Just Like a Dream

Ranma rode Mousse tantalizingly slow for once, still playing the game of teasing and denial that he’d been playing for hours. Mischief highlighted his boyish features as he sped up just enough to provide the relief that his lover so badly sought, only to be thwarted by his pausing when Mousse was on the brink again. With a growl of frustration and a surge of the strong body beneath him, Ranma found himself flipped over with Mousse still firmly seated in him. Now it was Mousse’s turn to smirk as he battered himself into Ranma’s body until he came with a howl. The ends of his hair damp, he leaned over and took Ranma’s cock in his hand and pumped it until Ranma’s essence spray all over his taunt belly. Which Mousse lapped up with his silken tongue, causing the spent boy to smile lazily and stroke his tangled hair while he cleaned every drop from him.

“You’re such a brat for making me wait like that” Mousse commented when he leaned back.

“You loved it” Ranma answered stroking his chest.

“Well naturally, but still I don’t really want to marry a brat” he teased.

“You never even asked me” Ranma said somewhat impatiently.

Mousse cocked his head “rather hard to figure out what sort of ring to get when you have two sizes of fingers” he purred.

Ranma’s heart lurched in his chest “you’re planning to buy me a ring?” Ranma said in a shocked tone of voice.

Mousse rolled his eyes “well naturally, I thought an engagement wasn’t official until the girl received a ring. I can hardly challenge you to a marriage battle like at home; you always beat the pants off of me” he pointed out.

“Then ask me!” Ranma demanded. “Worry about the ring later” he said impatiently.

“My my how did I hook up with someone so demanding?” Mousse teased.

“Just say the words” coaxed Ranma.

“Oh okay, would you Ranma Saotome, possessor of two of the best bodies I’ve ever seen, do me the honour of becoming my spouse?” Mousse said tenderly.

“Yes!” Ranma said and covered him with kisses.

Ranma

Ranma sat up in bed; he was annoyingly hard and went to take care of himself. So apparently his dream relationship with Mousse had progressed to an engagement. ‘How the hell would that work?’ he mused. Mousse would probably be the husband and Ranma the wife while in girl form, meaning that Ranma would be the other husband while in boy form. Ranma speculated on the dynamics of this relationship until his head hurt. Then he pictured them having to explain it to children, dark hair with green eyes Ranma decided, some with wavy hair and some with straight. Ranma then blushed for how in-depth his musing was getting and went back to bed.

Mousse

Mousse sat up and relieved himself too. However he found himself laughing at how girlishly happy Ranma got in his dream. Now that they’d gotten around to discussing them, the dreams didn’t really bother them so much. They now realized that this phenomenon came from another source and not from repressed desire for the other martial artist. They’d become friends and even started hanging out together, enjoying the other’s company. Ranma was cute with a nice sense of humour. He’d started meeting Mousse at the library and picking him after his class.

One of Mousse’s students was an otaku with tons of old computers and who’d insisted on giving Mousse an old laptop that piggybacked on his neighbour’s wifi connection. Mousse fired it up and sent Ranma the message “The wedding’s off; your legs are too hairy”

Ranma laughed when he got it texted to his cell phone and sent back “Sorry pretty boy, you’d right, you’d look stupid in a wedding gown and veil”

The Nekohanten

Mousse was called upon to be a waiter as they had had an unusually busy day. It was just winding down when Yung Ping came in and pulled him aside.

“Hello Sempai, I wanted thank you for your help learning Japanese. Thanks to Mousse I found job as a hostess in upscale restaurant. Before that, I could only find work as cashier in grocery store. Better job, more money and more respect” she said giving the stunned Mousse a hug, as the gorgeous young woman had never come to see him at the café before. They weren’t the only ones watching this exchange with dismay, Shampoo and Cologne’s eyes were even larger than usual from watching a pretty girl hugging Mousse.

“No problem Yung Ping, I’m glad I could help. You should be thanking yourself about how easily you learn other languages” Mousse said blushingly.

Yung Ping laughed “you’re right, I learn Russian tomorrow and Swedish next day” she teased him and then handed him a bento box. “I make you rice balls stuffed with spicy meat to thank you. Perhaps you share them with your boyfriend?” she asked.

Mousse turned pale “I think you got the word wrong, don’t you mean friend?” he asked in a strangled voice.

Yung Ping tried to think if she had the Japanese word wrong “I mean Ranma, the one who normally meets you after class. Nice guy, sorry I flirt with him, not know you’re together” she said conversationally. “You know, your koi (lover), I can tell from how you look at each other. Mother wants to invite you to dinner to thank you for my new job, Ranma invited too. It fine, we very progressive family, my older brother also have koi who everyone call Uncle Chueng. Also nice guy” she said.

“Actually we’re just friends, Ranma’s Jusenkyo cursed like me” Mousse explained.

“Oh really, which one?” Yung Ping inquired.

“The spring of the drowned young girl” Mousse replied.

“No kidding, we had one of those in our village. He married a man and stayed trapped in female form when pregnant, it was a funny situation but seemed to work for them” she said. Mousse was just about to ask for more details when Shampoo joined them

“Mousse, who this?” she asked.

Mousse managed to wrench himself back to reality “Shampoo this is Yung Ping, she’s one of my students. She just got some good news and came to drop off a gift for me” he explained.

“So nice you get along well with students” Shampoo commented, staring at the other girl suspiciously. Yung Ping just stared back; she’d heard rumours about the future Amazon leader; none of them were very flattering. Most of them rhymed with witch.

“Well, I must go. Have to buy new clothes for new job. Nice to meet you Shampoo” Yung Ping said in an insincere tone of voice, deliberately snubbing her. “We talk in class and decide when your koi and you come to dinner” she said to Mousse on leaving.

Shampoo glared daggers after the pretty female and then turned to Mousse “What a koi?” she demanded.

Mousse blushed bright red at what it actually meant and hastily said “it’s a type of fish”

Shampoo just looked suspicious at this. They were interrupted when Ranma joined them.

“Hey Mousse” he said giving him a slap on the shoulder, causing Mousse to blush at what his students thought that their relationship actually was. Ranma’s eyes lit on the bento box in Mousse’s hands. He grabbed it from him and opened it up.

“Rice balls, they look good. Can I have one?” Ranma asked.

“Sure go for it” Mousse replied feeling overwhelmed.

The Next Day

Ranma was in so much pain that he had to use an old stick as a crutch after sparring all afternoon. He was exhausted, all he wanted to do was lie down and sleep, but something kept driving him forward to a place he felt he should be. His eyes widened in surprise when he realized that he was outside the apartment door of the Nekohanten, not even thinking he rang the doorbell. The door opened, revealing a familiar white robe, just then he lost consciousness and fell forward, he felt strong arms catch him.

Mousse looked with concern at the unconscious boy in his arms; he picked him up bridal style and carried him upstairs to set him on his futon. He examined him, Ranma had cuts and bruises all over his face and his clothes were dirty and torn. Mousse deduced correctly that Ranma was in a multi-person fight, he removed his shirt to check for injuries. Finding just other scrapes and bruises, he went and got his first aid kit.

Ranma eyes opened when he felt a cool cloth bathing his wounds and soft gauze being affixed to them. His eyes widened in surprise when he realized that it was Mousse. “Mousse what are you doing here?” he asked in startled voice, not remembering that he’d felt compelled to come here.

“I live here, you came to me” he answered in an amused voice. “You can relax, I’m here alone; Shampoo and Cologne have gone to attend a Chinese festival in the next town over” he explained. “Now would you care to tell me why you were battling against Ryoga, Kuno and Akane?” he asked him.

“How did you know?” Ranma asked.

“The lumps on your head match Kuno’s bokken, the bruises on your chest Ryoga’s parasol and finally the large mark on your forehead, Akane’s mallet” Mousse said.

“Nicely done Sherlock. I was walking Akane to school when she tripped and I caught her. Ryoga thought I was getting fresh and challenged me, while Kuno did at the same time. A battle ensued that went on for hours with Akane trailing after us, when I tried to push her out of the way, I accidently put my hand on her breast and then she malleted me. The next thing I know I was here” Ranma explained.

“You really are a victim of circumstance” Mousse said in amusement.

“Thanks Mousse, I should get going” Ranma said and started to stand up stiffly. Mousse pushed him back.

“Get some rest for a few hours and then go home” he ordered. Noticing how fatigued the other boy looked, Mousse asked “do you always get this tired after sparring?”

“Yes, I normally go home and rest. I’m not immortal you know” he pointed out.

“Sometimes you seem like you have superhuman strength” Mousse mused.

“It’s good for my image” Ranma explained, then drifted off to the familiar dream smells of mango shampoo and conditioner and sandalwood aftershave. Mousse picked up Ranma’s shirt and went to wash it, then took out his sewing kit and mended the large hole over the right breast.

Ranma woke to find Mousse hovering over him, getting confused with his dreams he grabbed him and started kissing him. Mousse was so startled that he returned Ranma’s kiss for a few seconds and then pulled away sharply. Acutely aware that he was as hard as a rock, he involuntarily glanced down to see that Ranma was sporting a tent too and looked away. “I’m sorry Mousse, I got confused” Ranma said in a startled way.

Mousse pulled himself together, “its okay, I was just wanting to know if you were staying for dinner” he assured him.

“Sure” he said sitting up. “Where’s my shirt?” he asked.

“Right here, I repaired it as best as I could” Mousse said.

Ranma frowned at the well mended stitches “well, looks like I need to get another shirt” he commented.

“Actually if you embroider a pair of dragons on either side, the repair job won’t even show” Mousse said.

“I don’t have that talent” Ranma stated.

“I could do it! I’ve won awards for my embroidery skills” Mousse said enthusiastically and then blushed. “I guess that’s not something to brag about in Japan, but where I’m from, its considered to be a desirable trait” he explained.

“You would be willing to do that for me?” Ranma asked.

“Sure, dragons should be masculine enough. Unless you prefer horses?” he said facetiously.

“Is that a crack about my name meaning ‘wild horse’?” Ranma asked.

“Yes” Mousse said. Ranma got redressed and met Mousse downstairs. He watched him silently for a minute. Mousse was stirring Ramen and singing a Chinese song softly to himself. Normally Ranma thought that men who exhibited female tendencies to be weird, but on Mousse, they seemed entirely natural. He smiled when he saw Ranma. Ranma felt like he was in a dream again as he joined him for dinner.

A Few Days Later

Shampoo returned from the festival to find Mousse embroidering a red Chinese shirt while watching TV. He seemed oddly happy as he expertly and painstakingly embroidered a pair of matching Chinese dragons on the breasts and facetiously added two tiny horses on either side of the collar.

“Who you embroider shirt for?” Shampoo asked.

Mousse blushed “just a friend” he said.

Shampoo watched his handiwork “you do good work, forgot how skilled you are. Could you embroider flower on Shampoo’s plain pink satin skirt?” she asked.

“Sure, I’d love to!” Mousse said enthusiastically.

“Great Airen will love new, improved skirt, is so short and tight already” she said.

Mousse felt his heart plummet “you never will love me, will you Shampoo?” he asked in an anguished voice.

Shampoo looked at him almost pityingly “no, Mousse is only friend, will always be this way” she said honestly. “Where Mousse go?” she asked when he turned to leave.

“I’m going back to China, things are too crazy here and I need to get away for a while” he replied.

“When you come back?” Shampoo asked.

“I don’t know” Mousse replied and went upstairs to pack.

Mousse dropped off his luggage to be shipped to China and then stopped by the Tendo residence. “Hello Kasumi is Ranma in?” he asked the polite girl.

“He’s gone to get groceries with Akane” Kasumi explained.

Mousse felt a twinge of disappointment and then handed her the package he was carrying “could you please make sure he gets this?” Mousse requested.

“Of course Mu-san, I would be glad to. Is there any message?” she asked.

“Yes could you please tell him that I’m going home and I don’t know when I’m coming back” Mousse said.

“To China?” she asked.

“Yes” Mousse replied.

He said his goodbyes then went to the nearest alleyway and poured a flask of cold water over his head. After the duck tucked his robe wherever he does when Mousse is in duck form, he spread his wings and flew into the room where Ranma slept. Taking a knife that he knew that Ranma would recognize as belonging to Mousse, he flung it so that it embedded itself into the ceiling over his futon. His final goodbyes said. He flew out the window towards China, his heart heavy and already missing his only friend.