[soundtrack for this one was: Stolen Dance, by Milky Chance]

Kasumi pulled Nabiki gently after her up the stairs and into her room. She felt a burning feeling inside herself. She couldn't seem to hold still. She wanted to hit, to yell, to do something to make the feeling go away. Kasumi sat her down unceremoniously on her bed and pushed her back down again when she tried to rise from the soft mattress. She sighed and stayed seated as her older sister joined her on the opposite end of the bed while she fidgeted and tried to hold still as her insides tore themselves apart.
She was just barely hanging on in her fight against breaking down into tears. Kasumi looked at her with an expression that was half exasperation and half stern reproach for a moment, before she spoke.
"I told you, didn't I? I told you not to play games, and to hold on to him tightly." Kasumi said in an unusual voice. It wasn't an angry voice, but it wasn't the sickly-sweet tone Kasumi usually used around the house. It was ... Kasumi's real voice.
"B-But I wasn't playing games." She replied uncertainly as she tried to recover from the shock of Kasumi's change in demeanor. It was unnerving her to hear Kasumi speaking in her real voice. She hadn't heard Kasumi's real voice since before Mom died.
"By helping Akane, you most certainly did. You leveled the playing field and gave Akane a fair chance." Kasumi pressed her, not without pity, but not with leniency either.
"Well, sure, but that's only fai—"
"THERE IS NO FAIR IN LOVE! WAR IS LESS CUTTHROAT THAN LOVE!" Kasumi yelled and cut her off. She blinked in surprise as Kasumi continued in a slightly softer tone. 
"There is only win and lose in love. THERE IS NO SECOND PLACE! Second place is the first person shut out in the cold, alone." Kasumi said sternly.
"I didn't—"
"Of course you didn't mean to. Because you are a decent person, despite what you try to make people believe, and you didn't want Akane to suffer. I don't want Akane to suffer either. But did you ever stop to think about your own suffering? What about Ranma's? Speaking of Ranma, he doesn't want anyone to suffer either. How's that been working out for him? Has it been solving a lot of problems?" Kasumi demanded sarcastically. She was in shock, Kasumi was NEVER sarcastic!
"N-no..." She stammered, completely off-balance.
"Exactly. Contests of the heart are for keeps, Nabiki. You have to be certain, and once you know, you have to fight like it is your life on the line. Because if you know, then it IS your life on the line. If he is the one for you, and you know, then he is your life, and you should be his. And if that's true, then he is the other part of you, the rest of you that you need to be complete. That was the rest of the message I think Mother intended to give us. I've figured it out on my own, over time, because of my own stupid mistakes. You can't show mercy when you are fighting for the one you love. You can't take prisoners, and you sure as hell shouldn't play games or help your opponents." Kasumi said bitterly.
"But, Akane—"
"Had her chance. Nabiki. She HAD her chance. You and I have both known, for a long time now, almost since the day that boy showed up, that Akane has deep and strong feelings for him. All she had to do, to win him and keep him, was to admit to herself she had those feelings, and admit it to him too. She didn't even have to be the one to go first. He demonstrated on a number of occasions that he was willing to go first, he was just looking for a sign from her. Instead, she kept him at a distance, and never fully trusted him, because she didn't know. I blame myself for that a bit, I should have trained Akane like Mother tried to train us, when Akane was much younger. But, I didn't. And when it became an issue because of Ranma, I hesitated. I hesitated because I knew something Akane didn't know ... I knew about how you felt." Kasumi said more gently.
She looked up sharply at her older sister in shock.
"Oh, don't look so surprised. You aren't nearly as good at hiding your feelings as you seem to think you are. I have known you since you were a baby, Nabiki. I could tell immediately that you had strong feelings for him as well. Your feelings for him were actually obvious to me before Akane's were. You just never acted on them. You buried them down deep, out of respect for Akane, and you denied they existed, even to yourself. I think that was why you teased him so much, though, and why you took pictures of him, and generally poked at him. It was your only safe way of interacting with him ... until Akane gave his engagement to you anyway." Kasumi pressed her.
She blinked at Kasumi in wide-mouthed shock. Her older sister had apparently been able to read her like a book. Kasumi smiled at her.
"I watched you do everything in your power to give him back to Akane, but to keep your own honor, and to make Akane admit her feelings. It was because Akane refused to do that, that your own feelings finally broke loose, Nabiki. And you've been wearing those feelings on your sleeve since then, you know. Everyone in the family, except for Akane, and I think she is starting to understand now, can see it in your eyes when you look at him. We can see it when you hold hands with him, and when he holds you, or you hold him. You love him, Nabiki. You are head-over-heels silly in love with him." Kasumi said with a gentle smile.
Her breath was coming in small gasps as tears streamed down her cheeks and she shuddered as the emotions Kasumi was hitting with a hammer rang out sharply inside her.
"Maybe I do ... but I think I've lost him." She whispered dejectedly as she brought her knees up to her chest and clutched them to herself on her older sister's bed. Kasumi shook her head fiercely.
"Not yet, not yet you haven't. He hasn't told anybody he's chosen them, he hasn't said he loves anyone. All he's done is hug Akane, and protect her. Same as he has done in the past for Akane, before your feelings ever got involved. He genuinely does care for Akane, you know. If left alone, I think those two might eventually be able to spark a relationship into a full fire and find love. But they could also end up burning themselves and everyone around them as well. They could end up being an incredible love story, or one of the worst tragedies this town has ever witnessed. But, for right now, as long as you don't repeat my mistake, you still have a chance." Kasumi said softly.
"And ... what WAS your mistake?" She whispered as she looked up at her elder sister.
Kasumi looked away for a moment, then looked back with eyes that had slipped from behind the mask her older sister usually wore. Kasumi's eyes were haunted. "You can't fully understand it yet, because you aren't fully here right now." Kasumi whispered.
"I'm not, fully...?" She stammered, as she tried to understand what Kasumi was saying.
"I can't explain it to you, because you are literally lacking the parts of yourself that would allow you to understand." Kasumi said with a soft smile.
"Then, how—" 
"I think you will understand on your own, soon enough. I actually kind of wish that you didn't have to, but I don't think it's up to you any more. I think events have been set in motion that are going to force you to understand, whether you want to or not." Kasumi said sadly as she reached over and rubbed her hand gently.
"Ok, well, what mistake did you—"
"I did the same damn thing you have been trying to do." Kasumi said in a surprisingly bitter voice. "I didn't fight for him, I played games ... I didn't understand." Kasumi whispered through clenched teeth.
"Doctor To—"
"Yes, him, Doctor Tofu, Tofu Ono, the man who was in love with me, and I ruined it!" Kasumi said in a rising, almost hysterical, voice.
"He's still in love with you, though!" She protested.
"Is he? Are you sure? Have you seen him speak to me like a human being since you were older than fourteen?" Kasumi asked vehemently in a voice heavy with negative emotion.
She thought about it and realized that Doctor Tofu had been doing his weird act around Kasumi for several years now ... since she had been about ... fourteen, when Kasumi would have been ... sixteen... marriage age. Had Doctor Tofu...she looked up sharply at Kasumi with wide eyes.
Kasumi nodded at her. "Yes, he asked."
"Why..." She asked as she fought back tears. She wasn't even thinking of her own misery about Ranma now, she was barely able to keep herself from lunging for Kasumi and rocking her older sister in her lap to comfort her. She could feel how miserable Kasumi was.
"Why? That's a good question. The answer to it is part of what you don't understand yet. But the rest of it is, plain and simple, I thought he was just being nice to me, because Mother died. I didn't take the time to talk to him, to find out his real feelings. Instead, I played games with him, I tested him, and I pushed him away. I even suggested that he date other people and ask me again later." Kasumi said in a voice filled with hate. She could tell that the hate was directed inward though, instead of outward.
"And he..."
"He tried for a while, as I stupidly played with him. Every little cut I gave him, he endured. I admit, at the time, I didn't take it all that seriously. It was flattering that he was interested in me, though. Who wouldn't be flattered? A young, handsome doctor fresh out of medical school, and he was interested in me? I did things like having him meet me after school in public so people could see him out with me. I asked him to bring me flowers at school. Things like that." Kasumi whispered in a shamed voice.
"Oh ... Kasumi..." She whispered. She didn't really know what to say to that, her heart was breaking for Kasumi.
Kasumi smiled softly at her. "Don't bother crying about it, I have already done enough of that for several lifetimes." Kasumi said bitterly.
"So ... he ... gave up?" She asked quietly.
Kasumi looked at her and nodded. "Eventually, he stopped visiting, he stopped talking to me, he just ... stopped. After a while, I went to visit him, to see what was going on. In my foolishness I honestly thought he had been sick, or just very busy at work. It never even occurred to me that he would give up. It never even really occurred to me that he ... had feelings too." Kasumi said sadly.
"And he started..."
"Yes. He looked past me. He spoke to that stupid skeleton of his. He danced around and acted goofy. At first I thought he was just playing around. But after a few days of it, I realized it wasn't just a simple game. He was doing everything he could to pretend that it had never happened ... and he has been doing it ever since." Kasumi whispered sadly.
"And that was when you realized..."
"Yes, that was when I realized I had real feelings for him. The rest of the things involved from our past were a part of him, and a part of me, but it was no reason to have pushed him away." Kasumi said as her older sister closed her eyes and a tear slipped down her cheek.
"The rest of—"
"I hope you never actually understand, Nabiki. In a way, I envy you. You have been able to accomplish something that I think would make my life a lot easier. I wish I could do what you do. If you ever do understand though, the rest of it will be obvious to you." Kasumi whispered.
She was both very sad for Kasumi, and also extremely confused. She was also afraid. It sounded like Kasumi knew something and thought she should know it, but didn't, for some reason. Kasumi seemed to think that she would be able to understand whatever that missing thing was though, but seemed sad about it. That meant that it was something ... bad. But what could it be? She looked over at Kasumi and found her sister looking at her sadly.
She let out a slow, shaky breath and nodded as Kasumi smiled and scooted closer to her. Her older sister pulled her sideways into her arms and just held her for a while.
"You know I can't just do nothing about this." She whispered to Kasumi.
"I know."
"Now that I know, I have to talk to him." She whispered with a note of anger in her voice.
"I know." Kasumi said again.
"I won't if you forbid me to, but I'd really like to try to knock some sense into him." She said.
"Go ahead. I've tried plenty of times, it never works. Maybe he'll listen to you." Kasumi replied gently, but with a small note of bitterness in her voice.
There was silence between them for a few moments, before Kasumi spoke up again as her older sister leaned back away from her. "But, anyway, aside from all of that, how are you? It's been a while since we've talked." Kasumi asked gently. "Would you like to catch up?"
She looked up into her older sister's eyes which were shimmering kindly at her and smiled weakly. "Yes ... I'd like that." She whispered.

***

Nabiki left Kasumi's room a little while later. She didn't feel better, but she felt stable now. Her mind was still reeling from what Kasumi had told her about Doctor Tofu though. She made her way slowly down the stairs and leaned heavily on the banister as she thought about everything she and Kasumi had talked about.
Just as she was reaching the bottom of the stairs, Doctor Tofu walked past and nodded to her. She was moving before the thought even registered to do so.
She sprinted towards him as the hot ball of rage in her chest roared back to full life. He spun around right before she got to him, and she saw battle-readiness in his eyes quickly fade to confusion when he realized it was her rushing at him. He dropped his hands from a fighting position just before she reached him.
She slammed into him and tackled him into the wall with her shoulder. He crashed into the wall and she bounced back from the hit and immediately slapped her hands out to his shoulders and pushed him hard back into the wall again.
Intellectually she knew that the only reason she was able to move him at all, was because he was letting her. That didn't change how she felt though. She was dangerously close to being out of control.
She paused for a moment as she fought the anger inside herself to the point where she could access the rest of her emotions and intellect. She was furious with him! She didn't know why she was so upset, it wasn't even her love life that he was involved with, but she was still enraged. She wanted to hurt him, badly. She knew she had tears in her eyes, but they were tears of anger, not sadness. Instead of hurting him, she summoned her iron willpower as she dragged her eyes up to his and growled at him.
"You...how dare you..." She began, but had to pull in another deep breath to steady herself again.
"What are you doing? What is the matter with you?!" He said with a note of annoyance in his voice.
"Stop it! Just STOP IT! Quit punishing her! She's sorry, all right?! She was young, and stupid, and she made a mistake! I know you still love her. I KNOW YOU DO!" She yelled at him as she tightened her hands at his shoulders into fists and gripped the warm fabric of his gi, and any skin that was in the way, tightly.
As soon as she was done speaking, she could see him start to slip into his defensive act. His glasses started to shimmer, and his gaze went soft. He was starting to phase out.
"LOOK AT ME! DON'T YOU DARE DO YOUR LITTLE ACT! LOOK AT ME!" She screamed at him. He blinked and actually stopped slipping into his act.
"You listen to me, she still loves you, and I know you still love her. What is the matter with you?! How dare you continue to punish her for mistakes she made when she was only sixteen! You go to her, you get on your hands and knees, and you BEG her to take you back. If you don't, so help me God, I will do everything in my power to find her a man who is worthy of her, and you will lose your chance forever." She growled at him as she pulled his face closer to hers so their noses were almost touching.
He stared at her in shock. She knew part of her outburst was because of her own frustration and fear about Ranma. But even if Ranma had proposed to her this morning, she knew she would still be upset with Doctor Tofu at the moment.
"Nabiki... I ... I ... how do you, I'm not—" He stammered.
"She just told me. And now that I know, this is going to end, and I mean soon! I owe her at least that much. If you don't put aside your pride and your little hurt bunny feelings and do the right thing by her, then I will never forgive you. As it is, now that I know what has been going on, you disgust me. How DARE you do that to her for so long! And she's stayed faithful to you all this time, just putting her life on hold, hoping you would change your mind."
She leaned in even closer to him, and brought his nose to hers. "If you don't fix it, I WILL. Kasumi DESERVES to be happy. And I have the power to make that happen for her. You have until the end of the week to grow up and make your choice, or I will make it for you. You should know me well enough by now to know that is a promise that I WILL keep." She released him then and walked away without another word or a backwards glance.
She found Ranma waiting for her in the dining room chatting quietly with Daddy. Akane was nowhere to be seen. Ranma and Daddy both turned to her as she entered the room. Daddy raised an eyebrow at her, while Ranma actually spoke up.
"What was that all about?" He asked her quizzically.
She smiled softly at him. "Don't worry about it, just needed to set some things straight with Doctor Tofu." She said carefully.
Ranma nodded, but Daddy continued to look at her askance. She avoided his gaze. She had a feeling he knew exactly what she had been yelling about. She didn't know how he felt about the situation though.
She sighed and looked around the room pointedly. "Where's Akane?" She asked.
"Oh, she's upstairs gettin' dressed 'n stuff." Ranma answered easily.
"Oh ... should we wait for her?" She asked reluctantly. She didn't really want to, but she couldn't very well insist on leaving Akane behind.
"You two go on ahead. I will escort Akane to school, or Doctor Tofu will. She may not be feeling up to going to school today anyway." Daddy said kindly.
Ranma nodded hesitantly and stepped towards the doors. He stopped after a couple of steps and looked back at her. She saw him out of her peripheral vision, but she was busy looking at Daddy. He was smiling at her gently. She locked eyes with him and pushed back on his plan a bit.
"Are you sure, Daddy? Aren't you and Doctor Tofu tired?" She asked.
"I'm sure, baby. Trust me, after the training I endured when I was Ranma's age, what's been going on the last few days has been easy enough to get used to. Go ahead, I will see to Akane's safety." He said in a tone that didn't encourage further debate, even though it was a kind tone.
She nodded and stepped towards Ranma who reached his hand out for hers. She held her hand out hesitantly, and he grasped it warmly and firmly. Like nothing had changed. Like she hadn't seen him holding Akane earlier.
Of course ... he doesn't know I saw ... does he? She asked herself as she allowed him to pull her along and out of their family's lands into the street.
She wasn't nervous as they walked. Ranma would never let anyone hurt her. Even if the Amazons attacked with an entire army, Ranma wouldn't let that stop him. She walked next to him in a daze.
Everything that was happening felt abstract to her. She felt detached from reality. And she kept getting weird flashes of anger. She felt like she was coming apart at the seams. It was like her life was something she was watching happen to someone else. All it seemed she was able to do lately, was watch events unfold, like a bystander. It was the same kind of helpless feeling one got when watching a tragedy happen, like when witnessing a car crash. She might as well not even be present for most of the things that had happened, for all she could do about them.
After a few more blocks of dwelling on her self pity, she sighed and tried to strike up a conversation with him. She'd rather try to talk with him than focus on her fears and worries.
"Do you think Shampoo was serious? Do you think they have only been trying to scare us up to now?" She asked.
He looked over at her and shrugged. "I dunno. It felt like they were holdin' back in earlier fights. This mornin' though ... that felt much more real. I don't know if they'd actually kill ... but they weren't holdin' back either." He said softly as he resumed scanning for danger.
"Do you think we could try to reason with them?" She asked.
"Nah, not now. Maybe earlier, but now I think the old ghoul's pride is involved and it's too late. Besides, unless we found Shampoo or the old ghoul, we couldn't even talk to them to try to reason with 'em anyway." He said grimly.
"Actually..." She trailed off softly as she realized she was tipping her hand about her secret.
"Oh, are you admitting to it now?" He asked with a smirk on his face.
"To what?" She asked as she eyed him suspiciously.
"That you understand Chinese?" He said smugly.
"How did you..."
"You used it on the roof that day Shampoo's sister grabbed ya." He said calmly as he went back to looking around for danger.
"Oh ... you noticed that?"
He looked back at her with amusement on his face. "Of course I noticed." Was all he said with a small grin.
She grinned back despite herself. He really was much sharper than people gave him credit for. "Yes, I know Chinese Mandarin. I am also not half bad with Cantonese or Korean as well." She admitted in a whisper.
"Why the secret?" He asked.
"It can be ... very useful ... when negotiating with people. Many people will switch to their native language and hold what they think is a private conversation right in front of someone they think doesn't understand them. I have avoided bad deals, and even escaped possibly dangerous situations because I understand languages nobody knows I know." She whispered.
"I see..."
"So, please keep that fact to yourself." She asked him.
He nodded solemnly. "I promise, I won't tell nobody." He said sincerely.
"Thank you." She whispered back. They walked together in a comfortably silence for another couple of blocks before she spoke up again. "So, anyway, do you think I could talk to them and convince them to call it off?"
Ranma looked over at her and opened his mouth to say someone mocking or sarcastic, she could see it in his eyes, but he closed his mouth slowly and didn't say it. It was nice to see him starting to learn to control what he said.
He pulled in a deep breath, and then tried again. "No, I don't think we can talk our way out of this. The only way I think we can end this nicely now, is if I agreed ta marry Shampoo and go back to China with them, and I ain't doin that." He said stubbornly.
"I have access to all sorts of things. I can use money, property, or political favors, maybe I could bribe them?" She asked, knowing the answer he would give, but she wanted to bounce the idea around anyway.
Ranma shook his head solemnly. "You've seen how strong they are. If they wanted money or land, they could just take 'em. I don't know what a politician would be able to do for 'em either. They have their village in China, that's where they want to be, and they want me there too. I don't think they care about much else." Ranma said glumly.
She nodded in agreement and sighed. It didn't seem like there was a way out of the situation they were in without using violence. That was all right though, the Tendo clan was not defenseless, and not without resources. As she had told Shampoo earlier, if they wanted a war, the Tendos would give it to them.
She walked the rest of the way to school side by side with Ranma. They didn't hold hands on their way, like they had done in the past. But that was because she ignored him the few times he reached his hand out to her. She just didn't ... feel like holding hands at the moment. She didn't feel right. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but she knew that something wasn't right. She sighed and just kept walking. She was running on mostly pure willpower these days.
They reached the school and Ranma dropped her off at her classroom, and they hugged briefly, but she still felt detached, and almost surreal. She looked into his eyes and saw her Ranma there. The same Ranma who had picked up Akane earlier ... but still her Ranma. She could see in his eyes the things he wasn't willing to say to her. But, instead of that making her feel happy, it just made her ache. Something was definitely wrong with her.
Not like that's any big news, there's been something wrong with me for a long time now. She thought to herself as she took her seat and braced herself to endure another day at school while her life was in upheaval.

***

That afternoon Ranma picked her up at her classroom at the lunch bell. She had waited alone for him. Riko and Yui had gone ahead to drop some things off for a club. She was fine waiting alone though. It just meant that she didn't have to pretend that she was all right. She was well aware of the fact that she wasn't all right, and she knew her friends and family knew too. She just wished she knew why she felt the way she did. All she knew was that she was feeling increasingly bad, and at the same time incredibly good whenever she was around Ranma.
She walked side by side with him through the halls and towards the sports fields where her tree was. She deliberately forced herself to focus on the people around them as they walked. Because she was forcing herself to notice, she picked up on the people trying to flag her down to do business with her this time.
She saw some of her regular picture buyers with hopeful looks in their eyes, and cash in their hands. She frowned and shook her head at them. She saw some of her regulars in the information game give her quizzical looks, but she shrugged at them. She hadn't checked her information sources since everything with Ranma had started, she had no new information to sell. 
Several people also approached her and asked for various things she could arrange or fix, in exchange for a favor. She just said one word to all of them. "Riko." They nodded hesitantly at her and moved on. Riko hadn't usually been in charge of that aspect of her business, and it was unusual for her to defer to Riko for that. But she just didn't feel like handling any of the old business stuff that she had handled in the past — at least not at the moment.
She looked over at him and sighed as he looked back and reached for her hand. She smiled nervously and let him grasp her hand. His hand was warm. She pulled on his hand and pulled him right next to her. She slipped her hand out of his and slid it around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes briefly as they walked. She was feeling overwhelmed.
"You all right?" He whispered to her.
"Same as I've been the last few days." She whispered back with her eyes still closed as they walked.
"That bad huh?" He asked with a touch of humor in his voice. She could tell he was trying to lift her spirits. She loved that he was kind like that, and that he wanted to help. But it wasn't doing anything to take the weight off her chest.
"Don't worry, Saotome, I've been through way worse than this." She said with some bravado as she opened her eyes and lifted her head up.
She smiled softly as they came within view of their tree and let go of him. Riko was laying across the bench on her side and looking at them imperiously in a Cleopatra pose. Yui was leaning up against the tree and eating quietly.
As soon as they stepped under the shade of the tree, Riko jumped up from the bench, squealed happily, and ran up to Ranma and tackled him. Ranma went down to the ground with Riko squirming in his arms. She smiled at the sight of it. She knew that Ranma had gone down because he'd chosen to, probably to prevent Riko from hurting herself by crashing into him.
Riko attacked his face with kisses and chirped happily to him. "You did it, you did it, you did it!"
"Did what?" Ranma asked in a tone that was half embarrassment, half confusion.
"You saved my Kiki-chan!" Riko said as she started kissing his nose, his jaw, his ear, everywhere, really. Ranma was waving his hands to his sides to show he wasn't encouraging it. She noted with a smirk that Ranma hadn't booted Riko off of himself though.
Riko started to get into it and began grinding her hips into his as she shifted from silly playful kisses to more passionate ones on his lips and neck.
Riko was actually rather sexually aggressive when she wanted to be. She knew Riko wouldn't go too far, but poor Ranma already seemed like he was starting to stroke out. Riko started biting his lower lip as she kissed him. She had to admit, it annoyed her a little that Ranma wasn't fighting Riko off more ... strenuously. She was mostly annoyed with herself that she'd set that stupid week-long timer on kissing him again.
Better stop her before she gets too enthusiastic. She thought as she stepped forward. Oop — too late. She thought, a little more annoyed as she watched them.
"Atta girl, Riko! Get 'im!" Yui cheered from her new seat on the bench. She rolled her eyes as she reached the two of them, lifted up her foot, set it on Riko's hip, and half kicked, half pushed her friend off him.
Riko slid off him, but pulled his face with her and continued to kiss him as she hooked one of his ankles with her left leg and stayed entwined with him. Ranma's arms were pinwheeling to the sides now. She grinned at that. Annoyed as she was, it was always entertaining to watch Ranma lose it.
She thought about physically pulling Riko off him, but decided to test Ranma instead.
"On your feet, Saotome!" She called out to him.
He moved instantly and popped to his feet. She knew in social situations he preferred to just have someone tell him what to do, since he didn't know. Since Riko had been laying across one of his arms, he simply pulled her up into his arms and held her. Riko was still enthusiastically kissing him.
"Detach the girl, Saotome." She called out next.
Ranma pushed his arms as far away from himself as he could, but Riko just lunged for him again, and stayed attached. She knew that Riko was genuinely just trying to show him how thankful she was that he'd saved her oldest friend. She also knew that it was all a big game to Riko.
Ranma looked at her with wide eyes past Riko's head. She knew he didn't want to hurt her friend, so most of the stuff he knew for dealing with someone on him in close quarters wouldn't help him.
"Use that speed of yours, Ranma. Impress me." She called to him.
He nodded and then started rapidly moving Riko's limbs and pulling her gently off him. Riko kept re-grabbing him, so his speed increased until it became a semi-blur. A moment later he had Riko sitting in one of his hands, looking startled and with her arms wrapped around her knees.
He leaned down and set Riko on the ground gently, then backed away to stand behind herself. His movements seemed to be almost fearful. She wondered if he was more afraid of his imagined reaction from her, or of Riko's continued attention.
Riko popped up to her feet, squealed joyfully, and turned to him as she yelled happily. "Again again again!"
She let Riko get to within a few steps of him, then held her hand out and stopped her. "That's enough; you're going to break him."
"Aww, come on, Kiki. I'll be gentle, I promiiiiiise." Riko said as she tucked both her hands under her chin and looked at her with puppy dog eyes.
"No. Be a good girl. Go sit over there." She said as she stuck her tongue out at and pointed to the bench.
Riko frowned and walked sadly to the bench in her best mope, complete with dragging feet and sad looks over her shoulder. The girl's acting skills were unparalleled.
Once Riko had sat down, Ranma poked his head out over her shoulder and just blinked at Riko. Riko winked at him and growled playfully as she clawed the air with imaginary cat claws.
Yui grabbed Riko's hands out of the air and slowly and firmly put them back into Riko's lap. "And this ... is why we don't take Riko to nice places with us very often." Yui said with amusement.
"Hey, listen, you two can go to all the art galleries you want, just leave me with Ranma when you do, okay?" Riko said as she made eyes at Ranma.
Ranma retreated back behind her. She wondered if he was just being shy, if he just wanted her to handle it, or if he thought Riko might lose interest if she lost sight of him. She smiled. Leave it to Riko to use sexual inappropriateness to cheer her up. Damn if the girl didn't usually know just what buttons to press on her to make her feel better, at least for a while.
"No, bad Riko. My Ranma, get your own." She said in a silly voice.
"Aww, come'on, Kiki. You can share! He's just all kinds of yummy. That boy may not be very experienced, but he sure can get a girl's motor running. You know what I mean? Unf!" Riko said in low voice as she bit her lower lip and winked at Ranma who was peering out over her shoulder again.
She rolled her eyes at Riko's theatrics. She knew that Riko wasn't actually suggesting sharing Ranma. She also knew Riko wasn't trying to take him. Riko was just ... overly enthusiastic ... would be one way to put it.
"Be good or I'm going to demote you to Lieutenant first-class, and put Yui in charge of you." She said happily.
"Fiiiiiiiiine." Riko said as she folded her arms across her chest and pouted.
Ranma emerged from behind her slowly. Riko looked over at him and smiled a slow, wolfish, grin and let out another growled unf! Riko then blew a kiss at him, and turned back to her and folded her hands into her lap and attempted to look innocent.
She rolled her eyes. "What am I going to do with you, Riko?"
"Buy me a pony?" Riko suggested helpfully.
"I don't know about a pony, but I'm considering getting a riding crop to keep you in line." She said sternly.
"You are just no fun at all today." Riko said in an exaggerated pout.
"Might have something to do with you dry-humping her fiancé." Yui suggested gleefully.
"Maybe. But my money's on not enough Ranma kisses. Ranma, do your damn job!" Riko shouted at him while waving a fist in the air.
"You're bucking for a demotion to Sergeant." She said as she tried desperately to contain her laughter.
Ranma was again just looking between her and Riko and blinking rapidly as he tried to follow their antics. Finally he said something. "I am doing my job."
She sighed. She was sure he meant guarding her.
"I ... sleep with her almost every night." He said in a serious voice that was only mildly colored with ... was that amusement?
Yui and Riko's eyes both got very wide.
"No. Way. Really?!" Riko asked.
She nodded. "Yup, he does, almost every night."
"Wow, Ranma, I'm impressed." Yui said as she looked him up and down approvingly.
"Wait, do you mean sleeping sleeping, or sexy sleeping?" Riko asked with a tight frown on her face and her eyebrows drawn down in suspicion.
"Well, now that would be telling." She said flippantly.
"I call shenanigans, don't believe you." Riko retorted.
"Jealous?" She taunted with a note of pride in her voice.
"You wish. I'm totally fine. Alone. Every night. Alone ... hey, Ranma do you have any brothers?" Riko asked in a tone that tried to be nonchalant but came out as a mix between desperate and disappointed.
"Sorry, I don't. Well ... none that I know of anyway." He replied.
Riko looked up sharply at that.
"His dad is a bit..." She tried to explain, but she trailed off, not sure how much Ranma wanted people to know about his dad.
"He can be a creep." Ranma finished for her.
"I'm sorry, Ranma. That can be rough." Riko said, seriously. It was the first truly real thing Riko had ever said to Ranma that she knew of. She doubted Ranma knew the full significance of it, but she could tell that Ranma appreciated the kindred spirit nature of Riko's statement.
"So, anyway, aside from things that are none of your business, and completely ignoring you feeling up my fiancé, what are your plans for the weekend?" She asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject.
Riko picked up instantly on her desire to move the conversational topic, and fell right into step with her like it was a pre-planned conversational move. "Oh, you know me, I have commitments all over town. My public demands I make appearances." Riko said with a grin.
"Your public? Really? Diva delusions so early in the day?" Yui asked with a snort of laughter.
"Well, I mean, that's how it always starts out, before some fool tries to propose to me, and then there's always the running ... and the inevitable screaming, oh God, the screaming." Riko said in a haunted voice while looking into the distance dramatically.
"Screaming?" Ranma asked.
Riko whipped her head around and grinned at him. "Well, as soon as one fool tries to propose to me, the fights break out, and others think if they don't try too, they might miss their chance, it's all very dramatic, and sad. You've never heard a scream, until you hear the wail of some deluded fool who's losing his fantasy crush." Riko said in a chirpy voice.
"You have issues, you know that, right?" Yui said with a frown as she let out a long-suffering sigh.
"What can I say, guys in their teens love me." Riko said with a wink.
"Screw the teens, what about Nanami?" Yui said with a smirk.
A wide grin slowly started to spread across Riko's face. "You do realize that my head is getting dangerously close to exploding from the sheer volume of possible joke responses?" Riko said in a strained voice, like she was struggling with something.
"What do you—" Yui started to say.
"Screw the teens? Seriously? So. Many. Jokes." Riko said with an even wider smile before her friend broke down and just started laughing uncontrollably.
She found herself laughing along with Riko. It was helping, the laughter was making her feel a bit better. So she decided to stoke the fires a little bit with something Yui had whispered to her earlier.
"So how was dancing?" She asked slyly.
Riko looks over at Yui sharply with wide eyes. "You didn't?!"
Yui shrugged nonchalantly as she sipped a soda.
Riko dragged her eyes back to her and glared. "It. Never. Happened. We clear?"
She grinned. "I don't know, you may have to tell me about it before I am totally clear." She said with glee.
Riko kept her eyes locked on her own for a little bit before her friend sighed and hung her head in defeat. "Fiiiiine. Yui whined, and begged, and pleaded, and promised me more than most guys have promised me to try to get me to sleep with them, all to go dancing. It was pathetic. In a moment of weakness, my stupid empathy made me let her drag me down there." Riko said in a pout.
"And ... how was it?" She asked after winking at Yui.
"I sat in a chair in the corner clutching my knees to my chest and rocking back and forth chanting prayers for the dawn to come and for the bad people to go away."
"She did not!" Yui protested from the bench.
"It was a nightmare. Flashy lights, sweaty people, noisy music. And the place looked like an S&M dungeon. I spent the whole time hoping I would stroke out just so I could escape it." Riko said in a haunted voice.
"She's exaggerating." Yui said with exasperation.
"I would have rather gone to one of those youth-group's smarmy campfire sing-alongs. Literally anything would have been better." Riko said with disgust.
"But you danced so well!" Yui protested.
"You can't prove that I danced." Riko said haughtily.
"You danced." Yui said with conviction.
"Never happened."
"You weren't even nervous."
"That is because it never happened. No amount of stimulants or other recreational substances could possibly have pulled me from my righteous pedestal where I sat in judgment of the rest of you and your humiliating and immoral gyrating." Riko said in a small voice that had seen too much, like a soldier recounting the horrors of war to a therapist.
"You danced." Yui said sternly.
"That is ... your opinion. But I know, in my heart, I didn't let the bad people win. I was afraid, but I overcame my fear, and I am stronger for it." Riko said with a choked back sob in her voice. Riko's acting skills were so good, she actually didn't know whether her friend really was choked up or not. She glanced at Yui who rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Yui sighed in exasperation. "She danced."
Ranma hadn't been paying attention to them for a last few moments. She could tell his focus was outside their group. She nudged him in the ribs and whispered to him.
"Hey, come on, we're piling on to Riko. That doesn't happen very often, get your shots in while you can." She prodded him.
He shook his head distractedly as his eyes darted around rapidly.
"What's got you so distracted? Pretty girl in a short skirt tying her shoe somewhere?" She asked as she craned her neck to look around and try to follow his sight line.
"No ... they're coming." Ranma said quietly.
She looked up in alarm. "How much time?" She whispered as fear gripped her heart again. There was only one they he could be referring to. She didn't want to scare her friends yet in case there was time to defuse the situation.
"No time." He said as he stood up and pulled her into his arms. She felt his battle aura flare into life. She concentrated and was able to see it a little bit, more like one could see the heat distorting the air on concrete on a really hot day than anything else, but it was something.
Her friends looked at him with wide eyes. They may not have been able to see or feel his battle aura, but anyone could see that what he was doing was getting ready to fight.
"What's wrong?" Riko asked, as she also stood up. Riko was always the fastest on the uptake. Yui was on her way to her feet as well.
"The Amazons are about to attack." She whispered.
Riko's eyes widened in fear. "Really? Oh shi—"