…

The rest of the way home was quieter yet noisier at the same time.

Without Ranma at her side, Nabiki – or rather, her self-confessedly paranoid mind – began to notice small and innocuous things like the creaking crickets, her echoing footsteps, the fogs, and the whispering wind more and more. She tried to ignore it. She began to carefully take in her surrounding like a good Japanese girl – mindful of any treat from the most treacherous beast roaming the streets of Tokyo: man.

Soon, though, her eyes were drawn to the only signs of movements she could spotted: her titillating shadow that was currently attached to her feet.

It darted about, back and forth, as she made her way down the footpath laden with night lamps. It lengthened and shortened almost imperceptibly as she walked from one source of light to another, looking almost like a giggling clown or, perhaps, a demented silhouette.

Watching it, Nabiki noted, was a little macabre: morbid, dark and altogether rather depressing.

‘What if there are two of them?’ Nabiki thought errantly. ‘Side by side – would that makes it better? Could two merrily dancing shades possibly be less morbid than one lonely one?’

Nabiki shook her head to clear the result of her latest tangential endeavor from her mind. She blinked in surprise as she took in her surrounding and the familiar wooden door that was now appeared to be standing in front of her.

She was home.

…

After that brief pause has passed, Nabiki reached out with a slightly shaking hand and gripped the door’s handle and attempted to turn. Attempted, being the practical word here, because it only moved a good half inch before refusing to budge anymore.

Nabiki drew blank for a moment then she realized – it was dark already. But still… she could not remember the last time she had gotten home so late that Kasumi has to lock the door.

Putting the nostalgic moment aside, she propped her hand up and rapped on the wooden door thrice with her knuckle. Within a minute the door was opened.

“Nabiki?” Akane, Nabiki’s younger sister, said from behind the door. “Where’ve you been? Dad was really worried about you, you know.”

“Hey can we do this later Akane?” Nabiki brushed her off deftly, slipping pass the girl into the entrance area. Before the younger girl has known what happened, Nabiki was already walking away – having somehow taken her shoes off while Akane was still turned around. “It’s ‘sukiyaki’ tonight, right? Great, I’m starving.”

Akane muttered something about a 'callous mercenary girl' before following in her older sister footsteps back into the dining area. But just as she was about to do so, that same obnoxious voice yelled back.

“Lock the door!”

The youngest of the Tendo girls grumbled as she turned around and re-locked the door.

Nabiki beamed happily as she slipped her foot under the dinning table. She sighed contentedly as she felt the warmth ebbing in and chasing away the coldness from her feet. Ah, dear ole ‘kotatsu’ – it was one of those rare tradition inventions that still retains its use in comparison to their more modern equivalents. It is, typically, a low-sat table with built-in heater underneath and thick blankets covering all the sides to trap the heat in – simple yes, but effective? Absolutely.

Nabiki ignored the glare Akane gave her as she reclaimed her seat on the table. To infuriate the girl even further, Nabiki leaned over and quickly snatched a piece of beef floating in the pot directly in front of Akane.

“Nabiki-chan!” Kasumi’s soft lady-like voice chastised the girl. “We still have to wait for Ranma-kun, remember? And he’s not here yet.”

“Alright, alright,” Nabiki said mutely, feigning a look of compliance. She waited until her older sister turned away before started munching on the piece of beef she had recently procured, smirking at Akane who was fuming lightly all the while.

Akane soon got tired of glaring at Nabiki and began glancing restlessly toward the entrance. There was a hint of worriment in those eyes - that much, Nabiki knew. They were so together since that very first day where Akane broke the old table over Ranmas’ head. But really though, sometime she wished they would get just over their denial and get on with it. It would probably save a lot of people from heartaches in the long run.

Quite a lot people, too, now that she have actually thought about it.

Suddenly there was a resounding splash that came from the backyard. While Akane scrambled out of her seat to find out what that was Nabiki was already grinning in realization.

“Come out, I know you’re in there…,” Akane yelled from somewhere outside of the veranda. There was a momentary pause as the so-called stranger showed herself to the young woman. “…Ranma?!”

“…,” the loud groan that followed, Nabiki assumed, was most likely the only kind of reply Ranma managed after falling from a great height into an extremely shallow pond. It was rather like him/her to think that landing on water is less painful than on dry-land – after all, who else would disregard a minor fact such as the pond being only two feet deep like that?

“Ranma! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, really, so just stay there. Don’t come in here, alright?!”

“Hey, I’m trying to help you here, you ungrateful jerk!”

“Weren’t you listening? I said ‘don’t’; you’re such a clumsy tomboy and the bottom of the pond is covered with— watch out!”

“Eeeekkkk!!”

“…,”

“…,”

Nabiki cocked her head to the side; what was with the sudden quietness?

“Ranma, you pervert!!”

SLAP

“It was an accident you idiot! I was trying to help you.”

“Any excuse to cop of a feel, eh, Ranma? You’re despicable!”

“Why would I want to touch your small breasts? Mine are a lot bigger and…,”

“What’s that suppose to mean, Ranma? What perverted things have you been doing?

“…,”

“…Get back here, Ranma Saotome!!”

…

‘Ranma, Ranma, Ranma,’ the shorthaired girl chuckled amusedly. ‘You’ve got to lose that habit of making an entrance.’

In that odd little moment, the fact that she had just thought off Ranma by his first name completely escaped Nabiki’s mind.

In fact, it was probably blowing raspberry at her as it ran away too, not that she would know, of course, all smiling and staring starry-eyed like that.

Kasumi blinked in surprise as she took in the glints in her younger sister’s eyes; this was a surprising development.

---

Nabiki tapped her foot absentmindedly against the wall. She has politely declined Otaki’s offer to sit inside, choosing instead to stand out here and wait for Ranma to arrive in the hot, hot Saturday’s morning’s sun. She glanced up for the umpteenth time and looked up the narrow street called Ifukawa that ‘Otaki’s Photography’ was situated upon.

‘You have better not stood me up, Saotome,’ Nabiki grumbled. ‘Or there’ll be Hell to pay.’

After the dinner’s debacle, Nabiki, as she had predicted, has not been able to get even a second alone with the pigtailed boy. What she has managed to do, though, was passing him a note reminding him exactly what they would be doing today.

Well, that was not exactly precise; it should actually read ‘reminding her’ and not him.

After all, it was not Ranma Saotome she was expecting to show up here today, no, Keiko, Keiko Shiruyuki the model was whom she going to be doing a photo-shoot with today.

It was not because she wanted extra blackmailing material on Ranma or anything. No, the reason she has asked her to come here today was because she wanted to find out what was actually the reason that he has been pretending to be this girl, Keiko. That and, well, other stuff too, she guessed, like how serious was Ranma about the modeling thing.

So that why here she was, leaning against a wall, waiting for Ranma to show up in her disguise.

The doorbell chimed lightly as someone walked out from the photography studio. Disturbed from her spacing out, Nabiki turned her head around to see who it was that just came out. She quickly recognized the man’s large frame as that of Otaki, the jovial photographer and owner of the studio.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather wait inside, Nabiki-chan?” he offered affably, gesturing toward the entrance which he quite soundly blocked with his own body. “I really appreciate you doing this for me, you know. I know it has been a long time since you’ve last did a shoot and how close it is to your exams…, and then to make you wait outside like this…,”

“It’s alright, Otaki-san,” Nabiki reaffirmed. She glanced around to see if Ranma had arrived or not – there was still no sign of her. “I’m sure it won’t be long now before Keiko arrives.”

“Well, it that’s the case I guess I’ll just— oh there she’s now.” Otaki broke off sharply before exclaiming in a happy tone of voice.

Nabiki veered her head around, following his gaze to where they had stopped at a young and striking-looking redhead clamoring down the street in a pair of heels. She seemed to be leaving a trail of drools and bug-eyed males in her wake – not that surprising if you consider how her prominent assets bounced as she ran. Nabiki eyes never left the girls –eh, the girl, no ‘s’ – as she made her way toward Otaki and Nabiki.

She swallowed the copious amount saliva that seemed to have collected in her mouth before making a mental note to invest in heart medication. She has a feeling that the demand for it will exceed the supply one day some day soon.

The jiggling girl came to a stop a few steps in front of the two of them, somehow not even breathing heavily after that little exertion. She turned to face them and flushed a bit.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I got a little caught up in something on the way here.”

“Well, in the future please factor in the time for taking care of your previous,engagements so that you wouldn’t be late” Nabiki said acidly. So what if Ranma had to take care of the fiancées – that did not change the fact that she made her waited for almost fifteen minutes.

“Well, sorry for not being so ‘socially independent’ that I don’t have to spare a thought of what people might thinks or wonders where I am,” Ranma, as Keiko, bit back scathingly.

Nabiki baulked at the level of command of Japanese the girl was exhibiting – was there no end of the surprises she was getting these days?

“Girls, girls…, please! Be civil,” Otaki stepped in to prevent the impending catfight. “Really, Nabiki-chan, however late it maybe, she’s here now, so let’s just go in and get started shall we? And Keiko-chan, please don’t make a habit out of this, okay? Little things like being on time and being responsible counts in this business.”

“But Otaki-san,” the redhead try to protest. She looked like she has a world to say and but Otaki cut her off nevertheless. The man’s firm stare, Nabiki noted, was quite effective on Ranma. She piped down and silently fumed.

Nabiki smirked at Ranma and quickly stepped inside before the other girl could retaliate.

The doorbell ring crinkled softly and she was greeted with much welcomed cool air. The fact that it was still early in the day coupled with it being Saturday made the reception room a rather vacant place. She gave the old couple who was probably getting their photo developed a polite smile before making her way passed the counter and into the back area.

As she walked idly down the hallway, Nabiki began going over the standard procedures of a second tier photo-shoot. It was not too terribly confusing really – just go in early on the day with a firm idea on what you want out of the shoot, communicate with the models and take breaks when the energy drops. After that, all that you have to do was develops the films – which is not done one the day anyway, so no problem there. Most of the time photo-shoots went off without a hitch; this is because seventy percent of the work was already done before the day. So, really, she had not a thing to worry about.

Well, actually, there was just one tiny little thing that the photographer, her, has to worry about really.

You see, the model was, in actuality, Ranma ‘the chauvinistic man-amongst-man’ Saotome.

Why should that be a problem? Well, Nabiki has a feeling she will be finding that out real soon.

…

An uneventful quarter of an hour later, Nabiki was just finishing up the assembling of her scenes; props, stages and backgrounds were all strewn up and placed together in a simple but elegant fashion. She took a step back and surveyed her work one more time before giving herself a proverbial thump’s-up.

‘Now, all that’s left to do is—,” Nabiki did not get to finish that thought because someone chose that precise moment to enter the set.

“My, my, Nabiki-chan,” Otaki uttered with wonderment. “You’ve certainly not lost your touch. This is stunning.”

Nabiki beamed. And stunning it was. The Tendo girl almost broke into a smile when she saw Ranma stumbled a little as she walked in and saw the set.

Nabiki did not do that though – she was too consumed by how grand and refined was looking right now.

The pseudo girl was currently garbed in a long, flowing dinner dress that looked a lot like a negligee stretching over her impressive attributes. It was black, sleek and shimmering, and it made her looked a million bucks. The high side-cut showed a scandalous amount of thigh and made her legs looked as if they went on forever. Her shorter-than-average height, which was usual a negative, allowed Ranma to wear one of the taller heels without looking over-the-top; now, Nabiki did not know why Otaki has a pair of 4 inches, black sandal-strapped stilettos but they shaped Ranma’s carves sublimely and just finished that ‘eyes-on-me’ look.

In short, if Nabiki has Y-chromosome, she would be openly drooling.

She regained her composure and turned to address Otaki’s comment.

“Thanks for the praise Otaki-san,” Nabiki said, immediately at ease with the familiar mild-mannered man. “But fifteen minutes is really a rush job, no matter how you look at it.”

“You give yourself too little credit, you know,” Otaki insisted. He looked over the set one more time – openly admiring the work and efforts the young girl has put into it. “Really, this contrasting sense of aestheticism and homely ambience, as well as this level of details of the stage is hard to explain and even harder to create, especially in under a quarter an hour.”

Nabiki continued smiling; Otaki was always good with praises – the fact that he was not so free with them, and that he was quite frank when it comes to his criticism, only adds to that.

Nabiki turned to Ranma and they locked eyes for a second. A shard of mutual respect passed between the two of them and they both came to the decision to forgo the meticulous praises and just get on with it.

“I guess we should get started,” the Tendo girl stated before moving over to the cameras.

Ranma followed hesitantly, moving, in a round about sort of way, over to one of the props. She sat down on the sofa and glanced around looking rather bored. She eventually spotted something during her browse. She was reaching over to touch the onyx headlamp standing next to the sofa when Nabiki saw what she was about to do.

'In hindsight, I guess I should've taught Ranma the proper photography etiquettes as well instead of just letting her play around with self-portraits and doing candid poses,' Otaki thought before winching at the oncoming jump in volume. 'Oh well, too late now.'

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!” Nabiki roared, looking up from the view-finder of the camera she was fine-tuning. “Don’t touch that!”

Ranma jumped, startled. She froze, looking every bit like the metaphorical deer that was caught in the headlight of a car, her hand hanging unnaturally in mid-air.

“Just…, sit there!” Nabiki said exasperatedly, pointing a shaking finger at Ranma. “And don’t touch anything!”

The redheaded model nodded vigorously. Finding herself still at the receiving of Nabiki’s infamous Glare, Ranma wisely snatched her hand back and plopped it down on her lap like any prim and proper lady would whilst they sit.

Otaki shook his head wryly but did not say anything.

Growling with obvious distaste, Nabiki turned back to her work. She moved from the camera to lightings to the spurious furniture, configuring each one and adding the finish touch based upon ‘Keiko’s’ sense of character, presence and current mode of dress – or wardrobe, as she sometimes called it.

Finally she was done.

She turned to the model with a grim look on her face – although, whether it was one of resignation or determination was a hard call to make.

“Alright,” she eventually said after several moment of staring critically at Ranma. “Since it seemed you’ve practically no idea on how an actual photo-shoot supposed to go down, I guess I’ll just have to go over the basics with you.”

Nabiki moved a bit closer to Ranma and continued in a practiced voice. She avoided eye-contact and was treating this with an air of detachment, trying to be as platonic as possible.

“The first rule is to make the photographer's life easy – because, well, if you make my life terrible and I’ll personally make sure you suffer the same fate,” she began evenly. “The reason you're being hired as a professional model and we're not pulling someone off the street is that you're going to do things that will allow the shoot to go quickly, easily, and more successfully.”

Nabiki walked over to Ranma and plucked an errant strand of hair back into place before continuing in the same professional tone.

The redhead shivered at the close proximity and how cold the other girl was acting.

“I can take anyone off the street and make him or her look good - that is what glamour portraiture is all about - but a model who knows what she or he is doing will allow me to get the job done in less time and with a lot less hassle. That's why we pay you the big bucks.”

“Second bit is communication,” Nabiki broke off, turning away, and suddenly leaving Ranma, who was hanging onto her every word, in a lurch. “You need to follow the verbal instructions of the photographer and give feed back. As a model and a photographer work together more, this give and take becomes easier, but the first time out it can take a while to develop a rapport. Also, it is important to establish a touch-or-don't-touch understanding up front.”

She turned around and walked back to her main camera.

“When working with large format cameras – such as this one,” she said, patting lightly and almost fondly at her Panasonic that was sitting upon a tripod. “The posing can be very slow and precise. It may be quicker and easier for me to physically move you and your arms, head and legs where I want them. If you're uncomfortable with that or other posing issues, please state it up front, okay?”

Ranma could only nod; she was clearly entranced. And so she should be, this was, after all, a side of Nabiki the young martial artist has never ever seen before.

“Good, because this is one time it is better not to make the photographer's life easier if it is going to make your life miserable. All of this should get worked out and become part of the professional working relationship,” Nabiki said with a responding nod. She turned to her right, apparently focusing her attention of adjusting a light fixture. She launched back into her little lecture without missing a beat.

“Another challenging part of the photo shoot process is trying to stay relaxed and comfortable. I may be telling you where your main light is, where your posing spot is, the expression I want, having your arms and legs going in different directions, while a crowd of people might be looking on, and through this all you have to stay relaxed so the tension doesn't show on your face. If only it was all rock music playing and dancing around in front of the camera like they show on TV.”

Nabiki finally dispensed with the act and moved closer to Ranma. The girl was staring avidly at her, eyes widen and pupils dilated. She was definitely paying attention, to say the least.

“Now, do you think you got all that?” she asked, kindly as well as seriously this time.

“Y-Yes,” Ranma answered with only traceable amount of uncertainty.

“Good, then let’s get started.”

---

“Colder… colder… good! Now, relax your arm…, wonderful! Now hold that!”

The shutter clicked and the film whirled. Nabki took her eyes off the viewfinder for a second to beam at Keiko.

“Repose!” she called out to the younger girl before adding with genuine approval. “You’re doing great, Keiko-chan.”

The model gave Nabiki a brief smile in return before reverting back to her character by fixing a look of indifferent on her face. Nabiki grinned widened as she snapped off a few more shots without needing to tell Keiko what to do or give her further instructions. Today the theme of the shoot was one of a photogenic but materialistic young woman; and while she struggled somewhat at first, Keiko eventually got into it. The poses were beautiful and Nabiki was sure the photos will comes out superbly.

The two of them managed a few more shots before the energy dropped. Keiko wanted to keep going but Nabiki, who was the more experienced of the two, knew better; if the electricity was not there then there was no point. Keiko went and got changed and Nabiki started taking apart the set. They were finishing pack-up when Otaki poked his head in.

“I see the two of you had finally has enough,” the man said, sounding rather aloft. “About time too - to be honest, I was beginning to get worried.”

“What do you mean, Otaki-san?” Nabiki asked in confusion; she was dissembling her cameras and putting them back into their cases.

“Yea, Otaki-san, why would you be…,” Keiko trailed off as she saw something on the far wall.

Nabiki followed the redhead’s gaze and spotted what it was that she was looking at. It was a clock, and it read, ‘2:17 p.m.’.

“Oh,” she muttered.

“Yes, ‘oh’,” Otaki said in a chiding tone. “I can’t believe the two of you were at it for over three hours – and not even breaking for lunch like that as well.”

“Sorry,” the two said in unison. They shared a sheepish look before turning away smiling.

“Nah, it’s fine, really,” Otaki said, waving off their apology. He cocked his head to the side as if considering something. “Say, why don’t you two take off and go find something to eat? I’ll finish this up for you, you two are bound to be famished by now.”

Nabiki was about to politely decline when an odd rumbling sound permeated through the area. She glanced to Keiko and found her blushing guiltily. The thought that a delicate model like her could do something so common brought a smile to Nabiki’s face. That rumbling stomach was as loud as…

The Tendo girl suddenly froze in shock; without realizing it, she has been thinking of Ranma and Keiko as two separate people.

She numbly allowed the thought to fall away; it was best she thought more about it in detail later.

“Thanks a lot for this Otaki-san,” she said by way of officially taking him up on his offer.

“No problems, I’m sure Keiko-chan needed this anyway,” Otaki said, winking at Ranma.

The two of them made their way out of the photography studio and down the road. Nabiki told Ranma they were heading to a shopping arcade where they can find a neat little café with a lunch discount on weekends. They were both quiet during the way.

‘What the heck happened, Nabiki?’ Nabiki asked herself as she walked along side Ranma toward the shopping arcade. ‘You were supposed to get Ranma alone so you can ask him about the cross-dressing thing – not spend the whole day doing a photo-shoot.’

Dazed and confused, Nabiki missed the warning cry from Ranma and walked straight-on into another girl.

“Offtp,” she cried in pain as she collide head-first into the other person. She stumbled back half a step and was about to fall over when Ranma quickly caught her.

With her blurry vision, she slowly made out the details of the other girl and realized why Ranma just went quiet.

The person she has just walked into was Akane Tendo, her younger sister.

“Ouchie…,” Akane moaned softly, running a tentative finger over a budding bump in her forehead. “Hey, watch where you’re going…, Nabiki?!”

Nabiki’s mind raced; what are the odds of Akane not realizing that it was Ranma in disguise that was standing behind her? Not great.

However, whatever planned she might have concocted all went straight to hell when Akane craned her head to take a look over her sister’s shoulder and said in surprise.

“Shirayuki-san?”

…

Unbeknownst to Nabiki, not even a few inches behind her, Ranma’s heart just skipped a beat - her adrenaline gland going into overdrive.