Cologne hummed softly to herself as she stirred a pot of ramen. Business was slow today. She didn't mind. It was a nice break from the usual frantic pace in the restaurant. She smiled pleasantly as she heard the sounds of excessive violence coming down through the ceiling. No doubt great-grand-daughter was upstairs teaching Mousse a lesson again. Shampoo's skills as a warrior increased every day. She would make a fine leader of the Amazon tribe.
A sudden premonition interrupted her happy meditations. She hadn't lived to be 300 years old by ignoring such feelings. There was something in the air. She pogoed to the door and went out into the alley. Hmm. Yes, she sensed the shifts.
She thought about the people she knew here in Japan. There were a surprising number of powerful young martial artists in the area. They all held their own circles of enemies and allies. The balance of power was a delicate thing here in Nerima. She had often tried to disrupt it before, but the time had not been right. The focus of that balance seemed to be her own future son-in-law, Ranma Saotome.
As the wind blew, she felt its influence. Things were about to change forever in Nerima.
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Waking Up
A work of fanfiction by Michelle Thatcher
Based on Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/ 2
Legal Jargon: All of Takahashi Rumiko's characters belong to her. I have absolutely no legal right to be using them in my own stories.
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Author's notes:
This story came to be as a result of some random observations about the characters. Each and every one of them without exception has what would be considered a "tragic flaw". If this were Shakespeare, they'd all have been dead a long time ago. They are each competent and powerful in all but one aspect of their personality. In that one aspect (which is different in each character) they are not just a little slow, but in fact grossly immature. But life changes, and those who will not change with it often suffer because of it. Not everyone in this story will go through radical changes, but things will indeed never be the same.
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One month later:
Ranma scowled at his opponent. She was the toughest foe he had ever encountered. So skilled. So determined. Well, it didn't matter. He had faced all kinds of challenges from all kinds of rivals. This was no different. His brow set. "6,000 yen. No more."
"7,500. Really Ranma, that's the lowest I can go. I've put a lot of time and effort into this already."
Ranma snorted. "Hmph. I'll bet you have."
"Why Ranma, whatever do you mean?"
"Whaddo I mean?" He gave Nabiki what he hoped was a mocking glance. She was so much better at that sort of thing than he was, though. He wasn't sure how it would turn out. Oh well. "I'll bet you just conned somebody to get it in the first place." He leaned back against the frame of her bed from where he sat on the floor and crossed his arms over his chest, looking pleased with himself for that deduction, until he noticed how hurt Nabiki looked. As if he'd physically hit her almost.
"Hey!" she said unhappily. "That's not fair. I had to pull in a lot of favors to get this for you, and this is how you thank me?" She pouted slightly, looking like she was really having trouble controlling her emotions. Her bottom lip began to tremble.
_Uh-oh._ He began to sweat. "Aw, don't cry Nabiki. I didn't mean nothin' by that. Not really." He reached into his pocket. "I'll give you 7,000 yen. It's all I got." He held out the money. "C'mon. Take it."
Suddenly brightening, she agreed. "Okay. It's a deal."
Ranma's shoulders slouched forward and he let out a huge sigh. As he relaxed, the battle tension drained from his jaw and shoulders. It had been a long time since he'd had to focus this hard on anything. He looked at Nabiki and grinned. "How was that?" He asked anxiously. "Was that better?" He put the money back into his pocket.
Nabiki laughed happily. "Yes Ranma-kun, that was a bit better. You didn't let me intimidate you this time. But," She tried to look stern through her obvious pleasure at his improvement. "it could have been better. You shouldn't have fallen for the cute little pout. Never make it personal, Ranma. If you hadn't insulted me, I wouldn't have had a chance to play hurt and vulnerable. You're sucker for a girl who cries a little."
He looked down. "Geeze, I thought I'd really upset you for a minute there."
She shook her head. "I'm a business woman, Ranma. I wouldn't get far if I let little barbs like that get to me." She looked at him squarely. "Don't try to make people angry. It may work in the martial arts, but it won't work in the business world. Business people are hardened and cynical, and most of them aren't ashamed to admit that they'd sell their own mothers for a profit, so you can't really get to them with insults." She relaxed and smiled again. "It *is* good that you're trying to compare this to a battle. It does require discipline and practice and strategy. There are differences, though. It's good to stay alert, but you mustn't look so tense. Your neck and shoulders look just like they do when you're sparring. If people see that you're nervous, they'll start looking for buttons to push, ways to upset you. The danger here isn't physical, so there's no need to get into a battle stance."
Getting up, Ranma bowed to Nabiki. "Thanks again for helping me with this... Sensei." He smiled affectionately at the woman who was quickly becoming a good friend. Who would have thought he'd ever be getting along this well with *Nabiki* of all people?
She shook her head at his impertinence and rose to open her door. "Anytime. You'd better get outside. Isn't Akane expecting your help with the yard work this afternoon?"
"Oh man! I forgot!" He said horrified. "She's gonna kill me." Heading through the door, he touched Nabiki's arm in a familiar way. "Same time tomorrow?" and he smiled.
"Same time tomorrow." She replied as an electric shock ran up her arm from where his hand had been. She ignored it. As he ran down the stairs at his typical breakneck speed, she smiled to herself. Why had it taken her so long to notice how really cute he was? She sighed. It had been too long since she'd had a real friend, someone that she opened up to and had fun with. Much, much too long.
***
It had started a few months after the Saotomes' arrival with an uneasy truce. It had been a while since Nabiki had sold any candid shots of Ranma-chan to Kuno-sempai, and he'd stopped being so paranoid that she was hiding around every corner, camera in hand. They'd managed to be pleasant to one another at meals and to speak civilly even when no one else was around.
After that, it had turned into mutual respect. It hadn't taken Nabiki long to realize that he wasn't stupid. He actually had a good share of raw intelligence, he just lacked social skills, probably because of his isolated upbringing. Besides which, he was very honest (to the point of putting himself into physical danger when it came to his dealings with Akane). He was also painfully honorable about every little thing, a fact which she admired in him more and more as she really got to know Genma. How Ranma had turned out to be such a kind and decent person
with Uncle Saotome as his only role model was a mystery to her. There was much more to him than she had realized at first. He deserved her support.
As time passed, he had noticed the change in her attitude. It had been very subtle. She was still sarcastic, and he still occasionally felt the sharp edge of her humor, but more and more, her wit had come to his defense against Akane, against his father, against the world. He may not have been good with people, but it hadn't taken him long to see that things were changing between himself and his fiance's second older sister.
That had been the extent of it until a few weeks ago.
Nabiki had had a bad day. She had bad days often enough, days when making book had gone bad, days when she'd lost leverage or blackmail material or credibility of one sort or another, she had learned that such days were a part of life. Days like that she could shrug off. She could cut her losses and move on. This particular day was not one of those.
She'd never tried to fool herself. She knew that deep inside her there were oceans of pain and hurt. There were parts of her soul that had become dark and cruel because of the way that she had chosen to deal with first her pain and then her loneliness. Years ago that same pain that had made Kasumi withdraw into her own little world, and had made Akane so very angry had made Nabiki shut off her feelings all together. To have feelings made you weak. To show feelings made you vulnerable. To be strong was to feel nothing. She'd learned how to build walls around the hurt. Those walls had kept her safe, but they had come at a price. They had held in the love and the joy as well, and they had kept her all alone in the middle of a loving family. She knew how to play sympathetic, or wounded, or caring. She was really quite an actress. At least that's how she thought of it on her better days. On days like this one she knew that what she really was was a fake, the shell of a beautiful girl filled with the black, foul-smelling sludge of years of letting her feelings eat her from the inside, years of self hatred and lack of trust.
Sometimes the pain would beat at the walls until they couldn't hold it inside any more, and it would overwhelm her again, just like it had ten years ago. Sadness and black depression would fill her. Those times were becoming more and more frequent lately, and it scared her. That particular day it scared her enough that she left school, needing some time alone to think.
For a calming influence, she'd drawn a bath for herself. She'd been soaking in the water, her mind in turmoil, tears occasionally running from her eyes for about an hour when the door had opened and a naked Ranma-chan had come in with a towel draped over her shoulders. She took two steps forward then realized that the tub was occupied. That had caused her to step back with a loud "Gaahh" and trip over her own feet. She fell to the floor with a crash swearing and apologizing over and over again. "Nabiki! Nabiki, I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"
Any other day, Nabiki would have laughed, and then started talking about an instalment plan that would keep Akane from finding out about this. Today she just wasn't in the mood. She moved forward in the water until the edge of the tub covered her body from view, "It's okay Ranma-kun. No harm done."
The intruder, who had been scrambling to cover her own exposure had suddenly frozen in place, losing her grip on the towel which she had almost succeeded in draping in a concealing way. It flopped to the ground. "Really?!" Noticing the towel, she pulled it up over her chest again. This was not the time to show a lack of "feminine modesty." "You're not going to yell and throw things at me?"
Nabiki almost smiled at that. "No."
"You're not gonna to come after me with a boken?"
"No."
"Are you gonna tell Akane?"
"No." She studied her houseguest for a moment. "You don't look so good. What happened?"
Ranma rolled her eyes. "Ryoga happened." She pointed down at herself. "I couldn't stay at school like this."
Any other day, she would have said "Why not? It's not as if the entire school doesn't already know." Today she just said "No, I guess not."
Despite her usual lack of observational powers, Ranma noticed something in her voice. She leaned closer and looked her in the eye. "You don't look so good yourself, Nabiki. Are you alright?"
Sighing, Nabiki crossed her arms on the edge of the tub and rested her chin on them. "I'm alright. I just didn't feel like staying at school after lunch."
Ranma cocked her head sideways, studying Nabiki's face again. "That's not like you." That's when she noticed the red in her eyes. "Hey, you've been crying, haven't you?"
Her first impulse was to yell and tell Ranma that it wasn't any of her business, but as she opened her mouth, something got through to her. Ranma really looked worried. Ranma! The same Ranma that she'd used and lied to for almost a year. The same Ranma that she had *sold* to Shampoo and Ukyou and even *Kodachi* last Christmas. That very Ranma was looking at her now with the expression of concern and caring that she usually saved for Akane in her worst scrapes. Looking at *her*. Something in Nabiki's heart shifted. She gulped once, and burst into tears again.
This did nothing to put Ranma's mind at ease. She began waving her arms around frantically. "Oh Nabiki, don't cry! Please don't cry!" She lurched forward and put one hand on Nabiki's arm. "Everything'll be okay, just please stop crying!"
She really had no idea how to deal with females in distress. The terror in her expression brought Nabiki back to herself. She couldn't help giving a small wet giggle. "Sorry Ranma. Things just get to me sometimes." She sighed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Her body slipped further into the water as she let herself relax slightly.
She expected more confusion from her uninvited bath guest, but instead Ranma leaned back and looked down at the tile. "Yeah." She whispered. "I know what you mean."
Startled, Nabiki looked at her sister's fiancé. She looked really depressed. The toughest mega jock martial artist in the universe was sitting on her bathroom floor looking ready to cry.
Nabiki considered Ranma's life. In a rare moment of empathy, she thought about what it must be like to leave your mother behind at the age of six, to go all over the Orient trying to perfect ancient martial arts techniques, to be at the mercy of a father who loved you, but who lacked self control and sometimes put his own comfort before your future. She wondered what it was like to try to make friends knowing that eventually you would leave them as you had left everyone else. On top of which heaven knew that Akane and father hadn't made things any easier for him. She'd given him quite a few headaches herself. What would all of that do to a person? If Nabiki understood people the way she thought she did, that sort of a life would make it hard to reach out to others. It would make it easy to hide your real feelings behind a wall. It could make a person just like... just like... *her*. She thought about this. Ranma had a hard time admitting his feelings, just like Nabiki. Ranma had focused all of his emotion and energy into one outlet, just like Nabiki. Ranma really did care about people, but he thought that showing that care would make him vulnerable, just like Nabiki. She found herself wondering if Ranma had as hard a time keeping the walls intact as she sometimes did. Looking at her now, she suspected that she did.
"You do know, don't you?"
Ranma nodded silently, then stood and turned towards the door. "Let me know when you're through." She took a step forward.
"Ranma?"
She stopped, but didn't turn around. "Yes?"
"You're right, you know. Everything *will* be okay." She wasn't sure why she'd said that, but it seemed to make Ranma feel better. The tension drained from her shoulders even though her voice was gruff.
"Thanks." She grunted, then left.
She'd stayed in the tub another fifteen or twenty minutes thinking about the encounter and had come to a decision. Ranma was alone. He was hurting badly, and he needed a friend. She decided that she would do anything she could to help him feel welcome and loved in the Tendo home.
She told herself half heartedly that she was doing it because if Ranma continued to be unhappy he would leave and that would be bad for the dojo. His reputation had generated quite a bit of business already, and it was bound to increase even more when he started teaching there. In her heart, though she knew that she had other reasons. In one week, he had stopped asking her what she wanted from him every time she was nice to him. In two weeks he had started to actually smile when he saw her in the hall or the lunchroom at school. It was still very new, but it had already had a profound effect on both of them.
She wasn't able to admit it to herself at the time, but now she realized that she needed their friendship as badly as he did. She liked the person that she was becoming around him. She just felt better inside now, and she liked it. Now on days when she felt the darkness getting stronger, she could find a peaceful center. She knew that she wasn't really a fake. That helped a lot. It was still hard to show her feelings, but it was a start, and when she let herself really think about it, she was proud that she had taken it.
All this reflecting was making Nabiki hungry. "Hope Akane lets him live. I wonder if there are any rice cakes left from dinner last night?"
© 1999 misha@cybergal.com
