Nabiki - Master of Anything Goes
Nabiki - Master of Anything Goes[R]
Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson
Summary: Ranma made another bet with Nabiki? Won't he ever learn? Well, at least this time it's a bet on an Anything Goes Martial Arts fight between Ranma and Nabiki. Surely our pig-tailed hero is capable of defeating Nabiki, 'aint he? Will this be the one time Ranma actually manages to one-up Nabiki?
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2, the characters and whatnot are not mine, though I certainly wish they were! The story is mine though, all mine. This series deals with mature subject matters and violence. If this disturbs you, don't read. But if it does, then why the heck are you watching the show/reading the manga in the first place?
Feedback/Flames: Yes, please. Both of them are equally fun to read, although I must admit that I greatly prefer the first variety. :)
I can be found on ICQ as 21771860 or through e-mail as iamhawkyahoo.com, more stories are available at my nifty lil' site at http:www.hawksgalaxy.com or by clicking on my handle up above if you're reading this on fanfiction.net.
"speech"
emphasis/shouts/Kindred Domination/post-hypnotic triggers
/thoughts/
/telepathy/
translation
soundeffect/radio/telephone conversation/TV
Crazy Writer Regarding Money
Yes, 500 yen 'aint much. But what? You guys actually expected Nabiki to fork out a decent salary without someone holding a gun to her head? ;)
Demented Writer Sods Off To Smoke A Cancerstick
Previously, on 'Nabiki - Master of Anything Goes'
"How much?" he inquired, having learned that particular lesson pretty darn quickly after Nabiki took him under her wing. She heard him shuffling about. She turned her head around and saw him turning around, sitting up on his knees as he looked at her. She controlled a blush and hastily made sure that the towel was still covering her rump. While she wasn't an excessively modest person and having a distracted opponent had certain indisputable benefits during negotiations, she didn't quite feel like baring herself any more then necessary at the moment.
"500 Yen an hour and 1% of the profit." Nabiki offered, causing Ranma to raise an inquisitive eyebrow. "Yeah, yeah. I'm one very satisfied woman at the moment, so it's a bit higher then you might otherwise have been offered." she groused.
"I'll consider it." Ranma replied, then smirked. It wasn't quite as good as Nabiki's predatory grins, but he was slowly, very slowly, getting there. "And I'll also consider what I'll be charging you for continued massages, once the month is up." he drawled, causing a chill to run up her spine. So, this was what it felt like to be on the receiving end. Nabiki didn't like it, not one bit.
"You do that." Nabiki agreed. She wasn't feeling up to the task of debating with him now. She was way to mellow to do it efficiently, way to content and dazed to think rationally. In her current state, she might just very well loose against Ranma and she didn't want that to happen.
She'd get him back for that dig once her mind was clear and her thinking unclouded by a near post-coital haze. Or what she imagined one of those would feel like, at any rate. This was exactly how she imagined it would feel after having been shown a good time in the sack.
Roll credits
Chapter Three:
"Oooohhhh, Airen..." Shampoo purred. "This... Airen wonderful... Shampoo never want leave." she managed to get out, then felt a shiver run up her spine as she saw Nabiki appear in front of her, holding a stopwatch.
"Fifteen seconds left, Shampoo." Nabiki informed her with a wide grin that grew progressively larger as she glanced at the watch again. "How much money do you have on you?" she inquired almost absently.
"Shampoo not have money on Shampoo now." Shampoo fearfully admitted. "Pay Perverted Extortionist Girl tomorrow?" she ventured, but Shampoo's crestfallen expression revealed that she knew that her plea would fall upon deaf ears.
"EEEEEeeeep! Wrong answer. This 'Perverted Extortionist Girl' doesn't believe in credit." Nabiki replied, then tapped a button on her stopwatch. "Your time, is up." she added with a slight amount of satisfaction. "And my name, is Nabiki. You might want to remember that for future reference. Especially considering the fact that you'll have to book a time for another massage through me."
"Shampoo sorry, Per-eh... Nabiki." Shampoo apologised, then directed a hopeful look at Nabiki. "Shampoo run home, get money. Nabiki have another time for Shampoo today?"
"13,000 Yen for half an hour. 25,000 Yen for a full hour." Nabiki informed Shampoo, who paled significantly, but nodded almost instantly. There was little hesitation.
"Shampoo be back, buy full hour." she said, an almost crazy gleam in her eyes. "Airen, see soon!" she finished and stormed out of the room. She didn't even stop in the dressing room to clothe herself, she merely stormed out while getting dressed, giving those in the waiting room a free show as she hurried through.
"13,000 for half an hour?!" Ranma exclaimed. "You're paying me 500 for one hour!"
"Plus 1% of the profit." Nabiki interjected. "Then there's rent, phone, furniture, marketing, water for the showers, heating, cleaning, the rent-a-cooler, food and whatnot." she added, then stole a line from a foreign book she'd read once. "I'm practically cutting my own throat here."
"Yeah, right..." Ranma muttered. Rent surely wasn't cheap, but at 25,000 an hour, there had to be a rather hefty profit none the less. "We'll definitively be renegotiating my pay once the month is up." he groused.
"All right. Just remember, I didn't have to pay you for your work this month at all and we still haven't discussed just how much you and your father owe the Tendo family for food, lodging and repairs during your rather lengthy stay." Nabiki flippantly replied, causing Ranma to pale significantly as he started to consider just how much that might amount to.
"Ucchan." Ranma greeted the newest person to walk into the room for a five-minute freebie. He'd been expecting her and, to tell the truth, was rather looking forward to it. It would be a lot more pleasant to have a go at her, then his latest customer. That wrinkly old man had been a horror and had finished the massage by kissing Ranma on the mouth, before storming out with a wide grin on his lips.
"She paid for half an hour, in addition to the five minute freebie." Nabiki informed Ranma, poking her head in through the curtains separating the massage room from the dressing room. Ranma nodded, as Ukyo smiled while blushing. He politely turned away, as she approached the bench and removed the towel wrapped around her torso. She stretched out on the bench and adjusted the second towel, making sure that she was still decent, but not so decent as to appear prudish. She didn't mind all that much if Ranma got to see a little more skin then what was really proper.
"I'm... Eh... I'm ready, Ranchan." Ukyo stuttered, crossing her arms to rest her head on.
"Then let's get cracking." Ranma commented, before cracking his knuckles. "Do you want it rough and deep, or do you want me to be gentle?" he inquired, enjoying watching somebody else blush for a change. Granted, he could feel his own cheeks heat up as well, but Ukyo couldn't see that from her position, while he could see the edge of her cheeks, which changed colour at his question. He grinned as he oiled up his hands, rubbing it in.
He had to admit that Nabiki was right, this was fun! Now if he could only stop himself from blushing, he might not feel even half as foolish as he currently did while teasing others.
"Ranchan, eh... I want it... Eh... Start out with a little force and we'll see how that feels." she mumbled in reply.
"You like it rough, Ucchan?" Ranma asked off-handedly, just a split second before he put his hands on her.
"Ah! Uh... Eh... Heh, hehehe." Ukyo responded skittishly, giving off a full-body shiver as he started to work her like a finely tuned instrument.
"Spatula Girl just get freebie?" Shampoo inquired as she saw Ukyo stumble out of the dressing room, trying to suppress her initial instinct to just kill the girl straight away upon spotting her after realising that her Airen had just had laid his hands on the Spatula Gal. There was no doubt in her mind that Ukyo had only gone here to be with Ranma. /The slut!/ Shampoo mentally raged. Unfortunately, Nabiki had calmly and politely informed Shampoo upon her return that participation in a fight at the parlour, would prevent her from getting any further massages for the rest of the month.
And Shampoo really wanted that massage!
"Ohhhhh, heeeey Shamps..." Ukyo drawled, blinking owlishly at her rival. "Nahw, I paid for half an hour." she replied, then giggled. "It was sooooooooooooo worth it." she purred and unexpectedly seated herself next to Shampoo, wrapping one arm around her rivals shoulder.
"Spatula Girl look too too deeply into bottle of sake?" Shampoo demanded to know, pulling away from Ukyo who responded with a petulant frown.
"Mhno." Ukyo protested. "S'really good. Ranchan was soooo good to me. He knows just how I like it." Ukyo added, then blushed as she giggled again. "Teh-heh-heh. Just how I like it!" she repeated.
"Spatula Girl drunk..." Shampoo groused, then left Ukyo where she was, stripped out of her clothes and walked through the curtains for her massage. She didn't bother with towels, like Ukyo had.
"Gack! Shampoo! Where's your towel?!" Ranmas voice demanded, drifting into the dressing room.
"Airen! Wo ai ni!" Shampoo gushed and Ukyo heard the unmistakable sound of an Amazon glomp.
"Ack! Get offa me!" Ranma cried out.
Ukyo didn't much care, though. She just stretched out on the bench and purred like a content kitten.
When Shampoo returned an hour later, she did so while clinging to Nabiki who had to help her walk. Ukyo stirred from the light slumber she'd drifted into, looking up at them.
"Heeeeeey, Spatula Girl." Shampoo greeted her rival in a much more amiable manner then usual. "T'was too too goooooooooood. Spatula Girl right, Airen know just how Shampoo likes it." she drawled and giggled as Nabiki seated the amazon at one of the benches.
"Azusa, stop petting the towel and get ready for your turn." Nabiki instructed with a sigh, glaring over at the next customer in line for her freebie, Shiratori Azusa.
"But my Gregory is just so cuuuute!" Azusa protested, treating the folded towel much like one would a prized cat.
"Oh for..." Nabiki started, then sighed and tossed another towel at the naked girl. "Here, use this to cover yourself up and bring 'your' precious little Gregory. Now get going, you're holding up the line."
"Oh, Constantine!" Azusa gushed as she caught the second towel, folding it up just like the other one, then put that too down in her lap, petting both towels with an adoring expression plastered on her innocent face.
"I can see that this will take some time." Nabiki sighed and shook her head, cursing the delay as well as air-headed bimbo ice-skaters. She squared her shoulders and went back through the curtain, returning half a minute later with a blindfolded Ranma whom she led around by his broad shoulders. With a none-too-gentle shove, she got Azusa to turn her back somewhat away from the wall, then Nabiki guided Ranma's hands to Azusa's back. "Get going." she instructed him and he did, which promptly silenced Azusa's near-constant cooing over her two prize towels.
"OOoh." she squealed in delight.
"Now wouldn't this be much better if you were lying down?" Nabiki asked, then at Azusa's vapid expression and faint nod of agreement, Nabiki pushed the towels off Azusa's lap and dragged the girl into an upright position, leading both the airhead and the blindfolded Ranma through the curtain.
"Okay, Saotome. Your month of service is almost up and business is booming. What will it take for you to keep on working for me?" Nabiki inquired, looking calmly at Ranma over her desk.
"2500 Yen an hour and 10% of the profits." Ranma replied without hesitation. "As well as one... Other thing." he added. At first, Nabiki was thrilled. She'd expected him to ask for more, in fact, after being under her wing for this month, expected a lot more. Then she realised that she hadn't heard the complete request yet.
"And that 'other thing' would be, what?" Nabiki inquired suspiciously. If he hadn't asked for more, it couldn't be something good.
"Give up your other little 'business ventures'." Ranma replied. "No more selling pictures, no more blackmailing or anything else. If you want me to work for you, then this will be your only business."
"I think that can be..." Nabiki started to say. It wasn't hard to agree too, after all, she had been planning on dropping out anyway. The parlour kept her busy enough as it was and with the money it brought in, she really didn't need her original sideline business either.
"And don't just put one of your underlings in charge either. Shut it down, leave the business and don't get yourself involved in it again in any way, shape or manner." Ranma interrupted her, causing her to smile. He was learning, all right! She'd done well with this one, considering that she'd only had one month to coach him in.
"As I would have said if I hadn't been interrupted, I think that can be arranged." Nabiki agreed. "Deal?" she inquired and offered her right hand to Ranma. She had been planning to stop her other activities anyway, but Ranma didn't have to know that and if she got him to agree to it before he found out, he couldn't raise his monetary demands afterwards. He hastily accepted her hand, shaking it with gusto and Nabiki suppressed a desire to grin. /Gotcha!/
"I also have a question. On a completely unrelated matter." Ranma suddenly announced, causing Nabiki to raise an eyebrow and lean back in her seat. /Sounds serious... Considering that he used a word like 'unrelated', very serious./ she thought, wondering just what that question might be.
"Akane has been an even bigger bitch then usual lately and I've had enough. I'm going to break off the engagement." Ranma revealed, causing Nabikis eyes to bulge out and a big lump to settle in her throat. This, she hadn't expected! What with starting up this new business, as well as maintaining the old ones, she had been kept busy and hadn't known that things were going even further downhill for Ranma and Akane. /Bitch? Things must be really out of hand.../
"If you want to ask me how to break it to her without hurting her, I'm afraid there's no way to do that. It's going to be rough on her, however you put it." Nabiki said, swallowing. 'Rough' was an understatement, to say the least.
"After how she acted earlier today, her emotional well-being is not something I am going to loose any sleep over." Ranma coldly replied and the feral glimmer in his eyes made Nabiki shrink back from him. He seemed to notice this and closed his eyes, then calmed himself down, before opening them again. She wondered if it had really been such a good idea to coach him, to help him develop his mind and spine. Just two weeks ago, halfway into his month of 'slavery', he'd never act anything even remotely like this. He really was an incredible learner, when he put his mind to it.
She reminded herself to check in with her factors later, she hadn't done that so far and thus, was completely out of the loop. But considering the fact that both of them had rushed straight to the parlour after school and things seemed fine at breakfast, the incident that broke the camel's back had to have happened at school. If that was the case, her factors would be well aware of it by now.
"Then... What did you want to ask me?" Nabiki wondered, hoping that he wouldn't be asking her for ways to get revenge at Akane. Considering his current state, she wasn't sure what was going to happen if she said no.
"Unless our fathers decide to break the agreement completely, they'd never accept my decision. Unless..." Ranma ventured, grinned and looked straight at Nabiki. "Unless I had another Tendo lined up, ready to take Akane's place." he added, causing Nabiki to shrink back from him again. "Are you up for the job?"
Tendo Nabiki only rarely outwardly expressed what she felt, only on the most rare of occasions was there an expression on her face that she hadn't consciously decided to display to the world. She had been rendered speechless before, on one or two occasions.
But never, never before, had she been so stunned, so baffled, so caught unawares, that she had 'Eeep':ed, blushed and gaped, her eyes bulging and her finely honed mind rendered unable to produce even one single, simple coherent thought.
"WHAT?!" she exclaimed once she'd regained some of her bearings, though not nearly enough of them for her own well being. She cursed her outburst, but just couldn't bring herself to calm down enough to regain her composure.
"Well, if you've got some great plan which would allow the agreement to be completely void without any loss of honour to either family, I'm certainly more then willing to hear you out. But unless you don't, you know what is going to happen just as well as I do." Ranma responded, rubbing his temples. "If by some Kami-sent miracle they do accept me not marrying Akane, they're just going to push either you or Kasumi into her place."
"B-b-bu-b-but why m-me?" Nabiki stuttered, then growled under her breath and slapped herself. She would not allow herself to turn into a stuttering fool. She was Tendo Nabiki. She was in control. She did not stutter! "I figured you would have gone for Kasumi in a situation like this. What's the matter, isn't my sister good enough for you?" Nabiki challenged him.
"Had this happened two months ago, I probably would have asked Kasumi." Ranma admitted. "But come on. Could you really blame me? Just about the only times the two of us interacted before was around the dinner-table, whenever I wanted information from you or whenever you wanted either money or some service from me." Ranma continued, then shook his head. "But we get along fairly well these days, don't we? A lot has changed in the last month."
"That we do and that it has." Nabiki admitted, slightly mollified. "But 'get along fairly well' isn't exactly a solid foundation for an engagement." she continued, then chuckled. "And what makes you think that I would even want to marry you? Or even want to be engaged to you? You attract problems like nobody I've ever seen before and being engaged to you would mean a big chance that I'd get involved in your woes. If you hadn't already noticed, I'm more of a side-lines kinda girl."
"Well, I figured that I'd at least give you a chance to have your say before I break the news to our fathers." Ranma responded with a tired sigh, then adopted a small smile as he dismissed the matter. "This month... It's been... An experience." he stated as he stood up. "Thank you, Nabiki. You could have made it a lot worse for me. I know that I would have for you, if our roles had been reversed."
"Like that would ever happen." Nabiki snorted. "Have you ever known me to enter a loosing bet?"
"No." Ranma admitted with a wry smile. "I should have apologised the moment you spoke up. I won't make that mistake again."
"I should hope not." Nabiki agreed, then grew hesitant, unsure if she really wanted to voice what was currently on her mind. "Though I won't mind all that much if you don't. Like you said, it could have been a lot worse. For both of us. I've had... Fun." she admitted.
"Yeah..." Ranma agreed. If someone had said during the first day of his 'slavehood' that he'd have fun, he would have laughed in that persons face. But being around Nabiki for a month hadn't been all that bad. Sure, he had doled out so many massages lately that he probably went through the motions in his sleep, but he'd learned a lot. Nabiki had forced him to take an interest in the business, she'd taught him to stand up for himself and she'd showed him just how much fun it could be to win verbal battles and tease others. "See you back home." he finished and stood up, heading for the door.
"Ranma... You really are breaking the engagement to Akane?" Nabiki inquired as he reached for the door-handle.
"Yeah..." Ranma said, leaning against the door. "There's no way I'm marrying her now." he added in a firm tone of voice.
"What... What happened?" Nabiki asked, though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know, considering how upset Ranma seemed to be.
"Ask her." was all he said, then he walked out of the little office in their massage parlour, leaving Nabiki alone with her thoughts.
The End! ( For now... )
Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2, the characters and whatnot are not mine, though I certainly wish they were! The story is mine though, all mine. This series deals with mature subject matters and violence. If this disturbs you, don't read. But if it does, then why the heck are you watching the show/reading the manga in the first place?
Feedback/Flames: Yes, please. Both of them are equally fun to read, although I must admit that I greatly prefer the first variety. :)
I can be found on ICQ as 21771860 or through e-mail as iamhawkyahoo.com, more stories are available at my nifty lil' site at http:www.hawksgalaxy.com or by clicking on my handle up above if you're reading this on fanfiction.net.
"speech"
emphasis/shouts/Kindred Domination/post-hypnotic triggers
/thoughts/
/telepathy/
translation
soundeffect/radio/telephone conversation/TV
Yes, 500 yen 'aint much. But what? You guys actually expected Nabiki to fork out a decent salary without someone holding a gun to her head? ;)
"How much?" he inquired, having learned that particular lesson pretty darn quickly after Nabiki took him under her wing. She heard him shuffling about. She turned her head around and saw him turning around, sitting up on his knees as he looked at her. She controlled a blush and hastily made sure that the towel was still covering her rump. While she wasn't an excessively modest person and having a distracted opponent had certain indisputable benefits during negotiations, she didn't quite feel like baring herself any more then necessary at the moment.
"500 Yen an hour and 1% of the profit." Nabiki offered, causing Ranma to raise an inquisitive eyebrow. "Yeah, yeah. I'm one very satisfied woman at the moment, so it's a bit higher then you might otherwise have been offered." she groused.
"I'll consider it." Ranma replied, then smirked. It wasn't quite as good as Nabiki's predatory grins, but he was slowly, very slowly, getting there. "And I'll also consider what I'll be charging you for continued massages, once the month is up." he drawled, causing a chill to run up her spine. So, this was what it felt like to be on the receiving end. Nabiki didn't like it, not one bit.
"You do that." Nabiki agreed. She wasn't feeling up to the task of debating with him now. She was way to mellow to do it efficiently, way to content and dazed to think rationally. In her current state, she might just very well loose against Ranma and she didn't want that to happen.
She'd get him back for that dig once her mind was clear and her thinking unclouded by a near post-coital haze. Or what she imagined one of those would feel like, at any rate. This was exactly how she imagined it would feel after having been shown a good time in the sack.
"Oooohhhh, Airen..." Shampoo purred. "This... Airen wonderful... Shampoo never want leave." she managed to get out, then felt a shiver run up her spine as she saw Nabiki appear in front of her, holding a stopwatch.
"Fifteen seconds left, Shampoo." Nabiki informed her with a wide grin that grew progressively larger as she glanced at the watch again. "How much money do you have on you?" she inquired almost absently.
"Shampoo not have money on Shampoo now." Shampoo fearfully admitted. "Pay Perverted Extortionist Girl tomorrow?" she ventured, but Shampoo's crestfallen expression revealed that she knew that her plea would fall upon deaf ears.
"EEEEEeeeep! Wrong answer. This 'Perverted Extortionist Girl' doesn't believe in credit." Nabiki replied, then tapped a button on her stopwatch. "Your time, is up." she added with a slight amount of satisfaction. "And my name, is Nabiki. You might want to remember that for future reference. Especially considering the fact that you'll have to book a time for another massage through me."
"Shampoo sorry, Per-eh... Nabiki." Shampoo apologised, then directed a hopeful look at Nabiki. "Shampoo run home, get money. Nabiki have another time for Shampoo today?"
"13,000 Yen for half an hour. 25,000 Yen for a full hour." Nabiki informed Shampoo, who paled significantly, but nodded almost instantly. There was little hesitation.
"Shampoo be back, buy full hour." she said, an almost crazy gleam in her eyes. "Airen, see soon!" she finished and stormed out of the room. She didn't even stop in the dressing room to clothe herself, she merely stormed out while getting dressed, giving those in the waiting room a free show as she hurried through.
"13,000 for half an hour?!" Ranma exclaimed. "You're paying me 500 for one hour!"
"Plus 1% of the profit." Nabiki interjected. "Then there's rent, phone, furniture, marketing, water for the showers, heating, cleaning, the rent-a-cooler, food and whatnot." she added, then stole a line from a foreign book she'd read once. "I'm practically cutting my own throat here."
"Yeah, right..." Ranma muttered. Rent surely wasn't cheap, but at 25,000 an hour, there had to be a rather hefty profit none the less. "We'll definitively be renegotiating my pay once the month is up." he groused.
"All right. Just remember, I didn't have to pay you for your work this month at all and we still haven't discussed just how much you and your father owe the Tendo family for food, lodging and repairs during your rather lengthy stay." Nabiki flippantly replied, causing Ranma to pale significantly as he started to consider just how much that might amount to.
"Ucchan." Ranma greeted the newest person to walk into the room for a five-minute freebie. He'd been expecting her and, to tell the truth, was rather looking forward to it. It would be a lot more pleasant to have a go at her, then his latest customer. That wrinkly old man had been a horror and had finished the massage by kissing Ranma on the mouth, before storming out with a wide grin on his lips.
"She paid for half an hour, in addition to the five minute freebie." Nabiki informed Ranma, poking her head in through the curtains separating the massage room from the dressing room. Ranma nodded, as Ukyo smiled while blushing. He politely turned away, as she approached the bench and removed the towel wrapped around her torso. She stretched out on the bench and adjusted the second towel, making sure that she was still decent, but not so decent as to appear prudish. She didn't mind all that much if Ranma got to see a little more skin then what was really proper.
"I'm... Eh... I'm ready, Ranchan." Ukyo stuttered, crossing her arms to rest her head on.
"Then let's get cracking." Ranma commented, before cracking his knuckles. "Do you want it rough and deep, or do you want me to be gentle?" he inquired, enjoying watching somebody else blush for a change. Granted, he could feel his own cheeks heat up as well, but Ukyo couldn't see that from her position, while he could see the edge of her cheeks, which changed colour at his question. He grinned as he oiled up his hands, rubbing it in.
He had to admit that Nabiki was right, this was fun! Now if he could only stop himself from blushing, he might not feel even half as foolish as he currently did while teasing others.
"Ranchan, eh... I want it... Eh... Start out with a little force and we'll see how that feels." she mumbled in reply.
"You like it rough, Ucchan?" Ranma asked off-handedly, just a split second before he put his hands on her.
"Ah! Uh... Eh... Heh, hehehe." Ukyo responded skittishly, giving off a full-body shiver as he started to work her like a finely tuned instrument.
"Spatula Girl just get freebie?" Shampoo inquired as she saw Ukyo stumble out of the dressing room, trying to suppress her initial instinct to just kill the girl straight away upon spotting her after realising that her Airen had just had laid his hands on the Spatula Gal. There was no doubt in her mind that Ukyo had only gone here to be with Ranma. /The slut!/ Shampoo mentally raged. Unfortunately, Nabiki had calmly and politely informed Shampoo upon her return that participation in a fight at the parlour, would prevent her from getting any further massages for the rest of the month.
And Shampoo really wanted that massage!
"Ohhhhh, heeeey Shamps..." Ukyo drawled, blinking owlishly at her rival. "Nahw, I paid for half an hour." she replied, then giggled. "It was sooooooooooooo worth it." she purred and unexpectedly seated herself next to Shampoo, wrapping one arm around her rivals shoulder.
"Spatula Girl look too too deeply into bottle of sake?" Shampoo demanded to know, pulling away from Ukyo who responded with a petulant frown.
"Mhno." Ukyo protested. "S'really good. Ranchan was soooo good to me. He knows just how I like it." Ukyo added, then blushed as she giggled again. "Teh-heh-heh. Just how I like it!" she repeated.
"Spatula Girl drunk..." Shampoo groused, then left Ukyo where she was, stripped out of her clothes and walked through the curtains for her massage. She didn't bother with towels, like Ukyo had.
"Gack! Shampoo! Where's your towel?!" Ranmas voice demanded, drifting into the dressing room.
"Airen! Wo ai ni!" Shampoo gushed and Ukyo heard the unmistakable sound of an Amazon glomp.
"Ack! Get offa me!" Ranma cried out.
Ukyo didn't much care, though. She just stretched out on the bench and purred like a content kitten.
When Shampoo returned an hour later, she did so while clinging to Nabiki who had to help her walk. Ukyo stirred from the light slumber she'd drifted into, looking up at them.
"Heeeeeey, Spatula Girl." Shampoo greeted her rival in a much more amiable manner then usual. "T'was too too goooooooooood. Spatula Girl right, Airen know just how Shampoo likes it." she drawled and giggled as Nabiki seated the amazon at one of the benches.
"Azusa, stop petting the towel and get ready for your turn." Nabiki instructed with a sigh, glaring over at the next customer in line for her freebie, Shiratori Azusa.
"But my Gregory is just so cuuuute!" Azusa protested, treating the folded towel much like one would a prized cat.
"Oh for..." Nabiki started, then sighed and tossed another towel at the naked girl. "Here, use this to cover yourself up and bring 'your' precious little Gregory. Now get going, you're holding up the line."
"Oh, Constantine!" Azusa gushed as she caught the second towel, folding it up just like the other one, then put that too down in her lap, petting both towels with an adoring expression plastered on her innocent face.
"I can see that this will take some time." Nabiki sighed and shook her head, cursing the delay as well as air-headed bimbo ice-skaters. She squared her shoulders and went back through the curtain, returning half a minute later with a blindfolded Ranma whom she led around by his broad shoulders. With a none-too-gentle shove, she got Azusa to turn her back somewhat away from the wall, then Nabiki guided Ranma's hands to Azusa's back. "Get going." she instructed him and he did, which promptly silenced Azusa's near-constant cooing over her two prize towels.
"OOoh." she squealed in delight.
"Now wouldn't this be much better if you were lying down?" Nabiki asked, then at Azusa's vapid expression and faint nod of agreement, Nabiki pushed the towels off Azusa's lap and dragged the girl into an upright position, leading both the airhead and the blindfolded Ranma through the curtain.
"Okay, Saotome. Your month of service is almost up and business is booming. What will it take for you to keep on working for me?" Nabiki inquired, looking calmly at Ranma over her desk.
"2500 Yen an hour and 10% of the profits." Ranma replied without hesitation. "As well as one... Other thing." he added. At first, Nabiki was thrilled. She'd expected him to ask for more, in fact, after being under her wing for this month, expected a lot more. Then she realised that she hadn't heard the complete request yet.
"And that 'other thing' would be, what?" Nabiki inquired suspiciously. If he hadn't asked for more, it couldn't be something good.
"Give up your other little 'business ventures'." Ranma replied. "No more selling pictures, no more blackmailing or anything else. If you want me to work for you, then this will be your only business."
"I think that can be..." Nabiki started to say. It wasn't hard to agree too, after all, she had been planning on dropping out anyway. The parlour kept her busy enough as it was and with the money it brought in, she really didn't need her original sideline business either.
"And don't just put one of your underlings in charge either. Shut it down, leave the business and don't get yourself involved in it again in any way, shape or manner." Ranma interrupted her, causing her to smile. He was learning, all right! She'd done well with this one, considering that she'd only had one month to coach him in.
"As I would have said if I hadn't been interrupted, I think that can be arranged." Nabiki agreed. "Deal?" she inquired and offered her right hand to Ranma. She had been planning to stop her other activities anyway, but Ranma didn't have to know that and if she got him to agree to it before he found out, he couldn't raise his monetary demands afterwards. He hastily accepted her hand, shaking it with gusto and Nabiki suppressed a desire to grin. /Gotcha!/
"I also have a question. On a completely unrelated matter." Ranma suddenly announced, causing Nabiki to raise an eyebrow and lean back in her seat. /Sounds serious... Considering that he used a word like 'unrelated', very serious./ she thought, wondering just what that question might be.
"Akane has been an even bigger bitch then usual lately and I've had enough. I'm going to break off the engagement." Ranma revealed, causing Nabikis eyes to bulge out and a big lump to settle in her throat. This, she hadn't expected! What with starting up this new business, as well as maintaining the old ones, she had been kept busy and hadn't known that things were going even further downhill for Ranma and Akane. /Bitch? Things must be really out of hand.../
"If you want to ask me how to break it to her without hurting her, I'm afraid there's no way to do that. It's going to be rough on her, however you put it." Nabiki said, swallowing. 'Rough' was an understatement, to say the least.
"After how she acted earlier today, her emotional well-being is not something I am going to loose any sleep over." Ranma coldly replied and the feral glimmer in his eyes made Nabiki shrink back from him. He seemed to notice this and closed his eyes, then calmed himself down, before opening them again. She wondered if it had really been such a good idea to coach him, to help him develop his mind and spine. Just two weeks ago, halfway into his month of 'slavery', he'd never act anything even remotely like this. He really was an incredible learner, when he put his mind to it.
She reminded herself to check in with her factors later, she hadn't done that so far and thus, was completely out of the loop. But considering the fact that both of them had rushed straight to the parlour after school and things seemed fine at breakfast, the incident that broke the camel's back had to have happened at school. If that was the case, her factors would be well aware of it by now.
"Then... What did you want to ask me?" Nabiki wondered, hoping that he wouldn't be asking her for ways to get revenge at Akane. Considering his current state, she wasn't sure what was going to happen if she said no.
"Unless our fathers decide to break the agreement completely, they'd never accept my decision. Unless..." Ranma ventured, grinned and looked straight at Nabiki. "Unless I had another Tendo lined up, ready to take Akane's place." he added, causing Nabiki to shrink back from him again. "Are you up for the job?"
Tendo Nabiki only rarely outwardly expressed what she felt, only on the most rare of occasions was there an expression on her face that she hadn't consciously decided to display to the world. She had been rendered speechless before, on one or two occasions.
But never, never before, had she been so stunned, so baffled, so caught unawares, that she had 'Eeep':ed, blushed and gaped, her eyes bulging and her finely honed mind rendered unable to produce even one single, simple coherent thought.
"WHAT?!" she exclaimed once she'd regained some of her bearings, though not nearly enough of them for her own well being. She cursed her outburst, but just couldn't bring herself to calm down enough to regain her composure.
"Well, if you've got some great plan which would allow the agreement to be completely void without any loss of honour to either family, I'm certainly more then willing to hear you out. But unless you don't, you know what is going to happen just as well as I do." Ranma responded, rubbing his temples. "If by some Kami-sent miracle they do accept me not marrying Akane, they're just going to push either you or Kasumi into her place."
"B-b-bu-b-but why m-me?" Nabiki stuttered, then growled under her breath and slapped herself. She would not allow herself to turn into a stuttering fool. She was Tendo Nabiki. She was in control. She did not stutter! "I figured you would have gone for Kasumi in a situation like this. What's the matter, isn't my sister good enough for you?" Nabiki challenged him.
"Had this happened two months ago, I probably would have asked Kasumi." Ranma admitted. "But come on. Could you really blame me? Just about the only times the two of us interacted before was around the dinner-table, whenever I wanted information from you or whenever you wanted either money or some service from me." Ranma continued, then shook his head. "But we get along fairly well these days, don't we? A lot has changed in the last month."
"That we do and that it has." Nabiki admitted, slightly mollified. "But 'get along fairly well' isn't exactly a solid foundation for an engagement." she continued, then chuckled. "And what makes you think that I would even want to marry you? Or even want to be engaged to you? You attract problems like nobody I've ever seen before and being engaged to you would mean a big chance that I'd get involved in your woes. If you hadn't already noticed, I'm more of a side-lines kinda girl."
"Well, I figured that I'd at least give you a chance to have your say before I break the news to our fathers." Ranma responded with a tired sigh, then adopted a small smile as he dismissed the matter. "This month... It's been... An experience." he stated as he stood up. "Thank you, Nabiki. You could have made it a lot worse for me. I know that I would have for you, if our roles had been reversed."
"Like that would ever happen." Nabiki snorted. "Have you ever known me to enter a loosing bet?"
"No." Ranma admitted with a wry smile. "I should have apologised the moment you spoke up. I won't make that mistake again."
"I should hope not." Nabiki agreed, then grew hesitant, unsure if she really wanted to voice what was currently on her mind. "Though I won't mind all that much if you don't. Like you said, it could have been a lot worse. For both of us. I've had... Fun." she admitted.
"Yeah..." Ranma agreed. If someone had said during the first day of his 'slavehood' that he'd have fun, he would have laughed in that persons face. But being around Nabiki for a month hadn't been all that bad. Sure, he had doled out so many massages lately that he probably went through the motions in his sleep, but he'd learned a lot. Nabiki had forced him to take an interest in the business, she'd taught him to stand up for himself and she'd showed him just how much fun it could be to win verbal battles and tease others. "See you back home." he finished and stood up, heading for the door.
"Ranma... You really are breaking the engagement to Akane?" Nabiki inquired as he reached for the door-handle.
"Yeah..." Ranma said, leaning against the door. "There's no way I'm marrying her now." he added in a firm tone of voice.
"What... What happened?" Nabiki asked, though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know, considering how upset Ranma seemed to be.
"Ask her." was all he said, then he walked out of the little office in their massage parlour, leaving Nabiki alone with her thoughts.
The End! ( For now... )