A/N: Well, here it is. The chapter that everyone has been wanting to read ever since I first began this massacre of the great Rumiko Takahashi's beloved world of martial arts and comedy. Ukyo and Nabiki finally come to terms with just how they feel about each other. Of course, a bunch of stupidity precedes it.
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"Ranma, you jerk!" Akane shouted for the fifth time that day as she smacked him over the head with a bokken. (A/N: See, I know the word now!) While it was true that they had admitted their feelings to each other, it didn't change their personalities. He was still obnoxious and she was still angry.
"What was that for?" he shouted back as he rubbed the bump on his head. "You psychotic macho chick."
Ukyo watched as they engaged in idle arguments as they had always done before. She just smiled, finally over the initial heartbreak of being dumped once and for all by the only man she could have loved. Hinako just scribbled pictures of kittens on the blackboard until Ranma began yelling, when she promptly sucked his ki dry.
"Naughty children really need to learn their lessons," the teacher said as all of the boys in the class ogled her. Well, except for Ranma, having been the one to be ki-sucked. "Now who's next?"
Bored of the nonsense, Ukyo stood up and walked out of class. Nobody noticed, as Happosai had somehow entered the classroom and latched himself onto the teacher's behind. Furinkan High tended to be like that.
"And wha' you be doin'?" a middle-aged man in Hawaiian garb asked her. "You bes' be getting' back to class."
"Shut up," Ukyo shouted as she smacked him with her large spatula. He flew into a wall. For some reason, she wasn't in the mood for him today. All she wanted to do was get away. Maybe she could open Ucchan's. They could always use some more money. Running a business wasn't as easy as some people could make it look.
She walked calmly down the street, looking at the people going about their everyday lives. Things really were much calmer when the martial artists were occupied somewhere else.
A fire truck raced by, breaking the calm. Ukyo briefly wondered whose house was burning. It wasn't uncommon for things to catch fire while everyone was fighting. This must've just been a normal fire, though. After all, everyone was at school. Except for the Chinese and Ryoga.
"Did you hear? That okonomiyaki shop is on fire," an old woman yelled across the street to her neighbour.
That caught Ukyo's attention. She asked the old woman which one, but the crone couldn't remember so she went back to splashing water on her plants.
Wind blew her hair behind her as she ran. It couldn't have happened. Even after Nabiki moved in, she made sure that everything was off before she left for the day. She hoped that it wasn't Ucchan's. That restaurant was all she had left of her life.
After she turned the last corner, Ukyo screamed and fell to her knees. Her business, her home, her livelihood was lit worse than Happosai on a Saturday night.
"Hah ha. Now Ukyo girl know not challenge Shampoo," the Amazon warrior declared as she landed next to the okonomiyaki chef. "Shampoo better in every way. Strength, skill, and restaurant. Cat Café last much longer than pitiful Ukyo shop."
"You did this!" Ukyo shouted angrily with a tear-soaked voice as she swung her large spatula at the other warrior with all her might. Shampoo easily dodged and kicked the weapon out of Ukyo's hands.
"Shampoo no do. But Ukyo know better than attack Shampoo."
Then someone grabbed the owner of the flaming restaurant from behind while crying the name of her nemesis. Unfortunately, his hands were on the wrong place as he did this. Ukyo screamed before booting him across the skyline.
"Stupid Mousse," Shampoo muttered as she watched him fly off. "Shampoo much more beautiful than plain Ukyo."
Tired of the insults, Ukyo retrieved her spatula and jumped at the Chinese warrior. Shampoo dodged the downward swing with extreme ease.
"Shampoo, Ukyo, cease," Cologne ordered when she arrived at the scene. The teenagers stopped and looked at the elder martial artist.
"What do you want, Ghoul?" Ukyo asked curiously as she strapped her spatula onto her back. "Come to gloat?"
Cologne shook her head and beckoned her great-granddaughter's rival. She held up several photographs. Ukyo took them and looked the pictures over, each one making her eyes bigger than the last. They clearly showed an old man and a large ox-like beast with tentacles traveling from rooftop to rooftop, fighting savagely. Then the next to last one showed them above Ucchan's Okonomiyaki. The old man, clearly Happosai, was throwing one of his "Happo Fire Bursts" at the monster.
"That old man!" Ukyo shouted as she dropped the photos. "I'll kill him!"
After she ran off in search of Happosai, Shampoo picked up the photos. She glanced at the one Ukyo hadn't and her face paled. "Great-grandmother? Why you have picture of naked Ryoga?"
"Never you mind," the old woman blushed as she snatched the picture and hid it within the folds of her clothes.
---
"So, what're you doing tonight?" Akane asked Nabiki as the sisters prepared to leave for the day. "Another shift at Ucchan's? We never see you at home anymore."
"And you won't," Nabiki admitted. "I'm happy where I am. Nothing could drag me back to that place. I almost got married the last time I went there. Now I know why you and Ranma hated it so much."
Akane had to turn away. She just couldn't keep from blushing.
"Sis," Nabiki started awkwardly. "I'm sorry you had to find out like that."
The expression on Akane's face made her glad that she wasn't facing Nabiki.
"Find out about what?"
"Well, um, about… you know…" the greedy one continued as she uncharacteristically tripped over her words. "What I'm trying to say is: I'm sorry you had to find out about P-Chan that way."
Akane sweatdropped like nobody in Nerima ever had before. Before she could respond, they both noticed their father running towards them.
"Well, if it isn't my daughters!" Soun cried as he gathered them up in his arms. "Imagine meeting you here."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "We're at school. The question is: why are you here? Don't you have some mess of Ranma's or Happosai's to be cleaning up."
"Actually…" their father's lips curved into an evil smile. "I came here to talk to your principal."
The two looked at each, both wondering what the other had done that was so serious their father needed to get involved. Then again, now that Akane and Ranma were together, he had way too much free time.
"You see, Nabiki…"
"Aha!" Akane cried as she pointed at her sister. "I knew it was about you!"
Rolling her eyes, Nabiki asked her father just what was going on.
"Well," he said as he stroked his moustache nervously. "Now that Akane and Ranma have happily accepted their engagement, I felt it only right to work on my next child. I thought long and hard, and have chosen a young man of considerable fortune…"
"No!" Nabiki shouted, quickly putting the pieces together. "You didn't… You wouldn't…"
"I will not marry Nabiki Tendo! My love is only for Akane!"
"What about me?" Ranma could be heard asking in female form. After a declaration of love for his 'pigtailed girl,' the three soon heard Ranma scream something before the familiar sound of a booting rang throughout the halls. Akane wondered what she saw in the pigtailed martial artist.
"Old man." Nabiki looked at Soun in a way that nobody thought she could look at anyone. The only emotions the population at large knew Nabiki to hold were greed and dislike. Akane also knew of one far greater. But this, this was something new. This was something that brought the tears to her father's eyes in a way that Ranma and Akane never could. "I hate you."
With those crushing words, the middle Tendo daughter walked away.
---
Ukyo screamed for Happosai for hours on end, but could find no trace of the old man. She gave up and sat on a conveniently placed park bench. A little black pig soon made its way to her, dragging a heavy-looking backpack.
"Howdy, Ryoga," she said as she handed the pig a tea kettle. It disappeared into a nearby bush, and the melancholy martial artist soon stepped out and took his place beside her on the bench. The chef smiled at him. "You're looking better."
"Hitting Mousse tends to have that affect," he stated simply. Then he looked at Ukyo and smiled back before turning away nervously. "Um, now that Akane and Ranma are together, do you…"
"Do I what?" she asked after ten minutes of his fidgeting around the question.
Rather than answering with words, he leaned over and kissed her in a very un-Ryoga move. Ukyo smashed him upside the head with her spatula.
"What are you doing?" she shrieked. "You… you… YOU PERVERT!"
She booted him into the air despite his cry of "Why did I listen to Ranma?"
Infuriated, she stomped off, once more in search of the oldest and biggest pervert of them all.
---
Three martial artists soared high above the skies of Tokyo. Above one certain house, they also collided and began to fall.
---
It wasn't long before the angry business partners found each other. When Nabiki heard what had happened to their restaurant, she became even so angry that even Kasumi would've cowered.
"We're going to find that pervert and make him pay!" declared the middle Tendo. They clasped each others' hand for support as they marched in the direction of the Tendo Dojo.
---
"Welcome home," Kasumi called as her father, Ranma, and Akane walked through the front door. "Dinner will be ready shortly."
Nobody said anything. Akane was furious at her father for doing such a thing to Nabiki, Soun was depressed at being frozen out by two of his daughters, and Ranma had been bound and gagged by Akane so that she wouldn't have to listen to his stupidity on the walk home.
Akane dropped Ranma off in his room before continuing on to her own. She found Happosai going through her underwear and then proceeded to throw any sharp or heavy thing at him that she could find. Every one of them missed.
He leapt out the window with his tongue sticking out before something rather large fell from the sky and landed on him. When she looked out the window, Akane saw the dazed bodies of the ancient master, Kuno, Mousse, and Ryoga. Calling out the name of the last one, she ran down the stairs and out into the back yard to take him in her arms.
"Are you okay, Ryoga?" she cried as she picked Happosai up and threw him to the side to make room for her friend to lie down more comfortably.
"A-Akane?" he asked weakly while searching for her hand. She grabbed it and held it close to her chest. "Do you… hate me?"
"Of course not," she laughed softly.
He immediately sprang up and began dancing joyously. "She doesn't hate me! She doesn't hate me! She doesn't hate me!"
"We get the point," Ranma shouted as he stuck his foot in Ryoga's face to calm the boy down. "Now, did you do that favour for me?"
"I tried…" he admitted with a bit of shame. "It just didn't feel, right, though. Why is it any of our business what Ukyo does?"
Akane stuck herself between the boys and looked at both of them angrily. "What this about Ukyo? What are you two up to?"
Ranma chuckled as he stretched his hand behind his head. "Well, you see, Mousse and Kuno were telling this horrible lie about Ucchan and your sister, so I thought I'd have Ryoga see if it was true."
"Liar!" Ryoga shouted angrily. "You asked me to seduce her, and all I got was booted!"
"It's not my fault that you're not man enough to fix her," Ranma retorted before being hit in the head with and unconscious Happosai.
"So, you're the one that sent him after me," Ukyo accused as she began to beat Ranma with Happposai. The young man ran off, and Ukyo threw the letch at him.
Akane looked around and saw Nabiki glaring angrily at Kuno's unconscious form.
"How long have you been here?" Akane asked as she approached her sister. When she got close enough, the swordsman leapt up and tried to embrace her only to be booted into a tree. "I thought you weren't coming back."
"Plans changed," Nabiki said cryptically as she watched Ukyo chase Ranma. Happosai still lay on the ground without any signs of waking up. Having three teenage boys crush you into the ground could do that to even the most vigorous of martial artists.
There was no way that Akane could've missed the smile on her sister's face as she watched the okonomiyaki chef attempt to beat Ranma up. Ryoga had mysteriously vanished. Probably got lost trying to follow Akane.
"Are you happy?" was all the youngest Tendo daughter wanted to know.
Caught off guard by the question, all Nabiki could do was nod.
"That's good."
---
That night, after everyone found out the fate of Ucchan's Okonomiyaki, Nabiki and Ukyo were invited to stay overnight. Back in her old room, Nabiki smiled at her friend.
"Who would've thought that we'd be back here, huh? And Ranma trying to get you to fall in love with Ryoga? Hilarious."
"Why did that Taro guy show up and take the old man?" Ukyo asked.
"Long story," was all Nabiki would give up.
An uncomfortable silence fell over them once again. Sitting on Nabiki's bed, they just stared at each other. Ukyo's cheeks turned red after a few minutes and she had to look away.
"What?"
"I was just wondering what we're going to do now that we've lost Ucchan's. You can stay here forever, but I can't. Your family doesn't seem to be too fond of me. The panda and his wife kept giving me sideward glances, and your father just refused to look at me at all," Ukyo confessed. "I'm just going to pack up tomorrow and go on a journey. Maybe I'll search Japan for the old pervert so that I can wreak some revenge."
"Something tells me your odds of finding him are better if you stay here," Nabiki grinned. She took Ukyo's hands in hers. "Besides, if you leave, I'm coming with you. Whether my dad likes it or not, you're an important part of my life now. There's no way I'll let myself be left behind."
Ukyo didn't know what to say. "Nabiki?"
"Yes?" the capitalist asked as she tightened her grip on Ukyo and shifted closer to her.
"There's something outside."
Nabiki turned her head and saw every member of her family peering from various angles. Taking a page from Akane's book, she threw her lamp out and struck many of them in the process.
"You do realize that if you come with me, it'll be rigorous and you won't be able to make any money."
"Haven't I told you that you mean more to me than money?" Nabiki assured her. "Besides, I told you, you're not going anywhere. I'd mailed in an insurance premium a few days ago. We can just rebuild Ucchan's and make another go at it."
Happy at the good news, Ukyo threw her arms around Nabiki and drew her into a hug. "Thank you. This means more to me than you could ever imagine. This is the most amazing thing ever!"
Surprised at how much she enjoyed it, Nabiki melted into the embrace and slid her own arms around Ukyo's torso, pulling the other girl even closer. Ukyo looked at her with a gasp before smiling.
"Well, okay, maybe it's not," the chef admitted. A goofy grin on her face, she asked a question Nabiki thought nobody ever would. "You love me, don't you?"
With reflexes better than most martial artists, Nabiki stood up, knocking Ukyo off the bed and onto the floor. She was Nabiki Tendo. She believed in money. Love was something that she had nothing to do with. Those traps were for more simple-minded people like her sister. Nabiki Tendo didn't fall for such things. She couldn't. it wasn't in her to fall in love. Besides, wasn't she the unlovable one?
"I…" Ukyo's voice cracked with pain and confusion as she looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was doing."
Smiling weakly, Nabiki sat next to Ukyo and put her arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "You were reading my mind."
Ukyo looked up in surprised as the tears forming in her eyes were wiped away with a tender gentleness. Her face was so close to Nabiki's. While she'd felt things for Ranma, those feelings had never been returned. Now that she was on the receiving end… The world seemed like it would be a lot less lonely from now on.
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A/N: …And, there you have it. The end of The Love of Dough. When this fic was first posted, I figured it would be something to work on when my other two fics gave me writer's block, but it soon became more important to me. While I'm sure many of you are disappointed that there isn't some big kiss or some overly dramatic coming out scene, I felt like this ending was much more powerful in its subtlety.
As for the rest of the characters and their fates: well, make it up yourselves. That's what fanfiction is for.
And now I offer my sincerest of thanks to all who have reviewed, and a special thank you to Rumiko Takahashi for giving the world such wonderful examples of life and stupidity :)