Ranma felt warm, far warmer than normal. That was the first thing he registered as he woke up. The second thing was quiet and muffled murmuring coming from outside.
As his sluggish brain tried to make sense of that information something wiggled against his chest.
Ranma stiffened, suddenly wide awake.
There was somebody in his bed with him!
Judging by the two soft mounds he could feel pressing into his chest, the person in his bed was a girl. She wasn't as voluptuous as his usual suitors, but she was still very much a girl. She had both arms wrapped around his torso, her nose buried in his shirt and her legs tangled up with his. And, to his own dismay, Ranma realised that he had his own left arm wrapped around the girl's shoulders.
All this could only lead to on conclusion: He was cuddling with a girl in his bed!
Ranma moaned. I am so dead.
“Sempai...”
Sighing in her sleep, the girl snuggled up with him tightened her grip and rubbed her face against his chest before settling down again.
Ranma frowned. Nobody called him Sempai. Who was this girl?
Then he remembered the events of the previous day.
Okay. The girl treating him like a human cuddle toy was obviously the little girl with the nightmares. But shouldn't Nabiki also be in his bed?
As he pondered this he realised that the people outside were still talking. Straining his ears, Ranma recognised one of the voices as Nabiki's.
That explained why she wasn't in his bed.
The voices outside his room grew quieter, then he heard footsteps leading away from the door.
This is just weird, Ranma thought.
Nabiki had obviously woken up before him, yet she hadn't freaked out about finding another girl in his bed. Every other girl he knew would have screeched like a harpy and bashed him over the head with heavy objects if they found a strange girl sleeping with him. So why hadn't Nabiki done that?
The only explanation Ranma could come up with was that Nabiki wasn't interested in him romantically and didn't care who else he shared his bed with.
Ranma quickly suppressed the indignation he felt at that. It was completely irrational. He had no reason to be upset about Nabiki not acting like a jealous lover.
So Nabiki didn't want to be his girlfriend, big deal! He couldn't really expect every girl he met to fall for him, could he?
Just because Nabiki couldn't see that he was good-looking, smart, witty and the best damn martial artist of his generation, didn't mean it wasn't true. No reason for him to be upset about it.
In fact, he should be happy. Ecstatic, even. He already had enough girl trouble as it was. Adding Nabiki to his list of admirers might be nice for his ego and prove once more that he was simply too awesome and manly for any girl to resist, but it would only lead to all kinds of problems he could do without.
Though Ranma had to admit he'd secretly hoped that Nabiki had fallen for him. If that were the case he'd at least know her motives behind her sudden change in character and how to deal with it. After all, he'd been dealing with infatuated girls since his arrival in Nerima. One more wouldn't be any different.
But if she didn't want to marry him she must have other motives, and he would have to figure out her angle as soon as possible if he didn't want to fall prey to another one of her scams. He knew Nabiki. Everything she did was for her own benefit, and most of the time she screwed other people over to get what she wanted.
She was probably after money, Ranma decided. It would explain why she was so eager to take care of the Inn's finances and arrange for all of the necessary repairs. He'd have to go over the finances himself and double-check Nabiki's work and calculations, just to make sure she wasn't diverting money into her own pocket.
Ranma groaned. He so wasn't looking forward to that.
The girl cuddling him made a disgruntled noise and buried her face in his shirt. “Is it morning already?” she mumbled.
“Yep.” Chuckling, Ranma ruffled her hair. “At least it's morning for me. You can sleep for a bit longer if you want.”
“Mmmkay.”
Taking care not to disturb her more than necessary, Ranma slipped out of the girl's embrace. Once he was free he took a second to enjoy the cool morning air, then he used his years of training to get dressed and leave the room without making a sound.
His stomach growled like an angry lion as he closed the door, and Ranma decided his investigation could wait for a bit. He needed food if he wanted to find out what Nabiki was up to.
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(Posted Sat, 11 Dec 2010 14:48)
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