When Akane returned home, she had a huge smile on her face. “Hey, everyone! You’ll never believe what happened!”
“My no-account son came to his senses and left that green-haired bitch?” *CLONK* A flour-encrusted cylinder came flying out of the kitchen area, hitting Genma in the side of the head.
“Oh my, I seem to have dropped my rolling pin. Would you be a dear and get it for me, Chibi-Usa?”
“Sure, Kasumi.”
“AnYone for BorScht ?” said Genma from his spot on the floor.
Figuring that Ranma’s father had to be okay if he could still talk, Akane continued her announcement. “A guy from my class actually came up to me and asked me on a date!”
“You mean he did it the normal way? No attempts to defeat you in combat to satisfy the Blue-Balled Wonder’s insane proclamation?”
“Nope! He just walked up to me while I was practicing and asked.”
“And you of course turned him down,” interjected Soun.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re engaged, naturally.”
“Alright, Chibi-Usa, for this next step, we’ll need to use my mortar and pestle.”
“This one?”
“No, the marble one.”
“Ah, I mean, you can’t just date someone who you just met — he might be dangerous.”
“Dad, Hikaru’s in my class — I may not know him that well, but he doesn’t seem like the type that would associate with anyone dangerous.”
“ACHOO!”
“Are you sure you’re alright, Stewart-san?”
“I told you, I’m fine. My allergies are just acting up, that’s all. Now, about those third quarter reports….”
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry too much him.”
“I suppose not… when is this date?”
“Friday evening. We were thinking of eating out, and then going to a movie.”
“And don’t even think of trying to make something up, Daddy,” said Nabiki. “I know for a fact that we have absolutely nothing planned that night.”
“Very well,” Soun conceded reluctantly. “But if he tries anything funny in that movie theater…”
“Don’t worry, Dad, I know what to do.” With this, Akane headed up to her room to change out of her workout clothes, leaving her father confused wondering how he could stop keep Akane from going on this date. (For the sake of the schools, of course. He certainly wasn’t trying to stop his baby girl from growing up….)
Nabiki, for her part, was left just as confused, though for a completely different reason. Who the hell is “Hikaru”? But she didn’t have time for that right now — she had to find that contract that Setsuna was talking about.
Haruka knew what she had to do. In order to maintain a good working relationship with the Inners, she had to apologize, not for making them feel uncomfortable around her because she was a lesbian, but for exploiting that discomfort for her own entertainment. Unfortunately, figuring out how to do that was turning out to be almost as hard as actually doing that. At first, she tried being subtle, but whenever she attempted to turn the topic of any conversation with one of them towards sexuality, that inevitably signaled the immediate end of the conversation, as they would invariably think of something else they had to be doing.
That meant using the direct approach, but that had its own set of problems, the most obvious of which is that most conversations don’t begin with “Hey there, I’m sorry for exploiting the unwritten rule that says straight people aren’t allowed to contradict homosexuals when they’re talking about homosexuality, but I only did it because I think it’s hilarious to watch your nervous reactions.” At least not the ones that last longer than one sentence.
“Damn it, how am I supposed to do this without being awkward?!”
“I don’t think it can be done without awkwardness, dear.”
Haruka shot her lover an irritated glare. “That was a rhetorical question, Michiru. Of course it’s going to be awkward. All apologies are awkward. What I’m trying to figure out is how to make it less awkward for them when I actually do it.”
“You could just tell them that you need to apologize for something ahead of time — that way, they won’t get taken by surprise.”
“But it… it makes me feel like I’m apologizing for being gay.”
Michiru walked over to her lover and embraced her, an gesture which was gladly returned. After a few seconds, the violinist spoke up. “Honey, you don’t ever have to feel that way. The Inners won’t let you apologize for your sexuality. Besides, you aren’t apologizing for being gay; you’re apologizing for being a jerk.”
“And that makes me feel so much better about this.”
“You don’t need to be sarcastic.”
Haruka let go of her significant other and sat back down on the couch. “You’re right. And I deserve to feel like a jerk. Still, I want to get this out of the way as soon as I can.”
“I can’t blame you for that.”
“But how should I do it?”
Michiru thought for a moment, and then suddenly had some inspiration. “What if I set up a time for you to meet with them? After all, they don’t get defensive around me.”
“I guess that’s as good an idea as any.”
“We should be getting close,” Nodoka said as she looked around the neighborhood.
“You sure it okay to just drop by? Thought outsiders had way to talk to someone far away.”
“You mean the telephone?”
“Yes. Why Nodoka no use telephone, tell husband’s friend we coming?”
“Oh, I don’t think we want to impose; after all, I don’t know him that well. We’re just going to be stopping by for a short while. Once we find out what he can tell us, we’ll be on our way.”
“That so? Or you just forget in rush to find Ranma?”
“You mean Ranma and Genma. And yes, it is so.”
“Which one? What Nodoka say, or what Tissue say?”
“What Nodoka— I mean, what I say, of course.”
Tissue smiled slyly at her sister-wife. “Right.”
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(Posted Sat, 01 Apr 2006 07:17)
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