Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Don't you know it's love ❯ Chapter 8

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

"Mother?"
"Hello, Perfume. I'll come to Japan on the eleventh with the Nannichuan water, all right?"
"Thank you so much. Hey, do you know what relations are like now?"
"What relations?"
"You know, mother, relations. Shampoo said she was planning to go back."
"For the wedding?"
"For the wedding. And if the…"
"And if they're bad, then…"
"Well it's going to be very difficult for them. Then again it'll be difficult either way, considering."
"…"
"Mother? Are you still there?"
"Perfume, I need to tell you… ai-ya, you shouldn't know."
"Shouldn't know what?"
"Should never have mentioned it."
"Mentioned what?"
"… I need to go."
"No you don't."
Yi-mei, First Sister, hung up the phone and sighed in the range of the inaudible. A breeze drifted through the "telephone shack," as the Joketsuzoku called it, causing her cerulean hair to move slightly.
She was pretty, looking several years older than her actual age of thirty-six but pretty. Her hair was part of this odd charm, although she did very little with it except refuse to let it past her shoulders. Her skin was the same healthy shade of her daughter's. It was the eyes, however, that the outsiders noticed, eyes the same brilliant blue of her hair, but with a bizarre hard quality to them.
She sighed again, and moved out of the shack. No point in staying. There were legends to catalog, fact and fiction to be sorted out, and old scrolls to interpret, as much as possible to be done before she began the walk to Xining for the plane on the ninth. She couldn't depend on Ancestor Cologne to do everything after all. She was the disciple, and ought to do her share. No time to talk to Perfume any longer. No time to explain.
That was what she told herself anyway.

"You're a jerk, Nabiki."
Nabiki looked up. "What?"
"Admit it." Akane crossed her arms in an attempt to look tough. Nabiki almost burst out laughing.
"I do like him."
"Yes, his money."
"Bug off, little sis."
"Don't call me that!"
"Sure, he has money. Lots of money. Did you see his getup? Oh, wait, you couldn't have. It was worth around ten thousand yen at the very least. He's also-" Nabiki grinned- "very cute."
"Oh right. That's a nice perk."
Nabiki ignored Akane's sarcasm. "I mean it, he's so suteki you wouldn't believe. His hair-just wait till you see his hair."
"Probably dyed purple, isn't it?"
Nabiki stood up and looked at Akane eye-to-eye. "I see no reason for you to criticize him. You haven't even met him. Besides," and here she grinned again, "he shares the mishap of your Ranma darling."
Akane's already large eyes expanded to ridiculous proportions. "What?!"
"That's how we met." She beamed. "In the rain. How romantic. I sold him an umbrella."
"Umbrella-! So that's where mine went! Why did I have be in a family with such a cheap sister?"
"Hey, you don't wanna listen, you can always leave."
"I WILL, thank you!" The next moment Akane was thundering off down the hall. Nabiki could hear her voice, sharp and furious. "Ranma! Nabiki says her boyfriend fell into that Chinese spring too!"
"Yeah, I heard."

"Good morning, Shampoo."
"Hmph."
Mint shoveled rice into dishes. "You want some?"
"No." She stood up. "I'll be going to the Nekohanten now."
"Okay."
Her eyes became suspicion-filled slits. "You'd better not be cheating on me or I'll kill you, law or no law."
"Thanks for the warning."
Shampoo seemed to soften slightly. "You had better believe it," she stated in a amiable tone, "or you will experience a world of pain."
She left in a rush, the door she had closed improperly flapping open and shut with the wind. Mint sighed and began looking over the glossy brochures he had procured from somewhere in his jacket.

She lifted an eyebrow. "Skiing?"
"Yes…" I felt like an idiot. "My friend suggested it." Actually he told us he was going as long as Shampoo said it was all right, then Lime wanted to go whether or not she said yes, and I have to go to "keep them out of trouble."
"Where?"
"Tohoku."
"Really?"
"Yes…"
"I've been to Tohoku. Excellent. Very good snow conditions. A bit far, but less crowds. And of course the prices are reasonable."
"Yes…" Now I didn't feel like an idiot- I knew I was an idiot.
"And why are you inviting me?"
"Well… you did invite me to dinner."
"And you never came…oh, screw it all, okay." She grinned. "Thank you so much. Herb-chan."
I left with as much dignity as I could summon, my face redder than blood. "Skiing?" She lifted an eyebrow.
"Yeah…" Why did I always think of Perfect Things to Say but never remembered them? "Skiing. In Tohoku."
"One condition."
"What?"
"Great-grandmother and Perfume have to come."
"But I thought you were angry when-ow!"
She replaced her bonbori. "When are you going to stop being a fahn-tong?"
"I'm not…" I began, but then felt I didn't need to finish it. "You can have my phoenix crown for the wedding." Great-grandmother went through a box and pulled it out. "See if you approve."
I held it and stared at it through eyes slanted in disparagement. The kingfisher feathers were withered with the dust of seventy-five years. Oh, I was sure it must have been gorgeous when Great-grandmother had worn it, but not now. The silver was tarnished and the pearls, if there were any, were impossible to discern. "I'm sorry, Great-grandmother, but this…"
"You know which wedding I mean."
I understood. "Yes, Great-grandmother."
"For the one to Ranma, I'll make sure it's much, much better. As you deserve. But for this, I don't think the best is called for." She indicated a set of my oldest clothes spread out on the floor. They had once been a brilliant shade of blue silk, but were now shabby and predominantly gray. Blue and gray-among the worst colors for a wedding.
My smile grew even wider. "Oh, and Great-grandmother, do you want to go ski?"