Chapter Text
Nabiki doesn't know what's wrong but Ranma was in a bad mood as they made their way home. She's a bit surprised that the girl would join her on the walk home when she's been spending so much of her time with Akane. There was some buzz about a fight earlier, but she had a lot of stuff to catch up on at home, so she hadn't stuck around to dish up the latest gossip. Well, Ranma was working towards becoming her friend. She hates feeling obligated to care though. "Who started the fight?"
"What?"
"You or Akane? Who started it? It's obvious you two are arguing, you want to talk about it?"
Ranma kicks a rock before leaping up onto the fence. "No," she mutters angrily.
"Well, not my problem then." Nabiki tried, but if the stubborn girl won't talk, there isn't much she can do.
"I ain't wearing that stupid gym uniform." It's a quiet mutter, and if she hadn't trained her ears through years of eavesdropping, she wouldn't have heard it, and Ranma probably hadn't meant her to.
"Furinkan's uniforms are pretty hideous, aren't they?" She'll throw the other girl one last attempt. But her patience, and sympathy are limited.
Ranma sighs and drops off the fence to walk alongside Nabiki almost like a normal person. Her steps are still whisper quiet and obviously measured, but she supposes that's just what a martial artist of Ranma's calibre is like with everything. "This is gonna sound right stupid. But, I really don't feel right changing in front of the girls at school." Nabiki's a bit thrown by the admission and chooses to give Ranma a bit more time to open up about whatever's going on. "It's always just been Pops and me really, and he always just treated me like a boy, so it's real weird being here and having everybody acting like I can just be a girl and all. I don't know how to girl! I don't even wanna be a girl. I don't wanna wear dresses or makeup... or fucking bloomers!" She kicks an empty can hard enough that it flattens itself against the wall of the house they're walking past.
Ranma sticks her hands in her pockets and sulks, which is as new to Nabiki as everything about that rant. Well, she had sort of guessed at the idea of Mr Saotome raising Ranma as a boy, but she didn't know what to do with the whole... imposter? thing. She places a hand on Ranma's shoulder, trying to find words for what she wants to say to the girl. "You don't have to like the clothes to be a girl, dumbass. Furinkan's pretty lax about the dress code anyway, otherwise they might make you dye your hair black or something, and the dress might be the least of your problems." Ranma gives her an absolutely dumbfounded expression. "Look, Ranma, you can be as much a tomboy as you like, but being pissy at school isn't a reason to get into a fight with my little sister. She's not any more a fan than you are. Heck, I bet most of the girls in school would be on your side about this. The gym uniform is the worst. Cheap polyester, poorly fit and barely more there than underwear, those stupid bloomers are uncomfortable and not just physically."
"Whatcha mean?"
"It means they leave little to the imagination, and boys like to stare idiot. I thought it was just your brother, but you really don't have a clue about guys being creeps, do you?"
"Never been a problem til we got here," she says with a shrug.
"With the tits you're slinging, you really ought to wear a sports bra at least girl, I have a hard time imagining you made it through puberty without being hassled by gross men. Regardless, the bloomers suck, you could probably get other girls to throw a fit with you, and then maybe they'll drop the gym uniform entirely if enough people complain." It hadn't really crossed her mind before, but between the lax enforcement of the dress code in general, and a widespread disapproval, they probably could get a decent concession from the staff. Something to spread some gossip about in the future. She can see the gears turning in Ranma's head though, and that's pulling her out of her funk at least.
"If everybody hates them so much, why hasn't anyone done anything about it yet?"
"Social conformity's a hell of a drug Ranma. If you haven't noticed, you are one of like, six people at our school who aren't wearing the proper uniforms. If everybody's going along with it, nobody really wants to rock the boat. Stubborn brats like yourself obviously excluded," she adds with a smirk. That lights a fire in Ranma and even gets a smile in return. Well, that's Nabiki's good deed for the week. "You should still apologise to my sister."
Akane was fuming. She was continuing to focus on the anger, because she thought if she let herself feel the hurt or the fear, she'd drown in it. And she doesn't want to cry in front of a stupid boy. Especially not when he's apparently trying to be nice and hasn't done a single thing to come onto her or act perverted or fit into any of the roles boys have so far played in her life. She's mad at Ranma for yelling at her, and hurt that her newest friend was upset with her, and scared that she may have ruined their relationship. And of course her fucking brother had to be right here, walking her home, like a perfect genetleman and shaking up her entire worldview on top of everything. She wants to yell at him the same way Ranma had yelled at her, but that seems like it would just make everything worse.
And so she fumes, her steps barely controlled enough to stalk home without leaving footprints in the concrete. Even with that modicum of control she's still destroying this pair of shoes, but she can't bring herself to stop and properly calm down. Nabiki's going to be so mad if she needs to replace a pair that Akane wasn't even close to growing out of yet. She does stop and decides to join Ranma in walking home barefoot. She shoves her shoes in her bag, the soles are decidedly more worn than they were this morning, but she hasn't ruined them yet. "You trained your feet enough for that, Tendo? Going barefoot in a city is asking for scrapes and all, especially if you don't keep your steps light." He hops in front of her on one foot showing off his callouses, and a couple nasty scars on the bottom of his left. "Just be careful, 'kay? Ya don't wanna fuck up your feet as a martial artist. One time I couldn't stand on this foot for a month cause I did something stupid without shoes."
That stops her dead. He's not just being nice, he's treating her as a martial artist, he's being helpful. Her own father can barely do that for her, and here's this boy, basically a stranger, who she's treated like garbage for the month or so they've known each other, and he's trying to help. Not by being condescending and offering to protect her, but by taking her seriously as a fellow student of the Art. She stops, and she properly looks at the boy, who's face is so similar to his sisters, hell they're practically identical, if it weren't for his sister's hair colour and boobs, she probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart. "Ugh, why couldn't you be an asshole," she mutters under her breath. He gives her a quizzical look that says he couldn't quite hear her, but she stops staring at him and continues the walk home, taking her steps carefully as if walking were a kata she was trying to perfect. Ransu steps in front of her and matches her stride, his steps measured and exact, and she finds herself mimicking the way he raises and sets his feet. She's jealous of his natural grace, one more way he's just like his sister. She tries to get out of her head and focus on walking home carefully, and it really does help her calm down.
"I'm sorry" they both say at the same time. They had just made eye contact in the living room, where Ranma was doing homework. They both let out a relieved sigh and give the other a moment to continue. Ransu bugged out, after giving his sister a shy wave, dashing up the stairs and getting out of the way of their much-needed conversation. Ranma decides to man up and take the initiative. "'Kane, your like, my only friend, and I have no excuse for losing it on ya like that. I feel like a dumb jerk for yellin and all, and I hope we can still be friends?"
"Yeah Ranma, I'd like that. And I'm sorry for not being considerate about your unusual upbringing. I should have known that you'd have a hard time with girl stuff growing up on the road around only your father and brother. Thanks for the apology." Her smile is warm, if a bit small, but that's okay. They had their first real fight... and they were still friends! It didn't turn into a war like things had with her other old friends, she wishes she could remember their names. There was someone in Osaka when she was real small, and she's pretty sure she had a friend in middle school that she fought with all the time too. She hopes things can stay more friend than rival this time around.
"Y'any good at this triangle-whatsit? I ain't never done any a this fancy math 'fore."
"Trigonometry, and yeah, it's not that hard. What are you having problems with?"
Ranma gestures at the worksheet with a shrug, "All of it, I guess?"
Ransu knocked on Nabiki's door, holding his own math homework, ready to blow their last favour on a semester's worth of math tutoring, because this shit is ridiculous. When Nabiki opens the door, and catches a look at the paper gripped tightly in his hands, she shows mercy. "Fine, I can help you with your stupid math homework. Can't have my business partner flunking out of highschoool." He's relieved that she didn't try to extort him over it, and honestly a bit surprised. But he knows better than to call attention to her helpfulness. She drags an extra stool over to her desk and makes him sit down. She grabs the worksheet and places it in front of her. "Trigonometry is a bitch, but it won't cause you too many problems if you focus on the rule of three."
The study session is brief and to the point. He's not sure how much of what she'd tried to drum into his head would actually stick, but he'd solved half the problems correctly without any help, so he was off to a good start. "Is it time for dinner soon? I'm starving." In the time it had taken him to finish off the worksheet, she'd apparently completed all her other homework. It's going to be so annoying playing catchup on school after Pops decided they'd be fine skipping the last year of middle school in exchange for a trip to China. He had learned a lot about the PRC and Communism, so if they covered any of that in history, he'd have a leg up, but it didn't really make up for all the places he was way behind.
"Might be another hour or so, Kasumi takes homework seriously and expects everybody to get theirs done before dinner when possible."
Ransu lets his head fall forward onto the finished worksheet with a groan. "School is stupid, I wanna go back to China."
Nabiki gives him a flick on the forehead. "Don't be a baby Ransu. I know you've got a good enough memory to compensate for being a bit behind. As long as you put in the bare minimum of effort, I think you'll pass fine."
"I'd rather flunk out than do any more of this weird nonsense math."
"For fuck's sake, do I have to make it a martial arts challenge for you to try at school?"
"Is martial arts trigonometry a thing now?" Ransu says with genuine panic in his voice.
Nabiki pinches the bridge of her nose, these idiots will be the death of her. She smacks him on the back of the head. "No, but I'm sure there's some kind of absurd martial arts mathematician or schoolteacher or whatever. What I meant was, try and treat school like a tournament. You put in the work in the various brackets, and if you take your opponents seriously, you can come out on top, or at least place."
"Huh, I hadn't thought of it like that. Thanks Nabiki. I'll try to rise to the challenge."
"You do that then. Now get out of my room, I've got other stuff I want to get done before dinner. Go play swords with your sister or something." He glares at her, but knows better than to rise to the taunt.
He heads out the door just in time to bump into Akane and Ranma heading to her room. She's pulling his sister along by the wrist and looks excited about something that has his other half wincing. He gives her a gentle squeeze of the shoulder, his expression reading "good luck" while her eyes beg him to rescue her from whatever Akane has in mind. "Gonna go do some katas in the dojo, let me know when dinner's ready?" Ranma has an absolutely betrayed expression on her face as Akane nods and tugs the girl into her room without a word. "Glad they made up, I don't think I could handle it if they stayed mad." He whistles to himself as he makes his way out to practice forms.