Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Don't you know it's love ❯ Chapter 7

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

She showed up at the house late that afternoon with a spray of cheap flowers and a smile that looked like it would pop out of her face and land on the ground.
"I wish I had forgotten my address when you asked," I grumbled.
She smiled in response. "I don't believe I've introduced myself. I'm sorry. I'm Tendo Nabiki. Pleased to meet you. And your name?"
"I already told you. It is Jinlong."
"Kinryuu is not a first name."
I almost pointed out that I had said my name was Jinlong to begin with, not Kinryuu, but then again, they meant the same thing, so I let it pass. "Herb."
"Herb-kun, do you want to come to dinner?"
"No."
"Akane isn't cooking tonight."
"Why would I care who is cooking?"
"Ah, forget it. Kasumi's a really good cook. You're not going to be sorry."
I'm not sure exactly why I thought of Lime right then, however, I did. He was currently in the bedroom which I was compelled to share with him, consuming the headache pills at the approximate rate of one a minute. The chi blast applied to his head had been above the average strength I used, though not by much. And then I considered what an entire evening without him and Mint might be like.
I liked the idea.
"I apologize, I will not be able to go, but I have some friends…" I thought we'd have a good time.
I called Shampoo on the Nekohanten phone line after Herb told us. After several tens of rings she answered.
"Hello. This is not Nekohanten Delivery Line, this is the business line, Nekohanten Delivery Line is..."
"Shampoo?"
"Mousse, I thought I told Perfume to… oh, it's you."
"Um… a girl friend of Herb's invited us to dinner."
"What girl friend?"
I thought for a moment. "Tendo -"
"TENDO? Yes yes yes yes!"
Lime was happy too. Herb wasn't going, said he had a headache (again) but I didn't think too much about that. I thought we'd have a good time.
But when we got there, and the panda answered the door, things began to go downhill.
It started with someone, a woman, I knew I saw before but I couldn't remember just where jumping on Lime and pounding him into the floor. Then Mousse crashed through the ceiling and tried to kill me and I wound up being forced to subdue him via pinning him with my knives, resulting in several holes in the wall. Mr. Tendo was not happy about this, and I almost got kicked out. But somehow, I managed to stay, which I came to regret.
Mousse, even pinned and stationary, refused to shut his mouth.
"But why-y, Shampoo, why-y?" he kept on asking in the kind of tone that made me wish my aim with the knives hadn't been quite so accurate.
Her answer was always the same. "It's Joketsuzoku law," she grated. "You should know this, Mousse! I am required to marry him." She never clarified who "him" was. If I hadn't known about the law I probably would have assumed "him" referred to the guy living in the house, Saotome Ranma.
And in a way, I guess it did. She wavered around him, and I could tell he didn't like it. Before dinner he announced he "wasn't hungry" and headed off somewhere, followed by the girl that had pounded Lime earlier (Akane, I learned her name was). Almost immediately, Shampoo declared she "wasn't hungry" either and went off in the direction he'd gone.
I'm not sure why I followed her. I guess I was just curious. And I guess I wanted to stop her if she tried to kill Akane.
"Ranma! You come!"
"Aw, Shampoo, what is it?"
"Ranma, you'd BETTER not be…"
"I was telling the truth! I swear!"
"Ranma…"
I peeked around the corner. Nobody was looking that way, but they might have been, so I turned back around and contented myself with voices only.
"Airen…"
"Look, Shampoo, I'm sorry. I checked with your great-grandmother and she says it's true. So why can't you go marry that wolf-guy like your laws say?" Ah, that was what they were talking about.
"I'm still engaged to you."
"What the…"
"You defeated me. You are my airen."
"Now, wait just a second. That wolf-guy beat you so how come you're not…"
"I am. But Saotome Ranma I…"
I put my hands over my ears and headed back to the others, but Shampoo decided to yell the last words.
"-AM FOREVER FAITHFUL TO YOU! DON'T YOU WORRY!"
So it wasn't a very good time for me after all. Lime, despite his thrashing, was a different story.

"Herb, we're back!" Mint's voice vibrated in Herb's head like a gong. Herb sighed and took another pill, not that he really needed it. His brief respite was over.
"Herb, guess what?" Lime now, with all the zeal of a hyperactive child. Which, sometimes Herb believed, he still was.
"What?" Herb groused, then promptly went to sleep before Lime had a chance to answer him.

"She likes me! She really does! Her name's Tendo Kasumi, she says, and she likes me! She really does like-"
SLAM!
"Ow…"
Mint looked at Shampoo, then at the fingers jammed in the door. A sigh escaped him. "I don't think that was needed." He jerked the door open, then shut as the fingers vanished. He heard the rhythmic thuds of Lime's feet hitting the hallway floor as he withdrew.
"Fahn-tong."
"Look, I'm sorry but, really, well, you called Lime a fahn-tong and he really isn't one and he probably heard, so you ought to-OW!"
Shampoo opened the door and stepped out, bonbori held high. Mint slumped onto the floor, holding his shoulder.
"I hate my life," he muttered, but he knew he didn't really mean it.

BANG. BANG.
"I'm coming," I called in Japanese. No telling who it could be.
BANG. BANG.
"I'm coming." I finished with my blouse and didn't bother about my hair. I went into the alcove containing the door, and opened it. I really expected Mousse, for some reason never thought of Shampoo coming. But there she was.
"He's a fahn-tong!" she yelled when she confirmed it was indeed me.
"Who? Mousse?"
"No! Well, yes, Mousse is a fahn-tong but that's not what I meant."
"Then who did you mean?"
"Mint!" She seemed to spit out the name as if it were a bad taste. "The Jakou Ouchou child! He's such a fahn-tong! I hate him! He's childish and he's a lecher and he's a fahn-tong!"
"You already said the fahn-tong part."
"I don't care! I hate him! I only have to marry him because he ran me over! He probably did it on purpose!"
"Ancestor Cologne said it was an accident."
"That's what they all say!"
I let my eyes slide sideways, partially averting her furious gaze as if I was somehow to blame. "Um, Shampoo, do you know something interesting mother told me?"
"Yi-mei you mean?"
"Yes, my mother. She was talking to the Jusenkyo guide…"

"Ai-ya." She'd cooled off a bit.
"My mother doesn't lie. And as far as I know the Jusenkyo guide doesn't either. Though I have to admit, it does sound outrageous."
"So that's what you were doing there? Giving him Nannichuan water?"
"Not giving, promising. There's a difference."
"All right." Shampoo grabbed my jacket. "One more thing."
"What?"
"Saotome Ranma… promise him Nannichuan water!"
"All right."
A look of bliss was stamped across her face. "I'm going to go back for my getting married." She gave me a look. "The real getting married." She stood up to go, and I remembered something.
"Do you want the Nyannichuan water in advance, by the way? It would be awful if you turned into a cat at the wedding, either wedding."
"No, I'll be fine."

When I opened the door to scratching, the cat began to hiss at me. Not a cat, I had to remind myself. It's Shampoo. But I couldn't quite connect the Shampoo that had hit me with her bonbori several hours ago to the cat that was now before me, fur slick with rain.
"Are you okay?" I whispered.
She hissed a bit more, but when I picked her up, she didn't resist. I turned on the hot water in the bath and while I waited for the water to actually be hot, I swabbed off her fur with my sleeve. She leaned herself against my arm and cat-sang like Lime does sometimes when he's happy. It felt nice.
She was climbing into the bath when I closed the door.