The Melting Process Part 4
By Ryouga's Best friend
A/N- Yay! Another chapter begins. It feels good to write chapters on a regular basis. Anyway this chapter will mostly be focusing on Ranma and Nabiki while there lost. I'm not sure as of now but it might get WAFFy, so be warned ;p.
Recap:
"That's strange…"
"What?"
"I have no idea where we are." Ranma said scratching the side of his head. Nabiki looked around, she didn't recognize this shrine either. "I guess in all the commotion with Ryoga and the girls I got us lost…"
"Idiot…"
Part 4
After all the chaos Ranma and Nabiki have found themselves lost at a strange shrine. Nabiki was completely thrown off balance by all the that she had taken in. Apparently they whole story Ranma had give her yesterday was bogus. He had asked her out just for her own enjoyment. Then due to her own meddling she was nearly killed by Ranma's fiancee hit squad, but was saved at the last minute by The pig-tailed martial artist. "Ranma Wh- ow." She started to ask but winced as her wounds burned with pain.
"We Better get those cleaned up." He said picking her up gently and heading over to the main building of the shrine. Nabiki blushed lightly at the special treatment.
"What are you doing Saotome?"
"You shouldn't aggravate your injuries so I'm gonna take you to the shrine Priest to see if he has a first aid kit." He explained. Nabiki almost rebuttled but stopped gave a small grunt keeping her face hidden from Ranma. They took the short walk to the largest building where an aged man was sweeping the grounds. "Excuse me Houshi-san, My friend here is injured." He greeted respectfully.
"I see, follow me my boy and I'll do what I can for your girlfriend." The monk replied heading into the main building followed by the flustered pair. He placed down a mat and began rummaging through a box on bandages and jars.
"He/She's not my Boyfriend/Girlfriend." They said at the same time, eliciting a laugh from the man. Ranma gently put her down on the mat.
"I'm sorry, I just assumed. Pardon me then." He said with a smile. He sat down next to Nabiki with a jar of sweet smelling cream and a couple rolls of bandages. "These are quite an amount of wounds here young lady, may I ask what happened." He asked as he spread some cool cream on her wounds causing her to flinch some.
"I got jumped by some psycho martial artists." she said bitterly, Ranma frowned momentarily but didn't dispute her. "They nearly killed me."
"How strange? Martial artists attacking people. No discipline in today's youth." He said with a disgusted shake of his head. "I take it this young man helped you?" Ranma nodded embarrassed, "Well I might have spoken to soon then. Eh?"
"Yeah…" Nabiki agreed reluctantly. The three remained silent as the monk finished his treatment. The only sound being Nabiki's winces on pain. Ranma was a little surprised when she grabbed his hand as the monk handle a particularly nasty gash on her back. Though he held on unconsciously until it was over.
"Well that should work for now. It may take a couple of days rest to heal fully, if you aggravate the wounds the may open again." Nabiki and Ranma exchange a glance, it probably wouldn't be safe to rest back at the Tendo Dojo then. They then realized they were holding hands and quickly let go as if they had been burned. Both tried to regain their composure with a light flush on their faces.
"Um, were a bit lost. Do you happen to have any free rooms to stay in?" Nabiki asked. The monk thought for a moment.
"Well, I do have a room where my niece stays when she visits, she's suppose to be coming by late this week but it's open now. Though I expect the young man to help me out around the shrine, it's only fair." He suggested with a nod.
"That'd be fine."
"Hey, you could at least ask ME first before you volunteer me to do shrine work!" Ranma grumbled.
"You WERE going to accept anyway right?"
"Well, yeah. But-"
"Then it's settled then." Nabiki finished with a smirk leaving Ranma to glare at her half-heartedly. The monk had a long hard laugh at the antics.
"Well it's a little late in the day so I'll bring you to the room so you two can rest up some before dinner." The Monk said standing and heading outside. Ranma got up and picked Nabiki up again before she could protest and took after him.
"I don't need all this pampering Ranma, I can walk." She said but was ignored. Truth be told she loved being pampered, thoughts go back to the island of prince Toma and the martial arts bridal challenge. But the way Ranma was treating her was both scary and a little comforting. She knew he was after something, he just had to be…no one was this nice to her.
They arrived at the room, which was definitely a young girls room. Their were a few posters of pretty boy J Rock bands, the walls were a soft purple. Various stuffed animals were sprinkled about, a menagerie of happy faces. Though it had plenty of floor space for a extra futon, a soft canopy bed and a nice desk where the girl would do schoolwork. "I'm sorry I don't have more space but since my niece stays regularly I had to change the guest room into hers." The monk explained with a small bow.
"This is fine, it's looks pretty cozy." Nabiki said looking about, it reminded her own room when she was in junior high. Ranma placed her on the bed and turned to their host.
"Right so where am I staying?" he asked, the monk blinked and then smiled.
"Why here of course. I told you there was no other room." He said cheerfully.
"Your, your not serious right?" Ranma said nervously
"Oh yes I am."
"But-"
"Forget it Ranma it's okay, he's not asking us to sleep together. Just stay on the floor and I won't complain." She stated laying back on the bed, it was pretty comfy. The pig-tail boy glared at her.
"What kind of pervert do you think I am?!" he growled but was ignored, he steamed mumbling cursed clenching his fist until the monk returned with a futon. He put it on the ground with a humph and turned away from her. The monk stifled his chuckle as he left the pair, this would be a welcomed distraction for sure.
Ranma was still grumbling when he heard the shifting of cloth behind him, curious he turned over to she Nabiki slowly undressing from her ruined outfit. Ranma eeped and turned back to where he had been facing, face bright red. "You better keep your eyes forward Saotome." She warned, unaware he'd already got an eyeful.
"R-right…" he replied as calmly as he could. He wasn't blind to the middle Tendo's beauty but it had been easy to overlook when he characterized her as a heartless witch. But that had changed a few days ago, when he had found himself in possession of her poetry journal. They were all so sad and lonely, her story of the ice queen brought up a side he never even considered. He made a promise to try and make her happier, he'd spent the next days keeping an eye on her trying to figure out what she liked and then made his move. The night went great, she was smiling and likable…like a different person. Then the next day her face was neutral again, baring the occasional smirk. And today…she nearly got killed, all because I tried to help… "I'm sorry Nabiki…" He said in a low tone causing the girl to freeze, "If I didn't take you out you wouldn't have been hurt so bad…"
Nabiki looked down to the figure on the futon below as if he was an alien. Ranma Saotome was apologizing for her injuries, like he did it himself. None of this was making any sense. "Please don't say that…I had fun that night, I really did…" She admitted in her own quiet voice. "But I still don't understand…why you even care at all?" There was a long silence, so long she thought he might have dozed off. But out of nowhere the martial artist said something she'd never expect to hear.
"I wanted to see the real you…without your mask." His voice rang clearly through the small room causing her heartbeat to speed up and face to heat up. "And it was nice." Those words had struck her harder than any thing the fiancee brigade had thrown at her in that whole day of running around. She just stared at the ceiling unsure of how to respond, he was just playing with her, he had to be. Just like everyone else had. And there, with her head still spinning she dropped off into sleep.
Nabiki awoke late the next day blinking tiredly at the ceiling. "Hmmm, I wonder what Kasumi made for breakfast today." She thought aloud starting to sit up when a shot of pain from her side woke her up as she bit back a scream. She looked around the room confused for a moment until it all flowed back to her mind. The chase, the shrine, the talk…"Where is Saotome anyway?" she wondered noting the futon was empty. She gently slipped out of bed and noted a pile of folded clothes on the desk with a note with Ranma's bad handwriting.
Nabiki,
The old man said you could where these since your clothes got trashed, he also saved your breakfast in the mini-fridge in the main room of the house, the bath is to the left. Sorry I didn't wake ya for dinner, I thought you needed the rest. Anyway I'll see ya when you wake up.
-- Ranma
She couldn't help but smile a bit at the note as she looked to the clothes, "A shrine maiden's outfit?" she said surprised, she never thought she'd see the day she'd wear one of these. "My classmates would flip." She said with a snicker. It took her a bit to get it on right due to her injuries and inexperience with most traditional clothing. She made her way outside, it was sunny and peaceful. Her attention was taken when a loud 'thwack' ringed through the shrine grounds. She made her way to the courtyard to find the monk armed with a boken was standing over a crouched Ranma who was holding his head. He was also dressed in shrine clothes and she had to admit he didn't look half bad.
"Wrong do it again!"
"Damn it! That hurts old man!" the martial artist complained, but got no sympathy.
"Then do it right and I won't have to hit you again." The monk explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Ranma glared up at the man for a moment. Ranma crossed his legs and closed his eyes he looked like he was concentrating very hard when slowly a blue ball of energy appeared in front of him.
"That looks like that attack, what was it. The energy he used against Ryoga's depression attack." She said to herself as she watched on. The boy was sweating as the ball hovered right in front of him. The monk watched on neutrally.
"Good good, now move it as before SLOWLY," he instructed in a firm tone. Ranma was grumbling muted curses but the ball did start to move in a slow circle. Nabiki was impressed she'd seen plenty of energy attacks flying about but few had any real control to them. This was certainly a step up from his normal abilities. At this point the monk looked up to see Nabiki and smiled.
"Hello there Miss Tendo, glad to see you joined us."
Nabiki?" Ranma asked opening his eyes. Unfortunately breaking his concentration which caused the ball to explode in his face. "Ah damn it!" he said as he fell back holding his face which was light singed. The monk sighed.
"Well it seems you won't be able to concentrate with your lovely lady friend around, go sweep the steps." He said motioning toward the entrance. Ranma hopped to his feet, face blackened.
"Hey I can do just fi-" he was whacked solidly atop the head. "ow!"
"I gave you and instruction Mr. Saotome."
"Yeah, Yeah…" the martial artist grumbled as he walked off.
"I didn't interrupt anything important did I?" Nabiki asked approaching the monk.
"No, he needed a break anyway. He's been going at it all morning. That Ranma is quite a boy, He's nearly mastered techniques that took me years as if they were nothing." He said looking out after the boy in question. Nabiki gave a small smile. "If he put his mind to it he could be a powerful exorcist."
"That's Ranma for you, one of the quickest learners I've ever seen. But still manages to almost fail every class." She said wryly. The monk laughed heartily
"How about you Miss Tendo? How are you wounds doing today?" He asked heading inside the house. She followed slowly.
"Well I can get around but I can't move too much." She admitted as she took a seat at the table. The monk placed a bowl of rice and some baked fish in front of her.
"It might be a little cool, but that's to be expected. Oh and feel free to take a nice long soak when your done, it should help with you healing. I'll heat up the water now."
"Thank you so much," she ate leisurely even though she hardly got anything yesterday. It was nice to have something in her stomach. She placed her things in the kitchen and adjourned to the tub. She undress and folded her clothes in the corner and slipped into the tub. "Mmm…" it was a pleasant sensation as the warmth dimmed the pain from her injuries.
Meanwhile Ranma was returning from sweeping the many steps up to the shrine. That wasn't so bad but the monk's spiritual was draining him dry. Who would have thought it was so hard to move a stupid ball? At the courtyard he found the monk waiting, his boken absent. "Ranma, you've been working hard today, the bath is free why don't you take a soak?" He suggested.
"Thanks, I think I'll do that." Ranma replied with a stretch as he headed inside. The monk gained a mischievous smile as he followed shortly after.
Back in the bath Nabiki was leaned back, eyes closed and relaxed. "This actually isn't so bad. It's like a vacation from all those nutjob martial artists." She said with a smile, though as she said this she heard the door open and shut. Her eyes opened to see and Ranma in all his glory standing in the frozen face red, she could tell her own was hot as well and not just because of the bath. The spell broke and Ranma turned and tried to leave, but the door would move…it was locked. He cursed and quickly put his pants back on, eyes still away. "Oh my…" were the first words that cam to her mind. No wonder so may girls are after him he's a total stud she thought dazed, she'd never seen him naked before.
"The old man told no one was here…" Ranma explained quickly, obviously expecting to be hit. "That bastard locked the door too, I can't believe him." He continued but was still tense out of habit. He thinks I'm going to hit him. Akane's done it so much it's a conditioned response Nabiki thought saddened.
"It's okay Ranma…I'm not going to hit you…"
"Huh?"
"My sister may not be the most rational person but I'm not her. Just relax, if we are locked in like you say there's no reason to loose our cool. He'll let us out before too long." She explained calmly even though her heart was racing from excitement. If it was anyone else she'd be much more scared. Ranma's too polite/gutless to do anything anyway Ranma relaxed a bit but he kept turned.
"I guess your right…" There was silence for a while, the air was tense. Before long Nabiki just couldn't take it anymore.
"Ranma…You think you could get my back…I could probably get it but my side hurts…" She asked unsure if it was a wise suggestion. She didn't want to scare the poor boy too bad.
"Y-you s-sure about t-that?" he asked nervously "What if.." he tried to think of something but there really was no one they had to worry about out here. It was only themselves and the monk. "Okay…" he said reluctantly turning to find that she had turned away. He picked up a cloth and set to work gently and awkwardly washing her back.
"Thanks…" she said, her face scarlet. Her stomach was doing flips, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. It feels nice but this is my sister's fiancee. I shouldn't be thinking about how kind he's been lately, or how it felt to be held by him or how nice it feels to have him rubbing my back… she quickly derailed that line of thought before it got dangerous. Though it brought back that nights little talk. "Ranma…"
"Yeah…"
"Did you mean what you said?…last night." She asked reluctantly, after a moment his hand stopped on her shoulder.
"Yes. Every word."
"I'm glad…" They fell into a companionable silence until he finished the job. Nabiki got out and redressed, Ranma examined the wonderful paneling on the walls. "Didn't you come in to bathe?" She asked when she finished.
"N-nah, it's okay. I can do it later." He replied nervously.
"I won't look, if it will make you feel better." She said turning away, "It's not like we can go anywhere right?" It took a moment but she heard the shuffle of cloth and shifting of the water. "You want me to get your back…it's only fair right…" Nabiki asked fearing she may be getting too bold for him as he practically froze.
"Um…I guess so." Ranma relented with a gulp. She gave him a smile before he quickly turned she began to work.
"Ranma…I still don't understand why you suddenly started trying to help me…I'm sorry I must sound like a broken record at this point…" She said sadly. "It's just hard for me to understand."
"I read your journal thing…" he stated bluntly.
"Huh?"
"When I was chasing the old prev and he chucked me out the window I had you notebook thingy…"
"You read my notebook?!" She shouted whacking him in the back of the head. "How could you?"
"Hey I'm sorry okay. It just kinda happened." He complained, it wasn't a hard hit but he still rubbed the spot. "Anyway after I read it I thought I should see if it was true…that you really were a much nicer person. And it was true." The comment sent her heart rate going up again. She tried to go back to washing Ranma's back. "You have a nice smile…makes you look cute." Her hand slipped sending the cloth flying over Ranma into the tub, her face was bright red. "You okay Nabiki?" Ranma asked concerned.
"F-fine, j-just f-fine." She stuttered What hell is wrong with me? I'm completely falling apart, since when has Ranma had an effect on me? She jumped back when he placed a hand on her forehead.
"I don't know you seem a little hot. Guess hot waters getting to ya. The monk must've unlocked the door by now. Why don't you go lay down some before dinner." He suggested concerned. She gave a shaky nod and scooted over to the door, which was unlocked. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it.
"I can't believe it…I'm falling for Ranma of all people…" She whispered holding her burning cheeks.
"Good evening Miss Tendo. Did you enjoy your bath?" The monk asked from her side causing her to jump back. She glared at him while he kept a cheery smile.
"That wasn't very funny old man. Why did you lock us in?!"
"Pardon a bored old man for is activities, I haven't had guest in such a long time."
"I can see why." She shot back slowly regaining her composure.
"It was immature of me and I apologize. I won't let it happen again." The monk said with a bowed head, Nabiki pause for a moment.
"See that it doesn't." she said making her way back outside for some air. The monk laughed, this WAS fun.
Dinner came and went as did the rest of the day. Nabiki spent most of her time resting while Ranma worked on chores and trained with the monk. It was fairly late when Ranma snuck in to sleep, he undressed down to his underwear and shifted the sheet on his futon. He glanced to the form on the bed, "Night Nabiki…chan." He said be fore he laid down and fell asleep. Nabiki, who had been awake tightened her grip on the sheets.
"Night Ranma…kun" she whispered to herself with a smile before drifting off to sleep.
A/N- Well there ya go a mushy little chapter to begin the calm before the storm. Again there might have been some OOCness, but I'd like to think not. The whole idea that the real Nabiki is being represented here. Anyway I hope your all enjoying this story of mine. The next chapter will be interjecting another new character, the Monk's Niece. It should be fun, but what kind of chaos could a young junior high girl have on this blooming romance? If you have to ask your not much of a Ranma fan now are you? ; ).