Ranma 1/2 Overtime: Chapter 5
Cologne's Offer: Devil's Deal or Heaven's Smile?
By Xasonnex
Disclaimer: All named characters are owned by either Rumiko Takahashi herself, or one of her partners in media. I make no claim on them, this story is not for profit. Anyone who has not yet done so should read as much of the official Ranma manga by Viz as possible, even if you've already read translations and synopses online.
The telephone rang through the Tendo house. Nabiki, who happened to be the closest, went to answer it. "I guess the phone line is fixed, impressive considering how short it's been since the rain stopped," she thought. She picked up the phone and spoke. "Hello, Tendo dojo."
Hey sis, it's Akane," came the voice on the other end.
"Oh, hi. Do you want to talk to Kasumi? She's been worried since your last call was cut off."
"Sure, if you could please."
Nabiki placed her hand over the telephone. "Kasumi! Akane's on the phone!"
"I'll be there in a minute," came the reply from the kitchen.
"She'll be here in a 'sec. Hey, are you still over at Ryoga's?"
"No, why?" Akane responded.
"Please, it's my business to know things. Care to give me the full details on your fight with Kodachi this afternoon?"
"No, not really."
"Shame on you. You don't want incorrect details to be spread about, do you?"
"I don't care, as long as everyone knows I won."
"Oh well." Nabiki looked behind her to see Kasumi approaching. "Well, Kasumi's here. I'll talk to you later," and with that she handed the phone over to the eldest Tendo daughter and left.
Kasumi accepted the phone. "Akane? Where are you?"
"At Auntie..." Akane remembered Ranma mentioning Kasumi was in the loop, "... Mother Saotome's."
"Mother? Then... you're engaged?" Kasumi kept her voice low but could not help a smile crossing her face.
"Not exactly, I'll tell you later. I just wanted you to know I'm all right. I'll be taking a train over in just a little while..."
"No Akane," Kasumi interrupted, "it's too late at night. Stay there and get some sleep. I'm sure you can take an early enough train tomorrow to stop by here for fresh clothes before school."
Akane hesitated on the other end. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. Spend the night there, and I'll get some things laid out for you tomorrow morning."
"OK, if you insist. I'd better get off here. Will you think of a cover to tell everyone else?"
"You are staying over at a friend's house," replied Kasumi. "What's to cover?"
"Right. I guess that'll work. Bye bye sis."
"Take care."
"You too." Before Akane hung up Kasumi could hear her muttering something about a honeymoon, leaving her a little puzzled.
"Great, let the honeymoon begin," Akane muttered as she hung up the phone. Reluctantly, she rejoined Cologne the Amazon Elder at the table in the Saotome dining area. "I guess we can talk for as long as you want. Kasumi wants me to stay here for the night," she explained.
"How fortuitous," Cologne replied after taking a short puff on her pipe. "Do we get to talk now, or do you have someone else to call?"
Akane fidgeted in her kneeling position. "We can talk now," she replied with some hesitation. She had no idea what Cologne wanted with her.
"Very well. As you know, your marriage to Ranma presents many problems for Shampoo and myself. It prevents Shampoo from completing the kiss of marriage, and therefore only leaves the kisses of death given to both you and Ranma."
"Yes..." Akane indicated her understanding thus far.
"I however, do not wish death on either of you. I simply hate to see good talent go to waste."
Akane let out a small sigh of relief. "That's good to know."
"Nevertheless, the fact remains that now neither I nor Shampoo can return home without further disgrace. That is unacceptable to me. I should tell you though, I have been anticipating this for some time. Ever since I first arrived here I've known both that there was a deep bond between the two of you, and that Ranma did not love or looked forward to marrying Shampoo."
"Then why did you keep trying for so long?" Akane had to ask.
"I thought we still had a chance, though small. No mater now." Cologne finished with her pipe. "I want you to know that I've always respected you. Though lacking in overall skill, you have the heart of an Amazon and tremendous potential. If you'd had the benefit of proper training you might have been an equal match for my great granddaughter when she arrived, perhaps even better. But that's in the past now. It is the future that I wish to discuss with you."
Akane alternately swelled with pride at Cologne's praise and became angry at her dismissal of her father's training, even if it were true. "I'm listening."
"As I have seen this outcome coming, I've been able to ponder some solutions to our problems that would be mutually beneficial. I have come up with many possible solutions, but there is one that stands above the rest. It is one that asks a great deal from you and requires you to make a decision." She looked at Akane to convey the importance of what she was saying. "It also solves nearly everything I can think of. If you accept it, it WILL change your life. Do you want to hear it?"
Akane nodded. "I'm willing to at least hear it out." It sounded too good to be true, and Akane was sure that it was.
Cologne continued. "My position as an elder of out village gives me certain, shall we say, privileges. I can do things without first consulting our council, though in the end they can overturn anything I do if they see fit. What I propose is this: I want to take you in as one of my heirs; make you an official Amazon. Sort of making you like a Goddaughter."
"What! How?" Akane had not expected this at all.
"By taking you in as part of my family you, and by association Ranma, become Amazons; insiders. The kisses of death only apply to outsiders."
Akane was speechless. Could it be that simple? No, there had to be a catch. "What else?" she asked. "Hey, c'mon. There's got to be more to it than that."
"Quite right. The remaining details are as follow: On the one hand, you will have to spend the occasional year or two in the village, so you'll have to learn the language. You will be held to Amazon standards of training, which will be quite grueling compared to what you have been used to. And this whole plan rests on the village's acceptance of it. I have no idea what will happen if they challenge it, as such a thing has not been done in centuries. But on the plus side, you will still retain your current family ties, including your name. In this, it is fortunate that you convinced Ranma to take your family name. It indicates that you are in control of your marrige."
"Ranma decided it for himself," Akane corrected. "It was his idea." Akane was still having trouble taking all of this in.
"No matter," Cologne dismissed. "It still looks good for you. By the way, as a direct chosen heir of mine, that would entitle you to personal training by me. This would include techniques neither you or Ranma have even heard of."
"I, I don't know what to say." Akane spoke truthfully. While the idea of leaning better techniques than Ranma appealed to her, she'd never been put through training quite as grueling as she'd seen Cologne dish out.
"Don't say anything yet, think about it. Bear in mind, my deal with your mother-in-law only had me trying to keep Shampoo away from Ranma until sunset today. Tomorrow you may have to deal with her yet again. Under my proposed deal however, you become like sisters." As Akane took in all of this Cologne at a clock on the wall. "Goodness, look at the time. I'd better go make sure Shampoo and Mousse have not burned down the cafe." She stood to leave. "Not that it is any business of mine at the moment, but now that the two of you are being honest with your feelings towards one another you should make them clear to everyone else. In the long run, it will cause fewer problems. Please, give my regards to Nodoka."
"I will." Akane watched as the Amazon exited. She sat motionless, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Between marrying Ranma and Cologne's offer she didn't know what to think, or even which of the two subjects to think about first. And boy, did she have some thinking to do.
The furo was still warm and inviting by the time Akane got to it. She had waited until she heard Ranma exit before she entered the bathroom and had gotten to scrubbing in little time. She found the monotony of cleaning up conducive to thinking and was grateful for it. As she eased into the soothing water she could feel her cares lessening. She surprised herself when the thought of her husband being naked in the same tub only minutes ago entered her mind. She was even more surprised when she didn't immediately push away the mental picture.
She sighed as she leaned against the side. "So here we are," she thought to herself. "All that time worrying about getting pushed into marriage as soon as we admitted our feelings and we do just that. We must be crazy." She shifted in the water. "Yep, we're crazy. But we're more crazy for loving each other than for getting married. Oh, what should I do? What comes now?"
She thought about Cologne's offer. "It would be nice to not have to worry about Shampoo at all, and I'd love to learn Amazon techniques. But living in China for a while? Could I just leave my family like that? I mean I'd probably still have Ranma, so I wouldn't be alone, but oh I don't know. I've seen Amazon training up close, and I don't think I'd like it.
"What is it going to be like when we get home tomorrow? I hope Nodoka doesn't feel everyone needs to know about us right away. I'd like a little time for Ranma and I to get used to each other as married people before all Hell breaks loose." A thought struck her. "I wonder if Ranma will expect us to, well, do what married people do tonight. I hope not; I'm not quiet ready to do THAT with him yet. I still can't believe I kissed him." Even though she was already warm from the bath, she could feel herself blush. "I kind of wish he's kissed back, but it's not like I gave him much response time. Maybe when I go to bed I can... wait a second! "Mrs. Saotome!" she called out.
"Yes dear?" came the response through the closed door.
"I don't have anything to sleep in. I mean, I guess I could sleep in my wet school clothes..."
"Sorry dear, I just put them in the wash. I thought I could dry them overnight so that you wouldn't have to get up early to stop off at home."
"Well I'm not sleeping in my underwear." She didn't want to send Ranma the wrong message tonight.
"Why not? Anyway, I took them too."
"Well what am I supposed to wear to bed? I'm not sleeping naked!"
Nodoka entered the bathroom carrying three clothing boxes. "You won't have to."
Akane eyed the boxes. "What are those?"
"Though I expected your wedding would be rushed, I'd always hoped to throw you a bachelorette party. You would have gotten these then, but I see no further reason to delay. Here." She placed them on the floor of the changing room.
"Thanks, I guess." Akane stepped out of the furo and grabbed a towel.
"Don't mention it, dear. And welcome to the family." Nodoka left to give her daughter-in-law some privacy.
Akane dried herself and looked at the packages. "I'm almost afraid to open them," she thought.
Nodoka smiled as she walked through the house. She reasoned that she was just supplying Akane with clean clothes and was doing nothing like trying to encourage consummation of the marriage tonight. What Akane did with those clothes was entirely her decision. "I hope Kasumi sees it my way," she thought. "Though even if she doesn't, we didn't plan on an immediate wedding so maybe she won't mind. Oh well, too late now."
"Oh my," Akane muttered as she quickly replaced the top on the first package. "I think I'd rather sleep naked," she thought. "I hope the other two are a little bit more subdued." Eyes a bit wider than normal, she went to the second box and opened it. She didn't lessen her expression as she started taking garments out, but sighed in relief. "Well, this is a little better," she thought. Lets see, a black lace bra, matching panties, a garter belt... I think I'll stop with the bra and panties." She left those articles out of the box as she opened the last one. "Oh, this is more like it, a light blue nightgown." She held it up to her body. "Hm," she looked to the lowest point of the nightie and noticed that it barley covered her hips. "It's a little short, so I'm glad I have something to wear underneath." She looked at the bra. "That doesn't look all that comfortable and I don't sleep in a bra anyway." She put it back in the box. Looking at the gown and panties she thought to herself, "well, I guess I'm sleeping in those." She took a few minutes to dress and brush her teeth with a spare toothbrush left out for her. "I kind of hope that Ranma is asleep now that I'm wearing this. I mean, he's seen me in less, but not by my choice." She looked at herself in the mirror. "Ha," she said softly aloud. "Let's see him try to call me a tomboy in this."
The walk from the bathroom to Ranma's room was short, and Akane found herself wondering many things in that short time. Would Ranma be awake? Would he notice what she was wearing? Would he like what she was wearing? Was she hoping he'd notice or dreading it? Would Nodoka let her sleep in a different room? What would Akane do if Ranma wanted to engage in typical wedding night activities? At that, she had to admit that she wasn't one hundred percent against it, but still didn't think she wanted to that night. With these and still many more thoughts dancing about her head, she arrived at the door that would lead to her husband. She took a breath before reaching apprehensively for the doorknob. "Here goes nothing," she thought and opened the door.
There lying in the middle of the floor was Ranma, under covers but wide a wake, now even wider. His eyes took in his wife's appearance, her body almost silhouetted against the light behind her. In fact, the backlighting was so strong that he could make out what little of her figure was covered by her nightie. He gulped before he spoke.
"H-hey Akane." He didn't know what else to say, but he did know that it was going to be a long night, no matter what happened.
Next: "The First Night: Pillow Talk of the Newlyweds!"
Authors notes: Here's chapter 5, and like I said last time chapter 6 is already on paper, just needs typing. Oh, and I promised you a treat, right? Well, I don't know if it fits your definition, but here it is: Video Reminder chapter 4 is now in production with an expected release date of April 30th. Yep, after more than four and a half years my first posted fanfic gets updated. And I promise that work on it will not delay the next chapter of Overtime. See you again soon!