Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Family Connections ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: Not mine and never claimed them to be; just thought that they should meet.

Kyou watched as Ranma followed the teacher. He wasn't sure how he knew but the knowledge that Ranma was going to blow everyone away seemed to surface in his mind. When the two new students had been introduced Kyou had actually paid close attention. The girl, Ukyou, looked like Tohru. But the boy. . . Ranma seemed to almost call to Kyou. He felt the same connection to Ranma that he did to cats. That had never happened before. The others amazement at how well Ranma was doing actually made him feel proud. Like Ranma was his brother and his accomplishments were reflecting on Kyou. He had never felt like this before.

Chapter Four

Tohru looked at the four Souma's worriedly. The fact that first Ukyou, a girl, and then Ranma had done so well, Tohru expected an explosion; especially from Kyou. But the orange haired boy simply watched. He was even smiling as he observed Ranma. The boy broke all of the new records that Ukyou had just set and didn't even appear to be trying.

Chuckling from Ukyou made the other three girls and Kyou turn to look at her. Yuki, Haru, and Momiji kept watching Ranma but it was obvious that they were listening.

"I told him not to show off and it looks like he took my advice to heart."

"That's not showing off?"

Ukyou looked at Arisa and smiled. "If he was showing off it would have been something you never would have forgotten."

As Ranma made his way over to them after he was done everyone but Ukyou and Kyou stared. Kyou's comment suddenly turned him into the object of scrutiny.

"Good job."

Hatori sighed as he got out of his car. When an old friend from medical school had called he had had misgivings. Yes the man was a friend and they had kept in contact with one another but something was wrong; he could hear it in the other man's voice. Looking around Hatori wondered if this might have been him without the curse. An office set up and patients that weren't all family members.

Opening the door and nodding politely to the receptionist Hatori made his way back into the offices. It was too late for a lunch date and too early to meet for dinner. His friend had simply begged him to come into his office today. Opening the door he met the other man's eyes and had a sinking feeling. This was not going to be good.

Kasumi looked at the list of names again. One of the options when she had started the nursing program had been to find part time work in a doctor's office. The university had a list of doctors and if the doctor liked your work, college credit could be given for working with them. As Nabiki would have said 'money and school credit, it's a win win scenario.'

The one problem had been that sometimes improper relationships seemed to crop up. Her advisor had been female and had warned Kasumi that many girls got into the work/credit program in hopes of meeting and marrying a doctor. Kasumi wouldn't mind getting married to a doctor, if they were in love.

Since Nodoka had insisted on going with Kasumi to meet the advisor she had been the one to come up with the idea. Kasumi was making appointments for the doctors to come to the house. The times were when Ranma-kun and Ukyou would be home. The idea was to have the doctors' see Ranma-kun performing his kata's or sparing with Ukyou in the back before starting the interview. Auntie Nodoka thought that this would discourage the ones who might do anything improper.

Kasumi looked down at the paper. She had three more offices to stop at; after that she would head home. She had arranged going to the offices in order from the university to the house so these last ones were the closest to home. Looking at the street sign Kasumi turned down the street and saw the next office. Taking a deep breath she stepped inside and put on her brightest smile.

Tohru could only stare. As soon as Ranma joined the group he and Kyou had started talking. And they hadn't stopped. Kyou had ignored Yuki when he had his turn, he was still talking to Ranma. When it was Kyou's turn he had quickly performed then gone back to talking with Ranma. He hadn't even to bothered to find out his scores. When Momiji had done so the shock on the rabbit's face had prompted Haru to go find out what was wrong. When calm and collect Hatsuharu had shown shock the others, including Ukyou, had gone to see what was the matter.

Kyou had total blown Yuki's scores away. By the end of the day the only two that had done better than Kyou were Ukyou and Ranma, and the margin wasn't as large as the others thought it would be.

The fact that Kyou hadn't said anything about beating Yuki was worrying the Souma's and Tohru. It was almost as if Kyou didn't care.

Suddenly Tohru noticed that Kyou was coming over. She stopped talking to Momiji and smiled up at Kyou. Momiji watched, quietly for once. He was waiting for Kyou to start gloating.

"I'm goin' over to Ranma's after school today. What time do you work tonight?"

Tohru blinked. Kyou had never gone over to someone's house before. She also wasn't sure why he was asking about what time she worked. "I start work about two hours after school gets out. Why?"

"Then you ought to come over too, sugar."

Tohru turned to look at Ukyou who had walked up while Kyou was talking. Ranma was with her. "All of you guys are invited to come over this afternoon if you'd like."

After discussing it Kyou, Tohru, Haru, and Momiji would be joining Ukyou and Ranma after school. Uo-chan had to work, Hana-chan had promised her mother that she would be home right after school and Yuki-kun had a student council meeting. Tohru couldn't shake the feeling that something important was going to happen this afternoon.

Leaving his friends office Hatori could only shake his head. A few years ago when the man's wife had died he had, in his grief, gotten involved with someone. The woman had ended up pregnant so they had quickly gotten married. His second wife was a nice lady. She had been good friends with his first wife and the two had turned to each other in grief. They weren't in love and both knew it. But they loved the child that had brought them together.

Now his friend had gotten involved with a nursing student. The student wasn't as innocent as she had liked to pretend. When the doctor had tried to cut off the relationship he found out that she had taken photographs. The girl was threatening to blackmail him to get what she wanted.

Walking back toward his car Hatori had to wonder. He knew that not all nurses did that, but how to tell the difference?

A loud noise made Hatori stop. Suddenly he was in a crowd of people. He carefully worked his way to the edge of it hoping he wouldn't come across any females. Another loud noise seemed to make everyone push together and Hatori felt himself stumble into someone. Looking up he met a pair of surprised brown eyes at the same time he felt three other things. One was the cold water that seemed to have appeared from out of no where. The second was the warm and defiantly female body that happened to belong with the brown eyes as he was pushed fully against her. And the third was the feeling of falling as he was shoved so hard that he fell to the ground taking the owner of the female body with brown eyes down as well.

Kasumi was finally walking home. She hoped that Ranma-kun's and Ukyou's day had gone better than hers. Maybe she was just paranoid but all of the doctors had seemed to leer at her.

Suddenly a loud noise made Kasumi look up. There was a large crowd of people just ahead. To get home she would have to go around the edge of the crowd.

Carefully walking on the outskirts Kasumi couldn't see what was going on. Another loud noise made her start in surprise. Suddenly a man seemed to leap out at her. Kasumi could tell that someone had pushed the man simply from the way that he was moving. Their eyes met just before he fell against her hard enough to knock her off of her feet. Kasumi could feel the cold water raining down from somewhere.

Another loud noise made Kasumi open the eyes she had closed after the man fell against her. It wasn't the man beside her but his clothes and up near the top of his shirt a seahorse.

Jusenkyou. Was Kasumi's only thought. Looking around she didn't see anyplace to get warm water. The cold water was still falling though. Taking out her bento box Kasumi filled it with water and placed the seahorse inside. She gathered up the man's clothes and put them in her bag.

'I'll offer to let him use the bath at the house to get the rice and other things left over from lunch off of himself. Maybe Ukyou's cousin will be able to heal him as well.' With this plan firmly in mind Kasumi continued to walk home carefully caring the bento box in front of her.

Kyou was nervous. He was afraid that at any second Momiji was going to hurl himself at Ranma's mother. She had given both Ukyou and Ranma a hug when they had arrived. She had also given one to Tohru. Haru had smoothly diverted her from trying to hug the Souma's but Kyou could tell that Momiji wanted a hug really bad.

The snacks that she had brought out were delicious. Mrs. Saotome, Ukyo and Tohru had then begun to talk about recipes and food preparation. She had insisted that they all call her Auntie.

Momiji seemed to take huge delight in constantly saying 'Auntie' much to Mrs. Saotome's amusement. Even talking about martial arts with Ranma couldn't make him loose the feeling of impending disaster. Suddenly the front door opened.

"Tadaima." Called a soft female voice.

"Kasumi-chan you're back."

A lovely young woman walked in. She was in her early twenties and seemed to exude even more happiness than Tohru. She was carefully walking in with a bento box balance in her hands.

"Ukyou-san, could you come help me, please."

Ukyou wordlessly got up and went to Kasumi. Momiji had followed and was curiously looking into the bento box. Suddenly his eyes got huge and Kyou knew that disaster was about to strike. Ukyou next words confirmed it.

"Kasumi where did you get a seahorse and what is it doing in your bento box?"

Haru's head jerked around and he met Kyou's eyes with a look of worry in his own. Tohru's face had lost all color. Suddenly a 'Poof" sounded and standing there naked in the front room between Ukyou and Kasumi was Hatori.

"Oh, my!"