A Costume Party
By Bree R.
As always thanks to Lawra/Lawokhi for assistance in pre-reading and throwing around concepts and for just being a friend in general. Thanks! Please go give her stories a look!
Ranma smirked to herself in the mirror as she adjusted her long flowing red hair, carefully avoiding running the brush into the large prominent similarly colored fox ears peeking through her hair. Curling the ends of her hair slightly with the brush to give it a bit more curl and flair than her usual style on the few occasions she'd let her hair down. Pulling down the red Chinese style cheongsam she cursed that the tail sticking out of the bottom of the dress kept pushing up the bottom of the dress. "Maybe I need to cut a hole in it?" Ranma muttered to herself. About to pull the dress off and get to work she sighed as she heard distant footfalls that she knew would precede the arrival of her overly high strung fiancee.
Behind the door to her parents and her room Akane's muffled voice spoke up rather loudly, "Ranma! We're going to be late if you keep wasting time trying to come up with a costume at the last minute."
"Almost done!" Ranma called out and an instant later Akane was in the room a skeptical expression on her face until her eyes looked Ranma up and down her mouth widening each time.
"How could you throw that costume together so quickly?!" Akane yelled directly in Ranma's face as she raced forward lightly prodded at one of the ears of his costume causing it to flick slightly. "And you got the ears and tail to move too!" Akane proclaimed irate, as she grabbed Ranma's fluffy tail in her hands for a second before releasing it rushing to Ranma's front to grab her fiance's face in her hands she stared directly into her slightly slitted yellow eyes. "You even got contacts too! How long were you planning this? When did you buy that costume anyway?"
"This old thing? Feels like I've had it forever." Ranma said smirking her head cocking to the side slightly. "So what are you going as?" She asked tauntingly ears flicking and tail twitching slightly.
"I-" Akane began only to look Ranma over again. "I just need to make one quick fix before anyone sees." She whispered so quietly that Ranma really shouldn't have been able to hear it. "Don't worry!" Akane exclaimed. "It's a surprise you just wait and see!" She finished grandly before storming off.
"Just one fix?" Ranma giggled to herself before turning back to her reflection and frowning at how her dress had again ridden up thanks to her tail. Sighing she pulled off the dress and set to work on cutting out a small hole for the tail she was currently sporting to thread through, and then grabbing some nearby thread to create a seam around the hole and and make sure it wouldn't fray.
Ranma grit her teeth as yet another guy she sort of recognized from school walked near the table that she, Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi were all sharing. Not a single person had complimented her on having the best costume at the party. Most of the attention going to a guy who had built a Gundam suit, and another set who had a full Kamen Rider team.
"Wow that's an amazing costume! Did you make it yourself?" A new voice inquired and Ranma turned her head opening her mouth to compliment him on his excellent taste before realizing that his comment had been directed at Kasumi and not her. Scowling she re-evaluated Kasumi's costume and couldn't see what was so interesting.
She was wearing a predominantly white and red outfit along with a long blonde wig. She also had two large bow ears on the top, a pair of little heart earrings in her ears, a long limply hanging red tail topped off with a white bow, and some for Kasumi at least, extremely racy red heels.
"Oh, um...yes thank you." Kasumi replied to the compliment graciously. "I really do think the heels are a bit much, but she's a fun character! Do you enjoy the series too?" Kasumi passionately questioned and the two began an animated conversation that Ranma couldn't be less interested in.
"Honestly Nabiki you could have put at least a little effort in!" Akane said to her sister who was just wearing a pair of cheap bat wings on her head.
"Why bother? I knew what Kasumi was making. Wasn't going to top that." Nabiki remarked idly before going back to sipping on her fruit punch. "And it's not like your sheet is all that." Nabiki pointed out.
"That's not my fault! I had this really awesome costume ready...but there was as an accident." Akane finished lamely pulling at the 'distressed' white sheet she had dressed herself up in with a ratty black wig and hastily applied makeup she had used on her backup costume.
"Hey Yurei are plenty creepy!" Ranma remarked shaking slightly at a bad memory before relaxing. "But considering how much you shake the house maybe a Jishin…" Ranma began only to barely avoid an enraged Akane when she saw her Mother and Father enter the party. "Hey Mom!"
Ranma got up and rushed over to her mother, who was dressed in a much more flattering kimono then she normally wore and looked to be almost ten years younger. What also stood out out were the fox ears only a shade slightly darker than Ranma's own adorning her head, and the three tails poking out from the dress behind her. Though unlike Ranma her eyes were a startling green in color. "Hello Dear." Nodoka said engulfing Ranma in a quick embrace.
"She actually got you to dress up in that old man?" Ranma snickered with seeing Genma in a western medieval knight outfit complete with plastic sword and shoddily made armor adorning his form.
"Doesn't he look so gallant and brave!" Nodoka proclaimed leaning into Genma with a smile and placing an around him, and sneaking in a quick kiss as she began to walk over to sit at the table with the Tendo girls.
"What's the matter, boy? Jealous that I can pull this off?" Genma bragged striking a gallant pose before going and getting his wife and mostly himself something to eat and drink.
Ranma retched a little as her mother continued to stare at Genma as he went to the table with the food on it obviously more interested than anything else but maybe her mother.
"Oh my! You coordinated how adorable!" Kasumi pointed out looking at mother and daughter, while Nabiki pulled out a camera and took a quick picture of the two.
"Of course Kasumi-chan! How could we resist! It's so relaxing isn't it Ranma?" Nodoka observed her tails idly moving as one of Ranma's ears twisted in her mother's direction while she nodded her head turning her attention back to her food. Nabiki's eyebrow rose at the extremely convincing animatronics, and made a note to look into this later.
"I told you that punch was spiked, but you never listen do you Akane. I could smell the booze all over it." Ranma declared while helping her overly inebriated fiancee walk back towards the dojo. Her mother had already disappeared with her father talking about how gallant and virile he was, and Ranma hoped she wouldn't end up with a brother or sister on the way.
"Hehe. Ranma-Oooh your tail is so fluffy and soft and warm!" Akane declared as her arm that had been around Ranma's shoulders slipped down to her lower back. Yelping loudly as her tail was pulled Ranma abruptly cut off the inhuman sound and pulled Akane's hands back to her shoulder after having to painfully pry the hand off.
"That hurts, Akane." Ranma whined massaging the appendage for a second while it flicked irritatedly before continuing onward towards the dojo.
"So fluff-fluff and warmy soft! Hehehehe." Akane mumbled before falling asleep in her arms snoring lightly.
"Aw come on! I want to see it! I felt so sick yesterday I couldn't even get out of bed! And when I ask you today it's already gone?" Akane practically begged. "Come on go get it. I bet I'd look good in it!" She declared seriously.
"Kitsune always look good, Akane." Ranma boasted before frowning having grown tired of the conversation he had heard over and over again for the last week. "But I told ya, Mom put it in storage, and I'd get in a lot of trouble if I took it out. Sorry."
"Then I'll just go ask Auntie. I'm sure she'd let me try it on." Akane queried seriously.
"She might give you one of your own. But she'd probably want us to get married before we-" Ranma began only to see Akane had ignored him and was already leaving the room on a mission to find that costume. He was about to stand up and follow after her before he shrugged and sit back down in a huff, picking up the manga he had been reading before Akane had barged into his room, "She never listens!"
Just as he was getting back into his manga a knock at the door drew his attention. "Akane enough about the costume-" Ranma began only for a light chuckle to draw his attention to the doorway. "Nabiki? What do you want?" He asked internally rolling his eyes at whatever amateur scheme the middle Tendo sister had come up with this time.
"Oh I just thought you might be interested in a little something my camera caught." She dropped a set of photos in his lap before walking off with a skip in her step. Irritation at being interrupted was replaced with a mounting sense of dread as he flipped through the photos. In the first she had been naked her tail and fox ears clearly visible, in the second he was suddenly a male again with no signs of water having caused the change, and in the third he was in the human form he usually wore.
"Oh bother." He sighed, a foxy smile spreading over his face as he thought of all the ways he could get back at her for this.
Yep. Ranma and Nodoka are both kitsune. No, Jusenkyo did nothing. Yes Nodoka and Ranma have a bit of a different relationship than canon while it still being sort of recognizable. Does Genma know? Probably suspects. Doesn't Nodoka's multiple tails mean she's kinda centuries old? Yep. Does that mean Ranma has other siblings? Maybe. Will we ever see more of this? Well..
Thanks for reading folks! I really do hope you enjoyed it. It was a fun short story to write over a few hours for Halloween, and I hope it brightened your day. If you did enjoy it or if you hated it and want to tell me where it went wrong then please leave a review! Thanks very much for reading!