Nabiki woke up slowly the next morning with the cool nighttime air still filling her nose, and the sunlight streaming in from her window gently. She was warm in her bed, but she still immediately felt the absence of Ranma in bed next to her once she was awake. It was amazing how used to him being next to her, and wrapped around her, she had grown in the short amount of time they'd had together. Her hand was still hanging off the bed from holding hands with him last night. He wasn't holding her hand any more. She opened her eyes partially and looked towards the window to find him. She expected to find him standing there again, standing watch over them, despite his promise to sleep.
He wasn't in front of the window. That surprised her a little bit, but she was glad. She shifted her gaze down to the floor and stiffened as a cold fist grabbed her heart and squeezed. Ranma was laying in his bed as she had asked him to ... and Akane was wrapped around him, sleeping soundly. Ranma wasn't holding Akane, but he did have his arm around her.
He was fully in his bedroll, while Akane was completely out of hers. Her little sister's silky hair was cascading around his neck and shoulder as she rested her head on the upper part of his chest. Akane had her right arm thrown over his chest, and the other was tucked under his neck. Her right leg was wrapped around his legs, and her left leg was pressed right up against him. Akane was sleeping soundly, and breathing evenly and softly, with a large smile on her face. Ranma ... seemed to just be sleeping. He had his left arm up over his head and his right arm was under Akane's shoulders.
I want to find this amusing, and wait for her to wake up and react, but I can't. It isn't funny ... at all. She thought as she tried to control the urge to scream or throw something, or to do both. She hadn't just lost hold of him during the night, Akane had taken what she'd lost. He was slipping away from her literally and figuratively. She couldn't help but feel betrayed. Logically, she seriously doubted he had gone over to Akane in the night, picked her up while she was sleeping, and draped her on himself.
She knew that Akane had to have done it either consciously or unconsciously. It frankly didn't matter. What mattered was he was slipping away. She knew that getting into a knock-down, drag-out fight with Akane over him wouldn't accomplish anything though. That, and Akane would wipe the floor with her. So she controlled her anger impulses. That was the one thing she could bring to the table that the rest of the girls couldn't — maturity.
She knew damn well she wasn't that much more mature than the rest of them. But, she was just mature enough to be able to arrest the emotional response she wanted to use in a situation like she now found herself in. So, instead of reacting emotionally, she decided to apply logic and reason to try to achieve her goals. Ukyo, Shampoo, Kodachi, and even Akane had been fighting each other over him for a long time now. It hadn't swayed him into making a choice, at least not openly. However, her own efforts with him had already produced some small results, and those efforts had been based on being honest with him, and applying her brain to the problem.
She rolled back flat on her bed and forced herself to regulate her breathing. She needed to get her emotions fully under control before she could act logically. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She was angry, very angry. Ranma is mine, he's mine, he's mine! She ranted to herself. The heat of her anger was surprising, even to her. She was already regretting the advice she had given to Akane. She clenched her fists at her sides and flexed every muscle in her body that she could, while she sucked air in through clenched teeth. She seriously thought about tapping into her Ki like Ranma had re-trained her to do, and venting with her battle aura. But she didn't.
She knew that anger was an appropriate reaction to seeing him in the arms of another woman, even if that woman was her own sister. But she also knew that acting on that anger would only drive him further away, or worse, put her into the same bickering camp as the rest of the girls. Since she had already decided that she wasn't willing to stay in that camp, that would mean she would lose him forever.
She eventually relaxed her muscles as the urge to scream receded. It was still there, right at the surface, but she felt she could control it better now.
Think, girl, think! What do I do? She forced herself to start applying logic to the situation. She knew if she confronted Akane about it, there would be a fight, and Ranma would duck out of the way. Likewise, if she confronted Ranma about it, he would get defensive and probably flee. Akane was likely to jump in on that as well, and there might still be a fight.
She knew that Ranma wouldn't want to be caught in the position he was in with Akane, either by herself, or the rest of the family. He was still doing his best to avoid openly choosing between her and Akane, and to avoid conflict. She latched onto that idea, and came up with a plan.
She settled back into her bed, and spent a few more full minutes calming her breathing down, and doing her best to slow her heart rate and other visible signs of her anger, and also of being awake. Once she was reasonably sure she had reduced the worst of it, she arrayed herself in a sleeping position on her bed, and grabbed one of the small stuffed animals she still had on her bed from when she had been a little girl.
She raised the toy up over her head, and tossed it as hard as she could at the window. It had the desired affect of smacking the window with enough force to make it sound like something had hit the window.
She quickly lowered her hand and assumed her full sleeping pose and closed her eyes almost all the way. She was rewarded an instant later with a startled sound from the floor in Ranma's voice. She heard a very gentle rustling sound and then Ranma popped to his feet in her peripheral vision off to her right side.
He was in a fighting stance. He crept closer to the window and looked out of it, then he pressed his face to the glass and looked down and up and to either side as best he could. She watched him through her eyelashes as she maintained the fiction of being asleep. He finally looked down at the ground and then he looked over at her with a confused look on his face.
My, he is a smart boy, isn't he? She thought in a sudden panic, as she worried that he was going to call her out for her ploy. Instead he bent down and then stood up again with the stuffed animal in his hand. He looked over at her again with a suspicious gaze, then shrugged and reached over and put the toy on the shelf of her bookcase.
She would have breathed a large sigh of relief, but she was still pretending to be asleep. She watched him through her eyelashes and wondered what to do next. He seemed to be sitting at the same crossroads. She saw him look down at the ground, then over at her, and then back out of the window multiple times. He finally settled back into the same sentry position he had been in last night, and stared out the window with his hands clasped loosely behind his back.
She smiled to herself. Of all of the options available to him, including climbing back into bed with Akane, or with herself, he had chosen the noblest option of standing guard over them. He could have simply left to go get breakfast, or he could have woken them up. But instead, he chose to let them sleep and to watch over them. He really was very special.
She chose to simply ignore Akane's efforts with him, and how they made her feel, and to focus on her own efforts. She didn't want to risk getting into a fight with Akane, or pushing him away. Akane was fighting for him, that was fine ... she would just have to fight that much harder than Akane.
She waited another few minutes, and continued to act like she was asleep, as she watched him through her eyelashes. He didn't move during that time, except for the slow in and out motion of his chest as he breathed.
When she felt she had waited long enough to maintain her plausible deniability with regard to the window, she started to go through the motions of waking up. She closed her eyes for real and counted down from ten. When she finished counting, she breathed in deeply, then stretched languidly. She followed that up with a yawn, then cracked her eyes open. As expected, Ranma was looking at her. She smiled at him as warmly as she knew how to.
He smiled back, but in a somewhat more guarded way. She wondered if he still suspected her of making the noise with the window, or if he felt guilty because he'd woken up with Akane cuddling him, or if he simply didn't want to risk smiling warmly at her with Akane in the room.
There was another reason he might have been holding back, and it involved him being annoyed at her for interrupting his time with Akane. She pushed those thoughts out of her head immediately, though. She didn't dare pick at those threads for fear of unraveling the whole careful tapestry she'd woven up to now.
Instead, she held her arms out to him and hoped fiercely he would still come to her. He briefly looked down at the floor, and she followed his gaze. Akane was still asleep, or at least, appeared to be asleep. Her little sister wasn't back in her own bed. Instead, Akane was laying in the space between the two beds, and covered with a blanket as well.
She had no idea if Ranma had moved her and covered her when he'd gotten up, or Akane had done it herself after he'd gotten up. She also didn't care.
She looked back at him at about the same time he lifted his gaze up as well, and smiled again as she continued to hold her arms out for him. He met her eyes and smiled back, a little more warmly than the last time. He nodded and made his way carefully over to her. Inside, she was squealing with happiness. If he would still come to her, then she still had a chance.
He reached the side of her bed, and as soon as he was in range, she lunged out and grabbed him around the waist and pulled him down to her. In the state of mind she was in, she not only didn't care if Akane saw them, she hoped Akane did see them together.
Ranma cushioned his fall so he barely made any noise and didn't actually land on her. Instead he ended up just leaning over her at an acute angle. He smiled nervously at her as she held on to him. He was warm, he was always warm. She absolutely loved that.
As soon as he was close enough to her that she could smell him, she started to lose control. She breathed him in deeply, one might even say greedily, as she slipped her hands from his waist to his arms. She leaned back as she did so, and slid her hands down to his. Then she pulled his hands behind her and scooped them on to her hips before she reached back up and buried her own hands under his shirt, to rest on the strong muscles of his back.
The part of her that was still the professional Ice Queen was staring at her with its mouth hanging open. She was about three moves away from starting something with him she was sure he wasn't ready for. She knew she wasn't ready for that either, and she certainly wouldn't do that with Akane in the room, regardless. What was wrong with her?
He was staring into her eyes with very wide eyes of his own. He was frozen in place and hardly breathing. It was clear he would stroke out soon if she didn't calm down.
She smiled at him and whispered to him softly. "Morning, Ranma."
He looked at her, still in shock, and managed a weak smile back to her, before he replied. "Morning ... Nabiki ... I didn't stay up all night, I swear." He whispered.
That is what he is worried about? She thought incredulously as she squinted at him is disbelief. He's worried about that tiny promise over everything else? She looked up at him in exasperation. Then she smiled and decided to tease him.
"What if I don't believe you? What should be your punishment?" She asked in a low, growly whisper while she clawed playfully on his back.
His eyes opened about as wide as they could go. He tried to look over at Akane in worry, but she held on to him firmly. He smiled at her nervously as he blushed and stammered a defense. "I-It's true, I slept, like I promised. You can feel my bed, it should still be warm, I only got up a few minutes ago."
I bet it is still warm, especially from two people being on it. She groused to herself as she smiled at him before she replied. "It's okay, Ranma, I believe you."
He smiled nervously at her and, after a moment, moved his hands on her hips. She had placed his hands on her hips so that they were outside her clothing, but wrapped behind her so that she was laying on his palms. She thought for a moment that he might actually be trying to make a move with her, then sighed when his hand shuffling resulted in nothing more than him freeing his hands.
She could still feel the heat of him on her hips. She licked her lips with desire but obliged him and mirrored his motions by removing her hands from his back. As she slid back, she grabbed his hands and held him again.
His hands were softer than one might think they would be, on his palms anyway. His knuckles and the rest of his hands were rough, hard and calloused. But his palms were mostly soft. They weren't as soft as hers were, but they weren't like a man's who worked with tools all day, either. It made sense in a way, he was very physical, but most of what he did with his hands involved a closed fist.
She smiled at him and breathed him in again. She knew she was being extremely aggressive, but she didn't care. She hadn't been able to cuddle with him last night, and Akane had. That annoyed her, greatly.
He simply looked at her and waited for her to say what was on her mind. She thought about what she wanted to say for a moment, then grinned a feral grin that would make Riko proud, and whispered to him.
"Before we go to school today, we need to make a plan."
He nodded at her.
"I think we should consider talking to Ukyo today."
He nodded again, a little more slowly.
"And tonight..."
He looked at her.
"...for sleeping arrangements..."
His eyes got wider.
"...I don't care how you do it..."
He started to purse his lips nervously.
"...but I want you to sleep with me tonight ... alone." She whispered to him fiercely. She didn't ask him to promise, because it wasn't something he could promise. She was just telling him what she wanted, and being honest with him, as she had promised.
He stared at her like a spooked rabbit for a few heartbeats, then nodded hesitantly. It wasn't a nod of agreement, she could tell. It was a nod that showed that he understood her. She inhaled deeply one last time, then sighed and let go of him. He stood up nervously and immediately turned his head to check on Akane.
She lazily turned her head to check as well. She wasn't in quite the same devil-may-care mood that she had been in before she talked to him, but she still wasn't all that worried about Akane. She was still feeling flashes of irrational anger and hadn't calmed all the way down.
Her eyes found Akane almost exactly where she had been before she'd pulled Ranma down too talk. Akane seemed to still be asleep, however ... her little sister wasn't in quite the same position she had been in before. Akane's hair was tucked back behind her neck now, and her head was now angled more towards the bed. Akane's hands weren't also in the exact same positions.
It was entirely possible Akane had just shifted in her sleep. It was also possible Akane wasn't asleep at all, and had been holding herself up on her hands and craning her neck to watch them. Either way, what was done was done. If Akane knew and had chosen to feign sleep to avoid a fight, then fine, that just made things easier. If Akane really was asleep, that was fine too, and made things even easier.
Ranma stood up straight and put his hand behind his head in embarrassment. He walked a few paces away from her bed, then froze when Kasumi's voice sounded from the hallway with a knock on the door.
"Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes." Kasumi called out in a sing-song voice that faded away.
Kasumi almost never roused people for breakfast. It was surely no coincidence that her older sister was doing so now with the three of them in her room.
She looked over at Akane and found her little sister had her eyes open now. Akane was looking up and smiling at Ranma. Ranma was doing his best to look at neither of them. She sighed and sat up in her bed. The spell of the morning was broken.
"Good morning, Ranma." Akane said softly. "Good morning, Nabiki." Akane added a moment later, without looking at her.
She sighed and played nice. "Morning, Akane. Did you sleep well?"
"Mmmm, I don't know, I guess I slept all right. Haven't slept in a futon in a long time. They're ... cozy." Akane said with a small smile directed at Ranma. He steadfastly refused to look at either of them, and was busy examining the books in her bookcase.
She didn't say anything to that either. She knew if she headed down that road, she would end up in a fight with Akane, and that wouldn't help her get what she wanted.
Akane stood up a moment later and stretched before she spoke again. "Is it all right if I leave the futon where it is, Nabiki? For tonight?"
She frowned at that. Now she had to say something. "Actually, I would appreciate it if the futons were put away for the day, I may want to use the floor space for something after school." She said as nicely as she could. She didn't look at Ranma while she said it. She and Akane both knew she was setting the stage for a showdown over sleeping arrangements for tonight. But as long as she didn't outright admit that it was to fight over him, then Akane really couldn't object without appearing childish.
Akane smiled an insincere smile at her and replied in a sweet voice. "Of course. I will come back up and put it away as soon as I can, before I leave for school. All right?"
She nodded at that. She would be the one who appeared childish if she wasn't willing to accommodate small conditions like Akane had asked for. With the major issue resolved, both she and Akane just simply stared at each other. Neither one of them seemed to want to make the first move to leave. She knew she certainly didn't, and Akane probably didn't want to either, for the same reason. She was hoping Akane would leave first and give her some time alone with him. And she was willing to bet Akane was hoping to delay long enough so he would leave with her to get dressed, and Akane could steal some time alone with him.
Ranma finally broke the stalemate by speaking up hesitantly in a small voice. "I...I'm gonna go get dressed for breakfast." He still wasn't looking at either of them, he now had his gaze fixed solidly at the door.
She sighed. She had nothing she could use to object to him leaving, so all she could do was smile at him. Akane grinned and walked quickly towards the door.
"Me too." Her little sister chirped happily as she reached for the door and opened it. Ranma nodded and walked quickly to the door. He kept his eyes on the floor as he moved.
She was getting fairly frustrated with his shy and timid act around them. She wanted to just have it out with him and Akane, ask him for a decision, and be done with it. She was also terrified to do that and end up with the answer that would break her heart. So, instead, she just watched him go and smiled faintly after him as he followed Akane out of her room and shut the door behind himself.
She just had to hope that if she kept working at it, she could help him get strong enough, and mature enough, to be able to make the decision, and to face the consequences of it without running away. If she pushed too hard, he would break and run. If she didn't push hard enough, he wouldn't think of her as a serious contender. It was a very delicate position to be in, which was actually fairly amusing considering how indelicate he was in almost every other way.
She sighed and stood up from her bed and walked over to her window and looked out of it. It was a beautiful day. It was a new day. As with every new day, it was full of possibility and the promise of something better. She filled herself with the will to push forward as she watched the rays of the sun peaking out over the housetops to illuminate the world in its warmth and light.
She smiled and quickly set herself to the task of dressing for the day. She then hurried to the bathroom and took care of her morning routine before she made her way to the dining room for breakfast. Ranma was already seated at the table and eating. Akane wasn't. She took her usual place near him, and smiled at him. He looked up and smiled at her as well before he resumed eating.
She began eating her own breakfast and finished just a bit after he did. Akane still hadn't joined them at the table. She jumped on the opportunity to get him alone. She stood up and looked down at him and put on a cheerful face. "Ranma, can we go back to my room and plan for today?" She asked in a tone she tried to keep breezy.
He nodded and stood up to follow her. They passed Akane on their way back towards the stairs. She had to fight to keep herself from showing any sign of her self-satisfaction on her face. Akane played it cool as well and simply watched them walk by without saying a word. Her little sister looked very nice. It was clear Akane had put more effort into her looks than she usually did. She could smell Akane's perfume strongly now. She was sure Ranma could as well.
She had thought about dressing up nicely again as well, but had decided against it. Ranma had seen her across her entire spectrum, from sick and gross to dressed up and pretty. He had never seen her fancily dressed up, but he would for their date. In the meantime she didn't want to waste time with careful hair styles and makeup. She wanted to spend that time with him instead.
They entered her room, and she was pleased to notice that Akane had already returned and put away her futon. She closed and locked the door behind her as she followed him in to the room. Ranma seemed to notice Akane's missing futon as well, and stooped down to pick his up too. She put a hand on his arm and stopped him.
"You don't need to put yours away, Ranma." She said with a wink.
He blinked up at her, nodded, and stood back up. He had dropped his shy and timid act. He wasn't being flirty with her or anything, but he was at least meeting her eyes again. She grabbed his hand and led him over to her bed. She sat him down and sat down next to him. She sat close enough so she could continue to hold his hand, but not so close as to make him nervous. She wanted him to think, and she had noticed that his mind worked much better when she wasn't being too aggressive. She found herself wishing she had put on at least a little makeup, or some perfume at least. She could still smell Akane's lingering scent on both of them. She wanted her own scent to be lingering on him, not Akane's.
He looked at her expectantly. She knew he was waiting for her to take the lead. She decided to wait him out and force him to take the lead. She needed to help him work on his confidence with women, and her in particular. She smiled gently at him, and waited. After more moments than was comfortable, he finally said something.
"Um ... didn't you want to talk?"
"I sure did." She said with a smile.
"Um ... well ... why aren't we..."
"I want to know what you think." She said simply.
"About what?"
She thought about being flippant, or teasing him, but she decided to keep him focused where she wanted him focused, and to reward him for taking the lead with confidence in him. "About what we should do today."
"Oh ... well, since we have the truce goin' on, we can just go to school like we always do. And I think you're right, we should try to talk to Ukyo today. And ... I ... I dunno, that's about it I guess." He said sheepishly. It was clear that outside of coming up with a battle plan for a fight, he wasn't used to tactical planning. She tried to push him just a little bit more to see if he could latch on to the basic idea.
"And how should we talk to Ukyo? Did you want to try to catch her before school? During school? After school? If after school, where? Should we invite her somewhere? Go see her at her shop? What?" She asked gently.
"Um, well ... Ucchan goes to school from the opposite direction from us, so finding her before school would be hard. And durin' school, I already said I'd eat lunch with you 'n your friends today, so we can't do it then. So, I guess it will have ta be after school." He said.
"Okay, where?" She said as she tried not to show how happy she was that he was actively thinking of spending time with her at lunch.
"I guess ... at her shop? If we invite her somewhere, she's gonna think it's a date, or a trap. If we go see her at her shop, then at least she won't get the wrong idea." He said with a bit more confidence.
Atta boy, Ranma. She thought with some pride. He had arrived at the same conclusion she had as well. It had taken him a bit of prompting and a bit more time, but he'd gotten there. And he got the boost to his confidence of it now being at least partially his plan.
She smiled at him. "Sounds good to me. I do have a plan for her once we get there. We can get into that after school." She said happily.
He nodded and looked towards the door, then back at her. "So ... should we get going?" He asked.
She could tell he was worried Akane would come back and find the door locked. She was almost tempted to try to keep him in her room with her until exactly that did happen, but she knew that wouldn't earn her any points with him. So, she sighed and nodded.
He smiled and bounded to his feet, but surprised her by continuing to hold her hand. Her heart rate quickened at that. It wasn't much of a statement on his part, but it was something. It was his way of showing his attachment to her. Or, at least, it was his way of showing that he liked her.
He led the way to her door, and she let him. It was good for him to take the lead occasionally. He continued to hold her hand out into the hall, down the stairs, and out the door. He hadn't even stopped when they had grabbed their book bags by the door.
She followed behind him almost in a daze. She was watching the back of his head and happily holding his hand and feeling the sun on her face and the wind in her hair, and generally loving life. She was having a hard time understanding why she was so upset last night, and so angry this morning. Everything was fine, Ranma obviously had feelings for her, and he was doing his best to show them to her. She never saw him walking around holding hands with Ukyo, Kodachi, or Shampoo after all. Hell, he barely did anything like that with Akane either. He settled into an easy gait next to her and they walked side-by-side in a comfortable silence to school.
They reached the school grounds before she even realized it. It was amazing how time passed when one wasn't focused on its passing. Ranma walked with her calmly at her side, and continued to hold her hand. She could hear several students calling out appreciative comments, cat-calls, and even some condemnations of him spurning Akane for an older woman.
She ignored all of it. He shot little glances her way occasionally. He was playing the same game he had been playing yesterday on the way to see Shampoo's grandmother. She smiled softly at that and began batting her eyelashes at him whenever she caught him looking. He was clearly more comfortable playing little games like he was doing now, than with heavy heart-to-heart talks. That was all right. While she would prefer to have those heavy talks with him, she was nothing if not flexible. Affection was affection, no matter the form it took.
She smiled and mentally ran through her plan for Ukyo as they walked towards the building their classrooms were in. As with Shampoo, her plan for dealing with Ukyo was simple and easy. Unlike Shampoo, it required resources, considerable resources. She had already called in the favors to make it happen, lots of favors. She didn't care though. If her plan worked, Ukyo would bow out of the contest for him, and that would mean one less person in the circus to be—
"Ran-chan, hi!" She heard an enthusiastic female voice behind them say.
Well, speak of the devil. She thought to herself as Ranma looked over his shoulder, smiled, and stopped. She kept her hand in his. She was happy to notice that he made no move to hide that he was holding her hand. She didn't mind him speaking to Ukyo, but the visual reminder that he was attached to her would be good to get across to Ukyo.
Ukyo stepped close to him and smiled. She noticed that Ukyo's eyes darted to their hands, but the young chef made no mention of it. Instead Ukyo looped her hands around his neck and pulled him towards her, almost as if to kiss him. She stiffened at that. Would Ukyo really be so brazen as to— 
"How have you been, silly? You haven't stopped by for an after-school snack in a while now." Ukyo said breezily.
She could see some small muscles in his neck straining. She smiled at that. Whatever Ukyo had been planning, Ranma had stopped it. Ukyo ignored it, though and charged onward.
"You should stop by today after school, we should catch up."
Ranma nodded. He was actually managing to play it very cool. She couldn't see any sign of guilt or any or any acknowledgment that he had planned on doing exactly that anyway. For her part, she kept her eyes on him, and didn't look at Ukyo. Ukyo would expect her to have eyes only for him anyway, so it worked well, and she didn't have to act that way.
"Sure, Ucchan, sure, but ... um..." He paused and looked at her.
Ukyo sighed and nodded. "Yeah, you can bring Nabiki. I don't care." Ukyo said in the false-sweet voice that she was pretty sure every female on Earth could produce.
"We'd love to, Ukyo. You are the very best Okonomiyaki chef in town, after all." She said sincerely. She wasn't even acting. She had never had a better Okonomiyaki than the ones Ukyo made.
Ukyo smiled tightly at her, then ran her hands from Ranma's neck to caress his cheeks as she stepped back away from him and smiled. Then before either of them could say anything else, Ukyo bounded away with a wave.
"See you after school then! I'll make you something special, Ranma-honey!"
Ranma waved after her, then looked over at her and grimaced. "Sorry about that." He said in a sincere voice.
She smiled at him. "It's no big deal, Ranma. They've been chasing after you for a long time. This is going to take time." She said calmly.
He seemed relieved that she wasn't upset. Inside, she actually was fairly annoyed at both Ukyo, and the situation. She certainly understood how Akane could be moved to the point of smacking someone after enduring it for months on end. But she could certainly endure it stoically for a week and not show how annoyed it made her.
They walked hand-in-hand together to his class without further incident. She lingered with him in front of his class. She had peeked inside, and Akane hadn't arrived yet. That made it easier to leave him the way she wanted. She leaned into him and slid her arms around his silky shirt and pulled him into a hug. She heard quite a few of his classmates hoot and holler about it, but she didn't care. She knew he cared, but she needed him to be strong and mature enough to not care either.
She let his warmth sink into her for a little while. He held her loosely at first. She could tell he was embarrassed. She wanted him to pick her up. She didn't know why, but it mattered a lot to her that he picked her up. She squeezed him more tightly and buried her head into his chest. After a few more moments he squeezed back and stopped holding her so loosely. She squeezed even tighter and held her breath. He responded and flexed his arms and picked her up and held her.
She was almost giddy with happiness. She knew it embarrassed him, but it meant the world to her right now that he was willing to hold her anyway, even in front of his classmates. She would stay in his arms as long as he was willing to hold her. That turned out to only be a few moments more, then he set her down again. But that was okay. It had been enough. She could feel herself deflating as a lot of the worry that had been accumulating inside her fled as he held her.
She slumped up against him and breathed in his flowery-cedar scent. She would have to ask him some day if it was a cologne, or something about his clothes or soap, or if he just smelled that way. After a few more moments, he stepped back away from her and held her loosely again with his hands around her waist.
She looped her hands around his neck and pulled him down insistently towards her. Unlike Ukyo, he didn't resist her. His eyes widened as she pulled him towards her, she was sure he thought she might be pulling him in for a kiss. But, instead, she pulled his head to the side of hers and rested her cheek against his.
"Thank you." She whispered to him.
"For what?" He whispered back.
"For being brave." She said with a small smile. She knew that would confuse him, but she was okay with that. She stepped away from him then and let her hands fall loosely from his neck. He mirrored her motions, as he always did, and released her as well.
They smiled at each other as he waved and stepped backwards into his classroom. She sighed and turned around and walked towards her classroom as well.
When she reached her own class she found Riko and Yui standing across the hall from the door, giggling and joking while drinking their morning coffee, like they always did. Unlike the vast majority of the last few days, she actually did feel like playing with them again. So she went to join them.
Riko looked her up and down and grinned ear to ear. "Oh my, look at you."
"What?" She asked, suddenly self-conscious.
"Oh, Nabi-chan, you little minx, you." Yui said happily  as she set her coffee down in the window sill before she hid her mouth behind her hands in a mime of embarrassment.
"I ... what?" She asked, as she started to get embarrassed. She ran her hands around her body searching for a button that was open on her blouse or a part of her dress tucked into her underwear or something equally embarrassing.
"So ... you and Ranma..." Riko said in a leading tone of voice.
She clued in then. Riko was implying that she and Ranma had really gotten to know each other. She shook her head rapidly as she felt the heat of a blush rise up her neck and spread to flush her cheeks.
Riko looked at her with a knowing glint in her eyes and a smirk on her face as she nodded sarcastically. "Suuure, nothing going on at all, huh? Then why are you glowing?"
"I am not." She said in a happy tone.
"Normally I wouldn't agree with Riko, just on general principal." Yui said, to which Riko stuck her tongue out at. "But I have to admit, Nabi-chan, you're glowing."
"I am not." She protested with a smile.
"Fine, Kiki, don't tell us, we'll just pry it out of Ranma. That'll be more fun anyway." Riko said with a mischievous smile as she took a sip of her coffee with a wink. Then Riko reached a hand out for her as she set her coffee down as well.
She let Riko take her hand and pull her in between the two of them. Yui immediately draped over her left side and started playing with her hair. Yui smelled like lychee accented rose perfume today. Riko kept her close but stared into her eyes instead. She stared back blankly with a half smile on her face.
"Just tell me this." Riko said softly as she held her gaze. "Is he gentle with you?"
She blushed and nodded. "It isn't like that, but yes, he's very gentle." She said sincerely.
Riko's eyes shimmered for her. "I'm so happy for you, Kiki. He could be the one we've always talked about, you know?"
"I think I do know." She whispered, then repeated herself happily. "I think I do."