Warning: The beginning of this chapter contains an over abundance of WAFFS. You have been warned.

Sorry for being away for so long. I suffered a bout of temporary insanity and wrote something completely random with no idea what I was doing. I’ve managed to find and tie my muse up in a corner so I’m back to writing normal fiction!

Chapter 7, Nightmares, Nabiki and a half assed goddess.

Nodoka Saotome was confused. Her son had changed a lot over the last few days, and she wasn’t sure what to feel about it. He wasn’t nearly as Manly as he had used to be, However this seemed to be a good thing. He was getting along a lot better with Ranko, and from what she had been told by the young girl earlier in the day, he had seemed to make piece with that nice Doctor boyfriend of the eldest Tendo. Granted, Ranko had a tendency to oversimplify things, but she had said that Ranma and Tofu had had a friendly chat. Rolling over, Nodoka hit the back of her sleeping husband. She was in bed, it being very late at night, but she couldn’t sleep. She had tried not to think about how her child had seemed to become someone else over night, but it had come back to her today when Ranko had revealed that Ranma had ACCIDENTALLY broken a man’s arm. Rolling out of her bed, as she had decided to give up on sleep for the time being, Nodoka slipped on a pair of house slippers and moved into the hallway.

Walking to the far end near Ranma’s room, where there was a small balcony that looked out over the front yard, Nodoka heard something strange. It sounded like whimpering. The medium level pitch of the tones made her think that it was a man who was doing it. Could it be Ranma? But he seemed so much stronger recently, and he had never sounded that afraid in his entire life. Her mothering instinct, even though it was slightly dulled by her manliness obsession, kicked in and she opened Ranma’s bedroom door to see something that shocked her. Her son was laying in a quivering ball in the middle of his bed, almost in a foetal position. Walking up to him, Nodoka heard what sounded like someone talking in their sleep. “No daddy. Not the pit again, please. Not the cats…”

Nodoka’s eyebrows shot up as she heard this. “Pit, cats?’ She thought, but refrained from saying the words aloud. Knowing that her son was having a nightmare, Nodoka walked over to his bed and infolded him into her arms.

In Ranma’s mind, he was having the dream again. It usually happened whenever he lost control of himself or saw a cat recently, and the inadvertent breakage of Ryoga’s arm had seriously shaken him up. As the cats were clawing his body, Ranma felt something warm enveloping him and repelling the scratching and biting creatures. He felt comfort for a second, before he realized what the thing that was enveloping him was. He was still dreaming, but the real world had some impact on it, and he was rather prone to nightmares at the moment do to the fear from the Neko Ken.

Nodoka was shocked when she felt her son tense up again and she heard, “I’m sorry mom. I din’t wanna be cursed. I’m sorry. Don kill me.” She blinked. What the heck did this mean? And then she had remembered. About twelve years ago, Genma had gotten this strange idea of taking her son on a martial arts training trip. She had objected, and was about to tell him that the family doctor had confirmed that she was pregnant with their second child when Genma had laid out a contract that stated that he would make Ranma a man among men, or the two would commit sepuku. Of course, she had put a stop to that with her revelation that she was having a second child and that Genma would have to stay at home to help her out, but Ranma now apparently thought that he had gone on the training trip, and despite the logic inconsistencies that it represented, he must have somehow found out about the contract. Of course, with his curse he was afraid that she wouldn’t except him. Feeling disgusted with herself for the thought that she probably would have accepted that contract from Genma if she hadn’t been with child at the time, Ranma’s mother held him tighter, even with his slightly larger size, and comforted him.

HR

The next morning, Ranko ran into her brother’s room to wake him up. She knew it wasn’t a school day, but she was starting to really like finding new and interesting ways to make him get up. She stopped in her tracks and had to restrain a giggle as she saw Ranma curled up in his mother’s arms, the two of them snoring away. It was so cute, even if he was a bit too old for it. Ranko was kind of hesitant at waking them up, but knew that she had to. “Ranma, mom. Wake up!” Ranko called, causing her mother to jerk out of her sleep.

Nodoka looked around in confusion before looking down at her son, who was still sleeping soundly on the bed. She then looked at the window to the room, which was letting in streams of morning sunlight, and wondered how she had gotten here. ‘I must have fallen asleep in here last night.’ She thought, remembering Ranma’s nightmares. Nodoka shifted her son off of her and got up.

“Uh. Warm pillow.” Ranma muttered, before opening his eyes. “Mom?” He asked, looking surprised. “What’s goin on?”

“Don’t worry about it, Ranma.” Nodoka said, walking out of the room.

Ranma just shrugged before getting out of bed and walking to his dresser, slipping on one of his sets of Chinese clothing which he had bought yesterday. Ranko had run off with Nodoka, so Ranma proceeded to the first floor to join them. Genma, for some reason, was still asleep in bed.

After sitting down at the breakfast table, Ranma waited as Nodoka cooked breakfast. He had offered to help her once, before the Saffron fight, and she had chased him out of the kitchen with a spoon so he waited contentedly to be served. Truthfully, Ranma rather liked Cooking if no one saw him do it and was the cause of more than a few of the well cooked meals in the Tendo Dojo, thanks to Kasumi teaching him recipes. The eldest Tendo’s willingness to help him before suddenly reminded him of what he had been accused of doing to her here, and he quickly pushed the rather sickening thought from his mind. “Ah, Food!” He said, as his mother left the kitchen with the morning repast.

“So what are you doing today, children?” Nodoka asked, taking her seat next to where Genma should be.

Ranma shrugged. “Was gunna practice some Kata and go see Tofu for those lessons he offered me yesterday.”

“Tofu san offered you lessons?” Nodoka said, surprised.

Ranma laughed. “More like ordered me to come and learn. He says that I gotta learn the rest of the healing pressure points that I don’t know or he won’t let me use the ones I do.”

“You know Shiatsu?” Nodoka asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not much. Just some basic paralysis and pain suppression points.” Ranma explained, taking a large spoonful of Miso.

“What are you doing today, Ranko?” Nodoka asked, switching her focus to her younger child.

“I was hoping to go and see Ranma’s Kata and then go play.” The girl said, enthusiastically.

Nodoka smiled. She may not like her youngest child learning martial arts, after all it wasn’t very ladylike, but it made Ranko so happy that she couldn’t really complain.

HR

Nabiki Tendo had a problem, and a big one. She glanced fearfully at the kitchen before turning back to the table in front of her to contemplate her options. Her younger sister banged around in the kitchen, humming happily. Yes, that’s right, Akane was cooking. The problem was that the youngest Tendo was an absolutely toxic cook. She, through cooking alone, had dissuaded a man by the name of Pikolette Chardan the third from taking a Tendo wife, even though he had a full legal right and desire to do so. His stated reason was, “If one of you Barbarians can cause duck flambé to taste this horrid then I shudder to think what your genetics would do to my family!” Of course, Akane had gotten rather pissed at him for this and rightly so. The youngest Tendo’s main problem was one fact. Actually, more like two. She had her father’s taste buds and stomach. She could barely taste anything, causing her to put ludicrously large amounts of flavouring into anything to get the smallest tang to it, and she could eat ANYTHING without getting ill. Of course, since the food tasted fine to her and didn’t make her the least bit ill, she thought people were making fun of her when they acted like they were getting severely sick. Problem, Nabiki did not have these freakish genetics, and she just may die from her sister’s concoctions. She had also, rather loudly, told the family that she had NOTHING planned for today and that she was going to enjoy a nice and lazy Sunday, so she couldn’t claim business with her associates at school.

Looking frantically around for an escape rout that wouldn’t completely hurt her younger sister’s feelings, Nabiki caught sight of the phone. ‘Will he go along with it?’ She thought, as a plan formed in her living calculator of a mind.

HR

Ranma was going over a basic defensive move set with Ranko when his mother called him from the front of the Dojo. Looking up, he saw her holding a portable handset in her hand. “Huh? What is it mom?” Ranma asked, correcting Ranko’s form slightly as he did so.

“Ranma, Nabiki Tendo is on the phone. She says it’s very important.” Nodoka said, looking confused.

“All right mom. Just a second.” Ranma said, walking towards his mother. ‘I hope she isn’t going to try and black mail me. I don’t have any money left.’ He thought, taking the handset and holding it to his ear. “Hello?”

“Oh, Ranma. It’s Nabiki. Do you still want to go out on that date today?” Nabiki’s voice said, emphasizing the word out.

“Date? What date?” Ranma asked, flustered. At hearing the word, his mother began beaming and drifted off into daydreams of her son’s manliness.

“You haven’t forgotten the date, have you? Akane’s made a lunch for the family and It’d be too bad if I postponed eating it when I didn’t have to.” Nabiki said, sweetly.

“Akane’s made lunch: Ranma asked, paling. “Right. I’ll be right over to pick you up.” He said, hanging up the phone. He didn’t really like Nabiki, but they were engaged by their parents and Akane’s cooking was dangerous for him, let alone normal people.

HR

Back at the Tendo place, Nabiki slowly put the phone down with a surprised look on her face. She had thought she would have to prod the boy a lot more but the second he had heard that Akane was cooking lunch he quickly agreed and was coming now. Walking to the kitchen, Nabiki poked her head inside. “Sorry Akane but I have to go on a date with Ranma for lunch. Don’t bother serving a plate for me.” She said, seeing her sister in a chef’s hat and apron. Unbeknownst to Akane, Her apron had the symbol for Biohazard on the front. It had been a gift from Nabiki on Akane’s thirteenth birthday, and to the older sister’s surprise Akane had liked the pretty black and red pattern.

Akane frowned. “You’re going on a date with that pervert?” She asked, still slightly scared for her sister after Ranma had beaten her so easily in a battle.

“Don’t worry Akane. You know I won’t let him go too far.” Nabiki said, secretly agreeing with her younger sister. She didn’t really know what she was thinking going out with Ranma, but he knew that she was too dangerous to mess with and he had really seemed to change lately.

Akane nodded. Her sister was right. She giggled at the thought of what Nabiki had done to Kuno the one time he had tried to be perverted with her. Akane still kept the newspaper clipping of that wonderful day. “Well, have fun sis.” She said, as she went back to her preparation. Picking up a large bottle of Jalapeno pepper powder, she began shaking a large amount of the extraordinarily spicy stuff into the pot she was stirring. This would taste great!

HR

Herb of the Musk dynasty was having a very, very bad day. First, it was revealed that the Amazon matriarch Cologne was bringing two younger Amazons with her on her expedition, her great granddaughter and a male named Mousse, and second, Herb’s retainers had immediately tried to latch onto the female Amazon and drag her off, causing the male to attack them. Now, Herb was watching as her two bodyguards battled a blind man while a purple haired girl watched on and her elder cackled. “Can, We, Get, MOVING!” Herb finally yelled, risking revealing her currently female state by the shrillness of her voice but not really caring at the moment, since she was so furious.

“Yes, lord Herb.” Mint and lime said, quickly turning from the blind man and leaving him to throw bladed weapons at two nearby trees.

“Come, Mousse!” Cologne ordered, bopping the blind boy on the head. The girl giggled, as the group made ready to leave. If the rest of their trip was like this, herb wondered if her sanity would be in tact by the end of it.

HR

Ranma nervously knocked on the front door of the Tendo home, waiting for someone to answer it. To his surprise, it was Nabiki. The girl looked over Ranma’s Chinese clothing clad form and whistled. “You’re actually looking handsome for once, Saotome.” She said, with a traditional shark like grin.

“Thanks, I think.” Ranma muttered, before he smelled the VERY strong scent of garlic from the kitchen. “You wanna get outta here?”

Nabiki nodded, and the two left the house, neither noticing the celebrating Genma and Soun who were sitting around the Shogi board. As they walked through the streets of Nerima, Ranma got more and more uncomfortable while Nabiki just kept a neutral expression on her face. “So… Um… what do ya wanna do?” Ranma asked, finally giving up on being subtle.

“how about we go out for lunch?” Nabiki asked, quirking an eyebrow. “That’s what I told Akane after all and I don’t like lying.”

Ranma threw up his hands. “I don’t got any money, and I won’t have any ‘till I get a job or get allowance or something.”

Nabiki made a long, drawn out and over-exaggerated sigh before reaching into her pocket. “Fine. I’ll pay, but you’re paying me double back and you’re not eating like your father.” She said, pulling out a wallet.

Ranma winced about the paying double back part but smiled when he realized that he was getting, at least temporarily, free food. “And I didn’t even have to mooch as a girl.’ He thought, but kept the thought to himself. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t even have to tell Nabiki about his curse. Suddenly, an ominous sounding roll of thunder came from nowhere. Ranma looked around but only saw clear sky.

“That was weird.” Nabiki commented, looking up at the blue sky. Shrugging it of, she moved on. “Come on, Saotome.” She said, heading to a local sidewalk café.

HR

It had been about half an hour since Ranma and Nabiki had headed to the sidewalk Café, and both of them were actually having a pretty good time. Ranma was always nervous about Nabiki, a good survival practice considering who she was, but the temporarily free food and reasonably good conversation loosened him up a bit.

Nabiki, on the other hand, was slightly miffed about having to put the bill for this date but was enjoying the company of Ranma. Because of how she acted most boys, sensibly, kept their distances from her. She didn’t really mind this, however having a handsome date was nice and Ranma hadn’t tried anything perverted. Nabiki wasn’t nearly as paranoid as Akane, but she had to be slightly afraid of this as set patterns usually continued, and Ranma Saotome had been very set in his ways. After the first little bit of small talk about school and such, Nabiki began to ask about things that were bugging her. “So, Saotome. What’s this I hear about you and Tofu making up?” She asked, having heard the rumour from one of Tofu’s late afternoon patients who had seen them talking.

“I wouldn’t call it that, Nabiki.” Ranma said, hesitantly. “Tofu don’t really trust me, but he wants to teach me to complete my training in Shiatsu. I hope he can trust me in time, though. Tofu sensei used to be one of the people who really helped me out around here.”

Nabiki almost laughed at that but kept it quiet. Ranma had relied on Tofu? Man, he must have gotten one hell of a hit on the head or something to think that. As she restrained her laughter, Nabiki noticed a waiter coming up behind Ranma. Strangely, the waiter seemed to stumble on nothing when he was near the pigtailed boy and a glass of water fell off of his tray and into Ranma’s lap. Nabiki gaped as she saw something that she had never seen before. Ranma Saotome shrank and curved into a red haired girl.

“Oh, I’m sorry about that miss. Would you like a towel?” The waiter asked, too distracted to realize what had gone on.

Ranma shook her head, wanting to shake her fist and curse at the sky. ‘What god did I piss off or annoy to deserve this?’ She thought, resignedly, before looking at Nabiki. “Believe it or not, I can explain.” She said, hesitantly.

Hr

In the temple of the three goddesses, Urd sneezed. Wiping her nose with her hand, she realized that she had just accidentally poured two of the chemicals she had been working with all over a pile of papers. “Damn!” She cursed, only to hear a warning rumble outside. “Sorry father.” She apologized, quickly.

From her position ironing clothes nearby, Beldandy looked over at her older sister. “Urd, have you taken care of that Project Saffron mess yet?” She asked, in a kind and unworried voice.

Urd looked pale for a second. “Woops, thanks Bell. I almost forgot.” She said, before getting up from the table and running for the Television. Unknown to her, some of the chemicals that she had been handling were soaking her hands as she jumped through. As she came out into the Jusenkyo guide’s hut, Urd looked around for a book. Quickly making certain modifications to the entries inside, the goddess hopped back through the television. “All done.” She sighed, before plopping down at the table again and resuming her work.

END.

Notes.

About Nodoka. I think she has a maternal side, but it’s too tied up with her honour. In the original story she doesn’t show it much and she comes off as, and is truthfully, a rather overbearing bitch. In this line, however, she has raised her children and her affection for them has grown quite a bit. I lose all respect for parents who do what the cannon Nodoka did, as my mother did pretty much the same thing, (Without the Sepuku, of course,) but this one has raised her children and has a slightly more loving and accepting personality. Not that her quirks won’t show up occasionally. Figured I should say this to explain her OOC behaviour.

Akane’s Cooking. How ELSE could she mistake that crap for good food? Besides, I like Akane and honestly believe she TRIES to cook right, and doesn’t know her food is really that bad otherwise why would she be so happy about feeding it to people?