**Akane**
Clackity… clackity …
SLAM!
Akane removed her fist from the computer screen. The stupid thing had frozen again. "How on earth am I supposed to finish typing this report IF THE COMPUTER KEEPS FREEZING ON ME???" She blew her bangs out her face noisily, and readjusted the plastic hair clip. "Idiot…" she muttered. "Idiot, idiot…"
She stretched across the table for the telephone, taking care not to jostle the sleeping baby in her arms. Shinnosuke only slept right after nursing, and Akane didn't want to wake him unnecessarily. She tucked the phone under her ear and rapidly dialed a number. "Come one, come on…"
"Hi! Nabiki here! Well… I'm not actually HERE at the moment, so please leave a message for moi after the beep, and I'll call you back as soon as is convenient for me. Thanks. *BEEP* "
"Gyah!!" Akane slammed the phone down, then ripped it back up and dialed a second number. It was answered on the second ring.
"Hello?" Soft, classical music tinkled in the background. "Akane? Why're you calling my cell? I'm having dinner with Kuno right now."
"Nabiki! My computer froze AGAIN!"
She heard an exasperated sigh. "I'm coming down tomorrow… can't it wait?"
"No! I have to get this report to Hokusai in an hour! I hate this computer!"
"Shhh… you'll wake Shinnosuke."
"Huh? Oh… right." She continued in an enraged whisper. "Nabiki, I don't have time to…"
"Good grief, just use my old computer."
"Really?"
"No! …Of course really! Jeez… it's reliable and fast, even if it is a little out of date. It'll be fine for your report."
"Oh, wow, thanks."
"Don't mention it… just… don't open any of my files… especially the ones that say 'high school Ranma pics'… (To the side: Shut up Kuno.) Ok, Akane? Akane?"
"Sure, sure…" Akane made a mental note to find those files as soon as she was done with Hokusai's report. "Thanks."
"No prob."
"Oh, Nabiki, is Kasumi coming tomorrow?"
"I'm going to force her to."
"Good. She hasn't seen Daddy and Ranma and everyone for God knows how long." She slipped a diskette into the computer.
"Huh. I still don't see…"
Akane cut her off. "Please, not in front of Kuno. I have to go, thanks onee-chan. You saved my life."
"That'll be 2,000 yen. For the use of my computer."
Akane snorted loudly, and finished copying her files. "I thought you'd grown out of that petty phase."
"Yup. I've got better ways to extort money nowadays. Besides, it's not like you can't afford it."
"True," she laughed. "Bye."
"See ya."
Carefully, Akane hung up the phone and readjusted her arm around Shinnosuke. The little boy was getting heavy. Her arm had fallen asleep. She stood up and padded out into the hallway. Nabiki's old room was to the right, but instead she turned to the left and headed down the stairs and into the living room. A young man lay sprawled on the carpet in front of the television set, watching the news, and feeding a three-year-old girl that was sitting on his stomach. A bowl of rice and a plate of shrimp lay on the floor beside them. Akane sighed. "She still hasn't finished her dinner yet?"
Ranma gave the little girl a floppy grin, and poked a shrimp into her mouth. "Of course not! I didn't come home til late because of the conference. So how's she gonna eat if Daddy isn't there to feed her?" Laughter.
"She's three years old already, and it takes her two hours to eat a meal."
"Aww… she'll learn. If she's got any Saotome blood in her, she'll figure out how to hurry up." More laughter. "Isn't that right, Kimiko-ko-ko?"
Kimiko giggled along with Ranma, and bounced up and down on his stomach. "Kii-ko! Daddy play more!"
Akane watched the two roughhouse for a bit, a half smile playing about her lips. "You two are in a jolly mood tonight… Is my dad home?"
"Nope, he went over to have dinner with pops and mom. Why?"
"Oh. I need someone to watch Shinnosuke for a bit while I finish up some work."
"We can watch him, right Kimiko-ko-ko?"
"Yeah!"
"Ranma, he's asleep. I don't want you guys to wake him up."
"We can be quiet!" Ranma shouted. "And if he wakes up, he can play with us too, right Kimiko-ko-ko?"
"Yeah!"
A burbling sound near her chest caused Akane to look down. She groaned. "He's already awake. Here, take him. Watch his head." She handed the smiling baby to Ranma, who was still flat on his back. Akane smoothed her daughter's hair back from her face. "Hi Kimi, being good?"
"Yeah!"
"That's good." Akane smiled and kissed her daughter on the forehead. She straightened back up and headed out of the room.
"Hey, don't I get a kiss too?" Ranma grinned at her from the floor.
Akane rolled her eyes. "You woke the baby, baka, I should mallet you instead."
"That's not nice of mommy, is it Kimiko-ko-ko?"
"No! Kiss Daddy! Kiss Daddy!"
Akane groaned. "You two are too much." She came back, knelt, and kissed Ranma lightly on the forehead.
"That's it?"
She swatted him lightly, smiling. "That's all Kimiko got."
"Humph."
"Humph yourself, I've got work to do." She straightened a second time and went upstairs.
* * * * * * * *
Forty-five minutes later, Akane hit the send button with a satisfied sigh. Nabiki's computer was extraordinarily fast. Actually, it seemed to be even faster than Akane's computer in the office, which was supposedly the newest model. If Nabiki's high school computer was this fast, she wondered, how fast is her office computer? Her laptop? The one in her apartment? She frowned. Her older sister must have tinkered with this, or had someone else tinker with it to speed everything up so much. And she hadn't shared with either her or Kasumi… Sometimes Nabiki's integral sense of marketing and profit caused her to be play the occasional lone wolf, isolating herself from her sisters and partners, or so Akane thought. While it annoyed her a little, she didn't say anything. It had been Nabiki's expertise and ambition that had originally started their partnership. She had come up with the idea, convinced her sisters into joining, and had been the one to spread Tendo & Co. to the US, Europe, South America, and the rest of Asia. But, Akane reflected, Nabiki had never been a team player—they had to thank Kasumi for that.
Kasumi had been the motivator, the peacemaker, the diplomat, the mediator, and the leader. Without her oldest sister's gentle but firm guidance and instruction, the three sisters would have split before anything could have been accomplished. In fact, several arguments between herself and Nabiki had almost ended Tendo Enterprises. Luckily, thanks to Kasumi, they had resolved their differences and hushed up any rumors that had been a result of their spat. Even though Nabiki had been the visionary and the trailblazer, Kasumi had taken charge, giving their three-woman team direction and purpose. Ten, eleven years ago, Akane and everyone else had realized that the cheerful, unobtrusive Kasumi was hardly all there was to the calm young woman. After the… incident, her motherly tendencies proved themselves to be leadership skills, and her optimistic disposition a passion for success.
Lost in thought, Akane jumped when a pair of arms snaked over her shoulders from behind and enveloped her.
"Wow, you're jumpy tonight." Ranma rested his chin on the top of her head.
"Hmm… just thinking."
"Bout what?"
"I dunno, stuff. Are Kimiko and Shinosuke in bed?"
"Yeah, but Shinosuke's waiting for his after dinner snack."
"Gah. I'll go over once I'm done. Nabiki and Kasumi are coming over tomorrow."
"So I heard. Hey, Kasumi's finally coming back to visit?"
"So says the great Nabiki Tendo. I don't think she really wanted to come, but you know how Nabiki always gets what she wants."
"That sounds sorta like the profile in the TIME magazine from a few months ago."
"Probably. The reporters based most of the stuff in there from our interviews. There isn't that much information about us floating around. Nabiki keeps pretty good control over the rumor mill. You think we would let them print gossip they heard on the street?"
Akane fiddled with the keyboard, searching for those files.
"How'm I supposed to know? You're the one who knows about this stuff, not me," Ranma said breezily, with barely a trace of the old resentment in his voice. "I'm just the local police officer."
"Stop complaining," Akane replied. "They did offer you that position in the secret service, but you didn't want it." She swore as a screen came up, asking for a password.
"Yeah, well, just because I didn't want to have to go all the way to America and leave my kids behind. Hmm, trying to get into Nabiki's secret files?" He reached around her and typed rapidly on the keyboard.
"Just your kids? What about your loving wife?" Akane asked playfully. "Yeah, apparently she still has some compromising photos of your girl side saved on here. Hey, how'd you do that?" The password screen disappeared and allowed them access to the folders.
"What loving wife? All I have is a macho tomboy." He ducked her overhead swipe. "I learned a few things about hacking from Daisuke the last time we went out to eat."
"Aren't you brilliant." She double clicked the folder titled "Ranma—Bathing Suits".
"I didn't know she still had these," Ranma griped. "These have to be, what, from high school? Can we get rid of them?" Suddenly, the screen went blank.
"Wha…?"
A small picture of Nabiki, age seventeen, appeared in the corner. The picture, really a video recording, began to move and speak.
"Huh, nice try people," the young computer Nabiki smirked. "I knew someone would try that one day. Never thought it would be Ranma, but heck, a guy has a right to be curious about pictures of himself, nah?" She grinned at the invisible audience. "And a girl has a right to not let him see them. Especially if he's trying to delete them. See y'all in real time." The screen went dark, and the computer shut off.
"Aw man…"
Akane laughed and said condescendingly, "We should have known that Nabs would never have let us off that easy." She stood up and took Ranma's hand. Let's get to bed. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to get ready for Kasumi and Nabiki."
"They're your sisters, what's there to get ready?"
"Well," Akane said, walking with Ranma towards their room. "I wanted to try out this new recipe that'll take the whole morning…"
"Eh??" His nervous exclamation and shrinking away was received poorly by his wife.
"Oh come on, Ranma, grow up!" She frowned at him. "I cook you dinner every night. And I only mess up about once a week."
Ranma fidgeted. "Yeah… but that's because you don't cook fancy stuff… just rice and boiled vegetables and some other stuff…"
"Are you saying you're bored of my cooking??" she growled, aura rising.
"No! No! That's a good thing!" He protested quickly. To his relief, the sound of a wailing baby took his Akane's attention.
"Shinosuke's crying… You better go to him…"
She shot him a dirty look. "You are one lucky moron…" and she hurried off.
TBC…