Watching the sun rise wasn't anything new to Ranma Saotome. Morning was when his father SAID it was, and there were days when they were done sparring before the sun had even peeked over the horizon.
He moved smoothly through the kata, one motion blending into the next. That being said, usually if he had his way he'd be sleeping until noon. That's the way it was in his life; Sleep as much as you could when you could, eat as much as you could as fast as you could when you could, because you never knew when you'd be hungry and on the run.
There was no Genma Saotome here to toss him out of his bed, though. There was no angry fiancees beating him because another had snuck into his bed. There was no perverted old man splashing him to grope his female side. There was no smells of kasumi's cooking replacing the need to sleep with the need to eat.
So why was he up at the crack of dawn?
I slept enough. If I get tired I can sleep more. Came the honest answer.
He stopped his kata and paused, looking out of the balcony at the sunrise. It was there… an odd sense of… not quite peace. Security. There was no Genma to throw him out of his bed, he was free to rise when he wanted to. There was no scheme to defuse, no perverted master to foil, no rivals or fiancees… so it was okay to just get 'enough'.
Is that all it takes? A couple of days of 'normal'? He wondered. Is this what 'normal' is? Just… having enough?
He shook his head. This weekend was going to make him soft.
He turned and looked back inside. Nabiki was still curled up in her bed. It was a little surprising how small she curled up when she slept. He supposed he shouldn't be noticing that sort of thing about a girl that had no interest in him, but somehow with all of her bravado and attitude, he had expected her to sprawl out on the bed, take full advantage of the large mattress.
He crossed his arms and leaned against the railing, sighing. This weekend was barely started, and he was already questioning things that he had taken for hard facts before. It wasn't even that Nabiki had changed, or that he was privy to some great secret. It was like… she lived in a totally different world from him. He had seen the mercenary schemer, and she still was that, but he had thought that's all she was. He was getting a glimpse now of the side of her that… well, not that she kept hidden, but that simply didn't FIT in his world. Now he was visiting HER world. Laughing, having fun, joking, making friends. Flirting even, just for the fun of flirting, without fear of getting pounded or married off. Spending time with people who didn't want something from you, or have any shared goal, just because it's nice to spend time with other people.
Being able to decide when you wanted to wake up, instead of when you HAD to.
He was starting to feel like he had been cheated of something.
He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Nabiki stirring. He opened the door and headed back in, anticipating collecting her for breakfast. He walked over to the bed and leaned over, grinning at her as she peered blearily up at him. "Hey Nabs. You feeling up to grabbing break-FWUUAAGH!"
The last was cut off as Nabiki grabbing him by the collar and jerked him down to eye level, her bloodshot eyes full of murderous, sleepy rage. "Clear the path between me and my coffee, morning person, or they will never find your body." She roughed shoved him back onto the other bed, and began the slow, laborious process of convincing her limbs to work in tandem long enough to transport her to the hotel room's complimentary coffee pot, and her daily morning salvation.
She swung her legs out from under the bedcovers, stretching, the stretched out, oversized nightshirt she wore hanging off one shoulder as she blearily blinked at the cursed orb of unholy fire that forced her to face consciousness each day. She renewed her vow to one day destroy it and free herself from its tyrannical bright cheerfulness. Carefully she got to her feet and stumbled towards the little alcove by the door where the coffee maker was. Thankfully she had had the foresight to set it up and set the timer beforehand.
She sighed after the first sip, feeling the hot, bitter liquid warm her belly. She gestured vaguely at Ranma. "You. Do soap… thing. In there." She waved at the bathroom. "I need alone time with my coffee."
Ranma snorted, but at her nasty glare thought better of making a further comment, grabbed his towel and the waterproof soap and headed into the bathroom. Nabiki carried her steaming mug out to the balcony Ranma had recently vacated, taking another sip as the caffeine slowly cleared the remaining fog of her return to wretched wakefulness. She looked out over the beach and wondered why she had even bothered to get up this early, then spotted a group setting up a few nets a bit further down the row. She smiled, memory jogged.
That's right. Boys and beach volleyball!
'Breakfast Buffet' was not a thing Nabiki Tendo indulged in often. Partially because such a thing would require she get up early on a day off, but also because every buffet in Nerima had blacklisted them due to the unending appetites of two certain freeloading houseguests.
Thankfully for them, this was not Nerima.
Unfortunately for the owners of the buffet, she was with one of those two houseguests.
Ranma slipped back into his seat with his third overflowing plate, piled high with scrambled eggs, sausage links, bacon, fruit, and french toast. The place served western-style breakfasts, catering mostly to the international tourist crowd. Nabiki had indulged in a small stack of pancakes which had beckoned to her sweet tooth, and weren't something one normally got to have in Japan; She had never had real maple syrup before.
"So what's the plan for today?" Ranma asked around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. "There's… uhh… that beach volleyball tournament they're setting up." He gestured with his fork, trying (and failing) to look nonchalant. "I mean… if you don't got any other plans…"
Nabiki smirked and sipped her coffee. Her third cup, but since it was a vacation she was trying to cut back a little. "Well, there is that. I suppose I could be talked into taking a look. I'm guessing you want to play?"
Ranma's expression was almost like a puppy dog faced with a favorite toy that was dangling just out of reach. He scratched the back of his neck and looked anywhere but at her. "Ummm… well… y'know… I figure if we're already there…"
She chuckled. "Oh just say 'yes' for once, Ranma! We're on vacation! You're allowed to want to do things." She picked up her knife and fork and started in on her pancakes. "To be honest, I was planning on heading over to watch that anyway. There's no need to beat around the bush. Remember what I said about being clear about what you want. You might be pleasantly surprised that someone else might want the same thing. Besides, what were you going to do if I didn't want to? Sneak off to play volleyball and leave me alone to face the vengeful wrath of the beach thugs?" She snatched a strip of bacon off his plate and glared at him as she ate it.
He blinked and stared at her a little confused and dumbfounded.
"Bacon tax." She explained. "I can't charge you yen for saying something stupid this weekend, so it will cost you in bacon." She almost managed to keep her lips from twitching and ruining her deadly serious expression.
There was a moment of dead silence before both of them dissolved into a fit of giggles.
"Oh… Oh Kami…" Ranma gasped for air, holding his gut. "You have to promise me… promise me…That you'll do that to Pops at some point when we get home…!"
She covered her mouth to keep from snorting half-chewed bacon. "It isn't… ~snicker~... It's not THAT funny Saotome…"
"It is! It's… it's the standard Nabiki Mercenary 'This Will Cost You' face… p-plus… plus the bacon…" She schooled his expression with a bit of a struggle, then stared her in the eye, scowling a bit, one eyebrow slightly upraised in a stern, authoritative expression. He snapped out his hand, as if demanding payment, then an instant later smoothly swiped it around to snatch a strip of bacon off his plate, whereupon he started angrily eating it, all the while maintaining the stern moneylender impression.
Nabiki dissolved into giggles again, though part of her noted she should probably be offended. "I do NOT look like that!" She then quickly schooled her own expression to what she assumed was her typical haughty, bemused scowl, and copied his 'bacon-lending' gesture, sending him into renewed fits as she munched another strip of bacon. This kicked off an impromptu match of 'Anything Goes Bacon-Lending', which quickly depleted Ranma's plate.
Nabiki held her stomach as they trudged through the sand towards the volleyball courts.
"You okay, Nabs?" Ranma peeked over at her, towel slung over his shoulder.
"Ugh… Too much Bacon-lending." She muttered. "Next time I accept a challenge from you, remind me to make it something less fattening."
He snorted. "You started it!" But he found he couldn't wipe the grin off his face. A stray thought occurred to him, in a brief moment of insight. You know… that sort of thing would never have happened with Akane. She would have gotten mad if I teased her like that and… Oh… His face suddenly fell.
It was Nabiki's turn to give him a searching look. "Are YOU okay? I didn't think the Great Ranma Saotome could be brought low by a half plate of bacon."
He shook his head. "No, it's not… Look, I'm sorry." He jammed his hands into his swim trunk pockets, his head dropping.
"For what?"
"For… y'know…" He pulled a hand out to gesture as he searched for the words. "... teasing you. Being mean, I guess."
Nabiki snorted, putting a hand on his shoulder to stop him as she doubled over a moment in mirth. "Being mean…?" She paused, noticing the look on his face. "... Wait… you're serious."
"Well… Akane would have malleted me back to Nerima for making fun of her like that." He said nervously, wondering if he should have just kept his mouth shut.
"Well, yeah, but I'm not Akane!" Nabiki replied. "Anyone who knows her… Including you… knows she gets all triggered when someone teases her. But not EVERYONE is like that." She put a hand on her hip. "Alright, lesson 2 for getting along with people. After you've figured out how to lie effectively, you have to know your audience, and figure out what will fly and what won't." She fixed Ranma with a stern look. "Pay attention, Saotome, this is where you keep screwing up with my sister. AND a lot of your rivals. And pretty much every other random person we bump into."
"Hey! I'm not THAT bad!" Ranma protested, though he was a little unclear what he was protesting ABOUT.
"Yes, you ARE, Ranma!" Nabiki said sharply. Then her expression softened. "Which is a shame, because when you behave, you're actually kind of a nice guy. The problem is you've got exactly ONE social setting; 'Insulting.'"
"I DO NOT!" He protested more loudly this time. "I've been FINE this whole weekend…"
She put her hand over his mouth. Just lightly, but the gesture was such an unexpected, alien thing that his vocal cords simply tripped over themselves and got tangled up. "You've been FINE because you aren't that way with ME, and that's because you CAN learn, if someone provides the proper instruction." She removed her hand. "See, everyone else reacts to your insults and posturing and boasting with physical violence, and you do that for fun, so that just makes you WORSE. Even when you WANT to stop, you just keep going because it's what you know how to do." She smirked. "But me? I hit you in your soft, squishy, vulnerable pocketbook. So you behave with ME."
"But… the bacon-lending thing…"
"THAT was a little light teasing. It just FELT dangerous to you, because you DON'T tease me much, and you fear the consequences." She closed her eyes and raised a finger in her favorite lecturing pose. "Seriously, have you EVER insulted my figure, or questioned my femininity, like you do with Akane?"
"Well, no, I…" Ranma frowned, then looked Nabiki over. Really looked, with a critical eye. She was wearing that blue two piece swimsuit, cut high on her hips. Despite not being a martial artist, she kept in good shape. Long legs, well toned thighs… flat tummy, despite her protests about fattening breakfast challenges, though she still had a softness to her that the more athletic girls lacked... up to her MORE than ample…
He slapped a hand over his eyes by reflex, flushing brightly and quickly looking away. "I wouldn't have anything to insult you about...! I mean, I never looked...! I mean, not that I wouldn't look…! I DON'T KNOW!"
Nabiki blinked, then blushed a little, realizing what he had been doing. A small smile crossed her lips, and she took his other arm, looping hers around it and gently leading him towards the volleyball courts again. "Alright, Saotome. You get a strip of bacon off your tab for that one."
Ranma peeked through his fingers at her. "What? Why?!"
"When you figure THAT out, you get another strip of bacon."
"Couples' volleyball?!"
Nabiki and Ranma had stumbled into Asahi and Chiyako at the lineup at the sign in table. Nabiki had planned to help Ranma get signed up, then settle in to watch the show.
"Yeah. It's apparently a yearly event. We did it last year." Chiyako said, beaming. "It's not really a serious tourney. The judges assign handicaps to the players if they think any teams are too unbalanced. Mostly it's just an excuse to flail about and get rewarded for willing to be clumsy and uncoordinated in public."
"Well, that lets YOU out Saotome." Nabiki smirked.
"Hey!" Ranma reflexively protested, then paused, a look of confusion on his face as his furrowed his brow. "Wait… Was that an insult or a compliment?"
"Like I said, they handicap you." Asahi said. "Last year they made me tie my good arm behind my back for a couple of matches. They randomize it a bit too. We saw one match where they had both teams dress in those novelty sumo suits they use on Takeshi's Castle."
"They also don't always go by the score." Chiyako continued. "They had one father/daughter team progress through as 'cutest' couple…"
"To be fair, she was six, and the most adorable thing EVER." Asahi added.
"... Even though they couldn't score a single point."
"Basically, it goes by whomever the crowd likes."
Nabiki pinched her chin between her thumb and forefinger. "Well, that's not exactly what I was expecting…" Not sure if Ranma would even WANT to play. Doing stuff 'just for fun' isn't exactly his sty-
"Sounds like fun!" Ranma said, grinning. Nabiki gaped, but she could already see the gears in his head turning, as he started formulating some insane Anything Goes-brand strategy to win.
"Oh really?" She crossed her arms. "And who exactly is going to be your partner in this, Ranma? Because this is a couple's match, and volleyball isn't exactly my thing!"
His eyes sparkled with inspiration, and a mischief she couldn't quite identify. "That's the best part, Nabs. You aren't gonna hafta do anything at all!"
"What are you plotting, Saotome?" She hissed as he lead her out onto the sandy court. Ranma had signed them up despite her protests, and her repeated assurances that she had NO intention of exerting herself for this simply seemed to make his grin bigger.
"This is basically a show, right? Judges pick the winner based on the audience rather than the points?" He held up a finger, insufferable smirk plastered across his face. "So we just gotta give 'em a show. Just leave that to me. Just stay relaxed, and don't freak out when it starts, I won't let you get hurt, okay?"
"Hurt!? Ranma, what…?!"
The loudspeaker chose that moment to blare to life. "What are these people running from? They're not! They're running TO the World's Toughest Competition in Town!"
"MOST EXTREME VOLLEYBALL CHALLENGE!"
Nabiki and Ranma both blinked in perfect unison.
"And now here are your hosts, Kenny Blankenship and Vic Romano!"
Nabiki's eyes widened as she reflexively took a step back. She was IN the Madness! Rule One of Nerima Survival was you never, EVER went into the Madness! You watched from the sidelines of the Madness! You set odds and took bets on the Madness! You photographed the Madness for posterity! You never, ever participated!
"Nabiki, you okay?" Ranma put a hand on her shoulder, noticing her nervousness.
"Ranma, I shouldn't be here." She hissed. "I'm not a martial artist! This is going to end up being some kind of crazy Anything Goes deathmatch, and people are going to be flying all over, and… and…" She paused. "And why are the other team hot dogs?"
Sure enough, the opposing couple walked proudly out onto the court, wearing matching hot dog costumes.
"We've got a great show for everyone here Vic!"
"That's right Kenny! It's the battle of the ages, 'Shameless Game Show Contestants' versus their longtime rivals 'Relationship Counselling Escapees'. A blood feud that has been going on for decades now."
"I had to go to my doctor to get tests done for a blood feud once."
"Oh? What was the blood feud about?"
"Which family I belonged to. Neither side wanted to admit I was a relative."
"Relax Nabiki, this isn't Nerima." Ranma replied. "Asahi told me they have a tradition here of doing a theme of Japanese shows that the Americans did weird stuff too. Last year's theme was something called Samurai Pizza Cats."
"Pizza Cats…?" Nabiki scrunched up her face, wondering how on earth they got that from ANYTHING Japanese. "What the hell, America?"
He smirked. "Weird, right? Anyway, no martial artists or crazy ghosts or stupid love pills. Just goofy game show announcers."
She crossed her arms, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "When exactly did you learn all this, anyway?"
"When I was in the lineup, when you were still complaining to Chiyako how volleyball wasn't your 'thing'." Ranma said, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he warmed up, the grin on his face betraying exactly how much he was enjoying having one up on her in the information department for once.
"Entering the court now for the Game Show Contestants are Jenny and Phillip Babagadoosh, who have managed to get themselves banned from every gameshow on the Pacific Rim for inappropriate use of answer buzzers."
"That's right, Kenny. Facing them are Ataru Moroboshi, and Lum, the alien girl who kidnapped him."
"Ah, better relationships through Stockholm Syndrome., eh Kenny?"
"We're WHO now?" Nabiki boggled.
"Who knows?" Ranma moved over next to her. "Okay, when the match starts, just stay loose, okay? I'll take care of everything."
"How?!" She hissed back. "You haven't told me what you're planning!"
The hotdogs got first serve. Impressively, despite her awkward costume, the girl managed to get the ball in the air and serve it halfway competently. Nabiki watched the ball arc over the net to their side of the court, unsure what exactly she was supposed to do.
Ranma ran over to it… and slipped in the sand.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. Usually Ranma wasn't so clumsy…
Ranma flailed, and his arm coincidentally hit the incoming ball, sending it back up into the air, in a high graceful arc to precisely where Nabiki was standing. She blinked, then readied herself, trying to remember what she knew about volleyball from high school gym class.
"Hey Nabiki."
Nabiki looked down, blinking in surprise. Ranma was right in front of her, nose a few inches from her own. She yelped and started backwards.
Ranma grabbed both her hands and looked into her eyes. "I have something important to tell you." He said, his tone serious.
"Ehhh? Ranma…?!"
Suddenly Ranma lifted her hands up over her head. She felt the volleyball hit her wrists, sending it back up into the air.
Ranma grinned. "Thanks!"
Nabiki gaped for half a second. Then she ripped her hands from his grip and roughly pushed him away. "Damnit, Saotome!"
Ranma rolled with the push, letting himself fall onto his back. He kicked upwards, connecting with the volleyball one last time, and sending it just over the net to the other side.
The male hot dog was gaping the whole time, and watched dumbly as the ball hit him square in the face.
"Oh, and Phil gets a ball lightly bumping him on the chin! That brings us to 1-0 for the Relationship Counselling Escapees!"
"Looks like they might want to get recaptured at this point Vic."
"Right you are, Kenny."
Nabiki stomped towards Ranma as he got up. She got right into his face, feeling a brief moment of satisfaction as his self-satisfied smirk dissolved into a look of apprehension and fear. "What the hell was that, Saotome?!"
"I… Chiyako said they judged this stuff based on crowd reaction, so I was just playing it up a little." Ranma backed away a step, but Nabiki stayed right with him.
"You used me as a prop!" She hissed, her fists balled up. She now understood Akane's deep and abiding need to hit him so frequently.
"Just your hands! You said you didn't want to play soIwasjusttakingcareofitpleasedon'thitme!" Ranma backed up to the post holding up the net, eyes wide with fear.
Nabiki realized what she was doing, how it would look to Ranma's thoroughly Akane-trained mind. She forced herself to relax, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Vacation weekend. He's just having fun. He didn't actually cross any lines. He did exactly what you told him to do.
She opened her eyes and fixed him with a hard look. "Alright, new ground rule, Saotome, and this one sticks even once we get home."
Ranma swallowed nervously.
"Anytime… and I mean anytime you have a brilliant plan… no matter HOW clever you think it is… you run it by me, first. Got it?" She poked his chest to emphasize her point. "Especially if it involves me."
"I-I-I… okay…?" Ranma blinked, not entirely sure how to process a response that WASN'T violence.
Nabiki sighed a bit as she mentally stepped back and took a good look at his instinctive cowering. Sweet Kami, Ranma. You just don't know how to respond to someone being cross with you, do you? Just straightening out that ALONE would be a project! You are a lifetime of work just waiting for whichever poor girl finally catches you. "THIS TIME… you get a pass. That actually was fairly clever. But manhandling me without my permission was NOT. So next time, ask."
Ranma nodded dumbly, still eying Nabiki nervously. His mind tried to come up with an intelligent strategy for dealing with the situation, but he just wasn't accustomed to being faced with an angry female who was being reasonable, and not immediately accusing him of the worst possible motivations. He swallowed, realizing he had in fact invited those sorts of accusations with his antics, without any thought to the aftermath. At this point he would normally have either fled, been attacked by another fiancee or rival, or been knocked unconscious by a table or other blunt force implement. He wracked his brain for the proper response when those things didn't happen, eventually dredging up a barely remembered instruction from his mother from when he was six years old.
"I'm… Sorry Nabiki and… uh… it won't happen again." He offered the apology tentatively, not sure if he was doing it right.
A smiled tugged at the corners of Nabiki's mouth. "Well, well… There's manners buried in there somewhere after all! Alright… You're forgiven, Ranma. But just because this is your freebie weekend, got it?"
"Uh… yeah, got it."
"So? What's your idea for topping this for the next match?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips.
Ranma flushed a little. He hadn't actually thought this far ahead. "You don't think more of the same would work?"
Nabiki rubbed her chin. "No, you've got a good direction here, but… needs some escalation to keep it going." She spied something by the side of the court and walked over, kneeling to pick it up. It was a wooden mallet, used to drive the net stays into the sand during setup. "Here's an idea… We could use your usual fiancee routine."
"I thought you weren't gonna hit me!" Ranma protested, eying the mallet nervously.
Nabiki snorted. "I'm not, and knowing your thick head I'd just hurt my wrist doing it. No, I mean, we start out the same as before, but then I start chasing you around with the mallet, and we use that, with you doing some of that Drunken Master puppeteering to make sure I'm hitting the ball right. I'll run around and chase you ineffectually, playing the 'angry outraged girlfriend', while you use that to set up the ball return."
Ranma shook his head. "I dunno, Nabs… It feels a little close to the mark."
"C'mon, Saotome, what could possibly go wrong?"
"So… you lost in the second round?" Chiyako asked in disbelief.
"I don't want to talk about it." Nabiki said, grousing.
Nabiki, Ranma, Chiyako and Asahi were in the lineup for the concessions. Turns out all participants in the tourney were entitled to free food for the day.
"Well, I mean… what were we gonna do?" Ranma sighed. Ranma Saotome never lost… except when facing something that was literally impossible to defeat. "I mean, it was a toddler AND a puppy…"
"They weren't even contestants!" Nabiki huffed angrily, arms crossed, grinding her teeth in frustration. She had found out after the fact there had been prize money on the line.
"I think they just wandered in from the stands, and the announcers went with it." Ranma said glumly. "I mean, a toddler OR a puppy, maybe… but a toddler AND a puppy?"
"It was completely, totally, and inexcusably unfair!" Nabiki muttered.
"The part where she cried for her Mama and ran to you was cute, though." Ranma noted, grinning a bit as Nabiki flushed several fetching shades of red.
"I hate you, Saotome." She muttered under her breath.
"Awww! I wouldn't have even minded losing if that happened to me!" Chiyako said. "I love kids!" She sighed wistfully. "It's going to be so many years until I can have any of my own."
"You've awoken the beast." Asahi said, his voice dead and flat, his eyes straight forward. "You know not the horrors you have unleashed."
"I mean, medical degrees take SO LONG, not to mention internships… it'll be a decade or more until I can even THINK about having children. I feel so guilty knowing how unfair that is to poor Asahi."
"I refuse to be included in this. I cite Common Article Three of the Geneva Convention, forbidding torture or cruel and inhumane treatment." Asahi replied, keeping his eyes dead ahead.
"I'm so tempted to just quit school altogether, so we can elope and start a family." She grabbed onto Asahi's arm, leaning against him. "Wouldn't that be wonderful, Asahi? We'd be poor, but so happy and in love…"
"This is a drug for her, you know." Asahi muttered, turning his head slightly to look at Ranma and Nabiki. "I almost let her do it once, and when she snapped out of it and realized she was about to resign from her classes, she described to me in exquisite medical detail how she would go about castrating me if I ever let her go through with it."
"But Asahi, wouldn't be wonderful?" She looked up at him with big, watery eyes.
"Anything I say now can and will be used against me."
"I know your mother would be so happy she could finally plan our wedding. AND plan for grandchildren!"
"Murder me now. Please. Doesn't matter how. Something rusty and dull would be fine. Just end the pain."
"You are SO not any fun!" Chiyako huffed and slapped him on the arm. "Any time I want to talk about this sort of stuff!" She looked over at Nabiki and Ranma. "I know you two are a bit young to discuss it, but have you ever thought about it? Having kids I mean?"
"N-no! I mean…" Nabiki looked at Ranma wildly, her eyes demanding he give her a reasonable out.
"I mean, Nabs still has to go to college, and I've got… uhh… dojo stuff…" Ranma added nervously.
"That's right! Ranma still need to get his teaching license!"
Ranma blinked and looked at her. "Wait… I need a license to teach at the Dojo?"
"Yes you need a license but now isn't the time to discuss it DEAR." Nabiki hissed back harshly.
"Well, you'll still probably get there sooner than me." Chiyako said sadly. "You HAVE to let me come babysit when you do! Any kids you two have will be adorable! If I can't at least be someone's auntie, I won't make it through pre med!"
"Please… I can only buy her off with plushies for so long." Asahi muttered miserably.
"Uh… sure Chi." Ranma said absently, glad to have an easy way out of the conversation.
"Ranma…" Nabiki growled warningly.
"Uh…! I mean, I don't think we'll need a babysitter…"
"Ranma…" Nabiki turned to look at him, fixing him with an incredulous, angry stare.
"I… I mean, we're not going to have any kids! Beca-OOOFF!" Ranma was cut off by the wind rushing out of his lungs as Nabiki elbowed him hard in the ribs.
"What Ranma means is that he is an idiot, and will be shutting up now. Right dear?" Nabiki growled at him, before turning to give Asahi and Chiyako a sunny smile.
Ranma nodded dumbly, rubbing his injured side.
"Hey, look! A distraction!" Asahi said, pointing at the hot dog counter they had just reached.
College and Dojo stuff, huh? Nabiki folded her arms under her chin as she regarded her hot dog, as if it held all the answers, and was stubbornly withholding that information.
"You… gonna eat that Nabiki?" Ranma asked, glancing over at her as he settled back down on the picnic table bench, having just gotten back from going for seconds. Or thirds.
She picked it up and offered it to him. "Go nuts, Saotome."
"Thanks!" He took it, and happily started wolfing it down. After a few bites, he paused. "Hey… uh… is everything okay?"
"What DO you plan to do after you graduate high school, Ranma?" Nabiki asked, looking out across the beach at the ocean.
"Uhhh… Well…" He took another bite of the hot dog to give himself time to organize his thoughts. "I dunno… That teaching license thingy would probably be a good idea."
"Hmph." Nabiki blew aside an errant strand of hair with a puff of breath. "You didn't even KNOW about that until I mentioned it today. And if you don't marry a Tendo… and trust me, you're NOT marrying a Tendo unless you patch things up with Akane… You aren't going to have a dojo to teach in."
"Oh…" Ranma seemed to deflate a bit. "I guess you're right. I guess I was just sort of used to the idea. You know, it being what Pops and Mr. Tendo expect and all."
"Forget what they expect, Ranma. Mr. Saotome and Daddy aren't exactly the best long-term planners." Nabiki turned a bit to look at him. "What do YOU want?" She held up a hand. "I don't mean like, 'this is your choice for the future' kinda thing. Forget that. Off the top off your head… where do you want to go in life?"
Ranma studied his half-eaten hot dog again, turning it in his hand as if never having seen one before now, his brow furrowed in concentration. Finally he sighed and took a bite. "You'll call me stupid."
"I won't. Promise. On pain of forfeiting your entire bacon tab." She put a hand over her heart, raising the other in a mock pledge.
Ranma snorted. "You know what I really want? For stuff to not have to change. I don't WANT a future, I don't WANT any 'go from here'. I want what I have… what I HAD, I guess… Right now. Before me an' Akane… you know…" He sighed.
Nabiki gave him a confused look, studying his face. She could tell the difference between when he was being thoughtless and stupid, and when he was deadly serious, and this was the latter. "What, you LIKE all the chaos?"
"No!" He protested, then sighed and shrank a bit. "Well… maybe some of it. It's interesting, and kinda fun when it isn't too serious. But… Look at it from my perspective; I spent my whole life on the road. Like… ALL of it. Just me an' Pops. Never bein' sure if I was gonna have a roof over my head, or enough to eat… or ANYTHIN' to eat. No friends, no chance for anything to ever get familiar… Never havin' anywhere that felt like 'home'. Havin' people look at me with this sad look, like I was some homeless kid. 'Cuz I WAS, really… I think I hated the pity the worst. I hated myself for takin' advantage of it when I was hungry." He scowled a bit at the memory.
"And then we arrive at the Tendo Dojo." He said softly. "And suddenly… I've got a home. I can go to school every day, and know that home will still be there when I get back, instead of Pops havin' t'move camp because the cops told him to move along. I've got food, and clean clothes, and a warm place to sleep that doesn't leak. And there are other martial artists around… people who understand, you know? People like me, so that I'm not a… I'm not a freak. Even with the curse, 'cuz there are people who have THOSE, too. And sure they try and kill me sometimes, or marry me… but other times they don't, and they're there… and just knowing there are people I could talk to… who GET IT… That's huge." He toyed with a paper plate on the table, picking it up and spinning it on his finger. "And then… then I get my best friend back! Sure, turns out she's a girl, and wants to marry me too, but… I get Ucchan back. And Ryouga, and Shampoo, and… it's like everyone I ever met on all my travels who was worth a damn all in one place. And then… and then I got Mom back too."
He sighed and put the plate down. "You know that feeling you get? Like… like the first time you try an ice cream parfait… and it's this thing you never knew existed before, but suddenly you can't live without it? That's what my life has been this last year. It hasn't always been happy… sometimes it's been downright miserable… but… I didn't even know what happy WAS until came to the Dojo. I didn't know what 'safe' felt like. I didn't know what 'alone' was until I wasn't anymore." It was his turn to give the waves a melancholy stare. "You wanna know what I want? You wanna know why I never picked a girl, or did anything to really discourage 'em… why I tried so hard to get Shampoo back during that whole Reversal Jewel thing? Why I didn't just go back to China myself and get cured? Because I didn't want it to end. Because if things stayed how they were, even though I'd get beat up, or made to look stupid, or frustrated… I'd get to be happy too. So THAT'S what I want." His eyes fell. "And I'm already losing it. So… I guess I don't really care what comes next. The good part is already over. I can't have what I want, and I was stupid for wanting it."
Nabiki was not inclined to hug people. But hearing Ranma's take on things, the tone of resigned defeat… She had always thought Ranma just liked the attention of being the centre of a love polydecahedron, she had never taken the time to consider Ranma's background, or how that might give him a unique perspective on things, or that his waffling on settling all his rivalries and fiancee issues was something deeper than just spineless indecision.
Of course, Nabiki was NOT inclined to hug people. She had a ready list of reasons what it was a bad idea, both in general, and with specific annotations for each person she knew to outline why hugging them in particular wasn't a good idea. Ranma's list alone was several pages worth.
And as she put her hand on his shoulder, turned him to face her, and wrapped her arms around him to hug him tightly, she promised herself she would review that list, and remind herself thoroughly why what she was doing right now was a bad idea. Hugging people was absolutely not something Nabiki, Ice Queen of Furinkan, could EVER been seen doing.
But this was her 'Normal' weekend, and for right now, she was just 'Normal' Nabiki. And maybe… just this once… it was okay to hug someone.
Ranma naturally froze up solid.
"Relax, Ranma." She said, squeezing gently. "Just a hug. Not a glomp, not a marriage proposal. Not an attack or a trick. Normal weekend, remember? Normal people hug."
She felt his arms tentatively move around her. Almost like he wasn't sure exactly where things were supposed to go. She tried to remember if she had ever seen Ranma get a simple hug before, one that returning in any way wouldn't get him killed, and realized she had never seen it happen. Not once.
"Why?" He asked softly. Nabiki proceeded to move on to the corollary chapters about hugging Ranma specifically pertaining to taking any and all opportunities to escape said hug and flagged them for future review as well as she proceeded to hug him a little tighter, rather than immediately letting go.
"Because I felt like it." She said. She finally loosened her squeeze and leaned back a bit to look at him. "Look, Ranma… I'm the LAST person to blow smoke up someone's ass. You know that, right? So… trust me when I say… Nerima is NOT the best things are going to get for you. In fact… They're kinda crappy, by any objective measure. You've got so much potential that… well… it's a little infuriating, because you don't seem to have any idea what to DO with it all. But trust me when I say that you've got everything you need to be happy, you just gotta go out and find what makes you happy."
"But…" Ranma's eyes dipped, darting back and forth as if trying to make sense of an unfamiliar book. "I mean, what if I can't? I mean, what if other stuff comes before bein' happy?"
Damnit Saotome, don't make me hug you again! "Ranma… NOTHING comes before being happy. That's the point of living."
At this point the two of them both simultaneously realized they were VERY close to one another, and looking into each other's eyes in a way that could be misinterpreted as being entirely more intimate than they were comfortable with, and they quickly scooted apart.
"Oh, hey, we're not interrupting, are we?" Asahi familiar voice causes them both to turn away from each other and blush. Asahi and chiyako were both approaching, carrying a couple of ice cream cones each.
Chiyako elbowed him. "Asahi! Don't embarrass them! They were having a moment!"
"For that, I am sorry. I bring Ice Cream of Shame and Sorrow, with which to express my deepest regret." Asahi bowed slightly, handing one ice cream cone to Ranma, the other to Nabiki. He then took one of the ones Chiyako was holding for himself.
"Nice!" Ranma gladly took the cone, then paused. "'Ice cream of Shame and Sorrow?' What, because it's unmanly or something?"
Asahi barely avoided snorting frozen dairy treat through his sinuses. "Unmanly? Since when is ice cream unmanly?"
"Well… Pops always told me that real men didn't eat ice cream."
"If ice cream is unmanly, then manliness is no longer a worthy goal." Asahi said solemnly.
Ranma looked pensive as he ate his ice cream.
"We've invited a few more people over to the campfire for tonight." Chiyako said. "Going to have a clam bake. You two ARE coming, right?"
"Translation: Chiyako has agreed to cook for something like twenty people, and is now panicking and looking for cooking assistants." Asahi said dryly, earning him another elbow to the ribs.
"I'm… afraid I don't know anything about cooking seafood." Nabiki admitted carefully. The truth was she didn't know anything about cooking anything, but she felt a little awkward admitting that.
"I can help." Ranma said.
There was dead silence from the other three as they looked at him in surprise.
"What?" Ranma looked to each of them. "It's beach campfire cooking, right? Me and Pops used to do clam bakes all the time, when there wasn't a red tide 'er nuthin. Have you got all the stuff yet?"
Chiyako fidgeted. "I've got all the seafood, and Itsuki and Yuto dug the fire pit this morning, but I thought I should wait on getting the seaweed so it didn't dry out."
Ranma nodded. "All right. We should grab a cooler or something to carry it in. we'd better get started, for 20 people we'll need a lot."
"So where did you learn how to do this?" Chiyako watched in awe as Ranma worked. After a long trek hunting down seaweed a decent distance from the more inhabited parts of the beach, he had returned to inspect the fire pit. Declaring it insufficient, he had set about expertly rearranging the stones on the metal grill covering the wood fire, and fanning it to get the stones glowing red hot. The rest of their small group was gathered around watching.
"There was this guy pops and I met on our travels. It was… oh, four or five years ago. He was a wandering martial artist too, from… Well, he said he was American, but then he said he was from 'New England', so… is that in America? Had this THICK accent so it was tough to understand him. Said 'Yar' a lot." Finally satisfied with the glow of the stones, Ranma snuffed the fire carefully, and started laying wet seaweed over the rocks. "He showed us how to do this in exchange for use teachin' him some of Pops' techniques."
"A wandering martial artist who says 'Yar'?" Chiyako cocked her head.
"Yeah. He was some kind of Shinobi, but he wore a bandanna on his head, and an eyepatch. He had this parrot that kept sayin' stuff in English. Said it was 'Buccaneer-style Ninjutsu.'"
"Hold up." Asahi held up a hand. "Are you telling us you learned how to do an authentic New England clam bake from a literal Pirate-Ninja?"
"I… guess?" Ranma rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"I am not sure I can legitimately call Yuto weird after that." Asahi said. "HEY YUTO!" he called back to the campsite. "GOOD NEWS!"
"WHAT? YOU HAVE TO SPEAK UP, ASAHI!" Yuto yelled back. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU, I HAVE BUTTER ON MY FACE!"
"Aaand nevermind." Asahi concluded, sighing.
"Do you cook anything else, Ranma?" Chiyako asked, watching as Ranma piled alternate layers of shellfish and seaweed on the glowing hot stones.
"Not much. I do a decent vegetable stir fry." Ranma admitted. "And I guess my omelettes aren't bad. Mostly learned in self-defense, since Pop's tastebuds are dead, and if it was up to him we'd be eating campfire rice and cabbage every night."
Asami sidled up beside him. "So… you're a world class martial artist?"
Ranma grinned and puffed out his chest. "Yup!"
"Who can improvise complex choreography on the fly…"
"Errr… I guess?"
"And you can cook?" She finished, an unsettling predatory look in her eye.
"... Yyyyes?" Ranma finished tentatively, not sure where this was going.
"Do you have an older brother?" She asked, leaning close enough to cause him to lean back and away.
"Asami…" Itsuki grumbled warningly.
"Twin brother, perhaps?"
"Asami." Itsuki's tone was louder.
"Younger brother, even?"
"Asami!" Itsuki clapped a hand on her shoulder.
"What?" She looked up at him innocently. "I have girlfriends in need!"
"Right." Itsuki scowled. "'Girlfriends'"
Asami straightened and put her hands on her hips, scowling right back. "And what is that supposed to mean?!"
"Well, you ARE kinda gushing on and on about Ranma here. I like to think i'm not an insecure guy, but come ON, Asami!" He replied, crossing his arms.
"Do you honestly think I would try and poach a high schooler away from his girlfriend right in front of her!?" Asami demanded, getting redder in the face and stomping.
"Well, maybe his little brother."
"Says the guy who's been hitting on anything and everything female all weekend!"
Nabiki glanced over at Ranma, who seemed to be drawing in on himself more and more with each exchange. She had to admit, this WAS a little too close to home. She got up, silently grabbed Ranma by the arm and dragged him up and away from the group.
Ranma yelped and protested, but didn't fight her as she hauled him away. Asami and Itsuki were far too deep into their spat to notice, and despite Asahi and Chiyako's guilty looks, they didn't intervene. Ranma wasn't entire sure what he had done wrong THIS time, but he was pretty sure it was something. "Look, Nabiki, it's not what you think…!"
She stopped, releasing his arm and turned to him. Rather than the flushed look of rage he was expecting, she looked more… concerned? "You okay?" She asked, cocking her head. "I know that probably triggered some nasty fiancee flashbacks…"
Ranma opened his mouth, then closed it after a minute realizing nothing was coming out as his brain spun out in place, again trying to find the appropriate response in a situation where he was expecting to end up mallet salad, but wasn't. "Umm… I'm… fine? I don't know what I did…"
Nabiki scoffed. "You didn't DO anything. Trust me, on the shopping trip yesterday Itsuki was pretty much doing the same thing to me, with the same fight happening about halfway through. If they follow form, they'll have made up before the mussels are cooked through." She crossed her arms. "It's apparently just the sort of relationship they have. I think they like the 'making up' part of having a fight."
Ranma sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Socializing is confusing."
Nabiki chuckled. "Ranma, they're college students. It's like… a white belt sparring with black belts. Don't be too worried if you get thrown a lot, you're mostly just here to learn from observing."
Ranma considered that. "Socializing is a martial art?"
"Oh, it's the oldest Martial art, Ranma. And it's the one I've been studying all my life." She winked. "So pay attention, and I might teach you a few things."
On impulse, Ranma clapped his hands to his sides and formally bowed to her. "Yes, sensei!"
She smiled and ruffled his hair. "Don't be cute, Saotome, or I might get attached." She turned and walked back to the group.
Ranma froze in position, a ruffled lock of hair falling over his eyes. Wait, what did she say? Why did she say that?
Nabiki walked a little more quickly back to the group than she intended, chewing on her thumb, a disturbed look on her face. Wait, what did I say? Why did I say that?!
Itsuki and Asami seemed suitable chastised by the time they returned, Chiyako and Asahi having taking it upon themselves to read them the riot act. Ranma felt a little embarrassed by the necessity, but he found framing it how Nabiki had, with social interaction being a martial art, it made it easier to process. Older students chastising their peers for being too rough with the beginners. He thought. It rankled him a bit to think of himself as a beginner, but it was a lot easier to swallow than the idea of just being awkward. It meant if he paid attention and studied their strange new art, he could master it like any other discipline.
He decided to do just that, paying attention to Nabiki in particular, and how she navigated interacting with the others. There WAS a kind of flow to it, advance and retreat, parries and ripostes. He realized she was completely at ease with the older youths in the group. Advanced student he thought. No wonder she was able to so effortlessly tie everyone around her into knots!
She smiled at something someone said, and he found himself smiling too. He quickly covered it by sipping his beer, blushing a little. There was a downside to observing Nabiki TOO closely, and that was he was finding her interesting in more ways than just watching her practise her art. He had learned early on it was a BAD idea to allow himself to focus on any one girl too much. Showing interest… or indeed even allowing himself to BE interested… was deadly. If he allowed himself to notice how they looked, how Ukyou had started filling out her chef's uniform, how maddeningly accident prone everything Shampoo wore seemed to be, how Akane looked when the wind played with her hair, he would be instantly and immediately packaged up and married off to said girl. Having a girl side of his own helped, blunted the sense of forbidden mystery girl's bodies had for most boys his age, but it still required almost constant mental discipline. NOT thinking about something was extremely hard, especially when it was rubbing up against him and smelled of lilac perfume and ramen.
He shook his head to clear it. He had let his guard down this weekend, and it was causing him to notice a lot of things he had never allowed himself to notice before. He had had moments where he had let his guard slip… usually with Akane, but there had been times with the others too… And for a moment he would see them with the eyes of a teenage boy. He'd normally cover it up frantically with a stream of insults, or blurting out something stupid, or whatever it took to get himself hit to end the moment.
Nabiki hadn't been someone he'd had to focus too hard on not noticing, simply because she was usually always on the periphery. That one time the engagement had been switched to her she had been a bit… distracting, but that had been muted by her relentless exploitation of him.
But now…?
She seemed… almost genuinely concerned about him. Yeah, she had stated up front that she was just using him this weekend to deflect jerks like Fauxhawk and his cronies or get herself an 'in' with the cool college kids, but… that aside, she seemed to honestly care about how he felt. She said she just didn't want me bringing her weekend down with my moping. He went back to watching her. But… since when did Nabiki care if I was miserable?
He saw her flash her confident smirk to Itsuki as she expounded on something, probably deflecting another of the boy's attempts at being 'suave' judging by Asami's dark expression. Usually that smirk was a terrifying thing, signalling impending financial doom. But… having it on his side for once, he found himself appreciating it.
She's pretty. He thought. You wouldn't think that was any big revelation, but for him it was a huge peek out from under his blinders, to allow himself to actually subjectively observe a girl, and acknowledge she was attractive to him.
He dropped his eyes, studying his beer. It felt like he was peeping on her doing that. Girls were a distraction from the art anyway. That's what Pops had always said. At least, up until he wanted to marry him off for whatever reason. THEN he was expected to know how to handle them.
He sighed, and crushed the beer can with perhaps a little more force than was necessary. As nice as having a glimpse at how 'normal' people lived was, it just drove home how NOT normal things were for him.
The sun was starting to set, and a number of other people had gathered for the bake. He had gotten complimented on his cooking numerous times by people he didn't even know, but for once he wasn't in the mood for praise. He wasn't even really hungry, a picked at paper plate full of shellfish sitting on the log next to him.
What do I want?
His eyes flicked back over to Nabiki. The source of all these questions he had never bothered to ask before. His impromptu sensei on how to be a normal person.
He glanced over at the improvised dance area near the bonfire, where couples were dancing to whatever happened to be playing on Asahi's portable stereo. College students, a few adventurous beach goers, people they had met at the volleyball tournament… random strangers. People who had all crossed paths on their way to wherever it was they were going.
I bet they all know what they want. I bet they at least have an idea. 'Go to medical school', 'Meet the love of my life', 'Travel the world', 'Save for my first car'... Ucchan wants to expand her business, become the best Okonomiyaki-ya in Japan. Ryouga… well, aside from killing me, he wants to find a nice girl, settle down, and find a home he can find no matter how lost he is. Shampoo wants to go back to China with her Airen, continue the path to becoming Matriarch… Nabiki's right. Even back in Nerima, everybody knows what they want. 'Cept me.
He studied his hands. What did he want? To be the best Martial Artist in Japan? Yeah, but that wasn't something be pursued. It was just what he did, same as breathing. It's what he did because he didn't know how to do anything else. He hadn't even seriously considered how he was going to accomplish it, or determine his progress. He just kept training, and people kept landing on his doorstep to challenge him.
When was the last time I went out to learn a new technique just to learn a new technique, and not to keep Ryouga from exploding my head, or the old freak from molesting me, or some random Prince from kidnapping Akane?
He scrubbed his fingers through his hair in frustration. Why is answering one dumb question so hard!? What do I want? WHAT DO I WANT!?
"Hey Ranma." Nabiki settled onto the log next to him. "Want a beer?" She held up on of Yuto's precious microbrew stash, which he had frantically be swatting partygoers away from all night.
"Yes! Yes I want a beer!" Ranma latched onto that. Maybe it wasn't a good answer as far as dealing with his life direction, but for right now, it would do. He popped it open, and chugged down a few gulps, never having been so happy to have the distraction. "Thanks Nabiki, you're a lifesaver."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "You must have been really thirsty." Said said. Suddenly she leaned against his side, and rested her head on his shoulder. "Poor thirsty Ranma."
Ranma felt a momentary surge of fear. She's drunk!
She chuckled as she felt him stiffen. "Oh relax, Saotome! I'm not THAT drunk." She poked his nose with her finger. "Just a little buzzed. So I'm relying on my boyfriend to keep me from having any more. Deal?"
Ranma blinked,. "I'm not your boyfriend, Nabiki."
"You are! For another…" She checked her watch. "20 hours and fifteen minutes."
"Fake boyfriend, yeah." He muttered, sipping his beer and not looking at her, not really understanding why that qualifier was making him grumpy right now.
"Oh, I don't know…" Nabiki smirked, but without any of her usual mercenary coldness. "... I've had worse dates. I think I can see clear to give you a temporary upgrade."
Ranma locked up again.
Nabiki puffed out her cheeks in exasperation. "Oh come on, Saotome! Loosen up a bit." She put a hand over his, and leaned in a bit. "Let's just… forget who we are for a while and pretend a little, okay?"
Ranma took another deep pull of his beer. He didn't have much experience with alcohol, but he knew he wasn't NEARLY drunk enough to deal with this. "Thought you were here fishing for a college guy, and I was just here to keep the creeps away?"
"Yeah, well, you've done that brilliantly. And honestly, you've been a lot more fun to be with than some random guy." She poked his chest. "You had fun too. Don't deny it!"
"I did." He admitted. "Got a lot to think about, too."
She scowled cutely and poked his chest again. "No thinking. Think later. Dance now." She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up off the log.
"Uhh… I don't…" He stood up, if just to keep her from slipping and falling over in her efforts to get him up. "Nabiki, I can't dance!"
"'Course not." Nabiki said, dragging him over to the edge of the spot where people were dancing. "You're a guy. Guys can't dance. The only difference is some guys know they can't, and some have deluded themselves into thinking they can."
"I'm pretty sure I've seen guys who can dance. Like, professional dancers and stuff?"
"Expertly faking it." Nabiki asserted. "Like you do whenever you get challenged in something weird like rhythmic gymnastics or whatever."
The next song came on, and Ranma wasn't sure if he was relieved or terrified that it was a slow song. He glanced over and saw Asahi next to the stereo, giving him a thumbs up and a wink, and decided terror was probably appropriate.
Nabiki took full advantage of it, stepping in close to him and slipping her arms around his neck. She smiled a bit at his obvious rising panic. "There. Anyone can dance to this." She reached around behind his head and started idly playing with his pigtail.
Ranma went stone stiff. "NabikimaybeIshouldsitthisoneoutI'mnotfeelingsogood…"
Nabiki's expression darkened. "Ranma. Arms around me. Now."
Ranma's arms obediently wrapped around her waist.
She chuckled and started swaying gently, slowly coaxing him to follow her movements. He was trying VERY hard not to notice how close she was to him, or that her bikini was doing nothing to mask the warmth of her body, or the fact she smelled faintly of seaweed and sunscreen, or the way the firelight reflected from her eyes, or…
"Ranma?" She asked softly, snapping him back to attention, though the softness of her voice and her concerned expression did nothing to help the storm currently ravaging his brain. "Are you okay?"
"I… dunno…" He said, truthfully enough. "I mean… I don't…" He closed his eyes and growled in frustration. Words! Why were they so difficult!? "This isn't my life. I mean, I don't get to be that guy… that normal guy… dancing on the beach with… with…" He looked at her and swallowed. "... With a p-pretty girl. Something is supposed to wreck it. Someone is supposed to want something from me by now."
Nabiki blushed fetchingly at the included compliment. She closed her eyes, let her head fall against his shoulder, and leaned against him, her arms tightening around his neck as she gently pressed closer.
Oh, yes... that was MUCH worse.
Her body kind of fit together with his, and he could feel her warm breath on his neck, the steady thrum of her heartbeat. But worst of all was that she was relaxed. Not limp, not clinging… she was neither demanding anything of him, nor stiff and tense at his touch. She was… at ease.
She trusted him.
Maybe… A rebellious thought pierced through the layers of defensive strategies and hyper awareness. Maybe it really is okay. Just this once. He closed his eyes, took a deep, shuddering breath… and relaxed.
"Better now?" She murmured.
"Yeah." He said softly, though he didn't know why. He felt like he had just come out of a rough fight. He felt like something had changed, but he didn't quite know what yet.
She leaned back a bit to look into his face again. He opened his eyes, soft brown meeting steel grey. She smiled and toyed with his pigtail again, brushing it over the back of his neck. "Ranma… What do you want? Not five years from now, not tomorrow, not an hour from now. No consequences, no parents, no fiancees, no perverted martial arts master, no obligation to be manly... anything goes. Right this minute... what do you want?"
Their eyes locked for a few moments, firelight flickering, the music softly playing nearby, and just for a moment all the rest of the world, with its demands, its obligations, its honor, and its expectations, fell away. And for that instant, the answer became simple.
He leaned in, and gently pressed his lips to hers.
(Author's Note: This would be a cute place to stop, wouldn't it?
Naaaaaah!
Not letting these two off that easy.
I apologize for the volleyball bit, both to those who hated it, and to those who may have actually wanted to see it go a few rounds.
More coming soon, I promise!)
