Disclaimer: No gerbils were harmed in the writing of this fanfic, which is a wonder, since they have been doing all their own stunts.

ASHES - A Cinderella Story

Chapter Eight - Someone to Care For

The time we really feel the pain
Is when we weave against the grain
I feel fine and you look great
We're gonna boogie with Chapter Eight.

HIROSHI:

Nabiki slapped an official looking parchment onto the table and demanded, "Explain this to me. I didn't sign this thing, but it has my name on it!"

I was trying to swallow my upset, still not prepared for the way that she had appeared out of nowhere, immediately after I had made my wish. "It's sort of complicated," I hemmed.

"Take your time. I want to hear this. Why does both your name and Cinderella's name appear on the signatures? And why are they both in the same handwriting?"

There was no escape. I had to tell her. "We're kinda the same person."

"Oh?" Nabiki raised her eyebrows in mock concern. "Are you coming out of the closet on us? I saw the video where Cinderella disappeared and you strolled onto the camera, but you did not look like the same person. I was on my way over here to ask you about it when I found this contract in my hands."

I looked to Ryoga for help, but he was busy trying to slink away.

If Nabiki had appeared in answer to my wish, then she would have to be told the truth. But how could we keep her from blabbing? I decided to take a chance.

"I want to be a rock star," I said.

-poof-

I will give Nabiki credit for this. Her eyes only bulged for a second before greed clicked in.

"We need to discuss how much you are willing to pay to keep the whole school from hearing about this," she said, with a predatory gleam in her eye. She began to list the possible customers she could approach. "There is already a Cinderella fan club in Furenkan. Most of the boys would want to know of this, and..."

-ping-

I will give Nabiki credit for this. Her eyes only bulged for a second before greed clicked in.

"How much are you willing to pay to keep me from telling the whole school about this?" Nabiki smiled with predatory anticipation as she said, "There is already a Cinderella fan club whose members would be very..."

-ping-

I will give Nabiki credit for this. Her eyes only bulged for a second before greed clicked in.

"How much are you willing to..."

She stopped, eyed me aslant, and asked, "I've been through this before, haven't I?"

As I explained that I had made a wish (without mentioning Ryoga) and the consequences thereof, I felt a weight lifting from my shoulders.

Nabiki eyed Ryoga, who was trying to blend with the wall, then turned back to peruse the parchment. "So you ran into some magic!" she spoke the word as if it were dirty. Holding the contract between thumb and forefinger, she added, "This thing is magic, too, isn't it?"

"Yep," I grabbed a towel. "Man, am I sweating!" I complained.

"Glowing," Nabiki corrected, still holding the document by the corner.

"What?"

"Men sweat. Girls glow. I read about it in a magazine."

I wiped my glowing brow. It still got the towel wet.

"Hmmm," she hummed as she read. "There is a clause, here. It says that I get a percentage of your gate, only... " The remainder of her words were unprintable, spoken in cold fury.

"Only...?"

"...Only if I never, ever, tell anyone about this. I can only talk to people who ask for you, I can't go out and promote new business. And I don't get paid until I prove that I can keep your secret, or you retire...whichever is sooner," she frowned. "I think I get it. If I try to profit from this transaction, other than as a representative, I get recycled!"

"That is the way it looks," I admitted, with great relief. There was a way. Use her own strength against her. How very 'martial arts!' I was safe. Nothing to worry about.

"Right." She turned an inquisitional eye on my petite frame and drawled, "Okay, 'Roshi-kun. What's in it for me?"

"Er...for you?"

"Right. I don't work for free."

"But I thought - " I hemmed again, stalling for time. All I had wished for was an agent, someone to represent me. Did I have to ask for some way to pay her, too? A tiny sound interrupted my worry.

-ping-

Nabiki read the bottom of the page, where a new paragraph had appeared. "Okay. I get concessions and Tee-shirts. That might help. But it is still not enough. Too much work. There is one more thing I would like to ask for."

-ping-

"That's better," she mused. "It read my mind! A full session?"

-ping-

"Wait a minute!" I cried, my voice sounding like the opening aria for a dulcet opera. "What's this about a session? What kind of session?"

"Full centerfold," Nabiki was smacking her lips in anticipation. "Enough for twelve months?"

-pong-

"Sure, I'll give up the group sports shots, if we can do a beach setup."

"Don't I get any say, here?" I yelped, prettily, "The only kind of a session I know about is a photo session, and if you get that, it means..."

Nabiki gave me a long, lingering smirk, complete with raised eyebrow. It was enough to make my blood run cold.

"I won't do it!" I declared.

"You've already signed it. Twice," Nabiki was purring like a cat with a bowl of cream.

"I'm doomed!" I groaned, but I knew when I was beaten. "Okay. Okay. Now, do you accept?"

"I'll have to think on it. That's a lot of work for very little money. Not to mention that I would have to throw in lessons on being feminine."

"I don't want to be feminine!"

"But you said you went to see that singer, Primrose. She thinks you are a girl, but she won't be fooled for long if you keep making mistakes."

"I'm not making any mistakes!"

"Oh, yes, you are. You shuffle when you walk. You talk too loud. You stand as if you expect to be assaulted. How long do you think you can get away with this charade?" she countered, "You don't know the first thing about acting like a girl!"

"I'll...I'll bluff it out. I'm supposed to be a rock star. They don't have to act normal!"

She looked me over slowly, all the way around, blue coat with tails and semi-transparent blouse and all, until she came to a stop in front of me. With her finger a millimeter away from prodding my breast, she gave me a predator's grin. "You're not comfortable with this, are you?"

"No! No, I am not!"

"I'll arrange in interview with Ranma. He'll help guide you through the worst spots. Underwear and all that."

I felt as if the floor had been cut out from under me. "You can't tell him!" I cried, dismayed that my objection came out as a girlish squeal. I grabbed the doorknob ahead of her, to keep her from leaving. "I'll do it myself!"

"Fine. When?"

"Ah...when I'm ready."

"Right. Any year, now."

"Well, I'm not ready, yet! Okay?"

"Very well. Because you interest me, I'll stay on. Although, I don't mind telling you, this contract would never stand up in court!"

"Fine! Just throw it in the trash!"

"Oh, I can't do that! The payoff could be terrific! But if I can't arrange for you to work paying gigs, where's the profit in that?" Her mind was working furiously as she headed for the street. "There has to be some way!"

---------------

I watched her go, feeling like a swimmer watching a departing shark. She was scarcely out the door before I cornered Ryoga.

"You have to help me with my mother! Can't I wish something?"

"I'm very sorry about your mother, Hiroshi, but there is nothing I can do about it. Maybe she'll get over it without magic," Ryoga said.

"You are right. I am being silly. I don't know how bad it is. But I have this awful feeling - "

I could not get over the way Pops and the doctor had shut up when I went to see Mom. They had given me that strange look. Come to think of it, Mom had given me a strange look. Was I changing? Was I growing fangs and long ears? What was the matter with me?

Ryoga was hoisting his backpack, preparing to vanish into the incredibly complex maze that was a simple street. "I didn't ask for this responsibility!" he said. "Sometimes, even when I really want to help, nothing happens!" He shut up as Nabiki stuck her head back in the door.

"Hi guys! I forgot my valise!" Nabiki said cheerfully, grabbed it and hurried back out. When she halted on the stoop to greet someone, I remembered that I was still an underclad girl.

"Oh, no!" I gasped, "Pops is bringing my mom home! I can't let her see me like this again! Don't tell her I was here!"

"Don't ask me to lie for you!" Ryoga growled at me, "Can't you face your own parents?"

"You don't understand! My mom thinks I am dating myself!"

He blinked. "She does?"

I called back to him as I hurried out the back door, "Here she comes! Remember! You didn't see me, okay?"

"I am still not going to...Oh, hello, Mrs. H!"

With Pops dancing attendance, Mom entered, stage right, emoting pleased surprise, "Why, you must be Ryoga, one of Hiroshi's friends!" Mom loves an audience. I don't think Ryoga knew what to make of her. He stammered and scratched his neck and tried to be polite, but Mom just grasped him by the elbow and chattered, "I am so delighted to meet you! Tell me, what do you think of Hiroshi's new girl friend?"

"Girl friend?" Ryoga looked like a cat near a birdcage, with feathers in his teeth. Pops appeared to have swallowed something larger and with claws as he gasped for air.

"Oh, yes!" Mom looked about, "She is such a sweet thing! Why, she was right here a moment ago!"

"Ah! No, no, didn't see anyone! You must be mistaken!" Ryoga scrambled to make his escape.

Mom came into the kitchen, but I had already ducked out the door and fled down the back stair. "That's odd," she mused, "I could have sworn I saw her."

Ryoga caught me before I reached the end of the block. "What did you tell your mother about your wish?" he demanded, holding me by the collar.

"Nothing! I don't want to tell her anything!" I complained sweetly as I wriggled in his grasp. "She'd tell Pops, and Pops would kill me! He hates sissies! The only ones who know are Nabiki and Daisuke, and I am sorry I told them!"

"Hmph," said Ryoga, as my feet scratched for purchase. "You should count yourself lucky, and be glad you have any friends! I would think that you would cherish the relationship you have with your pal, Daisuke!"

"Cinderella! I have been looking for you!" came a voice down the street, from a friend whose relationship I had always cherished. Up to a point. That point was rapidly approaching, with the force of an aircraft coming in for a carrier landing.

"I gotta go," I said. I twisted about, broke free from Ryoga's grip and fled down the street. Daisuke was in hot pursuit, holding a length of ribbon marked in centimeters.

"Wait!" Daisuke was crying, "This won't take a minute!"

"No!" I cried, "Nononono! That is too humiliating!"

NABIKI:

Nabiki entered gates shimmering with polished stone, past a tidy lawn being tended by a harried groundskeeper in neat but threadbare clothing, and up the steps of a mansion pillared with imported marble. She knew it was imported because it still had customs tags plastered conspicuously over it.

"This looks impressive," she admitted. Impressive, too, was the demeanor of the servant who answered the door and escorted her into the parlor, although the old man's frock coat appeared frayed at the cuff.

Nabiki was thinking of other affairs, however. "These people have money," she said to herself as she waited, looking about the parlor at the expensive appointments. "Terrible taste, but lots of money to throw at the decorators. I'll simply have to arrange to have them throw some at me."

In a moment, the same servant appeared, wearing a different but equally worn coat. "The mistress of the house will see you, now," he announced, and led Nabiki into another room.

"Who is it?" asked a bosomy woman, looking up from tending her aquarium.

"A young lady, Mum," responded the servant. "I believe she is here about the entertainment."

"Oh, excellent!" breathed the lady, "My dears were telling me that you were going to sing for the 'event'."

"Whoa, no!" Nabiki sputtered, "Not me! I represent someone who has asked me to negotiate."

"Negotiate? I have money! I pay generously, I never bicker! Who is this person whom you represent?"

"Cinderella. You may not have heard of her. She is very new." Cash registers were playing a concerto in the back of Nabiki's mind. Never bicker? Let's see if we can raise the threshold, then!

"Oh, excellent! I love fairy tale singers! Is she any good?"

Nabiki gave her a tight smile. "I represent only the best."

"Then she can start immediately. I will require that she attend my evening meals. When she is not singing, she can help serve the guests. There is a spare room where she can stay in between performances."

"I don't think you understand exactly what my client does," Nabiki began, noticing that the same servant had reappeared to pour tea, wearing a different, but equally worn, uniform.

"Nonsense! She is an entertainer for hire, isn't she? I believe that every person should earn every penny that I pay them, and when she is not singing, she can keep busy. A yen saved is a yen earned, my dear, departed husband always said."

Nabiki was tapping her toe against the elegant teakwood coffee table, which still had the price tag affixed in a prominent position. "My client is a rock star," she said, in a measured voice. "She sings. While she is not singing, she has a life." The fact that said life consisted of being a boy pursuing a fulltime career in Furinkan High School was not a factor that she was prepared to discuss. In fact, the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to say about Hiroshi's activities.

"But, I pay well," the matron responded, as if that solved everything. "Any of my servants will tell you, they have no complaints."

Nabiki glanced at the servant pouring tea, who looked at the ceiling and remained silent as he tried to hide a patched spot on his jacket.

Nevertheless, I will not give up this chance to make a yen, she resolved. "Exactly how much are we talking about?"

"Why, twenty thousand yen a week! Not to mention, she will be eating with the other servants. Entertainers can't expect to eat with the guests."

"Uh - sure. Right." Nabiki fumed. For twenty thousand yen, she could buy a ticket to a real concert. "Sorry," she announced, rising to her feet. "My client suddenly has another engagement. She will not be available for your 'event'."

The matron lowered her tea cup and stared at her, incomprehendingly. "She is refusing my offer?" she gasped.

"I am afraid so. Sorry." Lady, if I have anything to say about it, he will tell you to stick your offer where the sun don't--- "Really nothing we can do about it. See ya."

At the door, Nabiki turned to the servant, who had again donned the worn frock coat to see her out. To the old man, she said, "You pay for your own uniforms, don't you?"

"Of course," the old man smiled, weakly. "Doesn't everyone?"

"Not this gal," Nabiki said between gritted teeth, as she strode determinedly away.

At a park near school, she saw a familiar face. She shifted modes of thinking and became the huntress instead of the bargainer. Stealthily, she moved into position for the kill.

HAINOKO:

Hainoko would have been happy to stay inside and study, but the teachers insisted that everyone had to get outdoors because it was so much healthier. She was sitting on the steps reading when someone came along and blocked the healthy sunshine.

"You think you're smart, don't you?" Deirdre sneered, restoring her cell-phone to her backpack, while Deirdrum took up sentry duty between them and the playground teacher. "You sent that stuck-up lady around to make up excuses cause you can't prove Cinderella is your best friend!"

"I didn't say she was my best friend!" objected Hainoko, trying to hold onto her book as it was pulled from her hands. "She's my...I mean, my brother Hiroshi can..."

"I don't want to hear your lies!" shrilled Deirdre. She waved the book just out of Hainoko's reach, the way she always did before she threw something over the fence. "That woman made my mother feel bad! Do you know what happens when Mother gets unhappy?"

Hainoko felt her lower lip begin to slide forward. "Hiroshi can..." Again she could not continue. Her book was precious, but something kept her from telling them about Hiroshi's ability. Would he turn into Cinderella to help her? Would he be angry if she told everyone about him?

Deirdre dropped the book aside. "Don't forget Miss Yamato is still looking for whoever brought that nasty poster to class!"

"What's your big brother going to do, anyway?" yipped Deirdrum. "Why don't you bring your big brother to school tomorrow? We have a surprise for you both."

"We dare you," contributed Deirdre.

Another shadow appeared, and the two bullies began to slink away.

"Hainoko? What have I told you about throwing your books around?" Miss Yamato picked up the book and handed it back to her. "You will be more careful, won't you?"

Hainoko felt tears burning, but she held them in check. "Yes, Miss Yamato," she said, contritely.

NABIKI:

There is a type of stare that you see only when an animal is cornered: white about the irises, extraordinary pupils, absolute devotion of attention to the creature that holds it transfixed. Think of a bird hypnotized by a snake. Think of a mouse with a hawk at twelve o'clock. Think of Ryoga and Nabiki when Nabiki smells blood...er...gold.

'You have to help me with my mother! Can't I wish something?' -zzzipppp- 'Maybe she'll get over it without magic.'

Nabiki had an unapologetic smile on her face as she switched off the tape recorder. "It's the darndest thing," she said. "I accidentally left it on, when I left my valise at Hiroshi's, and you heard what it caught you saying to Hiroshi. What else do you suppose I found on it?"

"Nothing?" Ryoga ventured, hopefully.

"Not a thing. From the time I said hello to Hiroshi until I left. However, after I left, it got everything. With what there is on this tape, not to mention the other stuff I have on you, I think we can swing a deal."

"Other stuff?"

Ryoga's involuntary twitch made the corners of Nabiki's lips curl upward in delicious anticipation. He's hiding something, all right. Time to go fishing. I don't have anything, but he doesn't know that. "In addition..." she paused, "There have been some strange things happening, lately. It seems you are around, somewhere, each time, then you mysteriously disappear. It is almost as if you had a secret identity."

"What...what..." sputtered Ryoga, turning pale, his eyes wide as saucers, "You know about that?"

Bingo! "Of course I know!" snapped Nabiki, "Everyone in this place who has any sense knows about it. Who can miss seeing you disappear and someone else suddenly arrive?" She did not question the information, or the fact that it seemed too convenient. What mattered was his reaction. A relay clicked over in the back of her mind, but she ignored it and the truth, unobserved, subsided into background noise.

Ryoga seemed about to melt in panic. "But - you've never tried to blackmail me!"

"Oh. That." Nabiki waved the thought aside. "You wouldn't understand. I don't attack weaklings."

Ryoga sprang back to a state of indignation. "Who are you calling weak!" he demanded.

"You, for one." She tapped his forehead with a finger. "Mind you, I've kept my eyes open for a way to use this knowledge, but the opportunity has never presented itself. Until now. Suddenly you have a new secret I can exploit, without destroying life as we know it."

Ryoga asked cautiously, "What weakness?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't call it a weakness," Nabiki smiled to herself. She'd have to bring up the subject carefully. Otherwise, he'd run away so fast she would lose her chance. "Things happen around you. Some good things, some not so good. A person might guess that you have some kind of power to give people what they ask for. You make wishes happen." She patted the tape recorder.

"Not true!" Ryoga blurted, but the alarm on his face told her she was perilously close to the truth. He was casting alarmed glances at the shadows.

At least he didn't just run away, Nabiki smirked, "You were there when I talked to Hiroshi. You know what happened to him, when he made a wish. He's singing a different tune, now, isn't he? I think you had something to do with it. Now, a few minutes ago, I watched a little kid wish for a balloon, and you made some kind of gesture, and a hundred balloons appeared. All I have to do is ask for something, and you will have to give it to me! Okay, I wish for a billion yen!"

Ryoga tensed and looked around. Birds twittered, insects hummed, but nothing else happened. He began to relax.

"Okay, so it does not work every time," Nabiki frowned. "What does it have to be, an unselfish wish?"

"I don't have to answer that," Ryoga answered that.

"Wait a minute!" she grabbed him by the ear, "Get back here. You don't get off the hook that easily."

"What!"

"Can you grant wishes?"

Ryoga gently extricated his ear and tried to act casual. "Why didn't you ask that before you started?" he asked.

"Well, can you? Wait. Do you have to answer my questions truthfully?"

Ryoga glanced at his bracelet and made a sour face. "My sources say 'yes'," he answered glumly.

Nabiki wrinkled her nose and growled, "Oh, it's going to be that way, is it? Yes, no, twenty questions?" She thought for a moment and began again, slowly.

"You have a power. Yes or no."

"Yes. Sort of. And I did not ask for it! I can't help it if strange things happen to me! It's not my fault!"

"Oh, right. Don't try to sidetrack me. Can you grant me a wish?"

"Sometimes," Ryoga said, evasively.

"What kind of wish do you grant?"

"It's not that simple! You have to be eligible."

"Oh, I see. Like you have to have enough credit to get a wish. What if I wished for something small?"

"You still don't get it! I don't decide! Some people wish for one thing, when they might deserve something else entirely, and then they complain because they did not get what they thought they wanted! I never asked for this ingratitude!"

Nabiki patted his arm consolingly and said, "That's okay, Hibiki. At least you can't blame this on Ranma."

Ryoga grabbed at the possibility. "You're right! I was talking to him when I..." He fell silent.

Nabiki tired of waiting and prodded him. "When you what?"

Ryoga covered his face with his callused palms. "I...I...can't talk about it."

"But then you started granting wishes."

"Well, yes. Sort of."

"Back to question number one. What kind of wish will you grant for little old moi?" Nabiki fluttered her eyes in a way that could have been fetching, were it not for the yen behind the lids.

"I don't know! All you want is money!" Ryoga said with exasperation, "Ask for something else!"

"I..." Nabiki stopped suddenly, an appreciative grimace on her face. "That was very subtle of you. Never thought you had it in you to be clever."

"Clever?" Ryoga gave her a blank, helpless stare.

"You almost got me to ask for something foolish...nonprofitable. You want me to ask for a sweetheart? Mind you, if I had said 'I wish for someone to care for', you could not pair me up with a dip like, say, Kuno or some other lame excuse for a guy,"

Nabiki waved away the thought. "Dream on, Hibiki. I'm not that kind of girl. After all, if I asked for a friend, maybe...not you!...I wouldn't want a bunch of sticky, syrupy romance...I told you, I'm not that easy to please."

-poof-

The ground shuddered.

She shifted her gaze about and mused, "Y'know, that was a very circumstantial earth tremor." Turning to her companion, she found him still shaking, with his face even paler. "Does it mean anything?" she wondered aloud.

"Nothing! It means nothing!" Ryoga cried as he departed the scene in third degree panic, bowling over trash cans, stone fences and the occasional utility pole.

Nabiki shook her head and muttered, as she watched him vanish, "Oh, well. Easy come, easy go."

She was about to step off the curb into the crosswalk when a dense black cloud screeched to a stop, blocking her path. Immediately, a woman appeared. She was wearing neo-retro garb, her hair about half explosive curls and half gray mopstring, her face part beauty and part ogre, and she was displaying approximately one kilogram of attitude over Nabiki's tolerance level.

"Did you see a fairy god-mother person here?" the half-old lady demanded.

"Just follow that road," said Nabiki, watching her with narrowed eyes while she pointed in the wrong direction. "If you stay on it, it will..."

"I will find her! She cannot escape me so easily!" The woman climbed back into the smoke cloud and accelerated in the direction Nabiki had indicated.

"...drop you right in the Pacific Ocean. Hope that thing has good brakes," Nabiki finished. She shook her head again and shuddered, then took a quick step backward to avoid being run over by a blue-eyed blond in a miniskirt who raced past crying 'nononono!', followed soon after by another familiar person.

"Hiya, Daisuke," Nabiki said.

"Oh, h'lo, Nab-chan," puffed Daisuke. "Did you see..."

"That way," said Nabiki, again pointing in a wrong direction. Daisuke raced away, followed shortly by Yuki, Saori and Niko.

"Wait, Dai-chan!" they called, "We want a date!"

This time Nabiki looked both ways before taking a careful step onto the walkway. She quickly withdrew the foot as Ranma bounced past, sticking out his tongue and 'biiiihing' at Kuno, who was two steps behind and waving his bokken furiously.

"Just you wait, Ranma Saotome!" cried Kuno, "Sorcerer! I shall teach you a lesson for purloining the affections of my Pig-Tailed Girl!"

Close behind Kuno struggled a near-child, Miss Hinako, waving a five-yen coin and screaming, "Delinquents!"

"I'd better keep an eye out for anything unusual," Nabiki said as she traversed the crosswalk without further mishap. "Not that I actually believe all this nonsense about wishes. Still, I'll be careful of any boys I meet." Safely on the other sidewalk, she scanned the horizon for boys. She was alone.

Well, not quite alone. As she stood on the path, someone bumped into her from behind. Since this someone was only a little over a meter tall, Nabiki had to lean over to talk to her.

"Good morning, Hainoko-chan."

"Sorry," said Hainoko, somberly saluting with a finger in the nose. Her cheeks were streaked with dried tears.

"You seem pre-occupied," quoth Nabiki, who often found herself doomed to inform others of the obvious.

"S'nothing."

"Big problems?"

"Uh-huh."

"Want to talk about it?" Please say 'no'. I have people to do and things to see.

"Nuh-uh."

On the other hand, she knows something, and it's bothering her. "Is this about Hiroshi?"

Big stare. "How did you know?"

"Trust me. What have you discovered about big brother that has you so upset?" As if I did not know. Found out, huh?

"I oughtn't tell."

"I suppose you are right. That is something that you shouldn't go blabbing around. I respect you for your decision."

Hainoko ducked her head.

"Oh, you haven't decided, yet? Not to tell, I mean?" Nabiki took tiny shoulders in hand and smiled into the doubtful eyes. "Now, who could you want to tell?"

"Those bullies at the school. If they knew, they'd never pick on me again," Hainoko did not return her gaze as she added, "Deirdre is so stuck up. She called me a liar. I should have told them. I could have told them..."

"Well, then," Nabiki released her, paced back and forth, then struck a thoughtful pose. "How do you turn this to your advantage? You have a terrible secret, which your brother will probably pay handsomely to protect. You have someone to tell that secret to. How can you lose?"

Hainoko hiccuped and eyed her. "I've heard Hiroshi talk about you," she said. "Why do you want to help me?"

"I..." Nabiki stopped, asking herself the same question. The wheels turned within her mind, until she said, slowly, "My reputation precedes me. Oh, well. What if I decided it was time to train a protegee?"

"What's that?"

"A student. Someone to carry on my life's work. And to work for me, too. Mustn't forget that. I have several people that I am helping. Of course, you are a bit young..."

"No. Thank you," sniffed Hainoko. "I have to go home, now."

"You don't want my advice?" Buy low, sell high. Naaww. She'd never understand.

Hainoko paused and frowned. "If it's free," she said as she rubbed her nose again.

Nabiki quirked an eyebrow. Maybe she would understand. "Look at your options. You can use what you know to boost your school-yard status. Everyone would want to be your friend if they knew how close you really were to Cinderella," Nabiki said with a Thoughtful Scowl (patent pending). "Or, you could go to Hiroshi and say, 'Big brother, if you don't give me such-and-such I will expose you.'"

After a moment of scrutinizing Nabiki's face, wondering how much this big woman actually knew about Hiroshi, Hainoko said, pensively, "I know. He's afraid everyone will find out." She wriggled miserably, remembering how earnestly Hiroshi had pleaded for that girl's safety at Ucchan's. This was a side of him that she had never seen, and she was not sure if this new version of her brother deserved to be threatened. "I'm all twisted around inside, just thinking about it," she added.

"Okay. This is your first lesson, if I am going to be your sensei. Determine the course of action which is most profitable in the long run. I am confident that you will choose wisely. Now, run along. I am sure your mother is waiting for you." There. That ought to occupy the little brat.

Nabiki stopped when the little girl squirmed away and began to rub her eyes.

"Don't tell me you have other problems," Nabiki scoffed. I can read this kid like the morning paper. "I suppose your mother isn't home right now...right. You can't get in...no, you can get in. She's shopping...no. She's at the doctor's...okay. She's sick...yes. She's bad sick...oops."

For answer, Hainoko closed her mouth tightly while her eyes seemed to grow larger, like water balloons approaching full charge.

Uh-oh, thought Nabiki.

The water balloons began to leak, while Hainoko's chin quivered.

Oh, jeez, thought Nabiki. She grabbed a tissue from her valise and tried to mop up the overflow. "That's okay, now. Let it all out. She really is sick, huh?"

Hainoko nodded vigorously.

Damn. Me and my big... "Here, let me wipe that - You're worried about her, aren't you?"

An even stronger nod.

"And they won't let you get around her because she's too sick, hmmm?" The ache in her heart surprised Nabiki, as memories of helplessness flooded her. Painful memories, when she was worried and no one would tell her anything. She had resolved never to be that powerless again.

"They say (gulp)...they say I might make her sicker. But they let Hiroshi see her!" Hainoko wailed, not mentioning that big brother Hiroshi had forced his way to Mommy's side. She clasped Nabiki tighter as the tears began anew.

Nabiki muttered some homilies, scarcely paying attention to what she said. Hugging Hainoko seemed to ease the tension in her own chest, somehow. She gathered the small child in her arms, gave her a final hug and sent her on her way, thinking, Great. Just when I have to watch out for Ryoga pulling a fast one on me, I get a kid to worry about...

Nabiki frowned.

To care about. Someone to care for...

Realization smote her and she jerked upright, a calculating look in her eyes and a growl on her lips.

"Ryoga Hibiki, you are so dead!"

End: Chapter Eight