Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Unlikely Alliances ❯ Home on the Range ( Chapter 12 )

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi.

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“I'm home!” Kasumi's head came up at the sound of Nabiki's voice, and she turned from her preparations for dinner and hurried out of the kitchen toward the front door.

“Nabiki, you're home early, is something wrong?” she called out, and Nabiki, halfway up the stairs, turned to look at her sister, a bemused expression on her face.

“I ... no, nothing's wrong ... not really ...” she stammered out.

Kasumi's eyes narrowed. Nabiki, off her center? “All right, Nabiki, I'm sure you wouldn't lie to me so nothing's wrong, but something happened, what?” she demanded sternly.

Nabiki stared at Kasumi for a moment, then sighed and walked back down the stairs. “You know about what happened at school over lunch, of course, but —”

“Something happened during lunch?” Kasumi broke in, then blushed a deep red. “Did it involve ... sex?” she managed to get out.

“You mean you didn't know?” Nabiki asked, her distracted air vanishing. “But when Ranma and Akane left they were coming here!”

“Well, if they got here I didn't hear it,” a suddenly concerned Kasumi said. “Check their rooms, I'll look around down here.”

As Nabiki rushed up the stairs, her older sister hurried past the family room toward the furo. Finding it empty, she almost ran back to the kitchen and through the door to the backyard, looked around ... nobody. Rushing toward the dojo, she slowed as the sounds from inside the building registered.

Peeking around the doorway, she gasped, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. “Oh my!” she whispered at the sight of her youngest sister lying on the dojo floor, her head bobbing between the thighs of a female Ranma crouched over her, the redhead leaning down between Akane's own spread open legs, a hand pumping, wet slurping sounds intermingling with gasps and moans.

Suddenly, Ranma sat upright, her large breasts bouncing with the motion, grinding her crotch against Akane's face, head thrown back and shaking. Kasumi whipped back out of sight even as Ranma collapsed to the side with a thump, panting for breath.

“Ranma, you idiot, don't do that again, I couldn't breathe!” Akane complained.

“Um, sorry, I ... I just ...” Ranma mumbled. “Uh, how `bout we move ta the furo? Kasumi should be startin' dinner by now.”

“Sure, but there's something you have to finish first — me!” Akane retorted.

“Oh ... right.” Soon, renewed moans interspersed by a running nonsensical monologue filled the air, and Kasumi quietly returned to the house.

Walking toward the stairs, she met Nabiki coming toward the kitchen.

“Nobody upstairs, you?” Nabiki asked.

“I ... yes, they're in the dojo,” Kasumi replied, blushing, and Nabiki's eyes narrowed.

“Still at it, are they? They must have gotten a larger dose,” the middle Tendo mused.

“Yes, they would have, from what I put in the bentos, didn't you eat all yours?” Kasumi asked distractedly.

“No, I only ate half ... wait, you drugged the bentos? Why mine?” a suddenly furious Nabiki demanded.

“Oh, no! I didn't, I think Kodachi did, but it ended up in the lunch here —”

Nabiki swayed, the blood draining from her face. “Not ... not you and Father and Uncle Genma?” she whispered, horrified, and Kasumi started.

“No! But it did affect us all, plus a visitor — Nodoka Saotome. She and Father and Uncle Genma ... anyway, I convinced them to spend a few days at Mrs. Saotome's home until Ranma and Akane return from a training trip.”

“Good going, sis,” Nabiki complimented, eyebrow rising. “So we have a few days yet, and it sounds like Akane's making a good start.”

“Not exactly ...” Kasumi said slowly. “I don't think Mrs. Saotome will count Akane being with Ranma-chan as manly.”

“Ranma-chan? Well, maybe what I told Kuno — Tatewaki — was closer to the truth than I knew,” Nabiki mused, and it was Kasumi's turn to focus on her sister.

“Tatewaki? Is he who you ... ended up with? What did you tell him?” she asked.

Nabiki's gaze dropped to the floor and she reluctantly told her mother figure of the web of half-truths and misdirections she'd spun for the kendoist, and his agreement to marry her.

Kasumi sighed. “Oh, Nabiki, that wasn't ... yes, it'll help in the short run, but ... what happens when he finds out you lied to him?”

“I don't think he will, Kasumi, I don't think the thought will even occur to him,” Nabiki said in a low voice. Reaching into her blouse, she pulled out a diamond-encrusted ring on a gold chain.

“Nabiki?” Kasumi questioned, eyes wide.

“His mother's engagement ring,” the middle Tendo whispered. “He said that since I was going to be the Lady of the House of Kuno, I should have it. Kasumi, I treat him like a bank exchange, destroy his dreams, push him into a marriage when he doesn't even like me, tell him up front I'm in it for the security and money, and he treats me like I'm the most important person in the world and gives me his mother's ring, and how do I handle this!?” she wailed.

Kasumi stepped forward and pulled her sister into a gentle hug. “You make it worth it to him, make him happy,” she whispered. “From now on, that's your job — to make sure he never regrets his decision. That's what marriage is about.”

For a long moment, Nabiki clutched at her older sister, then took a deep breath and stepped back, expression firming. “Right,” she said, nodding, then turned back toward the stairs. “I'll be in my room, I've got some thinking to do.”

 

Kasumi frowned slightly as she covertly watched Akane and her black-haired fiancé from where they knelt across the table — she did not like the body language between the two. She had expected that after what she'd seen in the dojo the two would finally be relaxed, more comfortable in each other's presence, but it seemed like things had gotten even worse. The usual exchange of insults was absent, but it had been replaced by silence, the two stiff and unable to even look at each other. And they were so distracted that they hadn't even asked where the fathers were.

Nabiki had been distracted at the beginning of dinner, but eventually she, too, had noticed, and quirked an eyebrow at Kasumi while nodding toward the two, then shrugged when Kasumi gave a slight shake of her head.

Soon enough dinner was over, and Kasumi spoke up as the others rose to leave with hardly a word. “Akane, could you please help me clean up tonight?” she asked, her normal serene manner firmly in place.

Akane shot her a questioning look, but nodded. “Sure, big sis, I'll be happy to,” she said, and bent to start piling up plates.

Once in the kitchen, Kasumi waited until Akane placed the plates in the sink, then, as Akane turned to leave, softly said, “Akane, I saw you and Ranma in the dojo this afternoon.”

Akane whirled back to face her sister, face gone white as a sheet. “Kasumi, I ... we ...” She trailed off, desperately searching for some way to explain, but Kasumi just sighed.

“No need to panic, Akane, I know you were drugged, and it's what you were supposed to try to do, anyway — sort of. But why Ranma-chan? Why not Ranma?”

Akane turned away, hugging herself. After a long moment, she whispered, “Because I'm a pervert.”

“What?” Kasumi asked, stunned.

“Because I'm a pervert!” Akane shouted. “When we got here, Ranma offered to change back to a guy, and I didn't want him to!”

Kasumi stepped up behind her youngest sister, hugging her from behind. “Oh, Akane ...”

The two girls simply stood in place for a moment, then looked up when Nabiki stepped into the kitchen. “I wouldn't worry, sis, you certainly seemed to be enjoying Ranma's attentions back at the school before I dumped some cold tea on him.”

“You heard me?” Akane asked, blushing.

“With that shout, I think the neighbors heard you,” Nabiki replied with a grin, then sobered when Akane went white as a ghost. “Sorry, I was just teasing,” the middle sister muttered, then paused thoughtfully. “Of course, you enjoyed the attentions of his girl form just as much ... I'd say you're solidly bi.”

“But ... but when we got here ...” Akane stammered.

“Tell me, when you think of Ranma as a guy, what do you feel — revulsion, disgust?” Nabiki asked. “Truthfully, now.”

Akane frowned in thought. “Noooo,” she said, thinking back over the times she'd spent with her fiancé. “It's a ... a mixture, some anger, some nervousness, some disgust at the way he boasts all the time, and ... yes, I'm attracted to him!” she finished, brightening. Kasumi carefully kept the envy and regret that stabbed through her off her face.

Nabiki shrugged. “Then I'd say you're simply feeling the pull of some scars from Kuno and the Hentai Horde, it'll probably fade in time.”

“But we don't have time,” Akane asserted. “Ranma's mother could show up at any time!”

“Actually, she's already shown up,” Nabiki admitted. “Kasumi rather cleverly diverted her — she'll be busy with Father and Uncle Genma for a few days.”

“Then I really don't have time,” Akane said with a sigh. “I guess I'll just have to bull through and hope for the best.”

Nabiki and Kasumi exchanged glances, then Kasumi leaned her head forward from where she was embracing Akane from behind. “No, you won't. I'll take care of it,” she said calmly in her sister's ear.

“What!?” both her sisters shouted, as Akane broke out of the embrace to whirl around and stare at her oldest sister. “No!” Akane insisted. “I've at least already been with Ranma, I can handle it, he's my fiancé, you shouldn't have to give up your first time for this!”

“What she said,” Nabiki added, “except I should handle it. Kuno already knows I wasn't a virgin our first time — if I need to, I can explain it as a matter of honor, he'll accept it.”

Kasumi just shook her head, smiling calmly. “There's one problem with the assumption you're both making — I've had an affair, I'm not a virgin.” Then, looking at the stunned, dumbstruck expressions on her sisters' faces, she began chuckling. “Too bad I don't have a camera,” she added.

“How ... when ... you've never ... how did I miss it?” Nabiki babbled.

Kasumi just shrugged, her smile turning wistful. “It's easy to miss when the man in question is the son of one of the shopkeepers I buy from,” she said. “It was a few years ago, when he was taking a break from college, helping his father manage the store. It only lasted a few months, and I knew that was how it would be going in, but ... I was tired of being the housewife when I wasn't even engaged. We still write occasionally, he's now a marine biologist, doing research along the Great Barrier Reef. Though my letters have gotten much more exciting since Ranma moved in,” she added with an impish grin, startling a laugh from Akane.

Sobering, Kasumi stepped forward and placed a hand on Akane's shoulder. “Akane, I'll handle it. It's for a good cause, Nabiki won't have to cheat on her fiancé, and you'll have time to get over your boy problem.”

Akane's eyes fell, but finally she nodded jerkily. “Okay ... and thanks,” she whispered.

Kasumi chuckled again. “Oh, it won't be a hardship, believe me — it's been a long two years. Now, how about we get the clean-up finished?”