The maid currently staring after Ranma, and trying not to look like she was, with a slight blush on her cheeks was Akane 'the kitchen girl' Tendo. A rather sweet girl, by what she remembered, but one who had already made an impact on the memories of the staff. After all, when the security details had seen the meals that she'd tried to cook, they'd nearly had a coronary over the idea of having someone who would poision the family heir getting past their screenings. However, when an exhibition of her cooking skills showed that she was so bad at making a meal that her best was merely distasteful, they relaxed quite a bit. They did declare that she was not to be cooking the meals though. Some of the cooks were trying to teach her, but it was definately slow going. And the only reason that her decorating and sewing skills were any better were that they couldn't make anyone ill.
But she was amazing when it came to physical skills. When others might need to call in a persocom, she could do it herself, and prefered it that way. She was very independant, but at the same time could be very nice. There was a temper lurking there, and the means to use it, but she hadn't turned either on Nodoka's son as of yet. Her looks weren't bad either, as she was pretty in a tomboyish way.
Nodoka saw how the normally independant girl was nibbling on her lower lip as her eyes tracked Ranma's movements, and knew that this was one to keep her eyes on.
Akane had believed that she had known what rich people were like from her dealings with a certain deluded kendoist. That jerk had constantly proved that he was too thick to realise just how much she had distrusted him. Heck, he needed to hear 'just how wonderful he was' so much that he couldn't stop talking. Not that she wanted to listen, but he refused to let her be, even when she'd pushed her refusal onto him with punches and kicks. He'd just show up later to babble on about how he thought her stopping meant that she couldn't see them parting.
It got worse when she realised that she was going to have to get some money. His idea for handling it was for him to marry her, but that was not a choice in her book. Then there was prizefighting, but that was never a steady thing, and she wasn't a girl who wanted to go that route if she had a choice. He had heard of that idea, and declared that she would never do that, and that there was no outlet for her, save as his bride.
She had chosen to get a job.
It wasn't the most glamorous thing to be a maid, but it paid well, and she got to enjoy the comfort of the place. Of course, there had been the 'cooking incident', but she'd never realised that the dried plants that she had dumped into the pot weren't herbs and spices. Luckily, that had been settled satisfactorily, and she'd found things to do that weren't going to get worried glances and giggles behind hands when she said she was going to do them.
The most surprising thing was one of the people she worked for. When she'd come to work for them, she'd fully expected this 'Ranma' to be an egotist who was so full of himself and living in some fantasy world that the only thing keeping him from the loony bin was his money. Because of that, she'd steeled herself for working out a way to stand tall and keep her pride.
Instead, she got a guy who grinned at her, waved, and said 'Hi,' from where he'd been lounging. It was a bit of shock to not have him act like Kuno, but he'd done even more. With all the girls around him, she'd expected that he'd at least be taking advantage of the situation with touching or peeking, but he'd proven to be able to actually see all the girls as 'people', not mere servants. Even his persocoms got that, as many people in his position might have merely taken them for granted, when he let them do what they wanted, and acted as if they were his buddies. Heck, when she'd complained about the uniform she had to wear, specifically the heels, he'd heard, and instead of being offended, he'd wondered why she didn't change it. He'd surprised her with that, and had told her that she could wear whatever she wanted. Not even when she'd told him that she'd likely need to wear boots to get all the work done did he get offended.
In fact, the next time she'd come to work, she'd found a pair of expensive, and tough, boots that were oddly well suited for a maid's appearance, at least her style of it.
Rolling the toe of those same boots, now a regular part of her work attire, on the floor, she knew that was when she'd realised that he wasn't going to be like other boys. Coming from a place where boys tended to be too stupid to understand a refusal, he'd been alien to what she knew, but it also let her appreciate it. Heck, he didn't even try to sneak into the servants' showers or changing areas, even though he was likely able to go everywhere in the place. And she had to stifle a giggle that rose when she remembered the girl who'd tried to seduce him.
That particular one had thought that she could make him want her buy simple tricks. On a visit to the house, she'd slipped into his room, and undressed before slipping under his covers. There she'd rested until he came back, and stopped in surprise at the sight of a naked girl in his bed. She apparently had tried to act all sultry with him, and make a flimsy excuse about needing to take a nap, and hoping that he wasn't angry that she'd done so in his bed.
He'd merely told that it was alright, that he wished that she had let him know that she would do that, and left the room, not wanting to disturb her nap.
Kuno would have jumped in, or condemned the act, but not Ranma. The pigtailed boy had taken it in stride. Not a single incident of him being a pervert had shown up, and he hadn't caused any trouble what so ever. Sure, he was a bit arrogant, clueless, and overconfident, as well as being a show off, but he'd never really made them an issue. He just simply wasn't pretencious, tended to try hard, and had proven to be better than a lot of the boys she had known.
Just why she couldn't stop looking at him wasn't quite clear, but she got a warm feeling right in the middle of her chest. This was a wonderful guy in her opinion, and though she got mad at him a lot, especially when he tended to goof off, she realised that she wanted to look out for him. This was the boy who'd given her money with no strings attached when heard that she wanted to get something that she could not afford after all.
Akane simply knew that he was not an average boy, even with her short time of knowing him, but she didn't care. What had started as a job to drag herself too every morning had become something to enjoy, and she was glad for that.
Her smile deepened a bit as she stood there and watched him while:
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(Posted Tue, 04 Jan 2005 01:48)
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