Nabiki sighed as she took her seat in class. The end of summer vacation always came with some melancholy. She had heard once that American students got three whole months off in the summer instead of just five weeks. She envied them deeply; she would have enjoyed a longer honeymoon.

At the start of the break, Ranma and Nabiki asked their fathers if they could get married. Nabiki would never admit it to anyone other than Ranma, but she still feared either he or his father would decide it was time to move on and hit the road again. To reassure her he was in it for the long haul, Ranma suggested they make it official.

There was much blubbering from their elders, and a small ceremony was planned. Nabiki wore her mother's wedding kimono, while Genma actually did get a job with Doctor Tofu, and earned enough money to rent Ranma's outfit. They got married in the dojo in a private ceremony with just the immediate families.

Well, there were a couple of party crashers. Kodachi was her usual annoying self, but she was quickly kicked over the horizon by Akane before too much damage could be done. The other invader showed up during their honeymoon. She required a more deft touch, but was dealt with and sent back to China. Surely that would be the last they saw of Shampoo…

She looked down at her left hand, smiling at the simple ring she now wore. It was silver, and held a small diamond chip. Ranma had picked it out himself, apologizing over and over again that it was so small, but it was all he could afford. She smiled. It wasn't exactly the platinum band with the one-and-a-half-carat solitaire stone she always dreamed about, but she didn't care. It was from him, so it was special enough.

Ranma promised to replace it with a bigger one eventually. She was going to hold him to that, but she could be patient.

The classroom door slammed open hard enough to make it jump its track. It was enough to break Nabiki from her reverie and look over at the doorway. Standing there disheveled and breathing hard was none other than Tatewaki Kuno.

Nabiki blinked in surprise. She had completely forgotten that she had sent Kuno away all those months ago.

He stomped down the row of desks until he loomed over Nabiki, crossing his arms, and looking down at her with barely restrained rage.

Nabiki smirked, leaning to the side, and propping her head with her arm. "Hey, Kuno-chan. Have a nice trip?"

Kuno snorted. "Yes, Hokkaido is so very nice this time of year," he said sarcastically. "The scenery is lovely."

Nabiki examined her fingernails. "Yes, it's much better than in the winter when it's freezing cold and there's meters of snow over your head."

Kuno grunted in acknowledgment. "But do you know what I did not find while I was there?" He leaned down, getting in her face until their noses were almost touching. "The Tree Borne Kettle Girl."

Nabiki widened her eyes in mock surprise. "Oh? How strange!"

Kuno stood again. "She had been there," he admitted. "There were one or two people who said they remembered seeing her when I described her. But nobody had ever heard the name 'Ranko' before."

"Huh." Nabiki would have to ask Ranma about his adventures in Hokkaido later. At least Kuno seemed to think she hadn't lied to him.

Kuno slumped down into his desk. "It was an exhausting journey, and I am pleased to be home. I shall rest for a while before I battle with Saotome once again to learn what he knows about his cousin's whereabouts."

Nabiki chuckled. Who would have thought that she would need to consider Kuno of all people a romantic rival? His sister was bad enough… She briefly considered showing him the curse just so she could savor the deliciousness of his despair at losing to her...

When she had a better idea.

After all, she had managed to get rid of Shampoo. Why not do the same with Kuno?

"Actually, you just missed her," she said. "She was at my wedding." She held up her hand, showing off her ring.

Kuno squinted at her finger, snorting in derision. "Such a stone is more than a whore like yourself deserves," he spat.

Oh, Nabiki was going to make him pay.

"Sure, whatever," she said instead, holding her temper. "Anyway, her mother's doctor apparently told them that what she really needed to recover was a tropical vacation, so after the wedding, they went to Okinawa."

Kuno's eye twitched. "Okinawa?"

Nabiki nodded. "Yes, there's apparently a health resort on Hateruma Island and they were going to go visit it."

Kuno immediately stood, marching to the front of the class where a map of Japan hung on the wall next to the chalkboard. He traced his finger down through the southern islands, further and further, until it finally came to a rest on a tiny speck of an island not far from the coast of Taiwan.

Spinning on his heel, Kuno marched back up the classroom, slamming his hands on Nabiki's desktop, and getting in her face once more. "Are you absolutely certain she said 'Hateruma Island'?"

Nabiki shrugged. "Pretty sure. It might be one of the other islands down there, but I remember her saying 'Hateruma' at least once."

Kuno stood to his full height, staring off to the south. "Then I shall go to her immediately!" He stormed out of the classroom, nearly knocking over the teacher who was coming in.

Nabiki chuckled. She probably could have charged him for the information again, but just having him out of the way would be reward enough. Besides, if he kept missing so much school, he would have to repeat the year, making him no longer her problem!

Ranma and Akane might be miffed about that, but they could handle him.

She got out her notebook and readied her pencil to take notes. Maybe she never considered being married at such a young age, but all in all, she was happy with how things had turned out. The future was looking pretty good for Nabiki Saotome.

Despite the fact that it was the middle of the day, the dojo was dark. The whole family was out, some at school, some at the shops, and some at work. It was the perfect time to make her infiltration.

She leapt up to a high shelf, and settled down behind a trophy, waiting. While she had hated her grandmother for cursing her in the first place, she had to admit that it was useful for getting into places where she wasn't welcome.

She lay her head down on her paws to wait. Nabiki would pay for what she did to her. She didn't care what her grandmother said, she would have Ranma for herself. And nobody would get in her way.

Author's Notes:

Yes, this epilogue was written specifically for that brick joke. I couldn't help myself.

Thank you so much for reading my fic! Ranma 1/2 has held a special place in my heart ever since I read my first fanfic twenty years ago. Even when I've written stories in other fandoms, I kept making references to Ranma, or even using characters from this story as minor characters in those fics. I'm so happy to see many familiar usernames from back then read this story and enjoy it, along with the newer fans who maybe jumped on thanks to the new series. THANK YOU ALL!

I'm sure you all have a thousand questions after this chapter! What happened at the wedding? What's Shampoo doing back at the dojo? Why hasn't Kodachi been committed to an insane assylum yet? (Because she's wealthy, so therefore she's "eccentric" not "crazy")

As I said in the notes for the last chapter: I have ideas for continuing this story dear reader! One such story is going to be the wedding (and honeymoon...) the other is a bit of a "what if" situation. While publishing this story, many commentors guessed that it would be going in a different direction. While I didn't want to change how this story was going to work mid-stream, I liked the idea so much that I decided to make it its own thing...

A HUGE thank you to everyone in my writing channel on The Warehouse Fanfic Server (gJRpMfMEhu). Your enthusiasm and encouragement, your suggestions and your notes, Everything you folks did for me made this story a ton of fun to write! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did writing it!

See you all soon!