Poking around in the hall, the female residents of the Bishoujo House were very reluctantly cleaning up the mess that Usagi had made as part of their plan. This wasn't due to any desire to actually go along with things, but they had rather handily lost the first round with the new girl. So, while they were pretending to clean, they were actually making plans for how to deal with this.
That planning was doomed to failure because they were stuck in a loop. They didn't want Ranma around. If Ranma was gone however, the inn would have to close. They didn't want that to happen for the same reason they didn't want to leave, they didn't really have anywhere else to go. So they had to keep Ranma around, even if they didn't like him.
Except Makoto and Minako kinda liked him now.
Also, Hotaru had already left the impromptu planning session, something they realized when they heard her shy quiet voice from the main meeting room.
"Ahm, excuse me. I'm really sorry about earlier."
"Don't worry about it. I've met lots of girls that wanted to kill me the first time we met. Heck, my best friend, Ucchan, she spent ten years training to kill me, but I eventually got her to tell me what was wrong and we worked it out."
"You really have a way with the ladies don't ya Saotome?"
"Yeah, can't believe this is a girl's dorm. Kinda makes me wonder if Mom takes after Grandma Hinata or something. Ya don't think that's it do ya?"
"Mhmm, well, it is a woman's dorm, with one coed hot spring bath. I'm willing to bet she's wanting you to get manly with the girls. Even if she isn't you know your mother will be expecting that of you. Of course, you really should consider finding a sane girl to actually go out on some dates with now that you don't have the fiancée brigade looming over you. That's reminds me, you going to let them move in?"
"I hope not, I moved here to get some peace and quiet. Of course I'm sure they'll barge in anyways."
"Not if I manage to get everything booked up solid. I didn't give them directions, so hopefully they might take a week to find you here."
"Ahm, excuse me, but fiancées?"
"All arranged marriages. If Saotome actually liked any of them that way, he'd of been married long ago. His father will sell an engagement to a girl for a free meal. His mother is a bit strange too, she actually meant to enforce a seppuku pledge his father made in his name that if he wasn't a man among men, he'd commit suicide. Of course, her idea of manly is some kind of lecherous playboy that peeps on girls and stuff, which so isn't his style. See?"
"Gah! Don't do that Nabiki!"
"Relax Saotome, I wear a bra you know, it's not like I'm topless. I once actually made him pay me to put my shirt back on. Between my sweet but violent boy-hating sister and all the other girls trying to get in his pants, Saotome here is pretty darn girl shy."
As the assembled ease-dropping girls heard this, they all stared at each other rather cluelessly. The girl was kidding right? Surely he wasn't that shy with girls, it just had to be an act.
Tired of just listening in, Makoto walked out into the open room, followed shortly afterwards by Minako.
Coming around to the table, Makoto was greeted by the sight of a blushing young man, a smirking older girl, and their youngest teammate staring at the man with wide eyes. "Uhm, yeah, I'd like to apologize about earlier too. You didn't happen to fight some strange blue monster outside earlier today did you?"
Eyes widening for a moment, Ranma suddenly laughed as he remembered something. "Oh yeah, that. One of the silliest fights I've ever been in. I mean it turned one of those cheerleaders into a cookie. Kinda reminds me of that time I saved some girl from a giant cockroach."
At that point, Makoto and Minako shared a look before the blond shyly asked him, "So, uhm, the fiancée thing is — well, you're available right?"
Not quite liking where this was going, the young man hesitated to answer. Luckily for him, Nabiki wasn't one to hesitate. "True, but he's trying to get away from the violent girls in his life. You girls were in on the little bath fiasco right?"
Seeing both girls fidget and look away, Nabiki knew she'd nailed them; however, Ranma hesitantly spoke up. "The tall one sounds like the one that pulled an Akane on me with the bokken actually. The one that blocked me from grabbing my clothes. Can't say I remember the other one, just that she was in with the rest of the mob."
Being reminded of that particular incident, it wasn't exactly a good feeling that the boy only remembered them as being violent. That also wasn't helped by the way he seemed to recoil from them thinking of him as a potential boyfriend. Those two factors were putting the whole bath incident into a new light for them. In Makoto's case, she'd actually known boys that had developed a fear of girls at the hands of some of her crueler schoolmates. That she's always been so tall and rough looking had sent those particular boys scrambling real fast, even when she was trying to be nice.
Sighing, Makoto took a seat at the table, Minako and the shy Hotaru following her lead soon afterwards.
Sensing the conversation was over, Nabiki started back in on her job. "Alright then Saotome, if I can get the supplies, how fast can you do the repairs?"
Frowning a bit, Ranma seemed to consider it. "Well, can't say I can do electrical or plumbing. The actual boards and carpentry, that I can do though, shouldn't take anytime at all."
Frowning at her books, Nabiki conceded his point. "Guess that's more than I could hope for. It might be tricky since I'm so far from my normal suppliers, but it shouldn't be anything I can't handle. Now about the rooms. I'm thinking we can double up the girls and free up some rooms to rent out. We need the extra revenue pretty bad to make this float. On that note, you up for sharing a room with me?"
Visibly becoming alarmed at the prospect, the young man eventually collected himself a bit. "Uhm, you sure about that?"
Smirking openly, the young woman leaned closer in towards him. "C'mon Saotome, I promised to behave. We do have an agreement after all."
Unwilling to let his shyness be a problem, Nabiki forged onwards with a new topic. "Now then, we just need to decide the bath schedule so you can get to bathe in peace without being assaulted."
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(Posted Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:04)
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