Captured!

Ranma was curious why Mousse said what he did, when their only intention was to talk with him, until he noticed how threatening the situation probably appeared to him.

“Mousse we just want to speak with you” he said in a soothing tone of voice. The Chinese martial artist looked confused and lowered his arms.

“So you don’t want to kill me?” he asked. “Or at the very least, pound me into the pavement for touching Akane”

Ryoga still held a grudge against Mousse, he was one who’d gotten to make love to Akane, “don’t tempt me duck boy” he said baring his fangs at him. Kuno was thinking along those same lines so tightened his grip on his bokken, but didn’t point it at Mousse.

“We know it’s wasn’t your fault” Ranma said, glaring at the other boys sensing their moods. “Let’s just go somewhere we can talk alone” he suggested.

The other martial artist nodded and led them to a Chinese tearoom that was normally quiet that time of day. They ordered a pot of tea with Mousse translating for them, and then all of them turned their eyes to him. He shivered; not all of them looked friendly. “Mousse, we want to know what happened to you two and Akane isn’t talking” Ranma said. Mousse blushed; he thought it was fairly obvious what had happened! “Not that, I want to know if either of you were raped or tortured?” Ranma asked.

“Tortured by electrocution, beaten through phone books, starvation, humiliation by public nudity and finally Akane was threatened with a gang bang, that’s when we stopped fighting them” Mousse said as if reading off a wine list. The dark part of him smiled when the other boys flinched.

Ranma shuddered and looked into Mousse’s dead looking eyes and couldn’t find a trace of the hopeful, passionate boy Mousse had been when he had first arrived in Nerima, claiming that he was going to marry Shampoo. The cynical stranger in front of him was guarded and furtive. Mousse had become a man Ranma realized, his innocence stripped from him along with his clothes. He’d been forced to grow up when Akane was threatened and abused. Mousse wasn’t weak for giving in like the others thought, Ranma realized, he had had sex with Akane to protect her from a far worse fate. Ranma, Ryoga or Kuno would probably have done the same in a similar horrific situation. Yet Mousse was blaming himself and was filled with self-loathing because no one had bothered to realize that he had suffered just as badly as Akane. Ranma had assumed that he was better off because he was a man and therefore had enjoyed having sex with her.

“No one blames you Mousse” Ranma said, “we all would have done the same to protect her”

“Oh you would have raped her in their places?” he said nastily.

“Akane doesn’t think you did, nor do I” Ranma said. “You were both thrust into a nightmarish situation and did what you could to survive. You need help” Ranma said.

Mousse stood up “I don’t need your help” he said and turned to leave.

“I know what our fathers said to you, they were pricks for doing it when you were so emotionally damaged” Ranma said.

“I promised not to interfere in my children’s lives and I shall be sticking to that. If you want to protect Akane, marry her and look after them” Mousse said.

“I would tell the world who their real father is” Ranma said. “Or I would be no better then the people at the baby farm.”

“You would humiliate Akane that way? If you claim them, she could remain in her rightful home and her honour would be intact. No, I renounced them and that’s final” he said bitterly.

“You care that much about Akane?” Ranma asked.

Mousse made a humourous laugh “yes I do. Kind of funny when you think about it, I was the only one not interested in her and now I’m just another suitor. Your fathers are right, I have no way to support them and they would be better off without me” he said. “Marry Akane and forget about me. Tell her to stop calling” he requested.

“That’s up to Akane” Ranma said.

“I don’t think she’ll be given a choice in the matter, at least she’s in love with you. Between Mommas and your fathers, Akane will never have a say in her own life until she is married” Mousse said, he threw some money on the table and left without saying goodbye.

“So you aren’t going to at least beat him up for making Akane pregnant and abandoning her this way” Ryoga snarled.

“No, he’s been beaten enough” he said and finished his tea.

Mousse walked home feeling even worse then before; he had now publically renounced his claim to his children, there was no going back.

He froze in shock when he walked into the Neko Hanten and found Akane and Shampoo having tea together and talking and laughing like old friends. For once he focused on Akane first and barely noticed Shampoo; she looked so lovely when she flashed her delighted smile. He hadn’t even realized that she even knew how to do that anymore. She looked like carefree school girl again, until she saw him and stood up in shock to reveal her burgeoning belly. “Mousse” she said in a lover’s voice, which managed to warm his heart for just a second.

“Akane” he replied back formally, turned on his heel and marched upstairs to his room.

Shampoo looked at Akane’s grief stricken face and handed her a key “he always lock door when in bad mood” she urged.

Akane mustered her bravery, unlocked Mousse’s door and pushed open the door. “Akane, what are you doing?” he snarled and then froze in surprise when she flung her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest. His anger drained out of him as he brought shaking arms around her. “Akane what happened?” he asked, coming out of his dark place at her grief while she sobbed against him.

“T-they think I’m a slut at school for being pregnant” she said in a shaking voice. He helped her sit on his futon and took both her hands while she told him her story.

“Come on, a couple of girls who are jealous of you shouldn’t ruin your reputation. “You’re very popular and anyone who knows you knows it isn’t true. Besides, you do have a fiancé, these things do happen when you live in the same house” he pointed out.

“Y-you really think so?” she asked tearfully.

“I know so; you’re a sweet girl with a sterling reputation. This will blow over when you marry Ranma” he said.

“I-I don’t want to marry him just because people keep telling me I should” she said, tears sliding down her face. “Mousse I’ve tried to contact you so many times, why didn’t you call me back? I’ve barely been able to leave the house; my father’s watching me like a hawk.”

“Akane, I’m sorry but I’m going home in a few days and didn’t want to make this any harder for you. Shampoo wrote my mother to tell her that I was missing and now she’s in a panic to see me” he explained.

“But what about our plans of us helping to raise the twin?” she cried.

He shook his head, “it was a cute fantasy concocted in a baby farm where we thought we’d never have them” he explained. “You have a fiancé and a family who will take care of you better then I ever could” he said.

“Don’t you care about me?” she asked.

“I do, more then I have the right to” he admitted and then she joyfully leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, something inside him broke and he hungrily hugged her to him. Her kiss was soft and sweet and tasted of cherries and promises. His black mood lifted and he allowed himself to dream about being with her in truth. Of them being together when the twins were born and them being a family. Then reality stepped in and he saw her living with him in his crappy room with two babies, of both of them working in servile positions at the Neko Hanten. Of her not being able go to school to exercise her brilliant mind, her school career at an end when she was thrown out of her house for defying her father. He didn’t want that for her, the only other alternative was to take her to China; he tried to picture this modern girl living in his mother’s ancient farm house in the middle of nowhere. Having to take the bus to a school where she couldn’t even understand the language. How soon would it be before she started to hate him and think she made the biggest mistake in her life? With that thought, he pushed her away.

“Mousse don’t you want me? I can’t marry Ranma when you’re all that I can think about” she admitted.

He looked into her pleading face and lied “I don’t want you; Shampoo was the only girl for me. Go home, marry Ranma, marry Ryoga, anyone! I don’t care” he hissed. “Just stay away from here and stop bugging me”

Akane’s eyes filled with tears and she ran out of the restaurant. Mousse sat down on the futon again and dashed away his own tears and reminded himself that he was doing the right thing. He touched his lips, he could still feel her kiss and it made his heart ache. The old Akane would never have had the nerve to kiss him, she’d changed.

She probably knew more about him then any other person outside of his family. It seemed that when he had been stripped bare, he bared his soul to Akane if only to keep them from going insane. He had told her funny stories about his sisters that made her laugh. He told her about his only memory of his father who died when he was three, he was running towards the smiling handsome man as he knelt down to hug his son, this had made her cry. Then he had told her about his remarkable mother, who had inherited a small patch of land with a farm on it and a huge old house, how she had taken the insurance money that she’d insisted that his father and herself pay the premiums for and invested it into stocks of her choosing only to make a killing. Then she had bought up all the land around hers for a song and invested every penny into creating a commercial organic farm that not only turned a healthy profit every year, but supplied all the food they ate. His mother made only organic home cooked meals from her family. Mousse hadn’t ever had anything from a can until he moved to Nerima. He wished he could call Akane back and show her his pictures of home and hear her laugh at how alike his mother and siblings looked, to explain that his mother lovingly called them her clones. But it was too late; she was gone, never to return.

Akane got home to find the fathers celebrating “what’s going on?” she asked.

“We were visited by an adoption broker; an American couple wants to pay top dollar for the twins. Just think about what we could to with four million five thousand yen! We could completely overhaul the dojo, expand it and still have tons of money left over” Soun said happily. Seeing her look of dread he asked “aren’t you pleased? Now you and Ranma can wait to marry and your reputation will be restored”

“I told you I want to keep my babies” Akane cried.

“Be reasonable, you can’t be an unwed mother. Do you wish to bring shame upon this family?” Soun asked. “Think of all the things we could do with the money. It can go towards you and Nabiki’s education. Or family trips, I know you love to go on vacation” he said persuasively.

“Yes I do, but don’t have to sell my children for it. I’m keeping them” she said firmly and ran into her bedroom and slammed the door.

Soun came in a few minutes later with a cloth wrapped bundle. “Akane, I’m at the end of my rope with you. I tried to be nice, but you leave me no choice, this was your mother’s wedding kimono. Kasumi assured me that she can make it fit you in a few days. Until then you have three choices, you can either marry Ranma and keep the twins, you can put them up for adoption or be disowned”

“I’m sick of you treating me like Mousse and I had a fling and forgot to use a condom. We were tortured daddy! This is what they did the second time we tried to escape” she said pulling up her skirt to show him the scar on her upper thigh, not caring that her panties were showing. “Mousse tried to escape, so they stuck a knife into my leg and said they would shove it into the artery if he didn’t come back. He did.” Akane told him everything that happened to her while her father recoiled in horror, it was the most fun she had in weeks!

He quickly left, leaving her the bundle and the cheque that the broker had left. She almost tore it up, then realized who could use it more and sent it to Mousse instructing him to get laser surgery. Akane sat down and wrote a long note to the couple, thanking them for the money and that she appreciated their offer, but was keeping her children and urged them to seek other baby farm survivors. Then she turned to the bundle and wondered if she could go through with a marriage only so that her children could remain with her.

Soun called Aoi “She seems positive about the adoption” he lied. “What would be our next step?”

“She would have the sign the paperwork and so would the father, who I have listed as Mu Tzu, hope I’m pronouncing that correctly” she said. They all would meet and work out arrangements. Then I would arrange transportation and visas for the Andrews and the hospital would relinquish care of the twins once they were pronounced ready to go home.

“I’m sorry, you need Mousse’s signature?” Soun said.

“Yes, the Andrews are most insistent upon this, they don’t want anything to go wrong with the adoption again” she explained.

“I believe that he’s gone back to China” Soun said, remembering that Mousse’s departure was a couple of days from then.

“Then I’m sure that something arranged” Aoi assured him.

A Couple of Days Later

Mousse was finishing his final packing to return to China the next day, when Shampoo brought him a letter said there was a woman wanting to see him. He opened the letter to discover a note and cheque from Akane. He goggled at the amount on it and wondered where it came from. Her note said that it was for his pain and suffering and urged him to use part of it to fix his eyes. He put it aside to go see to his visitor.

The pretty woman smiled and deliberately pronounced his name properly. “Hi Mr. Tendo said that you’d left for China, but I decided to try your address anyway. I’m here to get your signature on the adoption documents relinquishing your parental rights to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew” she said.

“I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about” he said confused.

“Oh didn’t Mr. Tendo tell you about Akane’s decision to put the twins up for adoption?” Aoi asked.

“Over my dead body, get out” Mousse commanded and ran towards to the Tendo residence in a fury. He was taking his children back! It was one thing for all the parties to pretend the babies were Ranma’s; it was another thing to sell them without even telling him! He was going to tell Akane exactly what she could do with her bribe.