[-]

Nabiki felt the sting of water droplets starting to hit her. She wrapped her arms around Ranma's neck and back in case Ranma had any intentions of pulling away from her kisses. She felt Ranma start to shrink and become more curvy as the transformation occurred. Nabiki pulled Ranma closer as the change occurred getting a feel for just what it was like. Nabiki ceased her kisses to find that Ranma was blushing with a kind of stunned confused look.

Nabiki smiled and pulled the girl after her as she ducked into the stairwell. Ranma pressed her back against the wall as she looked off to the side, her cheeks still flushed an inviting pink. Nabiki could even see a pair of small bumps poking through Ranma's shirt. Ranma's hand trailed up to her lips, and as Nabiki watched Ranma furtively glance in her direction. Ranma's eyes went big and her cheeks became quite red as she noticed that her glance had been observed, and quickly returned to the safety of watching the storm outside.

Nabiki gathered Ranma up in her arms and held her tenderly. She gently traced along Ranma's jawbone as she just enjoyed the feel of their closeness. Ranma continued to look off to the side, but she could feel Ranma relax a little. Slowly Ranma turned back towards her, and she moved in for another kiss. Ranma's blush deepened, but she met her kiss. Hesitantly, tenderly their lips met again.

Nabiki felt a perverse desire to run around the school with her redhead in tow, and proclaim she liked girls so she could watch them squirm, as the kiss broke and she enjoyed the moment of being close with her girlfriend. She leaned in to sample another kiss from her blushing redhead. Ranma started to say something but Nabiki smothered it as their lips met again, and she spliced her fingers through the of ones of Ranma's hand. Nabiki spent what seemed like a long moment enjoying the feeling of closeness as they rested in each others arms enjoying the kiss.

"I think I'm falling for you." Nabiki whispered, as the kiss finally broke.

Ranma held her close, and Nabiki noticed seemed to be in a daze. She couldn't exactly blame her. It occurred to Nabiki that they'd need to be getting back to class shortly. She pulled away, having to fight herself to break the closeness they'd been sharing.

"Stay here, I'll get some hot water."

[-]

Ranma laid his back against the wall as he watched Nabiki leave. He didn't want to see her go. Desires he wasn't well acquainted with tore at him. It wasn't so much that he'd not wanted her to stop but as nice as that had been he'd wanted her to do more, even while he didn't really feel comfortable about her doing more. Such things no longer seemed to be an abstract question to be entertained during a quiet moment when we was alone.

The warm tingly sensation was back, naturally. Previously it had been a kind of pleasant, kind of weird thing that just kind of happened. Now that he had an idea what it was about, he was starting to recognize this body was different. It wasn't like his feelings for Nabiki had really changed, but what he liked or found attractive was slightly different or involved different things about her. Kissing like that when the change had occurred had made it more obvious.

Ranma sat down. He had some things to think about.

[-]

Nabiki found Ranma sitting in the stairwell studying the opposite wall. Nabiki crouched down and touched the redhead's shoulder. Ranma jumped slightly, even though she hid it well. Turning Ranma smiled at her, even as she seemed occupied in her own thoughts. Nabiki put the thermos down, and sat down next to her currently female boyfriend.

"Want to talk about it?" Nabiki offered.

Ranma colored slightly, and shook her head. Nabiki wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "We need to get to class." Nabiki prompted.

Ranma looked at her startled. Nabiki could tell she'd been occupied in thoughts on something. "We can stay like this a few more minutes. Why don't we walk home today?" She suggested.

[-]

Shampoo woke to the sound of rain. Assessing her surroundings Shampoo quickly realized that a large storm was coming in off of the bay. She quickly took down the lean-to and packed it away. It wasn't designed to put up with something like this. She needed to find some proper shelter.

She quickly assessed her four options before deciding to bounce down between this and the next tallest building. With all of the rain that had already come in it was going to be dangerously slippery. Pulling back to get a running start she made her first jump.

[-]

Nabiki changed shoes as she looked around for any sign of Ranma. The storm had yet to let up, and seemed to if anything have intensified over the past hour. She waited a few more minutes for the crowd to break as people worked up the nerve to go out into the storm with or without umbrella.

She felt a tug on her shoulder, and found Ranma standing there wearing a dark jacket that did a passable job of hiding her bust. Ranma must have picked that up off of Ukyo. Dressed like that she made for a passable redheaded pretty boy, although she was not nearly as good as Ukyo at hiding the flaws in the disguise.

Nabiki smiled. "Old school uniform?"

Ranma shrugged and gestured towards the downpour that seemed to be picking up outside the door. "I have an umbrella." Nabiki pointed out, as she slipped a collapsible umbrella out of her shoe locker.

Ranma looked at her skeptically. "You remember why we both started carrying thermoses, and refilling them at every opportunity?"

Nabiki paused as she remembered just how often Ranma seemed to get nailed with water. "It wouldn't help would it?"

Ranma pointed at an umbrella that had been bent back on itself, and Nabiki realized that Ranma was dripping water. She looked at her collapsible umbrella for a moment, and decided to just put it back in the shoe locker. She wasn't in a hurry to buy a new one, and a run in the rain would be... invigorating.

Nabiki heard someone grumbling, and looked over to see her younger sister enter the shoe locker room.

"You okay, Akane?" Ranma asked. Nabiki blinked, she'd not expected that. The two of them didn't seem to get along. Akane glared at Ranma in response to the inquiry, which Ranma just ignored.

"Kaori knocked her out this morning." Nabiki offered.

"Why'd she do that?" Ranma demanded with an edge in her voice.

"I only caught the tail end of it, so I'm not sure on all the details. From what I can tell the two of them got heated, and Akane threw the first punch probably trying to protect me. I'd rather tell you about the rest after Ukyo comes over."

Akane grumbled as she pulled out her umbrella, changed her shoes, and started to make her way for the door.

[-]

Ranma arrived at the Tendo compound soaked to the bone and shivering. Nabiki giggled as they both dripped water in the foyer, and pulled off their shoes. She'd seemed to actually enjoy plotting out a route as they dashed from cover to cover as they'd navigated their way back. Even though it was largely pointless in a storm this intense, it had been a fun exercise. Ranma shared a grin with her, it was nice to see her smile.

Kasumi walking in and handed each of them a large fluffy towel. "Dry off you two." Kasumi commanded, firmly but patiently before shooing them off to the furo changing room.

Ranma turned his back to Nabiki and selected a red one piece swimsuit with blue highlights, as he shucked clothes that had been soaked through with water. As he got ready to slip into the suit he felt his hair being let down, and a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. He stiffened slightly as he felt Nabiki's nipples press into his back.

"Why don't we go sans suits?" She suggested, giving him a little squeeze.

Ranma let her hold him for a few moments as he tried to figure out what he wanted. "Let's take a rain check." He finally got out, managing to make it sound more confident than he felt.

Nabiki pulled away, and Ranma slipped into the swimsuit. Turning he saw Nabiki flick some kind of white plastic tube into the trash. She was wearing a green and black suit this time.

[-]

Ranma realized he had slipped his hand into Nabiki's as they left the furo changing room, still wearing swimsuits. Kasumi had come by to pick up their soaking wet clothes, but hadn't left them new ones. He had a sneaking suspicion that hadn't been an oversight on Kasumi's part. Breaking the contact with Nabiki's hand he reached back and gathered his hair back up, only to have Nabiki tie it back for him.

He turned to find her smiling, and she started to do that thing where her fingers trailed along his face again. "You're being a lot more aggressive than Ukyo was, Nabiki."

Nabiki blinked, and backed off a little. Ranma smiled and relaxed a little. He started to lean in.

"It looks like you two are getting along well." Ranma looked over to find Kasumi looking at them with a big grin.

Ranma felt his color rising. Spotting an opening as Nabiki started to respond, he slipped into her arms, wrapped his arms around her back, and pulled her into a kiss. As he broke the kiss, he grinned in Kasumi's direction. "We've just been talking."

"I see." Kasumi responded with a grin.

Nabiki snaked an arm around his waist. "You see what I have to put up with Kasumi?" Nabiki commented, with her own grin.

"Hey Kasumi, when's dinner..." Soun walked into the room, stopped, and stared.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Ranma asked. "Mr. Tendo are you alright?"

Soun Tendo shook his head after a few more minutes. "Couldn't be better, son." He declared and walked away with an odd spring in his step. Ranma had an odd sense of dread. Before any of them had a chance to break the silence the phone rang, and Kasumi excused herself.

"Want to model for me?" Nabiki asked coyly, as they were left alone.

[-]

"Ukyo just called, she's not going to make it." Kasumi popped her head in to Nabiki's room to find Ranma posing suggestively in her swimsuit on Nabiki's bed while working on some homework. Nabiki in turn was sitting in her chair with a lap desk, and appeared to be switching between sketching and doing her homework. The music from some rock band that Nabiki had taken a liking to recently was playing in the background from Nabiki's boombox. It appeared that neither of them had bothered to change yet.

Kasumi smiled, the two of them seemed to be getting along very well. It was good to see Nabiki happy again, it was especially a nice turn around from this morning. Kasumi was surprised to notice that both Ranma and Nabiki looked disappointed at the news. Maybe they could all be friends.

[-]

Nabiki put down her sketchbook, there was no point waiting for Ukyo to show up. Ranma was stretched out on her bed, so she encouraged Ranma to move over a little, and propped herself up next to the redhead. The bed wasn't that large so there was only a few centimeters between them. As she settled down, she glanced over and noticed Ranma's cheeks had taken on a rosy hue. Smirking Nabiki wrapped an arm around Ranma's waist.

She explained how Kaori and her father had confronted her, and taken down Akane. She explained how Kaori had made subtly made the threat of physical violence clear, while her father had dangled the carrot. How she'd turned down their "offer" and turned the tables on them. She was feeling rather proud with herself as she moved on to talking about her challenge.

Ranma looked at her with her curiosity clearly engaged. "So what's the plan?"

"I was thinking we'd open an Okonomiyaki restaurant. There's none in the local area, and from what Ukyo said she should know some family recipes that have had previous success in a restaurant capacity. I can get my Dad to pull a few strings to get the permits, and help secure a place. We can use that money we raised from all the people coming to challenge you to cover the down payment on the place and equipment. We can contact that woman you talked about to see if she can help with decorating. I can take care of the business side, Kasumi can help cook, Akane can waitress and bounce anyone who tries to sabotage us, and you can handle the take out runs. I'm sure they'll be plenty of fights along the way to keep you occupied."

Ranma smiled. "And what if we lose?"

"If we win that should send a message for them to keep their paws off. If we lose you treat her to a polite date, and we're just back where we started with Ukyo now in a better position to help. Either way it's a win."

"Aren't you afraid Ukyo will steal me away?" Ranma asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"I'd rather it be her than them." Nabiki pulled the redhead towards her. Now that she had Ranma, she didn't have any intention of allowing anyone to take Ranma away from her.

[-]

Ranma blinked groggily, and looked around in confusion. This wasn't the guest room, it almost looked like Nabiki's room? Something squeezed him and shifted, as it made a slight moan. Wha? He groggily looked around, and started to move, but something was weighing down his right side and a good portion of his left.

"Nabiki?" He asked. The weight lying on top of him shifted a little more, and realization finally dawned on him what it was, as he started to wake up more.

"Ten more minutes, Kasumi." Nabiki grumbled groggily, as her grip tightened and she pulled him against her before settling down again with consistent pattern to her breathing.

Ranma tried to remember how he'd gotten into this situation. The last thing he'd remembered was talking with Nabiki about the details of how the restaurant was going to work, and what constituted a reasonable range for deliveries related to things like time per delivery and vulnerability to attack. Then he'd laid his head down for a second to rest his eyes, and... He must have fallen asleep. After a moment's consideration Ranma decided it didn't really matter, they were still both girls so the worst he was going to get was a lecture.

After taking a moment to figure out that Nabiki was basically sleeping on top of him with her arm wrapped around his waist, he decided he was fine where he was. He really didn't feel like moving right now, and he had some things to think about.

[-]

Author's Notes:

This ended up kind of risque, I guess. Does it count when it's not lust for lust's sake, and they may or may not have reached 1st base depending upon whose standards you're using?

After some debate it seems more natural to slice this as it's own chapter, and move properly into the next arc with the next chapter.