Nabiki just took one look at the pair and shook her head. Already she could hear them muttering about 'fool boys leaving their fathers in their moment of need'.
"Uh... hello?" called out a feminine voice.
Kasumi perked up. "Oh, we have a visitor!"
A young woman, about college age from the middle Tendo daughter's reckoning, stepped into the yard, looking a little sheepish. "Sorry to bother you like this, but this is where I was told that I could find someone."
"Let me guess," Nabiki drawled, "You want Ranma Saotome."
"Well... yes, that's right..."
"How'd did I know?"
"Stupid boy," grumbled the older Saotome male, "Always running off when he's needed..."
"Uncle Genma!" the young woman called out, and then looked around. Spotting Ranma's mother, she gave a bright smile. "Aunt Nodoka! It's me, Maya Ibuki!"
"Maya..?" went the Saotome Matriarch.
"Yes," Maya told her and pulled a photograph out of her purse, "See? There's me and Ranma, remember?"
Everyone save Rei, crowded around the image, and saw a smiling Ranma with a little girl who had a definate resemblence to the one standing before them, and with the pigtailed boy's parents standing in the background.
"Oh... that's just so darling," breathed Kasumi.
"If you like the 'aw shucks' type of pictures," Nabiki commented.
Nodoka studied the image and blinked before staring at the young woman standing in front of her. "Little Maya-chan. From next door?"
"That's me!" Maya replied cheerfully, "I've gotten into university and finally found out where he was supposed to be, so I decided to go and find him."
"That's wonderful! I'm sure that he'll be pleased to see you again."
The eldest Tendo daughter blinked. "Why is that Auntie?"
"It's because this girl was my son's best friend when he was but a child. You simply could not get them apart."
"They were that close?"
"Closer even. Sometimes we could even find them all tuckered out in the same place."
"That must have been so cute!"
"Yeah..," breathed the college student, "I haven't seen him in years. Ever since he was taken on that training trip."
"What did you expect?" Genma muttered under his breath, "The silly girl was taking his edge off, making him all soft..."
A certain someone heard what he said and made his pail of water become ice.
"So what brings you here?" Nodoka asked, totally oblivious to her husbands chattering teeth.
Maya shrugged. "I was hoping to see my old friend, and maybe restart our friendship."
"You were?"
"Umm... yeah. I mean, I just want to at least be friends. We were really close, and I wish we could be again."
"There might be a problem with that..," the Saotome mother told her.
"What could be a problem?"
"Ranma has other fiancees. Take Rei here for instance. I made a promise to her mother in exchange for my husband and his friend's lives."
The college student looked towards the girl in the kimono and stopped herself from blurting out something in recognition. "How do you do?"
"I am well," Rei replied.
"Good. But Aunt Nodoka, I don't want to push anything on him."
"Pardon?" went Nodoka.
"If all I could get from him is friendship, then that's what I'll take."
"Hold on a second," Nabiki interrupted, "She's another fiancee?"
"I am..."
The redheaded woman nodded. "It's true. Back before my husband and son went on their training journey, Maya and Ranma were so close that they promised to go to the same university, and to be together 'forever'."
"We were just kids, and thought that forever would be the time when were grown up."
"And her mother and I were so tickled with the idea that we decided that if they ever chose to marry, we and our husbands would give them our blessings."
"But I did come here to see my old friend, and not to press any sort of arrangement on him."
"Well, there is a first time for everything," muttered Nabiki.
"Huh?"
"Nothing..."
Smiling at the younger woman, Nodoka took hold of her arm and pulled her towards the table. "It's been so long since we sat down and talked, what with you getting so busy with schoolwork."
"Sorry about that, but I wanted to do my best," Maya apologised.
"And you did. But now it's time to sit down and have a cup of tea with me. You simply must tell me all that you have been doing!"
"Uh... sure..," agreed the college student while:
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(Posted Tue, 09 Sep 2003 20:26)
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