Disclaimer: This is not a professionally written story, as I am only a hobbyist writer. I'm not an English whiz, and most of the time those that I have pre-reading for me cannot catch every mistake I make. Oh yeah I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.
An apology: I wanted to say I am terribly sorry to everyone for my bad spelling and the punctuation mistakes in the last several chapters have been awful! I hope that soon I'll be able to go though the posted chapters, edit them, and eliminate many of the errors.
And now…
Primal Ranma Awkward Morning
Trees… so many trees. They seemed to pass quickly as she ran though them at a breakneck speed she never thought possible. Sometimes she would weave to the right, others to the left to avoid running into one. Occasionally she would even have to duck under a low branch or leap over those that threatened to hit her knees. But she didn't care, and none of this changed the pace that she set for herself. Yet she was not running from anyone, nor was she trying to get anywhere in particular. Instead, she ran just for the thrill of it.
From behind her, she could hear the sounds of pursuit, but she was not worried, as it was just him making sure that she stayed safe. 'As if there's a threat here…' she told herself and continued to run knowing that he was nearby and he was making sure she was safe.
Though she thought it funny that he ran behind her, instead of in front of her, but then she realized as she leapt over several bushes that she was the one setting the pace, not him. With a feral smile on her face, she continued to run just enjoying the feel of the wind rushing past her as she dodged in and out of the trees. With one last push, she jumped up from the ground onto a low branch before propelling herself upwards towards another large branch before finally breaking out of the trees altogether and for a brief moment, she felt like she was flying.
All too soon, that ended as she landed in the calm waters of a spring. She could hear the startled yelp from him as he too came in for a splashdown in the cold spring. Pulling herself out of the cool water, she tried not to laugh too hard at him. Turning around she looked at her reflection in the water, let out a startled yelp, and jumped backwards.
Panting, Nabiki looked around the room. "What… where?" She asked as she tried to control her racing heartbeat. "That… that…"
"That hurt…" she suddenly heard and looked down to see that she was holding Ranma's face against her stomach and his body was at several odd angles.
"Ranma?" She asked unsteadily then let out another startled yelp as she realized that they had just spent the night together. "Ah! Ranma what are you doing here!"
"Ouch…" Ranma said after he was suddenly thrown away from Nabiki when she shouted at him. "But… this is my room…"
"Your room?" She asked unsteadily and much to slow for her liking she realized that she was indeed in his room… after having spent the night with him.
"Well… I guess it's my room. Well an pop's room too."
"Oh I see… um…" Once again, Nabiki found herself to be in an odd situation with Ranma.
"What are you doing in here? If Akane sees ya she's gonna kill me!"
Nabiki let out a tired sigh. "Ranma, after what's happened around here lately, I think that's the least of your worries."
"What…" He started to ask then sighed as he recalled everything in absolutely too much clarity that he would like. He could still remember cutting off Happosai's arm, attacking Akane, trying to kill his pops, as well as attacking Kodachi and Ukyo. "Oh man…"
With her mind and thoughts under control again, Nabiki straightened out her pajamas and then tried to run her fingers though her hair. 'Tried' being the operative word as her hair was now a tangled mess. "I was going to get a snack last night and I heard noises."
"Noises?" Ranma asked and felt sheepish in that he didn't hear anything.
"Correct, and when I found them, they were coming from you."
"From me?"
"It looked like you were having a nightmare." She couldn't help but smirk at his blushing expression. "Ranma… it was about the neko-ken… wasn't it?"
His head snapped up allowing his eyes to meet hers, before his head suddenly drooped and the once proud Ranma Saotome looked once again like a defeated mess. "…yes…"
Without even thinking about it, Nabiki went from kneeling, to walking towards him, that is if one considers crawling on their hands and knees walking. Stopping just before him, she sat up and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Ranma. I… I know things haven't really been the best between up before. But… but I'd like to help."
Slowly Ranma lifted his face up to look at her, though she gasped at the sight of tears in his eyes. "Nabiki… I… I…"
"What is it?"
"I can remember all of it… why? Every time I went c-cat before I never remembered anythin'! But now I remember it all! What's goin' on? What's happened to me?"
Just as she did yesterday, Nabiki pulled Ranma to her and held him closely as tears fell from his eyes soaking her shoulder. She had no clues, no reason for any of his actions, yet she knew that had she been in his place, she would have gone crazy a long time before now. "I don't know Ranma…" she told him softly and let him use her shoulder.
The quiet moment was interrupted as an aged voice called from outside Ranma's window. "Ranma my boy? You awake?"
"Happosai…" Ranma said with close to a growl, causing shivers to run down Nabiki's spine, and not in a way that she appreciated.
"Ranma, I need to speak with you," the lecherous master of Anything Goes said from outside.
Firmly, Ranma pushed Nabiki aside and positioned himself between her and the window before opening it. "What do ya want?"
"Ah, Ranma, I need to talk to you… eh? I see," he said and massaged his chin with his good arm as he took in the sight of the two before him.
"Old man… what do you want?" Ranma asked this time with a rough growl to his voice. However, before he could say another word, much less act on the building anger he felt inside him, he felt a touch, a light, gentle touch on his shoulder. Looking at his shoulder, he noticed Nabiki's hand there, and turning his head to see her concerned look he quickly pushed his anger back to the back of his mind.
Seeing this, the aged master just nodded his head. "Ranma, as you know Shampoo is no longer chasing you, but you may not understand the reasons."
Turning his attention away from Nabiki was harder than Ranma expected, but he tried to hide it. "W-what do ya mean?"
"Simply put, when you lashed out at me, your Neko-ken training took over, but only in your aura, not your mind." This got both teens full attention, so neither noticed how close Nabiki moved to Ranma to hear what Happosai had to say. "You see my boy, when the neko-ken took over in times past, it changed your mind and aura, this time just your aura, and it caused several problems."
"Ah… yea… sorry about your arm…" Ranma mumbled and scratched the back of his head. Though again, neither teen noticed when Ranma brought his hand down from behind his head, he slipped that arm around Nabiki where his hand finally came to rest on her hip.
"Ah, don't worry about me! I was more worried about the others. Since this was the first time this happened, when Shampoo touched you, her aura was infected by yours."
"Infected?" Nabiki asked curiously, and unconsciously placed her hand on top of the hand that rested on her side.
"Yes, and since it infected her, she's had several horrible nightmares."
"Ah… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
"I know, so with Mousse's help, we have cleansed her aura. However…"
"However?" Nabiki asked, knowing that there was a catch. There always was.
"However, before she even realized what she was doing, she was cleansing her own aura."
Ranma just blinked at that. "But that's good... right?"
"Had she been by herself then yes. But she used Mousse's aura to clean her own, so even if she were to marry another, then she would always have a connection to him."
This caused Nabiki to smirk, and unknown to her, she leaned her head against Ranma. "So she'll no longer be after Ranma, because she now has a thing for Mousse."
"Quite right!" Happosai cackled, at both what they were talking about, and how close the two were and he knew that they didn't realize it yet. 'Oh this will be so much fun to watch!'
"Well Ranma, looks like you have one less fiancée as well as one less rival," Nabiki told him and smiled.
"Yea… I guess yer right… um… hay wait a second. If Shampoo's aura was poisoned, then what about Akane?"
Taking a slow breath, the old man sighed. "I believe she's been poisoned too, and even if her aura is cleaned, she undoubtedly will not be willing to spend any time near you."
"Oh…" Ranma felt like his world was falling apart faster, yet even as his head dropped, he could feel Nabiki's reassuring presence beside him. Though for the life of him, he couldn't ever recall a time before this all happened that he'd call her presence reassuring. Yet just a short time ago, she'd said that she wanted to help him, and that made him feel better.
Suddenly Happosai spoke up, "Now then, Ranma I want you to take this."
"Huh?" he asked as a box was pressed into his free hand. And to see what it was, the boy had to release Nabiki from this grip. But that in itself caused him to start sweating. "I… um…oh… I…" he stammered as he realized his right hand was resting on Nabiki's hip... and with each syllable he stammered, his hand would give her a slight squeeze.
Broken out of her musings not only By Happosai's actions but also by feeling Ranma's strong grip on her side, Nabiki began to blush and wonder what she should do. Coming to a decision, she pulled Ranma's hand off her hip and placed it on the box he'd been given.
"Oh Nabiki dear?" Happosai said sweetly gaining her attention. When he had it, he smirked at her. "If he's going to open the box, you need to release his hand."
"EEP!" Nabiki nearly shouted as she quickly released Ranma's hand. Staggering backwards while looking bewildered, she tried to comprehend just how the two of them had not only been holding each other; but now that she had moved away from him, why did she feel… alone.
"My boy, in there you will find a map to a place I once called home. I think the two of you need to get away from here for a while and I can't think of a better place!" Cackling madly, the aged martial artist bounded away from the Tendo home as though he were a few hundred years younger than he was.
Slowly Ranma opened the box and then just stared at its contents.
"R-Ranma…" Nabiki stuttered then cursed her own nervousness. "What's in the box?"
"Um… a… m-map… a k-key… and… and some m-money…"
"That doesn't sound too bad," the girl said as she regained control over herself again. Or at least until the box fell from Ranma hands spilling the rest of the contents on the floor causing her eyes to go wide in seeing all the packages of condoms.
Ukyo awoke groaning and bearing a horrible headache. But when she herd a voice tell her to 'lay still' she suddenly tensed up. "Who's there?"
"You should lay still Ukyo-sama," she heard Konatsu say gently from beside her.
She tried to sit up, but upon moving she only said two words, "Why… ohh…" before she fell back on the bed.
"Please… you've had too much to drink yesterday." He said and placed a wet rag over her forehead and eyes.
"Why… oh my head…"
"I'm sorry, you were very upset yesterday and didn't eat much, and drank several bottles of sake."
'That would explain the hammers pounding in my head,' she thought miserably. Reaching out for him, she was relieved to feel the fabric of his Kimono, and she knew that at least nothing happened last night. "Konatsu…. Why are you here?"
"I was worried about you. When you suddenly passed out yesterday, I put you to bed and…"
"That's… thanks fine…" She told him feeling much more relieved.
"Will you be ok?"
She could only sigh at that before she nodded her head… making the hammers start another round of pounding. "Yea… I… oh… I'll be ok."
"Ok, um… Ukyo-sama…"
"Yes?" She asked and hoped the noise in her head would go away.
"Did you…um… have any nightmares last night?"
"I don't even remember going to sleep… much less dreaming." She told him the wondered why she heard his relieved sigh. "Why?"
"Happosai stopped by here yesterday; he said that when Shampoo was near Ranma, his aura somehow infected her. This was causing her some horrible nightmares."
Ukyo wanted to say 'great' or 'serves her right,' but there was something in his voice that worried her. "Really?"
"Yes and because of that, apparently Cologne and Shampoo have given up on Ranma."
"WHAT! NO WAY!" She shouted and sat up… and then nearly fell out of her bed from dizziness.
"Oh! Please Ukyo-sama! You must stay in bed!"
"Ah… ok…" she replied weakly.
"Anyway, since her aura was infected, Happosai and Cologne had to clean it… or something like that. They wanted to know if you've had any nightmares as well."
"I bet they did," muttered the chef before letting out a tired sigh. "At least they've given up and are going home."
"But they can't."
"Can't what?"
"Go home." He told her seriously. "In order to give up on Ranma, both Cologne and Shampoo have become exiles. They… they can't ever return to their home."
"Oh…" She said softly and thought about this for a while.
For the first time in her life, Akane found that she had nothing to say. Or at least nothing to say at the moment. Across from here was Cologne, the former matriarch of the Joketsuzoku. To her right was the former Amazon Champion, Shampoo, and beside her and looking rather out of it, sat Mousse.
"I take it you are surprised child?" Cologne asked in amusement to which the girl only nodded. "As I told you earlier, I, well we no longer have any claim on Ranma and as such, we wanted to help you."
"I… well… this is all very nice and all," Akane could not help but stammer her response. Just a short time ago, before the sun had even risen; she had been awoken by Cologne who asked if she would meet her in the park in a few minutes. Akane had only thought about it for a short time before realizing that not going would mean having to see Ranma at breakfast, and going could mean a fight… but that was preferable over seeing him, especially after last night. She never thought she'd ever get the cold chills out of her body after that. 'And so here I am…' she thought ruefully though mentally she was a bit happier.
"I understand your hesitation, and had the situation been different then we would not be making this offer. However, since finding out that Ranma had poisoned Shampoo's aura, as well as Happosai's, we believed that you or one of your sisters might have been poisoned as well."
"Am I?" Akane asked weaker than she wanted.
"Just slightly, it seems that by the time you came in contact with him, he had somehow managed to control it some."
"I see…" she responded and looked at Shampoo. It made sense to her now that she thought about it, 'So that's why Shampoo seemed scared of him.' However, it all seemed too easy. Shampoo was poisoned, and in order to clean her aura she was helped by Mousse, which wasn't surprising. Having Happosai help, that was a bit too unbelievable. And now, here they were offering to help her.
"Akane…" Shampoo said softly which further surprised the youngest Tendo.
"Yes?"
"What great-grandmother say is true… Ai… Ranma… he scare Shampoo… and make Shampoo have bad dreams. Now, when think about Ranma… make Shampoo remember bad dreams."
"According to Happosai and Cologne," Mousse put in as he suddenly joined the conversation. "Her aura is clean, but the memories are still there. It'll take some time, but we're going to be fine."
For a moment, Akane looked between Mousse and Shampoo and sighed. "Fine… let's do this."
"As you wish." Cologne said and then began instructing Akane, just as she had Shampoo
Nodoka Saotome was in a rush to get to her son. After the numerous times recently that she's had that awful gnawing and empty feeling in her gut, she just knew that something terrible had happened to her son. So it was little surprise that when she arrived at the Tendo Dojo, she did not even announce herself, and hastily left her sandals behind before racing up the stairs to her son's room.
"Oh my…" Kasumi muttered as she saw the Saotome matriarch rush through the house. Moving over to the stairs she wondered what was going on when she heard Mrs. Saotome open her son's door.
"Ranma I…"
And then there was silence.
Kasumi wondered what could have happened not only to cause Ranma's mother to rush in like that, but also to stop so suddenly. And then the silence was broken by a thunderous cry of joy.
"YAY! MY SON IS SO MANLY!"
Whish was followed by an equally loud, "MOM!"
Kasumi just stood at the bottom of the steps blinking in confusion as she overheard the rather loud proclamations.
"Oh my son! I'm so proud of you… But is this right? I mean she is your fiancée's sister and all… but…"
"Oh my…" Kasumi said softly and quickly returned to the kitchen.
Upstairs, in Ranma's room, two teens are blushing furiously as his mother is dancing about waving around little victory flags. Just several minutes earlier the two had started frantically cleaning up the spilled condoms least anyone see them. So when it came to the last one, they had both reached for it and stopped. For several long moments, Nabiki held Ranma's trembling hand as he held the condom packet, and the two just looked at each other, trying to guess what the other was thinking. And then that moment was broken as the door was pushed open and suddenly the two were not only holding the little packet, but holding it up so that his mother could see it as well.
"MOM! It's… its not what you're thinking!"
"It's not?" She suddenly asked saddened.
"No! I mean I like Nabiki an all… but... I mean…"
"So you do want to do it with her! Oh I'm so proud!"
"What? No!"
"You mean you don't?"
"That's right!"
"Saotome…" Nabiki said flatly even though her body was developing a slight tremble. Though for the life of her, she couldn't understand why him saying he didn't want her, was causing her pain.
"What?" He asked exasperated, then noticed the slight trembling to her shoulders. 'Oh no…' he thought and quickly tried to think of something, anything to do.
"Son… you mean… you mean you don't want to be with Nabiki?"
"What?" he nearly shouted with his eyes opening wide. "You've got to be kidding me?" Even as he said it, Nabiki closed her eyes and flinched back away from him. "Look mom, she deserves a lot better than me, I mean what've I got to give her? She likes ta have things and needs someone that she can really talk to ya, know, about things that she likes… and I… I just…"
"Ranma…" A soft voice said from beside him gaining his attention, though he was surprised that the voice came from Nabiki. "Is that…is that what you really think?"
"Yea… I mean what could ya see in me?"
Nabiki couldn't help but smile. Moving closer to him, her smile widened. "You'd be surprised," she told him and placed a kiss on his cheek. Then leaving a stunned boy behind, she left the room quickly.
"I… I… uh… I… oh…."
After leaving the room, Nabiki could only think of one thing, 'What the hell did I do that for?'
To be Continued…