It wasn't running quite as smoothly as that.
Apparently, Ranma knew the sisters, and their friend, which had been an unwanted surprise. The friend in question also happened to be a rather strong girl who obviously wasn't exactly thrilled with Genma. And now she was intruding on a private moment between the families.
Not that Soun was particularly bothered by the latter fact. "Child, you'll have to bear with us then. We weren't thinking of this when we were making our plans."
"Don't worry. I didn't think that you did," Makoto replied with a sympathetic smile.
"Still, this is all such a mess.... How can we get things back on track?"
"It has gotten terribly twisted, hasn't it, Tendo?" Genma sighed. "Of course...."
"Yes?"
"It's not like we've seen anything change."
"Oh?"
"We just gained an audience. The meat of why we're here hasn't changed. All we have to do is get the boy to pick one of your daughters," the Saotome patriarch commented, nodding to himself.
Ranma shook his head. "Ain't happenin'. I'm not just gonna pick one at a drop of a hat like that."
"Then we will pick for you."
"You do have a point, Saotome. It's not like she's just a passing acquaintance. She can stay here while we pick your son's bride."
"Not happening, can't happen, won't happen," Nabiki stated with an edge of finality in her voice.
"Are you saying that you don't think that my son is worth marrying?" Genma demanded, looming towards the girl.
The middle Tendo sister merely raised a brow at the man in the white gi. "Oh, I can definitely see an appeal in him. Might have been a good catch for me."
"Really. Then why don't you marry him?"
"I'm not about to."
"But this is a matter of family honor," her father insisted.
"You have no idea how right you are, Daddy."
"Huh?"
"Let's just forget this babble and get down to it," Genma barked. "Give me one good reason why we shouldn't see the boy married to one of you right now?!"
"You might not like the answer," Akane muttered with a snort.
"What?"
"Well, you aren't getting your way, right?"
Her father's friend growled under his breath. "You don't understand what is supposed to happen."
"No, I know what your plans were, basically."
"And that means...."
"They aren't going to happen."
"And no one is giving me a reason why they shouldn't! What could you know that would keep this engagement from going through?"
"She knows that I already married Makoto, that's what!" Ranma snapped, glaring right into his father's face.
For a moment, there was a silence as everyone recognized that the words were finally out there, with the couple and their friends relaxing as the burden was in the open, and the fathers blinking dumbly as they struggled to comprehend what had just happened.
And then the expected reaction came from both patriarchs. "WHAT?!"
"I didn't think that I was hard to hear," the pigtailed boy responded, letting his lip curl just a bit. "Makoto is my wife."
"B... bu... but... how...." blubbered Genma.
It was actually Soun who came up with a coherent response of his own. "How could you come to my home for the engagement like that then?"
"I didn't come for any engagement. I came ta see my friends," the teenaged boy answered.
"But you were supposed to stay here...."
"Actually, I was thinkin' that I'd go with Makoto."
The named girl blushed slightly. "I've been living in an apartment on my own."
"And what will your parents say about that," Genma snapped.
"Not much.... They died when I was little. A plane crash."
"Oh."
"It's okay. I was well taken care of by my guardian. And now I have Ranma."
"But this is important to my family...."
"Actually, husband," Nodoka softly said, seemingly more interested in her tea cup than him, "I have already put her onto the Saotome family registry."
Makoto ducked her head. "My name is legally 'Makoto Saotome' now."
"Kind of puts a kink in your plans, now doesn't it?" the middle Tendo daughter drawled, while:
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(Posted Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:52)
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