[FFML] [Ranma/Tenchi/maybeothers]Laid 3

Ranma looked at her soda suspiciously. There was
something curious about this. Her danger sense hadn't
pricked, but still she was suspicious for some reason.
She started running a checklist. Her coordination
was apparently unaffected, as indicated by the complex
manipulations she was performing on the coin ine her
hand.
Manipulations that were still going on while she was
practically not paying attention. Deft finger moments
that were attracting a lot of attention from the women
in her immediate area at the bar.
She took another coin in her other hand and was
slowly but surely crushing it into an almost perfectly
smooth metal marble between her finger and thumb.
This particular event went mostly unnoticed, but
proved that both Ranma's senses, at least the visual
and tactile ones, and strength were unaffected.
Though granted, it was a rather pitiful demonstration
of strength.
She sniffed about and managed, after a great deal of
difficulty, to pick out the individual scents of the
women around her. So her sense of smell was normal.
And she could hear their hearts beating, some of them
rather rapidly for some reason, so his hearing was
fine.
What was bothering her was that some of her thoughts
were fuzzy. She had been very sad, too the point of
killing herself even, but she couldn't remember why.
Something to do with Akane, but it wasn't really
Akane, it was...she couldn't remember the name. But
Akane and the other woman were connected closely
somehow.
She vaguely remembered Nabiki telling her to forget
about Akane, and Nabiki had been worried. Ranma
couldn't remember why though.
In her confusion, she took another sip from her
glass, and momentarily forgetting what she was
suspicious about. Then suddenly, she was confused
again.
~There was something bothering me,~ she thought.
~What was it?~ She shrugged and took another drink
from her soda, and promptly forgot she was suspicious
about anything. There was some nameless longing in
her mind that she could feel slowly getting stronger.
Upon sensing that, however, she took another sip of
her soda and the nameless longing seemingly vanished.
Of course Ranma could still just barely feel it, but
it would be awhile before it would be strong again.
"I'd be your willing slave for all my life if you
just came home with me right now," one of the women
next to her said. She was virtually drooling over the
sight of Ranma's fingers still engaging in
physics-defying feats of agility.
The comment brought forth a resurgance of that
longing, and a faded look entered Ranma's eyes for a
moment. She took a long drink of her soda, before her
mind remembered enough to be suspicious of it. Then
she was back to that state of blissful, if moderately
confused, ignorance.
"Uh...no thanks," Ranma said nervously.
She stood up and took her drink to walk nervously to
another part of the bar. She sweatdropped as one of
the women fell off her stool in trying to visually
follow the path Ranma was taking.
"What kind of place did Nabiki send me," Ranma asked
herself quietly. She must have been half-asleep when
she agreed to this, she could barely remember the
conversation at all. "Man, Akane is going to kill me
if she hears about this."
"And why is my hair green?" Ranma asked no one in
particular. She finished her soda in one final gulp
and blinked, looking around the room in confusion.
The situation really should have bothered her. She
knew that, it really should have. There was something
about being a room full of women that seemed
inherently dangerous. She couldn't guess why
considering she was a woman herself, but that feeling
was there.
All she could see, however, were a lot of women
talking, dancing, and drinking. In some shaded
corners she could see women making out a little, and
some vague part of her mind told her that should be a
danger sign as well, but she couldn't see why. It was
weird, it was as if she was troubled by the idea that
nothing was troubling her. Like that was a foreign
situation somehow.
"Do you need another drink?" the woman before her
asked. The woman pointed at her glass, empty save for
the ice.
"Not of that," Ranma said. "That stuff is making me
feel funny."
"How do you mean?" the woman asked, leaning forward
cautiously.
"I don't know," Ranma said. "I feel like I'm missing
something." The woman nodded and took the glass, with
the slowly melting ice, and surreptitiously dumped the
ice into the trash can.
"What's your name?" the woman asked.
"Ranma," Ranma said. "Ranma Saotome. Nabiki sent me
here..." That was the clearest thing about her
situation she could remember. "I can't remember
why..."
"Maybe something a little weaker than Lethe water
then," the woman suggested.
"Is that some kinda alcohol?" Ranma asked. "I
ordered soda."
"It's not alcohol," the woman said. "The management
provides it to some of our patrons as a way to forget
their troubles."
"So...what was I troubled about?" Ranma asked,
hesitantly.
"I don't know," the woman answered. "I'm the manager
on duty and I don't remember you ordering any.
Perhaps you received it on accident."
"So this stuff I drank made me forget stuff about my
life and you're telling me its an accident?" Ranma
said bitterly.
"I wouldn't worry," the woman said. "We keep nothing
pure here. Tomorrow, maybe sometime in the afternoon,
everything will begin to come back. Until then, enjoy
the release from whatever burdens you did have. I'm
sure there are many women here that would love to
share your company." Ranma blushed faintly.
There was a reluctance in the woman's voice as she
told Ranma to enjoy herself, as if she would rather
Ranma enjoy herself somewhere else.
"Uh, thanks," Ranma said.
"No problem," the manager said. "Now, as an apology,
I think I'll give you a drink on the house." She
produced a brightly colored drink and set it down in
front of Ranma.
"Is that alcoholic?" Ranma asked.
"Mostly fruit juice," the woman said. "It's called a
kamikaze. And yes it is alcoholic, but perhaps you
shouldn't worry about that."
"Nah," Ranma said. "I guess not." She shrugged and
took the drink in hand. "Thanks." She smiled at the
manager, who bowed and walked away.

*****

"Okay," Kiyone said, noting Minagi's rather grim
face. The one that said, "we're supposed to be
dancing" "Minagi and I are going to go dancing. Are
you okay on your own?" Minagi's face brightened
immeasurably.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," Minagi said, standing up
quickly.
"Of course I shall be fine," Ayeka said. "I shall
sit here and enjoy my saki and ignore this place
you've brought me to."
"Uh right," Kiyone said.
"See, she's fine," Minagi said. "Let's go." Then
she dragged Kiyone off to the dance floor.
"Someone shall have to speak to Kiyone about giving
Minagi proper attention," Ayeka muttered as she
reached for the bottle of saki, her second. She froze
for a moment. "I do not believe I just said that."
This really wasn't much of a start for her yet. She
was not a serious drinker, no, not at all. She could
go for whole weeks without touching a drop. Not like
Ryoko, who could go through incredible amounts of saki
before she began to get drunk. Ayeka knew this from
the times she had joined Ryoko in the activity. Of
course, the fact that she kept up with Ryoko drink for
drink did not register. Nor did the fact that it had
been some months since she last abstained.
So far no one had made a pass at her. Perhaps it was
the rather palpable aura of ill mood that surrounded
her. Perhaps it was the body language. It couldn't
be because no one was interested in her. Ayeka sipped
her saki and glowered, tapping her foot impatiently.
What was wrong with these people? Here was a pure
sample of royal Jurai perfection and not one of these
people could be bothered to even make an attempt at a
pass on her? Was she really in a lesbian dance club,
or was that police officer merely playing some manner
of sick joke on her.
Ayeka blinked and looked around suspiciously.
Perhaps Ryoko was behind all of this. She had to be
somehow. Only Ryoko would dare stick her in a
situation where she could expect to spend the entire
night receiving unwanted solicitations from misguided
women who no-doubt would instantly recognize her true
worth, and then ensure that no such solicitations
would come. It had to be some twisted, sick plot to
destroy Ayeka's confidence in her beauty and feminity.
"Well," a voice said. "Looks like you're finally
alone." Ayeka turned around to see a striking blonde
woman staring at her with an appreciative glance.
"Hmph," Ayeka said. "I was beginning to think no one
would try anything." The blonde blinked at the
phrasing and hostile attitude, then smiled again.
"I don't know what you mean by 'try anything,'
honey," the blonde said. She glided into a seat
beside the drunk Ayeka and leaned over. "I just
wanted a chance to talk to you without the cops
watching over us."
"Cops?" Ayeka said, drunk enough not to notice the
magnitude of Sara's proximity. "Ah, you mean Officer
Kiyone. Really, Kiyone is quite a civilized
conversationalist," she frowned grimmly. "Under most
circumstances."
"I wouldn't know," Sara said. "I try to avoid police
outside the United States. No offense to your
country, but it's better safe than sorry when you're a
foreigner."
"I see," Ayeka said. She finished her cup of saki
and started to reach for her bottle.
"Ah, let me help you with that," Sara said. She
reached past Ayeka, softly brushing against Ayeka's
arm as she took the bottle and a cup and poured out a
serving of saki for Ayeka. She presented the small
cup formally. "Here you are my lady."
"My thanks," Ayeka said, in her semi-drunken state
not recognizing either the hollow praise or the slight
brush against her skin. Sara sidled closer to Ayeka
as she determined a little of Ayeka's level of
distraction.
"Don't mention it," Sara said, smiling surperiorly.
The poor woman had no idea what she was dealing with.

*****

Ranma stared at her drink, wondering if she should
drink it or not. She was discovering that the lethe
water, apparently, did not take the ability to worry
or dislike something away. It apparently just took
away memories that were causing one to be angry, upset
or worried at the moment.
The entire "mistake" thing seemed fishy to her. It
sounded like the sort of thing you'd tell someone who
noticed they were missing pieces of information in
order to keep them from worrying about said missing
information. If she hadn't ordered it, and they
hadn't given it to her, then obviously whatever
problems she had were of little to no consequence.
Ranma had this sinking suspicion that come tomorrow
she was going to be hating life. Especially since the
gaps in her memory were rather huge right now.
The alcoholic beverage in front of her wasn't a
memory erasing concoction, she didn't think so anyway,
but it would certainly serve to let her not think
about it for a little while. Now the only question
was, did Ranma really feel like laying down her
defenses.
"Hey, you moved," a voice said. Ranma blinked and
looked towards the voice, trying to place the woman.
"Excuse me," she said. "Do I know you?"
"Whoa," the dark-haired girl said. "How many of
those have you had? I talked just an hour ago or so."
"Uhh, right," Ranma said. "Sorry, you're..."
"Keiko," the woman said, seating herself next to
Ranma. "So, getting used to the club, Ranma?"
"Sort of," Ranma said hesitantly. The woman looked
Ranma over carefully, a slightly confused look in her
eyes. She was obviously looking for signs that Ranma
had been drinking and not finding many.
"So," she said hesitantly. "How's the drink?"
"Oh," Ranma said. "I haven't tried it yet."
"Well, why don't you finish it, and then you can take
me up on that offer of a dance I gave you earlier,"
Keiko asked. Ranma looked at her glass and hesitated
for a moment before taking a deep breath.
"Ah, to hell with it," she said. She drank the glass
down and scrunched her face together a little. "Kinda
fruity, but it tastes like cough syrup, bleh!"
"That's the alcohol," Keiko said. "The taste goes
away after a drink or two. Not a drinker are you?'
"Don't think so," Ranma said hesitantly. She
considered that for a moment. Keiko missed the
pensive moment as she smirked at the idea of Ranma
being an inexperienced drinker. She'd be easy to rope
in quietly.
"Heh, well, we'll see about that," she said. "Now
about that dance." She leaned and passed a hand along
Ranma's side. Ranma shivered and smiled at the touch.
"Oh, that feels good," she said, purring almost.
"And there's more were that came from," Keiko said.
"On the dance floor."
"Cool," Ranma said, sighing. Then continued in a
rather insistent voice. "Just dancing though, right?"
"A little rude to do anything else out here, isn't
it?" Keiko asked.
"I guess so," Ranma said, smirking a little. Well,
if she was going to be in hell tomorrow might as well
have some fun today.

Note: the comment about Ranma's heritage and the whole
perverted demon thing are both making fun of such
repeated things happening in fanfic quite often

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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