Nabiki woke to find herself on a comfortable bed. With a sigh of contentment, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of a comfortable pillow under her head. She was starting to contemplate going back to sleep, when she heard her door slowly slide open a bit. "Are you awake mistress?" Asked a voice quietly.

Nabiki sighed and answered irritably. "Yes, I'm awake. What is it?"

"I just came to inform you that your breakfast is ready. I'm sorry for the intrusion, but the young master said you would be awake about this time. He also mentioned something about you wanting to eat, before a panda comes and steals all of the food."

Nabiki thought for moment before asking. "Where are my husband and father-in-law now?"

"I'm not sure. They left several hours ago. When you're finished getting ready, I'll sow you to the dinning room."

Nabiki shook her head. "Getting ready can wait. Right now I'm starved."

"But mistress!" The girl exclaimed. "Some of the men may see you! Going out there in your sleeping attire wouldn't be proper."

"Right now I'm tired from traveling, hungry, and let's not forget pregnant; I could really care less if anyone sees me looking this rough. Not that it really matters, since these are the only cloths I have anyway."

The girl looked as if was about to say something, but then changed her mind. "As you wish mistress, but I'll see what I can do about getting you something else to wear."

Nabiki nodded to the girl and followed her into the dinning room. Her eyes got wide as she stared at all the food. It took virtually all of her self-control to sit first, before she began eating. As it was, she ate as if it were the last meal she would ever eat. Then again, knowing Genma's ability to cause trouble, it very well might be the last meal she'd have for a long time.

Nabiki mentally took back everything she had ever said about Ranma and his eating habits. She seriously doubted she'd ever eat normally again. After quickly eating her fill, she stood up to take the plates to the kitchen. A servant quickly stopped her however, and said. "Oh no mistress, let me handle that. Why don't you go with Akemi and take a nice warm bath? It'll make you feel much better. We've already had it heated up for you."

The mention of a warm bath caught Nabiki's attention. She couldn't even remember when the last time she had last had a warm bath. Ever since she woke to find herself in the past, she had to make due with cold baths in a river or a lake. In fact, it had probably been a week, since her last bath. Needless to say, she was more then happy to follow the servant's idea.

Akemi, the servant girl who had woken her, led her to the bath house behind the house. "Here you are mistress. Your bath is ready. I'll stay here to tell the servants when to make it hotter."

"Could you turn around so I can change?"

After hearing the splash that indicated Nabiki had entered the water, she turned around to face her. After a few minutes of silence, Akemi sighed wistfully. "You're very lucky mistress."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh and why is that?"

"Well, not only do you have such a handsome husband, but it's obvious that he cares for you as well! Most husbands would have insisted that their wives wait to eat with them, and some would even make them wait until after they had eaten. Tell me, how did the two of you meet?"

"Well let's see. I met him a year ago when, my father suddenly announced to my sisters and me that one of us would marry Ranma. Surprisingly, Ranma and his father, showed up shortly there after."

"Was it love at first sight?" The girl asked eagerly.

Nabiki looked at her, noting for the first time that she somewhat resembled Akane's friend Sayuri. "Why are you so eager to know?"

The girl looked down and apologized. "I'm sorry mistress. I was out place. I shouldn't have been prying."

Nabiki frowned slightly at the girl's reaction. "There's no need to apologize, I was just wondering why you were so curious about it."

"Mistress, I'm a slave and my master doesn't own many man slaves. So it is likely I'll never marry, much less a husband who actually loves and respects me. But listening to you speak of your happiness, I can imagine what it must be like to be held in the arms of a strong handsome man who loves me like your husband obviously loves you. This must sound strange to you, forget I even asked."

Nabiki thought about what the girl said for a moment and realized that she probably wasn't exaggerating, which made her feel really sorry for the poor girl. Now that she thought about it, the older woman in the dinning room resembled Akemi. It was likely that the woman was Akemi's mother, which would suggest Akemi was born a slave. The elder didn't seem like he was a mean man, but even in a palace, a slave is still a slave.

Remembering Ranma's suggestion from the night before about being more friendly, Nabiki decided to give the girl what she wanted. With a sigh she began to weave an exaggerated story that would have made Kuno proud. "No, it wasn't. In fact I wasn't even chosen to be his fiancée; our parents actually choose my little sister. The story would have ended there with a somewhat happily ever after, if not for his idiot of a father."

"Why? What did he do?"

"Well, the fool somehow managed to get Ranma engaged to at least five different women!"

Akemi's eyes grew large with surprise. "Five women!?"

"At least five! There may be more out there we don't know about; luckily we were able to work things out with two of them."

"So there were three other women trying to get him too? However were you able to end up with him . . . or has he taken the others on as concubines?"

Nabiki laughed. "As if I would marry him if he had three other women on the side! Although, I'm quite sure some of them would be more than thrilled at the idea of Ranma at least having them on the side. Besides the three other fiances, there were other girls who were after him as well. In fact, one of them was actually a nobleman daughter."

Akemi gasped in complete surprise. "A noble woman?!"

"Yes, but that's nothing, compared to one of the fiancees. One of his fiances was an attractive blue-haired princess from a foreign land." Nabiki struggled hard not to laugh out loud at the expression on Akemi's face.

Seeing Akemi was still speechless, Nabiki continued her story. "Now where was I again? Oh yes, the four girls. Well each of them were well trained in martial arts, and the four of them would often fight to see who would be the one to marry him."

"But what of the foreign princess?"

"Ah yes, she left her homeland to try to win his hand. Leaving everything behind, she and her grandmother, the queen of Joketsuzoku, came to our village and sold food to make a living."

"She and the queen both left her kingdom for him?" She asked.

"Well she wouldn't have been the first person to leave their home and lives to be with him. The other fiancée left all she had behind and searched fro him for about ten years."

"Ten years!? How could she have managed?"

"She pretended to be a man and worked as a cook. I always somewhat felt sorry for her. She spent all those years trying to find him, only to find out that Ranma had always thought she was a boy. Apparently from what she told us her father had always wanted a son, and since his wife had died giving birth, he ended up raising her as he would have a boy."

Nabiki noticed the way the girl payed attention to her every word, as if she were delivering from the very gods. "And then there was my little sister. She can't cook, she can't fight as well as the warrior princess, she doesn't have the wealth of the noblewoman, or even the long-standing friendship of the chef. In fact the only real advantage she had was that she was Ranma's first fiancee. So he had more time to get comfortable with the idea of being married to her, even before any of the other girls had a chance to show up."

Nabiki paused for a moment. "Well maybe there were a few other things. I think living together helped them come to terms with the engagement better than if they hadn't. When your constantly together like they were, something just happens and you almost can't help but to fall in love. So that was another big advantage she had. That or Ranma really is a masochist."

"A what?" Akemi asked completely confused.

"Eh — never mind. Anyway getting back to the story. Things continued like that for almost a year, until one day our village was attacked. We were caught by surprise and only the three of us managed to survive it. . . . Daddy . . . Kasumi . . . Akane. . . ." Nabiki paused to wipe crocodile tears from her eyes. "They're all . . . " Nabiki covered her face and began sobbing.

"Mistress! I'm sorry! That must have been so difficult for you! I can't even imagine how you could have survived. To have lost your entire family in one night; you must be so strong."

Nabiki shook her head. "I only barely survived. The only reason I'm alive today is because Ranma risked himself to make sure I was safe. It's only because he tended to me day and night that I didn't die that night myself. Then when I found out what had happened to my parents, he again took care of me and comforted me."

"What happened? How did he risk his life to save you?"

Akemi's interruption caught Nabiki off guard. Looking away from the girl, Nabiki began to rack her mind for something to say. As she thought about her story and what would likely be considered romantic to the girl she was talking to, she suddenly remembered seeing a burn mark on Ranma's arm a few days past. Taking a moment to solidify her story, she said. "Our attackers set the house on fire, and my room quickly became a blazing inferno. When Ranma came to rescue me, I was huddled up in the corner of the room with a sprained ankle, completely surrounded by fire. Ranma rushed into the conflagration that was my room, calling my name. Luckily for me, he came just in the nick of time; the moment he entered a room, a large fiery beam fell from the ceiling. I called out his name in fear as I saw that it was about to fall on top of me. Knowing that there was no way I would be able to move out of the way in time, he ran toward me. Without a second thought, he blocked the beam with his left arm and scooped me up in his arms to take me to safety. If you look at his left arm just above the elbow, you'll see the scorch mark where the beam landed."

Nabiki paused for a moment, and took note of the girl to whom she was talking. Tears were running freely down the girls face. She was about to continue when a sudden movement caught her eye. Turning to see what it was, she nearly jumped out of the tub, when she saw four other servants sitting near the entryway to the bath. Seeing that all four of them were also crying, it didn't take a genius to realize that they had been listening as well. She berated herself for getting so caught up in the story that she hadn't realized four other people had joined them.

Seeing as how it was too late already, she mentally shrugged her shoulders. She turned a bit to face all five girls, and continued again. "I cried for days afterward. I hated myself for being alive when the rest of my family had died. But Ranma, who had lost many friend and family as well, refused to let me dwell on it. So he decided to leave the village, and to take me with him. He knew my spirit would eventually die there as I stayed; there were too just many memories there for both of us. Memories that would haunt us if we stayed there. So he took me as his wife, and we left."

"Since then, Every time I cry, he'd be there to hold me and cry with me. Every time I've happy, he's been there share that happiness with me as well. Whenever I'm in so much pain that I feel that it will overwhelm me, he's always there to help me thought it."

Nabiki paused a moment, noticing to her dismay there was now about ten girls in the room. Summoning more crocodile tears, she slowly began. "You asked me if it was love at first sight. No, it wasn't. But now, after everything that happened; after all that we've been through, I know that I could never have fallen in love with another man."

"Yet, my heart is conflicted! For this love, whose fruit is sweeter than the sweetest honey was watered in blood. For if it wasn't for that wretched night so long ago, I would never have had the chance to feel love like I do today. It wasn't until my world fell apart that I realized how truly desolate my life had been. So from my greatest pain came my greatest joys. The joys of life, love, and soon. . . motherhood."

Wiping a crocodile tear from eyes, Nabiki looked up from her academy-award presentation to see everyone in the room looking up at her with tears in their eyes. Akemi, the only girl in the room that wasn't cuddled up with someone else, looked at her and said. "I have never been so moved like that before. Please mistress, if it wouldn't be too much trouble for you, tell me more. Tell me more about you and your husband, and the family that you lost."

Nabiki looked at the girl's pleading eyes, which was mirrored in the eyes of all of the other girls in the room. She couldn't find it in her to refuse the poor girl. Besides it had been fun! She always knew that all the yen she had spent on buying her manga was well spent. "Ok, but only on one condition."

"Tell me and I will do all within my ability to see that it is done for you." Akemi said solemnly.

Shivering slightly, she crossed her arms over her chest and said. "Can you raise the temperature of this thing? The water is getting cold!" Four girls, the one's who had likely been there to regulate the temperature of the water, quickly stood and went to restart the fire to heat the water.

That evening, an exhausted Ranma found his way to his room. As he entered the room, he saw several lit candles which Nabiki was using to read some kind of book. "Hey Nabiki."

Nabiki looked up from her book. "Why, hello darling. How was your day today? I hope it wasn't too tiring."

Ranma winced. She was acting just like she was when they had been engaged. He knew she was doing it to tease him, but it was still very disconcerting for him. "Nah. Me and pop were mostly training all day. What about you, whatcha reading?" He said as he began getting ready sleep.

"Oh this?" She said, indicating the book. "Akemi let me borrow it for a while. It's nothing much really. It's just a book about some of the stuff the elder's seen while traveling."

"It any good?"

"I suppose. It seems more like some kinda story book. It's got a bunch of stories about monsters and demons."

Ranma raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Any interesting stories?"

"Not really. Most are just about big animals of different kinds. The only interesting story was the first one. It was about a demon and a miko who fell in love about forty-nine years ago. Or at least that's what the few people who knew about it thought. It seems this miko was the guardian of some kind of powerful jewel that the demon wanted, so he pretended to be in love with her, and waited until he was sure she had fallen in love with him to spring his attack."

"The demon asked her if he could use the power of the jewel to become a human so that they could stop hiding their relationship. The miko who was overjoyed at the idea, readily agreed. However, when she brought it to him, he attacked her. He stole the jewel from her and must have thought she was dead, because he returned to the village to attack them now that they were defenseless. The miko didn't die however, and so she used the last of her power to seal the demon forever."

"Sheesh, and this was a real story?"

"Supposedly." Nabiki said as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Talk about weird. Anyway what else ya do?"

"Not much really. I had a great warm bath, followed by a lot of pampering and lounging about. After being on the road for so long, it feels so good just to relax. I especially enjoyed being able to take a warm bath, instead of swimming in freezing cold lakes.

"Well at least you got to take a warm bath, me and pops had to go to a nearby lake. Of course that's only the beginning of my great day. Pops being the idiot he is, forgets to bring a kettle. So I get the job of finding one to borrow. It took me forever to find one, but when I got back pops was no where to be found. I was about to just use it and let pops find his own kettle, when a bunch of guys from the village came along. They said that they were hunters and were trying to find a large beast that found its way into the woods. Of course it was Pops, so I had to go rescue him from the hunters."

"Then, when I got back here, the servants suddenly started looking at me all weird. I mean every time I walked into a room, they would all just shut up all and look at me funny. Wait a minute! You don't think they know. . . Do you? About my curse I mean?" He said, as his eyes grew wide in sudden fear.

"I doubt it. To the best of my knowledge, your secret is still safe."

Ranma breathed out in relief. "Can you think of why they're looking at me funny?"

Nabiki was tempted to tell him he was just being paranoid. After all they'd be gone soon and unless she told him, she knew for a fact that he would never find out. In fact, she was very sure that he would most likely prefer not to know; not to mention the awkwardness that not telling him would save him. They had agreed on being friends however, and he did have the right to know, despite how embarrassed he would feel when he did. "Well unless my guess is wrong, I would guess those looks are more curioustity and admiration than anything else."

"Huh? Why would ya think that?"

"Oh no reason at, really. I mean I did kinda mention a few small things, nothing all that big really."

Ranma suddenly became very worried. Nabiki was rambling. Never in all the time that he had known Nabiki, had he ever known her to ramble. Therefore, her rambling could only be a bad omen. "When you say 'a few small things,' what exactly do you mean?"

"Well — just stuff like your fiancees and the other girls who constantly chased after you. Of course I kept out certain things like your curse. But I did mention just a few other non-important things, like how we fell in love, our marriage, and why we're on the road traveling while I'm pregnant. Like I said, hardly anything."

"You said what!?" He asked in shock and dismay. W-w-why did you we were — were — "

"Married and in love?" Nabiki added helpfully. Ranma nodded his head. With a sigh she continued. "Well just in case you've already forgotten, I'll remind you. Thanks to that dumb panda, not only are we married, but I'm also pregnant with Ranma jr. Remember?"

"Still why ya have to even talk about it in the first place?" Ranma stammered.

"Well Akemi was keeping me company while I was taking a bath, and she started asking me a lot of questions. It was either answer her or be cold to her. You were the one that said I should be friendlier. All I was doing was taking your advice."

Ranma sighed. "Well what exactly did you say?" Nabiki sighed and told him the revised version of their life in Nerima that she had told Akemi, ending with their marriage. "And they actually believed a crazy story like that?"

"First off, I only meant to tell one person, but they somehow just kept multiplying. Besides, why wouldn't they believe it? It is true you know. Well ... It's almost all true. It's just been embellished a bit. Think about it. Shampoo is Cologne's successor, so that would make her an amazon princesses, and the Kuno's are technically a noble family. Anyway, with my charisma and my vast supply of manga romance plots to draw upon, I could have convinced them we were really aliens form planet Jusenkyou on a mission to baptize them all in the spring of drowned duckbill platypus."

Ranma burst out laughing at the idea of finally having a way to not only make him forget about the 'pigtailed girl,' as well as making him shut up. He quickly made a mental note to pick up some spring water from Jusenkyou before going back to their own time. "Now that is funny. Ok, well I guess it's no big deal then. At least you didn't say any other stuff."

Nabiki winced. "Well... That's not exactly everything I said. I did happen to mention just a wee bit more." She said sounding very embarrassed.

Ranma looked at her in wide eyed fear. The fear only magnified, when he noted the blush that was starting to decorate Nabiki's face. No, fear was far too small of a word to describe the emotions coursing though Ranma. Anything that could make Nabiki blush like that was certainly something to fear. In fact, if a lion had suddenly come into the room and sat on his lap, he probably wouldn't have even blinked. "W-wh-what d-d-do you m-mean t-that wasn't everything?" He asked; his voice reflecting his currently emotion.

Preparing herself for what she was about to talk about, Nabiki took a deep breath and began. "Well you see, at first she started by asking simple questions like describing what everyone back home was like. Unfortunately, she started asking other questions, and seeing as how I was on a roll, I didn't even really think about what it was I was saying until later."

Her reluctant tone did nothing to help soothe his nerves. "Like what kinda questions?" The further spreading of the blush when he asked her, nearly drove him into hysterics.

Nabiki gulped and said. "Oh just stuff like what our first time was like."

Ranma looked at her blankly, his fears temporarily placed on hold. "Huh? First time? First time what?"

Nabiki just couldn't believe it. She wanted nothing better than to just disappear. She cursed herself for taking Ranma's advice and opening up like she did. "IT! You know 'doing IT!' What do men and women do when they're married?"

She looked at Ranma in dismay, when the blank look never left his face. She shut her eyes and clenched her hands tightly in anger and frustration. There was NO way that SHE was going to have to be the one to explain the birds and the bees to RANMA of all people. She decided to make one last attempt before trying to teach Ranma biology. "Ok Ranma, this may be stupid question, but do you know how babies are made?"

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Of course I do Nabiki! I ain't that stupid or nothin. It's when. . . ." Ranma when pale. He tried to speak, but for some reason neither his lungs nor his vocal chords remembered how to work correctly. So his mouth would open and close as if he were speaking, but no sounds came out.

In what Ranma could only describe as a once-in-a-lifetime event, Nabiki earnestly apologized to him. "I am so sorry Ranma. I wasn't even thinking about it. I was having so much fun coming up with answers to the questions I was being asked, that I just got carried away. Believe me, I didn't mean for any of it to get as carried away as it did. And before you ask, no. I will not go into details about what I said. However, I will say this, any man those women marry will have some pretty high expectations to overcome."

Ranma shook his head. "Why do these things always happen to me? What did I ever do to deserve this? You know what, just skip it. I am too tired for this! Let's just forget this whole thing ever happened! But, you gotta promise me one thing. Don't do something like this again. Ok?"

"Believe me, I have never been so embarrassed in my entire life. Trust me when I say, I have no intentions of ever doing anything like that again. Ever! In fact, let's just blow out the candles and goto sleep. I want to enjoy this nice comfortable bed, before Genma decides that its time to try and run away from this town. So come on help me blow out the lights."

They stood and began blowing out the candles. As Nabiki faced the final candle, she asked. "Ranma?"

"Ya Nabiki?" He said, turning to look at her back.

"Are we still friends?" She asked neutrally.

Ranma smiled at her, despite the fact that he knew she couldn't see it. "Of course we're still friends."

"Thanks." She said, before blowing out the final candle.

"That's what friends are for right? Besides you know me. I'm always saying stupid stuff I shouldn't and getting people mad at me. So fair is fair right?"

"I'm actually pretty impressed with you so far. You've pretty much managed to keep your foot out of your mouth, this entire trip."

"Why gee, thanks a lot Nabiki! That makes me feel so much better" Ranma said sarcastically.

"You're very welcome Ranma. Anyway good night." Nabiki answered back, ignoring the sarcasm.

"Ya good night." He responded.

The two rolled over and attempted to sleep, but after a few minutes Nabiki spoke up. "Ranma?"

"Ya?"

"I gotta business deal for you."

"What?"

"A business deal. You know when people agree to help each other to make a lot of money."

Ranma's internal danger sense was ringing overtime. Past experience had taught him, deals made with Nabiki always found a way to turn around and bite him in the butt. With some difficulty Ranma ignored his danger sense, after all that was before they had become friends. He hoped now that they were friends, things would change. So he took a deep breath and said. "So what's your idea?"

"Well — I was thinking. When we get back, we have got to try and get that story of yours published. It would be a hit. I'm sure we can easily get it turned into a book or a manga, and if it's really popular we might even be able to get it turned into a movie! Heck we could make two different series. One for your life in Nerima, and another for our misadventures here in the past! We could easily make Millions!"

Ranma laughed. "I swear some things about you never change."

"Come on, tell me you don't think we could make millions? It's a sure hit. Do you know how much I make everyday at school selling news about you? If I can make as I do at school from the few students that go there, just imagine if we market it out to all of japan and later the world!"

"I don't know Nabiki." Ranma said hesitantly.

"Just think about it ok? We can talk about it later, when i got all the details worked out. That's all I'm asking you, just think about it."

"Ok, I guess. I'll think about it."

"Good! Oh and Ranma, just one more thing."

"Hm?" He said feeling very tired."

"Nothing really, I just wanted to say, goodnight dear."

Ranma groaned. "Just got sleep Nabiki."

"Yes, dear. I'm sorry to keep you up dear." She said teasingly, eliciting yet another groan from her supposed husband.

Ranma wisely stayed quite though. Instead he turned over and closed his eyes. Not much longer after that, both of them had fallen blissfully asleep. It was only then, after both began a rhythmic chorus of snoring, that the person hiding behind the door snuck away.