And now it was turning out that he was not only not against marrying her, but was actually seeing her as being pretty. Over the years since she had been left at the side of that road, she'd been training for and imagining what her revenge would be like. The thought of having those two at her mercy and begging for forgiveness had sustained her for all that time. Yet, she was getting the rug pulled out from under her, and she was trying to figure out what to do about the chance that Ranma might actually go through with the promise.
"You... aren't bothered by the fact that our fathers promised that we'd be... you know?" Ukyo demanded, looking towards her supposed fiance.
Ranma pursed his lips and then shrugged. "Dunno. I haven't seen you for years. You might not wanna be with me."
"You figure that out?"<> "Sure. I mean, after what my old man did ta ya, I'd be ticked too. 'Sides, he and his old buddy here were gonna have me marry one of his daughters."
"You have to be joking. That would be the... truth, wouldn't it?" The chef scowled as she looked at the crowd around her, paying special mind to the panda that was trying to innocently whistle nearby. "He promised you to someone twice?"
"Somethin' like that."
"It gets even worse. The fool even went as far as to not recognize that the promise was finished with when my parents got married," Nabiki drawled.
Shaking her head, Ukyo blew out a breath. "Now, that is truly dumb. But that does mean that Ranma's free, right?"
"Hmmm.... Are you interested?"
Taken aback, Ukyo leaned away from the elder girl and wondered about her anger towards the boy that she'd been so fond of back in childhood. With the knowledge that he hadn't known that he was abandoning her, her grief over that incident was lessened, although she was still a bit annoyed that he hadn't taken the time to check as to why she'd been chasing them. However, he was also clearly quite affectionate towards her, and could actually see her as the sort of girl that she never knew that she would hope he would. Not that he was all that bad of a catch either, seeing as he was buff without being bulky, was certainly cute, and bore a 'devil may care' attitude that was actually quite dashing when she thought about it.
Flushing as she recognized the direction that her thoughts were taking, the sole non-Tendo female in the room tried to regain her composure. "Okay, so I get all of that. But where does that leave me?"
"Where do you want it to go?" Ranma asked her. "You don't got to have to follow what my old man laid out for you."
"Are you trying to get rid of me?"
"Nope, but I don't think that you should be made to stick around here."
"Oh. But would you like it if I stayed?"
"Absolutely. It'd be too great to have my buddy back again," the pigtailed boy responded with a grin.
"Is that all? Just a friend?"
"Well, if it turned out that I'd have a cute girl like you as my fiancee, it'd be wonderful."
Ukyo blushed again, and ducked her head... for just long enough to be surprised when Ranko pressed her big spatula back into her hands.
"Now that it's settled that my little brother isn't totally against being with you, my father does need some payback," the redhead insisted.
Nodding firmly, Akane smiled grimly and held up a shinnai. "Come on. He deserves it."
"Just remember, his head is target number one," Ranma calmly, and helpfully, stated.
Slowly, but surely, Ukyo began to recognize that these people were not only put out by her revenge quest, but that they were actively trying to help her. Even the boy that she'd so liked was apparently happy to have her do his father damage. This support from an unexpected quarter oddly reassured her, and she began to feel rather comforted by how they were on her side.
Having the backing of the family around her, a smile spread across her features, and as her hands tightened around the handle of her weapon, she advanced on a rapidly sweating panda, while:
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(Posted Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:30)
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