free. You still have stripes on your back from that day. But why would she have done that? You were just a child and that was a punishment reserved for adult males” Ranma said wonderingly.

Something flashed in Mousse’s eyes, he felt like Ranma had stripped him naked “I was an unruly male that had to be put in my place” Mousse replied bitterly, remembering that day; the fear, the pain.

“You’re mother renounced her status as an Amazon and went into exile to become a farmer on the outskirts of your village after that happened. She hates Cologne for doing that to you and to this day, thinks that Shampoo’s a spoiled brat because she blamed it on you. You moved into your old family hut when you were fourteen and resumed your own Amazon status when you became of age, so that you could pursue Shampoo. But why? She didn’t like you and no one else likes her” Ranma asked him, seeing all that Mousse tried to hide from everyone.

Mousse answered Ranma by telling him what he saw; their touching had opened some sort of window to the other person. Now it was his turn to strip Ranma bare “You hate this place and these people and long to leave here. You feel hunted and hate being challenged all the time. You’re sick of everyone making your decisions for you without asking your opinion. You don’t like any of your fiancées, you’re sick of being groped and viewed as a trophy by them and you wonder if any of them actually care about you. Yet you’re afraid to let anyone close, in case they think that the real you is a joke and you use swagger and bravado to disguise this. You’re sick of your father always telling you to be so manly when you obviously can’t always be and feel that your mother should love you no matter what you’re like physically. You’re especially hurt that the few true childhood friends you had have betrayed you, one by becoming your enemy and one by claiming to be yet another scheming fiancée. You’re confused by Akane the most because it seems like one second she likes you and the next she hates you. You resent that the dojo, which is your birthright, is only available to you if you enter into a marriage of convenience. You want to be loved but by someone of your own choosing, not someone who people tell you that you should. Ranma I’m sorry, I had no idea you felt this way” Mousse said with sympathy.

Ranma’s eyes grew wide, with every word that Mousse had uttered, it was like a part of him that he didn’t want seen was slowly revealed. He just stared into the other boy’s soft gaze and ran away. This time it was Mousse chasing him and cornering him before he could jump onto a roof. “Leave me alone” he snapped at him.

Mousse held up his hands in a placating gesture “Ranma there’s nothing wrong with feeling like that once in a while. It’s normal”

“Yeah right, you’re not the one that everyone expects to be perfect all the time. My family, friends and fiancées always expect me to be something I can’t deliver!” Ranma cried.

“At least you have friends” Mousse said, revealing his own loneliness.

Ranma took a step closer to Mousse “I’d like to be your friend” he said, blushing as he said this.

“I’d like that” Mousse said.

“Shall we call a truce then?” Ranma asked extending his hand.

“I agree” he said. “So what shall we do about the dreams?”

“Just wait until they go away” Ranma said. Then wanting to know how accurate the dreams were he asked “would you show me your left foot?”

Mousse thought the request a little odd, but slid it out of his slipper and showed it to Ranma.

Ranma wanted to see if the scar really there; it was. “You got that from trying a spear a fish to impress Shampoo” he stated.

“How did you know that? I speared my own foot” Mousse explained with a blush.

“Must have dreamed it” Ranma said ironically.