Nabiki had been in her room going over her ledgers—there were several people who were past due on some of their payments. She idly wondered if her brother-in-law would be willing to act as an enforcer for her. That would probably take a lot of convincing, given the influence Kasumi had on him. Still…
She let the idea drop temporarily as the sound of shouting adults came from downstairs. Naturally, this piqued her curiosity, and since she always made it her business to know about the goings-on in her home, she set aside her books and headed downstairs in time to see Genma being dragged toward the dojo by a familiar figure.
Nabiki rushed over to her older sister. “Kasumi,” she said quietly, “what’s Nodoka doing here?”
“Ranma called her before he arrived and told her to come over.”
This was enough to satisfy Nabiki’s curiosity—but unfortunately, their father had overheard them. “Nabiki, how do you know Nodoka?”
Nabiki got a sly look her face. “Are you certain you want to know that, Daddy?” Of course, she knew perfectly well that he didn’t (even if it was for a different reason than the one she was implying).
“Well, now that you mention it, I suppose you do have a tendency to meet a lot of people…” The Tendo patriarch always got nervous whenever his middle daughter hinted that there might be a shady aspect to her extracurricular activities.
“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me…” Nabiki headed towards the dojo.
“Uh, Nabiki,” her father interrupted, “I think you should avoid the dojo for the time being. Genma and his wife are in there, and—”
“—and so is Akane, so I doubt they’ll be getting much privacy anyway.” Nabiki continued heading toward the dojo, only to be followed by her father.
Ranma-chan looked at her wife. “Guess we might as well head over there too—they’re just gonna be talking about us anyway.”
Kasumi sighed. It might not have been the most polite thing to do, but her husband had a point. “I suppose.” The pair headed towards the dojo as well.
In the dojo Akane continued practicing. She liked doing it; over the years she’d found that physical activity like this was an effective form of stress relief—though recently that effectiveness had been pushed to the limit by the antics Tatewaki Kuno, the self-proclaimed “Shooting Star of Furinkan High.” At least his ludicrous nickname was entertaining, if nothing else about him was—Nabiki currently had a betting pool going on how long it would take him to realize that other students were calling him “Shooting Blanks” behind his back. Still, this had been the second day of a two-day weekend, and not having to think about Kuno made her katas much more pleasant—though there was still the matter of her father’s strange obsession with Ranma’s curse and the effect it would have on Kasumi’s reputation, which she thought was utter nonsense. Quite frankly, she couldn’t see how anyone could think Kasumi was a lesbian—sure, there were probably lesbians who had personalities like her older sister’s, but there was very little about Kasumi that would cause people to attach the typical “lesbian” stereotype to her.
However, Akane’s train of thought was suddenly interrupted when two people burst inside the dojo. She recognized both of them—one was Ranma’s father, while the other was someone she hadn’t expected to see, which explained why she proceeded to talk without thinking.
“Auntie Nodoka?! What are you doing here?”
The Saotome matriarch didn’t get a chance to answer, because Soun had chosen that moment to enter the dojo with Nabiki. “Auntie Nodoka? Akane, how do you know who she is?”
Nabiki started growing pale when she realized what had happened. Great. Just great. Maybe I can still do some damage control. “She met Nodoka the same time that I did.”
Unfortunately, Soun wouldn’t accept that brush-off this time. “And exactly why did the two of you meet her?”
Nabiki would have answered had not Nodoka interjected, “Because they wanted to reunite me with my son.”
“What are you talking about? My girls only met Ranma this afternoon!”
“Um… actually…”
Soun whirled around to see Ranma and Kasumi standing in the doorway.
“Actually what?” asked Soun, though he was starting to suspect that he really didn’t want to know.
Kasumi sighed. “Father, today wasn’t the first time we’d met Ranma—we actually met quite a few months ago, and the four of us became very good friends.”
“What? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“Well, Daddy,” drawled Nabiki, “you do have an annoying protective streak at times… we thought you’d probably overreact.”
Here, Genma spoke up. “That may very well be, but why didn’t you tell me, boy?”
“I dunno, maybe ’cause every time it looked like I was gonna make friends with a girl ya always decided that it was time for us ta go somewhere else!”
This news did not please Nodoka. “Husband, you didn’t actually try and keep our son from opportunities to be manly around women, did you?”
“It… well, you see… I was just trying to avoid distractions…”
“Anyway, as I was saying, Soun, your daughters, particularly Nabiki, went out of their way to reunite me with my son, and I, for one, am very grateful that they did.”
“Oh… really?”
“Yes. Not only did I discover that my son had managed to become a man among men, even though his father never actually told him that he was supposed to do that—”
“Hey, I told him to be a man!”
“No, ya told me that girls were weak an’ I shouldn’t act like them.”
“So? It’s the same thing—oof!” Genma was cut off when Akane elbowed him in the stomach.
Nonplussed, Nodoka finished her sentence. “—and I was also pleased that he’d chosen Kasumi to be his bride.”
This news hit Soun like a knee to the groin, as evidenced by the fact that his voice went up several octaves. “Bride?”
“Granted, I would have preferred a more elaborate wedding, but circumstances were such that we had to make do with a very simple ceremony—which I suppose has its own charm…”
“Wedding?”
“…and while it would have been best if Ranma and Kasumi had had the chance to consummate their vows immediately…”
“Consummate?”
“…at least Ranma’s trip to China gave them the chance to let you know what was going on first.”
Soun’s reply to this was a barely audible “eee.”
By now, all of the teenagers had gone red in the face—sure, they’d meant to tell the fathers about the marriage as soon as they found the right occasion, but as often happens in situations like this, the “right occasion” never actually came up.
At this point, Genma decided he’d had enough of this; clearly, he needed to reassert his authority as head of his family. “Now, see here, Nodoka—”
“Genma, you know I love you, but for your own safety may I respectfully suggest that you shut up?”
“Yes, dear.”
As his best friend caved in under the pressure of his wife (and her katana), the Tendo patriarch let out an exasperated groan and put his fingers to his temples. What else can go wrong today?
“Now then, about my son’s current sleeping arrangements…”
Soun lay in his bed staring straight up at the ceiling. If the sudden revelation that Ranma and Kasumi had already been married for three months hadn’t been enough, Nodoka had gone on to insist that the two be allowed to sleep in the same room—it just wouldn’t do to have a married couple sleeping in different rooms when they could have been enjoying “the joys of marital bliss.” Just thinking about the way Nodoka had said that phrase made him wince in despair.
The problem was that when push came to shove, Soun couldn’t think of a single reason for his daughter and son-in-law not to have sex—as Nabiki had pointed out, there was nothing illegal about their marriage, since Kasumi was no longer a minor and Ranma had had parental consent from his mother. Concerns about disturbing the other residents of the house didn’t fly either, since Nabiki had gone ahead and purchased earplugs for the rest of her family. At least he’d convinced them to have Ranma sleep on a futon instead of actually being in the same bed as his baby girl, and they had promised that they wouldn’t tonight—not that that would do much good if they changed their minds and decided to… to…
It was at times like this that Soun wished he could just go to a bar with Genma and get blind stinking drunk so he could forget this debacle, if only temporarily, but Nodoka had taken her husband back home with her. Genma had tried to protest, until he realized that after their argument (and his demonstration of the Crouch of the Wild Tiger), Nodoka intended to treat him to “welcome home” sex and “make up” sex at the same time. As one might expect, he was all gung-ho to spend the night at his home. He would be returning the next morning to continue overseeing his son’s training, and he would more than likely end up staying there overnight fairly frequently, but his absence was still a problem to the paranoid head of the Tendo family.
At least Nabiki had promised him that she would try and talk Nodoka into letting Ranma sleep in the guest room on most nights, though she was fairly certain that the Saotome matriarch would want the couple in the same room at least one night a week, likely more. Quite frankly, with Ranma’s curse, he would have preferred that they live apart from each other until that matter was resolved, but Soun didn’t want to find himself on the pointed end of an angry Nodoka. So he lay there, listening for anything that may have indicated that naughtiness was occurring in Kasumi’s bedroom.
He didn’t hear much of anything—sure, there was an occasional squeak of a bedspring, but after two false alarms, he’d realized that that was just the sound of his youngest daughter tossing and turning in her bed.
But other than that it was quiet—too quiet. Soun was no dummy—after all, he’d been a teenager, once. They were all obsessed with one thing: girls. Well, on second thought, maybe not all boys—just the ones who weren’t deviants… well, more deviant than your standard issue boy. Unfortunately, when Soun began considering that particular variety of deviancy, his thoughts turned down a corner that he’d hoped to avoid. My baby girl… she… she couldn’t be doing… that with Ranma-chan, could she? That idea rightfully earned a derisive snort. Of course not! They very idea of it is ridiculous—there’s no way she could be… but then again, Ranma’s female form is, well, interesting… and he’s bound to get curious eventually—and knowing Kasumi, if Ranma really wants to try it, she’ll probably agree, if only once…. As Soun’s eyes got wider (and his ideas more far-fetched) he made an executive decision.
On second thought, who says I can’t get drunk by myself? He hopped out of his bed, got changed, and headed out to his favorite drinking establishment, hoping that the teenage newlyweds wouldn’t be tempted to do anything… disgraceful.
He needn’t have worried. Both Ranma and Kasumi had agreed to postpone having sex for the time being—at least until they were out from under a microscope. Both of them wanted their first time to be special—and a paranoid father tended to detract from the “specialness” of the situation. (Of course, a mother who was exceptionally eager to see her son and daughter-in-law start making grandchildren for her didn’t help either.) So instead, the two of them did something else—they talked.
“Well, today has certainly been interesting.”
“Ya got that right.”
Kasumi sighed. “I do hope things will get settled down soon.”
“Don’t I know it.” From his futon, Ranma raised himself up onto an elbow and looked at his wife. “Between yer dad and my mom, I wonder if we’re ever gonna get a chance for some, uh…”
“Privacy?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Ranma. Father seems to be taking this much better than I expected.” Though I’m sure the Saotome blade had something to do with that.
“Yeah, I guess yer right.” Ranma put his head back on his pillow. “Wish we could do it right now, though,” he said idly.
Kasumi smiled at the casual innocence of her husband’s remark—though in all likelihood, only Ranma would have been able to make a statement like that sound innocent. “Goodnight, Ranma.”
“’Night, Kasumi.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Kwakerjak
(Posted Sat, 11 Feb 2006 13:45)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.