Akane Mu: Disowned

La la la, still flying (writing) by the seat of my pants

Sid

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Akane was in her room when she heard Mousse and Shampoo arguing, it seemed that they had just ran into Ranma in the market. Feeling bad about eavesdropping, she opened the door to let them know that she could hear them. The rage in Mousse’s voice stopped her. “You should be ashamed of yourself for flaunting your body like that before Ranma. All the sexy clothes and the bimbo act how are they good for the future of the tribe? It brings shame on all of us for the most powerful warrior of her generation to whore herself like common street trash” he hissed and spun her to face him. She slapped him across the face, not on the head like normal, but an open handed slap of impatience. Mousse clutched his red cheek with rage in his eyes.

“Mousse you know I married to Ranma is time that you grew up and face facts. I need to act like this to get Airen back to China and live with him in tribe. All our males weak from too much interbreeding and too many girls, not enough men” she said in exasperation.

“It that reason or is it that you love him?” Mousse asked in a calmer tone of voice. “Why are you acting this way? You’re not stupid and you’re not a slut. The Xian Pu I know would never demean herself like this for a male”

“That Xian Pu is gone, girl that you spent summer with dead” she said. “She died after she met Ranma; then caterpillar became butterfly”

“Didn’t that summer mean anything to you; didn’t I mean anything to you?” he asked. “I still love you and don’t blame you for what happened”

She laughed a bitter sounding laugh “yes, you offer your crippled self to me. I want man, not boy” she sneered.

“I was enough for you before” he said softly.

“Well you not now” she snapped and pushed him away.

Akane was startled when he slammed Shampoo against the wall and just stared down at her with unreadable emotion on his face. Shampoo looked back at him just as strangely, and then they were kissing hard and frantically. Mousse felt electrified by her kiss, a bolt of lust shot through him and he got hard instantly. Shampoo rubbed herself suggestively against him while she mewed. He ground back against her with a groan and cupped her toned bottom in his hands to draw her closer to him; she gripped his own hard glutes. “Come to my room” she said frantically. This caused him to wrench himself away from her with a snarl.

He could see those happy days in his mind, the two of them making love in a soft sweet smell grass, or at his place. Her hair spread out like a soft cloud around them while their bodies moved together and their hearts beat in time. How during a festival he watched the fireworks dance in her raspberry coloured eyes. He wanted her so badly that he could practically taste her again, but she was never his to begin with. So he said. “No I want to be your husband, not some tool to scratch your itch” Then shoved his hair back impatiently and said “Shampoo, I love you, you and Peanut were my only dream”

“You think I didn’t want Peanut? I still miss her, I find myself wondering who she would have looked like you or me” she said with a tear in her eye.

“Shampoo” Mousse said reaching out to comfort her.

She pulled herself together “Mousse if you want me, come to room or forget it. You can have my body but not my heart, Ranma has heart” she said and leered at him. She desired him no matter what and didn’t see any harm in them resuming their sexual relationship until Ranma came to his senses. Until she saw the tears streaming down his face.

“So that’s all I’m good for, a quick tumble in the hay? Not someone you can love or even care about. This is all you want from me” he said in an anguished voice.

She hated to see him upset when they were alone together; they’d been so close lately. With him having a friend to talk to, he’d reverted to being how he had been when they were close friends as children, sweet and loving without being cloying. She’ hoped that Akane and he might develop feelings for each other, but they seemed to just be friends. “Mousse?” she said holding out her arms to him.

“Don’t touch me” he sobbed, ran into his room and slammed the door. He was startled to see Akane sitting on her futon; she held her arm out for him and he didn’t even hesitate to lower himself into them. She lay him down so that their fronts were pressed together while he cried into her shoulder. As she held him, she realized that the old Akane would have been horrified to be lying in bed with a man. However the new Akane knew that Mousse wasn’t a threat to her virginity and that she trusted him and cared about him. He’d become her rock in her new life and she owed him a lot. The bond that lay between them was something akin to brother and sister. Akane suspected that if the pain of her disownment hadn’t been so fresh and had he not already been committed, that they would have eventually become a couple. A man like Mousse was created for love. He loved with his whole being and would hold no part of himself back from the woman he loved. She had always assumed that someone could drown in the intensity of Mousse’s emotions, but now she realized that if he was offered simple affection in a loving relationship, that that would be enough for him.

When he stopped weeping, she rubbed the rest of the tears from his damp face and softly pressed her lips against his. He seemed a bit hesitant at first, but then kissed her back. It was a soft, slow, almost chaste kiss with no hint of lust in it. It bespoke of caring, comfort and the love of a close friend. It was over almost as soon as it had begun and then they just lay wordlessly in each other’s arms. Until Akane said “Who’s Peanut”

Mousse got up and straightened his clothes, opened his trunk and brought out a pair of well made baby booties. “She was supposed to be our daughter” he said. “My youngest sister named her that because we said she was the size of a peanut at the time” he explained smiling at the memory.

Akane’s jaw dropped open; this is something she would have never expected in a million years! “Your daughter, you mean that yourself and Shampoo....?” she said.

He nodded “we were lovers for a few months” he said.

“I never would have believed it, you act so virginal” Akane cried and then blushed.

“How does a virgin act?” he asked bemused.

“They say stupid things I guess” she said. “What happened to her?” she asked.

“Shampoo miscarried in her first trimester. She entered a martial arts contest while pregnant and was flung from a log, this caused her to miscarry” he said still upset at the memory of rushing back to the village, only for Ku Lon to tell him that Shampoo didn’t want him anymore and that their baby was dead.

“I’m sorry Mousse” she said.

“It was long ago” he said dismissively. Yet Akane now understood the depth of his rage against Ranma. For Mousse to have to watch his lover offer all that he desired to another man must devastate him. Yet he was rejected time and time again but always come back because he’d already tasted their love and crave more. Abandonment, rejection, pain: that was more then enough to make someone crazy.

“Ranma doesn’t want her” she said.

He smiled without humour, “I know, that’s the worst part” he commented. Akane got him a sleeping mushroom and held him. She hummed the song he always did in the mornings to him until he fell asleep and then tip toed out to find Shampoo.

“Him okay?” she asked.

“He was hurting for a bit, but should be okay” Akane answered. “Mousse was your lover” she stated, it wasn’t a question. She nodded. “But you said you loved him?”

“I did, I never told him. I didn’t want relationship to change, then got pregnant and got scared” she said. “When baby die, my love for him die too, had to move on. Found out Ranma male and come here” She said with a shrug.

“Are you sure that you’re over him?” Akane asked thinking about the cozy scene from a couple nights ago.

Akane saw something flicker in her eyes and then she said “yes positive”

Kasumi was surprised to see a Chinese clad Akane walking towards her, for a second she had thought that Ranko had cut and dyed her hair.

The vision took a seat at the table in the food court where they’d arranged to meet. “Hi Kasumi, I’m so happy you called me” she exclaimed and hugged the older girl.

“How’s school going?” she asked.

She could see a flash of pain in her eyes and then she said “most of my old friends are forbidden to talk to me and the rest ignore me, but its better now that Ukyou’s my friend and Kuno walks me to all my classes” she admitted.

“Akane why are you dressed that way?” she asked.

“I always thought that Ranma and the Chinese people looked so cute dressed in these clothes, decided to try them and now I love them. The fortunate things is that I don’t think that Ku Lon has ever gotten rid of any of Xian Pu’s clothes, so I have an entire wardrobe of her hand me downs” she explained.

Kasumi raised her eyebrows at the unfamiliar pronunciations of their names. “Are things going well between yourself and Mousse?” she asked. Ranma had told her.

Akane bit her lip at this “Kasumi, I can’t lie to you, Mousse’s a like a brother to me. You can’t tell Ranma, I promised not to see him anymore. There’s no reason to anyway, we’re no longer engaged” she explained.

“Father is making me marry Ranma. Nabiki refused him, but father knew that I wouldn’t” Kasumi said with her eyes filling with tears.

“You can’t marry him! You have to marry Dr. Tofu, he loves you” Akane cried.

Kasumi blushed at what she said “he does?” she asked.

“Of course, why do you think that he gets so crazy around you?” she asked.

“You mean all of those stunts are because he loves me?” Kasumi said with a gasp, finally understanding. “But, what can I do? Ranma and I are supposed to get married in two weeks” she admitted.

“Kasumi, you haven’t even been engaged that long, why are they rushing the wedding?” Akane asked.

“Because I’m not resisting, they have been shoving us forward. Ranma isn’t resisting either because Mr. Saotome keeps threatening to disown him and then the school wouldn’t have any heirs. He’s positive that we’ll think of something, but times running out. Father’s make me wear mother’s wedding kimono.”

“Kasumi if you want to come with me, the Amazons will take you in” Akane offered.

Kasumi shook her head “I can’t leave father, he couldn’t live without me” she said.

“Then I think we have to talk to Dr. Tofu” Akane said a plan forming in her mind.

Ranma finally bit the bullet and asked Shampoo to meet him.

“Hiya you want to see Shampoo, I so happy” she gushed, reaching out to glomp onto him.

She was surprised when he easily held her at arms length “Shampoo, I need you to be serious for once” he said. “I have some questions for you”

“Okay” she answered in a serious tone of voice. “What Ranma need to know?” she asked.

“I want to know the Amazon marriage laws because Akane and Mousse never slept together and he certainly never defeated her, therefore I need to know how he could be married to her” Ranma said with a frown.

Shampoo felt that she was betraying both her airen and her friend by lying to Ranma, but she’d promised. Plus this could help her win Ranma. “Mousse offered her protection of his family, meaning that she took his last name and became something like his wife. Rather like you and I are married” she lied.

“So they are together now?” Ranma said.

“They share his room” Shampoo said, that wasn’t a lie.

Ranma could feel his last hope die. He’d never gotten the chance to tell Akane that he loved her and now she was married to the man who’d stood by her when she needed someone. Unlike Ranma had, like he should have. “So it’s too late?” he said softly.

“Ranma do you love Akane?” she asked. She personally didn’t care if he did, what’s a childish crush? They always faded when the outsider male finally accepted his hot Amazon wife, intense bodily pleasures saw to that.

“I-I don’t know” he said blushing painfully.

“She’s Amazon now and lives with us, if you want come with me you can be too. It’s time you became husband in truth” she said reaching out to him.

Ranma was tempted; it seemed like such a nice life. No worries about being forced into marriage by crazy fathers. Not having to worry about carrying on the school and producing trainable heirs. It would be so simple just to be the beloved husband of a cute, wonderful girl, the leader of the whole tribe. To see Akane everyday and see her smile....at someone else, to see her grow large with child and give birth the Mousse’s babies. No he couldn’t watch that, he realized, it would be too painful and not fair to Shampoo to marry her just so that he could see Akane, if only from a distance.

“Shampoo, I will always care about you, but this is never going to happen. Please find someone else” Ranma said, kissed her on the cheek and left. Shampoo could feel tears spring to her eyes, it was almost exactly what she had said to Mousse the day that she had left him in the village to join Ranma in Nerima.

Ranma walked home with a heavy heart; everywhere he looked he swore that he saw Akane. Her with her long hair. Her with her short hair. Her in various outfits. Her smiling at him. Her yelling at him. Her dressed up a Juliet. Her in her own Chinese clothes, he loved her dressed that way. It suited her better then her normally attire. All of the versions of her were with him, in the short time that he had been here, she’d become his entire universe and he’d never realized it.

He got home and sought out his father “very well, I can’t leave the dojo without an heir nor the school. I’ll marry Nabiki or Kasumi as soon as you want. Heck, I’ll even marry Mr. Tendo in a dress if need be” he said in a resigned tone of voice.

“I knew that you would come around boy” Genma said in approval. “Very well, the wedding date two weeks from today is a go. Would you like to invite some friends? Like the Amazons, perhaps Mousse with his lovely wife?” he gloated.

“Akane’s innocent and shall be welcomed home soon” Ranma declared.

“Then we can all live together as one happy family, the Tendo’s, the Saotome’s and Ranma with his lovely SUBSERVIANT wife” Genma replied. He didn’t like that Akane had lost her place in the house, but he wished that he’d thought about marrying his son to the sweet, submissive Kasumi ages ago. She would literally do whatever he father said and now so would his son.