Over in the Juuban ward on a particularly lovely Sunday afternoon, one Minako Aino and one Makoto Kino were walking to Makoto's apartment with groceries. The general plan for the girls was for Makoto to bake some treats for the girl's meeting later in the evening.
Minako was purely along for girl talk so she could gossip with her tall friend about boys. A favorite topic between the two boy hungry girls, particularly as there hadn't been any senshi business for a while, this was fairly normal for them.
The abnormality of the day happened when Makoto unlocked the door to her apartment, and opened it.
That wasn't the abnormality, as apartment doors were supposed to open under such circumstances. No, abnormal for the two girls was the topless hunk of beefcake standing casually within Makoto's apartment.
Towel wrapped around his shoulders to keep his hair from dripping upon the floor due to his recent shower, Ranma gazed at the two girls standing in the doorway with groceries. "Ah, Kino-san. I hope I'm not intruding, but I needed to stop by to grab a quick shower and a change of clothes."
While he waited for some sort of response from the girls, they were failing to do much other than stare at him, which was a tad uncomfortable. "Uhm, I'm Ranma Saotome, you know, Ranko's twin brother?"
That seemed to momentarily get the tall brunette going as she started with with a brief giggle. "Heehee. Oh. Oh, yes... I just didn't expect you to be so tall... or so fit... or so... mhmmmm..."
As the brunette trailed off with a blush, the leggy blond next to her did a brief shoulder slam into the taller girl while continuing to stare at Ranma. He didn't know if the blond was trying to get her friend's attention or just snap her out of her funk, because both girls just continued to stare in a sort of dazed fashion.
Finding it increasingly uncomfortable, Ranma stepped forward and took their bags. "Here, let me help you with that."
Seeing that they were groceries, he took them over to the little kitchenette area to set them down. Luckily the two girls had followed him in, with the brunette standing nearby and the blond following suite after taking the time to close the door and deadbolt it.
Despite that bit of progress they were still staring at him and being quiet, so he went to find a clean shirt among his new purchases. If he was lucky, maybe he could get Makoto to look at the knit shirt he got and see if it would need any special care or whatnot after getting splashed with dirty water.
Relatively safe from the effects of hunk aura due to standing in the vaguely separate kitchenette area, Minako elbowed her partner in boy-hunting while whispering harshly. "What is he doing in your apartment? How could you keep this a secret from me?"
Makoto was still staring at the topless freshly showered young man in her lonesome apartment, so she answered absently as the words came to her. "You remember how I said I had found a roommate?"
Minako made a strangled noise as she pictured having a roommate like that.
"Well I met Ranko that first time, she said she just needed a place to keep some clothes and crash at. She did say her brother might stop here too, but... wow."
Looking at his new clean shirts, Ranma tried to figure out what would be the best choice for tonight. Seeing the two girls chatting in low tones over in the kitchenette, he decided to take action before there was a misunderstanding. "Sorry for the trouble Kino-san, but I got splashed and needed to change quickly. Do you know anything about laundry?"
Somewhat cautiously the tall brunette approached the still shirtless young man just a bit. "Well, yes. I do my own laundry all the time."
Walking past the girl towards the little bathroom, Ranma retrieved the still damp knit shirt he'd bought just a little while earlier. "I've never really had nice clothes before, so I don't know what to do about it."
Gingerly taking the garment, Makoto briefly held it up to note the black grit across the surface. Looked like a splash from really dirty water. "Oh, this is no problem, when do you need it?"
Somewhat surprised by the Kasumi type acceptance, Ranma smiled at the nice girl. "Not anytime soon. It's just a good thing I bought a few other shirts today, otherwise dinner would be ruined. I kinda like my new job, so it'd be bad if I ditched dinner with the boss, ya know?"
As Makoto numbly nodded with a blush, Minako eagerly bounced up. "Is there something I can do to help?"
Looking over at the lively blond, the young man seemed to consider it. "Well, I do gotta pick out an outfit to wear. You think you can tell me what looks good as I try it on?"
Minako's answer was the jump in place and cheer like she'd just won a prize at the carnival.
At the Tendou home, the phone was ringing. As the girls were all upstairs, it was Akane that rushed into the hallway to answer.
She was in for a surprise as Yuka was in a rush to tell her something about Ranma. Just what was that idiot up to now?
Looking at Ranma with a critical eye, Minako leaned in and adjusted his collar. In the time that he'd been getting ready they had finally gotten around to chatting comfortably. The subject of their chat was the related details to Ranma's plan for the night.
Said plan involved explaining why he was essentially going to have to sneak a girl out of her own house. It was a tail of arranged marriages, psychotically jealous girls that had destroyed his home, unthinking rivals, scheming fathers, and one nice girl that needed to get out and live a little at the center of all of it.
It was a tale only a romantic could get into, which was why Makoto was now behind Ranma one hundred and ten percent.
As it also included his reasoning that Kasumi only liked older men, had snubbed him as a potential fiance, and that he figured she'd go on real dates afterwards as Ranma's reasoning for why it wasn't a romantic date, it was even more romantic in a selfless sort of way. Very noble and manly it was. It also didn't hurt that it basically explained that the young man was essentially still going to be single if one discounted the arranged marriages, which Minako did.
Thus the eager blond was behind him two hundred and forty percent.
Satisfied that he was once again presentable and wouldn't disappoint Kasumi, Ranma turned his attentions back to the matter at hand. "I even considered swooping in and doing the magic prince kidnapping the girl thing. Kasumi would really like that I think, ya know, being exciting and all. Problem is there would either be a fight before the restaurant, or there would be one at the restaurant and it'd get really messed up. So if I really want to pull this off, I need to get Kasumi to the date without someone troublesome following her, which means I can't show up there."
Walking over to a phone book, Ranma began looking for a suitable service. "I know I can send a car to pick her up, but who knows what's going to go wrong there? If only I had someone I could trust to go in the car, but I'd need someone that wouldn't be recognized."
A thought coming to him as he was planning out loud, the young man grinned in thought. "Someone that can pull off the chauffeur working for a mysterious man bit would be cool. Someone professional looking so they don't get questioned, and it makes everything seem better. Kinda still has that magical prince thing to it without the kidnapping to get everyone riled up."
Minako was nodding along enthusiastically. Absolute hunk doing something romantic and selfless? Lonely girl being brought out of her shell? Bizarre obstacles in their path to an evening that was apparently to be framed with flower blossoms? Was she not the Senshi of Love?
Who knew, maybe even he'd take her on a date if she asked nicely afterwards?
It was even a bit of mischievous fun element to it. "Ooooh, I have some ideas too!"
Who knows, now that the senshi battles were supposedly over, maybe the Moon Cats wouldn't throw too much of a fit if she went around at night playing senshi to his magical prince act. Could be fun to be had another day there. Besides, why was Usagi the only one to get a magical prince? That was totally unfair.
Ranma backed up a half-step from the blond's enthusiasm, as she was certainly excitable and energetic.
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(Posted Sun, 18 May 2008 09:50)
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