"I suppose I should head back to the dojo," Ranma said, looking himself over doubtfully. "How am I going to explain why I'm all blue?"
Kodachi had sighed as soon as Ranma mentioned the dojo, but not because of jealously, surprisingly. Rather it was a bit of frustration.
"That is exactly the problem, isn't it, Ranma-sama?" Kodachi asked, she paused for a moment, suddenly the title seemed a lot more fitting than before. "And the solution is not to go back to the Tendo dojo."
"And what am I going to do then?" Ranma asked. "Ain't like there's anywhere else to go? At least if I go there they expect weird stuff."
Kodachi paused to consider the scratchy feeling of something in the roof of her mouth on either side. It wasn't uncomfortable, it was just unfamiliar. She shook her head and returned to conversation.
"Yes, and inside of a day everyone will know everything about what's going on," Kodachi said. "Some will doubtless have more of an idea about matters than either you or me."
Kodachi paused for a moment, just when had she gotten so...rational? She shook her head clear of the silly notion, of course, she'd always been rational. What nonsense was she thinking of?
"What we need is a way to keep our little secret out of view until such time as we can figure out what is going on?" Kodachi said, examining her scaled skin.
It really was quite beautiful, the way it sparkled in the sunlight, how soft, and yet firm, it felt as she stroked it. And oh how responsive it was to that touch, quite surprising considering the thickness it had to be. She pulled at one a moment in experimentation, noting how firmly it seemed to hold and...
"Yiiii!!!" Kodachi gasped before shutting the undignified cry of pain inside her mouth and trying to force the tears of pain from showing.
"What's wrong?" Ranma asked quickly, coming to her side.
Kodachi wordlessly pointed to the ground at the scale she had inadvertantly ripped out of her skin and continued to hold the minor, but damn painful, injury closed with her other hand. A small steam of blood seeped out from between her fingers as she tried to catch her breath.
"Let me see it," Ranma said quickly and imperically.
The call was so insistant that Kodachi uncovered the cut before she realized she was following a command.
Ranma looked at it seriously for a moment before reaching for where his plants were laying and ripping a piece of cloth off the bottom of one of the legs.
"Isn't too bad," Ranma said. "That looks like it had t'hurt though. Whatcha doin' trying to pull your skin off?"
"I was just curious," Kodachi said, firmly, brushing aside tears that couldn't possibly be there.
"Listen," Ranma said firmly, cupping her chin gently. "Don't hurt yourself if you can help it, okay? Sheesh, how you gonna get anywhere if you're tearing pieces off of yourself?"
Kodachi had to laugh briefly at that, though it was more an exasperated release of breath than one of her normal laughs. She looked to Ranma and nodded.
"I shall commend myself to taking care of myself then," Kodachi said. "That still leaves us with the problem of where to go? We've already discounted the dojo and we certainly can't go to my human as we are."
"Yeah, Kuno'd have us exorcised or something," Ranma said.
"Pity," Kodachi said. "The Kuno estate would give a great deal of privacy as to the goal of figuring things out. I do wish you could tell me how you accomplished that change of form yourself?"
"I don't know," Ranma said. "I just sort of thought of it."
"Thought of it?" Kodachi repeated.
Ranma looked around with a thoroughly uncomfortable look on his face.
"Errr, sort of thought, 'isn't something else besides my tongue supposed to go here?'" Ranma said. "Then I thought about some magazines some jerks at school had and..."
"Instant stallion, yes," Kodachi said. "Hmmm."
She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them, looking over herself. She was still a girl.
"Well, that was relieving," she said.
"What?" Ranma asked. "Nothing happened."
"Exactly," Kodachi said, closing her eyes again.
This time, a definite change worked over her features, scales melting away and tentacles taking on the semblance of hair again. When Kodachi opened her eyes, she appeared human again.
"Hey!" Ranma said. "It worked." A moment later, his male human self was standing across from Kodachi.
His hair was still in dredlocks, however, and his eyes were still orange. Kodachi frowned and started to retie her pony tail, she stopped before she was even half-way through and started to massage one of the lengths that she had been bundling.
They were still sensitive to the touch.
In fact, as she directed one to shift about to raise in front of her eyes, they were still tentacles, even if they appeared to be thickly braided hair. And there was still that strange sensation of something in the roof of her mouth.
Kodachi paused a moment and opened her mouth widely, the jaw dislocating as a pair of slender fangs folded down out of her mouth. She blinked and looked at Ranma's freaked-out expression before folding the fangs back in and putting her jaw back in place.
"So that's what those were," Kodachi muttered as she rubbed at her jaw a bit.
"Err, was that what I looked like when I bit you?" Ranma asked.
Kodachi gave him a look that said quite perfectly: "How am I supposed to know what your face looked like while you were buried in between my legs and my focus was going a few lightyears past Alpha Centauri?"
"Right," Ranma said and Kodachi returned to her thoughts before nodding a moment later.
"Hmm," Kodachi said. "I think I have a plan, Ranma-Sama."
"Uhhh..." Ranma's eyebrow arched, he wasn't certain he liked the sound of that.
****
Kodachi and Ranma, the latter dressed reluctantly in a St. Hebereke's school unifrom, landed silently inside the bounds of the Kuno estate. Kodachi firmly led the way, dismissing the questions of Sasuke even before he could ask.
"This is a friend of mine, Rachel," Kodachi said. "She'll be staying with us for some time, no, it is not any matter for brother to be concerned with. Thank you, good bye."
And without a further word, Ranma was half-escorted half-pulled into a place he'd rarely gone without fear: Kodachi's half of the Kuno estate.
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(Posted Sat, 13 Nov 2004 19:50)
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