Nabiki let Kasumi hold her in her arms until she stopped crying and slumped in exhaustion. She didn't have anything left inside to cry with. She only had grief inside. Her older sister rubbed her back and lowered her down on the bed after a minute had passed and she hadn't resumed crying. Kasumi smoothed her hair out from under her neck with cool hands and leaned down and kissed her on her forehead.
"Sleep. I'll come and check on you later," Kasumi said as she rose from the bed to leave. She paused after taking a few steps and turned back and said sadly, "It will be all right in the end, Nabiki. Sometimes ... sometimes things happen for a reason. Just be patient, and trust in yourself ... even the darkest night will see the sun rise." With that said, her older sister turned softly, opened the door, stepped through it, and closed it quietly behind her.
She heard Ranma's muffled voice through the door ask, "—asumi ... iki okay?—"
She heard Kasumi answer him as their voices moved away from her door, "—ust leav ... er be ... she'll be fine—"
She turned over and buried her face in her pillow and wished desperately that was true as she fell into a dreamless sleep.

***

She awoke later that evening and looked at her clock. It was well past dinnertime, which explained why she felt weak with hunger. She rolled out of bed, stood up and walked slowly to the center of her room. She looked at herself in the mirror.
"Who are you?" She asked her reflection quietly, and with no small measure of disgust. She wasn't the weepy girl she saw standing looking back at her from the mirror. She was strong, independent, calm, cool and collected. She didn't know how this other girl had taken hold of her, but she was done with this. She had been pulled so far off her center that she was certain it would take her weeks to regain it.
She quietly opened her door and walked to the bathroom. She could hear her family downstairs doing what they did every night, eating, laughing, and being together. She intended to regain her place in that. But first, she had to finish what she and Akane had started.
She closed the door to the bathroom, flipped the light on, and looked at herself in the mirror up close. It wasn't as bad as she had been fearing. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, and her cheeks were a little puffy. But, when she made her face into the dispassionate professional mask that she usually wore, most of the evidence of the day's toll on her disappeared. She forced herself to smile and thought, you can do this. You don't love him, and he doesn't love you. It's best to just walk away from this before someone gets really hurt.
She stared at herself in the mirror for a few more moments, wishing she really believed that. Then, with a sigh, she leaned down and ran the cold water and let it fall over her hands before she splashed it over her face. The cool water would help hide the signs that she had been crying. And it helped to clear her head too.
She stood up straight and grabbed a towel off the shelf next to the sink and dried her face. As she set it down she slid her professional mask into place like a suit of armor, and she wrapped her emotions up behind it. Then she took a deep breath and repeated to herself, you can do this. She stood up straighter and put some steel into her back. She was not going to be bowed or broken by this. She had survived way worse things than this. She would survive this without any problem; and she was determined to come out of it stronger than she had been before. That was what she did, she turned bad situations into wins. She was good at it, she did it all the time, she'd been doing it since she was seven, and she was going to do it again.
With a nod to herself in the mirror she squared her shoulders and headed out of the bathroom. She crept back to her room and slid inside without being noticed. In no real hurry, she slid off her school uniform dress and changed into one of her favorite comfortable outfits, a turquoise loose t-shirt and white shorts with a yellow hem. She felt safer and more secure in her old comfortable clothes. Now that she had put on her armor inside and out, she waited in her room until she heard Ranma come upstairs. He had very distinctive footsteps. She listened at her door until she heard him go into his room as he announced that he was going to take a bath to his father.
A moment later she slipped out of her room and headed downstairs to grab some food. She didn't want to face him again just yet. She was happy when she saw that Akane wasn't downstairs either. For that matter, everyone seemed to have headed off to bed or other activities that took them away from the downstairs area.
She walked into the dining room, and was not at all surprised to find Kasumi waiting there for her with a single setting at the table ready for her.
"Eat." Was all Kasumi said as she dropped into her place at the table.
She ate hungrily, not even really tasting the food. She realized, as she bolted the food down, that she hadn't eaten since breakfast and she was weak with hunger. That explained her shaky hands. Well, at least she hoped it did. Kasumi kept refilling her rice bowl and plate until she had taken the edge off her hunger and stopped eating. She leaned back from the table and stared away at nothing as Kasumi slipped a cup of tea across the table to her.
She pulled the cup to her and just held it in her hands for a moment as she savored the warmth of it and enjoyed the subtle scent of the tea wafting up. She wasn't particularly cold physically, but she was frozen inside. She didn't know if she would ever feel warm inside again.
"How are you feeling?" Kasumi asked her kindly. Kasumi seemed to always be kind. She wondered what well of personal strength Kasumi had discovered that could be drawn from, that allowed her do that.
"I feel ... fine." She said with her professional mask firmly in place and her voice detached and even a bit sarcastic. It was amazing how easily one could slip back into a well-practiced persona like that.
Kasumi frowned at her. Even that amount of negativity from her was more than she usually ever showed. After a moment, her older sister pressed her. "Are you sure you're fine ... you didn't seem to feel fine ... before..."
She forced herself to smirk as she met Kasumi's eyes. "What, a girl can't have an off day?"
Kasumi stared into her eyes for several heartbeats, and she could tell Kasumi was trying to decide if she was telling the truth or not. Good. If Kasumi couldn't tell, then her mask was properly in place.
"Did you know that Ranma tried to apologize to Akane this morning?" Kasumi asked before she took a sip of her tea and broke eye contact with her.
It took every gram of her self control not to react to that. "Oh?" She asked as she calmly set her cup down, and arched an eyebrow.
"Yes. Apparently it didn't go very well. Akane told me a little bit about it this evening. Mostly in between calling him a jerk." Kasumi said quietly before she sipped her tea again.
"Why do you think it didn't go well?" She asked.
"Knowing Ranma, he probably said something he ought not have. And, knowing Akane, she probably said something because of her pride that upset him." Kasumi said sweetly. It was amazing how even when she was saying something negative, it came out of her like she was describing just a temporary thing that could easily be wiped away with no harm done. She was sure it was an act, but even knowing Kasumi as well as she did, and with her own training in the art of deception, she could never read any ulterior motives behind anything Kasumi ever said. She would never willingly get into a poker game against her.
She wanted to continue the conversation as they were having it, but at that moment she heard Ranma's distinctive footsteps heading down the stairs. It was time to put an end to this.
Kasumi cocked her head to the side as if she was listening to something, then she focused on her again and asked the question she had been agonizing about. "Why don't you just give Ranma back to Akane?"
She blinked at the rather blunt question. But it was the kind of question she could use, so she went with it. She plastered a smirk on her face, and pulled out her sarcastic tone to reply with. "I want to ... but I can't. The truth is, I always have been in love with Ranma."
Kasumi frowned at that. "You're joking, right?"
"Duh." She retorted. She could hear him creeping around just outside the dining room. It was time to do what needed to be done. She bit the inside of her cheek to force herself to stay in character.
"You shouldn't tease him like that."
"But it's so much fun!"
"He'll be mad when he finds out."
"Oh, come on, Ranma's a big boy, I'm sure he can take a joke." Kasumi actually grimaced at her when she said that. But, it didn't matter. She heard his footsteps moving away from them a few moments later, and knew that she couldn't go back now, even if she wanted to.
She and Kasumi spent a few more minutes chatting pleasantly about nothing, then she decided it was time to head upstairs, do some homework, and wash her hands of all of this. She was sure it would be over by morning.
As she walked out of the room, Kasumi spoke again softly. "Nabiki ... sometimes ... things happen for a reason. And ... sometimes ... things don't always turn out the way we planned..."
She didn't turn back to look at her older sister, but she paused in the doorway to listen to her.
"And sometimes, things work out the way they do, because faith wasn't enough, and someone had to make them happen." Kasumi whispered just loud enough for her to barely hear.
She turned to face her older sister and allowed her eyes to widen as she found Kasumi looking into her eyes as earnestly as she had ever seen her look. "Have you ever said that to Akane?" She whispered back.
Kasumi nodded once with a sad smile.
"Do you think she knows what it means?"
Kasumi sadly shook her head back and forth once.
All she could do at that point, without breaking character, was to nod sharply at her. Then she quickly left the room. Kasumi could be frighteningly prescient sometimes.
She slipped into her room and had just settled down at her desk to do some of the homework that she knew she was now very behind on, when she heard a knock at her door as it started to open.
Please don't be Ranma. Please don't be Ranma. Please don't be Ranma. She chanted silently to herself as she swiveled in her chair to face the door and whoever was coming in. It was Ranma. As he cleared the door he smiled at her. "Hey there Nabiki! You got a minute?"
Well ... damn. She thought to herself as she screwed on her best fake smile and asked, "What's up?" She didn't look him in the eyes.
He sat down on the floor at her feet and smiled up at her before he replied. "I'm glad to see you're feeling better."
She didn't say anything to that, even though she wanted to. It was sweet of him to be so concerned about her.
Her lack of a response didn't stop him, he continued in a weirdly eager way. "So, if you're feeling better, would you like to meet me in the park tomorrow after school?"
Oh, she now understood what he was doing. She was surprised he had moved so fast, but fine, if he wanted to press her, she was game. "Are you asking me out?" She asked in her best innocent voice.
"Well, yeah. I figure if we're engaged, we should go out." He replied in a way that was so unusual for him, that if she hadn't been playing along with him, she would have laughed in his face at his transparency. As it was, the words he said made her ache inside.
"I guess so." She said reluctantly.
"Great!" Ranma replied with an enthusiastic grin as he stood up quickly and dashed for the door. "Then it's a date! See ya!" He said over his shoulder as she left, then he was gone.
A date? She felt sick. She really didn't want to spend more time with him right now. She was having a hard enough time keeping up appearances as it was. Plus, there was the very real possibility that she would slip and say or do something she shouldn't on a date with him. She needed Akane to take him back, and fast. She muttered to herself as she thought about it. "I really don't know if I can stomach being around him too much." She looked down at the papers in her hand, and made a decision as she said to herself, "Maybe it's time to break it off."
She scribbled out a map on a scrap of paper along with a few instructions and hopped off her chair and headed out her door for Akane's room. It's now or never. She thought to herself as she knocked on Akane's door.
She heard Akane yell out to come in, so she opened the door and stepped into her room as Akane turned from her own desk and faced her. They both just looked at each other awkwardly for a moment. When it was clear Akane wasn't going to throw her out of her room on principle, she made her way over to Akane's bed and sat down.
She looked into her younger sister's eyes, and wondered what Akane thought about. It was weird thinking of her younger sister as a possible rival for a romantic interest. Not that it really mattered anyway. She figured she would thank her before getting down to business. She owed her that much. "So, Kasumi told me you fought someone for me today, and carried me to Doctor Tofu's afterwards. Thank you."
Akane nodded at that and smiled. "You're welcome, but no thanks are required. No matter how mad I may be at anyone in this family, I would never allow anyone to hurt any of you."
Damn it, Akane. Quit being noble when I'm trying to be noble. She thought with a trace of her old humor as she hid behind her professional mask.
"Well, thanks again anyway, I appreciate it. I guess it's a good thing Ranma won't be my problem for much longer." She said quietly as she looked at the floor. There was no way she was going to be able to sell this while making eye contact with Akane.
"I don't understand..." Akane replied.
"It's simple, Akane. Ranma came to me and asked me how to fix things with you. I talked to him, and he wants to meet you for a date tomorrow."
"He, said that?" Akane asked incredulous.
"Yeah, he told me he wanted to take you out."
"But...but why?"
"Maybe he wants to apologize, I don't know." She got up and walked quickly to Akane and shoved the piece of paper into her hand, still without looking her in the eyes. She needed to get out of Akane's room before she lost it. "You're supposed to meet him here." She walked quickly to the door. "Have fun with Ranma." She said over her shoulder as she left.
She slipped back into her own room, thankfully without running into Ranma again. She leaned against the door for a moment and just breathed deeply trying to control the darkness that was welling up inside her and threatening to pull her down into it forever. She could do this! She crushed the darkness under the weight of her determination and pushed herself off the door slowly.
She wandered over to her bed and flopped down on it heavily. She just lay there face down for a few moments as she tried to summon the will to do anything else. There was no way she was doing homework now. With a sigh she reached down the side of her bed and pulled out a bag of cookies and some leisure reading. She opened one of the books and grabbed a cookie and tried to read for a moment as she munched on the cookie, but it was no use. Her mind was swirling with everything that had happened today, and she couldn't even taste the cookie.
With a sigh she thought about Akane, and was happy that her younger sister would be happy again. Akane deserved to be happy, and her little switch with the date should fix the issues between Akane and Ranma. He would show up looking nice with a smile on his face, and Akane would show up looking nice and expecting him to be nice to her. There was very little that could go wrong. Ranma wouldn't just turn around and leave Akane there once he figured out that she had substituted Akane in her place. And, once he was actually on a date with her, and they were both on their best behavior, everything else should fall naturally into place.
"That should take care of everything. You know, sometimes I really am a nice person!" She said out loud to herself. "It's better this way. I want him to be happy with Akane." She added in a whisper.
Liar. She thought bitterly to herself.
I know.