"Ne, Ranko, want to have lunch with me?" Akane asked the empty desk.
"Um, Akane-chan?" Miyo offered. "Ranko sorta shot through the wall as soon as the bell rang."
Akane traced the seer's hand and frowned. "She went to Nabiki?"
"Well after her declaration this morning, are you surprised?" This came from Sayuri. "I didn't know Nabiki was that way."
Akane frowned, not understanding. "What way?"
"You know," Yuka said. "She likes girls, not boys."
Akane snorted. "Like anyone could like a boy."
Yuka and Sayuri exchanged startled looks. "Akane, you mean you two?"
"I hate boys. Perverts, the lot of them!" Akane raged.
"But...isn't it kinda perverted to like girls?"
About three sentences too late Akane made all the proper connections and paled. "WHAT!? No, I'm not, I mean I don't, I mean not that way, I mean-" This continued for some time. Finally she had to breathe. "What made you think that Nabiki was...that way?" she asked weakly.
"Well, Ranko did tell Kuno she was with Nabiki.
Akane flashed back to the scene. Kuno was being an idiot, said something about her falling for a boy, she saw red...yes Ranko did mention Nabiki. "I'm sure she was just confused. Having all of Ranma's memories has to be confusing. I'm just happy she doesn't have to deal with his perverted thoughts."
Sensing another anti-boy rant hidden in that last statement, her friends silently agreed not to pursue the topic further...at least until Akane left the room.
"Nah, some crazy rules about it not being a good excuse. Can't take notes, can't read my book, can't even raise my hand, but apparently that's no reason ta not attend class." Ranma frowned openly at Nabiki's subdued expression. It didn't match her empathic feelings at all, but there was this ice-cold undercurrent. This must be what the Ice Queen was all about.
Nabiki felt Ranma's concern and resisted the urge to smile reassuringly. Decorum, decorum. "Well, I still have Ranma's clothes whenever the hot water starts working again. Until then, Ranko, I have a certain amount of business to take care of. Can I meet you in the yard in, say, ten minutes?"
Ranma's frown became uncertain. "Sure, Nabs," she said, floating out the window. What kind of 'business'? she wondered.
Nabiki resisted the urge to sigh in relief and turned to her lieutenants, many of whom were wearing expressions of shock and awe. "Get used to it, girls," she said calmly, letting the Ice Queen take over. "Ranko will be around for a while. Now, what are the day's rumors?"
Ranma smiled at the girl's kindness. "Thanks, Akane, but I think you've forgotten something. I can't eat."
Akane blinked a few times and colored. "Oh, of course. Um, so what do you eat?" she asked, sitting down under a tree. She noticed the grass beside her flatten and figured Ranko had sat down too.
Ranma let out a sigh as she was finally able to relax. "Ahh, nice not having ta float in place for a change," she murmured, enjoying the feel of something touching her for the first time in hours. "Well, Nabiki could probably explain it better. It's kinda complicated."
Akane frowned. "What could be complicated about eating? I mean, I guess you have to feed on something alive. What, do you hunt mice like a cat or something?"
Ranma stiffened and shied away at the mention of little fuzzy demons of death and destruction, taking a few moments to go through a breathing exercise. It didn't feel quite right...oh, right. I don't normally breathe. "No, nothing like that. Really, it's...it's hard to put into words a human can understand," Ranma said, pleased with having come up with a good copout.
"Oh. Then I'll just ask Ranma. He has all your memories, right?"
Ranma winced at the oversight. Ah, well, by then I can chat with Nabiki about what I need ta say, she reasoned. "Yeah, that could work."
Akane sat and ate her bento while Ranko luxuriated in the ability to relax. Before long, Nabiki joined them.
"So, Ranko," Nabiki asked in her characteristic drawl, "how was your first day in school as a student?"
Ranma gave Nabiki a sour look that only fueled the older girl's mischievous smile. "Torture," she said calmly.
"I'll bet," Nabiki said, opening her bento. "Let me guess. The teachers called on you every few minutes to make sure you didn't fly off?"
"And had Miyo make sure she actually stayed in her seat," Akane added. "I don't know why you were so eager not to sit in that chair but out here you'll lounge around."
Nabiki shook her head while Ranma answered. "Akane-chan," she said with sickly-sweet sarcasm, "imagine for a moment that you can pass through anything that isn't alive. That, in fact, you must pass through them. Now sit in a chair."
Akane frowned and worked that over. "I guess you'd sink right through that and sit on the floor," she allowed.
"Is the floor alive?"
"No...oh." Akane blushed at her foolishness. "You'd fall into the class below us."
Ranma nodded, brushing the grass with her hair. "Exactly. Here, I'm lying on the grass, on the tree roots. In that building, It's like trying to stand in a sitting position."
Akane frowned and chewed her last bite slowly, mulling over that thought. "What you need, then, is a chair that's alive."
Ranma and Nabiki shared a look that suggested that this was only mildly crazy. Nabiki was the one to voice the thought. "Um, Akane? How do you plan to make a living chair?"
To which Akane answered only with a gleam in her eye.
Nabiki narrowed her eyes in response and smiled. "Of course, Ranko could always possess you, Akane, and attend class that way."
"POSSESS ME!?" Akane shrieked. A few students nearby turned their heads in curiosity.
"Oh calm down," Nabiki chided, sending her Ice Queen Glare(TM) to the peanut gallery. Most decided that their lunches were exceedingly more interesting than juicy gossip. "Ranko discovered she could do it last night, quite by accident."
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, it was weird looking through someone else's eyes, bein' a passenger in Nabs's body."
"You invaded my sister's body?" Akane hissed, looking around for something heavy and alive to beat Ranko with.
"Yeah, but I couldn't do nuthin'."
Nabiki nodded. "I felt you try to move my hand to my neck, you know like Ranma does when he's nervous about something. I bet you could have taken control if I had let you."
Ranma gave Nabiki a calculating stare as she felt a sudden burst of lust. She wants me to control her? she wondered. But that was a question for later.
The bell rang a minute later, and all the students grumblingly stalked backed to their classrooms.
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(Posted Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:49)
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