AN: Hey everyone! Been a while... I'm leaving you with a short piece today, but I might have more updates in the near future... Although this is technically the introduction to a small-medium sized story I hope to work more on someday, the scene is so sweet, and fun, that I couldn't resist posting it early. Let's just call it an open-ended oneshot for now, and maybe if I ever finish Mission Impossible I'll get a chance to add on to it! Anyway, more notes at the end. I hope you enjoy!

Ranma tensed up instantly when he saw where they were headed and looked to his companion wearily. Was she testing him? He could never really tell with her.

"Is something the matter, Ranma," she asked as she led them through the parlor, towards a booth in the back.

"N-No, I uh just… I'm surprised you'd bring me here?" he gulped nervously.

"Oh? And why is that? I thought you just loved their parfaits. We've been here before, haven't we?"

Ranma swallowed hard. "Well… Yeah, but that was… You know… Before, and when you thought I was a girl and all…"

"But you seemed to enjoy them so much!" His mother exclaimed. "Do your taste buds change when you're a girl?"

Ranma's mouth opened and closed for a few moments, making him look for all the world like a gaping fish. He didn't want to lie to his mother any more than he already had in the past but admitting to liking those girly looking ice cream treats was a bit intimidating. Especially in his mother's presence.

Fortunately he didn't need to supply her with an answer, as she continued on. "To tell the truth, it doesn't surprise me. Even when you were a little boy you liked them. I took you to a place like this, a few times when you were younger."

"R-Really?" Ranma stuttered.

"Oh yes!" Nodoka beamed, giggling at one of her few cherished memories of him as a child. "You would inhale those things. Ice cream all over your face and in your hair. Ah you were a sticky mess afterwards but it was so cute!"

"Well yeah, I uh… I guess that's okay. For a kid I mean. But you know, now I'm kind of… Old for that, don't you think? I mean it's not very… Manly to eat parfaits. Is it?"

Nodoka flinched slightly. "Don't be silly! How can ice cream affect someone's manliness?" Ranma seemed to perk up at that, and Nodoka in turn smiled, feeling happy that his anxiety had disappeared slightly.

She wasn't an idiot. She could see that the whole arrangement she had made with her husband and son, for them to commit seppuku if Ranma wasn't a 'man among men' had caused some problems for Ranma. He was everything she had hoped him to be, strong, determined, disciplined, and quite manly. And yet he still had developed a rather odd complex about certain things. Things he should have easily enjoyed and taken pleasure in caused him to feel self-conscious and guilty. Things like ice cream for instance. Furthermore, from what she'd seen of his relationships with his fiancés, he had a bit of a problem with talking to girls in general, especially if it involved expressing his thoughts or feelings about them.

She felt guilty, and not for the first time doubted her decision to let Genma raise their son on his own. Certainly it had produced some of the results she and her husband had desired, for Ranma had turned out well in many ways, and was a very skilled martial artist. But clearly, being raised by a man like Genma, he had been sorely lacking in instructions on things like manners, and how to treat and respect a woman. She couldn't make up for the many years they'd been apart, but now that they were together again, she wanted very much to be a part of his life, and to try and form a relationship with him. She hoped to be a steady, nurturing influence in his life. She wanted him to be able to depend on her, and she wanted to start building that foundation by helping him resolve some of the issues that seemed to be plaguing him.

"What does Akane usually get here?" Nodoka asked coolly, looking over the menu herself.

Ranma shrugged. "She usually just gets that low-fat vanilla yogurt stuff," he said, wrinkling his nose distastefully. "But what she really likes is chocolate ice cream with sprinkles and whip cream."

"So why doesn't she get that then?"

"I don't know," Ranma shrugged again. "Probably concerned about her figure or whatever."

"Hmm," Nodoka said, frowning at her son. "I wonder where she got the idea she needed to worry about that?" Actually she suspected quite astutely that Akane had gotten that impression from her son. "Doesn't get women at all," she lamented.

"I've always thought her figure was quite lovely. Don't you agree?" Nodoka said quite resolutely.

Ranma flushed as red as a tomato and immediately looked out the window. "Uh… Yeah sure… If you say so…"

Nodoka merely smiled tightly, and changed the subject. "Well now, I think I know what I want. What about you dear? Strawberry parfait?" she asked knowingly.

"Um… Yeah… Okay," he nodded uncertainly.

"Alright then. You wait here. I'll be right back!" she said as she made her way to the counter.

As soon as she was gone Ranma let out a deep breath and slouched back into his seat. Despite what his mother said, being in the ice cream parlor as a guy just seemed all kinds of weird. Looking around, he noticed that although most of the people in the parlor were girls, there were a reasonable amount of guys. However, the majority were either younger than Ranma, or on dates with girls at the time. There wasn't a single high school aged boy there by himself, or with his mother, except of course for Ranma.

He swallowed and sank further into his seat. "Ugh. Wish Akane was here. At least then I could pretend I was just here because of her…"

Just then the bell over the door chimed and as he looked up he was suddenly struck dumb by numerous clichés as his breath caught sharply in his chest, and his heart literally skipped a beat. He couldn't seem to stop himself from staring at the girl that had walked in, thinking he was actually looking at a real angel. It wasn't simply because she was beautiful in an impossible way; there was something about how the sun came in through the window and clung to her figure, giving her hair a haloing appearance, and her skin an ethereal luminescent glow.

She looked especially lovely at that moment, in a little white and red striped sundress, as she reached up a delicate hand to sweep aside a strand of short, silky black hair from her eyes. Dark brown eyes as rich and deep as chocolate that he could easily get lost in. She was his paragon of the perfect woman, the type of girl he could only ever dream of being with. The type of girl he could never speak plainly with. Not really at least. Not the way he wanted to.

He suddenly found himself caught up in his imaginings, thinking of how she had the most brilliant smile he'd ever seen, and how he would do practically anything to get her to smile at him. She always smelled of sunshine and strawberries, a unique mixture that fit her alone. But as her eyes finished scanning the room and ultimately settled on Ranma, he was forced to shake himself back to reality, for she was walking towards him.

It bothered him a great deal, how he was having these reactions to her more and more frequently. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time every single time she walked through the door. And that was rather impractical since they lived together, and there were many doors in their home, and many opportunities for her to walk through them…

"Ranma?" she asked, reaching his table and standing in front of him.

"Hey Akane," he said, pleased with the way it came out in a natural tone that didn't betray any of his inner turmoil.

"Fancy meeting you here. As a guy no less?" she said, a slight smirk on her lips.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well… Mom dragged me out here. Wanted to talk to me about something," he muttered nodding towards Nodoka who was over at the counter.

Akane's smirk faltered, and she turned slightly pale. "Oh. Uh…" With a slight sigh she slid into the seat across from him. "Well, I guess that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"This," she said gesturing between the two of them. "It's a set up."

"What are you talking about-?"

"Your mother asked me to meet her here. Said she wanted to talk to me about something."

"Ugh," Ranma groaned, banging his head once on the back of his seat. "That's why she asked about the ice cream," he mumbled.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing," he sighed again. "Dang. It's bad enough with our dads, but now she's going to start pushing us?"

"Yeah… But… It is nice for you isn't it?" she said thoughtfully. "It means she cares about you. Right?"

"Yeah," he said, looking down at his hands on the table. "I guess."

They both fell silent then, Ranma pointedly refusing to look at her, and Akane chewing her lip uncomfortably until his mother returned, carrying a tray with three desserts.

"Good afternoon, Akane dear," Nodoka said placing a bowl of ice cream in front of her. "So nice of you to join us."

"Thank you, Auntie," Akane said before blinking at the chocolate ice cream with sprinkles and whip cream. "H-How did you know-?"

"I didn't," Nodoka said slyly as she gave Ranma his parfait and sat down next to Akane to enjoy her own ice cream.

Akane's eyes flitted to Ranma briefly before she flushed and looked back to the table. She found it strangely thrilling to know he'd cared enough to remember such a minuscule detail about her. Meanwhile, Ranma glared at his parfait, then looked longingly at the pitcher of cold water sitting on the table before resignedly picking up his spoon, and eating. As expected, it wasn't the same. Sitting across from the two women that he cared for the most, both of whom made him immensely nervous, and being forced to eat parfaits, as a guy, he couldn't have felt more miserable. The whole awkward situation was quickly turning the ice cream parlor into his least favorite place in the world.

"Well then," Nodoka began, never one to beat around the bush. "I suppose you're both wondering why I asked you here." Neither said anything in response, both locked into a mode of speechlessness, so she simply continued. "I wanted to speak to you both, together, because I felt I should express how disappointed I was in the result of your wedding ceremony last week."

She watched as the pair proceeded to retreat further into the plastic seat cushions. "Ranma dear, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but those other girls at the wedding, I think they may be under the impression that you intend to marry them instead of Akane."

The response was immediate. Ranma's eyes suddenly snapped up as he barked out a rather predictable retort of, "And what makes you think I wanna marry Akane?"

Nodoka felt an inner sense of satisfaction, considering the specific way he'd worded the statement. He wasn't denying that he wanted to, he was simply wondering where the impression of it had come from, almost as if he was worried he hadn't done a very good job of hiding the fact. This of course was lost on Akane, who took the outburst at face value.

"Ranma!" she growled, picking up the pitcher of water on their table and splashing it in his face.

"Geez Akane!" a female Ranma growled in response. "What did you do that for?"

Akane merely hmphed dramatically and went back to her ice cream with an irritated scowl. Nodoka couldn't help but notice that Ranma didn't really seem that irritated by his sudden gender change. If anything he seemed relieved as his eyes lit up at the site of his parfait and he began to chow down on it with a newfound reckless abandon. Nodoka frowned but decided to leave it alone for the time being. "Best to just keep things simple and confront one complex at a time," she reasoned.

"Yes well, I'm not sure I'll be much help with the other girls dear, but I can at least help you dissolve the engagement your fathers arranged between the two of you." Nodoka said.

Ranma and Akane's spoons both clattered onto the table simultaneously, and she found herself suddenly the focus of two twin stares of shock and dismay. She had to hide her own smile. They certainly didn't look relieved by the idea.

"W-What do you mean?" Ranma stuttered.

"Yeah," Akane added. "I-I mean they're pretty stubborn about the whole thing. How do you plan on changing their minds?"

"Well, I am Ranma's mother, and Genma's wife, which means I'm entitled to some say in the whole arrangement. And since I've seen you two together, I've started to wonder if maybe we're asking too much of the both of you. I mean to spend your entire lives together, just so the schools can be joined, that seems a bit extreme. It would be different if you were actually in love, but… Well…" she trailed off, watching the way Ranma and Akane were now staring at each other, shell shocked and stricken, at a complete loss of what to do.

"Besides," Nodoka continued, with a sigh. "I'm worried Ranma that you've already been held to enough promises that you never really agreed to yourself. I'd like you to at least be able to choose how you spend the rest of your life, and whom you'd like to spend it with."

Ranma blinked and turned away stiffly from Akane to look at his mom. He was touched by the gesture, and recognized it as her trying to make amends with him. He just wished she'd picked a different way to go about it. How could his own mother understand him so little? He didn't want the engagement dissolved. That was the last thing he wanted! It wasn't that he wanted to get married to Akane right away, but the engagement was the only excuse he had for being with her. Without the arrangement, how was he ever going to hold onto her? She would slip right through his fingers, and run off with some other guy before he got himself together enough to tell her how he really felt.

Had he really done that well at pretending he was indifferent to her? Despite his efforts, he'd been certain his feelings were way too obvious. He thought everyone knew one way or another that he was hopelessly lost and in love with Akane. Everyone except maybe Akane. And now apparently his mother. His own mother. Was she really that clueless about him?

Akane was equally distraught. In fact, she'd worried her lip with her teeth so much that she'd started to taste blood. She couldn't for the life of her think of a way to derail things from the course they were headed. She wouldn't exactly miss the threat of the engagement hanging over their heads, but she didn't want to lose Ranma completely! It would be fine if they were given the chance to figure things out in their own time-frame, but moving at their own pace had never truly been much of an option for them due to the interference of others. She knew perfectly well that the moment the engagement was called off, one of his other fiancés would jump in and convince him to be with her. She was afraid she wouldn't be fast enough, or confident enough to do anything about it. The thought terrified her. She'd never been good at telling him how she really felt. She knew the moment she tried, things would inevitably digress into some ridiculous argument. The engagement had been her security. It was the only thing she had that allowed her a claim to him. Without it, what could she possibly use to hold onto him? She needed more time. More time to show him that she could be better. She could be kinder, and cuter, and a better cook. She could be everything he wanted, if only she had a little more time…

Nodoka continued watching as the two teenagers wrestled with their thoughts and emotions, all the while growing more pale and distraught. She grinned impishly, deciding it was time to get to the point, and put them out of their misery.

"I do however have one condition," she said as she casually took another bite of ice cream. Their eyes both snapped to hers, flickering with dull sparks of hope. "You see, if I'm going to help you, I want to be absolutely sure that it's the right thing to do. After all, Genma and Soun have always had such high hopes for this union. It seems a bit unfair to destroy their dreams without at least giving the prospect a fair shot, don't you think?"

They both blinked their eyes at her in confusion. "I don't follow," Ranma finally said.

"If the marriage is not going to work out, then I want you to prove it," she explained. "Not by arguing and protesting the arrangement, but by giving it an honest chance."

"That… Doesn't make sense," Akane interjected. "You want to help us get out of the engagement, by doing… What? Getting married to prove that it doesn't work?"

"No dear," Nodoka chuckled. "I don't expect you to get married. But I would like you to try having a relationship with each other. Maybe going on a date or something. Whatever young couples do these days. You might be surprised at what you find. After all the two of you have more in common than you may realize. You both practice the same style of martial arts, you're both clever and creative with the predicaments you find yourselves in, and from what I've heard and seen the two of you work quite well together. Is that not the case?"

Ranma and Akane's eyes met for a brief second before immediately looking away again, neither answering her question.

"I don't intend to force you into anything," Nodoka said in a softer, compassionate tone. "But, if you wish for my help, that is my condition."

They both thought about it for a moment. Akane for her part was trying to figure out a way to kindly refuse Nodoka's offer. She would gladly go on a date with Ranma, but with the stakes for a date so high, it was just too much pressure. Either it would go really well and she'd have to admit to wanting the engagement, a thing she didn't think she'd be able to do, or it would go poorly and she'd lose him.

Unfortunately, before she had a chance to say anything, Ranma agreed to his mother's terms. "Yeah okay," he said. "Sounds fair to me." Almost as an afterthought his eyes drifted back to Akane. "How about you?" he asked.

She swallowed hard before forcing herself to nod her head. It was about all she could manage.

"Wonderful!" Nodoka beamed. "I feel good about this decision, don't you?"

"Yeah great," Akane muttered bitterly. Ranma looked at her curiously, but said nothing.

"Well then, I'd best be going," Nodoka said. "I have a few things I need to take care of before starting tonight's dinner. I'll leave you two alone to make your arrangements."

"Yeah okay Mom, thanks," Ranma said smiling up at her.

She smiled back genuinely, and for a moment he felt that it was nice to have his mother taking an active role in his life, and trying to help him. But then, because she was his mother and therefore required to say something absolutely outrageous, she reached into her purse and pulled out a card. "Oh and let me know if you'd like me to help you book a hotel," she said as she handed him the card for a love hotel. "This one in particular is very nice."

Akane began to cough rather violently, and Ranma's jaw about dropped to the floor. "W-What do you know about those places?" It wasn't the only question he could've asked in that moment, nor in retrospect was it the thing he should have been most concerned with, but it was, to his immediate dismay the first thing that had tumbled out of his mouth.

"Oh dear," Nodoka giggled demurely. "Well you can't expect your father and me to always use that little room in the Tendo's house. I mean you're a heavy sleeper, but still! Sometimes we like to have a little more privacy!"

Ranma took on a hideous shade of green, which led Nodoka to laugh harder. "Lighten up dear! I'm only kidding! We wait until you're at school usually. Or use the hotel. I was serious about that. It's very nice, I think the two of you would really enjoy it…"

"Okay Mom!" Ranma said, jumping to his feet and ushering her towards the door. "Thanks for the advice, but you better get going now if you want to finish those errands of yours. I'll talk to you later! Loveyoubye!" he said the last part rapidly, finally getting her to the exit, and practically pushing her through it.

Nodoka laughed gleefully. "Yes, alright dear. You're right of course." She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek before finally departing. "You two have fun now," she said with a wave, as she turned away from the parlor and began walking down the street.

"Well," she said, with a self-satisfied smirk. "That went better than expected. Now, let's see what we can do about those other girls," she said as she pulled out a piece of paper with directions to a specific restaurant in the town. "I wonder if I could convince them to settle for being his mistresses…"

AN: Ha. Okay so I may be a little obsessed with the idea of Nodoka playing matchmaker and constantly saying outrageously awkward things to Ranma and Akane. I mean just imagine the possibilities! Nodoka was an excellent plot point for the Ranma series, and I really wish Takahashi had used her in more arcs before concluding the manga, because I think her character is brilliant! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this little piece. I really enjoyed writing it and am excited to share it with you. I actually have a lot of things in my project files that are near completion, so I think I'm just going to just start posting a bunch of random stuff. Not all of it is for Ranma unfortunately. I've been working on a lot of things over the past few months, even a few of my own original pieces. I do love writing, but I have a busy life, and even when I do have time to sit down and write, there's no guarantee inspiration will strike. Such is life. Anyway, please let me know your thoughts and feel free to drop me a pm if you have any questions about any of my stories or ideas for me. I don't typically answer reviews, but I do respond to PMs!

Anyway, that's all for now friends. Hope to have more for you soon.

Ja!