Nabiki walked dejectedly home from school as she reviewed the highlights of her long day. It started out so well too. The news of the switched engagement had generated lots of money generating inquiries. Lunch time was when the real money should have been made.
The middle Tendo girl would have bet good money that Ranma's other romantic interest would have came in and caused a mess. Which would have resulted in a VERY jealous Akane who would be paying her a week, no maybe two weeks allowance to get the big lug back. Unfortunately, no other fiancees came to start a bidding war and it ended with Ranma hugging ... her ... the Tendo girl felt a blush coming again and she leaned against a wall to get her heart under control as she recalled his farewell hug. It made her feel like she lost something, but she wasn't sure what. She mentally shook herself and started walking again.
She recalled Akane's somewhat less then gentle wake up and then trying to explain to her little sister what happened. Things got a little fuzzy and she wasn't sure what was said. Her memory became focused again with Akane running out of the schoolyard yelling that she couldn't care less about why Ranma was hugging her. Nabiki tried to talk to her after school, but found that little sister had left immediately after. Hopefully Akane's temper wasn't simmering too badly. She would have followed, but had clean up duty. Not that she couldn't have gotten out of it, but she actually welcomed the mindless tasks so that she didn't have to think about the events of the day.
The mercenary girl sighed as she wished she had thought her engagement plan more thoroughly. If she had another chance, she would have rented Ranma out instead of offering to sell him outright! She was certain that she could have gotten several weeks of allowance from the sport teams alone. Not to mention each of the fiances!
Oh well she did get 6000 yen out of the deal. Nabiki spirits brightened as she realized that the day wasn't a total loss. Now to explain to the rest of the family about the engagement. All she had to do was explain how being apart will eventually lead to Ranma and Akane drawn to each other as they spent time apart. Yes, that's was what she was going to do.
Nabiki confidently walked into the house and called out, “I'm home!” When suddenly confetti poppers burst and a banner unrolled from the ceiling. The banner read “Congratulation Ranma and Nabiki”. She noted on the other side it said the same thing, but with Akane 's name instead of hers.
“Congratulations, you can call me father!” A slightly buzzed Genma declared as he tossed his used popper behind him.
“I knew you had in you daughter. I'm so proud of you!” gushed her very drunk (partially on happiness) father who was twirling his used popper by its string. The string broke and the used popper hit her father in the head.
“Thank you for up keeping the family honor little sister,” calmly came from Kasumi whose used popper was held gently between her hand. Nabiki saw that Akane was not there, but did note an unused popper on the upper stairs. She bet that Akane was holed up in her room right now. She pointedly ignored both fathers and looked questioningly toward her eldest sister.
“What exactly are you celebrating?” Nabiki dryly asked them. Kasumi was about to reply when both her father's joyful yelled,
“Why your wedding to Ranma!” The look Kasumi gave to her father was one of surprise, Nabiki noted. So her big sister thought they were celebrating something else or was she surprised that they gave away that information. She would have to tread carefully until she knew what was going on.
“...and why,” Nabiki asked with narrow eyes, “do you think I'm getting married to him today?”
“Why it's obvious that you care for each other.” her father said as held up three glossy papers to her. With trembling hands she took the glossy photo paper and turned it around. It was Ranma's farewell hug to her, but how? Her assistant must have sold them here. She vowed to have a few words with her when she got out of this.
Though . . . if she wasn't a subject in the photo she would have admired and congratulated her assistant in capturing the moment. The first showed Ranma looking happily at her as she finished writing the receipt. The second was from behind Ranma's head and it that showed mostly her face as Ranma hugged her. Apparently catching her in mid-blink with the last part of her saying 'Nani?'. It really does look like a gently smile with her eyes closed. The last was from the side when Ranma was just letting go, but the way their heads were tilted it almost looked like they had, or were just about to kiss. Nabiki knew that things were much worse then she had imagined. First she had to set the record straight.
“This really isn't what it looks like...” she started to say, but a door banging from above interrupted her.
“So he didn't protect you from Ukyo and promised to protect you forever? ” Akane yelled as she stomped downstairs. “He didn't make her go away to leave you alone!” The angry girl was now in Nabiki's face as she yelled, “So Ranma didn't hug you in front of the whole school then!”
“Yes he did hug me, but it wasn't like he did it because he liked me!” Nabiki answered back as she desperately tried to gain control of the conversation. The rumor mill must have fueled Akane's anger. “You see...”
“Oh I see,” Akane yelled over her explanation, “he hated you when he saved you from falling from the porch and he hated you two were making out last night too I bet.” A heavy silence followed Akane's out burst. The fathers' high-five in the background were ignored. She couldn't believe what Akane had just said. Nabiki took a breath to loudly refute that gross exaggeration of events, but was again interrupted.
“Oh my!” The eldest sister exclaimed as she dropped the used popper to cover her mouth. “Nabiki I never realized how fast you've grown up, but you should be careful when doing such things.”
“Big Sister,” Nabiki quickly replied, “nothing like that happened. It was just hugging.” Suddenly something covered her head. She struggled for a bit till her head and arms popped out. She looked down and saw that both fathers had put on a wedding kimono on her! Kasumi started to fuss with her hair.
“You don't understand!” She desperately cried. “Ranma wasn't hugging me for love! He was hugging me good-bye!” Everyone stopped as they looked at her.
“Why? Where was he going?” Demanded Genma.
“He was going with Ukyo. I sold the engagement to Ukyo. Look at the first photo. See I gave her that receipt to prove it!” Nabiki sagged in relief as she finally got it out.
“So the receipt proves you sold the engagement to her?” Genma said slowly.
“Yes it does.”
“Then no problem. We'll just get it and destroy it then the wedding can go on!”
“It's not going to work. He's not coming back,” Nabiki said in disgust as she remove the ceremonial hat.
“Oh,” Kasumi said as she lightly bit her lower lip and looked disappointed, “I was hoping that we could show Mother what you looked like. I know she really would have liked to see you in a wedding kimono.” Nabiki's hands trembled for a moment as she warred internally with herself. Finally she placed the hat back on her head in resignation. Akane looked at her with a mixture of horror and amusement as Kasumi applied make up to her face.
Afterwards the sisters walked to the dojo to their Mother's shrine. Nabiki looked subdued at her mother's picture. She wondered what their Mother would have thought about this farce. Kasumi lit the incense and they all bowed three times to the picture.
“Hello Mother,” Kasumi said softly, “Doesn't Nabiki look pretty. Ranma said that she has up kept the family honor and helped the Saotome's honor.”
“Sis...” Nabiki softly pleaded for her to stop.
“You should be proud of her,” Kasumi continued, “I know I am.” Nabiki soft pleas stopped as she looked at her sister in surprise. “I didn't understand how at first, but I think I do now. While Father will be disappointed for a while, but I think that this will be a big help to Ranma. Father will cope as he always does, but I'll help him; we all will. I'm not sure if everything will work out, but I hope you'll help us like you always do. Thank you for looking after us Mother.”
“Mother,” Nabiki softly said. She really didn't want to do this, but she felt she had to say something after what Kasumi said. “Mother, I'm sorry that this isn't for my real wedding or even that I've found a guy to be with. I'm not as noble as Kasumi thinks I am. I didn't really think about what would happen or that it would lead to this. I hope that you're not too disappointed about the kimono ... or in me,” Nabiki softly trailed off. Her eyes were moist, but she refused to cry and not only because she didn't want to ruin Kasumi's makeup job.
“I think,” Kasumi said as she hugged her, “that Mother understands that we're not all perfect and that you can be a little greedy, selfish, and manipulative.” Nabiki rolled her eyes, but didn't deny anything. “But inside your instincts guided you to help Ranma like this and it will continue to help you to do good things. Despite you not realizing it.” Nabiki very much disagreed with this, but found that she couldn't bring herself to actually voice it and just lowered her head.
Akane just kept quiet as tears ran down her eyes. Perhaps she realized some of her faults as well or perhaps she just missed their Mother. Nabiki found that at the moment she didn't care to puzzle it out, but she motioned for her younger sister to join in a rare group hug. After a bit, Nabiki followed her two sisters back to the house as fast as she could in the wedding kimono. As they entered the main room where the fathers had finally stopped complaining about Ranma and had gotten down to scheming.
“...then I will keep both Ranma and Ukyo busy,” Genma proudly stated.
“and then I'll get that receipt and burn it.” Soun chimed in.
“We'll grab the boy and there's nothing Ukyo can do about it.”
“Its,” both fathers said together, “Operation...”
“We never did come up with a name for it...” Soun said.
“Operation who cares. Let's get to it.” Genma replied back.
“I care,” Nabiki suddenly said surprising herself. “You're not going to get him back like this. It's not going to work. Ranma has NEVER liked the engagement, but stayed because of honor. Now he has a honorable way out and I just can't see him willing to go back to the way things were.”
“The boy WILL,” Genma said grimly, “do what he is told. After all, we have his best interest in mind.” Nabiki sighed as she realized there was no use talking to Genma or her father.
“Go ahead then and you'll see,” Nabiki finally said as she looked away from them. “I'm going to take this off and do some homework.”
“We need you to be there! Please Nabiki, show him that you do care for him,” her Father begged.
“I can't,” she said with sudden inspiration. “Moving in this kimono is too difficult. It's not practical for me to walk there.” She was almost at the stairs when suddenly her father picked her up and put her on one shoulder.
“There we go,” Soun said brightly. “I'll help you keep you nice and safe. We can get the priest directly afterwards too.”
“I'm telling you this is not going to work!” Nabiki's protest fell on dead ears. She quietly sighed in resignation that the evening was going to be waste. They'll just have to see for themselves that their plan was doomed to fail.
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(Posted Fri, 14 May 2010 05:35)
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