A/N: As always, thank you those who review!! I do actually consider your comments and appreciate that you take the time to point things out that I sometimes miss. Anyway, all will be explained in due time…
Akane grabbed a pillow and some blankets from the linen closet and walked back down the hall to her room. Shifting everything to her left arm, she knocked on her door.
"Come in," Natsuko said from inside.
Akane opened the door to see Natsuko dressed in a pair of her pajamas. They were light blue plaid bottoms and a white no sleeved top with a light blue plaid moon right underneath the collar. Akane herself was wearing her usual yellow pajamas, and had actually forgotten that she even had the pair Natsuko was wearing now up until a few minutes ago. Natsuko went over and took the pillows and blankets from her and plopped them down on the floor.
"Thanks Akane, this will work great," she said as she began to lay everything out.
"You sure you don't mind sleeping on the floor?" Akane asked for about the tenth time. "We could always share my bed."
"I told you already Akane, I have no problem sleeping on the floor," she said as she turned to Akane and flopped down next to her on the bed. "Besides, you provided dinner, rather, erm, _interesting_ entertainment, a hot bath, pajamas, and a place to stay for the night. After all you've done, I couldn't take your bed away from you."
"You wouldn't be taking it away from me!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, thanks for everything, Akane."
"It's really no problem Natsuko. I mean, you can't help it if the train lost your luggage and the hotels were all booked for the night, right?"
"Heheh, right!" Natsuko agreed with a sheepish smile.
Well, at least the hotels being full part is right…
"Anyway, Hotaka and me are gonna pay you guys back for everything you did for us," Natsuko added.
Akane smiled devilishly. "I know a way you can start…"
"Oh?" Natsuko asked, eyebrows raising.
"Yeah, what's up with you and Hotaka? You like him, right?"
Natsuko turned bright red and jumped up on the bed.
"What are you, _NUTS?_" she cried. "He's a selfish, pig headed, stuck up, constantly lost, cursed, know-it-all dental problem!!"
"He seemed pretty sweet to me."
"_You_ don't know him the way I do. He's a bloody jerk! The first time we met, three hours later we were locked in combat!! That's not a way to start a relationship!" She flopped back down on the bed. "Except for maybe Kazu and Perfume, but they're an exception."
"What a 'Kazu'?"
"Kazuma. My twin brother, and his fiancée Perfume."
"Ah huh…"
"Ya see, we had all been friends for years, and then the summer before seventh grade, Kazuma beat Perfume at bull* and started screaming 'I won! I won!' Just as Perfume and I were about to chop him into floor sausage, Perfume's great-great-grandmother walked in."
[*For all that didn't know, bull is a card game where you try to get rid of all your cards in numerical order. To do this, sometimes you have to lie. If anyone thinks you're lying, they say "bull!" If you were lying, you have to take the pile, if you weren't, the person who said "bull" has to take the pile. For anyone who's been on Neopets, it's the equivalent of Cheat. Any questions?]
"Where was Hotaka during all this?"
"This was before Hotaka moved in. See, he moved in at the beginning of eighth grade, and this all happened the summer before seventh."
"Ah ha."
"Anyway, the old ghoul declared since Kazuma beat Perfume, Chinese Amazonian law engaged them. _Then_ she went on further to explain they had been engaged since birth anyway because her mother and our father didn't marry, so my brother and Perfume were honor bound."
"Jeez. I know how _that_ feels."
"That's not even the worst of it, Perfume went on a boy hating streak for years because she didn't want to be bullied into marriage. Sure, she was fine around Kazuma for a little while, until the words 'engaged,' 'fiancée,' 'honor,' or 'grandmother' entered the conversation. Then it was a bloody massacre."
"Wow. Sounds like what happens between Ranma and I. Families trying to push two unwilling engaged people together never quite works out well."
"No kidding, my parents weren't for it _at all_ either. It was mainly her mother and great-great-grandmother, and once her witch granny had her mind set on something, she was gonna drag it to the grave."
"That's terrible!"
"Wanna know the ironic thing? Mom and Papa have wanted to get me and Hotaka engaged since day one! Apparently they thought we would be different. Yeah, and the sky's gonna be orange tomorrow."
"Apparently you're against this."
"Yeah."
"So then what happened with your brother and Perfume? Did they get out of their engagement?"
Natsuko smiled sadly. "Things were pretty bad for a while, then Perfume went to China last summer with her great-great-grandmother and mother to become a 'true Amazonian woman.' You should have seen Kazuma, he was heart broken, always pestering her father and brothers for any news. I expect Perfume was the same way, because the first thing she did when she saw Kazuma was hug him."
"Aww, that's awful sweet."
"It was so sweet I nearly puked." She smiled though. "But, yeah, it was nice to see them getting along without so much strain. They might just go through with the engagement now."
"So what about you then?"
"Hm? What about me?"
"Are you and Hotaka gonna end up the same way?"
"No!" she yelled playfully and through a pillow at Akane. "And what about you and Ranma?"
"_That_ will only happen when hell freezes over!" she replied, thwacking Natsuko with the pillow. Natsuko grabbed her own pillow off the floor.
"Well, if you're going to play _that_ way…"
***
Ranma walked past Akane's door, and stopped momentarily to listen to the squealing going on inside.
"What _are_ they doin' in there?" he thought out loud before going into the room he shared with his father, blankets tucked under his right arm. Hotaka kneeled off to one side in nothing but a t-shirt, boxers, and his green bandana, shoving the last of his things into his bag. Ranma threw the blankets next to him.
"Thanks," Hotaka said, pulling his bag shut.
"No problem," Ranma replied and sat Indian style on his own futon. "My old man an' Mr. Tendo went out to do Kami-knows-what, so they probably won't be back for a while."
"Is that a good thing?" Hotaka asked, sitting across from him.
"Yep, cause now we don't have to listen to him snore."
Both of them laughed for a little while, then it went quiet.
Ranma, never to be one to beat around the bush, just blurted out what was on his mind. "So what's with you and Natsuko?"
"Nothin' really. She's just got a temper problem and doesn't take criticism of _anything_ well. We argue and spar a lot, our folks have been tryin' to engage us since day one, and she's the reason I got my curse. End of story."
Hotaka laid on his futon, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Of course, Ranma never did pick up hints well…
"Oh, c'mon, being engaged to Natsuko wouldn't be that--" Pause. "She _gave_ you your curse?" Ranma asked shocked. As much as she and Hotaka argued, Ranma just couldn't seem to picture Natsuko giving anyone, never mind her 'rival,' a curse.
"Well, three years ago me, her, her twin brother Kazuma, and his fiancée Perfume were all going to China to get something for our parents. Ya know, as an anniversary present. Anyway, since Perfume is Chinese and speaks the language fluently, she said she'd be our guide…"
***
"…so, on our way there, we were hiking up this cliff side, right? Well, no one told _me_ it was a cliff. With all the plants and trees and such, I didn't realize it was one until I accidentally stepped off the side and landed smack dab in the middle of one of the Jusenkyo springs," Natsuko said, staring at Akane's floor grimly.
"Then what?" Akane asked.
***
"Then we all rushed down to the spring to see if Natsuko was alright, and when we got there, there was this little Chinese dude screaming 'Miss Customer fall in cursed spring. Very tragic legend!' Kazuma nearly knocked him into one of the other spring he was so frantic to get Natsuko out. Of course, when he did…"
***
"…it was too late, I had already changed. When Kazu did pull me out, it was a small, furry, four-legged version of me. He and Perfume were just as shocked as me about it, but that jerk Hotaka was rolling on the ground…"
***
"…it was only one little chuckle, I swear! What would you have done in my position if you saw your rival like that? Anyway, she got all mad and, for no reason…"
***
"…I pushed him into a spring. I honestly didn't want to curse him and I wasn't thinking clearly at the time, but I just wanted to do something to him to shut him up. Boy, did it shut him up! But then Kazuma, being the great guy…"
***
"…goody-two-shoes he is, grabbed onto my shirt and _tried_ to stop me from landing in a spring. Of course, all he really managed to do was divert me from one spring to another and got himself knocked into the one I was heading towards. So I come up a wolf and Kazuma a stag. Then his fiancée Perfume…"
***
"…was completely in hysterics and accidentally backed into a spring. I tried to grab onto her pant leg and stop her from falling, but in my cursed form I was too small and too weak to stop her. She flew out of her spring…"
***
"…squawking like a duck. No, seriously, she was a duck. Well, a crane actually, but same difference. Then the Chinese dude pulled us all out of the springs and dumped hot water on us. Of course, we all got a nasty start seeing each other…"
***
"…completely naked. I mean, honestly, how dense can you be? Perfume's eyes were bolted shut, Kazuma was beat red (I'm not exactly sure why though, we've taken baths together since we were kids), Hotaka was having a nosebleed that could have over flood Japan, and I practically assaulted the guy for his jacket. I did mange to get it in record time and Perfume and I were pretty much covered (thank Kamisama the man was so fat!). Then the guy went to go get towels, shirts, and pants…"
***
"…leaving us all alone. Once again, dragging Perfume along with her because they were sharing the guy's jacket and neither was willing to let go, Natsuko runs over and slaps me for no reason! She didn't slap Kazuma! And as if I would wanna look at her stick figure anyway! It was completely uncalled for, besides…"
***
"…what would you have done if you were me? Anyway, by the time the Chinese guy got back, Hotaka was sure not gonna look at _me_ ever again. Or Perfume. Girls gotta stick together, ya know? Anyway, the Chinese man explained to us what the curses would do, how they were activated, ect. Of course, we already knew that. What I was worried about was that the spring of the drowned man and the drowned girl had been relocated, and the guy had no idea where! Not to mention we couldn't get our parents' anniversary gift, the whole reason we were there in the first place. As if that wasn't bad enough, when we got home…"
***
"…what a nightmare. If our parents weren't mad enough at us running off without telling them, they went over the edge when we came back cursed. I was sore for weeks once my dad was through with me, and my mom made me work in the restaurant the second I got home from and _then_ scrub it clean each night to pay off the money I borrowed for the trip. At minimum wage too! The fact that she was seven month pregnant and highly moody did _not_ help matters. And at school…"
***
"…it was even worse. All of our friends either flipped out and disowned us when they found out, or found it extremely funny and got a good laugh. Needless to say, the four of us stuck together from then on, whether we liked it or not. Our social lives also took a backseat to work too. Mom and Pops weren't at all pleased and, after they were done chewing us up, they decided we were gonna work in the dojo for minimum wage until we paid back all the money we spent on the trip. Let me tell you something, not fun. I still have nightmares about scrubbing and repairing that place and listening to all those little kids scream during the morning classes. Ah, it was a living…"
***
"…hell. There's no better way to put it. And to think we did it all for _them_ too. The greedy little…"
***
"…unlistening, uncaring, unconsiderate…"
***
"…JERKS! I wish we had never stepped foot in China."
***
"I wish we had never gone there in the first place."
Silence.
***
Silence.
***
"Wow…" whispered Akane.
***
"…you had it as rough as me," Ranma stated in awe.
"Well, now you know," Hotaka huffed.
***
"Good night, Akane," Natsuko said coldly and angrily lied down in her make-shift bed.
***
Outside the dojo, two lights went off at the same time in Ranma and Akane's windows.
***
Nabiki sat in her room, grinning that famous 'I'm-gonna-make-some-money-off-of-this' grin. She reached over to her desk and turned off her listening device. Of course, she had always had Ranma and Akane's rooms bugged (along with every other room in the house), but she had never expected to hear the conversation that Ranma, Akane, and their guests had just had.
"Well," she said, leaning back in her desk chair. "_That_ was rather interesting."
A/N: Well, well, well, wasn't _that_ interesting? For all of you who said Nabiki probably knows, she does. ^_~ Anyway, yes this is obvious. I realize that. But, ya gotta admit, most of the Ranma cast is really oblivious so I can get away with making things really obvious. Anyway, I had another scene that I wanted to add to this chapter, but it was getting kinda long, so it will show up next chapter. I _promise_ to have Kazuma and Perfume show up! I _promise._ And Hotaka's little sister. I also plan to take the cast from karaoke places to fancy galas to the bench. Bwhaha…
As always, please keep reviewing!! The more you review, the more inspired I'll get, the faster I'll write, the faster I'll update, the faster you'll read, the faster you'll review, the faster I'll get inspired…
Hotaka: SHUT UP ALREADY!!
Natsuko: DON'T TALK TO OUR CREATOR THAT WAY!! ::whaps Hotaka::
Erm… until next time. Ja ne!