"...Free will," he mumbled to himself.

Mousse look at me with tender expression on his face as he walk towards me. I just waiting there until he about 7 feet away from where I standing.

I backed up and hit him on head again. "You talking to yourself again, stupid."

Then, I walked on forward. I just no understand it. He still walk in back of me with a smiling face that made him look like fool. Maybe he is, maybe he not. I no understand him at all.

I folded my hands. Impatiently, I swung my arms. "You SO slow, Mousse!"

"Coming, my Darling Shampoo!" He try to catch up to me, but then, I found myself running away from him.

"Wait up, Shampoo!!!!!"

I laughed and stuck out my tongue. "Stupid Mousse."

But, I stopped. He might think I'm smiling for him and get the wrong idea again. It get fun when he think that way...

"Nekohanten," I whisper to myself. "Oh, we already here..."

"Shampoo..." From the corner of eye, he give me expression of concern as I imagined myself looking disappointed that I already here.

I snubbed him again. "Hmph!"

My pride got in the way. Again.

Pride. Pride was my strength, and it was weakness too. It not something I pick up along way; it a way of my life: An Amazon woman's life.

I smiled at great-grandmother as we go through the daily duties of running our restaurant. Great-grandmother ran register and supervised everything as I wait on the tables. Mousse in the kitchen cleaning and cooking.

But today, I very distracted. And it all Mousse's fault! That look of concern struck me very hard this time. Because this time, it different and the way I feeling also different...

Again, I thought about myself...

My pride as strength:

"You'll soon be the greatest fighter in the village, Shampoo," my great grandmother had said to me years ago.

"Always be a good fighter and find a good husband," my mother instructed me. "But be very good wife when you find him."

I became the strongest fighter of my village, yes. My pride no let me down. I train like there no tomorrow. But that not shield me from my other duties of learning law as well as being good marriageable material, meaning good wife.

It never occur to me that such thing were not part of life elsewhere. I thought everyone around the world did this. After all, this what taught to me and it ingrained already into my blood.

But, pride was my weakness also...

"Ranma, you I kill!" Just thinking of her made Shampoo sick! She bring me such shame! And in front of whole village too!

With Kiss of Death, I vow to kill her. But also with a kiss, I find husband...

I sighed as I cleared table. "I..."

Mousse came over suddenly and wiped something from my cheek. "You had some dirt on your face. Heh."

Then, he ran back to the kitchen as my grandmother hit him with her stick. "Get back to work!"

In turn, I slap him and shouted, "Mind own business!"

There I think again as I attended to customers and be as cute as I usually was. But my thoughts lingered...

...It made me find a husband. Ranma...

He no understand pride. He have big ego, but he no understand true extent of pride. If he do, he understand me...

Airen would understand to what extent I lower myself just because he supposed to be my husband by law. That doing that alone had almost kill me...Kill me deep inside.

My tribe's law was to kill the 'girl-Ranma' but I couldn't. It shatter me when I found out truth. Can't kill him anymore. My future husband is in same body...

A lot of things were running through my head. The many times I asked for date...the many times I had shown him much affection...it all for him.

My broken pride.

I give everything for him. It all, all wasted on him.

Stupid law. I had grown to love that Ranma. And he never understand that. He no even care.

He like Akane, but she could not be even an eighth of the woman I am! She never learn to love him as much as I do now! Never!

He wasting himself on someone who never appreciated him as much as me. Never, never, never...

I no understand it...

And I no cry here, and right now. My pride killing me. It no let me cry, ever.

"Shampoo?" My great-grandmother came over to me. "Something wrong?"

It was then that I noticed that I staring at door for a few minutes. I not move an inch, but I look like I going to cry.

Cutely, I smiled and shook head. "Nothing."

As I laid on bed thinking, I turned to one side and bit one of my nails. "Mousse..."

I shook my head again. That look of his repeating in my mind many times. Until now I thinking about it!

My eyes looked at wall facing the direction of Mousse's room. My frustrated look softened.

I couldn't understand him either.

No matter how many times I hit him, no matter times I said I hated him, no matter how many times I told him go home, he not do it. Instead, he pop right back up with smile and try to do anything to please me...

...to make me happy...

...to make me smile...

...to make me love him instead...

I could never really hate him. He just too good to me.

Everything just suffocating me: Pressure to follow ways of the Amazon tribe made me pursue Ranma. Yet, it made me react harshly to Mousse.

"Aiya," I softly whisper to myself. The way Ranma treated me was the way I had treated Mousse all my life...

Slowly, I got up and walked out of my room. Without a sound, I snuck into Mousse's room and kneeled beside his futon. I smiled.

"Shampoo, marry me," he said in his sleep.

As tears were forming on his face, he whispered, "Why can't you love me?"

That's when I bent down to take out the hair on his face. And I kissed his forehead.

As I walked out of his room and into my own, I smiled. Now I understand.

So blinded by the laws and ways to catch Ranma,

I no make myself understand...until now.

 

"Why I no understand you before, Mousse?"

...My pride...

Pride what made us Amazon woman great.

"But why it what make me fall?" And I cry at thought...

 

--

Author's notes: I like this. I've always loved Shampoo the moment she appeared in the story. ^_^

I had wanted really to explore her relationship with Ranma, Mousse, and herself. Human weakness is such a fragile thing...

The hardest thing I found in making this was the way I would phrase her speech and thought patterns into print. In Japanese and Chinese, I know that her speech is 'fluent'. But in the English version, it had many grammatical errors. So, it was hard to redo this script.

In the end, I just did it the way I had first learned her way of speech was. ^_^