Chapter 3 -- Reverie

     The blackness of night slowly passed, and finally, the Sun lazily
floated upwards, its golden, warm, essence spilling across Nerima.  Ranma
was outside sparring with his father.  "Hey Pop! Do you tire when I beat you
every day?"  Ranma shouted this as he launched into a complex offensive, his
fists flashing in and out, while he kicked and executed complicated forms.
Genma furiously blocked against the onslaught, sweat streaking down his
face.  He did not bother to answer Ranma.  In fact, he never wanted to admit
that his son was better than him, and in desperation, Genma picked up the
pace, launching an offensive of his own...

      Contrasting the battle was brewing in the backyard, Kasumi was
cheerfully preparing a morning feast as Akane, Nabiki, and Soun sat
expectantly waiting for food.  Effortlessly working in the kitchen, Kasumi
finally entered the dining room, her glowing face rivaling the brilliance of
the sun, carrying multitudes of plates intended for breakfast.  With the
grace of a queen, Kasumi rapidly passed out bowls of rice gruel and
chopsticks.  As she returned to the kitchen to grab more plates, she paused
to look out the window, she noticed that Ranma and Genma were still fighting
in the backyard...

       "Ah, Akane, why don't you call Ranma and Mr. Saotome to join us in
breakfast?"  Akane nodded, carefully balanced her chopsticks on the rim of
the rice bowl, and ran out the door.  "Hey!  Ranma!  Mr. Saotome! Do you
want breakfast?"  Her shout completely destroyed Ranma's concentration,
leaving himself quite vulnerable to his father.  His head turned towards Akane.

      "Sure!  I'll be there after I..."  Ranma never had a chance to finish
his words.  Genma, seizing the moment, punched Ranma.  Ranma flew backwards,
his arms flailing wildly as he splashed into the pool.  Seconds later, a
very angry Ranma-chan sloshed out, soaked completely with cold water.  As he
walked out of the pond, his waterlogged clothing, which stuck to his womanly
figure, dripping water, his shoes squishing with every step, his beautiful
face eminating pure rage.  In fact, his face almost as red as his hair.
Genma laughed heartily.

      "Ha, Ranma!  What do I always  say about paying attention and
concentrating?"  Ranma muttered an answer and as he passed Genma, an idea
crept into his mind.  With a smile, he made a quick backwards kick, which
caught Genma by surprise, propelling his father into the pond.  Ranma-chan
turned his head around, and stuck his little pink tongue out.

      "Ha!"  Ranma-chan continued into the house with Akane.  The first
thing he did was to immediately run upstairs, leaving a trail of water as he
went to get a hot shower.  Closing the bathroom door, and stripping down,
Ranma went into the shower, and turned on the hot water.  Almost instantly,
he felt his body rearrange itself.  His entire body suddenly felt amorphous,
and then finally solidified.  Besides feeling his body change, his viewpoint
went up by about half a head, and his sense of balance changed.  Grabbing a
soap bar, he proceded to scrub off the sweat and grim, and after a few
minutes, satisfied with his cleanliness, he turned off the shower, dressed
in new clothes, and returned to breakfast.

      Ranma walked down the stairs swiftly, almost making no noise, like a
cat (*gulp*).  He took his place at the table, and was dismayed to see his
bowl empty.  Before he could think about attacking Genma, Kasumi, who had
foreseen this situation, showed up with a brand new bowl of rice gruel.
Ranma briefly thanked Kasumi, and then began to wolf down breakfast.  His
chopsticks flashed as he shoveled mouthfuls of rice into his mouth.  His
hands became a blur as he rapidly grabbed meat, vegetables, and other
foodstuff.  In under four minutes, Ranma completed eating.  After eating the
meal, he stopped, and tried to make himself appear dignified as he
carefully, wiped his mouth clean.

      "Akane! I'm ready!  Come on let's go"  Ranma stood in the doorway, his
satchel draped over his shoulder.  His eyes flashed impatience as he tapped
his left foot.  He felt someone push his shoulder.  He turned around to see
Akane, her face half filled with mirth and half filled with anger.  Ranma
almost instinctively cringed, expecting a well placed fist, leg, or mallet.
It never came.

      "I was outside for the past few minutes waiting for you!  Come on, or
we're going to be late."  Akane grabbed Ranma's hand and pulled him out the
door.  As the couple ran off to school, Akane leading with Ranma in tow,
Ranma couldn't help but notice Akane.  His eyes, during the entire trip,
constantly roamed over her.  He watched her hair, which fluttered as she
ran.  His eyes picked out every strand of hair as it floated through the
air.  His eyes then moved to Akane's smooth milky arm, which was touching
him...  His eyes went up the arm, could almost feel the warm, silky, firm
flesh....

       Captivated, Ranma continued to watch her slim legs, which steadily
went forwards and backwards perpetually, causing an unearthly ripple on her
skirt.  His eyes slowly roamed upwards paying attention to details.  Her
legs... her womanly hips..... her slim waist.... To Ranma, she had the
perfect body....  A smile slowly appeared on Ranma's face as he thought
about Akane.  Beautiful Akane, Akane, her name was good enough to evoke a
wide range of emotions....

       "You hentai! What are you smiling at?"  While Ranma was smiling,
Akane had turned her head backwards to catch a glimpse of him.  Her
expression did not match her harsh words, she too was smiling, well sort of.
Her lips were effortly twisted into a slight smile, almost like a smirk.
Ranma blushed and looked away.

       "Hmph.   I wasn't watching you...  Thinking that I'm interested in
you?"  Ranma let loose a broad smile.  Akane's smirk melted into a genuine
warm smile, and her head turned forward, her hair gliding around, catching
the sunlight, creating a psuedo-halo.  Ranma almost sighed as they entered
the schoolyard in the nick of time.  Both Akane and Ranma quickly crossed
the empty yard, whipped open the door, and scrambled through the empty lobby
of the school.  Dashing up the three flights of stairs, running down the
hall, they finally bursted into their classroom and slid into their desks
just as the bell rang.  Miss Hinako began to lecture.
***
      After an hour of constant lecturing by Miss Hinako, the continuous,
droning, almost soporific words began to take a toll on Ranma.  His eyelids
gradually, imperceptibly at first, drooped down.  `I must stay awake!'
Ranma shook his head in a hopeless effort to stay awake.  His eyes
momentarily openned wide, but resumed their destined path to closure.  His
mouth involuntarily let out a quiet yawn.  `God, why does Miss Hinako have
to be so boring.  I need to stay awake.'  Ranma kicked himself gently in the
shin, resulting in a brief moment of awakeness.  

      Determined to stay awake, he turned his attention from Miss Hinako who
was on the tips of her toes, struggling to write on the chalkboard, to
somewhere else.  His head turned left, and his eyes landed on a classmate
sitting next to him, picking his nose.  `Ewww! That's gross.  There's no way
I'm going to watch that for another hour.'  Ranma turned his head back
towards the board, where Miss Hinako had given up, and was standing on a
chair.  Bored out of his mind, Ranma decided to swing his head to the right,
and he stopped as soon as Akane entered his field of vision.  Again Ranma
found himself captivated.  `I gotta stop doing this.'  He turned his head
away, and forced himself to stare mindlessly at the blackboard.

      It made no difference.  Subconsciously, some external force caused
Ranma's head to slowly crank back to the right.  He mentally sighed as he
looked at Akane.  For some particular reason, Ranma found Akane completely
beautiful, even though she wasn't purposely trying to be winsome...  He
looked at her cheek, her hand fluidly making notes.  Her...

      "Ranma! Pay attention!"  A well aimed eraser knocked Ranma back into
reality.  Ranma blinked the chalk dust out of his eyes, and he swung his
head back to the chalkboard.

       Akane's head whirled back to catch a glimpse of Ranma turning his
head away from her towards the front of the room.  Akane's emotions started
to crank.  `That hentai! Always dreaming about me....  Maybe he really loves
me...'  A smile slowly broke through onto Akane's face as she continued to
take notes.
***
       Later at lunch, Ranma sat calmly on a bench outside across from Akane
and Nabiki, eating his meal in silence.  As he thoughtlessly chewed, he
suddenly noticed that Nabiki had been staring at him while she was talking
with Akane.  `Why is Nabiki staring at me?'  Ranma briefly smiled back, and
decided to focus his attention of Akane.  He watched Akane, randomly nodding
as if he were really listening to the conversation.  Ranma's eyes were drawn
to Akane's face.  Her prim lips that were begging to Ranma, "Kiss me!"...

       Nabiki was not a happy camper.  Her joy had increased when Ranma
smiled at her, but as soon as his eyes left her to rivet themselves to
Akane's face, Nabiki started to feel really jealous.  Her eyes squeezed ever
so slightly as she visualized the invisible connections between Ranma and
Akane.  `Hmph!  Akane hogging Ranma, if I could I would....'  Nabiki stopped
herself, surprised that she could freely think such evil thoughts.  Before,
she never would have considered making Akane's life difficult...  And now,
Nabiki was about to enjoy ripping Ranma away from Akane.   Shocked, Nabiki
sat there, suddenly silent, her mind was debating what she should do.  `How
come I didn't think about this last night...'

      Nabiki looked at Ranma again, finding herself drawn to his manly
features.  She mentally sighed, dreaming about having Ranma as her fiance...
She turned to Akane, and looked at her younger sister, the "baby" in the
family.  Her conscience began to gnaw at her.  `I want to have Ranma, but I
do not want to hurt Akane...'  Torn between two seemingly conflicting
thoughts, she continued sitting there in silence.  Then suddenly some how,
her desires and emotions managed to suppress her conscience...  Nabiki stood up.

      "Well, lunch period's almost over, and I have to talk to some friends
now, if you two would excuse me..."  Ranma nodded, and Akane replied, "Sure,
what ever you want," with a smile that made Nabiki hurt inside.  Nabiki
slowly walked away, `I kind of feel sorry for Akane...'  She walked away
from the benches, and walked around to the front of the school, by the
flagpole, one of her usual places of business.  She sautered up, seeing two
people standing by the pole.

       The first person spoke nervously.  "Ok Nabiki, what do you want us to
do?"  He looked about nervously, as Nabiki walked up to him.  Nabiki took
off her bag, and took out two photo albums.  Handing one to each person,
Nabiki explained the situation.

       "I want you," Nabiki pointed at the first person, "to show these
photographs around the men tomorrow at school.  Make sure Ranma sees this."
Nabiki turned to the other person, a girl.  "I want you to show this around
school to all of the girls tomorrow.  And Akane needs to see this."

        Nabiki then spoke to all of them.  "Not a peep to anyone, and these
two books did not come from me, understand?"  Nabiki stood their, her hands
crossed in front of her chest, her pose clearly threatening.  Both paled,
and nodded vigorously.  "Good, I don't want to resort to ruining your
reputations..."  With that said, Nabiki walked away, feeling rather guilty,
but her guilt was overshadowed by her love for Ranma.
***
       Ranma was back in class, and he found Miss Hinako's lecture so dry
that, sleeping on the rings of his binder actually provided comfort.  He sat
his desk, slouched over his desk, and he snored as he slept blissfully,
ignoring any attempts to wake him up.  The rest of the school day slowly
cranked by, and as soon as the dismissal bell rang, everyone, including
Ranma, dashed out of the room, almost running into Nabiki.

      "Whoa, Nabiki!  What are you doing here?"  Ranma was total shocked to
see Nabiki still in the school.  "You're usually outside doing business!"
Nabiki uncharacteristically smiled at Ranma.

       "No, doctor's orders, I've taken an extended leave of absence..."
Ranma stood there petrified.  `I'd never think Nabiki would ever give up her
"business."'  Akane joined Ranma and Nabiki.  "Come on, let's walk home."

      During the brief walk home, one thing struck Akane as odd:  Nabiki was
actually laughing and smiling.  Strangely, Nabiki's good mood extended
through the rest of the day.  Before dinner, she actually helped Kasumi
carry the dishes.  During dinner, she wasn't detached from the others, and
made an effort to join in on the conversation.  Even after dinner, she
helped Kasumi clean up after the mess Ranma and Genma made.  Ranma was
clearly impressed by Nabiki's improvement.

      Later that night, while Nabiki sat at her desk, reading a manga.  She
heard a rap at the window.  Quickly openning the window, she watched Ranma
effortlessly land on the floor.  Nabiki sat on the edge of her bed, and
motioned Ranma to sit next to her.  Ranma without hesitation sat down next
to her.

       "Hi, Nabiki!  I came to really tell you my feelings about your recent
changes..."  Nabiki's mind silently ranted:`Please tell me you love me,
please tell me you love me....'  Ranma continued as Nabiki stared at him
intently.  "I think that you are definitely becoming a nice person and a
good friend."  As if to punctuate his point, Ranma hugged her.  Nabiki's
emotions went down a little, but there still remained a glimmer of hope.
`Darn it, he doesn't love me, but he hugged me...that's something I can work
on.'

     Nabiki responded, "Well, I feel a lot better about myself...."  Ranma
smiled back, and he patted her back.  "Glad to hear that, well, I'm going to
go to sleep."  As Ranma leapt out of the window, Nabiki's conscience started
to bother her again: `Oh, Ranma I hope you will forgive me later...'

     Nabiki plopped back onto her soft comfortable bed, her eyes half-closed
about to sleep, when she heard giggling from Akane's room.  Sitting straight
up, she heard a window in Akane's room swing open.  Very carefully, Nabiki
creeped to her window to see Ranma helping Akane out of her window.  Akane
climbed onto Ranma's back, and he jumped down to the ground, landing
silently.  Both sneaked off hand in hand.  Nabiki felt her curiosity piqued.
She quickly grabbed a coat, quietly tiptoed down the stairs, out the door,
and ran after Ranma and Akane.

      After what seemed likes hours upon hours of quietly following the
couple, Nabiki finally recognized that they had wandered into the park,
right in front of the lake, which shimmered with an unnatural light from the
full Moon.  Ranma and Akane took a seat at a bench, and both settled down,
to enjoy the beauty of the night scene.  Nabiki crouched behind a bush,
keeping quiet and giving no clues of her presence.  Slowly the two got
closer and closer together, and Akane quickly whispered something into
Ranma's ear, which quickly evoked a chuckle and a giggle.

      Nabiki sat there like an eternity, trying to think what Akane
whispered.  Her thoughts were interrupted, by Ranma.  He stood up
deliberately, and Akane followed suit.  Slowly, as if unsure, both embrace
each other, and kissed.  Not like the kiss in the school play.  Not like a
casual kiss...  Ranma and Akane had a serious kiss, passionate, vibrant,
sensual.  It took Nabiki all her energy to prevent herself from gasping in
surprise.  `So they really are nice in private!'  Ranma and Akane disengaged
from the kiss, and both laughed nervously.

       Ranma was first to speak.  "I'll never forget that..."  Akane nodded,
and she leaned her head onto Ranma's shoulder...  Nabiki, almost disgusted,
quietly stalks off, leaving Ranma and Akane alone.  However, in the back of
her mind, she was fascinated by the kiss, and she imagined herself with
Ranma, alone.  A few minutes, Nabiki finally reached home.  She quietly
unlocked the door, openned it, and locked behind her.  She then tiptoed
silently up the stairs, and she went to her room.  Locking the door behind
her, she sat at her desk, lost in thought.

      Ranma and Akane walked home, hand in hand.  Both elated with joy as
they returned minutes after Nabiki ran off.  Akane whispered to Ranma, "I
wish this night would never end..."  Ranma nodded, and he held Akane close
to him.  As they slowly turned around the corner, they reached the dojo, and
were surprised by the light coming from Nabiki's room.

       Akane gasped quietly, "I hope no one found out!"  Ranma was also
nervous.  "Yeah, when our parents find out, we'll probably married by the
end of this week!"  

       Akane whispers to Ranma, "After you take me back to my room, could
you check on Nabiki?"   Ranma gave Akane an exasperated look.  "I think
Nabiki's ok...  But, I'll check on her afterwards..."  Ranma easily lifted
Akane in his arms, and he leaped from the ground, through the open window,
and landed in Akane's room.  Akane quickly took off her coat, and went to
bed.  Ranma instinctively gave Akane a quick kiss, and he leaped out.  Akane
breathed a sigh of contentment, and she instantly fell asleep.

       Nabiki sat at her desk, staring at the wall in front of her, lost in
thought.  `Lucky Akane!'  She constantly replayed the kiss over and over.
Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a quiet knock on her window.  She
unlocked and openned her window, and Ranma leaped in.  He smiles at her.

       "Still awake?"  Nabiki nodded.  Her mind was trying to comprehend why
Ranma was visiting her so late.  She tried to think, but Ranma's proximity
to her, caused her emotions to take over.  Nabiki sat close to Ranma, and
looked into his eyes.  She slightly leaned backwards, her hands propping her
back up.  Unknown to her, by leaning back, she slightly stretched her
pajamas, accenting her womanly assets.

       "Ranma, do you think I'm beautiful?"  Ranma looked at her, shocked
from her question.  His jaw hanged open, and he couldn't instantly respond,
because he didn't expect the question and Nabiki's body was just too
distracting.  Forcing himself to think, Ranma gathered his senses and
managed to respond after a slight delay.

       "Yes... why?"  Nabiki continuing her stare, which caused Ranma to
become uncomfortable...  "Because I want to know.  Do you think it would be
easy for me to get a boyfriend?"  Ranma coughed quietly at this, his mind
unsure where this conversation was going.  `Damn, either I'm too tired, or
something's weird.  I think I need to sleep.'  He tried to get up, and
begins to talk. 

        "Wow's it's pretty late, I'd better..."  He was silenced by a kiss.
Nabiki grabbed his head, and she brought her lips to his.  Her body made
contact with his, and his eyes openned wide as he felt her bosom caress his
body.  Ranma panicked, frozen like a statue.  Then he felt Nabiki's tongue
penetrate his lips, and in shock, he fell back onto the bed, pulling Nabiki
along with him.  He struggled to break free of the kiss, but Nabiki managed
to stay on.  Well, moments later, Nabiki suddenly pulled away from Ranma,
embarassed. 

      Nabiki blushed an intense red, and whispered.  "I'm sorry, I guess I
get carried away...I don't know what came over me..."  Her hand started to
nervously comb back her hair...

      Ranma, still petrified, was still lying on the bed, his eyes locked
open in a stare, his brain locked in a state of stasis and shock.  After a
moment, he managed to sit up and stammer out an apology.  "Ah. um. It's not
your fault. ah...I'm sorry.  um...I shouldn't have come here at this time."
In general, Ranma was at a loss for words, the events that just occurred had
completely short circuited his thoughts.  Some how, Nabiki, who was never
interesting to him, managed to overload his senses, something, he always
thought, only Akane could do.  As he thought about the kiss, the closeness
of their bodies, Ranma almost shuddered.  `No!  I must not forget Akane!'
His mind started to attempt to purge the experience.  Confused, and not
knowing what to say, Ranma turned around and leaped out the window.  As soon
as he was gone, Nabiki fell back into her bed, a smile on her face, savoring
that kiss.  `So that's what it feels like to be kissed...'