Mark of the Wolves/ Ranma 1/2
Quiet Control Chapter 8
Cold Evening
"Ryoga?"
"Ryoga couldn't find his way to the basket if you sat him under it, probably end up scoring more points for the home team."
"Well, Mousse..."
"Has about as good an aim as Ryoga has directions."
"......"
"You don't even have to say it, Akane. Shampoo ain't gonna be concentrating much on the game than the fact that she'll be on the same team as me, and Ukyo ain't gonna be much better."
"But besides you and me, we need a third person or we'll have to forfeit, and..."
"HEY! I ain't giv'n up to nobody, and whaddya mean 'you and me'?"
Akane just stuck her tongue out before replying, "it's not as if you have a whole team lined up right now, you're gonna need all the help you can get. And since I'm probably the only compotent basketball player you know..."
"I guess, just not a compotent martial artist," Ranma quipped back.
"Hmph, so you say," replied Akane almost non-chalantly as she removed her fist from Ranma's face, "So that still only leaves two of us and we need a third who knows how to play basketball and practices martial arts.." Akane scowled before continuing, "I GUESS Ukyo's our best bet..."
"Yeah, good idea there, tomboy, you and Ukyo on the same team. May as well ask Shampoo to take my place and..." Ranma didn't even get a chance to finish that thought as he was sleeping quite uncomfortably under the diningroom table.
"Oh my, I guess I'll have to order another dining table," exclaimed Kasumi from the kitchen, I don't know what we would do without that deal Nabiki got us from that furniture store, tables can be so expensive sometimes."
"I wonder how Nabiki's date is going right now," pondered Akane.
"Oh, I'm sure she's having a wonderful time, oh dear, it's been such a long time since I've seen her with a guy, she must had been lonely..."
_______________________________________________________________________
"How many times do I have to ask you to turn up the heat?" exhaulted short burly man with the funny mustache.
"But boss, it's already turned up to 80 degrees, I think thermostat is broken," replied the head waiter in a horrid French accent.
"For the last time QUIT TALKING LIKE THAT! You're from Osaka from crying out loud and you've never been to France, it's getting on my nerves," bellowed the manager of the establishment, "and get someone down here to get it fixed then! Our customers are leaving because it's so uncomfortable in here."
Well, the owner of the establishment was partially correct, as much of the patrons were rather uncomfortable. But it wasn't so much from the temperature than it was the couple that sat at one of the mid tables of the restaurant.
Never let it be said that Nabiki couldn't display a battle aura, though it's rare for anyone to cause her to break her cool, or for that matter, force her to become any more frigid. Rock himself didn't exactly harbor any warm feelings towards his 'date' at the moment, with his own aura being just as freezing as any artic wind. Between the two, it was expectant of an upcoming ice age...
"So..." started Rock with no mirth warm emotion in his voice, "is everything to your liking?"
"The service is terrible, the food is cold, the waiter is grating on my last nerve with that idiotic accent, and the company...." Nabiki turned her head sharply away as if she was disgusted with her present 'date'.
"Well, I DO apologise, as you were the one who had suggested the restaurant," retorted Rock as he rapped his fingertips upon the table in annoyance. Of all his battles previous, Rock had almost always came out on top, no matter what the opponent. His cool demeanor during battle and brilliant ability for flash predictions combined with his aptitude for stratagy in the heat of things had served him no matter who opposed him, until recently.
He's been courteus for the past hour or so, yet gotten nothing but angst back for it, even his tolerance was coming to it's limits as he finally turned as callous as Nabiki had been towards him. He had far gone beyond regretting agreeing towards this date, and was now just simply following through the motions so that he may survive long enough for the night to end.
"We can go home now," said Nabiki mechanically, holding her resentment from her voice like a paper dam holding back the Mississippi. Rock hadn't been fooled by her emotionless replies at any time, she resented him more than he had known any enemy to hold against him, and for once, he DID care what a person thought of him, because for this time it was completly unwarrented.
"My father died when I was five.." stated Rock matter-of-factly.
Nabiki was taken aback by this sudden admittance, "and why, pray tell, would I care to know this?"
As if not hearing her, Rock continued, "Not that I really knew much about my father, I spent little time with him or my mother. My birth father was always... busy, while my mother would occationally come to spend time with me when I was an infant, or so I was told."
"When my father was killed, I had seen the whole thing, watched as he let go of the hand that had defeated him, and had sought to save him. At that point, I did not think that this man could be my father, he was just some man who... who.." Rock took a moment to fortify his emotional barriers before continuing, "I confronted the man who had attempted to save my father, even as I knew that Geese Howard wanted this man dead and spared nothing to torment him."
"We did not even say a word to each other as we stared at each other for the longest time, before coming to a wordless agreement when he finally and simply stated for me to come with him. For eleven years I trained with Terry, learning about martial arts and something I knew now my father would never had let me learn, people. From Terry I learned more about humility and dicipline and peace than I could have from under the care of my birth father, or his servants."
"After a while I was content to have nothing to do with anything associated with the name "Howard". Then after that, I did become curious about my heritage, apart from just my father. Terry made efforts to avoid the subject, and even Mai, Andy, Mary, and Joe stayed tight-lipped on it also. It wasn't until my first participation into the King of Fighters Tournament that Terry struck a deal with me, that I would find out a bit more about my family if I were to defeat him."
Rock gave a bit of a chuckle, suprising Nabiki a bit more as he continued, "Terry did not make it easy for me, but I beat him. He promised to tell me everything I wanted to know after the Tournament, only he did not get that chance, for my Uncle happened to be the final participant in the tournament, and offered to help me locate my mother."
"Terry wasn't happy about my decision, but he did honor it. At that moment, I betrayed the one person who had been like a father to me, I probably hurt him much farther than my birth parent had ever done, and if you want a reason to hate me, that is the best one you can have."
Rock tossed the napkin he had on his lap onto the table and signaled for their waiter that they were ready to go.
During the blond haired young man's monologue, Nabiki managed to catch more than a few emotional leaks in his voice, ranging from pleasent to near total self resentment, at no time did he direct spite towards her or even his own original father. She could tell he was more than genuine in his story, and it was more than obvious that he did not condone his father's past actions. But then again, she thought, it could be a well concieved act on his behalf, one practiced many a time to gain someone's trust. There was only one way to find out...
"What do you want to do now?" asked Nabiki in a more relaxed tone a voice than she's used for him since she found out who he was.
"I want to get back so I can be gone from your life, as fast as it would make you happy," replied Rock, with not a little amount of sulleness and acid in his voice. That even managed to take Nabiki back, since her guard had dropped ever so slightly to allow the words to sting.
To her credit she did not let on, "I mean for the rest of this night, it is not a proper date if you just planned on taking me out to dinner."
Rock was definatly suprised at his date's change in attitude, "I.. did not have anything else planned for the night.."
"What is your favorite type of music?" enquired Nabiki, already having ideas on what could follow next. "Um, Rock and Roll, but..."
"Then I know where you can take me next....."
_______________________________________________________________________
The more she told herself that it was a business oppurtunity, the less she started to believe it. Nabiki enjoyed making money, it was to her the most entertaining thing she could ever be involved in.
Unfortunatly the fun she was having right now seemed much a different feeling from what she usually felt when accomplishing a business ordeal. The middle Tendou sister clearly underestimated the Blond foreign boy who was up on stage playing bass to some woman singing a more than decent rendition of Bonnie Pink's "Kako to Genjitsu". Not underestimation by guile or such, but his endearment and heart, clearly not what she was expecting from one who's the child of Asia's greatist crime boss.
Rock himself found he was opening up a bit more to the girl who held a remarkable impression of an Ice Queen, at least now that she wasn't treating him like hazardous waste.
He contemplated as he let his fingers coax the musical instrument in his hands to sing it's baritone voice. He hadn't been in this town before, but apparently the club/bar owner recognized him from gigs he's done in the past to allow him to sit in on a few songs. No sooner did he start, was he able to at least sort out some of the things that have happened since the day before, which allowed him to come to some conclusions and resolved to ask some questions.
Rock's smile grew a bit broader when he noticed his date for the evening among the majority of the audience applauding for him.
"You enjoyed yourself?" asked Rock, actually awaiting for a denial, despite his premonitions, he wasn't disappointed of the answer.
"Yes," replied Nabiki a bit faster than she intended to, chiding herself for that slight.
Rock checked his watch after getting over the mild suprise of her frank answer, "well, it is getting late now, we should be going back now before anyone worries about you."
"Always speaking so formally, at least you're not as arrogant as Kuno-baby," quipped Nabiki, giving taunt to Rock Howard's only too formal speech patterns.
"It is the way I had learned to speak Japanese," answered the young blond man as he took the money handed to him as gratitude for performing with the band, who's lead Bass player had taken a sudden leave.
"Yer'a livesaver kid," stated one of the bandmembers as they began to pack up their equipment, "Iori's prolly run across someone he's had a mad-on for again," the man shuddered as he recalled the 10 year fued that his co-member has had with some guy named Kusanagi, nasty ordeal, that one.
_______________________________________________________________________
Nabiki and Rock headed back towards the Tendou Dojo, the silence between them speaking of anything but indifference between the two as they contemplated the dramatic change in attitudes towards each other. Eventually one of them had to break it.
"Um, Nabiki, I have to ask, what is with the change of heart?"
"Not one to mince words," Nabiki thought to herself, then decided to be frank and tell him what she thought was the truth, "I figured that you would be better off as an associate than an enemy, I mean if your family is as powerful as I've heard, it wouldn't do to be on your bad side, would it?"
Nabiki found the few seconds of silence a bit more discomforting than she anticipated as she saw Rock's smile fade to a sullen look before he replied.
"Ah." Rock waited a few more moments before continuing, "you should know, that do not intend to have any part in the previous dealings of my blood father. I hope you can believe that sometime."
Nabiki flinched as Rock spoke. It wasn't what he said, but what he implied in his tone. She's delt with this tone of voice many times in many other dealings, exactly why is it now starting to feel a bit more... personal?
"I... I'm sorry about how I've treated you earlier."
Rock was a bit taken aback by the older girl's apology, even knowing her for as short a time as he had, he knew an apology would not come easy from her, "I guess it is okay, it is easy to draw the wrong conclusions with the knowlege of my lineage."
"Mebbe we can start over on this," suggested Nabiki, finding her mouth out of control from her brain, guided by a different organ.
Nabiki felt Rock stiffen suddenly, "Uh, something wrong with that idea?"
"Run," was the only reply Rock gave her. Before Nabiki could question, the corner of her eye caught what appeared to be a ghost.
White porcelyn mask framed by oily orange/red hair with a black shroud draped over a body that seemed to glide smoothly but with unfluid motions. Rock dropped into fighting stance, as years of experience of living in Nerima forced Nabiki to do what every native of the area knew to do when a fight was about to commence, run far far away.
As in a mockery of manners, the seemingly spectral figure began to bow, and as doing so, diagnal warpings in the air glided down his front as if the very space the seared through was torn. Freeman returned from his bow and the silken shrowd he was wearing slid from his body like shadows surrendering to something even darker than themselves.
"Hello.... boy."
Quiet Control Chapter 8
Cold Evening
"Ryoga?"
"Ryoga couldn't find his way to the basket if you sat him under it, probably end up scoring more points for the home team."
"Well, Mousse..."
"Has about as good an aim as Ryoga has directions."
"......"
"You don't even have to say it, Akane. Shampoo ain't gonna be concentrating much on the game than the fact that she'll be on the same team as me, and Ukyo ain't gonna be much better."
"But besides you and me, we need a third person or we'll have to forfeit, and..."
"HEY! I ain't giv'n up to nobody, and whaddya mean 'you and me'?"
Akane just stuck her tongue out before replying, "it's not as if you have a whole team lined up right now, you're gonna need all the help you can get. And since I'm probably the only compotent basketball player you know..."
"I guess, just not a compotent martial artist," Ranma quipped back.
"Hmph, so you say," replied Akane almost non-chalantly as she removed her fist from Ranma's face, "So that still only leaves two of us and we need a third who knows how to play basketball and practices martial arts.." Akane scowled before continuing, "I GUESS Ukyo's our best bet..."
"Yeah, good idea there, tomboy, you and Ukyo on the same team. May as well ask Shampoo to take my place and..." Ranma didn't even get a chance to finish that thought as he was sleeping quite uncomfortably under the diningroom table.
"Oh my, I guess I'll have to order another dining table," exclaimed Kasumi from the kitchen, I don't know what we would do without that deal Nabiki got us from that furniture store, tables can be so expensive sometimes."
"I wonder how Nabiki's date is going right now," pondered Akane.
"Oh, I'm sure she's having a wonderful time, oh dear, it's been such a long time since I've seen her with a guy, she must had been lonely..."
_______________________________________________________________________
"How many times do I have to ask you to turn up the heat?" exhaulted short burly man with the funny mustache.
"But boss, it's already turned up to 80 degrees, I think thermostat is broken," replied the head waiter in a horrid French accent.
"For the last time QUIT TALKING LIKE THAT! You're from Osaka from crying out loud and you've never been to France, it's getting on my nerves," bellowed the manager of the establishment, "and get someone down here to get it fixed then! Our customers are leaving because it's so uncomfortable in here."
Well, the owner of the establishment was partially correct, as much of the patrons were rather uncomfortable. But it wasn't so much from the temperature than it was the couple that sat at one of the mid tables of the restaurant.
Never let it be said that Nabiki couldn't display a battle aura, though it's rare for anyone to cause her to break her cool, or for that matter, force her to become any more frigid. Rock himself didn't exactly harbor any warm feelings towards his 'date' at the moment, with his own aura being just as freezing as any artic wind. Between the two, it was expectant of an upcoming ice age...
"So..." started Rock with no mirth warm emotion in his voice, "is everything to your liking?"
"The service is terrible, the food is cold, the waiter is grating on my last nerve with that idiotic accent, and the company...." Nabiki turned her head sharply away as if she was disgusted with her present 'date'.
"Well, I DO apologise, as you were the one who had suggested the restaurant," retorted Rock as he rapped his fingertips upon the table in annoyance. Of all his battles previous, Rock had almost always came out on top, no matter what the opponent. His cool demeanor during battle and brilliant ability for flash predictions combined with his aptitude for stratagy in the heat of things had served him no matter who opposed him, until recently.
He's been courteus for the past hour or so, yet gotten nothing but angst back for it, even his tolerance was coming to it's limits as he finally turned as callous as Nabiki had been towards him. He had far gone beyond regretting agreeing towards this date, and was now just simply following through the motions so that he may survive long enough for the night to end.
"We can go home now," said Nabiki mechanically, holding her resentment from her voice like a paper dam holding back the Mississippi. Rock hadn't been fooled by her emotionless replies at any time, she resented him more than he had known any enemy to hold against him, and for once, he DID care what a person thought of him, because for this time it was completly unwarrented.
"My father died when I was five.." stated Rock matter-of-factly.
Nabiki was taken aback by this sudden admittance, "and why, pray tell, would I care to know this?"
As if not hearing her, Rock continued, "Not that I really knew much about my father, I spent little time with him or my mother. My birth father was always... busy, while my mother would occationally come to spend time with me when I was an infant, or so I was told."
"When my father was killed, I had seen the whole thing, watched as he let go of the hand that had defeated him, and had sought to save him. At that point, I did not think that this man could be my father, he was just some man who... who.." Rock took a moment to fortify his emotional barriers before continuing, "I confronted the man who had attempted to save my father, even as I knew that Geese Howard wanted this man dead and spared nothing to torment him."
"We did not even say a word to each other as we stared at each other for the longest time, before coming to a wordless agreement when he finally and simply stated for me to come with him. For eleven years I trained with Terry, learning about martial arts and something I knew now my father would never had let me learn, people. From Terry I learned more about humility and dicipline and peace than I could have from under the care of my birth father, or his servants."
"After a while I was content to have nothing to do with anything associated with the name "Howard". Then after that, I did become curious about my heritage, apart from just my father. Terry made efforts to avoid the subject, and even Mai, Andy, Mary, and Joe stayed tight-lipped on it also. It wasn't until my first participation into the King of Fighters Tournament that Terry struck a deal with me, that I would find out a bit more about my family if I were to defeat him."
Rock gave a bit of a chuckle, suprising Nabiki a bit more as he continued, "Terry did not make it easy for me, but I beat him. He promised to tell me everything I wanted to know after the Tournament, only he did not get that chance, for my Uncle happened to be the final participant in the tournament, and offered to help me locate my mother."
"Terry wasn't happy about my decision, but he did honor it. At that moment, I betrayed the one person who had been like a father to me, I probably hurt him much farther than my birth parent had ever done, and if you want a reason to hate me, that is the best one you can have."
Rock tossed the napkin he had on his lap onto the table and signaled for their waiter that they were ready to go.
During the blond haired young man's monologue, Nabiki managed to catch more than a few emotional leaks in his voice, ranging from pleasent to near total self resentment, at no time did he direct spite towards her or even his own original father. She could tell he was more than genuine in his story, and it was more than obvious that he did not condone his father's past actions. But then again, she thought, it could be a well concieved act on his behalf, one practiced many a time to gain someone's trust. There was only one way to find out...
"What do you want to do now?" asked Nabiki in a more relaxed tone a voice than she's used for him since she found out who he was.
"I want to get back so I can be gone from your life, as fast as it would make you happy," replied Rock, with not a little amount of sulleness and acid in his voice. That even managed to take Nabiki back, since her guard had dropped ever so slightly to allow the words to sting.
To her credit she did not let on, "I mean for the rest of this night, it is not a proper date if you just planned on taking me out to dinner."
Rock was definatly suprised at his date's change in attitude, "I.. did not have anything else planned for the night.."
"What is your favorite type of music?" enquired Nabiki, already having ideas on what could follow next. "Um, Rock and Roll, but..."
"Then I know where you can take me next....."
_______________________________________________________________________
The more she told herself that it was a business oppurtunity, the less she started to believe it. Nabiki enjoyed making money, it was to her the most entertaining thing she could ever be involved in.
Unfortunatly the fun she was having right now seemed much a different feeling from what she usually felt when accomplishing a business ordeal. The middle Tendou sister clearly underestimated the Blond foreign boy who was up on stage playing bass to some woman singing a more than decent rendition of Bonnie Pink's "Kako to Genjitsu". Not underestimation by guile or such, but his endearment and heart, clearly not what she was expecting from one who's the child of Asia's greatist crime boss.
Rock himself found he was opening up a bit more to the girl who held a remarkable impression of an Ice Queen, at least now that she wasn't treating him like hazardous waste.
He contemplated as he let his fingers coax the musical instrument in his hands to sing it's baritone voice. He hadn't been in this town before, but apparently the club/bar owner recognized him from gigs he's done in the past to allow him to sit in on a few songs. No sooner did he start, was he able to at least sort out some of the things that have happened since the day before, which allowed him to come to some conclusions and resolved to ask some questions.
Rock's smile grew a bit broader when he noticed his date for the evening among the majority of the audience applauding for him.
"You enjoyed yourself?" asked Rock, actually awaiting for a denial, despite his premonitions, he wasn't disappointed of the answer.
"Yes," replied Nabiki a bit faster than she intended to, chiding herself for that slight.
Rock checked his watch after getting over the mild suprise of her frank answer, "well, it is getting late now, we should be going back now before anyone worries about you."
"Always speaking so formally, at least you're not as arrogant as Kuno-baby," quipped Nabiki, giving taunt to Rock Howard's only too formal speech patterns.
"It is the way I had learned to speak Japanese," answered the young blond man as he took the money handed to him as gratitude for performing with the band, who's lead Bass player had taken a sudden leave.
"Yer'a livesaver kid," stated one of the bandmembers as they began to pack up their equipment, "Iori's prolly run across someone he's had a mad-on for again," the man shuddered as he recalled the 10 year fued that his co-member has had with some guy named Kusanagi, nasty ordeal, that one.
_______________________________________________________________________
Nabiki and Rock headed back towards the Tendou Dojo, the silence between them speaking of anything but indifference between the two as they contemplated the dramatic change in attitudes towards each other. Eventually one of them had to break it.
"Um, Nabiki, I have to ask, what is with the change of heart?"
"Not one to mince words," Nabiki thought to herself, then decided to be frank and tell him what she thought was the truth, "I figured that you would be better off as an associate than an enemy, I mean if your family is as powerful as I've heard, it wouldn't do to be on your bad side, would it?"
Nabiki found the few seconds of silence a bit more discomforting than she anticipated as she saw Rock's smile fade to a sullen look before he replied.
"Ah." Rock waited a few more moments before continuing, "you should know, that do not intend to have any part in the previous dealings of my blood father. I hope you can believe that sometime."
Nabiki flinched as Rock spoke. It wasn't what he said, but what he implied in his tone. She's delt with this tone of voice many times in many other dealings, exactly why is it now starting to feel a bit more... personal?
"I... I'm sorry about how I've treated you earlier."
Rock was a bit taken aback by the older girl's apology, even knowing her for as short a time as he had, he knew an apology would not come easy from her, "I guess it is okay, it is easy to draw the wrong conclusions with the knowlege of my lineage."
"Mebbe we can start over on this," suggested Nabiki, finding her mouth out of control from her brain, guided by a different organ.
Nabiki felt Rock stiffen suddenly, "Uh, something wrong with that idea?"
"Run," was the only reply Rock gave her. Before Nabiki could question, the corner of her eye caught what appeared to be a ghost.
White porcelyn mask framed by oily orange/red hair with a black shroud draped over a body that seemed to glide smoothly but with unfluid motions. Rock dropped into fighting stance, as years of experience of living in Nerima forced Nabiki to do what every native of the area knew to do when a fight was about to commence, run far far away.
As in a mockery of manners, the seemingly spectral figure began to bow, and as doing so, diagnal warpings in the air glided down his front as if the very space the seared through was torn. Freeman returned from his bow and the silken shrowd he was wearing slid from his body like shadows surrendering to something even darker than themselves.
"Hello.... boy."