Author' note: This is a repost to correct a few typos.
Chapter 7 Nabiki gets caught
The next Monday morning, Ranma came down and went in to the bathroom to take a bath. He made sure that the sign was out showing he was in the room. After rinsing himself off, he went to soak in the furo for a few minutes. He was a bit sore still from sparring with his father from the night before. Finally he was done, he was standing up in the tub, about to get out, when Akane walked in. He stared at her naked body; she stared at his. His nose started to bleed. They grabbed their towels and covered themselves up, then blushed. Ranma didn't know what to say, so he just ran by her into the changing room and shut the door. After getting dressed, he helped Kasumi by setting the table, and then he sat down at the dining platform. Akane came out of the bathroom; her face still flushed, and sat down next to him. He looked at her, but didn't say a word, he wasn't sure if she was angry, embarrassed, or a combination of both.
"Ranma, I'm sorry, I guess I was in too much of a hurry this morning and didn't see the sign. I guess I must be a pervert," Akane said, then she giggled.
Ranma smiled, relieved. "Akane No Baka," he teased, "Don't worry about it, remember I grew up on the road, so I ain't real body conscious, besides ya already know what I look like anyway. This isn't the first time this has happened, remember." Akane blushed.
"We better hurry and eat or we'll be late for school," she said.
A few minutes later, they jumped up, got their bentos, and schoolbooks, and ran off. Kasumi looked at Nabiki, and said, "Will you stop hiding the sign, Nabiki? It was funny the first time, but it's getting old. If you keep doing that, it might hurt their relationship, or are you trying to get Ranma for yourself. I have to admit, though, I was a real surprised with Akane. I really thought she would get mad."
"Maybe she liked what she saw," Nabiki smirked. Kasumi looked shocked at her sister, then giggled, turning bright red.
'Man, this is going to be rough at lunch', Ranma thought to himself, just a little bit angry, 'Where do they get off asking all of these questions? It was just a friendly date, after all,' looking at the huge pile of notes on his desk that he had received. It looked like his pile was almost as large as the one on Akane's desk. He could tell by the steam rising from the back of her neck, that she was furious. 'I really don't want to know what they asked her, do I?' he thought. For the first time in his life, he really wished that there wasn't a lunch time period.
'I thought these were my friends, what kind of perverts are they?' fumed Akane, 'Lunch is going to be embarrassing. It was just a date,' looking at the huge pile of notes on her desk that she had received. It looked like her pile was almost as big as the one on Ranma's desk. She could tell by the steam rising from the back of his neck, that he was furious. 'I really don't want to know what they asked him, do I?' she thought.
At lunch, Ranma tried to hide, but several of the boys tracked him down and began pestering him with questions. The politest was "How was the date?" but he really started to lose it when several of the guys asked him, "How far did you get?" He blew up then, completely losing his cool.
"What kind of girl do you think Akane is?" was the most coherent thing he could say, "What kind of perverts are you? It was just a date." The fury in his voice drove them all away. Under his voice, he said, "Why would they think I would want to do something like that with her now, anyway?" He heard a gasp, and looked up to see Akane. 'Man, that is so not what I meant to say,' he thought as he got hammered by her mallet.
"Ranma, no baka," she screamed.
"That's not what I meant it to sound like," he said weakly as he slumped to the ground.
That afternoon, Kuno confronted Ranma as he left the school building with Akane. "Hold, varlet, I, Tatewaki Kuno, upperclassman, the undefeated champion, the Rising Star of Furinkan High School, also known as the Blue Thunder, must chastise you for your vile conduct with the Fair Akane Tendo," Kuno orated. He looked pained because the thunder missed its cue.
"Shut up, Kuno. How many times do I have ta tell people nothing happened. Why would anyone think so little of Akane that they would even believe any of the rumors I have heard?" Ranma asked angrily. Kuno charged him, swinging his bokken. Ranma dodged, screaming "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken", hitting Kuno so fast that his hands seemed to blur. Suddenly, Ranma noticed that several photographs of Akane had fallen out of Kuno's robes. He knocked Kuno back several feet, but lost concentration after seeing the pictures.
Akane screamed, "Watch out, Ranma!" He looked up to se that Kuno had regathered his wits, as few as they were, and was about to attack him again. Ranma exploded into action, though not without receiving a blow from Kuno's bokken. Ignoring the pain in his arm, he slammed Kuno into a tree, knocking him out. Then he started picking up all of the pictures.
Akane ran over, "What happened to you, Baka? He could have seriously hurt you?" she asked worriedly.
Ranma said, "He dropped these as we were fighting. I got distracted. Thanks for the warning," as he showed her the photographs.
"Nabiki," Akane said in disgust.
"Yeah, Nabiki," Ranma agreed.
Ranma and Akane walked upstairs, after coming home from school, to Nabiki's room. Ranma knocked on the open door. Nabiki looked up from her desk where she was working on her homework. Her face froze when she saw the expressions on their faces. Keeping her emotions under control, the Ice Queen of Furinkan High School asked in a flat, expressionless voice, "What do you two want? I'm a little busy right now."
"How about an explanation for these," Akane hissed, dropping a set of photographs on her desk.
After flipping through the pictures, Nabiki said, "They look like some pretty tasteful, flattering photographs of you and Ranma's girl form."
"Yeah, we know what they are. What we want to know is why Kuno had them," Akane growled, getting even angrier. Nabiki started to get a little worried.
"Kuno paid good money for them. I've been selling candid shots like this of you since almost the beginning of the school year. He asked me for pictures of the pigtailed girl Monday. It's strictly a business deal, and frankly, we needed the money. I didn't see any harm in them since there's nothing Hentaii about them," Nabiki said evenly.
"Didn't ya realize you were just feeding his obsession about us?" Ranma asked, "We're both disappointed in you, Nabiki. It's bad enough you did it to me; did you ever stop to think about how Akane would feel? Couldn't ya at least ask? You used us both, and that's getting close to a line that I didn't think ya wanted to cross. Are there any more of these out there?"
Nabiki hesitated, and then answered, "Uh, yes, some of the girls wanted pictures of you working out. I took some while you were exercising in the dojo. They paid a lot of yen for them."
"Well, we want you to stop doing it. I don't know how Akane really feels about it, but what you did to me feels entirely too much like some of the things Pop would pull. I didn't like it when he did it then, and I don't like it now. I thought you were a friend and friends don't do that," Ranma said.
"I'm nothing like your father," Nabiki protested.
"Not in my opinion," Akane said, still with some heat, "I agree with Ranma. While you haven't done anything that dishonors us yet, Kuno would eventually want Hentaii pictures. Do you think that I want to star in any of his perverted fantasies? What you did hurt me and it's going to take me a while to trust you again! The fact that the money was used to provide for the family is the only reason I haven't slapped you silly. The other thing that we wanted to tell you is to stop messing with the occupied sign. Neither of us appreciates someone walking in on us while we are bathing. If I had wanted him in there, I would have invited him. It's been very embarrassing to have it happen as many times as it has. How would you have felt if you had walked in on Ranma and seen each other?"
Nabiki thought to herself, 'Actually, that doesn't sound too bad,' as a vision of Ranma popped up in her mind. Nabiki said, "I don't think I'm going to answer that. I just meant it as a joke the first time; I didn't realize Ranma was a guy. The other times I did it on purpose. You've been so hung up on this whole perverted boy thing, so I thought this might make you more comfortable. Kasumi already told me it was a bad idea and made me promise to stop. I wasn't thinking, I guess, I'm sorry I embarrassed you."
Akane stared at her sister for a long moment, and then said, "Thanks, sis," then she turned and left. Nabiki looked a question as Ranma turned and shut the door.
"I had a few other things I wanted to talk to you about," Ranma said. "For starters, why are you so jealous of Akane?" he asked bluntly.
Nabiki thought, 'Damn, how does he do that?' She narrowed her eyes, and then asked, "Why do you think I'm jealous of Akane?"
"You're not as hard to read as you think, Nabiki. Even though ya have this Ice Queen front that ya hide behind, you're still easier to read than Kasumi. Some of the things ya did, like the photos, and the stunt with the bathroom, and some of the rumors that ya seem ta have spread, makes me pretty sure there's something going on," Ranma replied.
"It will cost you a lot, Ranma, to find out," Nabiki said, "I don't open up about myself for free."
"Tell ya what, I won't ask for the money ya made off the fights and the photos, and we'll call it even," Ranma said with a smile.
'How come I keep underestimating him,' Nabiki thought. "Okay, that's a deal. You're right, I guess I am a little jealous of Akane. She's always been the baby of the family, so life didn't change as drastically for her as it did for Kasumi and me. Since Father fell apart after Mother died, I've had to do a lot of things to earn enough money to keep the bills paid. It didn't start out that way, but eventually I've had to do some things that are borderline illegal. Because of that, I had to create the Ice Queen and be pretty cold. That doesn't allow me to make any friends, and I shut everyone out. I'm a good-looking girl, but almost everyone is afraid of me now. It wasn't so bad last year, but then this year Akane came to the high school and she became one of the most popular girls on campus. It wasn't fair, and I did some things that I'm ashamed of now. I didn't start any of the rumors about her, though, I just didn't try too hard to stop them," she said sadly, "And then you came into our life, a fiancé, possibly for me. And then you weren't really interested in any of us that way, and that hurt."
"Ya still helped out though. Ya came through with several good plans, like the one to keep our fathers off our backs, and then the one to get all of the boys to leave Akane alone. I never really thanked ya for that. I have to admit that I haven't tried real hard to get to know ya. If it's not to late, I'd like to get to know the Nabiki behind the mask," Ranma said, "If ya ever need a friend ta talk ta, or a shoulder ta cry on, I'd like ta be there for ya. You do have at least one friend."
Nabiki smiled the first genuine smile that Ranma though he had ever seen from her. "Thanks, Ranma, I need that. I was seeing how close you were getting with my sisters and that was beginning to bother me." She reached out and hugged him.
Ranma held her for a few minutes. Nabiki found herself enjoying the warmth of his arms. Then reluctantly, she pulled herself away. "Nabiki, I didn't mean to make you feel left out, and I don't want to come between any of you. I should have known better, after all, you're not the only person to felt that they were all alone. Before I fell in the spring, I was generally sure of Pop's approval, but since, all I've felt is that he's ashamed of me. That and the fact that we never stayed anywhere long enough to make many real friends. That's why you three girls are so important ta me. I think of ya as my family and ya don't know how much that means ta me. That brings me to the other thing I need ta talk ta ya about. I need ya ta trace our footsteps while we were training to see what other scams and outright thefts that Pop may have committed. I kept a journal for the last several years recording the ones I found out about and where we've been. I want ya ta have that ta help track us down. You'll also find out a few more things about me that I want ya to keep from Kasumi and Akane," he said.
"What kinds of things are in there?" Nabiki asked.
"Some of the training, some of my thoughts and feelings, things like that. The things that made me some of what I am today. I told Akane about most of it, but I hid a few things from her that I don't think she is ready for. I will need your help with one of them, so ya need to know about it. I'll need your help with Pop once we know what he's done," Ranma replied.
"What do you plan on doing once you know what he's done?" Nabiki asked.
"I don't know. Where I can, I want to make amends. I need to know what skeletons are in the past. Maybe if we know what they are we can keep the from harming your family," Ranma replied, "I don't want anything bad ta happen, not if I can stop it."
"I'll see what I can come up with. It'll take a while and cost you," she said.
Ranma said, with a grin, "What else is new?" as he turned and left.