Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Don't you know it's love ❯ Chapter 10

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

"Mother?"
"Perfume, I already told you, I'm coming on the eleventh."
"That's not it, mother."
Perfume took a deep breath. Be calm, she reminded herself. There's nothing you've got to be afraid of. Though it was hard to think so sitting on an inn futon with the inn telephone, which charged by the minute with rates that seemed to her utilitarian side absolutely and totally astronomical, and Mousse was out looking for Shampoo to pursue and earn or Mint to pursue and kill right now (she knew this even though he'd never quite told her) and would be back any minute with more lumps on his head, for her to put herbs on, for she could heal like her mother even at fifteen, and Mousse was always incredibly grateful. He could be quite cute when he wasn't attempting to kill people.
Yi-mei, for her part, was praying with earnestness, Don't let her ask oh please whoever's out there don't let her ask don't don't don't let her ask…
She'd never heard from Ginseng since that day, fifteen years ago. He hadn't said a word as she'd picked up Perfume and gone. Not a word. She'd never gone back to the village, never asked about him. It was as if Ginseng and her son became nonentities. As if all space-time was a gigantic stage, and they had simply been taken out by some unseen puppet master.
And she'd never told Perfume about it.
"What…happened…" she seemed to be deliberately prolonging the torture. "…to my father?"
I hate you I hate you you let her ask I hate you
"I can't tell you. "
But Perfume, smart girl that she was, could guess, and guess right. "He was one of…them wasn't he? One of the Jakou Ouchou, wasn't he?"
"Perfume…"
"And you left after the last treaty, was that it? He was one of them, wasn't he? Wasn't he?" Her voice rose to its peak, then climbed even higher. "And my brother." It dropped, back to mellow and halcyon with hardness lurking underneath.
"He died, Perfume."
"He did not. If he did why did you never tell me how come he did die?"
Yi-mei dropped the phone, then slowly, resolutely, picked it up and hung up. Mint couldn't stop talking about the ski trip. He chattered on like a fool whenever it was mentioned. I was beginning to regret letting him go in the first place.
"It's in Tohoku. And I already checked at the inn and it's only four thousand yen a night and that's only 200 yuan isn't it Herb? Isn't it? And there won't be too many people there so we'll have lots of room. And I heard the skiing's great and I already know how, so do you n' Lime, remember how we used to slide down on chopped logs, do you hear me Herb? Herb?"
Lime was no help. He talked as much as Mint, but about different things. Something about someone called Kasumi. I never remembered exactly what he said about this Kasumi because my brain shut down whenever he got started.
Nabiki was about the only thing that didn't set me off screaming.
She came over sometimes with flowers. It was too bad, she said, that Valentine's Day wouldn't be till next year. I never answered. Sometimes I bought her things, like candy. Once I got her a silver rechargeable pocket calculator and to my near-everlasting shock she didn't laugh me off. She thanked me and said, "I'd been hoping for one." I ran off like a lynch mob of demons was chasing me, that day.
That wonderful day… We went to bed as usual. She was on the futon she'd brought over, I was on mine. She stared at the wall, then when I put mine down there, she rolled over and stared at the other wall. I didn't try talking to her.
The morning wasn't usual though. It was unintended, and it was stupid.
When my eyes opened, with a paroxysm of indignation, I discovered that the room was cold. I had slept without a blanket since it was warm when I went to sleep, and they didn't have any heating (they couldn't afford a fireplace even?). I had even asleep been drawn toward a heat source. Which wouldn't have been so bad except for the fat that the nearest heat source happened to be none other than Mint, so I was close. Quite close. To clarify, I was on Mint's futon. With my arms around him. Tightly. And the rest of me was no better.
Of course, the fact that that night it was so warm I opened my blouse after he'd gone to sleep did not help at all.
I'm not sure exactly why I screamed, but I did. That was a mistake.
He made a little noise and woke up. He looked straight at me, eyes expanded to ridiculous proportions, and I wanted to kill him right then. I wanted to take my bonbori and…
"Thank you." "Get away!"
Next moment I was flying, it was a little fun actually, until I hit the wall. I slid down and wound up looking up through my legs, which were folded over my upper half. I rocked myself back up, and a shoe came flying and it hit. I kind of fell back. She started to yell.
"Get away! Get out of this room! Go on, get out you pervert, you…you…" She stopped.
For some reason I didn't think she meant it. "What is it?"
"Just do it okay? Get out!"
"What did I do?"
She grabbed the futon and sort of waved it, as much as she could seeing how heavy it was. "I really don't feel like putting up with you. Get out."
"What's wrong?" Lime's voice drifted through the door.
"Nothing," I called. I turned back to Shampoo. She was finishing buttoning up her shirt. "What's wrong?" "Nothing," I echoed him. Then I started to laugh, wildly, insanely. I grabbed him by his jacket and laughed even harder, ever harder. So hard… He stared for a moment, then he began laughing too.
Then I hugged him. I didn't know what I was doing. Somehow I didn't feel ashamed at all, not about Saotome Ranma or anybody. It wasn't the kind of hug to be ashamed of. Hugging Mint felt like hugging the younger brother I never had, not like hugging someone I loved in love. He looked good there in the unlucky blue jacket that he planned to wear to the wedding, too. I felt the itching in my nose that meant crying wasn't far off, but somehow it didn't come out like it ought to.
Then his eyes went wide, and he began to disengage himself. I took my arms away and watched him close.
"Something's wrong."
Yes, something was wrong. Why did I just hug him like he was my real fiancé, not just shades of one? Why didn't I at least knock him out like I meant to? It would have been so easy…
"He hasn't run in yelling to know what the racket was about." He opened the door. "Lime, how come Herb hasn't woken up yet?"
"Wasn't he with you?"
Warning sirens erupted, cluttering my brain with their mental wailing. I looked at Mint. His eyes were as big as they had been when he'd woken up. I woke up exhausted. My mind spiraled in anarchy. It was only when I felt him next to me that I remembered. And some of the things I remembered…
He'd paid for the whole thing like I thought he would. Just like him. He'd grumbled about the garish decor and the exorbitant prices (I agreed) but he'd done it, and that was what counted. I smiled as I fingered the pocket calculator.
What a wonderful evening it had been…

We hadn't been drinking that night, not beer or sake or things of that nature, but so much canned tea, Coca-Cola and coffee that all the infinitesimal liquor content that they didn't bother to put on the label might have added up to quite a bit. Or maybe it was purely from the excitement.
He laughed a lot that night. Before he'd been deep-frozen. But I got through, apparently. Or maybe it had been just a pretense. I didn't care.
We played tons of pachinko, that night. We walked around in neon wonderment. We nearly got run over several times. We talked about renting a foreign movie and going back to the Dojo. But we never got around to it. We didn't need to.
I remember stumbling into the love hotel half-dragging him behind. I remember falling down into the bed, for some reason expecting to sink into it and vanish. I remember hugging him, hugging him tight.
It was then that I began to remember actual words from what spilled from our oral cavities.
"Don't open it."
It took a while for my brain to catch up with my ears. "Open what?"
He indicated my shirt. "Don't open it!"
"Why not?"
"Don't open it, whatever you do!"
"What the…"
"If you do I'll do worse than kill you!" Then, calmer: "Just don't. Please. Do. Not. Open. It."
"Okay, that can be managed…" I reached for the light switch above the bed and flicked it off. Then we were only with us and the dark.
Us and the dark…