Choices I Make
By
Himura Alucard
Disclaimer:
Don't own any of the Ranma characters, if I did most of them would end up with the chracters I want them to... )
3rd chapter of my on-going fic and thanks for all those who have sticked with it. As usual big thanks to JohnnyG and Drkjester aka Thanatos for doing a wonderful job of pre-reading.
Chapter 3
After gladly dropping his unusually heavy book-bag with a loud thud onto the floor beside his table, Ranma haphazardly walked downstairs and headed straight for the kitchen. His entrance into the room was greeted with the heavenly aromas of a fine dinner in the making by the resident chef.
"Mmmm…that sure smells real nice Kasumi…" Ranma complimented her absentmindedly, his eyes happily closed to take in the entire assault on his sense of smell.
Kasumi who had been standing by the stove was lightly startled to suddenly hear Ranma's voice behind her, for she truly didn't remember hearing his usual coming home greeting.
"Welcome back…Ranma, I'm sorry I didn't welcome you home just now…guess I didn't hear you come back." turning Kasumi, wiping her hands clean on her apron.
Ranma instinctively went for his patented scratch behind the head, "Ah…it's okay Kasumi, well truth is I sort of roof hopped back all the way back here and went straight to my room…I kinda actually skipped the front door..."
Kasumi quickly chastise him, a good-natured kind of chastening of course.
"Ranma, we do have a front door for a reason…"
The raven haired martial artist grinned innocently, "Well…Kasumi…err…you know it's easier to come right down from my room…ya' know instead of climbing up the stairs and then back down the stairs again I was thinking of going to the Dojo afterwards so I didn't want to go up and down again…ya' get what I mean don't ya'?"
As she listened into his explanation, Kasumi consciously did an up and down motion with her left index finger just to see it his reasoning made any sense.
"I think so…but still…a door…" Kasumi rationalized halfheartedly. She was trying her best to come up with a reason on why Ranma should still use the main door of a house for entry.
But even before she could explain herself fully, "SeeIknowyou'dunderstand…"
Ranma blurted his last sentence as quickly as he grabbed his bottle of water from the counter top and ran out of the kitchen saying out a hasty, "Thanksforunderstanding, Kasumi …." before scurrying off to the Dojo.
With Ranma halfway to the Dojo by now Kasumi let out a lighthearted chuckle and went back to tending her dinner.
Later that evening as a now freshly showered Ranma hurried downstairs to the dining room for dinner. His stomach was crying out to be fed he was starving, ravenous being the optimal word. After enjoying the foretaste of the dinner to come earlier that afternoon his appetite had been growing steadily and anxiously in waiting.
"Thanks Kasumi…" thanked Ranma after she handed him his bowl.
Just as Kasumi reached out to hand over Nabiki's bowl Ranma was already half way done with his rice.
Kasumi subconsciously smiled at this, 'This means Ranma's back to his old self…' she silently mused.
Soun and Genma had during the entire dinner goaded Ranma into telling them the reason why he had fainted that day. And when he said nothing they simply came to the conclusion that maybe he was staying up too late or something and 'advised' him from doing it again.
Nabiki sitting direct opposite of the boy and being the more observing member of the household knew that there was something more then that what Ranma was letting on to the father's.
She had always been the regular 'night owl' in the household and on occasions she would look out of her window late at night to maybe catch a view of the stars or take a deep breath of the crisp evening air.
Recently though for the past few nights she noticed that she wasn't the only one looking up to the night skies or enjoying a cold breath of cool night air. Nabiki had seen that Ranma was peeking out of his window as well for a few nights now.
He was just too zoned out to notice her that's all, but she knew something had been bothering him, but whatever it seemed to have been eating him had now gone away.
Akane meanwhile was simply covertly stealing glances over to Ranma sitting beside her to see if indeed all her malleting to his head were having any effort on the boy's overall persona.
With the plates used for the family dinner now carefully pilled up nicely and everyone contently walking away, their stomachs filled with another delicious dinner, Kasumi who was always the last person to leave the table contentedly stood up and collected the plates into her steady hands.
She then walked back into the kitchen to wash them before putting them back into their individual cupboards. This counted as one of her usual evening chores.
Akane and Nabiki had meanwhile gone off to the living room to watch some television while Soun and Genma continued on their game of Shogi outside by the walkway.
With the plates restored to their rightful place, Kasumi silently walked back upstairs to do her last chore of the day and that was to distribute the now neatly pressed and sufficiently cooled clothes she had ironed earlier to the various household members. She had already separated all the clothing's according to their individual owners.
Akane was first, then Nabiki and finally Soun and Ranma's but for tonight it was only Ranma's laundry. As Kasumi slid his room door open she was quite surprised to find Ranma inside seated behind his table.
"Oh…sorry Ranma I didn't know you were in…" she apologized for her intrusion.
Ranma with his back stiffly straightened sat there by his desk, his half opened book bag and a few books strewn around his side on the floor.
"Huh…oh its okay Kasumi…come in", as he waved her in.
'I need a break anyway…' thought Ranma as he took the chance to loosen his stiff back, neck and arms that popped loudly as he stretched them out.
Kasumi swiftly got on with her task noiselessly, trying hard not to disturb the boy and his studies as she returned the pair of black slacks and usual red Chinese shirt into his cupboard. Just as she was about to close the cupboard door she heard a loud cracking bang beside her.
Ranma after a minute of watching Kasumi rearranging his wardrobe had returned to his opened textbook and after the second minute looking at it, Ranma in his utter frustration banged his head, forehead first onto his wooden desk.
'I have no idea what to do…' he moaned to himself.
He had been trying to do the assignments that had been passed out earlier during the morning in his maths, physics and history classes but after looking at all three subjects Ranma came to the sad realization that he had no idea where to begin or what to do. His textbooks looked as if they were brand new and his exercise books were void of any written words.
With his forehead still plastered onto the surface of his desk Ranma never heard Kasumi walking up to his side but he heard her asking him gently, "Having some difficulties with your homework…?"
Shifting his forehead off from the table, Ranma looked sadly back at her, "Well…I'm trying to do my class assignments and I've just figured out that I've actually never done one before…"
Kasumi's mouth gaped open a little but kept it in check, "Ranma…" she began hesitantly, "You've been attending classes in Furinkan for almost a year now…and you're telling me that you've never passed up a single assignment?"
Ranma's sad nod was in stark contrary to her own sideways shaking, "Err…Ranma I hope you don't mind me asking but how did you get promoted last year?"
Not noticing the worried yet wondering expression Kasumi had on, "Well…I barely managed to scrape through last year's finals with a lot of last minute cramming but the teachers told me that I came up a little short. It was my extra curricular activities points that sort of evened it out…"
"Okay…Ranma…I get the idea…" she remembered the astronomical amounts of medals and trophies that Ranma had brought back during that particular time. All of them were now thankfully stored into various boxes in the Dojo storeroom.
"How about I help you out afterwards…let's say in thirty minutes but before that why don't you try your best to read up on the lessons that you've missed so that we can work on them later?" Kasumi suggested with a cheery smile.
"Sure…why not, I think I could use the help…" perked Ranma as he accepted her offer, a first for him. Admitting he needed help but Ranma right there and then didn't even have to think twice about his pride when Kasumi asked him if she could help him.
"So Megumi-san, this would be your room from now on for the duration of your stay here in the clinic…" Dr. Tofu had just gotten to showing Megumi around the upper level of the clinic and in particular was now showing her to her room.
"Senpai…where is your room?" she asked thoughtfully.
"Err…my room…err…it's down this hall…second door to the right…" replied the poor doctor with a loud gulp.
Megumi desolately noted to herself that it was the furthest most room down at the end of the corridor, seemingly miles from her own room.
"Anyway…tomorrow's a new day…so sleep tight Megumi-san, see you tomorrow…err…good night." the doctor wished her as he started making his way back to his room rather gingerly.
Ranma for the first time in his whole student life was so caught up in reading his history text book that he didn't even notice Kasumi quietly walking back into his room and even after settling herself down right beside him.
"Boo…"
"Arghhhh…!" screamed Ranma from the shock of hearing the voice, after letting out that girlish scream he sullenly looked at the person beside him.
Just then the history book that had been once gripped in his hands, the same book that had been thrown to the air above Ranma landed right back down onto his head with a loud thwack.
Kasumi just sat there beside Ranma laughing herself silly as she looked at how Ranma was giving her his rather cute whimsical look.
"Chez…Kasumi ya' could have just least told me that you were here 'gently' instead of giving me a freaking heart attack…" pouted Ranma, while picking up the hardback textbook.
"Sorry Ranma…I couldn't help it. You were just so engaged with your book reading that I just had to do it…"
"I ain't engaged to no book…I already have problems with being engaged to Akane, Shampoo and Ukyo…" retorted Ranma in a huff.
Kasumi couldn't help but laugh even louder after hearing what he said but she soon calmed down, "I meant 'engaged' as in 'busy' Ranma…you were busy reading…"
Not getting his mistake just yet, "Huh…? Oh okay…sorry to have screamed at you…."
"It's okay Ranma, so how are you coming along…?" wondered Kasumi, who was now ready to get into the all serious matter of helping him with his studies.
Ranma then filled Kasumi in on how far he had gotten and when she asked him honestly how much he knew about the subjects that he was taught in school…
Kasumi by the end of it figured that it would take a lot more work then she had initially presumed, but she wasn't daunted.
"Well Ranma, I guess we should start out with Math's since that's your weakest subject in school. Mind if I see what topics you have this year?" prompted Kasumi.
Ranma cringed at the word 'math's' but went along with Kasumi's suggestion and slowly picked up his maths textbook and handed it over to her.
Looking at the book, Kasumi was surprised to see how well kept it looked…actually it looked to her as if it was brand new.
"Ranma, you sure do take good care of your books…" she had meant that as a compliment at first.
"Huh? Oh…err…well I just took that out from my locker for the first time this morning." confessed Ranma.
Kasumi sweat dropped, it was already half way through the current school semester and if what Ranma said was true then this would be the fist time he was opening this book.
Impervious to the hill that she was about to climb or was it a mountain that was Ranma's educational skills, Kasumi scooted herself over close to Ranma's right side to join him behind the desk and began to slowly instructed Ranma on the finer points of algorithms and calculus.
An hour later, Ranma to his credit was giving his full attention to Kasumi but on the side of it he couldn't also help noticing just how nice she smelled. The two of them were sitting really close, close enough that his bare shoulder was brushing against hers.
Her hair lingered with traces of her lavender scented shampoo while her body…well her shoulders anyway smelled like freshly picked plum blossoms. Adding to that combination of fragrances the fact that Kasumi was wearing a rather beautiful frilly light blue nightgown that silkily hugged against her body, that sight that he was seeing before him alone could drive most men crazy.
"Ranma…?" came a voice.
Snapping out of his lost reverence, Ranma quickly caught how Kasumi was staring right at him, "Yeah…Kasumi sorry…" he bungled out.
"So do you understand what I've just said…?"
Ranma gulped and timidly asked if she wouldn't mind repeating herself and after Kasumi's second explanation Ranma found that he actually did understand what she was explaining to him.
"I think that's enough maths for tonight how about some physics after a small break?"
Kasumi's proposal brought out an audible cheer from Ranma.
"Anyway what were you thinking about just now Ranma?" the oldest Tendo wondered.
"Huh? What was I thinking?" he puzzled loudly to her.
Kasumi turned around facing him, placing her hands on the table.
"Just now you seemed lost for a while…"
"Err…well err…I was thinking just how nice you smell…yeah smelling real nice…Kasumi…that's all." Ranma then realized what he had said out loud to her and impulsively and in haste Ranma raised his hands right to the front of his face.
He even leaned back a little closing his eyes in preparation to block whatever was coming, which he thought he solely deserved.
Kasumi tilted her head slightly at the defensive display. "Ranma…I'm not going to hit you…"
Ranma slowly brought down his hands back down to his lap, "You're not?" he actually sounded real surprised that she had said that.
"Why should I do that?" Kasumi asked him honestly.
"Well…err…I took advantage of you…ya' know us being so close and I sort… accidentally smelled you. You know isn't that rather ya' know..." flustered Ranma, fidgeting rowdily before Kasumi with every word.
"Perverted?" she finished his sentence.
"Yeah…that…" nodded Ranma, even afraid to say the word.
Kasumi stared innocently at Ranma for a second and out of the blue she leaned in real close to his neck and cheeks and took in a deep breath.
By the end of that gesture Ranma cheeks were doing a fairly realistic imitation of a very fresh ripe tomato that Kasumi favored so much when she does her shopping in the market.
"So did you think what I did just now was perverted?" Ranma heard her asking.
"Err…umm…I dunno…" he shrugged, his expression misplaced.
Kasumi laughed out a bit, more at his display of pure innocence then embarrassment.
"Ranma…you were…I mean we were sitting so close to each other that of course you'd be able to smell the shampoo or bath lotion I used for my bath. It isn't something perverted, I leaned in close to you just now and smelled you too and well other then you really shouldn't use your bath soap to wash your gorgeous hair you actually gave me a compliment."
"I…did?" Ranma stammered back to her still blushing.
"Ranma, oh…you can be so ridiculously sweet sometimes but you have so much to learn about girls." lightheartedly counseled Kasumi.
"Err…I don't think I can ever get how a girl thinks…" he let out, laughing along with Kasumi this time around.
"Understand…" she corrected.
"Huh?"
"Understand how a girl thinks. That's the proper way to say it, Ranma."
It was late evening and as Genma sleepily walked into his bedroom after their tenth game of Shogi while simultaneously letting out a big yawn or rather growl for he was currently in his panda form.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes he then noticed how two pair of eyes was looking back at him. A sign popped up reading, 'Boy what are you doing with Kasumi this late inside your bedroom!'
Both Ranma and Kasumi read of the sign and replied, "Studying…"
Upon hearing this, the stout panda instantly fell over his back onto the floor and as another sign sprung up, 'You don't need an education! You are going to be the master of the Saotome Anything Goes Martial Arts and that's good enough.'
Ranma was about to say something but stopped when Kasumi spoke up before him, "That's where you're wrong Genma-jisan, I for one think that it's rather important that Ranma studies hard for his future. At least he has an education to fall back on just in case he decides that he doesn't want to become the master of the Saotome Anything Goes School of Martial Arts."
This comment made the panda sit up straight and threw a blank signboard aimed at his son's face, thinking that it was his son's wishes. Ranma promptly caught said projectile in mid air and threw it back at his father which hit Soun squarely on his face.
'Ungrateful Boy!' read the next sign before it fell limply down to the panda's side.
Kasumi felt a little furious with her father's long time companion comments but figured that, 'Well this comes from a man who most probably thinks that a woman's rightful place is in the house doing housework and looking after the babies…'
Turning to her right facing Ranma, "Ranma…why don't we finish this off in my room and let Genma-jisan sleep peacefully…" as Kasumi took hold of his hand, gently dragging him up to his feet.
Standing with Kasumi waiting beside him Ranma realized that he had been given a choice on what he wanted to do next, "You still want to Kasumi? I mean it's your room and ya' know…"
Ranma's eyes darted to the far right wall of his room and Kasumi sort of understood what he was getting at.
"Ranma…don't worry about Akane and Nabiki. We're not doing anything other then studying so it's perfectly alright. Of course not unless you're feeling tired…and you don't want to continue anymore…"
Ranma quickly waved his hands right in front of her, "No…that's not it Kasumi, actually I was kinda enjoying having you explaining stuff to me…heck I was even understanding what you were teaching me."
Kasumi's feelings lofted a little hearing Ranma stating the fact that she was very helpful and as she waited for Ranma to gather up the rest of the books they slowly walked over to Kasumi's bedroom.
And as the two walked out of the room they sort of well didn't mean to but they literally walked over the newly installed unconscious panda rug that was blocking the entire doorway of Ranma's room.
Ranma gulped as Kasumi switched on the ceiling light in her room while hesitantly leading him in. This would be the first time that Ranma would actually see how Kasumi's room looks likes.
And just like its owner, the inside wasn't lavishly decorated but Ranma found it surprisingly had a real homely presence to it. Only a small bed, 2 mid-sized cupboards and 2 medium height shelves, a small dressing table and reading desk were arranged inside of it.
"Ranma, why don't you make yourself over by comfortable the desk, I'd be right back after a little lady's break…" as Kasumi excused herself. Ranma did just that and sat down on her desk chair as his eyes explored her room.
Akane was the first one to notice that Ranma was rather well absent from the house. He wasn't in the Dojo doing any late night exercises or bugging her while she was watching her favorite TV shows.
'I wonder where did that no good pervert go to…' was the predominate thought in her mind.
But looking at the time which was reaching 9.00pm it was now time for both her and Nabiki to get on with their school assignments. Walking back up and into their separate rooms Akane saw that Kasumi was currently walking back to hers.
"Kasumi-neesan have you seen Ranma?" she asked her.
"Ranma…oh he's inside my room…"
Akane didn't even let her oldest sister continue on with the rest of her sentence as in a gush of wind she stood herself right in front of Kasumi's door fuming mad, her aura glowing up to a reddish orange.
Ranma who was on the other side of the room suddenly felt a very familiar aura and immediately knew who it was and not wanting to destroy the room that was Kasumi's only sanctuary and not to mention break the various small knick-knacks that she had arranged inside her room Ranma quickly slid open Kasumi's room window up and hastily leapt out.
"RANMA! YOU NO GOOD HENTAI NO-BAKA!" boomed Akane as she flung Kasumi's door open with a loud bang.
Luckily for Kasumi she had just managed to catch her plunging door plague just in time before it reached the floor.
As both girls scanned the room, Akane with her fiery eyes while Kasumi with her rather puzzled ones found the room rather desolate. Kasumi though noticed two things that were rather out of place in her room. One, Ranma's textbooks were still on her desk and secondly her curtains were riding along with the evening breeze that was blowing in.
"Akane…why are you so suspicious of him, don't you trust Ranma? You didn't even let me finish what I had to say before you barged into my room…" commented Kasumi sadly.
Akane not satisfied with the obvious even went as far as looking under Kasumi's bed and after seeing that the pigtailed pervert wasn't there she started to make her way out of Kasumi's room but not before facing her oldest sister, "Me trust him? Maybe when P-chan sprouts wings and flies..."
Somewhere right at that exact moment in a yet to be charted forested area somewhere on Earth, a yellow headband wearing eternally lost boy abruptly and violently sneezed.
"Then trust that no good pervert…" grumbled Akane.
Kasumi had wanted to say something in Ranma's defense but found that Akane was already halfway into her room by the time she had figured out what to say. After re-hanging her name plague back to its rightful position Kasumi walked over to her open window and looked outside.
Ranma was directly on top of Kasumi's room on the roof listening into the room hear if the coast was now clear for him to come back down. After hearing a few mumbled words from Akane and then silence Ranma sensing Akane's aura disappearing he looked down.
Kasumi who was looking for Ranma by the window gave a snuffled 'Oh my…' when the said boy she was looking for suddenly appeared right before her only upside down.
"I guess it's safe now huh?"
Kasumi who had her hands to her mouth nodded and watched the boy acrobatically swing back into her room.
"You know if Akane comes back in it'd make things look even worst…" said Kasumi with a hint of disappointment.
"Well…I didn't want her to trash your room if she saw me in here you know how she will think that's I'm here doing something perverted. And you have a lot of neat stuff lying around…" Ranma then pointed to all the small ornaments she had carefully arranged all over her shelves, some parts of her dresser and even desk.
"I didn't want to see you all miserable by losing them just because of me…I rather let her vent out her frustrations on me outside where its safe." he continued.
Kasumi sighed loudly, she didn't know if this side of Ranma was one of his strengths or weakness, his selflessness.
"Thanks for being considerate Ranma but I am sure I could have kept her under control…" she deduced.
"You don't know her like I do…when she gets ticked off like that no one can stop her…besides I didn't come here to talk about that uncute…uh…I mean Akane…I came here to get taught…" poised Ranma.
"Tutored…" came Kasumi's polite correction.
"Yeah…like you say Kasumi…tutored."
Over the next few days everyone noticed a subtle change in Ranma's overall attitude towards school. His teachers almost died of shock from seeing Ranma's exercise book and assignment papers, his first ones to date that they have ever seen on their table.
Not only was it passed up to them, it was done quite well in fact.
By the fifth day though they had sufficiently recovered from the initial blow and were by now giving up the notion that maybe the apocalypse was near.
His teachers had to even pleasantly admit among themselves that Ranma was actually becoming quite a model student, sure he wasn't at the top rankings of the classes but from where he was previously it was an immense improvement.
Ranma while doing his best to improve in his educational capabilities was also reminded not to let his martial arts capabilities falter from the most inconceivable source, Kasumi.
During one of their now regular tutoring sessions Kasumi had asked Ranma about how come he didn't try to spend more time in his education and his answer to her was that he didn't know how to balance two things at once. One was his schooling and the other was martial arts, he just couldn't find the time to do both effectively.
Kasumi always eager to help out then revised a kind of makeshift timetable for Ranma whereby from Mondays to Saturdays when he would have her tutoring him he would first exercise his body before his mind for 2 whole hours after coming home from school.
After dinner then Ranma would then be tutored by Kasumi in her room. While they were then arranging for Saturday afternoon and the whole of Sunday Kasumi was rather surprised to hear that Ranma was willing to be tutored all morning and then have his training in the afternoon before some more extra tutoring in the evenings. This was also repeated on a Sunday.
"Ranma…don't you think you would like to spend some time doing something you like during the weekends?" she asked Ranma with a hint of wonderment.
Without much hesitation Ranma replied, "Like what…?"
It was from his honest to goodness reply that Kasumi found out just how similar the two of them really are. Ranma had pretty much devoted his life to his arts that anything outside of its context wasn't deem necessary just like her with her family.
Differences between them were that Kasumi had at least discovered a few things she liked doing outside of the cooking, laundry and cleaning that she does. Things like reading books and maybe making herself a future with dealing with children be it in medicine or just childcare, Kasumi enjoyed having kids around her.
But for Ranma it was just martial arts full stop, no ambitions no hobbies just martial arts.
"Ranma don't you have anything you to like to do outside of the martial arts maybe like a hobby or maybe sports. Yes, sports you're very good in sports aren't you?" chirped Kasumi.
Ranma shook his head as he replied her, "Nope…can't say I have any hobbies and for sports…err…it wasn't really my choice to join any sports really. Since joining a club was compulsory, I joined a sports club and soon after that all the other sports clubs just sort of dragged me into joining them as well."
Another nice side effect from Kasumi's tutoring was Ranma's grasp of normal speech was improving as well. All the corrections Kasumi had been making for him were slowly being absorbed into Ranma's vocabulary and was in turn getting used by the youth while he talked.
"What about you Kasumi?" pondered Ranma out loud.
"Huh, sorry Ranma come again?"
Ranma grinned at her sudden lapse of concentration, "I mean what about you? What do you like to do? I mean when you have some free time."
"Mmmm…well reading books mostly."
"That sounds nice Kasumi, peaceful and quiet…" Ranma noted causally, his voice softly understanding her words.
The more Kasumi and Ranma interacted with each other the more she found out that Ranma, contrary to what the others have said about him liked nothing better then just living out a peaceful life. He didn't really like violence it was just the only method he knew how to solve most of his problems at the time.
This knowledge though on some nights kept Kasumi awake a little longer then she would have liked to.
'I'd swear that Ranma has two personalities inside of him rather then two genders, one is the brash and cocky Ranma and the other one, the tranquil and calm Ranma. He's just one big Yin and Yang circle…isn't he?' she thought to herself one night.
The next following nights that theory was cemented as Kasumi ran through all the new things she came to know of the young man named Ranma.
When provoked, Ranma would be and could be a very dangerous and destructive force but when he's calm Ranma could be the gentlest of persons she has ever known and this side of him was her obvious favorite.
Back to the timetable in hand, Kasumi had a great idea on how Ranma could spend some free time far away from both his school work and the arts.
"Ranma…how about you helping me out with my Saturday shopping for the house after school?"
It sounded a little selfish of her but Kasumi figured it would be fun but then again, "Sorry, just forget I said it…" she added at the end.
Ranma began to chuckle a little from where he was sitting, while drawing the tables for Kasumi to later fill in with her neater and marvelous handwriting.
Looking beside to Kasumi who was sitting down on her bed with notepad in hand, "You know what Kasumi…that's actually sounds good to me. I don't go to town much because I don't have much of a reason to but if you want me to help you then I guess that counts as a pretty good reason, doesn't it?" he concluded, while showing Kasumi his charming smile.
Kasumi nodded and merrily scribbled that fact down onto her notepad, her eyes deeply concentrated on each written word, her cheeks glinting up to a faint scarlet. She was hoping that Ranma wouldn't notice but stealing a quick glance at Ranma, who was too engrossed with drawing a perfect straight line she saw the way how his own cheeks hued as well.
Later that night as the finished timetable was proudly stuck on the wall right in front of Ranma's desk, a gentle reminder that his life was maybe getting a little better.
Akane for one had noticed how Ranma had been spending more time then usual with Kasumi and saying that she didn't like it was an understatement.
She had on more then one occasion after Kasumi was tutoring Ranma protested to her oldest sister that tutoring him, a officially branded 'pervert' was a danger to her well being and volunteered herself to tutor Ranma instead.
Akane even went as far to use the excuse that she was able to protect herself from Ranma's perverted ways a lot better then Kasumi to try and make it happen.
Kasumi to be fair to her youngest sister had then somehow managed to coax Ranma into letting Akane tutor him for at least a night to try and see how it goes.
And things were going well at first, Akane's tutoring of Ranma had just passed the half hour mark and Kasumi who was just about to get ready to read a book suddenly got up of bed when a loud sharp scream suddenly rang throughout the Tendo home that broke the night calm.
"WHY ARE YOU AS DUMB AS A COW AND THAT DAMN PERVERTED!" screamed Akane as she slammed her room door, Ranma then managed to catch her duck shaped name plague just in the nick of time.
Akane had not only thrown Ranma out of her room but his whole set of textbooks as well.
Kasumi quickly rushed outside to the hallway as fast as she could and noticed how Ranma was slowly picking up his books looking none for the worst. Walking up towards him, "Ranma…which subject did she try to tutor you in?" Kasumi asked knowingly.
"Maths…the chapter on statistics." he replied her sounding deflated.
"Isn't that a little advance for you…?" noted Kasumi as she helped Ranma by picking up the stray pencil that was by her right foot.
"I tried to tell her that but she said that she didn't want to slow herself down so…I…err…"
Kasumi knew what was coming, "So I kinda agreed to do the exercise she was doing…" she let out the sigh that she had kept in.
"And how many times did you ask her for help?"
Ranma stayed quiet but brought his two hands up and brought up 9 digits of his fingers.
"9 times in 30 minutes? That's not so bad…" remarked Kasumi with some consolation.
"Well…not actually Kasumi it's more like 9 times in 5 minutes I stopped asking her after that. Then when she checked out my answer sheet she threw me out… " responded Ranma shyly.
"What did you do?"
Ranma showed Kasumi the page he had been working on and well even she had to let out a chuckle at what she saw. For written in bold penciled letters across the width of the entire page were the words 'I hate Maths! And you don't give me any candy!'
What Akane didn't know was that Kasumi would actually reward Ranma if he had done particularly well after a tutoring session. That reward was usually in the form of his favorite box of candy or snack that she would buy from the market for him the next day. Akane must have thought that 'candy' meant something else, most likely something distorted.
After that Ranma happily kept Kasumi as his tutor.
While Akane was fuming at the close proximity of her fiancé and oldest sister Nabiki was somewhat more neutral towards the whole thing.
To her it was just as interesting to see how long Akane would take it before she snaps and plummet Ranma for just even breathing on Kasumi the wrong way while on the other hand though remote would anything else happen between them.
Sure Ranma was Akane's fiancé but as Nabiki would rather not admit to anyone else that he fits into the mold of every girl's idea of a dream guy.
'He's incredibly cute, loyal and protective of your safety and sure he's a little dense at times but that's easily overlooked.' were her thoughts on him.
After all Nabiki had Ranma for her own fiancé albeit for a day and well she still cherished those few moments she had shared with him in secret.
But Ranma lacked what Nabiki truly looked for in a guy, money and brains. Not that Ranma didn't have any brains his just didn't work the way Nabiki wanted it to. And of course not unless Ranma has a vast fortune stashed somewhere that she doesn't know about then well Nabiki would just stand back and watch the fireworks fly in the ongoing saga that is Ranma's love struggle between her younger sister, the Amazon, the chef and the black rose.
Until recently though it had always been just the two younger Tendo daughter's who had shown even any trace of liking the pigtailed martial artist. Regardless be if for love or self gain, Akane was in it probably for love while Nabiki having shown a slight interest with Ranma was in it for her own self gain.
Kasumi on the other hand had never once shown any feelings remotely to that of liking Ranma other then just being polite to him as how a host shows affection to a house guest.
But lately Nabiki had began to notice how Kasumi was well getting rather 'chummy' with Ranma as of late. From small little teases to just simple gestures shared between the two of them, she carefully noted each one. And she sort of hoped that they weren't skating on thin ice.
She prayed for her sister's sake and hoped that Kasumi knew that too. That collimated to her standing in front of Kasumi's door one night right after Ranma had left her room after their usual tutoring session.
Knock-Knock
"Who is it?" responded a voice from the inside.
"It's me, Nabiki…"
Hearing Kasumi's permission Nabiki opened the door and strolled into her sister's room.
"Sorry to disturb you like this Kasumi…" Nabiki had noticed the book she had just laid down on the side of her bed as she walked in.
"It's okay…anything the matter?"
Nabiki sat herself down on Kasumi's bed and offhandedly asked her, "So…how are things going with Ranma…?"
"Oh…he's coming along real well. Other then maths Ranma's really catching up on the rest of his other subjects in school, soon he won't need me to tutor him anymore."
Just at the end of her sentence Nabiki detected the faint trace of melancholy in Kasumi's voice.
"I see…well then isn't that a good thing nee-chan? You'd get to have your evenings back to yourself again…free to read your books…do what you what to do…isn't that nice?"
Kasumi without thinking turned her head over to look at her desk and remembered back to how rarely she had used it. Not since her own schooldays has it seen any form of usage except for the rare case when she sat at it and browsed her mother's handwritten recipe book.
"I guess…" was Kasumi's reply, her voice becoming a low saddened whisper.
Nabiki distinctively caught this and noticed how her sister's voice had sounded even sadder then when she had earlier declared that Ranma would no longer need her tutoring soon.
"Well just to remind you that Ranma's sometimes more trouble then he's worth, sure he's cute and all but if you get the chance to get rid of him you better do so and quickly…he tends to carry with him a lot of excess baggage."
