Ranma usually isn't my department. But heck, everyone does it. :)
And I figured I should return the favor.
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "DB Sommer" <sommer@3rdm.net>
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 22:42:43 -0400
A bit less humor this time out:
The Things We Wish For...
Chapter 4
[snip]
closest to one another in age. Of course, the last time had been
over four
years ago, and Nabiki had changed enough since then that Akane
felt more
comfortable staying in Kasumi's bedroom. Sleeping in the same
room with
someone who had a bad tendency to sell compromising pictures of
their sister
for pocket change was never a good idea.
She still loves her, nonetheless.
"Why can't she just get back together with Dad the way she was
before she
died?" Akane grumbled. As it was, her mother was causing far more
trouble
than even the usual visitor to the Tendou household, which was
doubly vexing
since her presence should have made everything better instead of
worse.
Well, it wouldn't be funny if she wasn't, wouldn't it? :)
Shooting a glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand, Akane
made note of
the time. It was getting late, and she had to get going. Throwing
an extra
bathrobe of Kasumi's over her nightgown, Akane headed toward the
bath.
Living in a house with two sisters and three other men meant
making a sort
of unofficial schedule for when people could make use of the bath
in the
mornings. Kasumi was always the first up and finished with it
before anyone,
so that was never a problem. Nabiki was second, with Akane third,
and the
men in some other order. Right about now Nabiki should be
finishing up and
Akane would have free reign for half an hour.
It seems that first Akane was pondering what to do with her
mother, and that plagues her first waking moments of the morning.
Now, all of a sudden, she forgot that there is one more to the
household than there should be. Those sore muscles should be
kicking in, I suppose.
"I was here first and want to brush my teeth in peace," Nabiki
said.
"I'd do it, but there isn't enough room since her hips are nearly
as wide as
yours."
"They are not."
"The heck they aren't. All of the clothing you loaned me was just
as loose
as Akane's, Hippy." Kachiko used her own hips to push Nabiki to
the side
slightly.
She's turning out to be my kind of girl. :)
Akane was chilled by just how alike the two girls were, shooting
cold glares
at one another. Quickly inserting herself into the fray, before
the duo
really started tearing into one another, Akane walked up and
said, "Come on,
guys. We can all get along. We're just under a little pressure
from all the
changes we've undergone over the last few days. We have to make
concessions
until we can learn to live under the same roof." She turned to
Nabiki. "Why
don't you let Mom have the sink first, just like you would a
guest? Later on
we'll discuss who should get the bath second tomorrow and
everything will
run a lot more smoothly."
Curious, is Akane capable of diplomacy?
But there was no need to bother the girls with such minor details.
"Observe the pinnacle of what one thousand years of training in
the art of
brushing can achieve!" Kachiko loaded up the brushes with
toothpaste until
Yep, she's one of them!
"All the more reason to go," Kachiko said icily. "Look, we'll
just say I'm
your cousin who's a transfer student. And for God's sake, don't
call me
'Mom.' I don't want people to think I'm some sort of weirdo."
It sounds like Kachiko has some sort of agenda. Akane has to be
figuring that her mother's act is somewhat transparent.
Kachiko said, "It's just I want my life to be restored to some
semblance of
normalcy."
OK, never mind. But, still, she's being a bit too demanding of
everyone else, to the point where she can't get anything she wants.
"We'll just say my transfer information must have gotten lost in
the mail.
Then we can slip in later and alter my old high school files and
make them
into new ones or something," Kachiko said as though breaking and
entering
and falsifying records was as natural as walking down the street.
OK, you know what? You're probably just writing her as bordering
on treachery. I shouldn't get in the way of that. :)
"You've got to draw the line somewhere, and terrifying demon
headed things
are over the line. So are tentacle demons." Kachiko shuddered.
I love references.
Hesitantly, Genma said, "Err, well, not exactly. Tendou and I
agreed to
unite the families so the schools would be joined. He had three
girls at the
time, so it seemed unwise to make the agreement specifically to
any one of
them. We wanted to keep our options open."
"Options open?" Kachiko said pensively. "Options open. Yes.
Options open."
Quite the treacherous little one!
Ranma and Akane winced slightly as Kachiko drew back and said...
"Oh wow! That's so cool. No one's ever made up poetry about me
before. Oh
sure, some guys try it, but all they manage to do is stumble over
themselves
and only get out 'You're cute' or something else that anyone can
say. But
you do it so well it's really sexy. And you're good-looking too.
Do you have
a girlfriend?"
...and she's got the attention span of a {insert short-lived
creature here}!
It was between classes that Nabiki Tendou made her way through
the school
hallways, looking for one person in particular. Ordinarily, she
could have
taken her time with things, but after the events of the morning,
the
predictable misinterpretation of what had happened led nearly
everyone to
conclude that Ranma was not only involved with Akane, but Kachiko
as well.
Nabiki wondered how Ukyou took the news. Not that her interest
was anything
other than idle curiosity, but it might have made Ranma a touch
more
irritable than he was this morning. That would be good. Part of
her plan
involved Ranma reacting in his typical unthinking manner.
What, no profit involved?
had made her peace with Kachiko's 'death'. Bringing up the old
memories,
especially when Sakura had her own life full of concerns,
wouldn't be
right. And in some ways, it would remind Kachiko of what she had
lost as a
result of the time trip. No, far better to abandon the hopes and
plans of an
out of reach past and go on to forge a new future with the
material she had
been dealt.
We're, uh, getting to the point where Kachiko is too complete of a
character. She knows what she wants, she'll do anything to get
it, she's diplomatic when she needs to, treacherous when she wants
to, foolishly driven by passion and curiously philosophical.
Kachiko is everything to everyone. Add to that her being young, it
is not implausible just yet, but it's coming up on the horizon.
Kachiko merely lay there, concentrating on difficult things that
took a lot
of her remaining energy, like breathing. It was beginning to look
like being
run over by a car and settling down might not be such a bad thing
after all.
There is humility in her future, after all. :)
OK, this was rather enjoyable slapstick, as good as slapstick can
be translated into words. Everyone is falling more or less into
place, except for Kachiko. A lot to be said about an original
character surprising the reader, but be careful about not getting
into the habit of it. Seeded into Kachiko's development there has
to be some predictability along the way. Still, she is a rather
interesting one that keeps the story in form.
In any case, keep going. This is getting good. ^_^
Roehl Sybing - (917) 741-5355
Field Operative - Ira Cure for Civil Court, Kings County
infiniteDeferral - http://www.infinitedeferral.com/
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