Ranma; Just Plain Hard
"Is.... something wrong with Nabiki?" Soun asked with trepidation. Akane looked at the ice trail that followed from the door to upstairs; most assuradly to Nabiki's room.
"It seems that way." Akane started towards the kitchen, and cut her father off before he could speak, "No, it's not, Dad. Yes it has something to do with this morning, and yes we have plenty of tampons so we won't bleed all over the carpet again. And we haven't done that since I was ten."
"Um, well," Soun studdered, "it pays to be sure about these things..." Akane sighed, and walked into the kitchen, where her sister was still floating on cloud nine.
"Helllllooooo Akane, *giggle*, what do you think Ranma would like for dinner?"
Akane grabbed her sister by the arm, "Kasumi, we need to talk..."
_____________________________
Nabiki finally came down for dinner, pointedly ignoring three people at the table. Kasumi's perpetual state of happiness that was thrown into overdrive had crashed viciously when she saw Nabiki's attitude, "Well, I guess she is rather upset..."
"Nabiki, I know I haven't been much of a father to you," Soun started, the middle daughter turned a frigid, emotionless stare towards him, setting him off, and causing him to waterlog his meal.
"Boy, say something, she may be your fiancee, after all," Genma urged, while Ranma was eating slowly and not looking up from his food.
"Pops, I..." Ranma lifted his head to look towards Nabiki, and found her staring at him *hard*. A slight bit of emotion crossed his face, before years of practice allowed him to cover it back up. His glasses hid his eyes, "I ain't got nutt'n to say." With that, he got up and left for upstairs.
"Um, would you like me to save the rest of your food, Ranma-kun?" Kasumi asked, before throwing a nervous glance towards Nabiki, "Oh dear."
_____________________________
Nabiki attempted to do her homework, but the damn papers were getting too blurry to read. In fustration, she turned, and threw her pen against the wall. How could she let a *GUY* get to her like this? She was Nabiki Tendou, she practically OWNED the school! She was notorious for business, and she kept her emotions controlled and detached from her ventures. So a boy managed to get to (and into) her; it wasn't like she shouldn't be able to shrug it off. Nabiki layed her head onto her arm, intent on keeping herself from breaking down; her sister (HA! The hypocrite) was right, all boys are perverts.
Nabiki managed to pull herself together at the knock at the door, "Who is it."
Akane and Kasumi winced at the cold in the voice of their sister, and then winced again as they opened the door to her room; coming into contact with the almost sub-arctic temperature. Nabiki saw who it was, and both girls swore that the room had become even colder. The middle Tendou sister turned back to her desk, and was about to start writing, when she noticed she didn't hold a pen.
She casually pulled another one up from her cup full of writing utensils on her desk, and started again, "I'm busy."
"Well, Nabiki-chan," Kasumi started, and gulped when Nabiki's tear-stained voice turned towards her with the same cold expression she had been receiving from the other girl.
"Well, *what*... sister?" Kasumi bowed her head at the extremely formal tone and reference Nabiki used. Akane, seeing that her oldest sister probably wouldn't be able to handle it from this point on, stepped in.
"We came to say... it was our fault, not Ranma's. And we're sorry."
"Is that so?" Nabiki was back to writing, and slammed her pen into the desk. They needed to write these damn textbooks much more legibly.
Akane wryly thought of how much this should have gauled her, not that it didn't right now; it was her sister's happiness that mattered at the moment. Especially since she had only done it out of curiosity; not even out of infatuation, "Um... yeah. You see, we, um, seduced him, and..."
"You seduced Ranma." Neither Akane or Kasumi knew if it were an accusation or a reiterating question.
"Yes," Akane replied meekly, "do you think you can... well..."
"Forgive you?" Nabiki replied, still staring at her homework. Akane nodded, though Nabiki wasn't looking. Once again, Nabiki's battle aura flared to visible range.
"Get out."
Without hesitation, her sisters left the room. Emotionally drained, Nabiki dropped back onto her desk, no longer able to hold in the tears.
_____________________________
"You want me to go apologise," Ranma replied, while in the midst of one armed handstand pushups.
"It would help Nabiki a lot," Kasumi replied in a pleading voice.
"And this *is* all your fault," Akane replied, "Well, it's all our faults, but it's more yours."
"We all share the blame, Akane," Kasumi cut in, "but I think it would mean the most coming from you, Ranma-kun."
The pigtailed young man huffed, and flipped to standing, just before coming to sit in lotus position. He stared at the two girls through his dark shades with his mouth set in a straight line, "Why should I care?"
Both Kasumi and Akane reeled back from Ranma's question with incredulous looks on their faces. "Ra-Ranma?" Kasumi weakly whispered.
"You... bastard," Akane said in low growl, "Do you even care about anything?" Ranma tilted his head to the side, popping the nitrogen bubbles trapped in the joints of his spinal column in that area. He didn't give a reply.
"Fine," Kasumi replied in a strangly serene voice, "If that is how you feel about matters..."
"BUT KASUMI?!?" Kasumi cut her youngest sister off with a somber stare, and then directed her gaze back to Ranma; it transformed into an expression of utter contempt as it came to his view.
"We can't convince him, Akane. Tonight would best be spent contemplating our own parts in this." With that, the eldest Tendou daughter left the room. Akane threw a baleful glare towards Ranma, and followed her sister.
For the most part, Ranma did very well not to flinch.
_____________________________
"Hey, Nabiki, open up in there!"
Of course, there was one more she had to confront tonight in order to make her misery complete. Perhaps after he left, she would have a sufficient amount of depression to slit her own throat, "Just... go away."
Ranma found the door unlocked, and let himself in. He saw Nabiki's tear streaks, and quickly looked elsewhere, "Uh, sup..."
"What do you want, Saotome-san?" Nabiki replied; herself turning away to look in a direction that didn't have Ranma in it.
"You're sisters told me you upset about somethin'..." Ranma started, and ignored Nabiki's bitter bark of laughter."
"Gee, I don't know where they got that impression, RANMA? MAYBE IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THEM SLEEPING WITH MY BOYFRIEND?!?"
Ranma's head snapped back to Nabiki; even if she couldn't see his eyes, the raised eyebrows told her how surprised he was, "H-hold up, 'boyfriend'? Wait a sec, we only did it for fun, yo..."
"GET OUT!!!!" Nabiki picked up her text book, and threw it as hard as she could at Ranma.
The pigtailed young man merely swatted it out of the air with a forearm, "Look now, I don't know what the fuck is up with you..."
"YOU GODS BE DAMNED, STUCK UP, SELF CENTERED, IMMATURE, BASTARD!!!" Nabiki screamed, throwing her desk lamp at him. The lap pulled the outlet cord taunt before it even reached Ranma, and fell to the ground while shattering the lightbulb inside.
Ranma's mouth set itself in a straight line, "Chill with the throwing shit, 'aight? I'm try'n to set it straight, here."
"I can't believe I LISTENED to you! Nabiki sobbed, standing up and approaching him. She raised her hands to shove Ranma's chest, "I fucking BELIEVED you!"
Ranma's eyes widened in realization, "Hey, yo, I was just talk'n! I didn't know it meant that much to you!"
"Well, it doesn't matter, anyway," Nabiki turned away, walked to her bed, and sat down, "Just... go... please."
Ranma baulked at the pleading sob that was tacked to the end there. He turned away, "Yo, I... I'm sorry, really. I thought you knew I was just clown'n an' shit. I mean, a beautiful girl like you can't be serious about a nigga like me. But... for what its worth now, I think I woulda liked gett'n wit' you, really."
"Wait," Nabiki commanded, just as Ranma put his hand on the door knob. She knew she didn't imagine it, but though his usual speech was the same, there was something missing from his voice. Something that would have made it less endearing to her.
She got up off the bed, and approached Ranma, "So, you're really sorry about this?"
"I just said it, didn't I?" Ranma replied in a low voice, never moving from his turned away position.
"Nu-uh, this is going to take more than that," Nabiki stood directly behind Ranma, "Turn around..."
Ranma didn't comply, "Look, if you don't want my apology..."
"TURN... around." With a sigh, Ranma obeyed, and folded his arms in front of him.
"What?"
"Take your glasses off."
Ranma's expression went harder, "Why?
"Take. The. Damn. Glasses. OFF."
The pigtailed martial artist's face scrunched up, but he took his shades off. Nabiki chocked down a gasp at his slate gray eyes. It wasn't the beauty of them, it was the sheer amount of emotion that was dancing within them. A poker face, he did not have.
With a mirthless chuckle, Nabiki spoke again, "You know? This is the first time I've ever actually seen your eyes."
"Is that all you wanted?" Ranma asked harshly. The middle Tendou sister saw his eyes 'flinch', where the rest of him did not at the comment.
"No, you're going to prove to me exactly *how* sorry you are about this," Nabiki growled, staring him in the eyes, "by, for one, starving this hungry dick of yours!"
Ranma stifled an 'eep' when she grabbed down there firmly. He quickly put his glasses back on, and had them roughly jerked from his face by Nabiki, and tossed onto her bed.
"No, don't think you're escaping this, Ranma. Starting tonight, your... ass... is.... MINE!" Ranma quickly nodded, holding his own building fury at bay. It wouldn't do to get pissed at a girl who had your nuts in a vice grip. The cold fire in her eyes also told him she would quite quickly take advantage of her situation.
He had to admit, he kinda liked that.
_____________________________
Akane and Kasumi sighed, and pulled away from the door. "Well," Akane started, I'll miss it."
Kasumi nodded absently, "You want to go with me into Tokyo, Saturday?"
"Hmm? What for?" Akane asked with a curious lilt.
"Well, a friend of mine from highschool was telling me about this one place. They... do custom mold jobs..."
"Molds, for what?" Akane's mouth went into a surprised 'o' at Kasumi's jesture, "Um, will they even make them that big?"
Just then, the two fathers returned from their binge drinking. Actually, Soun was binging, Genma was completely sober. Both girls met their fathers downstairs to greet them.
"Um, Saotome-san, I guess you aren't much of a drinker?" Kasumi asked.
"No, no, it's not that. I just wanted to make sure that I kept your father occupied in case, as Ranma would put it, all the drama wasn't taken care of."
Both Akane and Kasumi stepped back with shocked expressions. "You... y-you knew?" Akane studdered under the large martial artist's gaze.
Genma put a finger to his mouth, "We'll 'keep this on the downlow'." With that, he gave the girls a knowing smirk.
"Is.... something wrong with Nabiki?" Soun asked with trepidation. Akane looked at the ice trail that followed from the door to upstairs; most assuradly to Nabiki's room.
"It seems that way." Akane started towards the kitchen, and cut her father off before he could speak, "No, it's not, Dad. Yes it has something to do with this morning, and yes we have plenty of tampons so we won't bleed all over the carpet again. And we haven't done that since I was ten."
"Um, well," Soun studdered, "it pays to be sure about these things..." Akane sighed, and walked into the kitchen, where her sister was still floating on cloud nine.
"Helllllooooo Akane, *giggle*, what do you think Ranma would like for dinner?"
Akane grabbed her sister by the arm, "Kasumi, we need to talk..."
_____________________________
Nabiki finally came down for dinner, pointedly ignoring three people at the table. Kasumi's perpetual state of happiness that was thrown into overdrive had crashed viciously when she saw Nabiki's attitude, "Well, I guess she is rather upset..."
"Nabiki, I know I haven't been much of a father to you," Soun started, the middle daughter turned a frigid, emotionless stare towards him, setting him off, and causing him to waterlog his meal.
"Boy, say something, she may be your fiancee, after all," Genma urged, while Ranma was eating slowly and not looking up from his food.
"Pops, I..." Ranma lifted his head to look towards Nabiki, and found her staring at him *hard*. A slight bit of emotion crossed his face, before years of practice allowed him to cover it back up. His glasses hid his eyes, "I ain't got nutt'n to say." With that, he got up and left for upstairs.
"Um, would you like me to save the rest of your food, Ranma-kun?" Kasumi asked, before throwing a nervous glance towards Nabiki, "Oh dear."
_____________________________
Nabiki attempted to do her homework, but the damn papers were getting too blurry to read. In fustration, she turned, and threw her pen against the wall. How could she let a *GUY* get to her like this? She was Nabiki Tendou, she practically OWNED the school! She was notorious for business, and she kept her emotions controlled and detached from her ventures. So a boy managed to get to (and into) her; it wasn't like she shouldn't be able to shrug it off. Nabiki layed her head onto her arm, intent on keeping herself from breaking down; her sister (HA! The hypocrite) was right, all boys are perverts.
Nabiki managed to pull herself together at the knock at the door, "Who is it."
Akane and Kasumi winced at the cold in the voice of their sister, and then winced again as they opened the door to her room; coming into contact with the almost sub-arctic temperature. Nabiki saw who it was, and both girls swore that the room had become even colder. The middle Tendou sister turned back to her desk, and was about to start writing, when she noticed she didn't hold a pen.
She casually pulled another one up from her cup full of writing utensils on her desk, and started again, "I'm busy."
"Well, Nabiki-chan," Kasumi started, and gulped when Nabiki's tear-stained voice turned towards her with the same cold expression she had been receiving from the other girl.
"Well, *what*... sister?" Kasumi bowed her head at the extremely formal tone and reference Nabiki used. Akane, seeing that her oldest sister probably wouldn't be able to handle it from this point on, stepped in.
"We came to say... it was our fault, not Ranma's. And we're sorry."
"Is that so?" Nabiki was back to writing, and slammed her pen into the desk. They needed to write these damn textbooks much more legibly.
Akane wryly thought of how much this should have gauled her, not that it didn't right now; it was her sister's happiness that mattered at the moment. Especially since she had only done it out of curiosity; not even out of infatuation, "Um... yeah. You see, we, um, seduced him, and..."
"You seduced Ranma." Neither Akane or Kasumi knew if it were an accusation or a reiterating question.
"Yes," Akane replied meekly, "do you think you can... well..."
"Forgive you?" Nabiki replied, still staring at her homework. Akane nodded, though Nabiki wasn't looking. Once again, Nabiki's battle aura flared to visible range.
"Get out."
Without hesitation, her sisters left the room. Emotionally drained, Nabiki dropped back onto her desk, no longer able to hold in the tears.
_____________________________
"You want me to go apologise," Ranma replied, while in the midst of one armed handstand pushups.
"It would help Nabiki a lot," Kasumi replied in a pleading voice.
"And this *is* all your fault," Akane replied, "Well, it's all our faults, but it's more yours."
"We all share the blame, Akane," Kasumi cut in, "but I think it would mean the most coming from you, Ranma-kun."
The pigtailed young man huffed, and flipped to standing, just before coming to sit in lotus position. He stared at the two girls through his dark shades with his mouth set in a straight line, "Why should I care?"
Both Kasumi and Akane reeled back from Ranma's question with incredulous looks on their faces. "Ra-Ranma?" Kasumi weakly whispered.
"You... bastard," Akane said in low growl, "Do you even care about anything?" Ranma tilted his head to the side, popping the nitrogen bubbles trapped in the joints of his spinal column in that area. He didn't give a reply.
"Fine," Kasumi replied in a strangly serene voice, "If that is how you feel about matters..."
"BUT KASUMI?!?" Kasumi cut her youngest sister off with a somber stare, and then directed her gaze back to Ranma; it transformed into an expression of utter contempt as it came to his view.
"We can't convince him, Akane. Tonight would best be spent contemplating our own parts in this." With that, the eldest Tendou daughter left the room. Akane threw a baleful glare towards Ranma, and followed her sister.
For the most part, Ranma did very well not to flinch.
_____________________________
"Hey, Nabiki, open up in there!"
Of course, there was one more she had to confront tonight in order to make her misery complete. Perhaps after he left, she would have a sufficient amount of depression to slit her own throat, "Just... go away."
Ranma found the door unlocked, and let himself in. He saw Nabiki's tear streaks, and quickly looked elsewhere, "Uh, sup..."
"What do you want, Saotome-san?" Nabiki replied; herself turning away to look in a direction that didn't have Ranma in it.
"You're sisters told me you upset about somethin'..." Ranma started, and ignored Nabiki's bitter bark of laughter."
"Gee, I don't know where they got that impression, RANMA? MAYBE IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THEM SLEEPING WITH MY BOYFRIEND?!?"
Ranma's head snapped back to Nabiki; even if she couldn't see his eyes, the raised eyebrows told her how surprised he was, "H-hold up, 'boyfriend'? Wait a sec, we only did it for fun, yo..."
"GET OUT!!!!" Nabiki picked up her text book, and threw it as hard as she could at Ranma.
The pigtailed young man merely swatted it out of the air with a forearm, "Look now, I don't know what the fuck is up with you..."
"YOU GODS BE DAMNED, STUCK UP, SELF CENTERED, IMMATURE, BASTARD!!!" Nabiki screamed, throwing her desk lamp at him. The lap pulled the outlet cord taunt before it even reached Ranma, and fell to the ground while shattering the lightbulb inside.
Ranma's mouth set itself in a straight line, "Chill with the throwing shit, 'aight? I'm try'n to set it straight, here."
"I can't believe I LISTENED to you! Nabiki sobbed, standing up and approaching him. She raised her hands to shove Ranma's chest, "I fucking BELIEVED you!"
Ranma's eyes widened in realization, "Hey, yo, I was just talk'n! I didn't know it meant that much to you!"
"Well, it doesn't matter, anyway," Nabiki turned away, walked to her bed, and sat down, "Just... go... please."
Ranma baulked at the pleading sob that was tacked to the end there. He turned away, "Yo, I... I'm sorry, really. I thought you knew I was just clown'n an' shit. I mean, a beautiful girl like you can't be serious about a nigga like me. But... for what its worth now, I think I woulda liked gett'n wit' you, really."
"Wait," Nabiki commanded, just as Ranma put his hand on the door knob. She knew she didn't imagine it, but though his usual speech was the same, there was something missing from his voice. Something that would have made it less endearing to her.
She got up off the bed, and approached Ranma, "So, you're really sorry about this?"
"I just said it, didn't I?" Ranma replied in a low voice, never moving from his turned away position.
"Nu-uh, this is going to take more than that," Nabiki stood directly behind Ranma, "Turn around..."
Ranma didn't comply, "Look, if you don't want my apology..."
"TURN... around." With a sigh, Ranma obeyed, and folded his arms in front of him.
"What?"
"Take your glasses off."
Ranma's expression went harder, "Why?
"Take. The. Damn. Glasses. OFF."
The pigtailed martial artist's face scrunched up, but he took his shades off. Nabiki chocked down a gasp at his slate gray eyes. It wasn't the beauty of them, it was the sheer amount of emotion that was dancing within them. A poker face, he did not have.
With a mirthless chuckle, Nabiki spoke again, "You know? This is the first time I've ever actually seen your eyes."
"Is that all you wanted?" Ranma asked harshly. The middle Tendou sister saw his eyes 'flinch', where the rest of him did not at the comment.
"No, you're going to prove to me exactly *how* sorry you are about this," Nabiki growled, staring him in the eyes, "by, for one, starving this hungry dick of yours!"
Ranma stifled an 'eep' when she grabbed down there firmly. He quickly put his glasses back on, and had them roughly jerked from his face by Nabiki, and tossed onto her bed.
"No, don't think you're escaping this, Ranma. Starting tonight, your... ass... is.... MINE!" Ranma quickly nodded, holding his own building fury at bay. It wouldn't do to get pissed at a girl who had your nuts in a vice grip. The cold fire in her eyes also told him she would quite quickly take advantage of her situation.
He had to admit, he kinda liked that.
_____________________________
Akane and Kasumi sighed, and pulled away from the door. "Well," Akane started, I'll miss it."
Kasumi nodded absently, "You want to go with me into Tokyo, Saturday?"
"Hmm? What for?" Akane asked with a curious lilt.
"Well, a friend of mine from highschool was telling me about this one place. They... do custom mold jobs..."
"Molds, for what?" Akane's mouth went into a surprised 'o' at Kasumi's jesture, "Um, will they even make them that big?"
Just then, the two fathers returned from their binge drinking. Actually, Soun was binging, Genma was completely sober. Both girls met their fathers downstairs to greet them.
"Um, Saotome-san, I guess you aren't much of a drinker?" Kasumi asked.
"No, no, it's not that. I just wanted to make sure that I kept your father occupied in case, as Ranma would put it, all the drama wasn't taken care of."
Both Akane and Kasumi stepped back with shocked expressions. "You... y-you knew?" Akane studdered under the large martial artist's gaze.
Genma put a finger to his mouth, "We'll 'keep this on the downlow'." With that, he gave the girls a knowing smirk.