Arc II: Chain Reactions
Chapter: The Truth Comes Out

As he glanced to the spot next to him, he drummed his fingers on his desk, his right leg twitching up and down. Ranma was worried. He had walked into the classroom after the bell rang and sat down, impatiently waiting for his fiancée to show up, but she never did. She hadn't spoken to him or left him a note telling him where she went before she left and he had no idea where she was or if she was okay. He desperately wanted to leave to look for her to make sure she was alright.

But he had made a promise to his mother that he would attend his classes and at least try to learn something. She was not happy with all his absences to date and was concerned he wouldn't graduate if he didn't start applying himself. Now he was stuck there, wondering what happened to Akane.

As much as he hated the idea of Akane being sick, he hoped that was all there was to it. With their luck, she could have been kidnapped by aliens. He had only truly become concerned when he noticed that Ukyo had also disappeared after lunch. He hoped that the okonomiyaki chef hadn't challenged Akane to a fight. Akane could take care of herself, but in a fight with Ukyo she would be in trouble. In terms of skill level he was sure that they were evenly matched, with the edge going to Akane if she could get the giant spatula away from the other girl. The problem was his blue-haired fiancée would never go all out on Ukyo and he was afraid the okonomiyaki chef would take things too far. He clenched his hands at the thought.

She had better not, he thought grimly.

If anything, and he meant anything happened to Akane, he would make sure that Ukyo would regret it. No one would hurt Akane, friend or not.

Ranma shook himself free of those thoughts, surprised at his own vehemence. While he was not exactly on speaking terms with Ukyo, they were still friends and he couldn't believe where his mind had strayed. Especially when he had no proof the two were together, much less fighting.

This is going to be a very long afternoon, he thought as he slumped in his chair.

Sitting on a small blanket placed on the grass, Nabiki Tendo stared straight ahead of her, her sister's words reverberating through her mind.

Mother would be ashamed of you.

She had tossed and turned over those words all night as the confrontation with her younger sister replayed itself. She would like to say that she didn't mean to hurt her sister, but that would be a lie. She had gone into Akane's room last night with the expressed purpose of hurting her younger sister and she knew it. She had even taken some perverse enjoyment in seeing her in distress, intentionally pushing her for a reaction.

She cringed at the thought. Since when was she so far gone as to actually enjoy her sister's pain?

She never thought that she would see her sister break like that. Despite what most people thought, her sister was controlled in her actions, especially when it came to her family. Nabiki knew this first hand, having pushed Akane more than she would have pushed anyone else in her life.

She sat on the lonely patch of grass, as she reviewed her actions over the last few years, and was not happy with what she found. When she was actually executing her little schemes, they didn't seem that bad. But when she looked at them as a whole, she realized they weren't as harmless as she thought.

She knew she was a lot of things:

Materialistic? Sure, who didn't like nice stuff?

Opportunistic? Of course, it just made her smart to make the best of a situation.

Manipulative? Absolutely.

But none of that meant she didn't love her family. In fact, the opposite was true; she loved her family very much. Regardless of what she did, they accepted her. They supported her when life got hard. They would be there to laugh with her when times were good. They would celebrate with her over her accomplishments. They had their faults, but they would always be there for her.

Her mother taught her that.

So yeah, she took advantage of that knowledge and behaved exactly how she wanted, regardless of whom it hurt. Especially if that person was Akane, because she certainly wasn't scared of her sister. Nabiki knew that some people considered her sister to be violent but that really wasn't the case. She had a fierce temper, but once she blew up at someone, the perpetrator was almost immediately forgiven and their transgressions forgotten. Akane would never hit someone who wasn't a martial artist and she certainly wouldn't hit one of her sisters, regardless of what they did to her. Nabiki knew all of that - since she probably knew her little sister better than anyone else - and continued to behave the way she wanted since there were no real consequences to her actions.

But she took it too far. She could see that now. She would just have to go and explain everything to her sister, no matter how painful it would be.

Standing up, Nabiki carefully folded her blanket and walked forward. She ran her hand over the black marble headstone and leaned down to the base to fix the flowers she had brought with her that day.

She whispered, "Bye, Mom. I miss you."

School was FINALLY over! He'd been watching that damn clock since lunch ended and was about to tear his hair out. That last minute seemed to take hours, and at one point, he swore the clock ticked backwards! It was maddening. But when the bell rang, Ranma moved so quickly towards the window - almost forgetting his bag – you could have sworn he saw a cat in the room.

He was sure that there was nothing to worry about but he wasn't willing to take the chance that something happened to Akane. Running down the street, he once again went through a list of all the possible catastrophes that could have befallen his fiancée.

She could simply have felt ill and gone home.

Ukyo could have challenged her and she could be lying somewhere hurt.

She could have been kidnapped. Again.

He still hadn't ruled out the possibility of alien abduction.

And no, he did not think he was overreacting. With all the odd things that happened to them, aliens seemed like the next logical…

"ARGH!" Ranma screamed in a much higher pitch than he would have a minute ago. He wasn't watching where he was going and got splashed by the old ladle lady.

What is it with her? Did she just wait there all day for me to run by? Does she get her kicks from watching me transform and then act all innocent, like she didn't assault people with water on a regular basis? She's just so sneaky! Silent like a ninja...That's it! All those surprise attacks, her perfect aim and near silence when she moves. She must have been trained in ninjitsu when she was younger. That explained everything!

Ranma was saved from further thoughts when the gates of the Tendo home came into view. Speeding up, he rushed into the house, barely stopping to take off his shoes and went directly into the kitchen, knowing that either his mother or Kasumi were likely to be in there.

"Hey, Mom. Is Akane here?"

"No, she hasn't come home from school yet. She isn't with you?"

"Umm. No, I must have missed her when she left class," he lied, not wanting to get the girl in trouble. "I'm...Uhh…I'll be back."

Ranma ran upstairs and checked in Akane's room, just in case she came home and fell asleep before his mother noticed. When he saw the room was empty, he ran straight outside, intending to run to Ucchan's, since he had no other leads where she could have gone. Part of him hoped that his two fiancées didn't get into a fight and part of him hoped they did. If she wasn't with Ukyo, he had no idea where he would look!

Feeling slightly frantic, he ran through the gates and sighed with relief when he saw Akane walking towards the house, a smile on her face. Not bothering to slow down, he ran straight for her, stopping when he was only inches in front of her, causing her to yelp and lurch backwards slightly.

"Ranma!" Akane squeaked, surprised at his sudden appearance.

The pig-tailed boy pulled her towards him and gave her a short but rather intense hug before he stepped back, grabbed her hands and looked at the knuckles. He checked them for any signs that she had been in a fight before he turned them around to look at her palms to see if there was any damage. Not finding anything, he ran his eyes over her body, checking for any rips or other damage to her clothing. Eyebrows creased, he pressed one hand over her forehead and the other over his own, to check for a fever. When he was unable to detect a temperature difference between them, he moved one hand down and the other up so that he cupped both of her cheeks and looked into her eyes to check for any signs of a concussion.

Akane had been walking home when Ranma jumped out of nowhere and started behaving so oddly! First the hug, which was nice but so short she couldn't fully enjoy it. Then he had grabbed her hands - and not in the romantic way! - before examining them. After that, he pressed his hand to her forehead to check her temperature. And finally, he stared into her eyes. He had caressed her face and stared into her eyes. Even though there was nothing romantic about his actions, she felt her face turn red, torn between frustration and worry.

Why was it that Ranma was always a female when he touched her?

"Ranma?" she asked concerned, "Are you feeling okay?"

The question seemed to shake Ranma out of his tunnel vision. Having realized that Akane was in fact fine, he felt relief rush through him quickly followed by anger. He couldn't believe that she made him worry like that!

"What the hell, Akane!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly. "You can't just disappear like that! You weren't home and you didn't tell me where you went!"

She reared back at his sudden anger. It got her hackles up and in return made her defensive, which turned to indignation when she thought he was once again trying to tell her what to do.

"I thought we already went over this! You aren't allowed to tell me…"

"That's not it! This is different! I'm not telling you that you can't go do whatever it is you were doing! I'm not trying to stop you. I'm telling you that you need to tell me or someone else where you are!"

She took a glance at his face and noticed how agitated he looked, and then it hit her; he was worried for her.

"Fine! Next time I'll let you know if I decide to play hooky!" she conceded louder than she intended. He may have had a point, but she still hated being wrong.

"No! You listen…wait. What?" He asked, putting his finger to his ear and moving it up and down to make sure he had heard correctly.

Rolling her eyes, Akane said, "I said you're right, I should have told someone where I was. But it's a two way street, Ranma! You want me to tell you where I'm going, then you have to tell me where you're going!"

"Feh. Why would I need to tell you where I'm going? I can take care of myself!"

Akane's eyes narrow and she crossed her arms, "What are you implying?"

"Well, duh, Akane. You..." Ranma looked up and saw the vein that was beginning to throb on her forehead and the way her jaw clenched. He coughed into his hand to buy himself some time. "Nothing. I wasn't implying anything. From now on, when I go somewhere I will let you or someone else know. Happy?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"So...what'dja do today?"

"Nothing much. I went to the park."

"Really? Did the park grow some shops since I was there last?" Ranma said, nodding to the shopping bag she was still carrying.

She hadn't been trying to lie or hide anything, she just didn't know if Konatsu wanted her to tell anyone about his desire to look more like a man. But, she thought, it wasn't exactly a secret and she really didn't think he would mind if she told Ranma.

They walked back to the house together, Akane telling Ranma all about her last two encounters with Konatsu at the park.

Akane sat at her desk, smiling as she at tempted to do her homework and failed miserably. She was in such a good mood, which was strange considering how her day had started. But after their little encounter this afternoon, she had spent the rest of the afternoon with Ranma, doing nothing really.

She started by telling Ranma about her ice-cream outing with Konatsu and pretended not to notice that Ranma stiffened at the fact that she was out with another guy. His jealousy was really cute sometimes. As she expected, he found the kunoichi's antics hilarious and almost spit out his tea when she told him about Konatsu's date with Kuno. She had no explanations on why he had left with Kodachi, since she had missed their entire conversation.

Ranma had then told her about his theory that the old ladle lady - as he dubbed her - had a secret life as a ninja, which caused Akane to laugh outright. She had no idea how he could think that sweet and gentle Mrs. Uzumaki was a retired kunoichi.

After that, they spent a rare and quiet afternoon watching Enter the Dragon on TV. It was, all in all, pretty nice. But the fact that Ranma still hadn't told her about his date with Ukyo had been at the back of her mind the entire time.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

She turned around and was surprised to see Nabiki walk in. She had not come home for dinner that night, but that was nothing new. She kept her own hours and no one really bothered her about where she went.

Akane felt a little ashamed at the way she acted, but didn't regret what she had said. She carefully schooled her face into a neutral expression and waited. When Nabiki came in and stood there without saying anything, she knew she had to break the silence.

"Can I help you?" Akane asked coolly.

Taking a deep breath and steeling herself, Nabiki began, "I wanted to talk to you and apologize. You were right about everything you said yesterday. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have treated you that way."

Akane stared, her mouth agape; her older sister apologizing was the last thing she expected.

Going over to sit on the bed, Nabiki brought her feet up to sit lotus style.

"I want to tell you something I haven't told anyone about. If you remember, I wasn't always like this. When I got to high school, I was so excited. Kasumi was still in school and let me tell you, everyone loved her. She was the perfect student; always on time, always did her work, and always polite. I lived in her shadow a bit, but it wasn't anything really big. Boys thought she was pretty and the girls all thought she was nice, how could they not? She was popular but not overly so, since she was always rushing home to help with the house.

"Me, I was just another freshman girl. I worked hard and had some friends and a few guys showed interest in me, but I was never really popular. I didn't mind though, since I knew that would come with time as all the most popular girls were older.

"Then, when you came to school the next year, everything changed. It started out small, I would hear your name mentioned randomly in the hall. Or my friends would tell me a new piece of gossip about some guy who had a crush on you. Not a single girl in my grade made a splash at school the way you did. It was like you came in and suddenly everything revolved around you. I really tried to not let it get to me and I thought it didn't.

"But there was this guy in my grade who never paid attention to me and who I thought was really cute. I had a crush on him all freshman year. One day, he walked up to me and I was so excited, I couldn't believe he had finally noticed me! But after some small talk, all he wanted was to ask about you. I was so embarrassed and upset. I don't know what possessed me to say it, but I told him that he'd have to give me 1000 yen if he wanted any answers. I was joking, but then he pulled out his wallet and handed me the money.

"I guess word spread and other boys would come to buy information from me about you. But then they started asking questions about other people I knew. You know how nosy I am, I had all the gossip and it was so easy to figure out what was real and what was false. Suddenly I felt really popular, and I won't lie, having the extra spending money was nice."

Nabiki closed her eyes and took another deep breath before continuing.

"One day, Kuno came up and asked me about you. Apparently he thought you were cute and wanted to know more; it happened so often that I didn't think it was a big deal. I told him about your love for martial arts and how you were practically a prodigy. I didn't know that he had already asked you out and that you said no. When he suddenly asked me for pictures I thought he was crazy and I told him so. He then told me he didn't want anything risqué, he just wanted pictures for his wallet. He seemed particularly interested in ones where you were working out. I knew I shouldn't have, but I took some pictures and sold them to him.

"Once Kuno made that stupid announcement, I felt bad for you. But I knew you would be able to handle yourself. We started talking at lunch and I told my friends that there was no way you'd lose to any of the guys at school. They thought I was being biased because I was your sister. When I told them that you had won tournaments, they didn't believe me. Someone said, 'put your money where your mouth is', and I did. It was a friendly bet and easy money. When more and more guys showed up, the bets continued, no one thought you would be able to hold them off. And I will admit, I never thought of doing anything to stop it.

"I didn't even realize how bitter and angry I was becoming and that I blamed everything on you. I was the older sister, but no one ever saw me when you got there. No one ever bothered to talk to me about me; they only wanted to know about you. I hated it. And I hated you for it. At some point, I think I wanted you to be as miserable as I was. I'm ashamed to admit that part of me was glad that you were having a hard time because things seemed to come so easy for you."

Nabiki paused for a second, taking a deep breath, before she continued. "I'm sorry. There's no excuse for what I did. I hope that you can forgive me."

There was a lull of silence as Akane processed the apology and the new information. It was a lot for her to take in. She had never guessed any of those things were happening at school or that her sister was feeling slighted in any way. She had always seemed so sure of herself and acted like nothing fazed her. However, it did explain why her sister had become increasingly cold and distant over the past few years. One thing came through clearly during Nabiki's story, her sincere regret and sadness, made more evident compared with her normally stoic demeanor.

"Of course I forgive you, you're my sister." Akane walked over and put her arms around Nabiki, hugging her. The blue-haired girl was never one to hold a grudge - even against people who would be considered her enemies - so forgiving her sister for her behavior was only natural. "I never knew you felt like that and I wish we could have talked about it. To be honest, I've always admired you."

Nabiki looked up in surprise. "Me? Why?"

"Come on, you're beautiful, smart, poised, independent and you're so in control of your emotions, unlike me." Akane released Nabiki from her hug, but kept an arm around her shoulders as she sat down next to her. "You know, I've really missed you."

"I've missed you too." Nabiki smiled, relieved. Slipping on her mask of indifference, she smirked and crossed her arms. "I'm glad that we had this conversation, but it stays between you and me. I've got a reputation to uphold." She winked at her sister before a genuine smile graced her face.

"I promise though, no more selling pictures of you or Ranma and no more blackmailing either of you."

"And no more taking my stuff without asking?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I will continue to do that. But I will try to remember to return things to you. And..."

Akane looked over and her eyebrow shot up when she saw her sister looking nervous.

"And?"

Knowing that what she was about to say would be the hardest part, she took a deep breath before looking her sister in the eye.

"Yesterday, when I told you about Ranma and Ukyo's date? I wasn't exactly truthful."

"You lied to me?"

"No, I didn't lie, I just didn't tell you the whole truth. Ranma was at Ucchan's, but when he left, he looked angry. And Ukyo did have the top of her dress undone, but when she came to the door, she also looked upset. I don't know what went on yesterday, but it really didn't look like anything happened, despite what I implied."

Akane just stared at her sister as she realized that all her worrying was for naught since Nabiki had purposefully misled her to believe that Ukyo and Ranma had slept together. She should have been furious at her sister, but instead she was elated that nothing had happened. It was as if a weight was lifted off her shoulders and she felt lighter than she had all day.

But she also felt like an idiot. She had gotten so worked up over nothing and so much pain could have been avoided if she had only waited for Ranma to explain himself. And when she thought about it, most of the misunderstandings between her and Ranma would never have happened if she had listened to him before jumping to conclusions.

At that moment, she made a vow to herself to always listen to what Ranma had to say about a situation before assuming the worst because she would never know if someone was trying to deceive her or if there was an honest misunderstanding between them.

"I'm sorry. There really is nothing I can say to excuse what I did."

"There is something I don't understand though, why did you lie to me yesterday?"

Is she blushing? Akane thought as she stared at her sister.

"I got mad at you when I saw you with Taro yesterday."

"But why? I told you that nothing happened."

"I believe you. But it didn't look that way at the time."

"Even if it looked like something was going on, why would you be so mad? I'm sure you weren't upset for Ranma's sake. Unless..."

Akane's eyes widened as it dawned on her and the look on Nabiki's suddenly red face confirmed her suspicions.

"You like Taro, don't you? How? I mean, I didn't even know you knew him."

"Yes, I like him. And no, I don't really know him. I've only really met him once."

"Then why did you get so mad?"

"We didn't talk very long, but there's just something about him. He's the first guy in a long time that I've been attracted to and I thought I had a chance with him. When I saw you two together..." Nabiki looked Akane in the eye, "He was the straw that broke the camel's back."

Akane nodded in understanding, she knew from personal experience that everyone had a breaking point.

"I do have one other question. That guy that you liked, he wasn't...Kuno, was he?"

"What? No! I mean Kuno's handsome and rich, but completely obnoxious, not to mention an idiot."

Akane stood up and walked to the door with a smile on her face as she motioned her sister to come with her.

"Where are we going?"

"To your room. I'm taking my stuff back while I can," Akane said with a grin.

It was early Saturday morning and Akane was getting dressed in her room. She had already had her morning run with Konatsu and they had spent more time than usual gossiping - Konatsu telling her all about the impromptu dinner date he had with Kodachi. Akane had barely been able to contain her mirth when he told her of his plans to date both Kunos. Akane had protested, having already dealt with the siblings and not wanting her new friend to deal with their insanity. However, he felt that he owed Ranma for helping him escape his step-mother and this was a small way to be able to pay both of them back. Akane relented when he looked pleased to be taking on the pair.

They spent some time training, focused on Akane learning some ninjitsu. She was getting better at using shuriken, hitting her targets ninety percent of the time. She had a harder time with nunchucks - she kept hitting herself accidentally – and was reminded of her time training in rhythmic gymnastics. Her stealth skills were also improving as it took Konatsu a little while now to find her after she found places from which to spy on him. It was her favorite training activity, which they had basically turned into a game of hide and seek.

Akane looked into the mirror and smiled. The dress she was wearing was one of her favorites and she had been looking for it everywhere, only to have found it in Nabiki's closet the previous night. It was a simple white sundress with small ruffles on the wide straps and a large sea green ribbon that wrapped around her waist and tied into a large bow in the back. She had a large brimmed sun hat with coral trim to go with it, but had opted to not wear it for her day out with Sayuri and Yuka. She had decided to only put some lip-gloss on today, not wanting to deal with make-up. While it was fun, she just couldn't get used to wearing it every day.

After Nabiki's confession last night, the two had spent the rest of the night in her room, Akane getting her things back but more importantly spending time together. With the invisible wall between them down, the two sisters talked and joked around. For the first time in years, they actually enjoyed spending time together. This made Akane happier this morning than she had been in a long time.

The only worry she now had was that Ranma had still not told her about his date with Ukyo. But after her meltdown yesterday, she was determined to not overreact about it.

Ranma was already sitting at the breakfast table with the entire family, minus Akane. His mother and Kasumi were putting out breakfast as they waited on the last member of the household to join them. He and his father already had their morning spar, though he was thankful that he was no longer thrown unceremoniously out the window as a wakeup call. His mother had been so frightened the first day it happened, she screamed and grabbed the Saotome Honor Blade before she realized the attack was one of Genma's strange ideas of a training technique. She had told Genma quite firmly that he had to find another way to wake up their son. Now they simply walked down to the pond and sparred; Ranma beating his father easily.

He loved Saturdays when he had no school and had nothing planned for the day. He was hoping to convince Akane to spend the day with him. He really didn't care what they did, he just missed her. They had spent the afternoon together yesterday, but that didn't feel like enough since they had barely seen each other this week. They rarely spent this much time apart unless he was on some weird mission. Even then, when he should have been focused on the task at hand, his thoughts always strayed back to her.

Just then he looked up and he felt his heart speed up as Akane walked into the room, a smile on her face. She looked...cute wasn't the word. She was beautiful in her white dress. It wasn't just that the dress fit her perfectly - because it did - it was that the dress was so her. It was simple and feminine. Despite calling her a tomboy all the time, he knew that she had a fondness for wearing girly dresses that were feminine without being obnoxious, like that ding-bat Azuza Shiatori. The dress seemed to move with her and he swore she floated into the room. His eyes followed her as she came to sit next to him.

She greeted the entire table before she turned to give him a shy smile and it was then that he noticed her face was free of make-up, just the way he liked it. She looked beautiful with make-up on, but there was something so carefree and casual about her without make-up. He couldn't pin it down, he just knew what he preferred and he was staring at it.

Ranma's reaction did not go unnoticed. Nodoka and Kasumi gave each other knowing looks before resuming their demure postures. Nabiki gave him a smirk before pretending to look bored, and their fathers seemed ecstatic, elbowing each other in the ribs, raising their eyebrows at each other while jerking their heads non-subtly at the pair.

When Soun announced it was time to eat and the family started their meal, the women ate at their normal sedate pace and Genma tried to inhale everything in front of him. But Soun and Ranma were behaving unusually. Soun normally hid behind his morning paper, all but ignoring the family, but today he was eyeing his future-son-in-law with a pleased expression. After all this time, it looked as if the boy was finally showing interest in his little girl.

Ranma, no longer having to fight his father for food, was eating at an almost normal pace as he stole glances at the girl sitting on his right. At one point, as he reached down to put some rice in his mouth, his eyes had been diverted and the portion of rice hit his cheek before he realized what was happening. Embarrassed, his face became red and he brought his gaze down to his bowl and shoveled in a mouth full of food to distract himself.

"Ranma, don't you think Akane looks good today?"

Said boy looked up to see Soun smiling at him knowingly and he choked slightly on his food at being suddenly addressed. Swallowing his food, he reached out to take a sip of his tea to buy himself some time.

He wanted to say yes, she looked amazing; he'd never seen her look prettier. But he couldn't say that. Despite Soun's proclamation that there would be no wedding until all other relationship issues were resolved, their fathers probably still had a priest on stand-by. He swallowed his tea and said what he thought he needed to.

"Yeah, she looks nice...I guess. But if she doesn't figure out how to look sexy, she'll never find herself a husband."

All sound seemed to be sucked out of the room as everyone went quiet. Even Genma had stopped eating, his chopsticks hovered in front of his mouth as it stood agape and his eyes wide with surprise. Ranma shoveled some more food in his mouth and tried to act like nothing was wrong but his breakfast had suddenly lost all flavor. He chewed on the food and forced it down his throat as he felt Akane flinch and stiffen beside him.

A few moments later - that felt like decades - the room exploded with noise as Soun's head grew to twenty times its normal size, his forked tipped tongue flicked out, as he screamed, "How dare you speak about my Akane that way!"

While his father screamed, "Boy! That's your fiancée!"

Whatever Genma was going to say was cut off as Ranma threw a glass of water at him while Soun's head deflated and spun around the room after Kasumi pulled the cork out of the back, sighing quietly, "Oh, Father."

Once Soun's head regained its normal shape and size, he sat there, tears streaming out of his eyes, as he leaned on the wet panda for support.

"Saotome, the schools will never be joined!"

No one bothered to turn Genma back into his normal form and the four ladies continued their breakfast, choosing not to comment on the commotion.

Ranma sat eating his food, resolutely looking at his bowl. He knew his mother would be disappointed in him and didn't want to meet her eyes. He couldn't stand to see the hurt that was sure to be on Akane's face. A few minutes later, his fiancée broke the silence.

"Thank you for breakfast, Aunty and Kasumi, it was wonderful."

Without waiting for a response, she left the table and headed to her room. Ranma felt even worse when he saw that she had barely eaten anything.

"I'm done too, thanks," Nabiki announced as she left shortly after her sister.

Lying on the bed, Akane stared at the ceiling, her good mood dampened. At this point she should have been used to the comments and insults from her fiancé, but she'd be lying if she said they didn't hurt.

After the rather rude, and frankly uncalled for comment, Nabiki had caught her eye from across the table and silently motioned for them to meet upstairs. She had plenty of time before she had to leave to meet her friends and had lost her appetite, so she headed to her room to wait for her sister.

She blew her bangs out of her eyes just as Nabiki came into her room with a small pile of clothes in one arm and a make-up bag in the other.

Propping herself up on her elbows, Akane asked, "What's all that? I thought you gave back everything last night?"

"I did. These are mine. Get up, you're changing."

Sitting up quickly, Akane glared at her middle sister.

"Why? I like this dress."

Waving her hand in a dismissive manner, she said, "Yes, I know. Now get up." When her younger sister remained motionless, she added, "I'm going to help you."

"Help me do what? I don't understand."

Nabiki sighed at her sister's obtuseness. Speaking slowly, she said, "You're going to teach Ranma a lesson on watching his mouth before he speaks and I'm going to help you."

She emphasized the point by putting her bundles on the desk and picking up an article of clothing and waving it in front of her sister's face.

Breakfast having been long over, Ranma was still sitting at the dining room table eating. His mother had gone upstairs shortly after Akane and Nabiki had left and come back down with a smile on her face. He had wondered about the switch in her mood, since she was clearly still upset at him when she left the table, but was happy to see she was no longer mad at him.

After everything was cleared from the table, she surprised him with a plate of red bean mochi and tea, asking him to sit with her for a while. Not one to turn down dessert – even after a full breakfast – Ranma gladly dug in. He was on his third pastry when he heard someone come down the stairs.

"Akane dear, is that you?" his mother called out.

"Yes, Aunty, I was just leaving."

Ranma frowned as his plans to hang out with Akane for the day went out the window. He knew she would have gotten over being angry with him soon enough and he could've convinced her to spend time with him.

"Wonderful, would you mind doing me a favor?" Nodoka asked sweetly.

"Of course she wouldn't, Aunty."

Apparently Nabiki was with her younger sister in the entry way.

"N-no, of course not."

Ranma had just taken another bite when Akane walked in and he choked on his food when he saw her.

She had on a white halter top that dipped low in the front and ended just below her belly button, her distressed blue jeans were slung low at her hips combined with a wide brown leather belt, leaving an inch of her milky skin on display. When she walked her shirt moved up slightly giving him more tempting glimpses of her flat stomach. The entire thing may as well have been painted on her body, it fit so snuggly. When his gaze finally left her form, it traveled to her face and his eyes widened in surprise. Her lids were heavily lined in black, her eyelashes seemed to have grown, they were so thick and long they seemed to rest on her cheeks when she blinked, and her lips were painted a deep red.

When Ranma seemed to turn purple, Nodoka decided to help him out and slapped him on his back, with a little more force than was necessary. Her gaze went back to her future daughter-in-law.

Akane couldn't help but notice the way Ranma was staring at her and it took all her willpower to not fidget and pull her shirt down. Besides, with how low cut her shirt was in the front, she was worried her breasts would pop out if she tugged on the bottom. Instead she decided to focus on his mother and hoped her cheeks weren't bright red in embarrassment.

"Aunty, what did you need my help with?"

"Could you stop by the store on the way home for me? I just need a little black thread and was hoping you could save me a trip."

"Of course I will."

"Wonderful, here is some money," Nodoka said as she pulled a coin bag out of her kimono sleeves. She counted out 300 yen worth of coins and leaned over the table slightly, her hand stretched out. Akane leaned over the table to retrieve the coins just as Nodoka dropped them on the table.

"Oops, how clumsy of me."

Giving the older woman a small smile, Akane said, "It's okay, I've got them," before she leaned down to pick up all the coins.

Bent over like that, her cleavage was in Ranma's direct line of sight. His eyes went even wider and his mouth went dry as he saw her breasts sway slightly with each movement.

"I'll be back for dinner. Have a nice day, Aunty."

Akane turned and headed towards the front door, and Ranma watched her as she walked away. Her tight jeans emphasized the curve of her hips and showed off her round, firm bottom. Her shirt left very little to the imagination; it started just below her shoulder blades, had an inch of material round the back of her neck and ended a couple of inches above her jeans. With her short hair, he could see every inch of the smooth creamy skin of her upper back. He never thought a back could be so sexy. His eyes remained focused on the empty hallway until he heard the front door open and close. Finally broken free from his trance, he noticed Nabiki was leaning against the wall, smirking at him.

"Did you like Akane's new outfit, Ranma?"

She left the room, not bothering to wait for a response.

"Actually, I think Akane looked very nice, don't you?"

When Ranma just nodded dumbly at his mother, she smiled behind her tea cup.

When Nodoka had gone upstairs earlier to check on Akane, she walked by her room and overheard the two sisters talking as the door wasn't completely closed.

"Nabiki, I can't go around dressed like this!"

"Of course you can, you aren't being indecent and I think you look good."

"Thanks for your help, but I don't think this is going to work."

"Of course it will, trust me on this. Ranma's never gonna learn to shut his mouth if you don't teach him a lesson. I'm not asking you to prance around in front of him, flaunting yourself. Just go out shopping with your friends and if he catches a glimpse of you, then all the better."

Nodoka had left then, not wanting to get caught eavesdropping. Understanding Nabiki's plan, she decided she would just have to help out. She headed for the guest room to get her coin purse and went downstairs, determined to keep Ranma at the table for as long as she could.

"Hmm. You don't think Akane would get too much unwanted attention though, do you? She is such an attractive girl, after all. But I'm sure she can take care of herself," she said offhandedly.

Taking another sip of her tea, she reached for a piece of mochi, and counted down in her head:

Three

Two

One

"Thanks for the food, Mom. I'm going to ummm...go..." Ranma didn't bother finishing the sentence as he bolted out through the engawa.

Nodoka didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt for helping to manipulate her son. He really needed to learn how to speak to a woman. And as his mother, she thought it was her duty to teach her son some manners.

A/N: Let's face it, Nabiki isn't going to change. Like Happosai, all you can hope to do is to curb some of their behaviors. There was no way for me to make Nabiki sympathetic, so I didn't try. I definitely didn't want to play on the fanon conception that she was the breadwinner of the family but I wanted her to have a reason for acting the way she did. While her backstory is completely fabricated I believe it's still canon compliant. I hope it was believable and added a layer of depth to the character that was really lacking in the canon.

Shout outs to Luna 12 for catching the Inuyasha reference and to Flameraven1 and gort420 for catching the Village People reference because no one got my obscure reference to an old 1980's shampoo commercial in chapter 6.

Big thanks to alwaysZutarian and PepperonyOwl for all their help in betaing my chapter!

Original Publication Date: August 12, 2014

Revised: May 12, 2015