The sun was setting as a pigtailed youth slowly made his way out the school exit. He leaned heavily on his improvised walking stick as he cursed Nabiki and her greed.
“Damn you Ranma.” No wait, that wasn’t his voice. He looked up and saw Nabiki coming up from the opposite side. Her weary blood shot eyes seemed to have trouble focusing on anything. She walked with her back slightly arched forward, cramped from many hours of leaning over ledgers. Her problem was exacerbated by the fact that she had quite a few packages and shopping bags looped around her arms.
“Nabiki.” He growled as he straightened up so that he could look down at her.
“Ranma.” She glared back. The effect was ruined as she started blinking her dried out eyes. Ranma intimidation didn’t fare any better as he slumped against his walking stick. Quickly Nabiki and he tried again, but once again, neither was able to get their bodies to cooperate. They stared at each other after a few more failed attempts at looking fearsome and burst out laughing.
For some reason they couldn’t stop laughing. When it looked they were about to stop then either Nabiki would giggle or he would chuckle and they would start again. It took a while, but some how between laughter fits they ended up on one of the school benches, out of breath.
“Ranma,” she said between laughs, “I’ll agree to never to rent you out to clubs again, if you agree not to rent me out. Shake on it?” He nodded as he took her hand. For some reason he found it amusing that her hand was covered in ink and looked much like his own that was covered in dirt and sweat.
“So,” he paused to take stifle another laugh and take a deep breath, “So how did it go?”
Flashback
Nabiki is seated at one of the classrooms turned clubrooms with ledgers from various clubs around her. Everyone jumped as she slammed her hand in frustration into one of the books. She leveled glare level 4 – I can’t believe you just said that (as opposed to level 1 – You will owe me your first born) at a group of students in designer clothes and yelled,
“No you can’t get a bolt of cloth with that many thread count. At that rate, you wouldn’t have enough to make mini, let alone a gown!” A group of girls in kitchen aprons flinched when she quickly turned to them, “Do you have any idea of much you put into each dish? You put in lots of chocolate because it tastes good. You need to stretch things out. Do you have any idea how much of each package costs? How many cupcakes can be made from one package? How much the soap costs to clean up all the dishes? How much the laundry costs to clean up the linens?”
She groaned as all of the girls shook their heads. Taking a deep breath she slowly said, “You are going to have to cut back on your recipes till you are able to make twice as many dishes for the same number of ingredients.” The vehement protests from the student cooks blew her hair back.
“You may be brilliant in your field, but you are all very stupid, when it comes to money!” Nabiki loudly concluded which quieted the lot.
“Yes we know,” stated Kaminari, the culinary club president.
“You know?” Nabiki parroted, amazed that such a statement was acknowledged without a hint of shame.
“Yes. That’s why you’re here to make it all better.” Nabiki suddenly had the urge to scream. Kaminari sensed her distress quickly held up a pot, “Do you want some tea? It’s my own special blend. I’m told that it somewhat resembles the taste of Tieguanyin tea.” It took many deep breaths before she was able to force herself to calm down. “Let’s hope it doesn’t cost as much,” she grumbled as she begrudgingly took a cup.
End Flashback
“No problem with someone with my intellect.” Nabiki said with a mostly straight face. “How about you? Those part time martial artist beat you up?”
“No way! I was the only one to walk away.” Ranma stated proudly. He looked at the walking stick and added, “Well, with a little help from staff-san here.” For some reason that set Nabiki off on another round of laughter. I think this the first time I’ve really heard Nabiki laugh, Ranma thought to himself. She really does have a nice laugh. Mentally shaking the thought from his head, he distracted himself by saying the first thing that popped into his head.
“You know. Why didn’t you ditch those packages if you had so much trouble walking?”
“No way!” Nabiki said while giving him a mock glare, “These are my payments for tonight’s work.”
“You mean my payments,” he corrected, “otherwise fork over the yen from the sport clubs.”
“Tell you what. Instead, I’ll consider everything on your tab paid.”
“I don’t remember owing you a lot of money. Most of those are mine then,” he said pointing at the packages. What the heck, he decided, it was better deal then what he expected, and the money really wasn’t that big a deal to him.
She opened one of the plastic bags and handed him a small brown bag. He opened it and found a tiny pair of black silky panties and matching bra.
“Nabiki!” he shouted as he stuffed them back in and tossed the bag back at her.
“So you’ll agree that these are my payments. I’ll even wear them for you later.” She said as sultry as she could manage.
“Um, sure all the girly stuff is yours. What else did you get?” he said completely missing any innuendoes. After all, what did he care what underwear she wore under her clothes. In the silence that followed, he did notice that for some reason she pouted for a bit before she brought out two boxes. He opened it slowly, just in case it was another set up. The first contained a nice silk shirt and pants with a dragon design. He whistled in approval and turned his attention to the next box.
“Cookies!” he gleefully cried as he grabbed a large handful.
“Hey! Some of those are mine too you know!” He held up the box so she could grab a couple. “I’ll have you know that I really worked hard for those. All of those clubs haven’t a clue how stretch a yen.”
“Oh? So how did you help them?” He asked between mouthfuls of cookies.
“They’re all going to have to chip in to hold an event.”
“What type of event?” Ranma asked as he finished what he considered his fair share of the cookies.
“It’s going to be a dinner \ fashion show with a dance afterwards. They will rent out our Dojo for the occasion.”
“Um…If you’re trying to make money for them, why didn’t you just let them have it without charging them?”
“Honestly Ranma. It’s not like I’m a member of the club. I was hired as a consultant. I think it’s only fair that my family be paid for use of our ancestral lands.” She saw that he still wasn’t convinced so she sighed and added, “I’ve given them a good rate. Better then what they would get if they rented the hall at the Yamato-Damashii. Just think of it as a student discount.” He reluctantly nodded.
Seeing that he was taking her at her word, she continued, “The culinary club will do the catering and the flower arrangement club will do corsages, boutonnieres, and special request arrangements. One girl said her boyfriend was a DJ that would do it free. Some of the other clubs will simply piggyback, like the stuff animal clubs will be selling their stuff as an extra you can get with the flowers or set up booths. There should be enough profit for all the clubs to split up.”
“Wow Nabiki. Good Job.” He didn’t quite follow all of it, but it sounded good to him. The pigtailed youth stood up and discarded his walking stick. The small bit of rest and those excellent cookies had restored a good portion of his strength. “Ya ready to go?” he asked. She nodded and tried to get up. Nabiki’s back gave out and she dropped back on the bench. She managed a glare as Ranma laughingly said, “You look a bit like pops after one of our sparing sessions or like an old lady.”
“Give me a hand up!” Nabiki said, holding up an arm, “It’s your fault I’m like this. You have any idea how many receipts I had go through and books I updated before I figured everything out!” Still lightly chuckling Ranma shook his head, ignored her arm, and sat next to her.
“Turn,” he said while he motioned her to turn away from him. She looked at him suspiciously for a second, but did as he asked. Nabiki stiffened in surprise when she felt his hands on her neck, but relaxed when she realized that Ranma was massaging her stiff muscles.
He wasn’t a expert by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew enough from his workouts what worked and what didn’t. He then started on the shoulders and heard her sigh in relief and appreciation. Slowly he worked his way down her back. He was working a particularly tight knot in the middle of her back when he jokingly said,
“So what do you think? Should I invent an anything goes massage technique?” Nabiki snorted back in amusement.
“How about you let me open a massage parlor and all you have to worry about is making everyone feel good.”
“Would I ever see any money?” He shot back.
“Sure you would. In fact,” Nabiki opened her school bag and took out her wallet. She then carefully took out a 10-yen coin and handed it to him over her shoulder. Ranma snorted in amusement as he took the coin then did a double take as he took another look at the shiny coin.
“Hey isn’t that the coin you took from me a couple of nights ago?”
“Yep,” Nabiki smirked, “I’d didn’t think you’d notice.”
“Yea, it got a little bent from when Akane hit me after she broke the balcony.” He was about to pocket the coin when he saw several photos of his girl form in the middle Tendo’s bag.
“Nabiki! What are these?”
“What? I’m expected to keep a few photos of my fiancé as keepsakes.” Nabiki said as she placed a hand over her heart.
“Yeah right,” he snorted his disbelief. He took her hand and put the 10-yen coin back in it. “Give me the photos.” She looked back at the coin and he could tell she weighed her chances of keeping the photos if he was really determined. Sighing melodramatically she said,
“They’re yours.” The sound of paper shredding filled the air and then they were silent until Ranma finished the massage. Nabiki tested her back by twisting it back and forth. It wasn’t perfect, but it was much better then before. She stood up about half way when a mischievous thought crossed her mind and she sat down again facing Ranma. He examined her and said,
“Your back shouldn’t be bothering you too much now. You should be able to walk.”
“Mmmm…,” she shook her head, “Don’t feel like it. Carry me?” He looked at her with a blank expression.
“You’re crazy,” he said. She didn’t respond, but took his hand and placed the 10-yen into it. Ranma played with the coin for a bit then shrugged. He balanced the packages on his head, picked up the Tendo girl bridal style, and then walked out the school gate. Nabiki was enjoying the ride and snuggled into his shoulder. She whispered into his ear,
“To keep the expenses down, I’m going to need you to move all the clubs equipment to the dojo.” It was a credit to his concentration that he didn’t face fault, but it was a near thing.
“You get to rent the dojo,” he retorted, “but I gots to work for free? Besides, I have the 10-yen coin. You don’t have anything to bargain with.” She began to draw circles on his chest as she lazily said,
“Oh don’t worry. There’s lots of time before the event. I’ll be sure to own that coin by then. For example, if you give me the 10-yen, I’ll stop doing this.” Ranma was sweating a little, but rose to the challenge. He faced Happosai’s torments and came out ahead; he’ll prevail here as well.
“No way! Do your worst,” He gamely said. Nabiki was surprised by the resolve of her fiancé and playfully said,
“Why Ranma-chan. You wouldn’t say that if you only knew what I was capable of.”
“Ha! I can take anything you can imagine, Na-chan.”
“Na-chan?” She repeated in surprise.
“No good huh,” He paused in thought, “How about ‘biki-chan?” She made a face. “Then how about just ‘biki?”
“Ugh,” Nabiki said, “I’d think I’d pay you to stop trying to come up with nick-names for me.”
“Sorry,” he said as he gave her what he thought was a friendly squeeze (he was still new to this hugging stuff), “but I have the coin.” He paused again, “I got it. Nabs!”
She groaned as she settled down in his arms.
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(Posted Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:37)
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