Ranma finished hammering the last board into place over the hole that had been created in the wall of Hotoru's room. He had plenty of boards stored away from a Martial Arts Construction challenge he had been in a couple of weeks previous. The style had had a technique along the lines of Mousse's Hidden Weapons style to store all of your supplies, and Ranma had managed to get the challenger to teach it to him after he had won the fight.
That challenge had also managed to teach him how to quickly perform home repairs up to standards. Utilizing the Amaguriken, he painted the wall, fanned it dry, and stored the last of his construction supplies. Come to think of it, he was pretty good at this home repair stuff. Maybe he could get a job with a construction company? It may let him make enough to support Hotaru. Then he could hunt down his old man and beat the hell out of him for the damn love potion/spell/whatever that pink crap was.
"Wow!" Ranma turned around to see Hotaru, now dressed in a long black skirt and a blue blouse. "Did you fix the wall?"
Ranma nodded in response. "Yup! Sorry about the window though, I don't got any glass on me." The window in question now had black garbage backs taped over it and a thick blanket he had stolen from Hotaru's bed pinned over it to help keep the cool air out.
Hotaru walked up to Ranma and grabbed his hand. "It's alright, Ranma, I'm sure Setsuna-mama can get it fixed. She always says she has ways."
"Oh, okay," Ranma shrugged. If she wasn't going to hit him over the broken window, then all was good. Hmm...Setsuna...that reminded him, "Hey Hotaru-chan, Setsuna wanted me to tell you that a Michiru fainted and could use your help."
"Michiru-mama fainted?" Ranma blinked at that. Michiru-mama? Well, two mothers weren't any stranger then his father turning into a panda. Ranma simply followed along as Hotaru pulled him downstairs. "We need to help her then!"
*****
Upon getting out of the lake, Haruka detransformed and made her way to the shrine. She was happy to find out that doing so had dried her off from her swim through the lake. Grumbling the entire way, she finally reach the shrine, simply walking in.
Hearing voices coming from down the hall, she was glad it was Wednesday and the Inner Senshi were meeting for their weekly study session. Yanking open the door, her gaze took in all of her friends. "You have to help me." She was glad she managed to keep her voice from sounding desperate. "An evil sorcerer has corrupted Hotaru and Setsuna. I can't beat him myself!"
The Inner Senshi blinked. "An...evil...sorcerer?" Usagi asked, though the words didn't come out so cleanly as she had a cookie in her mouth.
"Yes!" came Haruka's slightly hysterical reply. "Setsuna does whatever he says, and Hotaru...he...he..." Haruka found that she couldn't even say it, her words ending in a growl.
The others looked at each other for a moment before they realized what Haruka was implying. Suffice to say, their were gasps of shock, cries of outrage, and very shorty six Sailor Senshi were transformed and racing to the Outer's home.
To Haruka's great discomfort, her Senshi uniform was still soaking wet.
*****
Michiru's eyes fluttered open and her daughter's face filled her vision. "Oh, Hotaru-chan, I had the strangest dream. Setsuna was telling me how you got married."
Hotaru gave a tired sigh. She had thought her parents would be able to take this much better than they had. Being a Sailor Senshi should have taught them how to deal with surprises better than either Setsuna or Michiru did. Hopefully when Haruka got home, she would be able to deal with it better.
Still, "I did get married, Michiru-mama. I've very disappointed you didn't come to the wedding." Hotaru gave her parental figure an almost angry frown.
For her part, Michiru blinked. She could yell, rage, faint again. A lot of options really. However, looking past Hotaru and seeing the amused smirk on Setsuna's face, she refused to give the older woman any satisfaction. So, she played along. "You know, Hotaru-chan, when you said you were going out to get Haruka something for her birthday, I don't think this was what I had in mind."
Hotaru's eyes widened and she quickly ruffled through one of many bags by the side of the couch. "That's not what we got Haruka-papa." Pulling out a pair of thick gloves, she held them up proudly. "This is what we got! Ranma-kun is sure that any martial artist would like them!"
"Ranma-kun?" Michiru asked.
"Ummm...hi there...?"
Michiru raised her head to look at the large chair at the far end of the couch. In it she could see a young man, a few years older then Hotaru waving with a nervous smile on his face.
"Its...umm...nice to meet ya. Sorry about this," Ranma continued. His stomach then gave a loud growl. "Hehe...guess I'm hungry. Its been a long time since lunch."
For the first time, Setsuna spoke up. "I'm sure the conversation can wait until dinner. We should probably wait for Haruka to get home, if possible. Still, if she isn't here by dinner, we can just fill her in."
Michiru blinked. "Where is Haruka, anyway?"
"Oh," Setsuna replied with a mysterious smile, "She had to take a trip. I'll go fix dinner."
Ranma quickly stood up. "No, let me. I can cook." He saw this as a way to escape for a bit. He needed to get himself together, and his old man wasn't around to call it girly.
"You can cook?" Michiru asked.
"Sure can, I'm great at it," Ranma said as he retreated to the kitchen. "You just stay there."
***
It was sometime later as the three women (though in truth Hotaru really was still more a girl then a woman) chatted in the dining room, waiting for the promised food. There were wonderful smells coming from the kitchen, which helped lighten the mood more. They spoke about a variety of things, but stayed away from the topic of Hotaru's marriage, waiting for the other involved party to join them.
As such, they were all caught by surprise when the peace was shattered with the door slamming open and a troop of Senshi suddenly filling the room.
"Halt evil doers!" Cried Sailor Moon as she looked around. Before she could continue the speech she had thought up on the roofhop over, she was interupped.
"Usagi!" called out Setsuna, glaring at the young princess. "What do you think you're doing!?"
The sound of a loud, angry Senshi of Time caused all of the intruders to stop and blink. "Umm...saving...you?" Sailor Moon replied hesitantly.
"No," Setsuna replied in a superior tone, "what do you're doing is letting all of the cool air out of the house. I'm not paying for air conditioning the out doors. You go close that door right this instant."
Sailor Moon dropped her head like a scolded school girl. "Yes ma'am," she replied as she shuffled to the door.
For her part, Sailor Uranus stared in shock. "Setsuna! What do you think you're doing?"
"Saving money, of course. Its bad enough you broker Hotaru-chan's window, but now you're just tramping around wasting electricity. Really, you should no better then this."
For her part, Sailor Uranus growled in anger. "Where's that bastard!?"
"Bastard?" Hotaru asked confused.
"The one who put me through the wall!"
"Oh, Ranma," Setsuna replied. "Really, Haruka, you shouldn't talk about Hotaru's husband like that."
"Yeah!" chipped in the youngest girl, defending her husband.
Just then, the door to the kitchen opened, and the boy in question came out carrying a massive tray stacked high with Okonomiyaki. "Dinner's up!" Blinking at all of the standing girls, Ranma gave a slight shrug before putting the tray down on the table. "Woah, guests. Glad I mad a lot." And disappointed that it meant he wouldn't get to eat it all. "It's not as good as Ucchan's, but I'm no slouch. Dig in!"
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(Posted Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:18)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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