A/N: Whoohoo! Chapter five! I'm actually very impressed. I never thought I'd make it this far. As always, THANK YOU REVIEWERS!! ::bow, bow::
Natsuko stumbled around in the darkness on her way back from the bathroom. It was about two in morning and she was not pleased that she couldn't find Akane's door.
Honestly, I'm turning into Ryoga! she mentally grumbled as she fumbled for the doorknob. Ah ha! Found it.
She threw the door open and stepped inside. She was just about to give herself a running start to flop down on the bed, when a light suddenly came on.
"Natsuko?" Kasumi asked with a yawn, sitting up in her bed. "Is anything the matter, Natsuko?"
Kasumi? What's she doing in here? Where's Kaz-- Oh, right.
"Sorry, Kasumi, I must have gone to the wrong door. Is Akane's room is the second door on the left?" Natsuko asked.
"Right."
"Huh?" Natsuko asked. "Right or-- Oh, never mind. Sorry to disturb you Kasumi," she said and made her way out of Kasumi's room.
"It's quite alright, Natsuko," Kasumi replied smiling, turning off the light, and lying back down. "Good night."
"'Night Kasumi." Natsuko walked into the hall and shut Kasumi's door. "Boy, don't I feel stupid."
Natsuko walked back down the hall, but right past Akane's room. Instead, she continued down the hall and walked up the stairs to roof. The cold night air nipped at her skin under her pajamas. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, lulling herself into a state of calm. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a very familiar figure sitting a few feet away from her.
"Couldn't sleep, Hotachan?"
"Nope."
"Me either," she said and sat down next to her comrade. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "Look at those stars," she commented in awe. "They're beautiful, aren't they?"
Hotaka nodded in agreement. "They bring me some sort of comfort. Ya know when I was traveling around with my dad and mom before we moved to Nerima?"
"Yeah."
"Well, there were four things that would never change. I would always have my family, I would always have my name, I would always have martial arts, and I would always have the stars. No matter where I went with Mom and Dad, those things would never change."
"That's deep Hotaka."
He shrugged. "Whatever you say."
Silence.
"What are we gonna do Hotaka? Should we tell them?"
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't think we should, Nats. _I'm_ having a hard time excepting all this, I think they would go into shock if we told them."
"Then how are we supposed to get home? I miss my family and everyone back home, Hotachan. I don't think I can do this much longer."
"I don't really think we have a choice either way. Cologne might know a way to get us home, but other than that…" He let out a frustrated sigh and turned to Natsuko. "We're stuck here."
"Damn it, I hate this, I hate the old ghoul, and I hate being cold," she grumbled, hugging her knees to her chest and shivering. "I just want to go home."
Cautiously, Hotaka put a hand on her shoulder, and eventually pulled her towards him, wrapping his arm around her. She leaned into him until her head was on his shoulder and stayed there. Hotaka silently thanked Kamisama that it was dark so she wouldn't see him blushing and resisted the urge to let his nose drip blood all over the top of her head.
"We're going to get back home," he whispered, reassuringly. "If it's the last thing we do, we will get back home, so don't worry. We've gotten out of worse, right?"
Natsuko didn't respond for a long time. Hotaka was just about ready to declare her asleep and bring her back inside when Natsuko wrapped both of her arms around his waist in a friendly hug.
"Thanks, Hotachan."
"A-any—anytime."
"I really like these non-moments, Hotaka."
Hotaka nodded in agreement.
This is nice, and she is sorta cute… nothing compared to Perfume, but not bad for a helpless macho ballerina tomboy.
That sat together, just enjoying each other's company and the night. Such a pity they didn't notice the rain clouds beginning to form over head…
***
Akane stirred in her bed. Rubbing her eyes, she looked over to where Natsuko would be.
She wasn't there.
"Natsuko?" she said out loud. Quickly she pushed herself up from her bed and walked out into the hall, wanting to make sure that her friend hadn't gotten lost on her way to the bathroom or something. When she walked out of her room, she saw Ranma doing the same thing. He smirked when he saw her.
"What? Couldn't sleep?" he asked.
"Half that, and half that Natsuko isn't in bed. I heard her get up at about two, but she never came back."
"Jeez, that was about an hour ago. Hotaka must've gone with 'er, wherever she went, cause he's not in bed either. Since he got lost so easy this after noon, I wanted to make sure he didn't walk into a broom closet or somethin'."
The two scaled the house, checking all the closets, the bathroom, the kitchen, and peaking briefly into Kasumi, Nabiki and Mr. Tendo's respective rooms, and found no hide nor hair of Natsuko or Hotaka.
"Where could they have gone?" Akane said, standing back in the hall with Ranma where they had started. "We've checked everywhere."
Ranma suddenly snapped his fingers and pointed up.
"Not everywhere," he said and started towards the stairs to the roof, Akane at his heels. When he got to the top of the stairs, Ranma stopped suddenly and stuck out his arm to stop Akane.
"Hey! Ranma--"
"Shh," he whispered and pointed to their two cuddling guests. "Don't let them know we're here, she'll probably throw 'im off the roof.
"They-- they said they weren't dating."
"Apparently they were lying," he said and turned around, shuffling Akane along with him. "C'mon, let's leave 'em alone"
Both Ranma and Akane turned and walked down the stairs until a roll of thunder sounded in the sky. Akane paused on the staircase, expecting Natsuko and Hotaka to come down, but they never did. She stood there for a minute, and Ranma stood at the bottom waiting for her.
"Well, are you comin'?" he asked.
"No, I'm going to make them come in," Akane said and started back up the stairs. Panicked, Ranma followed.
"What?! Why?"
"You heard that thunder, didn't you? That means a storm's coming and if they get wet their curses will be activated, so might as well drag them in now so we won't have to do it later when they reek of wet fur."
Ranma couldn't think up a come back quick enough for Akane's logic, so Akane took this opportunity to bound up the stairs and on to the roof.
"Wait! Akane!" Ranma cried as he chased after his fiancée. Of course, by the time the two got on the roof, the rain had already started to fall. Ranma felt the familiar sensation of his body changing forms and shivered.
Arg!! I hate the rain! Ranma-chan cursed.
"You happy now, Akane?" She looked around. "Akane?"
Her fiancée was already standing next to their two cursed guests, untangling them from their clothes. She was working on a struggling Hotaka when she turned to Ranma.
"Get Natsuko out of her pajamas, would you?" She turned back to Hotaka. "Sheesh Hotaka! It's not like I'm trying to seduce you or something, you're in your _wolf_ form!"
Chuckling, Ranma-chan knelt next to the bundle he assumed to be Natsuko and began to untangle her from the pajamas Akane had lent her. When she removed the pajama top, she turned a ghostly white.
"C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c--"
Akane and Hotaka had stopped struggling against one another to stare at Ranma-chan who was shaking in fear.
"Ranma, what's wrong?"
"C-c-c-c-c-c-c-CAT!!"
***
"Not a cat," Natsuko corrected for about the thousandth time. "A white tiger cub!"
She sighed in exasperation, no one was listening to her. Ranma-chan had done quite a job of waking up all of Nerima with her screams of terror, and now everyone was up and sitting in the family room. Of course, as soon as everyone heard Ranma's screams, Natsuko and Hotaka had been quickly thrown into the bath then dragged back out to explain themselves. Ranma-chan laid on the floor, shaking in terror, Akane right next to him. Kasumi went to get tea to calm everyone's nerves. The two fathers were sitting near Ranma-chan, with Nabiki near them, her head on the table, grumbling about certain martial artists with curses. Hotaka sat next to Natsuko, desperately trying to suppress the laughter threatening to spill because of the sight in front of him.
"Why didn't you just _tell_ us you had a curse?" Mr. Tendo asked.
"I've told you a million times, I didn't think Ranma would react the way he did!"
One little white lie wouldn't hurt… Actually, I had just forgotten that they had no idea what I turned into.
"Father, please don't be angry," Kasumi said, putting a cup of tea in her father's hands and the platter with the cream and sugar on the table. "Natsuko couldn't have known about Ranma's cat phobia, she hasn't been around long enough and no one told her…" She coaxed Ranma to sit up and helped him sip his tea. "She has only been here for one day. Are you okay now, Ranma?"
"I-I'm alright," she replied shakily. Kasumi nodded and smiled.
"There's a bath drawn for whenever you're ready, Ranma."
"Thanks, Kasumi."
"Ranma, I'm so sorry!" Natsuko said, crawling towards Ranma. She performed the 'Crouch of the Wild Tiger' stance and cried, "Please forgive me, Ranma! I had no idea!"
Ranma-chan tucked her hand behind her head. "Aw, Natsuko, don't cry. It's alright, really."
Natsuko popped her head up to look at her. "Really?"
"Well, yeah," she said. "Just _don't_ do it again," he added sternly.
"Well, if it rains, the tomboy can't help it," Hotaka observed. "But if she _does_ change when you're around, I'll throw Nats into the next town so we can avoid this. Sound good Ranma?"
"Hotaka…" Natsuko growled, turning back to her 'friend.'
"Blech, what ya gonna do, Nats?"
Natsuko growled and made for the cream on the table. Hotaka put up his hands in an innocent gesture.
"Woah, Nats, remember your blood pressure. In and out, in and out."
Gods, I wish Kazuma was here! He'd get her off my back!
Reluctantly, Natsuko put the cream back on the table. She stood up and made her way back to the door.
"I'm really sorry that you all had to wake up because of me. Um, g'night guys," Natsuko said before turning and heading back up to Akane's bedroom. One by one, the rest of the family (and freeloaders) made their way back to bed, with the exception of Ranma-chan who went to take a bath and _then_ go to bed.
Nerima slept the remainder of the night somewhat less peaceful then before, but still rather peaceful. Thankfully, nothing else happened.
…Until about seven the next morning when not one, not two, but _three_ figures fell from the sky onto the newly repaired wall that Natsuko and Hotaka had landed on and demolished a day earlier.
One figure rose from the ruble. It was a boy, about sixteen, who looked very much like Natsuko, having the same blue eyes, blue hair, and pigtail. In his arms was a little girl with raven black hair with a yellow and black headband in her hair tied off into a bow at the top. At the same time, a girl who was also about sixteen popped out of what used to be the repaired stone wall. She wore Chinese style shirt and pants and had long purple hair with black tips, half flowing down her back, half tied up in a bun with a single strand wrapped in a whit ribbon flowing out of the center. She reached up and took her glasses off her head.
"Damn, I think my glasses cracked."
"Did we make it, Kazu-chan?" the little girl asked, tugging on the shirt of boy who was holding her.
"I donno, but next time Banchan, don't run out into the middle of a battle. You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"I'm sorry, Kazu-chan, I just wanna see Hotachan and Nats-chan, that's all."
"It's okay, Banna. Just don't do it again."
"Well, c'mon," the purple haired girl said. "We're not gonna find them if we just stand here, right?"
"Right!" the little girl chimed in. She jumped down from the boy's arms and took both his and the older girl's hands. "Let's go find Hotachan and Nats-chan!"
Laughing, the odd trio walked down the street.
A/N: That poor wall… *sniff* I'm so mean to it… Anywho, I told you I'd bring Kazuma and Perfume in this chapter, didn't I? Didn't I?! Actually, this chapter could probably be Chapter 5b, but it's not because I'm lazy like that. Anyway, now we know what Natsuko's cursed form is, and _is_ there something more than meets the eye behind Natsuko and Hotaka? HM…
Anyway, reviews me like!! Please do so!! Until next time, ja ne!