Ranma fought down his own blush, remembering that he had apparently gotten used to the adoration Hotaru tended to heap upon him. "Hello, Hotaru. What'cha makin'?"
"It's a cookie recipe Makoto-nechan showed me yesterday," she smiled in pride as she doled out the last of the cookie mix. As she put the tray of cookies into the oven, she continued, "They're going to be chocolate chocolate-chip."
Ranma wracked his brain trying to draw out the memory of meeting Hotaru. Then he remembered.
When the government had set him up here with the allowance from the insurance companies, it turned out that the rent assumed there would be four people living in the apartment, not one. That was why there were multiple bedrooms, after all. (Silly him, assuming that the two smaller bedrooms had been closets. Even now he still thought of them that way.)
Not knowing anyone he'd be willing to live with, save maybe Kasumi who wouldn't leave the Tendo dojo anyhow, he'd put an ad in the paper for three roommates.
When he'd opened the door to meet his three new roommates, he realized he hadn't specified which gender should apply. Where he'd been expecting three men, stood instead three beautiful women. Still, everything had worked out remarkably well.
Makoto Kino, a chef working at one of the nearby restaurants while she finished up college, had been forced out of the apartment she'd been living in since junior high when the owners of the apartment complex sold the building to a developer. In a few years, her former home was going to be a new shopping center of some kind. That had started her looking for a new apartment.
Bringing that topic up around her friend Ami Mizuno had brought the genius pre-med student in on the idea. Her mother had found a fiancé and wanted to move in with him. But he didn't have enough room for both Ami and her mother. Hence, Ami needed a new place to live as well.
Hotaru got involved when her two guardians overheard the conversation. They were preparing to America for a couple of years, and Hotaru hadn't wanted to go. They also didn't want the high school student staying at home by herself. That plus an article in the paper looking for three roommates had brought the three to his door.
The three were remarkably different from his former fiancées. Kind, polite, and willing to listen, they hadn't even reacted badly when they found out about his curse. They didn't even think he was a pervert!
Agreeing not to move his office on the condition that the girls got to use it for their studies as well, the four of them had left one of the smaller bedrooms as a closet, while the three girls worked out who would sleep in his bedroom.
In the end, after trying other arrangements, they had decided Hotaru would stay in his bedroom. She was a prone to nightmares as he was, and neither Ami nor Makoto seemed to be able to calm her down as well as his presence did.
Shortly thereafter, however, Hotaru had developed a full blown crush on him. Miki had been horribly amused by it all and tended to tease him whenever the opportunity presented itself.
He was less sure about it, though. Hotaru was a very sweet girl with nearly non-existent levels of self-esteem. She didn't have any friends her age, and her healing abilities seemed to ensure that she remained friendless. (Though Ranma couldn't quite fathom why that would be.)
Makoto wasn't much better, he mused as memories of Hotaru and Makoto calling him sempai at the same time bubbled up from the new memories he'd acquired. Ami never seemed nearly as amused when Makoto did it however and had once confided that Makoto tended to compare every boy she met to her old sempai.
"Sounds good," Ranma told Hotaru. Hotaru wasn't nearly as good as other cooks he knew, but she was a far cry from Akane, and improved with every effort. "Let me know when they're ready, okay?"
Hotaru nodded happily.
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See other episodes by Brian Drozd
(Posted Tue, 10 Jun 2003 05:15)
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