Chapter 4: First Date and Other Stuff

In their own way, they made a rather odd couple. A single mother and restaurateur who had never seriously dated in her life going out with a man she'd once selected as good enough to be the father of her child. Looked at from the other side, some might say it was a young man asking out a woman he'd known nearly a decade before seriously considering her as a potential romantic partner.

"Actually, I was afraid you were going to take me to that weird wax museum you like so much," Ukyo said as Mousse held her chair in the dimly lit restaurant.

"I can do a bit better than that these days," he replied as she slid her chair into place. Taking his own seat, he added, "Besides, I don't really think it's appropriate for a first date."

"You used to."

Mousse snorted in acknowledgement and picked up his menu. Quiet piano music, nothing either of them recognized, lent a sophisticated air to the proceedings. Ukyo was still deciding on a main course when the wine steward, slightly smarmy with false politeness, approached their table.

"Would Monsieur care to see the wine list?" he asked with a mock French accent.

"Monsieur would not," Mousse stated with just a hint of 'edge' in his voice. "Monsieur does not drink spoiled grape juice."

The steward covered his disapproval and turned to Ukyo. "And you Mademoiselle?"

"Thank you, but no," she replied. Ukyo had been truly drunk only once in her life. Finding she didn't like the results, she had quietly avoided alcohol ever since.

The man bowed politely and departed, silently signaling a waiter to take their order. On the plus side, they'd be able to turn the table over faster. On the minus, tipsy or drunk customers were far easier to overcharge.

After getting the soup, fish and salad courses settled quickly enough, the waiter was having problems getting the young man to decide on a main course. His rather attractive date had already chosen the roast quail with asparagus tips and wild rice stuffing with mushrooms. "If you're having trouble deciding, our chef makes a wonderful 'Duc a la Orange' an-"

Mousse stood instantly, knocking his chair over behind him. He held the waiter at arm's length by his shirt front a good thirty centimeters off the floor. Before he focused enough to say or do anything else, Ukyo stood, slid around the table in a move used countless times in her own restaurant, and put her hand on Mousse's other arm. "He doesn't know. He doesn't know. Mousse, he doesn't know." She repeated herself until she was certain that the former part-time duck understood her.

As the tension drained from Mousse's body, the waiter returned to the floor, scrambling away as quickly as possible. The headwaiter, rushing up without seeming to hurry, calmly asked the group at large, "Is there a problem?" Every eye in the place was on them.

"My friend doesn't eat duck," Ukyo answered.

In the background, a waiter whispered 'Nerima Wrecking Crew' to a badly frightened co-worker. Eyes bugged wide, the young man nearly fainted, swaying before bracing himself against a wall.

The headwaiter, belatedly informed of just who had entered his domain, knew the danger his establishment was in and forged ahead gamely anyway. "Be that as it may, perhaps Monsieur could have found a less demonstrative way of indicating his displeasure?"

Mousse apologized gracefully, humbly and at great length to the headwaiter before repeating his performance on the young man who had unknowingly pressed one of his major buttons. The other diners returned to their own overpriced food, the expected carnage having failed to materialize. After reseating Ukyo, Mousse ordered a peppercorn steak, primarily just to get rid of the nervous waiter, who looked like he might collapse at any second. Dessert choices would wait until later.

After some apologies on Mousse's part, very little was said as the two finished their onion soup. Mousse was too twitchy to make light conversation and Ukyo didn't feel like pressing the matter. The soup was good enough that neither worried about the silence.

Mousse finally broke the ice during the fish course. "Have I mentioned how nice you look tonight?" he asked.

Ukyo smiled, nodded and replied, "I figure the way you said 'Wow' when I opened the door back at 'Ukyo's' pretty much took care of that."

"I said that out loud?"

"Yes." Her mind drifted back to date preparations...

-----

"What am I going to wear?" Ukyo said for at least the fiftieth time in the last hour. Behind her, Ritsuko was giggling at her mother's distress while Kasumi and Akane exchanged knowing glances. Clothing, almost every piece of clothing Ukyo owned, was strewn about the room, covering every available surface.

"Ukyo, calm down," Kasumi said. Although as calm as her outer self was, her inner self was screaming, 'It's not me, it's not me!' in hysterical relief.

"Calm down? Calm down! How can I calm down? This is like my first real date ever and you want me to calm down? I'm sorry, but this is major panic time!"

"Onee-chan is right Ukyo," Akane replied. "You need to calm down." Her inner self was also screaming 'It's not me, it's not me!'

Ukyo stared daggers at her friends and continued to root through the few remaining items in her closet. "You are not helping," she accused.

Kasumi felt she'd had enough fun and decided to let Ukyo off the hook. "Before you work yourself to death deciding what to wear on a date that won't take place until tomorrow, shouldn't you know where you are going first?"

Ukyo paused in with hangers in both hands. "Ack! You're making it worse. What if he takes me somewhere I should wear a kimono and I'm in a dress? Or what if we go hiking and I'm wearing high heels? I have no idea where Mousse is taking me!"

-----

"Where should I take Ukyo?" Mousse asked as he launched half a dozen punches at Ranma's midsection.

Dodging reflexively, Ranma answered, "Stick with tradition. Take her to a fancy restaurant followed by a movie."

Blocking a kick to his forehead, Mousse replied, "Thanks."

The east wall of the dojo broke apart in a shower of splinters to reveal a slender man dressed in tight red pants and poofy white shirt. Leaving his boot clad right foot chest high until he was certain he'd been noticed, he strode into the dojo with arrogance seeping from every pore. "I, Lazar Alverago Javier Aguinaldo y Zapeta, Master of Anything Goes Martial Arts Flamenco Dancing, do hereby challenge you!"

The Iron Duke's metal clad fist shot out, rendering the dancer unconscious. "Wait your damn turn." He wanted to hear more about the proposed date between Mousse and Ukyo.

-----

Before she completely freaked out, Akane gathered Ukyo's twitching hands into her own and said, "Why don't you just ask him?"

"I can do that?"

After learning that the date was to consist of dinner at a French restaurant followed by a movie, Ukyo, Akane and Kasumi triaged the okonomiyaki chef's wardrobe down to suitable choices with occasional input from Ritsuko.

"How about this one?" Ukyo said while holding up a relatively short black skirt with matching jacket.

"No, no. That's 'dinner and clubbing', not 'dinner and a movie'," Kasumi observed with Akane nodding agreement.

"I still like the red one," Ritsuko said while pointing at the longer, sleeveless, dress in question. The color matched Ranma's ubiquitous Chinese tangs and was one Ukyo had never actually worn, having bought it when she'd still been treating Ranma as her fiance instead of as her friend.

"Don't you start on me kiddo," Ukyo said. She'd originally bought it for the color and not worn it for the same reason. Some parts of her past still bothered her and that occasionally manifested in odd ways.

"I think Ritsuko-chan is right," Kasumi said. "Besides, you paid for it, you might as well get some use out of it."

"Assuming it still fits," Akane added. "That dress is what? Eight or nine years old?"

Not realizing Akane had said that expressly to tweak Ukyo into putting it on to prove her wrong, Ukyo shooed everyone else out of the room and changed clothes. When they were allowed to return, Ritsuko made the first comment. "You look really pretty mama-san."

The next day, after dressing and having Kasumi apply light make-up, Mousse opened the door to find Ukyo unlike he'd ever expected. "Wow." True classics never go out of style.

-----

"Well, I hope I didn't embarrass myself too much there," Mousse said, breaking into Ukyo's reverie.

After a moment to regain her mental bearings, she replied, "Not really. I guess I'm glad I could surprise you like that."

"It wasn't really a surprise. I mean, you always look good, but..." Mousse trailed off before he stuck his foot any further into his mouth.

"Not what you were expecting?"

After taking a moment to think of an appropriately witty response, Mousse gave up and stated, "Yeah."

Dinner proceeded to its conclusion of vanilla cheesecake and coffee without incidents of note. After Mousse paid the sizable check, he very properly escorted his date from the restaurant for the ten minute walk to the movie theater. Not feeling quite confident enough to take her to anything excessively romantic, he figured the latest action flick imported from Hong Kong would be acceptable. Unless of course, there was something Ukyo specifically wanted to see.

-----

Ukyo was grateful for the chance to stretch her legs. Distracted by the high quality of the food, she'd ate more than she'd intended. Except for the incident with the waiter, and she understood that, Mousse had been a perfect gentleman. Not that he wasn't a nice guy anyway, but it still felt as if he were trying too hard. She wondered what she could do to get him to lighten up.

As they walked, Mousse scanned the area looking for potential problems, a habit ingrained from long necessity. Not that it always helped, but there were times that extra split second came in handy. Catching a glimpse of, and a wink from, Konatsu while Ukyo was looking in a jewelry store window, Mousse realized that their friends were watching over them. Neither relaxing or resenting any possible implication that they couldn't handle any problems themselves, Mousse continued his observations. He knew there were times crap happened no matter how hard people tried to prevent it.

Arriving safely at the theater, due to some interesting behind the scenes efforts on various parts, Mousse offered to let Ukyo pick the movie but she lobbed the choice right back at him. A light-hearted argument about a woman's inability to make a simple decision took place. Mousse thought some of Ukyo's barbs about men (he and Ranma) having similar problems were particularly witty.

It wasn't until they spotted the readily identifiable forms of Saotome Nodoka being led away from them, in a dignified yet forceful manner by her newly returned husband Genma, that they quickly compromised on a screwball comedy that turned out almost as strange as their own lives.

-----

"Oh look, Kano-chan's still cleaning up," Mousse observed wryly once they returned to 'Ukyo's As You Like It'.

"Clearly a ploy on her part to find out how tonight went, given that she's supposed to be upstairs babysitting Ritsuko," Ukyo acknowledged. "So how did tonight go?"

After a brief delay caused by the desire to be honest, Mousse replied, "Maybe not as good as it could have been, but I think it well enough."

"Me too. Under normal circumstances I'm supposed to invite you in for coffee, but not with Joji here. I think we've been watched enough tonight."

"You too?"

"How many did you spot?" Ukyo asked as she unlocked the door to her closed restaurant. "Other than obvious ones."

"I saw Kanzen once, but I'm pretty sure he let me," Mousse admitted.

Ukyo nodded and said, "I caught Ranma in a mirror when we were getting popcorn. I don't think he noticed me noticing him."

"It's not like we told them to back off."

"Or that they would have if we had asked."

Mouse snorted in amusement and smiled. "Well, I hope you had fun tonight anyway." In a raised voice he added, "Even if there was an audience." Carefully hidden observers had the decency to blush.

Perhaps mindful of those hiding in the shadows, Ukyo leaned forward on tiptoes to kiss Mousse on the cheek with him bending down slightly to return the kiss. After a few 'good night's and 'see you later's, Mousse turned and walked away slowly. It wasn't until he was out of sight from the restaurant that he began to relax.

As Ukyo entered her home and place of business, Kano Joji stared at her boss with a look that clearly screamed "Well?" without the actual need to say anything.

"Mousse was a perfect gentleman."

"And that came as a surprise?" Joji asked as she finished putting the chairs up in preparation to clean the floor. Knowing her employer's friends, she could guess what would have happened if he hadn't been.

"No, but I'm not sure I want a perfect gentleman. Should I be upset or relieved that he didn't make a pass?"

After laughing, which Ukyo noted was not an answer, Joji said, "Give him a break boss. You can't judge the potential of a relationship by the first date. Well, you can, but you shouldn't. If I had with Ichiro, we wouldn't be engaged, let alone gone on a second date."

Ukyo shuddered at the mere mention of the event. "I remember that particular disaster, thank you very much."

"And despite that, we both gave each other a second chance..."

"Six months later," Ukyo interrupted.

"Six months later," Joji admitted, continuing, "but we finally realized what we were to each other."

"Soulmates?" Ukyo asked jokingly.

A brief frown flitted across Joji's face before she answered, "Friends. Such good friends that as long as we're right with each other, the rest of the world, even you and Tendo-sensei," naming the two people on Earth she and her fiance looked up to the most, "can go hang."

The answer floored Ukyo as badly as an unblocked haymaker from Ryoga. Mind and body on auto-pilot, she helped finish cleaning the restaurant, paid Joji for babysitting, checked in on her sleeping daughter and prepared for bed.

'I have friends,' she thought as she crawled into bed. 'Damn good ones. People I've been to the wall for and that've done the same for me. People like Ranma and Akane and Kasumi and Konatsu. So why is what Joji-chan said bugging me so much?'

She had no answer by the time sleep claimed her.