The prince stared at the reclining red-head in a thoughtful manner. "Fair Lady, you have given me much to think about."
Wincing slightly from the pain of trying to pull back in her injured condition, Ranma gave him a sickly grin. "Uhm, could you at least stop with the Lady stuff? I'm Ranma Saotome, so just call me Ranma."
Pausing for a moment, the blond prince hesitantly formulated a reply. "Ah, but... to be so familiar would be rude to one such as yourself. Should I... call you Sir Ranma perhaps?"
Sighing in a put upon way, Ranma just had to wonder why she always attracted the strange ones. It was obvious just how uncomfortable he was with the idea as he made the male form of address sound incredibly awkward. "Sheesh, alright. Just go with whatever makes ya comfortable. I can put up with that, but I draw the line at putting on a dress and acting girly."
Relaxing with a gentle smile of his own at the allowance, the prince nodded happily at the red-head. "Thank you my fair one for your indulgence in the matter."
Grinning a bit of her own typical confident smirk, the red-head lazily waved her free hand as a warning fist. "Just watch it though, you push it too far and try to get me in a dress or something and we'll have problems. I've had a lot of prince types kidnap me before and try to force me into something stupid, and they all had their asses handed to them. You're a nice guy though, right?"
Smile starting a bit sickly and rapidly gaining confidence, the prince bowed forward slightly from his sitting position. "Of course. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Arturia Camelotta, Prince of the Blade. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Relieved that the novel plan of attempting to be polite and reasonable was working well, Ranma sagged into the bed. Kodachi's new poison was pretty impressive, but it likely wouldn't be as effective next time. Things were apparently going well though, so Ranma relaxed a bit to let the poison run its course peacefully.
Of course, this prince wasn't particularly imposing. About Akane's height, though perhaps a bit more slender than the tomboy. His blond hair was a bit shorter than Akane's, and he was actually a bit on the girly side of things as far as looks went. He was wearing something like a fancy boy's uniform in white with a western style longsword hanging at the left hip.
Overall assessment? Not much of a worry, seemed nice enough, but probably had some sort of magical sword trick.
Prince Arturia had other thoughts on his mind as he considered the unfortunate princess. "You said that you would only have relations with a woman and knew of a method to turn me female. Of what were you speaking?"
Glancing briefly at the blond bishounen prince type, Ranma returned her gaze to the ceiling after briefly trying to read him. "There's a place in China called Jusenkyou. Magic springs that turn you into whatever first took a dip in them. There's a lot of springs there and one of them is the girl spring. I heard there are a few other girl springs too, though they make ya look like a specific kind of girl or act a certain way."
The prince considered the red-head gently, noting that she spoke of personal experience and pain there. "Ah. If I were a woman, I would then be a suitable lover for you?"
Distracted from wondering if the ceiling was solid in case of future escape attempts, Ranma glanced over at the young man. "Uh, well yeah, no offense there, I just like girls is all. Hey, you're not seriously considering it are you?"
Face bearing a thoughtful frown before slipping into neutrality, the prince nodded towards the red-head. "It seems worthy of consideration."
Panicking just a bit, Ranma waved her free arm around wildly. "Hey look, Jusenkyou is bad news. I was just trying to get you to, ya know, not try and jump me or whatever. Met one too many grabby guy types."
Grinning at her burst of exuberance, Arturia smiled gently at her. "Your experiences sound very personal. Have you perhaps also experienced Jusenkyou?"
Realizing she'd been outmaneuvered and revealed a tad too much, the red-head quieted down. "Uhm, I guess ya could say that."
Still smiling gently, the blond's eyes roamed inquisitively over the petite red-head's curvy form. "Mhmm, then perhaps your story would make more sense if you were born and raised a boy, only later to be rendered female?"
Mentally wincing as he proved to be sharper than Nabiki, much less Kuno, Ranma prepared for the shit to hit the fan. "Uh, well yeah. Sorry, but most guys don't take it too well when the girl they're going for turns out to be a guy."
Arturia surprised the red-head by putting a little extra warmth into his smile. "Ah, so you intended to spare me that discomfort? How thoughtful of you." Pausing a moment he allowed her to ease back into the soft bed and resume resting peacefully. "So fair one, might I inquire as to how long have you been of female form?"
No explosion of indignation and hurt feelings forthcoming, Ranma allowed herself to relax in response to the understanding treatment. "Well, a bit over a year now I guess, maybe two. Got the curse right after Junior High." Still though, it might not be wise to reveal the hot water part of the curse just yet.
For his part, Prince Arturia nodded pleasantly at the unfortunate cursed female. "I see, this explains much."
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(Posted Mon, 26 May 2008 05:13)
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