Okay, so they would have been excited, but they wouldn't have been so unable to actually act like... adults.
Upon seeing his sisters in law in the family room, he managed to send a small smile their way. He actually liked both girls, and thought that it was good to see them. Even if he didn't have to come there to see his wife, he would have stopped by to visit them. Of course, Nabiki was bearing a smirk that told him that she was still going to be teasing him. At least Akane was looking sympathetic, as she apparently felt for his current plight.
"Now, son, did your father tell you what was going to happen today?" Soun asked with as much dignity as a giddy man could.
Ranma fought the urge to snort, and tried to pull away, fruitlessly again. "Yeah, he did. I got ta know 'bout the arrangement that the two of ya have. I'm supposed ta have one of your daughters as my wife."
"Exactly. You don't know how I've waited for this day!"
"That's true."
"Eh?"
"Pop never mentioned anythin' till today. Coulda sworn that he didn't think 'bout anythin' but fillin' his belly."
A panda made a rude noise and hurried that much faster to get away so that he could get hot water, so that he could yell at his son properly.
"Ah... yes," the Tendo Patriarch replied. "That does sound like him."
"It is him," the teenaged boy muttered.
"However, you must choose to marry one of my daughters...."
"About that Dad," Akane interrupted.
"Yes?"
"You really should know something."
"Like what?"
Nabiki crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow at her father. "We don't think that he should be made to just come in and pick one of us like we were apples on a stand."
"Then do you have another possibility?"
"Certainly."
"And that would be?"
"Well, that is..."
"I will be his wife," Kasumi said softly.
Soun reacted almost as if she had shouted, rocking back on his heels. "What did you say?"
"I will be his wife."
"You're actually... volunteering?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Because... you didn't have to?"
"But I have important reasons for being his wife," his eldest daughter replied.
"What could they be?"
"Actually...."
"You should already know them," Nabiki put in, looking to those paying attention like she thinking on the fly. "Honor."
Her father frowned thoughtfully at her. "Oh?"
"She's the eldest, right? That makes it her responsibility to be the one to bear such a promise."
"Ain't sure that I like the idea of bein' a 'responsibility' for her," Ranma muttered.
"Sorry about that. But then there is the fact that she would see it as her duty to take on such a promise. And...."
"We want her to have a guy of her own. She's done so much for us, so why shouldn't she get to have something of her own. This way she can have her own romance, without having to worry about troubling us," Akane commented.
"True. She does need something more than keeping house."
"She does?" Soun asked, sounding more dazed by what his daughters were doing than being surprised.
"Definitely. What do you think, R... right now, Mister Saotome? Would you like to have our big sister as your wife?"
Ranma looked over at his bride, and barely hid a smile. "She's pretty. Really pretty. And she seems ta be really nice, and kind. Sure, I'd think that she'd be a good wife, no matter who she'd marry."
"See? There you have it."
"But Kasumi?" their father murmured, facing the named girl. "You are offering...."
Kasumi gave a small smile before kneeling down and bowing. "I would humbly ask that you accept me as his wife."
"Don't you think that you're doing this rather quickly?"
"I can not see any other choice, Father."
"B... bu... but that would mean that you are being pushed in this direction...."
"Even if I am, I do believe that this would be the best choice that I could make."
"You're not even going to consider this? I mean, it's all so sudden," the mustached man said, his eyes wide with surprise.
"There isn't any real choice for me, Father, so I don't have to trouble myself over it."
"You don't?"
"No, I don't."
"I just think that you should be happy in your marriage, not doing it simply for honor."
"That is so wonderful of you, Father, but I am certain that he would always do his best for me. Wouldn't you, Ranma?"
Her husband nodded softly. "'Course I would."
"Then that's that," Nabiki observed, shrugging away the idea that anything could be changed. "Kasumi and our new friend here are a couple."
Unable to fully take in what was happening, Soun looked at his daughters and tried to make sense of everything, while:
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(Posted Sat, 05 Nov 2005 05:43)
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