"It's better this way, Ranma," Akane said, with a radiant smile as she stroked Ranma's hair. Ranma sighed as that hand stroked down to her face.
"Kind of crowded tonight, isn't it?"
*****
"Huh?" Ranma said, snapping out of her memories with a shiver and turning to look at her side. One of the other women was talking to her. "What did you say?"
"I asked if you thought it was pretty crowded tonight," the woman said.
"I've never been here before," Ranma answered. "I wouldn't know."
"Oh," the woman said. She was just a few years older than Ranma, with hair so black that Ranma thought it must have been dyed just like her own green hair. "I thought I'd seen you here before. Good to know."
"Huh, why?" Ranma asked.
"I really wouldn't have liked to overlook such a beauty as you," she said, reaching out to brush at a lock of Ranma's hair. A fingernail trailed along her forehead. Ranma gasped and swallowed looking into the woman's eyes. She looked away and missed the slight shift of Ranma's pupils, and they'd shifted back by the time the woman had turned back. "This is a good song, want to come dancing."
"Umm, no that's fine," Ranma said.
"You're new at this, aren't you, honey?" the woman asked with a knowing grin. Ranma's blank, confused stare was answer enough for her. "I'll give you some time to get used to the place. I'm Keiko."
"Ranma," Ranma answered.
"Well," Keiko stood up and leaned forward torward Ranma. "I'll see you later, Ranma."
She brushed over Ranma's hand, smiling at the flinch, and then vanished into the dance crowd. Ranma turned back to face front and shivered.
"What was that about," she asked herself.
"Are you going to order anything?' the bartender asked. She was a dark-haired woman with facial tattoos that was scowling down at him.
"Just a soda, please," Ranma said, looking rather nervous at the sight of an angry woman.
"What brings you to this place?" the bartender asked, and Ranma still hadn't noticed that she was wearing a manager's business suit rather than a front room uniform. A silvery sparkle seemed to surround the woman, and for some reason, Ranma felt she should be honest with her.
"Nabiki says to relax and forget about Akane," Ranma said. "She thinks Akane's gonna hurt me or something, or that I'll end up like Kodachi."
"Like Kodachi?" the woman repeated. Ranma nodded.
*****
"OHHHH, HO HO HO HO HO!!!" a strange winged figure declared as it landed in the Tendo courtyard. She turned her face, adorned with a pair of small black horns curling out of her forehead. Her jet black hair and eyes, as well as the horns and wings, contrasted wonderfully with the alabaster skin and bright white teeth with pointed canines. She was wearing a modified version of her St. Hebereke's outfit. Designed to fit the wings, which had come back unlooked for.
"Oh, Nabiki Tendo, where is the mistress." Nabiki and Kasumi were staring at Kodachi in stark terror.
"What happened to you?" Nabiki demanded, blinking her eyes. "When did you change back!?"
"Isn't it magnificient?!" Kodachi asked. "I found a mage who was willing and capable of again giving me that form with which the Mistress graced me!"
Kodachi flapped her bat wings and sighed pleasantly as she gazed heavenward. A look of relief passed both Tendos' faces.
"I could provide you with the address if you would like..."
"No!" both elder Tendos declared.
"I mean..." Kasumi said. "That is to say that I prefer my current, human, flesh and blood body."
"I'd rather not be nature-girl again," Nabiki added.
Kasumi looked over the almost not there outfit Nabiki was wearing, and considered the almost not there outfit she'd given Ranma. But she didn't say anything.
"As you wish," Kodachi said, shrugging with a confused look on her face. "Is the mistress here?"
"She is..." Kasumi started as Kodachi passed a small stack of bills to Nabiki who started counting them.
"...upstairs in her room, doing homework," Nabiki said.
"Nabiki!" Kasumi gasped.
"Thank you, Nabiki Tendo, now I must attend to the mistress," Kodachi said as she headed for the stairs. "Mistress Tendo! Your loyal and competent slave has come to attend to your will!"
"AHHH!!!" Akane shouted from upstairs while Nabiki and Kasumi stared up. "NABIKI!!! You told her where I was again!!!"
"Have I displeased you, mistress?" Kodachi shouted. "You must discipline me immediately."
"How'd you get the bloody wings back!!?!!"
There was a crash that had to be Akane jumping out her window since she landed in the courtyard and took off running, a flying succubus close behind her professing her undying devotion to her mistress, and carrying an overnight bag in one hand and a pair of cuffs in the other.
"I suppose this means she'll miss dinner," Kasumi said.
"I'd credit Akane's protests a lot more if she didn't still have that bag in her room," Nabiki thought, not saying it outloud to avoid getting into another argument with her elder sister.
*****
"Yeah," Ranma said. "Followin' Akane around like little puppy an' stuff. Nabiki don't understand me and Koda-chan, she just got kissed." Her voice started to get dreamy. "She doesn't know what it was like...how SHE made us feel..." Ranma's head started to loll to the side and her eyes almost faded into space before she flinched and shook her head. "Even knowin' better, even when Akane's just Akane again...Nabiki can be angry at her...I can't be...I don't think I ever can be again. Don't know why I'm telling ya this."
The bartender's hard face softened fractionally and she handed Ranma a large glass of soda. Ranma almost thought he saw a flash of light or something as the woman's hand passed over the cup, but he had to have been seeing things.
"Perhaps it is just being a bartender," the woman said. "We're supposed to provoke a desire to talk."
"Thought that was the alcohol that did that," Ranma muttered.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:09)
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