…

Nabiki was miffed.

No, make that very miffed. She has been waiting for ages for this mysterious girl whom Otaki-san has been dying to introduce.

“Otaki-san,” she said finally after a few more minutes have passed. “I really don’t think this girl of yours is coming in today.”

“Relax Nabiki-chan,” the rotund man said jovially, trying to placate the put-off girl. “I’m sure she’s just running a bit late; she does that from time to time if I remember it right.”

“Well,” she said with a sigh. “Can I at least get started on my films? I mean, I’ll be in the darkroom so you can just give me a shout whenever she comes.”

“Wait…., Nabiki-chan!” the older photographer called after the Tendo girl as she fled down the hallway – in sooth, he did not know the girl was that quick on her feet.

A few rooms down the hallway, Nabiki slowed down to a walk as she got out of Otaki’s line of sight. Really, there was a reason why she chose to normally come in to develop her picture on Saturday. It was the busiest day of the week for the studio and that meant she did not have to be with Otaki for so long. While that man was nice enough a friend, he really could do with a change in attitude. That grandfatherly stuff could get rather overbearing sometimes. And this new model of his – why was she so different from any other girl he has worked with anyway?

Nabiki shook her head, pushing all thought of the other girl out of her mind. She opened the door to the basement and walked down the stairs. It was quite dark and the small steps were rather treacherous with the black light. She opened another door and stepped into the darkroom and smiled as she was greeted by the signature red hue of the room’s lighting.

‘Some would call this creepy,’ Nabiki thought idly as she sat her school bag down on a bench’s top. She straightened up and looked about the small room, taking in the familiar sight of developing photos hanging from lines of hangers that ran around the room. The image of charcoaled squares dripping droplets of acetic acids and water – both of which glowed red in the presence of the amber-colored safelight. The total effect, if one were to look into the room briefly, would seem like those half-finished photos were dripping blood.

“But then again,” the girl said aloud with a smile. “Some people have no sense of refinement.”

Nabiki went to the stands next to the enlarger at the heart of the darkroom and put her bag down. She reached into her bag and, after fumbling around a bit in the poor lighting condition, removed her photography parcel. She found her bag of films and took out the one that Hiroshi and Daisuke want another copy of. She paused a bit and took out the ones that she was going to come here and develop tomorrow as well. Since she was here, she might as well do them all now.

She took a few bottles of various developing agents on the workbench and administered them to an empty and pre washed trays. After having prepared each of the ‘baths’, she reached over and switched off the safelight before charily removing the films from its lightproof container. She placed the films onto the enlarger and used it to project the image of the film onto the photographic prints that were on there

With great deal of patience and care, Nabiki removed the prints from the slot and slid them into the first bathing tray and quickly hit the start button on the timer next to her as she did so. She waited until the developing was done before she transferred them onto the second tray, this one containing the ‘stopper’ solutions. There were a few more steps but she proceeded through them cheerily – enjoying one of those rare moments in a day where she was allowed to indulge herself.

“Voila!” she chimed as she held up the finish product with a pair of tongs. Of course, she could not actually see anything – it was a darkroom after all. Still, the satisfaction of a job well done was there nonetheless. Too bad, she was kind of curious about that photo Ranma took. Oh well, at any rate she will be seeing it soon enough.

Nabiki left the darkroom in a much better mood than she had entered it with. There was a subtle hint of a smile that was not predatory in the slightest on her face – something that would probably scare Nerima’s residents more than the usual Nabiki-esque one.

“Hey Otaki-san,” she shouted out as she climbed up the stairs. “Did that girl of yours ever turned up? Because I’m all done with my films and I don’t want to be late for dinner.”

There was no reply.

“My older sister, Kasumi is making ‘sukiyaki’ tonight, you know,” Nabiki continued to chatter on as she stepped closer and closer to the entrance of the photography studio.

She turned the corner and found that she had been talking to thin-air; Otaki was not in at the reception like she had thought would be.

“Otaki-san?!” she called out hesitantly but a little louder this time. Should she just leave? It was getting late but where was Otaki? It was nearing the closing time true, but the sign was still out and the door was not locked or anything.

“Yes, Nabiki-chan?” a voice said from behind her.

Nabiki jumped a little as she turned to face the previously missing man. He was looking at her questioningly – as if he has not been just suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

“Ah, it was nothing. I was just wondering where you were that’s all,” she answered in what she hoped was her normal, non-startled voice. “Hey listen, I’m all done with my prints so I’m going to take off, okay? It’s late and I don’t want to miss dinner.”

“Sukiyaki night, bet you don’t wanna miss that eh, Nabiki-chan,” he said cheerfully.

“So you did hear me,” Nabiki said smilingly, shifting the strap of her bag so it would sit a little higher on her shoulder. She turned around, walked over to the door and pushed it opened with one hand before waving goodbye with another. “See you next week, Otaki-san!”

“You can always show up anytime even if you don’t have films to develop, you know that right Nabiki-chan?” the slightly pudgy-looking photographer called after her. “Tomorrow’s fine, too.”

Nabiki beat a hasty retreat from the parlor.

‘He still doesn’t give up!’ she thought exasperatedly.

It was a little over a month ago that Otaki began having this idea of trying to get her to be a full-time photographer after she has finish high school. He kept insisting on having her building up a portfolio so that she can apply for a photography scholarship or some such. She was half-hearted about the whole thing really – it was her hobby after all, making her hobby a career was something she did not want to do.

She shivered slightly as a cool breeze swept through the empty street. Feeling something small and wet landed on her head, Nabiki looked up and found that the sky was quite dark and that it was about to rain.

She reached for the foldable umbrella that was usually strapped to her bag. It was gone. Did she stuff it into her bag? She opened up the clips to look inside and searched more thoroughly but it was not there either. Where could it be?

‘Otaki-san’s reception,’ Nabiki thought. ‘I was in such a hurry to leave. I must have dropped it there.’

There was an ominous rumbling in the atmosphere that left the nerve on the back of her knees quivering a little. Grumbling about stupid inauspicious signs, Nabiki began jogging back up the street she had just walked down.

Soon the air was awash with the sound of trillions little droplets of rain hitting the cold concrete and the Tendo girl ran a little harder.

…

---

“Otaki-san,” Nabiki called out between huffs of breathes as she leaned against the doorframe, panting like a dog in the middle of summer. It took her a little over five minutes to get here at a full-run yet she was still soaked to the bone. She thanked her lucky star she was reminded of her umbrella in time; she would not have been able to walk the rest of way without it, not in this condition.

“Otaki-san?” she said again; what was it with him and the sudden disappearing acts? She resisted the urge clamor loud enough to bring him running – after all, she did have a reputation to uphold, even if it was just Otaki. Beside, how embarrassing would it be if it was not just him?

Against her better judgment, Nabiki walked passed the main reception area and into the hallway. She looked around for a bit and found a tiny ray of light escaping from underneath a doorway. Someone was using that room.

She strolled over to the door and was about to reach out for the handle when it someone threw it opened from the other side.

“…right back, Otaki-san—,” the other girl paused in mid-sentence as she came in contact with a certain Tendo who was standing in front of the door just as she bustled through it.

Thud!

“Offpt,” Nabiki cried out as she was sent careening to the floor for the second time that day. She threw her arms about, trying to regain her balance or at least land with a bit more grace and dignity than the last time. To her surprise, she felt no impact against her shapely rear.

The other girl had caught her? Whoa, some reflex – she could not even save herself.

“Thank you, miss…,” Nabiki mumbled not knowing the name of the person she was thanking. Not hearing a reply, she turned up to get a better look at the other girl’s face and froze at the recognition.

‘Ranma?’ she almost blurted out loud.

Standing in front of her was a splitting image of her sister’s fiancé, the famous – or infamous, depends on how you look at it – Ranma Saotome: the best martial artist in their generation, the aqua-transsexual, the ‘fiend’, the Saotome’s heir, and, from where Nabiki was standing, the girl in a white mini-dress, a minute vinyl belt, shimmering, black stockings and a pair of regal-looking, three-inches pumps.

“Shirayuki,” the girl, Keiko, introduced herself. She bowed nervously, sounding a little more tensed than she has the right to be. “Keiko Shirayuki,”

Nabiki did a double take. She blinked a couple of times but the girl she was seeing was still plain ole Ranma-chan in a dress to her.

‘Wait, Saotome in a dress,’ Nabiki re-echoed the thought. ‘Oh I see where this is going…,’

Nabiki faked a smile and gave the other girl a passing bow in reply to the one she had received. She had to actively resist the urge to shake her head in disbelief in front of the pseudo girl; did Ranma seriously think she could fool her? Ryoga and Kuno, she could understand, but her? She did not know if she should feel insulted.

“Nabiki-chan, Keiko-chan!” a familiar voiced called out to them. “I see you two have finally met each other.”

“Oh, so this is the model you’ve been meaning to introduce, Otaki-san?” Nabiki said with genuine surprise. ‘Wow, Saotome, a model? This is even bigger than I’d thought.’

Ranma ‘I’m-a-man’ Saotome cross-dressing in-secret was one thing, Ranma ‘Man-amongst-man’ Saotome flaunting her wares to strangers and parading about in dresses in front of cameras was something else entirely. And to think that she had almost dismiss the whole missing photo thing.

‘Too bad you can’t fight fate eh, Ranma-chan,’ Nabiki thought evilly.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us, Otaki-san?” she turned to the plump man and said sweetly. She turned back and gave Ranma a grin.

“Oh right, I don’t know how I could’ve forgotten,” Otaki said. “Keiko-chan, this is Nabiki Tendo – she’s an amateur photographer who could put me out of business at any time she wanted – she’s just biding her time to make it all the more painful for me.”

Nabiki smiled and ‘Keiko’ giggled politely.

“Nabiki-chan,” Otaki said, turning to her this time. “This is Keiko Shirayuki – she’s a model and a photography hobbyist. She doesn’t know that much about camera’s yet but we’re working on it.”

At this point, Otaki pretended that he was being spied upon and looked around a bit before leaning over and saying the next part in a stage whisper. “Psst, I’ve been trying to convert her to Canon, don’t tell anyone.”

They all laughed a little harder at that. Otaki loved the Nikons – he has been subtly and not-so-subtly trying to convince people to use them for years. There was not way he could be telling the truth.

“Please to make you acquaintance, Tendo-san,” Ranma said, turning to and bowing politely once again at Nabiki.

Nabiki nodded numbly back, having hundreds of thoughts running through her mind at the time.

‘He still doesn’t know that I’ve found out,’ she thought incredulously, practically smirking at the irony of it all. ‘Oh, this is just too good an opportunity to pass up.’

“Please, call me Nabiki,” she said with a grin. “I was never too good with formality and I’m sure we’ll get a long fine.”

Ranma smiled apprehensively in reply – it could have been chalked up as ‘Keiko’ just being shy but Nabiki knew better.

“Please you two, come on in here,” Otaki interrupted. “There’s no reason to talk in the hallway when we have a couple of perfectly good chairs in here.”

“Oh right,” Ranma mumbled. She was turning about when Nabiki laid her hand softly on the shorter girl’s shoulder. Nabiki smirked as she felt the girl tensed up.

“But Keiko-chan, didn’t I hear you were going to the restroom?” Nabiki reminded the redhead innocently, a sliver of an idea beginning to take shape inside her mischievous mind. She wanted a confirmation but for that she needed them to be alone and this just might do the trick. “Say, how about I come with you? I need to dry off as well.”

Ranma stammered. She tried frantically to come up with an excuse but Nabiki quickly maneuvered her down the hallway. Within half a minute of dragging, the two of them was at the toilet near the reception where, upon arriving, Nabiki all but shoved the smaller girl through the door.

“Nabiki-chan!” Ranma in disguise protested weakly at being manhandled.

The Tendo girl did not answer her. Instead, she pushed Ranma into the only cubicle in there and followed. Still ignoring the redhead, Nabiki spun around, closed the door and locked it – forcing the two of them closer together in the already cramped space.

Nabiki turned around and found Ranma staring at her almost fearfully. She smiled evilly before advancing on the girl’s petite form. There was not much physical advancement with them being stuck in a cubicle and all, but the intended message was delivered in full. Ranma seemed to have shrunk a couple of inches. She took half a step backward and half sat half felled onto the toilet seat, looking as if she was about to wet herself.

Then Nabiki burst out laughing.

Ranma seemed to have gone into shock. Her eyes practically tripled in diameter and she had the facial expression of someone who has just been shot several times with a seriously realistic-looking toy gun. If she has had her hair in the usual pigtail right at that moment then Nabiki would have bet good money that it would have jumped straight up like the tail of a spooked cat.

Nabiki continued to laugh, hugging her sides like her ribs were killing her as she did so. She finally seemed to have had enough and leaned against the door huffing and puffing like a wolf who was trying blow down a house.

“Alright Saotome, what’s with that get up?” she managed a word or two between her breathing, her eyes now twinkling with mirth. “And the way you’re talking, oh god…,”

She started laughing again as Ranma’s eyes boggled in astonishment.

“Wha-?” was all the other girl could utter after a full second of complete silence. She tried and stumbled over her tongue a few times before she was able to put together a coherent sentence. “What are you talking about Nabiki-san? My name is Keiko Shirayuki not—”

Nabiki cut her off with a raised palm, still clutching her stomach with the other as she continued to laugh hysterically. “Seriously, Saotome, you’re too much! The way you kept going on and on about you manhood, I never would’ve thought…,”

“H-Hey! W-Wait a second!” Ranma tried to interject to no avail. “It’s not what you think!”

“Really? You mean, you’re not pretending to be a girl and secretly modeling for Otaki-san?” Nabiki jibed.

“No…, well, yes,” Ranma tried to explain. “But it’s not like that, okay!? It’s not what you think.”

“That’s the second time you’ve said that, Saotome,” Nabiki noted, inching forward with a decidedly insincere look on her face. “What do you think I’m thinking?”

“Y-You’re thinking t-that I-I…,” Ranma said, gulping nervously. She tried to covertly turn away from the older girl but the close proximity made the slightest of movement obvious to both of them. “You know, that I’m…, that way.”

“What ‘way’, Saotome?” Nabiki leaned closer, part teased part urged Ranma on as she struggled with her words and her self-imposed difficulty with regards to them. “You tell me; what exactly am I supposed to be thinking?”

“That I’m some kind of sissy boy who likes make-up and playing with dolls and crap!” Ranma all but shouted; her body shook and her eyes were wide shut.

Nabiki jumped forward and slapped a hand over the trembling girl’s mouth. She silently prayed that Otaki did not hear that. She did not know how thick the walls of the studio are but Ranma was loud.

“Shoosh!” she hissed softly, loosening her grip of the slight girl somewhat as she did so. “You want Otaki finding out about your little secret?”

Ranma shook her head. If she did not know better, Nabiki could have sworn she saw a hint of tear and a flash of genuine fear in the smaller girl’s eyes. She did not give it a lot of thought though; the notion of infallible martial artist Ranma Saotome being a trembling, vulnerable girl in her hands was quite forbidding enough as it was – adding the possibility of her being tearful and fearful, well, let just say something are best left alone.

‘Damn it, how did it get to this?’ Nabiki mentally grumbled, trying not to thin about the twin mounds of flesh pressing up against her at that point. ‘Point? More like points… two, to be exact…, Gah! What the heck am I thinking?”

“Ahm,” the Tendo girl said slowly, trying to think of something to saw in the awkward situation. “So why did you started modeling for Otaki? I mean, you said that it’s not because of you like being a girl right?”

Nabiki waited in silence for a moment for a reply. She eventually got one, however, it was not the one she had been expecting.

“Crap, we’ve been in here for too long,” Ranma blurted out, suddenly sitting up in alarm. “Otaki-san must’ve noticed by now!”

Nabiki froze. She had completely forgotten about that little fact.

“Quick!” Ranma said with desperate urgency. For some reason, she seemed to really want to keep Otaki oblivious to her curse and true nature. She took hold of Nabiki’s arm and rushed them out of the restroom.

Nabiki heart thumped loudly as she felt the heat from the other girl’s small hand. She had been intended to actually dry herself as well as finding the truth about Ranma but it seemed that that has been forgotten in the heat of the moment. It was no big deal because her cloths were mostly dry by now anyway.

Mostly being the practical word, because her perspiration was dampening her drying uniform.

…

After a bit of debate Ranma, as Keiko, managed to convinced – with promises of coming back the tomorrow – Otaki that she was not feeling well and that she wanted to leave early today. They both bid the kind man abate persistent man farewell and left his photography studio for the last time that day.

Sometime during Nabiki’s revisit at Otaki’s parlor the rain has stopped and the night wind rapidly swept the sticky, humid feelings from the air. It was a welcoming and pleasant night for a walk and the two of them shared it in profound silence.

About half a kilometer away from the Tendo’s compound Ranma halted her stride. Nabiki, who had walked on, spun about to face the redhead, she ignored the gnawing feeling growing inside of her. What was wrong? Have she said something offensive?

“I got to split,” Ranma said using the masculine ‘boku’ for 'I' instead of the feminine form she had been using earlier. “I can go in there looking like this now, can I? And I can’t arrive with you either, you know.”

Nabiki nodded in understanding.

“Alright,” she said loftily. “But you owe me an explanation Saotome, and you know I always collect what I’m owed.”

“…tomorrow?” Ranma offered.

Nabiki tapped her finger against her chin thoughtfully. She would rather find out as soon as possible but the risk of being seen talking to Ranma in their house was too great. She could wait.

“Tomorrow,” she conceded but still managed to do it with a stern tone of voice.

Ranma gave the Tendo girl a rather strained smile at that small victory. She hefted her satchel aloft and pushed off with her feet. Having seen similarly unbelievable feats from Ranma, Nabiki did not bat an eyelash as the petite girl flew almost twenty meters straight up and landed on a near-by rooftop.

Unbeknownst to Nabiki, as she turned away, separated by only twenty meters worth of air and the pale moonlight, a naked Ranma-chan sat cradling in the darkness as she went about her transformation from Keiko Shirayuki the model into Ranma Saotome the martial artist.

Her face was wet, but only because of the night’s fog.

…