Chapter Five: Little Things

Ranma

"Wake up, boy!"

Ranma blinked as Genma picked him up and chucked him through the window.

He came up with a vague idea of what was happening as he sailed through the air.

It wasn't until he fell into the koi pond that he realized just what had happened the day before.

"I did what?!" she screamed, before proceeding to beat her father into the ground.

The entire family had seen her- seen her- Even Soun and Pops- Even Akane- Wait, where had that come from?

Once the panda was floating face down in the koi pond, Ranma stormed into the house and went into the furo to shower. She wasn't about to walk around all day dripping with pond water, after all.

Akane

"Ranma?" Akane knocked, then scowled. "Ranma, what the hell are you doing in there? You've been in there for twenty minutes!"

The furo door slid backward, and Akane blinked.

Ranma was in his girl form – weird. Weirder – had he combed his hair? Was he already dressed? That wasn't one of the shirt he had picked out yesterday, and hadn't he said he didn't want anything with a girly pattern? And who said he could fill out her shirts better than her?

"Chill out, I've finished anyways," he said as he pushed past her towards the kitchen. At a loss for words, Akane followed behind him.

"Good morning everyone!" Ranma said happily as he sat down at the table to eat his lukewarm breakfast.

Kasumi cheerfully said, "Good morning Ranma." Everyone else was silent.

Akane stared at the boy who looked like anything other than a boy, and she realized Nabiki and her father were also staring. Nabiki shot her a questioning look, and she shrugged.

"Boy, what are you wearing?" Genma finally spluttered.

Ranma rolled his eyes at his father. "Geez, pops, do you ever pay any attention? Or did you spend a bit too much time staring at my boobs yesterday to remember I borrowed some of Akane's shirts?"

Genma gaped at him. "You- I- Huh?"

There was a red tint to Ranma's expression as he glared at his father. Akane couldn't quite place it – was it anger?

"Um, Ranma?"

"Yeah," he said, looking up at her innocently.

Akane frowned. "You, um, do realize that you're still a girl, right?"

Ranma stared at her, then back down at himself, then back at her. His expression was unreadable. "Oh."

Silence.

"Right. Um, Kasumi, do you have any tea ready?"

As Ranma changed out of his cursed form, Akane shot each of her sisters a look. It was obvious that they were all thinking the same thing: what was wrong with Ranma?

Ranma

"Okay, so this weekend we're totally going to go shopping right?"

Ranma felt vaguely uncomfortable as Yuka fixed hard glares on Akane and Sayuri. Quietly eating his bento, he wondered why she was only looking at them and not him. Granted, he had only been around their little group for two days, but still…

He didn't really want to go shopping, did he? Pops had always called shopping girly work and said real men got their clothes out of the sealed cardboard boxes in the back room. Ranma had always wondered why so many shopkeepers chased them for taking clothes out of the trash.

He did need new shirts, though.

"Do we have to?" Akane groaned, leaning back to stare at the sky above them.

"Oh, come on, don't be such a tomboy!" Yuka exclaimed, ignore Akane's venomous glare. "You know it'll be fun."

"I'll go," Sayuri said.

"See, it's two versus one! Now you have to go."

"But I don't wanna!"

Yuka gave Akane her best pleading face. "Please?"

"Fine."

Ranma sighed as he poked his lunch around in circles. Why did he feel so strange today? He knew it wasn't like him, it didn't make any sense. Hell, he had spaced out and almost walked into the girl's locker room. He was honestly lucky Akane had caught him on her way out and slugged him into the hallway wall.

"Hey, Ranma, wanna come with us?" Sayuri asked quietly.

Ranma's eyes lit up, and he sat up a bit straighter. "Actually, I'd-"

"Really?" Akane scoffed. "First you drag me into this, don't go and drag poor Ranma into this too."

"Akane, I don't need you to talk for me," he said sharply before turning to Sayuri. Did he actually want to go with them? "I- um, I'd like that, I think."

Yuka squealed, and Sayuri smiled happily. Akane just looked dumbstruck. "But- huh? Why? You know they're just going to drag us to a bunch of awful clothing stores, right? What would you even shop for in a woman's clothing store?"

Ranma couldn't come up with anything to say, so he just stared down at his shoes. Why did he even want to go? He shouldn't want to go, it didn't make any sense, but he still wanted to.

"Akane, lay off him already," Yuka said. "Seriously, it seems like he's more of a girl that you are sometimes. Maybe we just want to get to know him better?"

It was the wrong thing to say. Ranma blushed furiously and stared at the ground, while Akane exploded. "Okay, why don't you hang out with your female friend Ranma, because obviously, you don't need some stupid tomboy hanging around, huh?"

Ranma moved to go after Akane as she stormed off, but Sayuri grabbed the back of his shirt. "It's not worth it. Yuka, you know better than to rile her up like that."

To her credit, Yuka looked ashamed as she took a bit out of her lunch. "I know, but it's true, isn't it?"

All of a sudden, Ranma could only think about falling into the river.

"No, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a man among men!" he exclaimed, voice wavering slightly. Why was that hard to say? What was going on?

Yuka and Sayuri burst out laughing, before fading into silence as Ranma stared at them in confusion. Sayuri frowned as she said, "Oh, you didn't mean that ironically, did you?"

That day, Ranma left school more confused than he had ever been in his life. He felt weird. Everyone else was treating him weird. Something was wrong, and he was going to figure it out what.

Nabiki

"Hello there, Kuno-baby."

Kuno jumped in his seat as Nabiki sidled up next to him. "Oh, Tendo, what do you want?"

"You asked for pictures?" she said slyly, and Kuno's eyes lit up as she slid a small envelope across the table. Greedily, he flipped through them. Nabiki felt sick as he made a less than pleasant noise at them, but she pushed it down. That's my sister you're staring at, pervert!

"How much?"

"25,000 yen."

"What?" The dreamy look in Kuno's eyes disappeared for a moment, and he snapped back to reality. "Tendo, you've got to be kidding me. Last time it was a fifth of the cost."

She raised an eyebrow at him and leaned forwards towards him. "Times change, honey," she said as she eased the photos out of his grip. Do you want them or not?"

Nabiki was the master of manipulating Kuno. She had the poor boy, along with his addled sense of reality and excessive money, wrapped around her finger for as long as she could remember. She wasn't about to start failing now, not when she actually need him to work for her.

He wavered for a second, then the greedy look came back to his eyes and he dug a wad of money out of his pocket and gave it to her. "Fine, but next time something needs to be different."

She wanted to slap the lustful expression off his face and grind it into the wooden desk she was sitting on. She would do it too, if she could. "What?"

"As much as I love to see my lovely Akane in her fiercest moments, such a gratuitous sum needs something more… tender," Kuno said as he leered at the photos in front of him.

Nabiki opened her mouth to retort, then caught herself.

If she sold Kuno 25,000 yen's worth of photos every day until the bill was due, they would be able to pay the medical bills and still make rent. She couldn't – no, she wouldn't Kasumi sacrifice her education, her future, her secret engagement, for some freeloader's stupidity.

Even if that came at Akane's expense.

How was she supposed to make this choice?

"Fine, whatever," she said as she got up and walked away from him. Gathering her stuff, she hurried out of the classroom before an idea stopped her short.

What about Ranma? He has a girl form, and he doesn't seem to care… Mostly…

She thought about it as she walked to the small cafe she worked at. Pushing the door open, a small bell dinged as her boss looked up from where she was mopping the floor. "Oh, Tendo, what are you doing here? It's twelve in the morning, shouldn't you be at school?"

Nabiki smiled tartly as she willed away the sick feeling in her gut. "No school today. Is there any chance I can work a double shift?"

She made up her mind as she took the mop and began prepping for the afternoon rush. If the freeloaders won't work, then there's no reason why they can't help out in other ways.

Settling in, she readied herself for a long afternoon and night of work.

Akane

Akane yelled as her foot slammed into the punching bag for what seemed like the millionth time in a row. The bag sailed backward with a satisfying noise and she stepped back and took a deep breath as she stared down at her feet.

I really am a tomboy, aren't I?

"Um, Akane, are you okay?"

Jumping, she spun around to glare at Ranma, who flinched back at the edge of the doorway. "What do you want?"

He walked into the dojo cautiously, almost like he was afraid she would attack her. "Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I- I can go eat lunch with Hiroshi and Daisuke if you don't like hav-"

"It's fine, Ranma."

"Huh?"

She shrugged at him. He was so different than a month of her thoughts and Genma's stories had made her believe, and if she was being honest with herself, she really liked it. "It's not your fault that Sayuri and Yuka love shopping. I'm angry at them, not you. I can't imagine why you would want to go with them, but I'm not angry at you for it."

"Oh." Akane sat down as her feet started to ache, and Ranma sat next to her. "I wanted to go after you, but they said that you needed time to cool down before you would listen to anyone."

Akane frowned. Her friends weren't wrong, but… "You know, I might have listened to you if you had come after me."

Ranma started, and he looked surprised. "Really? Why?"

Because I want him to be there for me.

Where had that come from?

"Because, well, you- You're my friend, right? You should at least be making an effort to comfort me!" she exclaimed before turning away with burning cheeks.

"I didn't realize you would want me to," Ranma said softly.

Akane rolled her eyes. "Of course I do, idiot, that's what friends are for."

"It's been a while since I had a real friend."

She turned to look at him, but he was staring out the window at the sky outside. "What do you mean?"

"Well, pops and I moved around all the time before, so we never stayed in one place for very long. When I was little, I had a friend named Ukyo, but I don't remember what happened to him, and there was one guy when I was in middle school named Ryoga, but I was always more of a rival than a friend to him… I guess it's just never something I've really thought about much, dunno why."

Akane frowned thoughtfully. "Well, you have me and Yuka and Sayuri now, so you don't need to worry about that anymore. I think I would be really unhappy if I didn't have at least them to stick by me."

They were quiet for a while, listening to the quiet burble of the koi pond outside of the dojo.

"Wanna spar?" Ranma's voice was thick with hesitation, for reasons she couldn't quite see.

"Yeah," Akane said with a nod, "Let's do that."

[A/N] Sorry for taking a bit to update, I got very into my RWBY fic. The Nabiki scene was pretty hard to write, so I've had most of this chapter sitting on my computer for a while. That being said, I need to shake this story up a bit to keep my interest so Ryoga is 100% coming next chapter.

Thank you to James Birdsong, Putrid, Tatewaki2000, Nashmeira, and TooManyPockets for your reviews. Special shoutout goes to Katt1848 for giving me the push to finally get this chapter out there. All of you, as well as everyone who's favorited and followed, are amazing.

Any and all concrit is very appreciated, and thank you to every who stuck with this story.

Signing out, Allie

[Edit 2/11/18] Grammar