Nabiki sat next to the unconscious black-haired boy lying on a futon in the guest room, gazing thoughtfully out the window. Well, that could have gone better, she thought with a grimace, then felt her expression soften as she looked down at her newly-arrived friend. Still, he’s here and that’s all that matters.
Her head jerked around, her expression hardening, then she relaxed at the sound of her older sister’s voice. “Nabiki, is Ranma waking up yet?” Kasumi asked softly. “Can I come in?”
“Sure,” Nabiki responded, “and no, Ranma isn’t waking up yet.”
Kasumi quietly slipped inside and closed the door behind her, then tiptoed over to Ranma and stood gazing down at the unconscious boy. “He’s very handsome,” she whispered. “Is this how he looked in the dreams you shared?”
“Yeah, it is,” the brown-haired girl said with a dreamy smile. “I sure lucked out, didn’t I?”
“If the inside matches the outside,” Kasumi responded, “yes, you did. And I have to admit, he does seem to be a nice boy,” she added reluctantly.
The dreamy look on Nabiki’s face vanished as she glared at her older sister. “All right, Kasumi, what do you have against Ranma? You hardly know him!” she growled.
Kasumi held up her hands palms out in a placating gesture. “Easy, Nabiki, easy! I don’t have anything against the boy, not really. It’s just that ... well ...” She fell silent for a long moment, then sighed. “Nabiki, do you intend to repeat your dreams, only in real life?”
“You mean, do I intend to take him to bed and screw his brains out?” Nabiki asked, glancing at her older sister and grinning at the blush that sprang to life on her cheeks.
“Well, in a word, yes,” Kasumi admitted.
“At the first opportunity. Why, got a problem with that?”
“Yes, little sis, I do — several, in fact,” Kasumi said firmly. “First, it just isn’t proper to do that outside of marriage — even with a fiancée.” She quickly waved down her sister’s gathering protest. “Still, as you have said so often and demonstrated again tonight, ‘proper’ is not something you care about, I know. Though you should at least pretend to care, to maintain the family’s reputation — that will be important if Father’s dream of reopening the dojo with Ranma as the sensei works out.”
Nabiki froze with her mouth open, then swallowed her rebuttal and gazed thoughtfully down at the handsome face she had before seen only in her dreams. “You may have a good point there, big sis,” she reluctantly admitted. “Ranma wants to teach someday, and his reputation will be important. And,” she added even more reluctantly, “my reputation will affect how he’s perceived. Damn it!”
Kasumi put her arm around her younger sister’s shoulders. “Now, Nabiki, I don’t expect you to act the perfect dutiful daughter, or sister, or fiancée or student as the case may be. Just please think about how your public actions will reflect on those closest to you?”
Nabiki nodded with a sigh. “It looks like you found an argument that works, big sis, I’ll try. Still,” she added with a grin, “that’s just in public. What happens in private doesn’t count!”
Kasumi chuckled ruefully, shaking her head. “That’s if it stays private. But tell me, Nabiki, do you have any birth control?”
Nabiki stiffened, then with a groan dropped her head in her hands. “No, I don’t,” she murmured.
“And right now, you’re — what was that American phrase? — as fertile as a turtle. It won’t really be safe for a couple weeks, and I don’t know how Ranma would handle it if you got an abortion. And you don’t want to get one behind his back.”
“Yeah, a secret like that would not be good,” Nabiki agreed, lifting her head out of her hands and shaking it. “How did I miss that?” she asked bemusedly.
“You got bedazzled by a pretty face,” Kasumi said primly, sitting up ramrod straight. “Of course, such a thing could never happen to me!”
“Dr. Tofu will be sorry to hear that,” Nabiki replied slyly, then laughed as Kasumi slapped her gently on the shoulder. “Ah, well,” she sighed, “I guess I’ll just have to convince Ranma to let me play with his nature spirit form. Not that that’s a hardship, she’s cute as can be like that, Jusenkyo sure worked out for us. Maybe now that I’m her fiancée she’ll loosen up a little there.”
Blushing, Kasumi gratefully latched onto the change of subject. “So you want the engagement?”
“Yeah, I do,” Nabiki said. “I thought of suggesting that you take it for a little while — I’m afraid that Genma will want to keep Ranma under his thumb, and I’ll probably scare him. Still, he can hardly run away now, not if he wants the lazy future I think he’s angling for, so he’ll just have to deal with me — and maybe his wife.” She smiled viciously, and Kasumi joined her as she thought of the report from Cherry Blossom.
“I hope I’m here to see that,” Kasumi agreed, and got up. “I’ll let the fathers know that we’ve agreed that you should take the engagement, and with a couple new members of the household I have some work to do getting everything set up before bedtime. Bring Ranma downstairs when he wakes up, I’ve set some supper aside for the two of you.”
Nabiki nodded distractedly, her gaze returning to Ranma’s face, and Kasumi sighed and shook her head ruefully as she headed for the door.
On the roof over the guest room window, Xian Pu quietly moved back and to the other side of the roof, then roof-hopped away into the night. A few minutes later, she reached the park where she had stashed her pack and pulled it out, her hands automatically setting up her camp as her mind repeated the conversation she’d heard over and over.
Not a mage, just a Jusenkyo curse, and what do I do now? she thought as she finally tried to relax on her blankets after her meager supper, gazing at the few stars coming out in the darkening sky and trying to fight off the despair threatening to overwhelm her. It looks like I’m going to be stuck with that fat fool after all, unless I can find some other man able to defeat me in fair combat that the elders would accept as a replacement. Yeah, right, she snorted derisively. I’m the champion of the tribe of the best warriors in the world. The fact that Genma was able to beat me was incredible enough, even if I was tired from winning the tournament — what are the chances that there’s another man around that could repeat that miracle?
Unable to find her usual comfort in the darkening night sky with most of the stars washed out by Tokyo’s light pollution, Xian Pu turned on her side and rested her head on her hands. Maybe it won’t be so bad. A couple of children to do my duty to the tribe, and maybe he’ll lose interest in me. And he’s overweight — if I’m really lucky, he’ll eat himself to death or something. Then, remembering the muscles under the fat that she’d pounded her fists against during their brief fight, she laughed bitterly to herself. Not a chance. Face it girl, you’re fucked — and all too soon that will be more than a figure of speech.
Wishing desperately that she could be scooped up by her mother and have everything made right again like when she was little, Xian Pu curled up in her blankets and cried herself to sleep for the first time in six years, since the night of her mother’s death.
Once the purple-haired girl had sunk into uneasy dreams, the imp that had followed her from the Tendo Dojo slipped away to report what little it had learned.
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(Posted Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:38)
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