Ranma and Usagi-kun stood outside the bathroom, waiting their turn for a fresh bath. Sakura was now big enough to fit some of Kasumi’s clothes—well, those not currently on the eldest Tendo’s floor from having been used as a new place for sex. Usagi, at his height, was forced to wear some of Ranma’s.
That was until he ‘changed back’ as he insisted.
“They’re going to be in there for a while,” said Ranma.
“Huh?” asked the blond male, trying to remember how long he had been male.
“The girls,” Ranma said. “Nabiki likes long soaks.”
“Then why are we standing here?”
“Because we need to make certain neither one of us gets the urge to start doing ... that ... again,” said Ranma, glaring at the boy.
“Oh,” said Usagi.
Ranma nodded. “So ... why is your name Usagi?” he asked, trying to start a conversation.
“Because that’s the name my parents gave me,” said the blond boy.
“I meant why do you have a girl’s name, dumbass,” growled out Ranma.
The blond sniffed a bit, before smacking his head. “Oh, right. Well, you see, I am a girl, but I have the ability to magically change my form to male for a disguise if I need it.”
Ranma stared unbelievingly at him. “Now, I know magic is real, I know gender changes are real, but why the hell would you need to change to a male?”
Usagi smiled as he scratched the back of his head. “Would you believe it was the first thing I thought of?”
Ranma sighed. “Don’t feel bad,” he mumbled, remembering some of his own disguises in the past, and hoping there was no evidence he had ever been ‘Yoiko Hibiki’.
Usagi shrugged, before it hit him. He could get a bath quicker if he was back to being a girl. Sakura would vouch for the truth when he walked in on them. “In that case, you won’t mind if I change back and get a hot bath.”
Ranma was about to point out that that might be a stupid move considering they had yet to find the Balls—he wasn’t even going to use cold water to rinse as well as what was left of his waterproof soap supply to keep from changing—but was too late.
And thus, the blue eyes of the chaos magnet of Nerima met the blue eyes of the future Queen of Earth.
And the magic flashed back to life, its purpose once more active.
“This water isn’t very hot,” muttered Sakura.
“Can’t be,” said Nabiki. “We have to be careful now, extra passenger on board and everything.”
“Oh,” muttered the girl.
Nabiki paused in her soak, looking at the girl, and noticing the tears. “I wish I could say it’ll be okay,” she said, not used to being the ‘shoulder’ for people to cry on.
“I’m not even thirteen yet,” sniffed Sakura. “I have a boyfriend my age, and now I’m pregnant with the baby of Sailor Moon.”
Nabiki paused for a bit, making a mental note to ask later about how it was Sailor Moon's baby. From what she remembered of Cologne’s speech, the Ball they had there was supposed to mainly affect males. Why am I not surprised that there is more going on here than I was told? “Listen, we will get through this together.”
“Really?” sniffed Sakura.
“Trust me,” Nabiki said, trying to appear as honest and as sincere as possible. “We’re all in this together, and the people around here will not abandon you to face this alone.”
She nearly lost the air in her lungs as the girl lunged for her, crying out hard, and choking out several ‘thank you’ sentences between sniffs and wails of sadness.
Nabiki slowly wrapped the arms around the girl, remembering such a scene when she was able to understand that her mother was not coming back, no matter how much of a good girl she was.
I just hope someone can do this for me when it’s all over.
The small emotional scene was interrupted as a loud thump was heard outside the doors of the furo.
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(Posted Sun, 05 Nov 2006 12:49)
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