Chapter 9. The party.
Haruka looked at her boss in astonishment. "You want me to do what?" She asked, blinking rapidly.
"I don't know why it's such a big deal." The man said, exasperated. "All I want you to do is come to the victory party tomorrow night if you win the race. You skipped the last one, and the sponsors want to see our new number one racer."
"But I told you, I hate those things." Haruka protested, remembering the large parties that were usually rather boring, and where she had to make a "Good impression" on the sponsors.
"Look. It's just this once." The older man said, pleading. "I've got a line on a really good sponsor for you and she's going to be at the party. Just trust me, okay?"
Haruka sighed resignedly. "All right, all right. Anything special I have to do?"
The boss shrugged. "Not really. Hey, why don't you bring a girl along and make a date of it? In fact, that would probably make a better impression than you coming alone."
"Huh?" Haruka said, before she got an idea and a slow smile spread across her face. "Thanks boss… I think I will." She said, before leaving the room.
"I wonder what that smile was about?" Haruka's boss wondered, before going back to filling out paper work.
At around five thirty that night, Haruka knocked on Ranma's apartment door. "Hey Haruka." Ranma said, opening it.
"Hey Ranma. I have a favour to ask you." Haruka said.
"And that is?" Ranma asked, knowing that he probably wouldn't like this.
"Will you go to a party with me tomorrow night?" Haruka said, bluntly.
Ranma's eyes widened. Was Haruka asking him out on a date? "Um… I guess so. Where is it?" He asked, blinking in surprise.
"Well, there's this post race party after every race, and I need to go this time. I thought having someone around to go with would make it more tolerable."
Ranma's eyes narrowed. "A post race party, but that means you'll be dressing as a guy, right? We can't go together."
Haruka pulled a bottle of water out from behind her back and smiled, as sweetly as her male appearance would allow, at him. "Sure we can!"
"What? No way!" Ranma said, backing away from the bottle of water.
"Please?" Haruka asked, almost begging. "It's going to be unbearable without someone going with me and I HAVE to go. It'd be a really big favour."
Ranma looked contemplative for a moment before a Nabiki special smirk crossed his face. "All right. I'll do it, on one condition."
"Great!" Haruka said, smiling happily and passing Ranma the bottle of water.
"You ain't gunna ask what the condition is?" Ranma asked, smirking.
"Nah. I'm fine with whatever you want if you go on this date with me." Haruka said, happily.
"All right, I guess I'll go. When is it?" Ranma asked, having to restrain himself from giving a big evil grin at Haruka's last comment.
"Well, the race starts at four and the celebration is around seven. You may as well go to the race too, 'cuz I can get you in for free." Haruka explained, pulling a "Pass for one" card out of her pocket.
"All right. I'll be there." Ranma said, before closing his bedroom door and going back to his recently interrupted meal, sticking the card on top of his pack so he wouldn't forget about it.
HR
At the same time, in the front office of the Metro Centre, Nodoka was talking to a receptionist. "Oh, that cute maintenance man that started yesterday?" The girl said, blushing. "He went home about two hours ago."
"Oh…" Nodoka said, disappointed but also noticing how the girl drooled over her son. 'My son is SO manly!' She thought, before she mentally rebuked herself for doing it. Her son WASN'T really all that manly, even though he was rather attractive, but it didn't matter. She still wanted to see him.
Hearing the disappointment in the woman's voice, the receptionist spoke again. "Well, He'll be here tomorrow morning to set up for the big race, and you could ask Mr. Tenoh about him. I hear he's training him and that they live in the same building."
"Mr. Tenoh?" Nodoka asked, curiously. "Yeah. He's one of our motocross racers." The girl explained, pointing at a picture of Haruka standing next to a bike.
"Thank you." Nodoka said, before walking out of the front doors and towards her hotel. Only one more day, and she should be able to see her son again.
The next morning, Ranma opened his eyes and yawned expansively before getting up and reaching for his pack in order to dig out some food for breakfast. Seeing the card on top of the pack, he grumbled as he realized what it was for. Putting it into his pocket, He got dressed and cooked a small bowl of rice for breakfast. It was a good thing that he wasn't fighting people every day like he did in Nerima, or he would be starving himself with this little food. As it was, he didn't need to worry about his Chi Reserves running out and he didn't have to eat nearly as much.
As He packed a special duffle bag for tonight, Ranma grumbled to himself and wondered how in the world he had been talked into THIS. Remembering Haruka's promise, a small smile spread across his face.
That morning looked rather a lot like an old bugs bunny cartoon. Ranma would go somewhere to do something, complete his task and leave just as Nodoka entered the area. One didn't manage to catch sight of the other all day, and there was a noticeable twitch in Nodoka's eye by the end of the day.
At about three forty five, Ranma slipped into the washroom near the front entrance and used the supplies in the gym bag that he had brought along. He had "Gone girl" many times before, and was becoming rather good at quick changes. About three minutes later, a short, busty redhead exited the men's bathroom, causing a nearby guy to trip and fall to the floor. Ranma grinned. Even if she didn't like guys hitting on her, a little bit of feminine pride had snuck into her as her time with the curse had increased, and she couldn't help but get a bit of a jolt at that kind of reaction.
Slipping her card into the pass reader at the front entrance to the race track, Ranma walked in and looked around for a seat. Finding one, she sat in it and began to watch the race. It was an endurance run, about two hours long and on a very large portion of the track. The dirt track coiled like a snake in order to get that much road into such a small area, and Ranma began to understand why Haruka had such good reflexes as she took insanely tight turns at almost full speed.
On the other side of the arena, Nodoka watched as well. She wasn't really all that interested in motorbike racing, but she hadn't been able to get a lead on her son all day and this Mr. Tenoh person was her last hope. He was quite a good racer, at least by the looks of it. He was in first place and second was about twenty bike lengths behind him. She had fallen asleep after the first half an hour of racing, but woke up as the crowd burst into applause. She blinked as she saw a three set of stands in the middle of the race area, Mr. Tenoh standing on the Central one, which was marked "FIRST" in bold lettering.
About five minutes later, Haruka walked out of the "Racers only" area to see someone standing and waiting for her. "Great race, Haruka!" Ranma said, running up to her.
Haruka's eyes almost popped out of her skull as she caught sight of Ranma. She was wearing a green dress, earrings, probably clip on but she couldn't tell, in her ears and her red hair falling down her back without a pigtail. She wasn't wearing any make-up, but really didn't need it. "H… Hi Ranma." Haruka said, almost speechless.
"What's wrong?" Ranma asked, noticing Haruka's hanging jaw.
"Nothing." Haruka said, shaking her head. "I just didn't expect you to look so… beautiful!"
Ranma smirked. "When I dress like a girl, I do it right, ne?"
Haruka just nodded dumbly, before doing something that surprised even herself. She walked forward, embraced Ranma and kissed her full on the lips. "Gmph!" Was all Ranma could say, her eyes widening in surprise. She struggled for a second, but then began to co-operate.
"Hey Tenoh! Get a room!" Someone yelled, causing Haruka and Ranma to break apart. They both flushed red as they saw one of Haruka's fellow racers giving her the victory sign.
'I can't believe I did that.' Haruka thought, looking sidelong at Ranma. 'I wonder what it would feel like with her as a guy? Bad Haruka!' She thought, trying to get those thoughts out of her mind.
'Why did she do that?' Ranma thought, openly staring at Haruka. Bringing a hand up to her lips, she touched them softly. 'It felt really nice, though. The first kiss I've ever had where I was willing to kiss back.' A small, silly smile spread across her face. 'I wonder what it'll be like when I'm a guy?'
The thoughts of the two girls were interrupted by the sound of an older man clearing his throat. "Sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to meet your girlfriend here." The man said, walking up to Haruka.
"Uh.. This is Ran-"
"Ko." Ranma interrupted, smoothly. "Nice to meet you."
"Hello Ranko san. Are you related to our new maintenance man?" The boss asked, looking at her curiously.
"Yes. He's my brother." Ranma said, having decided on a permanent alias for her girl side. After all, Ranma's sister would be expected to know most of the stuff he knew, as well as be in places where he would.
"Well, I'm Mr. Shinyo, his boss. Nice to meet you." The man said, before turning to Haruka. "Quite a catch you got there, Tenoh."
Haruka blushed. "Th… Thank you, sir."
Shinyo chuckled as he walked off. "Make sure to bring her to the party!" He called over his shoulder, leaving for the administrative offices.
The after race locker room festivities had taken a long time and there was only an hour until the big party, so Haruka turned to Ranma. "Do you want to go out and eat or something before we go to the party?"
Ranma grinned happily. "Food, sure." She said, and the two headed for a nearby restaurant. Down the hall from them, Nodoka stood, a look of shock on her face. The girl who she had seen kissing Tenoh san was her child, she was sure of that. Very few people had flaming red hair like that, and fewer still were that short and well built. Nodoka hadn't known that Ranma had really liked men. It had hit her right out of nowhere. Then again, with a curse like the one he had, it was a distinct possibility which she should have thought about. She knew that she had no right to dictate what Ranma should do ever since he had gone Ronin, and that the Seppuku pledge was now a distant memory, but could she really tolerate seeing her child in a relationship with a man? Her thoughts confused, Nodoka staggered down the hall, wondering if she should just give up now and go find her family. Things had just gotten so… confusing.
In the Restaurant, Ranma was happily munching on a plate of Tako Sushi, Haruka across from her with some sort of fish that she couldn't identify. This was a very fancy restaurant, and Ranma couldn't identify most of the foods. She decided to keep with what she knew. Taking another forkful of the food into her mouth, she chewed it slowly, actually enjoying it's flavour. She had really enjoyed this particular part of being away from Nerima. The fact that her father wasn't always stealing her food and that she could enjoy it, that is.
"So What are we supposed ta do at this party?" Ranma asked, out of the blue.
"Just hang around and talk." Haruka explained. "It's supposed to be a place for race sponsors to meet the racers and see if they want anything to do with them. I have to go because I don't have any major sponsors yet."
"Um… Okay." Ranma said, blinking. She wasn't exactly very up on the business world, so let it pass. "I think we gotta go soon, though." She said, looking at the clock at the back of the restaurant. "Yeah, you're right." Haruka said, the two of them getting up and Haruka leaving some money on the table to pay for the food. "The gentleman must pay the bill, right?" She said, grinning at Ranma.
Ranma tried to glare back, really she did, but she just ended up laughing. "C'mon." She said, grabbing Haruka and pulling her out of the restaurant.
Later that night, Ranma stood in the middle of a large party hall, holding a drink of what looked like clear alcohol but was really water. She, in girl form especially, couldn't hold her liquor very well, and generally stayed away from the stuff. Looking around for something to do, she saw Haruka standing and talking to a green haired woman in a business suit. For a second, she felt the stirrings of something that felt kind of like anger, but slightly different. Squashing this strange and downright stupid feeling, Ranma walked over and got into range to hear the conversation the two were having.
"So you're saying that Meiou industries wants to sponsor me?" Haruka asked, a surprised look on her face.
"That's right." Setsuna said, taking a sip from her glass of Champaign. "We will send you a letter outlining our full terms some time tomorrow. We are very interested in you, Mr. Tenoh." For some reason, the woman had a touch of Humour in her voice as she said the last two words.
"Hey Haruka, what's goin on?" Ranma asked, as she walked up to the two.
"Nothing much, Ranko." She said, using Ranma's girl side's fake name. "I was just talking to this woman about something."
"Ah, you must be Mr. Tenoh's girlfriend." Setsuna said, the small thread of humour going all throughout this sentence. Ranma blushed slightly and nodded. Being called anyone's "Girlfriend" would normally cause her to flatten the offender, but this was a special case. "Well, it was nice to meet you two." Setsuna said, walking into the crowd. Ranma could have sworn that her Chi signature just disappeared after she got out of their sight, but she dismissed it as unimportant.
Later that night, Ranma and Haruka were walking home, Ranma with a slightly angry look on her face and Haruka with an apologetic one. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't know he would do that." Haruka said, remembering back to one of her fellow racers groping Ranma's breast during the party.
Ranma looked over at Haruka and the anger disappeared. "I ain't angry at you. I'm angry that I couldn't get more distance." She explained, Remembering what she had done to the offender.
Haruka chuckled. "Where did you get that mallet, anyways?"
Ranma looked sheepish. "My Ex-Fiancée taught me the trick… by using it on me." She explained.
'Ex-Fiancée?' Haruka thought, but just let it slide.
As the two went into the apartment, Haruka grabbed Ranma and kissed her again, as she had done when she had first left the racers only area.
"I'd better get back up to my apartment." Ranma said, pulling away. "Tonight was kinda fun, but I think I wanna turn back to a guy."
Haruka sighed in mock disappointment. "All right. See you tomorrow, okay?"
"sure." Ranma said, as she and Haruka headed upstairs.
As The two parted, not even Ranma's trained Chi senses noticed the fact that they were being watched. From the Time gates, Pluto smiled.
END!