Yearning
AN: Here we go! How am I still updating this so frequently? Who knows!
Without further ado, enjoy!
Ranma yawned as he headed down the stairs. To his surprise, when he reached the living room, it was empty except for Nabiki, who was engrossed in reading what looked like a college-level textbook. "Hey, Nabiki, where is everyone?" Ranma asked.
Leaning back from her book, Nabiki looked over at him as she explained, "Akane went out with some friends and Kasumi headed out to do some shopping. She left breakfast in the fridge. Grandfather Happosai left town to find new additions to his 'collection', so our fathers are out celebrating, probably at the cheapest bar they can find." Her lips twisted into a smirk as she added, "So, we've got the place all to ourselves, Saotome. Just the two of us. Of course, if you want to take advantage of that, I'll have to charge by the hour."
Ranma rolled his eyes, not daring to try and figure out if she was serious or just teasing, and replied, "I doubt I could afford it, anyway, without having ta sell a limb." Ranma turned towards the kitchen to satisfy his hunger as-
-she heard a familiar voice call her name from the front entry. smiling, Ranma grabbed what she had prepared, and quickly got changed before heading down to the first floor of the Hibiki residence.
"Ranma! Are you here!?" Ryoga called out as she descended the stairs. "I'm pretty sure this is the right house, since my key worked. I guess it'd be just my luck that she'd be out when I got... back..." He trailed off as he noticed the redhead, and saw what she was wearing... or rather, what she was not.
Wearing nothing but an apron, Ranma sashayed up to the Lost Boy, unable to suppress a grin at the familiar thrill his reactions always gave her. Pressing herself up against him, she asked with a coy expression, "Welcome home! Do you want a dinner, a bath, or...?" Yet, Ranma could not keep up the act, as her grin sprang back in full force, "Ah, who'm I kidding? We both know there's no resisting this!" Ranma accompanied her words by grabbing the stunned man's hands and placing one against her bare hip, and the other on her barely covered chest.
Ryoga shook his his head to clear it as he snapped out of his shock. Still seeing her in front of him, a hungry grin spread across his own face. "Damn, I knew there was something I missed, aside from your cooking."
Put on a coy expression once more, Ranma teased, "Well, if you're talking about sparring, I suppose I could go grab my gi and we could-"
Ryoga did not give her time to finish, tightening his grip on her voluptuous form as he spun them around and slammed her against the nearest wall. "I've got a different type of 'grappling' in mind."
Grin only returning at the rough treatment, the redhead wrapped her arms around his shoulders with a laugh. Closing her eyes, she brought her lips toward his while-
-Ranma staggered against the nearest wall, the blood draining from his face as he tried to process what he had just seen. 'W-What the Hell!? It's one thing ta see a vision involving a kid,' Ranma thought. 'It's another thing entirely ta experience that!'
"Are you alright, Saotome?" Nabiki asked in confusion.
"Y-Yeah, just not feeling too good," Ranma replied with a forced smile. "I think... I think I'm gonna lay back down. Suddenly, I'm not hungry anymore."
As Ranma staggered back toward stairs, Nabiki narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she thought, 'Ranma never loses his appetite, and he was fine until a moment ago. I'd bet quite a bit that was another vision, and after everything he's been through, it must have been pretty shocking to shake him up that badly.' As Ranma reached the base of the stairs, Nabiki asked aloud, "So, what was the vision this time? I'd say that it looks like you just saw a ghost, but in your case, perhaps it would be better to say you look like you just saw a cat."
As Ranma glanced over his shoulder, ready to come up with some excuse, he hesitated as it occurred to him that after what Nabiki had overheard the last time the two of them were alone, she might be the only one he could possibly talk to about this.
Just as Nabiki was starting to get irritated with his silence, Ranma asked, "Hey, do ya think these visions are a curse 'cause I see one possible future that I'd hate, or because it shows me terrible things that I can't change?"
Nabiki pondered that for a moment before replying, "I suppose the only way to know that is to try and change them. I might be willing to help for the right price... but I'd need to know every detail, in that case."
Ranma frowned, saying, "And how much would it cost ta keep ya from selling that info? If this gets back ta my mom, the next date I'll have is with a katana."
Nabiki hesitated at that, before a clever idea came to her. With a smirk, she said, "How about this, if we manage to change a vision with absolute certainty that it won't happen, then we can talk numbers. If we can't, then you don't owe me anything, but I get to sell the info, since you'll have to deal with it anyway. How does that sound?"
That sounded like a good deal to Ranma. Suspiciously good, since it was coming from Nabiki, but Ranma knew he was going to go crazy if he did not find somebody to talk to about this. If Nabiki could actually help him fix the situation, that would be even better. "Alright, ya got yourself a deal," Ranma said.
Nabiki's grin widened. Not only would this deal keep her from having to pry the knowledge of each vision out of the martial artist, but she stood to profit even if she did nothing. And if she did manage to avert whatever horrible future Ranma had witnessed, then he had basically just written her a blank check. While easy money was nice, the idea of having a powerful and handsome martial artist at her beck and call until she left for university was certainly quite appealing. "So, Saotome," she asked, "what was this newest one about?"
Ranma could not help but hesitate again, and asked, "Ya sure there ain't anybody coming home soon?"
"Well, I am sure that the longer you stall, the better the chances someone does," Nabiki replied, calmly taking a sip of water as she waited. After all, she knew time was on her side.
"Well, I was at Ryoga's place... and... apron..." Ranma trailed off in a mumble, his face flushing at the memory.
"Sorry, what about an apron?" Nabiki asked.
Deciding it was even worse thinking about, let alone talking about, the vision as a male, Ranma snatched the cup from Nabiki's hand and upended it over his own head, triggering his curse. Deciding to get it over with, Ranma squeezed her eyes closed and blurted out, "Ryoga-came-back-and-I-greeted-him-in-nothing-but-an-apron!"
"...Oh," Nabiki replied, certainly not having expected that. As her brain started working again, she asked, "Could this have been another one of your tricks? You never did seem to hesitate to show some skin when you needed something from him."
"No, he called me by name and..." Ranma trailed off as her face approached the same shade of red as her hair. However, she had come this far, so she forced herself to continue. "And if it had just been a trick, I wouldn't have let things get so far."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that and asked, "How far are we talking, here?"
"If the vision had lasted any longer, clothes probably woulda come off, and I didn't have a lot ta spare," Ranma replied. Needing to change the subject, she asked, "How the Hell is knowing that gonna help ya change this?"
"It probably won't, but do you really want to take that chance?" She asked rhetorically. "Were you female in the vision? How old were the two of you?"
"Yeah, and we didn't look much different, so it probably wasn't more than a year from now," Ranma replied, relaxing as Nabiki asked less embarrassing questions.
Nabiki frowned in thought for a moment, picking her book back up and paging through it a few times until she found what she was looking for. As she did, Ranma finally got a clear look at the book's title, 'Developmental Psychology 101'. Ranma wondered why she would be reading something like that, but before she could ask, the mercenary girl spoke up once more.
"Saotome, did you know that it is actually fairly common for a person's first crush to be on someone the same gender as them, even among those who end up preferring a romantic partner of the opposite gender later in life?" Nabiki asked.
"R-Really!?" Ranma exclaimed, as an unexpected wave of relief washed over her.
"Yes. 'Although while not necessarily indicative of gender, childhood crushes do tend to share defining characteristics with those we find romantically appealing as adults,'" Nabiki said, before she snapped the book shut again, and turned to face the redhead once more. "So, the way I see it, the reason you weren't able to stop these visions on your own may have been because part of you didn't want actually want to. Am I wrong? And remember, Saotome, I can only help you if you're honest with me."
Ranma opened her mouth to protest that, but hesitated. Could she really say that Nabiki was wrong? After all, Ranma had known Ryoga was going to kiss her, but it still happened. She knew she could have slipped out of his grasp, or fought him off, or at least struggled. Ranma had blamed it on shock, but shock had not made her kiss him back, and it certainly had not made her enjoy it.
Ranma's silence spoke volumes to Nabiki... and it was just as telling to the person that had overheard the end of their conversation.
As the person who had been eavesdropping hurried out of the house, she decided to return later, once she had sorted out her own thoughts, and pretend like she had heard nothing. For now, she could think of only two words to say to express her shock at what was said.
"Oh my..."
Meanwhile, Ryoga was more lost than ever. Since the day he had left Nerima, there had been little to distract him from the memories of that last day there. He wandered aimlessly, as his own words cycled through his mind. Ryoga knew he could never show his face in Nerima again, not after revealing to Ranma a secret he had buried so deep he had not even admitted it to himself until the magic of the Love Pill made him vocalize it.
He was obsessed with Ranma, and at least part of it had nothing to do with revenge. Perhaps the only thing more haunting than his own admission was the feeling of Ranma's lips pressed against his own.
Shaking his head to clear it, Ryoga spotted a figure tending to a large pig on what he figured to be a farm he was passing. Calling out, he asked, "Excuse me, but can you possibly tell me where I am?"
The figure looked in his direction, as she called out, "Ryoga, is that you?"
Ryoga blinked in surprise, as he asked in turn, "What are you doing in Bolivia, Akari?"
AN: There we go! This chapter's vision was a bit racy, but nothing beyond PG-13, I don't think.
How will Akari's return affect the budding romance? Who overheard Ranma and Nabiki's discussion? Find out in future chapters of 'Yearning'!
