The starting point of the transformation from Ranma to Dye was a moment neither Ranma nor Mousse would realize at the time. And if Mousse made the opposite choice, they wouldn't be together anyways.
All because he let Shampoo go. He let her be free by making it so that she looked at herself in the mirror as the first person she saw when she came out of that egg when the whole deal with Saffron was going on. He gave up his chance of Shampoo's love by doing the right thing. He proved to be the better person in Ranma's eyes not that he thought about it much since Shampoo jumped him.
And it sent Mousse into a deeper depression than he's ever been before. He regretted that decision and beat himself up for letting that opportunity go.
But it also sent Ranma his way.
Not that either really thought about it like that. Not until much, much later.
After the wedding was crashed between Ranma and Akane, things went back to normal. As normal as it ever could be around Ranma anyway. Nothing seem to progress at all. Mousse was still after Shampoo, Ranma still couldn't spit it out, Akane still was waiting for Ranma to say something, Ukyo still tried to win Ranma over, Kodachi still was clueless about Ranma and his curse, and Tatewaki Kuno was still a nuisance.
But all that changed. And it was all Ryoga's fault for once.
"You pig headed idiot! Now we are all lost!" Ranma chewed Ryoga out. "Why the hell did I trust you when you said you have a cure!"
"I said I knew where it was! And it was here... Somewhere..." Ryoga pouted. "I was just trying to be nice!"
"Damn you Hibiki! I need to get back to Shampoo!" Mousse threatened a tree.
"He's over here you blind fool!" Ranma shouted at him.
Mousse adjusted his glasses. "Hmm... Well I wondered why he felt so wooden..."
Ranma sighed. "Tell me you at least have a map..."
"Right here!" Ryoga pulled out a piece of paper.
"Give me that." Ranma took the paper away.
The paper was a hand drawn map showing the Tendo dojo, a blue car, Akari's farm, and a drawing if trees with an x on it.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Ranma strangled Ryoga, mad with rage.
"No fair! I want in on some of this too!" Mousse complained and tried to find them in the dark forrest.
He found them alright, and tripped on them, causing the three to stumble over a few stumps and into a big pool of mud.
"Yuk!" Ranma gagged. "No wonder you found this, you pig!"
"Enough with the pig jokes!" Ryoga grabbed Ranma and threw him into a tree.
Ranma hit the tree and fell into a puddle, triggering his curse.
"Aw, fuck, man... When I get through with you... Crap." Ranma couldn't see him anywhere. "In the commotion, Ryoga wandered off. And was now lost.
Sighing in defeat, Ranma glanced over to mousse, who was face fist in the mud. "You ok Mousse?"
He didn't respond.
"Mousse?" Ranma took a few steps over.
Still no response.
"Oh no..." She ran over to him and flipped him over, causing him to gag and spit out mud.
"Damn it... I can't afford to lose it!" He pounded the mud.
"What... Oh..." Ranma got a good look at his face and saw what he meant. "They must be around here somewhere." She started looking.
Mousse did as well, both teens on their hands and knees feeling for glasses.
"I've got mud in my eyes too, it stings..." Mousse complained.
"There's a puddle over there... Don't know if it'll do you any good though." Ranma admitted. "Hey, don't you have extra in your giants sleeves?"
"No, these are my last ones..." Mousse sighed. "I always meant to buy some more but I don't get paid enough..."
"Tell me about it." Ranma snorted, remembering what cologne paid when she was working there. "Is it because of the prescription?"
"Yeah, it's really high. Almost legally blind. I have special eyes..." Mousse started to cry.
"Eye surgery. Look into it." Ranma suggested.
"Too expensive." Mousse answered.
"Damn man..." Ranma shook her head. "Ah, I think I found them." She wiped it off as best she could. "Here you go."
Mousse cried even more. "Thank you, thank you thank you!"
He put them on and saw squat.
Ranma rolled her eyes. "You still have that mud in your eyes." She looked at his clothes and saw they were almost completely covered in mud. "Here... Allow me."
Ranma took off the glasses and wiped mousses eyes with part of her shirt that wasn't muddy.
Mousse blinked his tears away and saw what was in front of him. He blinked again. He saw? It was so clear!
"I think I got most of it out." Ranma studied Mousse's eyes and frowned. "It's a shame you need these, your eyes shouldn't need to be hidden by this. Oh well, life's life I guess."
"I can see..." Mousse smiled.
"Yes I think I got that mud out." Ranma moved to put Mousse's glasses back on.
"No, I can see! Better than I have ever before! I can actually see!" Mousse was crying again. "Thank you! Thank you!" He glomped Ranma.
"Hey! Let go!" Ranma complained.
Mouse was crying so hard he was nearly incoherent. "How can I ever repay you?"
"Let to of me for one!" Ranma complained. "And I'm not after Shampoo! So can you stop attacking me?"
"Sure, sure..." Mousse agreed, crying blissfully.
Ranma tried getting Mousse to let go but was in no position to. "Hey! Let go!"
"Oh, right, sorry." Mousse smiled and let go. "How... How did that..." He stared at Ranma, really seeing her for the first time. How her clothes stuck to her, how her bust looked to be trying to escape, and her long red hair...
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up." She dragged him to the puddle and dumped him in it.
"Quack!" Mousse complained. Although he was glad to be able to see.
"Hey I don't like it either, but we are going to be stuck here a while so we might as well get cleaned up." Ranma took off her own clothes and ran them through the puddle.
Mousse turned red seeing Ranma nearly naked in front if him. He saw her like that before but like everything else it was blurry. This was detailed. And it made him feel weird and confused.
"That pigheaded Ryoga I'm gonna..." Ranma muttered under her breath.
Mousse felt it. He defiantly felt it. His duck penis, all messed up and like a corkscrew stirring. It wasn't right. It shouldn't do that! Ranma's a guy! Mousse turned away and cleaned himself, thinking about Shampoo as best he could. But his thoughts of Shampoo were blurry just like his memories of her.
"Seems weird mud would do that though... Maybe... What the?" Ranma saw the sign next to the mud.
It said it was miracle mud able to cure any illness. And a shrine was next to it, abandoned.
"So that's..." Ranma snarled. "Ryoga!"
Ryoga was still lost however.
With no supplies, neither could turn back into men and did their best to bike a camp with what they found in nature.
Mousse flew up high. Partly to try and find a way home and partly to get away from Ranma. He needed to see Shampoo soon or he would go crazy!
"See anything?" Ranma asked from below.
"Quack!" Mousse responded.
Ranma frowned. "I don't know what that means!"
Mousse came down and shook his head.
"Darn." Ranma slumped. "Well this sucks."
Mousse agreed, feeling even more uneasy as Ranma refused to wear anything but boxers since her clothes were still wet.
"We aren't on an island are we?" Ranma asked. "I mean Japan is islands but... You know..."
Mousse shrugged. "Quack."
"Look I don't understand duck, Mousse..." Ranma frowned. "This will be boring..."
Mousse frowned and wrote on the ground.
Ranma scratched his head. "Um... Hard to make out... Hair... Dye? Huh? You dye your hair?"
"Quack!" Mousse pointed at Ranma's head.
"Me? No I didn't dye this. It's natural." Ranma shrugged. "Whatever natural magical spring curses are anyway."
Mousse shook his head. "Quack..."
"Still don't understand you." Ranma complained. "Just fly up again, we must find some way to get home."
Mousse went up to the sky again.
But after a long search found no end to the forrest.
"Stupid Ryoga." Ranma muttered. She made a fire and cooked up some bugs. "Beatle?" She asked Mousse.
Mousse shrugged and ate it.
After a dinner of insects, they put out the fire and slept in the shrine. Not that it was comfortable but at least it was protection from the elements.
The next morning, after Ryoga was still nowhere to be found, Ranma and Mousse picked a direction and just started walking, hoping to reach civilization eventually.
They stopped every few hours to eat some bugs and find some water and kept going.
Mousse was acting somewhat like a hunting falcon, flying high and looking for any animals to eat.
Ranma picked up somewhat on what Mousse kept meaning with his quacks but not enough to understand more than mood or basic ideas.
Mousse continued to be disturbed by Ranma's girl body even when she did wear her clothes.
"Still no sign yet huh?" Ranma sighed.
"Quack." Mousse slumped.
"Excuse me, do you know how to get to Nerima." Ryoga asked, map in front of face.
Ranma and Mousse growled at once and jumped him.
"Why did you ditch us jerk?" Ranma screamed.
"Quack!" Mousse pecked at Ryoga's face.
"Hey quit it!" Ryoga complained.
They eventually did. Eventually.
Ryoga was a bruised mess though.
"So it ended up being an illness treating shrine mud bath place! Idiot!" Ranma explained to Ryoga what it really was. "It didn't cure us! At all!"
Ryoga moaned. "I said I was sorry..."
Ranma sighed. "Just get us home P-chan."
Ryoga was on his feet instantly. "Don't call me that!"
"Then get us home!" Ranma demanded.
"But I don't know where we are!" Ryoga admitted.
"Neither do we! But you got us here, so get us out!" Ranma demanded.
"Uh, uh, this way?" Ryoga started walking.
Ranma and Mousse followed.
And in two hours, they were back in Nerima.
Akane chewed Ranma out when they met again. Shampoo was more annoyed now that Mousse always hugged her and not a lamp or a pole.
True to his word, Mousse didn't attack Ranma anymore no matter what Shampoo did. But something wasn't right for Mousse. Whenever Shampoo glomped Ranma as a girl, he kept staring at Ranma's body. Not Shampoo's. It disturbed him. Even more when talked to Shampoo and ended up on the floor or in the sky. Shampoo, with her own feelings of frustration with progress to Ranma, took it out on Mousse more and more.
Ranma was having no picnic either. Akane was losing her patience with him and was taking it out on him as well. It didn't help that Ranma kept accepting food from Shampoo and Ukyo. Ranma was just too egotistical to commit.
Both needed a break. So they decided to go on a training trip. Ryoga went along too, and it was going to be a boys camp out of sorts.
That was the plan at least.
"Why the hell does this happen to me more than you two?" Ranma complained as she was a girl yet again, this time being splashed by a tree dumping it's water from a pervious rain.
"Hey I get splashed badly too! I just learned how to get out of the way and be cautious. Idiot!" Ryoga smirked smugly.
Ranma splashed him.
Ryoga turned into a piglet and bit Ranma.
Ranma hit him.
Mousse boiled water. "Are we supposed to train or just bite each other?"
"Hey I'm ready right now!" Ranma slammed Ryoga into the ground.
Mousse averted his gaze and handed Ranma some hot water. "Here."
Ranma smiled. "Thanks man."
Ryoga jumped up and intercepted it, splashing himself. "Haha!"
"Why you!" Ranma fought with Ryoga.
Mousse kept feeling weird around Ranma. She, HE! He! He was so different from Shampoo. All he would get was a beating. He and Ryoga were friends. They became friendimies when Ranma spared him and Ryoga the fate of being locked forever with the locking ladle but now they were genuine friends. Ryoga too. Although Ranma and Ryoga had a violent one. Ranma with Mousse would be much more civil. And Ranma helped Mousse improve.
"Got any more?" Ranma asked Mousse as she tended off Ryoga.
"Yes!" Mousse shook his uneasy thoughts away and splashed Ranma.
"Thanks." Ranma smirked and went back to fighting Ryoga.
Mousse sighed. He didn't know what to do about this anymore. He couldn't fall for Ranma! He's a guy! To get his mind off it, he set up camp.
Wed Nov 19 01:36:55 2014
1 comment Last updated: Wed Nov 19 04:13:01 2014