I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

Akane groaned in pure pleasure as Ranma's hands moved along her back. The afternoon's training had been brutal, and she was well content to be lying naked on several towels spread on the tiles next to the furo with Ranma straddling her hips as his hands worked their magic.

She had been worried that her broken ankle meant that she wouldn't be able to train, but Ranma had pointed out that there might be fights where she wouldn't be able to maneuver: perhaps she'd been chained to one spot, or had someone behind her that she had to protect. And then he'd noticed that she had a hole in her situational awareness — a huge hole. Thanks to the daily mass assaults by the Hentai Horde her situational awareness was excellent, so long as the potential attackers were within melee distance. But since none of the Horde had used ranged attacks, she automatically classified anyone she wasn't focusing on that was more than a quick dash away as harmless.

The result of that revelation was a transforming splash of cool water, followed by the now floating naked redhead her sensei had become recruiting Peach Fuzz and as many more of the sprites currently enjoying Kasumi's gardening that wanted to 'play'. Akane had spent the afternoon rotating on her brace keeping one eye on the succubus as the redhead flew around the dojo, looking for an opportunity for a sudden 'sprint' at her for a touch. Her other eye Akane had tried to keep on the sprites flying around, carrying stones they would periodically throw at her when they thought they could catch her by surprise. The only rule Ranma had laid down was that the sprites couldn't aim for her head, and the sprites proved to be surprisingly strong — those stones had hurt. By the end of training her situational awareness had noticeably improved, and she ached all over. Ranma's offer of a massage was accepted after only a brief hesitation.

Her hesitation before stripping naked in front of her once again male sensei didn't last much longer than when she accepted the massage; after all, when Ranma was a boy he might as well be a eunuch, and when she was a succubus Akane might as well not be wearing any clothes at all.

Akane was finding that there was something she hadn't considered, though — Ranma might be a functional eunuch but she wasn't, and even staying away from her 'naughty' parts his hand were as wonderful as Nabiki had boasted. As a result, the damp spot on the towel underneath her hips wasn't just from her quick wash to get rid of the sweat, and the spot was growing.

"Should I be jealous?"

Akane tried to bolt upright, only for Ranma to grab her shoulders and gently push her back down. He complained, "Blast it Nabs, ya just ruined half my work!"

Nabiki smirked as she pushed herself upright and stepped into the room, sliding the door closed behind her. "I'm sure Akane is so disappointed that you'll have to spend more time using those magic hands on her. Are you giving her the full treatment?"

Akane twisted and lifted herself up on one elbow. It only took her a moment of a furiously blushing Ranma's almost incoherent denials to realize what her sister meant, and Nabiki laughed when her now also blushing younger sister added her furious denunciation to the bedlam.

"Joke! Joke!" the middle Tendo asserted, holding up her hands, then sobered. "Though in a way, it's what I'm here about. While you were training I had a really interesting discussion with Elder Cologne."

When she finished explaining the deal she'd agreed to pass on (leaving out any mention of Jusenkyo water), Akane just stared at her, shocked silent. Akane could not believe that her older sister was actually ... actually ... pimping out her fiancé!

Just as she was opening her mouth for an epic rant, Nabiki continued, "You know, Ranma, beyond getting a sensei of your own to help design your new style, this might actually help with the problems with your human form. One of them anyway." Glancing at Akane, she added, "Though that would mean little sis would have to give up her bare naked massages." She grinned when Akane blushed as red as Ranma's hair.

"Ya really think so? That it could help?" Ranma asked. "You're really okay with this?"

Nabiki shrugged. "It's not like you won't be doing this sort of thing sooner or later — with someone besides me, I mean. So sure, it's what you are."

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Great! Then I'll leave you to finish your massage, my sensei should be home any moment. And you just know your mother is going to want to knock me around the dojo some more."

"Start over my massage, ya mean," Ranma grumbled as he gently pushed Akane back down onto the towels then shifted back up along her body. "Ya ruined what I'd gotten done."

Nabiki just laughed as she slid the door open and strode out.

As Ranma's hands started over again on Akane's neck and shoulders, she tried to force herself to relax and actually think about the conversation she'd just listened to. Something just didn't seem right...

/oOo\

"What are you up to?"

Nabiki, sitting on her bed, continued staring out her window as she tried to ignore the sound of her younger sister's voice. She'd known Akane was there, of course, the girl's emotions were spiking all over the place — determination, anger, disgust, confusion, worry, fear, love ... Akane was a mess. But Nabiki had been hoping that she'd take the hint and go away when Nabiki didn't acknowledge her presence.

Really, all Nabiki wanted to do was go on staring out the window, like she'd been doing since Ranma had left almost fifteen minutes earlier. She liked to think of herself as a hardheaded girl (except whenever that smile and its accompanying love-blast from a cute redhaired succubus threatened to melt her down into a puddle of happy goo), but apparently she'd been lying to herself. It didn't matter that Ranma didn't leave by the window, or that the window was facing the wrong way, or that the early night meant there wasn't much to see but streetlights even if it had been facing the right way. It was a window into night, and apparently that was symbolic enough. It seemed the study of all the symbology behind mystic rituals that her sensei had her doing (when she wasn't doing schoolwork or getting beaten black-and-blue practicing kenjutsu) was bleeding over into her everyday perceptions. I'm going to have to be careful about that.

When it finally became clear that Akane wasn't going to leave, Nabiki turned on her bed to face her sister with a sigh. She asked, "What makes you think I'm up to something?"

Akane stepped into the room and walked over to sit on the chair in front of Nabiki's desk. "Because you actually involved me in that little discussion in the furo," she replied, her cheeks turning pink. "You've been pushing for me to ... become more accepting of Ranma's nature as a ... as a spirit, and you drop that bombshell on me? You could have just waited until we were doing schoolwork and pulled him aside."

"Actually, I couldn't," Nabiki disagreed. "I wanted to catch Ranma in human form and while he tries — and he really has been getting better — him and schoolwork are an uneasy fit. Best to leave him to it."

Akane giggled her agreement with her sister's assessment, then asked, "And why did you want to talk to him in human form?" Then she laughed when Nabiki facepalmed. "Didn't mean to admit that? You're really off your center, aren't you? So why didn't you want to?"

Nabiki hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Because I was lying," she admitted. "Oh, not about the deal or anything like that," she hastily added at the blast of sudden anger from her sister, "just about it probably helping Ranma's sex drive when human. If Ranma had been in succubus form, she'd have read me like a book and never have bought it."

"Explain," Akane ground out through gritted teeth. "What do you really want?"

"Ranma's happiness. Maybe, her sanity."

Akane's blazing anger vanished, swamped by shock. "What!? How? Why? He's seems fine, what's wrong?"

"Yes, I would like to know as well." Both girls looked toward the open door just as Nodoka stepped into view. She walked into the room and closed the door behind her. "You have been somewhat distracted — thoughtful — since your trip to Nekomi last Sunday. What is wrong with my son?"

Nabiki gulped at the stern expression on her sensei's face. Suck it up, girl, she'll have to hear about this sooner or later. "Right. Akane, remember how I said I wanted to keep Ranma sane and half-way human?"

Akane looked blank for a moment, then nodded.

"Well, I've pretty much given up on 'human' — now I'll just settle for sane." Nabiki quickly laid out the advice she'd received from Belldandy, though hinting that it was something she'd come up with herself — with mixed results. Yeah, Akane's buying it, she thought with carefully hidden satisfaction as she 'tasted' her interrogators' emotions, she's still too willing to take things at face value. I wonder if Ranma has any stories from his years on the road that might help cure her of that?

Nodoka though, from the suspicion still mixing with her concern, wasn't buying it for a minute. Ah, well, she already knows there's at least one demon watching us, why not add some goddesses? Though wondering just why she and Ranma were so important in the larger scheme of things was enough to make her nauseous.

But the Tatsuno matriarch was apparently willing to put off further discussion for a more private moment. She simply said, "So you believe my son should adjust more rapidly to his secondary form?"

"That's just it, it isn't his secondary form," Nabiki replied. "In fact, you don't really have a son, not anymore. Right now, that succubus form is the one he ... she ... is most comfortable with. You were the one that told me about the asexual nature of succubae, but I don't know if you really thought through what that means — I know I didn't."

"Ah. Yes." Nodoka considered that for a few minutes. "So to sum this up, Ranma is more comfortable in succubus form, and you believe that should be encouraged — that Ranma should essentially become a succubus able to become human in preparation for the day that the human form is lost. Even if that means doing things that any human would be ostracized for, even arrested."

"Yeah, I do," Nabiki agreed. "And Akane, that's where you come in."

"Me?" her sister squeaked. She had been going pale and beet red by turns as concern and embarrassment had warred with each other throughout Nabiki's explanation, and now she paled again as a bolt of fear shot through her.

"Yes, you," Nabiki replied, unable to keep from grinning salaciously at her. She instantly sobered, though, when Akane began trembling with fearful disgust. "Sorry, sorry, just teasing, I'm not going to ask you to do anything perverted, or even sexual. Though it would do you good to loosen up a little."

"So what are you asking?" Akane growled, flushing with embarrassment and trying to ignore her sister's advice.

Nabiki carefully considered her words, then said, "Akane, you've been ... confused. About Ranma and what she's going through. You've been better since your fight with that lunatic Kodachi, but still ..." She paused and waited for Akane's reluctant nod of agreement, then continued, "Just ... try to be accepting, at least of Ranma herself even if you can't be accepting of what she's doing, at least not all the time. Ranma hasn't gotten a lot of support in his life, and the fathers..." She left that statement unfinished, but her audience both nodded as they filled in the rest for themselves. Genma's emotions had been even more confused and scattershot than Akane's and it came out in how he treated his child, avoiding him one day and trying to pretend they were still on the road with each other and no one else the next, and her father had his head firmly stuck in the sand and was fighting hard to keep it there. "Anyway, for some reason that completely escapes me after the way you've treated him, he really likes you — maybe it's because you're his first student. If you turn on her again, she ... won't take it well."

Akane stared at her for a few moments, then muttered under her breath, "A lion is a lion."

Nabiki grinned — she was going to have to buy something really nice for Kasumi for coining that phrase to comfort Akane after that nature show, it was proving so useful. "Only this lion still thinks she's a lamb, and learning otherwise is just a wee bit rough. So, Princess, can you do it?"

Akane blushed at hearing again the mocking epithet Nabiki had used, that day — was it really only a few weeks? — when she had ripped on Ranma for being a pervert, and Nabiki had returned the favor ... with interest. She took a deep breath and said firmly, "Yes. I can do it."

Nabiki's grin softened into a smile. "Thanks, little sis, it means a lot to me." Then she raised a hand to cover a prodigious yawn, then waved toward the door. "Now, git!" she ordered. "It's been a long day and will be longer before Ranma gets home. Besides, I think Nodoka wants to talk to me. Or is it Sensei?"

" 'Nodoka', in this case," the older woman replied. She watched Akane hurry from the room after making her 'good nights', and the pair listened to her footsteps down the hall to her room. Then Nodoka turned back to Nabiki, and without preamble asked, "I was under the impression that you were looking for ways to help Ranma stay more human, what happened in Nekomi to so radically change your mind?"