[FFML] [Ranma/OMG]A New Life 4-5: Revised

Okay...since I made a large error in my assumption of
the development of a child....I've revised and gone
with my original plan of hyper growth (something more
in keeping with various myths about magical and/or
divine children around the world) needless to say this
resulted in some minor changes

Chapter 4

Nabiki counted out the money and frowned.

"After living expenses, we're about ten-thousand
short," she said. "Again."

"Damn it," Ranma said. "An' Midori's gonna need some
new clothes again."

Midori was watching TV across the room, occasionally
glancing back at the whispering adults. She had been
growing fast, not nearly as fast as Ranma's quick
pregnancy, but still fast. She looked more like she
was three years old than anything else.

"We aren't getting anywhere staying in motels like
this," Nabiki said.

It was a rather standard catch twenty-two situation.
They couldn't use their family names for fear they'd
be tracked down. So, despite the fact that they hadn't
renounced their families, they were considered ronin
virtually everywhere. That made it difficult to earn
money, especially for two teenagers with a young
child.

They had eventually decided to start a new family
name, at least until they felt they could safely
return home. They even had a name picked out, a nice,
simple common hard to distinguish name like "Tanaka".
Doing this was possible, but...it took money. And
getting money, again, was hard.

They had cut out a number of expenses. Somehow, they
discovered that they didn't have to eat, and so "food"
was limited to Ranma's sodas and food for Midori,
because they weren't risking her health.

Nabiki, having discovered that money had the same
effect on her that caffeine had on Ranma, originally
kept a few yen notes and coins around for anytime she
felt peckish. Unfortunately, she soon discovered that
if she didn't use the money it didn't do anything for
her. No, she was revitalized by the action of
spending, receiving and otherwise handling money.
Saving was okay, but outright hoarding seemed to
invalidate the effect.

"We need to find new living quarters," Nabiki said,
glancing around the motel room that was eating their
so much of their funds.

"Worse comes to worse," Ranma said. "We can always ask
for help."

"Last resort, Ranma," she said.

Midori watched from her bed as her mommy and daddy
talked quietly among themselves. She understood,
basically, that they were trying not to worry her. She
still felt the tension though.

"Play in sand," Midori cried out, almost singing the
words. "Mommy play in sand?"

"Maybe a walk would help clear things up," Nabiki
agreed.

*****

"I'm sorry, Megumi," a girl said apologetically. "We
just can't afford that rent."

"Not even split three ways," her friend agreed.

"Listen guys," Megumi said, almost hysterically. "It's
the ONLY place I can find. I can handle half the rent
on my own! I can even handle the first two months on
my own. That's plenty of time for you both to figure
something out."

"Sorry," her friend said shrugging. "I'm not going to
take the risk, I got a place already, I don't want to
lose that and end up not being able to make it."

"Besides," the second girl said. "You can always just
move in with your brother."

"He doesn't have that much space anymore," Megumi said
sorrowly.

"Sorry," her friend said again.

"Excuse me," a new voice said. Megumi turned around to
see a brown-haired teenager sitting on a bench
watching the playground's sandbox.

"Yeah?" Megumi asked wearily, she was too frustrated
to notice the blue tattoos on the girl's face.

"I couldn't help but overhear your predicament,"
Nabiki said. "I think we can help each other."

"Really?" Megumi said doubtfully, the girl couldn't be
older than eighteen.

The girl nodded and looked toward the playground where
some men were joking around with another teenager on
the basketball court. Megumi shook her head irritably
at that, some big bad jocks they were, making sport of
a kid like that.

"Ranma!" she called out. One of the children from the
sandbox stood up and walked over to her. Megumi
glanced at her, still missing the marks, but noting
the girl's dark violet hair.

"Huh?" the teenager said, turning to Nabiki. As he did
one of the college jocks stole the ball from him with
a laughing smirk.

"What happening, Mommy?" the girl asked. Megumi's
eyes widened. The girl turned to her daughter for a
moment before answering Ranma.

"Don't worry, Midori, everything is fine," she said
soothingly. Then she turned back to Ranma. "Cut it
early, okay? I think I found something."

"Oh! Got it," Ranma called back. Megumi was about to
ask what Nabiki what she meant by cut it early when
the teenager flew into action.
Ranma leaped from mid court, with no run, and caught
the ball in mid arc from the jump lay-up the college
jock had set it into. Then he brought it through the
hoop as he landed.

The college jocks, and virtually everybody else stared
in shock as Ranma walked to the free throw line
holding the ball.

"Change," he said. Then he threw the ball and it
swished through the net and bounced off the pole back
to Ranma, who didn't have to move to recover it.
"Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change.
Change. Change." This went on for minute or two.

"You, you, you lied to us!" one of the jocks shouted
as Ranma sunk the last goal in to reach the set score.

"Uhh, I just tricked you is all," Ranma said.

Really, he couldn't lie, it never worked. People
always knew somehow when he tried to. He hadn't
figured it out yet. Nabiki had mentioned something
about a poker face, but Ranma didn't know what his bad
poker face had to do with lying.

"Same thing," the jock snapped. Megumi shook her head
clear as she and her friends vaguely followed Nabiki
to the altercation.

"All I said was that I hadn't played basketball
before," Ranma protested. Nabiki smirked a little, her
coaching was really paying off of late. "I never said
I wasn't an athlete or nothin'."

"I'm not paying a ronin street hustler," the jock
snapped back. Ranma crossed his arms and frowned. He
glanced back to Nabiki and Midori and then glared
meaningfully at the jock.

"Hey, Kenji," Megumi said walking up. "Do you want it
to get out that all four of you lost to a 'ronin
street hustler?'" The looks on their faces clearly
said no.

"Here's your money, kid," Kenji said finely giving the
Ranma a small roll of cash. Then he walked away,
looking sore.

"Thanks," Ranma said. "Now, uh, what're we doing?"

"Are you really going to talk to them, Megumi?" one of
her friends asked quietly.

"Well I have to get that place somehow," Megumi said.

*****

In Nerima, meanwhile, Akane was silently fuming as she
went through a day in her senior year. Nabiki and
Ranma had run off together with that brat and barely a
goodbye. Nabiki had given her some lecture about
growing up, not being ready, and trust, but Akane
hadn't really paid attention. All she knew was that
her sister and fiancee had betrayed her.

When she discovered "P-Chan", she was doubly incensed.
She was mad enough that she actually seduced Ryouga in
the illogical assumption that it would get back Ranma
and make him jealous. Certainly he and Nabiki were
having such fun together. Though she wouldn't admit
that outloud.

Which brought her to her current predicament. The one
that was going to slow down her college plans. And
she'd be damnded if she accepted KODACHI'S help with
this.

Ryouga had not worn protection.

"When I see that pig," she muttered to herself at
lunch. She was sitting alone today, she liked to be
alone when her temper was at its worse, she didn't
want to hurt anybody.

She sighed and shook her head, some of the anger
releasing. SHE had made the effort to seduce Ryouga,
not the other way around. And then she had TOLD him
what she had done. Spat in his face, stomped on his
heart and laughed at him. She had no right to accuse
him of anything, and that was the source of her
frustration.

To make matters worse, he was spending a lot more time
with Akari lately. And the last time she had seen him,
he had been less than happy to see her. He had
virtually flinched away like a beaten dog. At the time
it had amused her, now...

"What am I going to tell Kasumi?" Akane wondered
quietly. "What have I done? What am I going to do?"

*****

Cologne sighed at the sound of a clattering tray and
she looked out to where Shampoo was angrily clawing up
a salaryman's leg. Said salary man was screaming like
a little girl to the enjoyment of the patrons,
especially the female ones. Cologne guessed what had
happened fairly well.

The salaryman had probably grabbed some piece of
anatomy he shouldn't have. Shampoo, forgetting
herself, had probably decided to mangle said salaryman
into something unrecognizeable. Once the actual
decision to seriously hurt someone had been reached.
Poof...instant Shampoo-neko.

"Mousse if you would please dislodge Shampoo from the
customer," Cologne said dryly. The blind boy nodded
and moved to grab Shampoo, and found himself grabbed
instead, as the scream of pain testified.

Cologne hadn't yet figured out exactly how the
son-in-law had called down a divine curse on her
daughter to alter the Jusenkyo magic. She did know
why, however, and after hearing about the whole story
was, to put it mildly quite disappointed with her
grand-daughter. The changes were still reversed with
hot-water, but now there were two changes.

Cologne remembered what had happened when some abusive
boyfriend had caught Shampoo's attention by smacking
his girlfriend in front of the store. Cologne was
about to do something herself to teach the young man a
lesson, but Shampoo beat her to it. A cat-hybrid
Shampoo that had caught the second slap and then
proceeded to crush the hand while growling angrily at
the man.

So, Shampoo had a curse that gave her power if she
used it according to Ranma's code, protecting the
weak, but took it away if she tried to hurt someone
for petty reasons. It was a vast disappoint to Cologne
that Shampoo had not yet realized this fact. She was
on the verge of telling the girl herself, outright.

Cologne briefly wondered why she bothered staying in
Japan. But that question was easily answered. There
were several reasons.
First, Shampoo insisted they stay. She often took her
days off seeking out Ranma and Nabiki's whereabouts.
She swore every time that she had almost found them,
but every time she sought them out it was a dead end.

Cologne especially remembered the close call with that
girl and her private eye guardian. Suzuki-san had
certainly LOOKED like Ranma's girl form, but that was
all. Ranma did not speak so formally, nor did he use a
Katana in that manner.

The second reason was that she liked it here. The kids
were mostly of a good sort, and she made it her
business to check up on them from time to time. Some
were doing better than others with the changes that
happened a year ago.

The last reason was that she didn't trust Happosai.
The old man had always struck her as more than he
seemed, or maybe less, and she made it her business to
watch him.

*****

Ukyou sighed wearily as she closed up her restaurant.
They said that once you lost your youth, it never came
back. She thought she had lost it more than ten years
before. There were times that she contemplated ending
it all, but she didn't. She wasn't certain why, except
that doing so would hurt a lot of people.

Konatsu needed her, Ryouga would probably starve
without her, surprisingly Cologne seemed to be giving
her attention recently, as was Kasumi (though that was
less of a surprise) and Ranma still cared for her.

At least she thought so from the fact he and Nabiki
said goodbye before leaving, and she didn't want to
put a burden on him that he caused her death even by
suicide. Besides, suicide was a weak person's way out.
So Ukyou trained with Konatsu, sometimes Cologne, and
ran her Okonomiyaki shop, and existed.

"Ahh, tis the wonderful smell of Kuonji-san's
cooking," a new voice said. Ukyou frowned, thinking
that a certain samurai was paying her a visit.

"Look Kuno, I'm not..." Ukyou blinked as she lifted
her eyes and recognized Pantyhose Tarou. She'd served
him once or twice in between his pestering Ranma and
Happosai, but she hadn't seen him for a long time.

"You actually thought I was that idiot?" Tarou said
rolling his eyes. "Really, so, Crossdresser #2, do you
know where Crossdresser #1 is today?"

"Ranma left Nerima a year ago, jerk," Ukyou said.

"What?" Tarou demanded.

*****

Happosai was having the time of his life. Most people
still refused to actively learn from him, but that
could always come later. As it was, he was free to
persue his primary past time. Stealing girl's
underwear.

"Whatta a haul," Happosai declared cheerfully. "What a
haul! Hee hee. Not so fun without the games any
longer, but some of the second-stringers around her
can be fun."

Happosai's ear caught the sound of someone bemoaning
his life.

"Why! WHY! Can't I make her see me?" a scrawny kid,
yelled. "Ranma's gone and she still won't say anything
to me."

Happosai pulled out his pipe and examined the boy.
Dark circles under the eyes, gangly, stringy,
featherweight. A rather small potential, but perhaps,
an interesting challenge.

"Perhaps we can come to a deal, boy," Happosai said,
surprising Gosunkugi almost to death.

*****

"Well," Ranma said as they left the city offices.
"That's that I guess. We're finally Mr. and Mrs.
Tanaka..."

"Finally," Nabiki agreed. "Legally married, with a
child." It was rather momentous actually.

They had spent the last year several times sleeping in
the same bed, but just that, sleeping. Nothing else
the rest of the Nerima crew might have been thinking.
It just made it safer for Midori to be between the two
adults, that's all.

There was certainly no other reason for it. He/she
couldn't possibly be interested in that with her/him.
Could he/she?

"Now we can get some real jobs and make some real
money," Nabiki said.

"Okay," Ranma said. "Let's go help move the stuff into
the house." Nabiki nodded, and glanced down at the
little girl between them.

"Are we done now?" Midori asked wearily, yawning.

"We're done now," Nabiki assured her.

"Yay!" Midori cheered. "Can I ride on your shoulders,
Daddy?"

"Sure kid," Ranma said, reaching down to pick her up
and place her on his shoulders.

After that Midori spent the time humming a random
wordless tune that changed from moment to moment and
watched the world go by from the shoulders of her
father.

Her parents were talking about "explaining the growth
spurts" to that Megumi person, and they were using
lots of words she didn't know. Well, Nabiki was,
Ranma was being vague and using as few words as
possible. In any case, Midori paid close attention to
the conversation, she really loved learning new words.

*****

"I thought she said this came fully furnished," Urd
said peevishly.
"And she has roommates, why does she need us to help
move things around."

"Urd," Belldandy chided. "We should be happy to help
Megumi settle into a new home."

"Remember the last new apartment she got?" Skuld asked
nervously. She still had nightmares about ghosts from
that.

"Really, it can't be as bad as that," Belldandy said.

"Let's hope not," Keiichi sighed. "Well here we are."
Megumi appeared on the small sidewalk in front of the
house and waved vigoursly. The need for help was
obvious, the house, in good condition itself, seemed
to be a disaser zone, with lots of trash being
removed.

"Hey guys!" she called out. "Over here, isn't it
great?"

"Oh, how charming!" Belldandy said, though Keiichi
thought he detected a strained tone in even HER
cheerful manner.

"Yeah, great Megumi," Keiichi said dryly. Skuld was
crying her eyes out and Urd was trying to scheme a way
to get out of this.

"Go inside and get something to drink," Megumi said.
"And then we can get to work."

"All right," Keiichi said, following Megumi's advice
and heading inside with his own housemates. "I wonder
where her roommates are?"

"I'm sure they're around," Belldandy said. The sound
of working in the back of the house drifted to their
ears. "See."

"This is a big house," Skuld noted, much less
despairing when she saw the, comparatively, cleaner
inside.

"So where are the drinks?" Urd asked wearily as she
entered the house and started looking for the kitchen.
Keiichi shrugged and turned to a door and opened it.
He saw nothing interesting, just more debris and
"storage."

~Fully furnished,~ Keiichi muttered to himself with
narrowed eyes. ~Right.~

He opened another door and found himself faced with a
brown-haired teenager cleaning the room while a small
child followed her around "helping." The girl turned
around to look at who entered the room and Keiichi saw
the goddess marks.

"Who that, Mommy?" the little girl, also with goddess
marks, asked. The girl seemed about to answer but
Keiichi beat her too it.

"Excuse me," Keiichi said, stepping out of the room
and closing the door behind him, leaving a confused
Nabiki.

"Is something wrong Keiichi?" Belldandy asked as she
caught up to him. "You seem pale."

"There's a goddess and her daughter in the room behind
me," Keiichi said.

"Oh my," Belldandy said.

He felt the door opening behind him and jumped away
from it. Nabiki came out quickly, face curious and a
little anger.

"Excuse me do you have a pro...?" Nabiki's anger was
derailed as she saw the marks on Belldandy's face.
"...blem?"

"Oh, hello," Belldandy said.

"Uhh, excuse me," Nabiki said. "Where'd you get those
marks on your head?"

"Oh I see you met Nabiki and Midori," Megumi said
coming in.

"Belldandy, Belldandy!" Skuld came running, shouting.
"There's a god in the...back...room...there's another
one...err...two."

"Gods," Nabiki and Megumi said dizzily at once.

"Yeah," Urd said, joining the scene. "What did you
think these little things on your face were?"

"Hey Megumi," Ranma said. "Who was the little kid that
came back here and then went running." He looked
around at the various faces, confused. "Did I miss
something?"

Chapter 5:

"What was that about 'gods?'" Megumi asked.

"Uhhh, Goth," Keiichi said, suddenly. "She meant
Goths, they're ones that paint themselves blue right?"

"Actually, that's the Celts," Urd said.

"You're not helping, Urd," Keiichi muttered under
his breath while his sister's eyes were on the
white-haired goddess.

"Right," Megumi said, eyes narrowed. "Is that what
you meant, Skuld?"

"Uhh..." Skuld stood there trapped. She couldn't
lie, well she could, but that would be very bad. She
didn't really want to tell the truth either, and in
her predicament she forgot the rule of answering
questions with questions.

Midori meanwhile watched this curiously, holding
Nabiki's hands and humming.

"Who believes in gods these days?" Nabiki asked
dismissively a smirk on her face. "Really, that's a
silly idea. Like something you'd hear out of Juuban
or Nerima."

"Yeah," Ranma said, confused. He was about to add
more but he caught a look of Nabiki flashing him the
"keep quiet" face. "Weren't we going to have break
when they got here?"

"Right," Megumi said. "It is silly. Especially
since that would mean my brother's been shacking up
with a bunch of goddesses, and I just know that's not
possible." She shrugged with a smirk toward a fuming
Keiichi as she left the room to get the promised
sodas.

"We shall need to talk to you later," Belldandy
said.

"Of course," Nabiki agreed almost off-handedly.
Then Megumi came back with sodas and they all
retreated to their intangible corners.

"Okay everyone," Megumi said. "These are my
housemates, Ranma, Nabiki and Midori Tanaka. And this
is my brother, Keiichi. His girlfriend, Belldandy,
and her sister's Urd and Skuld." She gestured toward
each person in turn.

"I am pleased to meet you," Belldandy said, bowing
politely. Urd waved and seemed to be trying to
dissect (oer maybe dismantle) them visually.

"Yeah, us too," Ranma said. Nabiki nodded from her
seat next to Ranma.

Midori at this point felt herself falling to sleep,
and fought valiently against the emerging yawn. It
eventually came out in a loud, stretched yawn. This
produced the reaction she was dreading.

"Oops," Ranma said. "Looks like nap time."

"I don't need nap, Daddy," Midori protested,
blinking and yawning again.

"Don't try to fool us, little girl," Nabiki said in
an amused voice. "Let's go. Ranma want to help me
with this?"

"No problem," Ranma said, following Nabiki.

"Don wanna," Midori complained loudly as Nabiki
picked her up and carried back to one of the cleared
rooms.

"She even sings her whining," Megumi noted,
blinking at the departing family.

"Well," Urd said watching them go. "I've had my
fill, why don't the squirt and I go and get started on
cleaning one of these rooms?" She grabbed Skuld, who
was discovering the wonders of the root beer float.

"But..." she said hesitantly before being dragged
away, barely managing to save her drink from spilling.

"Well, that was a shorter break than I expected,"
Megumi said somewhat surprised, more at Urd saying she
was heading to do some work.

That statement worried her actually.

"I'm sure they'll be right back," Belldandy said.

"Yeah," Keiichi said. "When was the last time you
knew Urd to work for longer than ten minutes at a
stretch?"

*****

As they set Midori down for her nap, which she
struggled greatly but vainly against, Ranma and Nabiki
looked at the girl's little bed with its safety bars.

"I don't know if I'm going to be able to get used
to this," Nabiki said as she watched Midori sleeping
quietly.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "Be kinda odd sleeping alone
now."

"Who says you'll be sleeping alone," Nabiki asked,
a trifle hurt.

"But..." Ranma started before Nabiki cut him off.

"You don't think it would be a little funny for a
married couple our age to be sleeping separately in
this day and age?" Nabiki asked. "Really, we've
gotten by this long without anything happening."

~Just barely,~ both thought in addition to that.
~Good thing I never tried anything.~

"Besides," Nabiki said. "You're better, and
cheaper, than an electric blanket."

"Errr, thanks," Ranma said blushing. ~I wish she
wouldn't tease me like that.~ "Now, uhh, what did I
miss?"

~I really shouldn't tempt myself like that,~ Nabiki
thought as she softly rocked the crib. Ranma stood
right behind her, less than an inch away, but she
barely noticed that. "Saffron called himself a god,
right?"

"Yeah," Ranma said. "Why?"

"And you said our auras resemble his, right?" she
asked.

"Sorta," Ranma said. "We're more whole and
balanced, and a lot more powerful. Though you still
don't fight the best. But I sorta interrupted his
growth or somethin' so maybe that's why."

"So is there a possibility that we're gods?" Nabiki
asked. Ranma's gaze broke from his daughter to look
into Nabiki's face, now turning up from the little
girl to look at him.

*****

"Okay squirt," Urd said. "We're clear now, pull
down some files."

"You almost made me spill my drink Urd!!" Skuld
whined. "I would have lost all the ice cream!"

"Just figure out who these gods are and what
they're doing her," Urd asked. "There's something odd
about two gods with an infant daughter coming to
midgard."

"Don't I know it," Skuld said, producing a square
out of her pocket that unfolded into a computer. She
typed at hyper speed for a few moments, and then
laughed out in victory as her computer began to
display three files.

"All three third class gods," Urd noted.
"Provision, Change, and Rebirth. Okay, okay, this is
all the basic stuff, can you pull up affiliations?"

"Of course, I already glanced at that," Skuld said,
rolling her eyes at the unintenional insult. "There
are no official affiliations, but Ranma's a cat
deity."

Contrary to popular belief, and Bast's supporting
implications, there were many cat deities. Just like
their were many powers connected to ravens and wolves
and bears, and so on. Bast was just the most well
known.

It wasn't really a domain, the afforementioned
"Goddess of Cats"' official title was "Goddess of
Pleasure and Pregnant Women." (A domain she had
acquired for obvious reasons) However, those deities
connected to animals did have certain tendencies
attached to them, however.

"And a dual god(dess)," Urd noted whistling. "Cat,
that makes him trickster, war, or hearth."

"Or all three," Skuld said. "Primarily concerned
with hearth and home, very strong martial aspect and
trickster trends. Nabiki has a trickster aspect
strong enough to be her secondary domain. Still most
likely a hearth goddess."

"What about the kid," Urd asked, reaching around
Skuld.

"Hey!" Skuld snapped irritably as Urd scrolled
down.

"Hearth," Urd said as if it were predictable. "If
she grows up with that father she may have a martial
aspect before long, too. Now to pull up their
backgrounds."

"Urd," Skuld said warningly. "Get your hands off
my computer."

*****

"Do gods live hand ta mouth?" Ranma asked.

"Do mortals go without food for a ten months?"
Nabiki countered. "Because, before that meal with
Megumi yesterday, that was the last time either of us
had eaten anything."

"It don't make sense," Ranma said shrugging.

"And you conceiving and giving birth within two
days does?" Nabiki asked.

"Point taken," Ranma said reluctantly.

"And that is something straight out of a myth,"
Nabiki said.

"What made you think of this?" Ranma asked.

"Something Megumi's friends let slip," Nabiki said.

"Oh yeah," Ranma said. "Did you notice they have
those same marks on their head that we do?"

"You don't say Ranma-Baby," Nabiki said dryly.

At which point there was a muffled explosion and
scream. Nabiki glanced to Ranma, who nodded before
leaving for the sound. Nabiki looked down nervously
at Midori and then back at Ranma.

"Don't be concerned," a voice said as Belldandy
appeared in the door to block Ranma's path. "My
sister's sometimes fail to get along."

"Urd, Skuld!" Keiichi called out from elsewhere in
the house. "Can't you two avoid destroying other
people's property for once?"

"My poor house!?" Megumi cried out, somewhere near
her brother.

"Is this a regular occurence?" Ranma asked tightly.

"Because we left our homes to avoid situations like
that," Nabiki added. "Random explosions and such."

"Bad for kids," Ranma finished.

"Urd and Skuld would never allow any child to be
endangered," Belldandy said. Then she laughed. "In
any case you live with Megumi, not us."

"Good point," Nabiki said.

*****

"Really," Megumi said irritably. "Sneaking off to
play video games, I thought better of you Skuld."

"Hey, what about me?" Urd protested cutely.
Keiichi, Megumi and Skuld glanced at Urd before
turning back to Skuld.

"Yeah, Skuld," Keiichi said. "I thought at least
you knew how to behave maturely." ~Better than Urd at
least.~

"Hey!" Urd protested.

"Well," Belldandy said returning with Ranma.
"Nabiki is watching Midori, but I suggest that the
rest of us get started on working."

"Right," Megumi said. "The sooner we get started
the sooner we're finished."

"Aww, man," Urd sighed. "I should have skipped
while I had the chance."

*****

It took most of the day to clear out the house of
all the junk infesting it. Urd kept grumbling to
herself about "easier ways" and Skuld about manual
labor. There was little other complaint, however.

Everyone was certainly impressed by Ranma's
physical skills. Keiichi kept worrying that the
pig-tailed god was going to blow the goddesses' cover.
If he had known that Ranma was doing what had been
mild labor before ascending, his eyes would have
bugged out.

"Thanks a lot for the help guys," Megumi said
cheerfully, as she considered the bath she was going
to draw in a moment. "Come by and visit anytime!"

"And you and your friends may visit us as well,"
Belldandy said. "As usual, at any time."

"Of course," Megumi said. "As usual."

"Thanks for the offer," Nabiki said bowing.

"Can we go home now?" someone whined. It wasn't
Skuld, but it was female.

"Be careful, Megumi," Keiichi said.

"Bye bye!" Midori sung.

He wasn't too worried. With a couple of gods
watching over her, his sister was probably fairly well
protected. Until, of course, he remembered the "act
of god" clause on most insurance policies. It was the
reason most such policies were useless in his life.

"Stop worrying, Bro," Megumi said, waving off the
concern and waving goodbye as the temple group walked
down the path. She turned to Ranma and Nabiki. "I
don't know about you two, but I'm getting a bath and
heading for bed, see ya."

"Good thing there's a separate shower in this
place," Nabiki said. "I'm tired and I don't feel like
waiting for the bath."

After taking their turns in the shower, Ranma and
Nabiki started to settle down for the evening.

"But why can't I sleep in the bed with you?" Midori
whined wearily when they set her in her bed.

"Because you have your own bed now," Nabiki said.
"You're getting to be a big girl, and big girls don't
sleep with their parents."

"If you need us we're right in the next room,"
Ranma said.

"Are we going to get a TV?" Midori asked petulantly
changing the topic of conversation.

"We'll see," Nabiki said. "Now, go to sleep." And
her tone allowed for no argument, though it was laced
with affection.

"Night, kid," Ranma said. "And if there are
monsters under your bed you know what to do."

"Tie 'em into knots," Midori said proudly, yawning.
Then she was pleading. "Can you tell me a story
Daddy?"

"Yeah, you do that and I'll get my shower," Nabiki
said, patting Ranma on the shoulder.

"Uh, okay," Ranma said shrugging as he tried to
remember a story to tell Midori.

"Tell me about the silly panda again!" Midori
asked, clapping. Ranma sighed as Nabiki rolled her
eyes on the way out.

****

Ranma and Nabiki looked at the western bed they had
salvaged. It was full-sized, not much room. Still,
they'd shared smaller beds with Midori between them
before.

Nabiki and Ranma settled down on opposite sides of
the bed, their customary foot or so apart. By habit
they both lay facing the other.

"How do you think they're doing in Nerima," Nabiki
asked.

"I hope they're doing good," Ranma said. "You know
we'll go back to make sure they're all right and help
them if not. We promised that."

"Yeah," Nabiki said. "But how soon? Good night,
Ranma-Baby." Nabiki yawned.

"You too, Nabs," Ranma answered, yawning himself
before shifting around for a little and falling
asleep.

They were fast asleep when Midori yawned awake
slowly and sat up in her new crib, what strange and
fascinating thing. For a moment she was nervous,
where were her mommy and daddy.

Midori yawned as woke up later that night and wiped
at her eyes. She looked at the safety bars for a
moment in puzzlement before finding the "childproof,
hidden" latch and unlocking it. She slipped out of
bed and rubbed at her eyes some more as she walked to
through the darkness to where her parents were. She
opened the door quietly and yawned loudly

Nabiki shifted forward in bed, reacting
unconsciously to hearing Midori, and reached out with
arm to locate the noise she had heard. At the same
time Ranma also reached out to unconsciously protect
and sooth his daughter.

Midori giggled musically as her mommy's hand found
her daddy and, fogged by the fact that Nabiki was
technically asleep, grabbed the young man tightly and
pulled herself closer, reaching one hand up to a
strangely tall child's head. Still she was quite
strongly asleep, and even the presence of an arm
holding her gently and securely also went mostly
unnoticed.

Nabiki started to snuggle closer to the big warm
thing that made her feel safe. Her sleeping mind had
somehow forgotten Midori once it had determined that
Midori was not in her bed. And now she was grasping
more like someone seeking comfort than giving it.

Ranma's arms held her tighter, but still gently.
The thing in his arms didn't seem to be Midori, and
something in the back of his sleeping mind reminded
him that she was in her bed, but he still responded to
the other's desire to be held.

Then Midori took a step and tripped on a loose
section of the floor. The charm of the scene was
ended as she smacked into the floor and loudly
complained about the impact.

Ranma and Nabiki had originally been deep sleepers,
the both of them. The earth could move and they
wouldn't even notice, and that had been proven in the
last earthquake.

This was before parenthood.

They both woke up and realized exactly the
situation they were in. The pose wasn't sexual, but
was very intimate, more intimate than sex on its own
really. Rather more intimate than they had expected,
especially considering they had fallen asleep about a
foot apart originally.

They did not dwell on this issue at all, and it was
hardly a split second before they were out of bed to
see what Midori needed.

Later, after Midori had been soothed back to sleep,
they stared across from each other cautiously.

"Well, Ranma-baby?" Nabiki asked trying to keep her
voice at its usual tone.
"I think we need to talk," Ranma said.

"Yeah, that seems obvious," Nabiki said.

"Right now?" Ranma asked nervous and tired.

~I need more time,~ Nabiki thought. "Maybe
tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow is good," Ranma agreed. ~Whew that
was close.~ They both lay back down on the small bed
and Ranma started to pull the covers.

"It really doesn't make sense to sleep so far
apart," Nabiki said, not noticing the implications of
her choice "so far."

"Yeah, it'll be more comfortable in the center of
the bed," Ranma agreed. Ranma and Nabiki, cautiously
at first, snuggled closer, in more or less the same
position they had been on waking up, before letting
themselves fall back to sleep.

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

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