InuYasha Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Inu-Ra-Ken: Affections Touching Across Sense ❯ Continuing On.... ( Chapter 8 )

“Okay, file in. One at a time. It's going to be a tad crowded…”

 

It was a tad crowded. It was so crowded that Natalie, the last one in, had trouble closing the door behind her. The room resembled a cloister, long and skinny with very little floor space. A large built-in closet took up a great deal of the room, while a desk, sink, refrigerator, bed, bean-bag and a small red couch filled what was left. Everyone remained standing on the tiny amount of floor left, not comfortable enough to sit down. A great deal of the room was taken up by the panda.

 

“I think we'd be better off in prison,” Koga growled as everyone pushed and shoved to get comfortable. He stopped complaining, however, when Kagome was pushed up against him.

 

“Okay, obviously, this won't work long-term…but it will give you guys somewhere to sleep tonight….kinda….if you can sleep standing up…..Okay, you know what? This isn't going to work. We can barely breath, let alone sleep!”

 

“Yeah, even when I leave you're not going to have enough room,” Natalie added.

 

“When you leave?!” Rachel demanded in surprise.

 

“Uh…yeah….and go back to my room?”

 

“Oh, no. No, no. You're not leaving me alone with---uh…” She hesitated as she realized that everyone in the room was staring at her. “…No offence, guys… But you're not leaving me alone here, Nat.” she added firmly.

 

“Yeah, okay, I see your point….What if some of them slept in my room?”

 

“In your room? What would Sally say?”

 

“You know, I don't know. To be honest, I haven't ever done anything like this before.”

 

“Yeah, I take your point. Well, let's see…how many can we fit in here? Two or three could sleep on the bed, two more on the fold-out couch…I get the feeling dog-boy wouldn't have any trouble jumping on top of the closet.”

 

“Don't start with me, witch-girl!”

 

“Eh, blow it out your dog ears.” InuYasha sputtered with furry.

 

“Okay,” Natalie interrupted firmly. “That's six.”

 

“I am perfectly comfortable on the floor, degozarios. I don't wish to be any trouble.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Okay…that's seven up here. There are only two more and then us.”

 

“Uh…two on my bed…” Natalie said.

 

“I'll be sleeping on the floor as well,” Koga growled. He seemed to growl everything. “I don't share a bed with anyone.”

 

“I believe that,” InuYasha muttered under his breath.

 

“Hey, watch it, dog boy!” Koga said furiously. He moved automatically to face off with InuYasha, but found it impossible in the cramped quarters.

 

“Hey!!” Rachel shouted as the two struggled comically to face one another. “If you two break so much as one knick-knack, your asses are mine!”

 

“Peh! I ain't scared of you! What could you possibly do to me?” InuYasha demanded.

 

“I can not help you.”

 

“Heh. I don't need your help.”

 

“No? Well, why don't you tell me how many quarters there are in a dollar?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Let me guess. `What's a dollar?' I don't think you fully realize what kind of situation you're in here. You're not from around here and you need our help to survive. No one else saw you appear and no one else is going to believe that you're anything but crazy. Unless you want to end up digging through the trash behind the caf for food, you'd better be nice to us.”

 

“And the food in the caf isn't that great to begin with,” Natalie added.

 

“That's the truth. So cool it, dog-breath. And you, wolf boy. Try to behave like

civilized little anachronisms.”

 

“What did you just call us?” Koga demanded gruffly.

 

Rachel groaned. “Never mind.”

 

“Look, why don't we all sit down?” Natalie asked. “I'm definitely not sleepy and I want to know where you all come from. There's got to be some reason you were brought here. Maybe we can figure out what you all have in common.”

 

“That's a good idea,” Rachel agreed. “Besides, my legs are tired.”

 

There was a general murmuring of agreement in the group and everyone began looking around for a seat. It took a bit of maneuvering but eventually everyone was seated. InuYasha, Kagome and Miroku sat on the edge of the bed. Kagome, naturally was in the middle. InuYasha and Miroku were obviously very protective of her. Koga, grumbling loudly about not being able to sit with his “love,” sat instead at Kagome's feet, angled slightly so that he could keep an eye on InuYasha. Lime sat on top of the sink, kicking her strange shoes against the cabinet beneath with the nervous energy of a child. Kenshin remained standing against one wall. Yahiko sat at his feet, clearly a bit nervous to leave the man's side, though he was trying to look tough. The panda, giving off an air of being quite relaxed, sat on the floor in front of the door, Ranma beside him. That left Rachel and Natalie on the couch.

 

“Okay. Who wants to go first?” Rachel asked, looking around for volunteers.

 

Not surprisingly, there were no takers. It took a bit of coercing, but eventually they told their stories, explaining where and when they were from as well as what had happened just before they found themselves in Montevallo.

 

“You know,” Natalie said. “I really don't see any kind of pattern there.”

 

“Neither do I,” Rachel agreed. “Although, I must say, you all lead very interesting lives…Unbelievably interesting, I might even say.”

 

“Well, don't,” Ranma muttered from beside the panda.

 

“Look, brat,” Natalie snapped, her patience with the bad tempered girl beginning

to wear dangerously thin, “Why don't you start keeping your smart-ass comments to yourself, huh? Haven't you ever heard, `If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all'?”

 

“No.”

 

“Rargh!” Natalie snapped her head toward Miroku. “Can you please take your little language spell-thing off of her?!”

 

Miroku looked as though the thought had crossed his mind as well. All they had been able to get out of the girl all night were sarcastic comments. They hadn't even gotten a decent explanation of where she came from out of her. She had said something that sounded like, “Anything-Goes Dojo,” but beyond that, nothing. Even Kagome had given up trying to be nice to her. Now that was an accomplishment.

 

“If I want to make `smart-ass' comments, I'll make them.”

 

“Oh, yeah?” Natalie snapped, “Well, how do you feel about panda stew, huh?”

 

Rachel could have sworn the panda's eyes grew a little wider at that statement.

 

“I feel like maybe if you mention it again, I'll break your nose!”

 

Natalie made as if to leap up from the couch, but was quickly jerked back down by Rachel.

 

“Hey!,” she said, gripping Natalie's arm. “If I can't fight with dog-breath, you can't fight with bitch-girl.”

 

Natalie muttered under her breath, but forced herself to relax, eyes still carefully fixed on Ranma.

 

“I think maybe it's bed time,” Rachel suggested carefully. There were no protests. It was a bit of an uncomfortable night, but they managed to get through it with very few casualties. Rachel couldn't have sworn to it, having slept surprisingly well herself, but she was pretty sure that Kenshin didn't close his eyes all night.

 

 

Rachel and Natalie spent the next couple of days trying to work out what to do with their guests. Rooms were arranged for all of them, the girls in Main Hall and the boys across the quad in Napier. Roommates were arranged like so:

 

Lime/Kagome/Ranma

Kenshin/Yahiko

Miroku/Koga/InuYasha

 

The panda had to fend for itself.

 

“Um, I don't think this arrangement is going to work…” Ranma said.

 

“And why not?” Natalie's voice had an edge to it. She and Rachel had spent a very long time working the room arrangements out.

 

“Well, there's a little problem.”

 

“What? What is the problem?”

 

She glanced at her panda uncertainly.

Rachel felt herself loose it. “Could you please start talking without checking with your damn bear first?”

Ranma's expression was indignant.

 

“Now, what? What is the problem?”

 

“Um…”

 

“Don't look at the bear.”

 

“…Um…… I'm a boy.”

 

Silence.

 

“…Uhh…what?”

 

“I'm a boy.”

 

“…A boy?”

 

“Yeah, a boy. You know, like, the opposite of a girl?”

 

“…The opposite of a girl?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Natalie shook her head. “No you're not.”

 

“Yes. I am.”

 

“No. You're not. I'm looking at you right now and you are a girl. Huge boobs

and all.”

 

Without changing expression, Ranma calmly picked up the bucket of water (which had come to be beside her at exactly that moment through a long series of unbelievable coincidences) and dumped it over her head.

 

And then she was a boy.

 

“You…you're a boy.”

 

“That's what I said.”

 

“No, but—but you're really a boy!” Rachel felt a little dizzy.

 

“Again, what I said.”

 

Natalie reached over and poked Ranma's suddenly flat chest

 

“You're a boy,” she repeated, sounding as dumb-founded as Rachel.

 

“Still what I said.”

 

“Okay…okay, so we have a problem.”

 

Ranma rolled her—his—eyes.

 

“Said that, too.”

 

 

And so, the room arrangements were rearranged like so:

 

Lime/Kagome

Kenshin/Yahiko

Miroku/Ranma

InuYasha/Koga

 

This plan was no better received.

 

“You're making me share a room with that stupid wolf demon?!”

 

“InuYasha….” Kagome's voice held a warning note.

 

“I REFUSE to sleep in the same room with that flea-ridden stray!”

 

“Do you have fleas?” Rachel demanded, turning sharply towards the wolf demon.

 

“No!”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“See there,” Kagome said, patting InuYasha gently on the arm. “He doesn't have fleas.”

 

“I can hear them sucking his blood.”

 

“Maybe that's just your own fleas,” Rachel suggested.

 

“I don't have fleas!”

 

“Now, see there,” Natalie said in a reassuring tone, “no one has fleas. So the room arrangements are all set?”

 

The “no!”'s of Koga and InuYasha were drowned out by the “yes!”'s of Rachel and Kagome. Or, at least, as far as Natalie was concerned they were.

 

“Okay, good. Then we can move on with our lives. Next order of business—getting you guys some jobs…”