Another chapter down, looks like I might continue this for a bit.
Don't mind the flashback scenes, it's fun trying to write them as younger kids.
TATEWAKI
Months had gone by since Nabiki had left on her trip that no one seemed to actually know where she was, ever her father who seemed to always know where his children were at any given time. They told him she was randomly touring around Japan and would contact him soon.
Touring around? That didn't seem plausible to Tatewaki; Nabiki was a great planner and made lists an arm in length just to go away for the weekend. Besides that, he had hired private detectives and even they could find no trace of her, it was like she had vanished off the planet itself!
Just how mad could she be at him, he wondered. Of course she must have been upset when he had implied her first time meant nothing to him, but to totally shut him out like this was torture! He just wished she would do so much as to send him a postcard, if only to let him know she was alright. He kept on having these horrible visions of her being attacked while she was out somewhere on her own or falling ill. He was frustrated as he sensed that someone knew the answers to his questions and no one was talking!
For some reason, the circumstances of their first meeting sprang into his head.
FLASHBACK
Tatewaki was lurking about the toy box on his first day of kindergarten, trying not to cry, his father had told him that only babies cried. He had arrived at school to find out that all the other kids knew each other from something called, daycare or play dates and he didn't know anyone. Some of them seemed to be whispering and pointing to him and no one seemed to want to play with him.
"You're cute, who are you?" a voice asked.
He turned around to see a little girl with her hair in pigtails. "I'm Tatewaki Kuno" he said, surprised that she wanted to talk to him.
"I'm Nabiki Tendo. That's a stupid name," she observed.
"Well I think Nabiki sounds stupid too" he said with a pout, she just kept on staring at him in a way that unnerved him.
"I'm going to call you Kuno-baby" she declared.
"Fine, I'll call you Nabs-chan" he shot back.
"Okay" she agreed. "You're going to be my boyfriend" she declared.
"What do I have to do?" he asked her.
"Whatever I say" she said. "Come on, I'll teach you to how play doctor" she said taking his hand and leading him into a playhouse.
"How do you play that?" he asked her and she just smiled back.
END FLASHBACK
He tried to distract himself by going through his mail and then realized that he had accidently opened a medical journal that Kodachi had told him she had subscribed to, he went to put it aside when an ultrasound photo slipped out and a picture of Nabiki, he froze in shock at this and then unfolded the letter inside.
"Dear Tatewaki,
Well it's official, the first trimester is over and good riddance to its pukey wretchedness. Be glad you're not a woman. Now we just have six more months of me swelling up like a balloon, extreme tiredness and swollen ankles. Bring it on lol.
As you can see from the ultrasound; Sprout is starting to look like an actual baby and not like a squashed vegetable anymore. The lady who did the ultrasound says she spots a tiny penis but it's hard to tell at this stage really and I really haven't had that much experience with penises to be able to tell as you know. So we're either having a boy or it's a girl with her umbilical cord in a strange place.
I'm already ready to come home from China soon, so you'll be receiving these letters and hopefully won't judge me too harshly. I only stayed this long to help out Mousse and Shampoo with Ivy, they say they can manage without me but I really like being with my adopted little niece. Who knows? I might prove to be a natural mother yet. Bet that's a role you could never picture me in?
I miss you and love you; hope you don't mind me saying that. I can't help myself, with your child growing inside of me, I feel more emotionally connected to you than ever. I'm not the ice queen from high school that I was, in fact. I cry easily these days, everything seems to set me off; it's the pregnancy hormones apparently. Speaking of those, I know you're going to be pissed off that I shut you out for so long like this, but I'm hoping you'll want to have sex with me because my sex drive is through the roof. I can see why women have husbands during this time; because they have to have sex with us no matter what because they caused this condition.
Did I tell you that I was taught to knit and I kick ass at it? I hope you like the colour green because I made you a sweater, yes it will fit you, I know your body as well as my own. Your little Nabiki mastered a domestic art; who knew?
Here's a picture of myself, I now officially have a baby bump! 12 weeks; not looking too shabby I must say.
Love,
Nabiki"
Tatewaki's eyes went wide at what her letter suggested and examined the photo, it showed Nabiki wearing Chinese style robes while in profile, her shirt was pulled up to expose the slight curvature of her belly and she was smiling at the camera. He wildly thought back to the day they had had sex and quickly did the math and realized that she was pregnant! He felt elated, rejected and scared all at the same time. Now he understood why no one would tell him exactly where she was and he wondered how many other people knew about this and were keeping it from him.
Obviously his own sister knew if she had been getting secret letters from Nabiki; then he wondered where the other letters were and tried to remember Kodachi's hiding spots, that she thought he didn't know about. He went through them methodically and discovered nothing, but then remembered that as a little girl, she used to hide her favourite things in her old doll house and hit the jackpot.
They were arranged by date and it looked like Nabiki had posted them at least once a week. He frantically turned to the first one.
Dear Tatewaki,
This is my first day spent in China and the elders have decided to let me stay, yet I'm homesick already and can't stop crying because I miss you. I want you to know that I'm not doing this out of spite though I am hurt how easily you rejected me.
I'm here mainly because I'm freaked out that I, Nabiki Tendo is knocked up like some stupid teenager. Me, who never intended to have kids is pregnant before her two married sisters! I know that if I would have stayed, you would have insisted we marry but I don't want to trap you anymore than I want to be trapped myself in a bad situation. I don't want this to be about honour, I want this to be what is best for our baby.
I know you're probably going to be mad when you finally see me but I am not ashamed that this happened, I want this baby and I'm happy you're the father. I guess I should have just jumped you in high school and gotten you out of my system a long time ago or just picked someone up at a bar and rid myself of my hymen. However, I doubt I would have kept some stranger's baby, I want it because it's yours.
Please don't hate me.
Love,
Nabiki"
Tatewaki read the rest of her letters, some made him laugh about life her in the Chinese village and some broke his heart and he wondered how she could think he could never love her? How could she not tell him about the child she carried? Did she think him so cold that he would reject her? Was she ashamed of him?
The hurt soon faded to rage when he realized how many other people knew about his child before he did, he was out the door and on the way to the Tendo Dojo before he even realized he was heading there.
SOUN
Soun was having a relaxing day alone as Ranma and Akane had gone to visit his mother and father and Kasumi was at the clinic with her husband. He did miss how busy his house used to be, but at the same time, it was much more peaceful and needed fewer repairs. He frowned when there was a hammering at the door and opened it to find a highly pissed off looking Kuno.
"Mr. Tendo, perhaps you can explain these to me?" he spat as he held up Nabiki's letters.
"Come inside and have some sake with me, son" he said.
"I don't need alcohol; I need answers. What the hell is Nabiki doing in China with Mousse and Shampoo and when was someone going to tell me she's pregnant?" he demanded.
Soun sat down at the table and poured sake for the both of them. "She was, she needed some time to think after your rejection of her and chose to accompany Mousse and Shampoo home for the birth of their first child. Nabiki's not to sort to back down from a challenge as you know but finding out she was pregnant shocked her to the core and she reacted in an uncharacteristic way" he explained.
Tatewaki took a seat and sipped his sake. "So I will marry her, plain and simple" he said.
"It's not so black and white as all that. Nabiki isn't the romantic sort but she is in love with you questions whether you will ever be able to love her back" Soun said.
"I already do" Tatewaki admitted.
"That's a good start. But you have years of neglect of her to make up for. After all, chose her own sister in place of Nabiki as your high school love" Soun pointed out.
"That was a stupid mistake. I thought I loved Akane, but I was just responding to her resemblance to your late wife. I used to have a crush on her" he admitted with a blush.
"Son, a lot of men and little boys had a crush on Reiko over the years. Did I ever tell you how I met my wife?" Soun asked him.
"No, please tell me" Tatewaki requested.
"I used to be really good at soccer when I was sixteen and would always play with my friends during recess and Reiko would always sit under the same tree and read a book . I thought she was so beautiful, so I would show off to get her attention, so one day I tried to do a particularly difficult hook shot and tripped over the ball and broke my nose and she went with me to the hospital" he explained.
"That's funny" Kuno admitted. "Do you think that Nabiki will forgive me?" he added.
Soun pondered about that. "She been in love with you since you both were tiny. What do you think?" he asked the younger man.
"I don't know why" Kuno admitted.
"Like myself; members of my family know when they meet their predestined mate and you're the one for Nabiki, it would appear" Soun explained.
"But that makes no sense, Ranma and Akane fought like cats and dogs and Doctor Tofu and Kasumi took forever to get together" Kuno protested.
"I made the mistake of trying to pressure Ranma and Akane into getting married, along with Ranma's father and that caused hostility been the pair. Once Genma opted to return home; I "encouraged" Ranma to go with him and they were caught in bed together a few days later. As for Kasumi, she was too busy looking after me to notice Dr. Tofu and he had a genetic precondition to act nuts around the girl he loved. Everyone has their thing, yours is willful blindness when it comes to love and having lousy parents. But I would be happy to call you my son-in-law" he assured him.
"If she'll marry me" Kuno mused.
"Charm her, court her into the idea. The last thing you want to do it demand it from her" Soun cautioned him.
"Oh I shall" Kuno said, apparently liking the idea of the challenge. "You know that I'm heading to China tomorrow to claim her, right?"
"I know as I would do the same thing if I was in your shoes" Soun agreed.
NABIKI
It was odd but Joketsuzoku agreed with Nabiki, she had first been assigned to kitchen duty upon arrival and was quickly removed from there when it turned out she had no talent for it. Then she was assigned to laundry duty but again, it didn't work out. In exasperation, she was assigned to be the tribal accountant and had been there ever since.
When she had first arrived the council wasn't sure what to make of the pregnant Japanese girl who didn't even speak their language but accepted her amongst them on Cologne's approval of her. With young tribal girls fleeing from the village to cities to get married in a more traditional ways with their young men; they were in need to fresh blood.
She had had some suitors at first challenging her, until Mousse put a stop to that and then when her belly started to show, those quickly still interested dried up.
Working in the fields gathering crops had tanned her skin and she had taken to Joketsuzoku martial arts like a duck to water and joined classes to learn new moves and between a healthy diet and exercise, her slender figure had blossomed with subtle muscles and even her baby bump was well defined.
Pregnancy seemed to agree with Nabiki as her body bloomed and took on a healthy mother-earth type glow as if her body was making love to itself. Nabiki herself felt she looked more beautiful than she ever had been and everyone seemed to agree with that and felt more alive than when she had been the frustrate corporate virgin. She was calmer and felt more sexually desirable and confident in her sexuality and what she had to offer a man. She realized that she could be the corporate wonder woman and a mother too and she wanted Tatewaki as well, she decided...if he was worthy of her.
She was singing to Ivy while Shampoo and Mousse slept as she fed her. The tiny baby had her mother's hair and her father's calm demeanour. "No crying now, your parents need their sleep" she whispered to her. She frowned and ran to answer her cell phone as it rang and was surprised anyone from home was calling her so late.
"Daddy?" she questioned, when she picked up the phone.
"Nabiki, Kuno knows. He found the letters you sent to Kodachi and came to see me" her father warned her.
"Did he seem upset?" she asked him.
"He was, but I managed to calm him down. He also seems to be in love with you and is on his way there and intends to take no prisoners" he explained.
Nabiki pumped one toned arm into the air in victory and purred, "Well in that case, I can't wait to see him."
