Faking It

Part Two

By Philip Weigel

The Disclaimer is in the Prologue.

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Nabiki Tendo sighed as she heard Ukyo join the group in Ranma's room, she had known about them being lesbians, or at least bi-sexual, for some time now. When she talked to Akane, she was asked not to tell anyone, she didn't like it, but agreed. However she told her sister that she would tell Ranma only if he asked her directly, (or anyone else for that matter, but Akane didn't need to know that) since no one did, no one knew.

Nabiki rubbed her forehead, she would have taken Ranma off of Akane's hands, but she didn't like him that way, more of a sibling than anything else. 'Seems like daddy's dream has gone up in smoke.' She thought. Looking up at the ceiling and scratching her chin in thought, she noticed a change in Ranma over a year ago, it wasn't anything major, it was just he seemed to have gotten a lot happier. She wouldn't have given it much thought, but then a half-year ago, he seemed to always take a 'training trip' and be gone for over a week, and when he got back, he had this goofy grin on his face when he thought no one was looking. When she asked about it, all he said was that he had fun. She thought what kind of 'fun' he could have, and even sent some of her lackeys to follow him, but he always seemed to know that he was being followed.

Just then her phone rang, "Moshi, moshi." She said putting all thoughts out of her head.

"Nabiki this is Kimiko, just thought you'd want to know, I was in the upscale part of town when I heard this Gaijin with red hair muttering about his sister and the fact she got engaged. Now normally I wouldn't say anything but. ."

"Get to the point Kimiko." Nabiki interrupted, 'That girl can sure blabber with the best of them.'

"Right sorry, anyways, the guy that his sister is engaged to just happens to have a pig-tail and is a martial artist that eats a lot, ring any bells?"

Nabiki's eyes were wide, "You don't think that it's Ranma do you?"

"Think, hell, I know, I asked him about it, when he asked about it, I just said I was a friend of the family. And yes Ranma Saotome has had a girlfriend for over a year now! And now they’re officially engaged. Just thought I'd let you know."

"Kimiko, argiato, you are getting a bonus for this tid-bit." With that Nabiki hung up the phone, ignoring Kimiko's thanks and gratitude. 'Who to tell, who to tell? Not Daddy, Mr. Saotome, or Cologne, they'd try and break it up. Auntie gets to know, those three will have to know as well, I guess the rivals will get to know and I'll tell Kasumi. After all she was the one who asked me about his goofy grin in the first place.' Smirking at that she got up and went to the guest room and walked right in, watching a very erotic scene strait from a porno film. "When you girls are done 'eating', get dressed and meet me in my room, there's something you need to know." And with that she turned and walked away, leaving three very embarrassed, but sated girls.

"A-chan, you didn't tell her about us did you?"

"Spatula girl right, you didn't tell mercenary girl did you?"

"What? No, she talked to me about it, shortly after we started our relationship, she promised not to tell Ranma unless he asked directly."

"Alright sugar, I'll believe you."

"So will Shampoo."

"Thanks, now let's get dressed."

Five minutes later, the three girls were in Nabiki's room and lounging about, "Okay, girls, I'll tell you what's going on free of charge." They looked at her like she'd just grown a second head. "There's no need to look at me like that, I'm just giving the information this time, on the condition that you don't act on the information."

Akane looked at Nabiki, thankful that she was at least still acting 'in character' so to speak. "No problem sis, we can do that."

Nabiki smirked, "All right, but remember you all promised. I'll get straight to the point, I just found out that Ranma has had a girlfriend for some time now, and is now engaged to her." Nabiki smirked as she watched the faces of the three girls pale. Before they even said two words she spoke again, "Did you three HONESTLY think that he would be stupid enough not to notice that you were using him?"

"Yes." All three at the same time.

Nabiki looked at them and couldn't believe that they were that stupid. "Look girls the point is, he know has a fiancée that he likes, and it's not any of you, Kodachi, or any of his previous ones."

"Then who?" Again all three.

Nabiki blinked, "Do you practice that or something?" They shook their heads no. "Never mind, I don't know for sure, but whoever it is, isn't Japanese. But I will find out, now get out of here, I'm going to go hunting." And with that Nabiki got up and left her room and then the house, determined to find Ranma and his mystery fiancée.

Akane, Shampoo & Ukyo looked at each other, the recent revelation still fresh in their minds.

Ranma has had a girlfriend, which he somehow kept secret from everyone, and he was no engaged to her. This computed as follows in their mind.

01: Without Ranma to chase & Hound, they couldn't reinforce their pretend heterosexuality to the public.

02: Without Ranma to distract everyone to Nerima's Chaos they'd be found out in no time.

03: Everyone finds out. They’re ruined BIG TIME!

"...We can't let this happen! Outcome be too-too bad!" Shampoo rationalized. (Or in her mind rationalized)

"She's right, we'll be found out quicker than trouble finds Ranma, if he scrams."

"But, should we? I mean. We DID lie and use Ranma like that." Akane said a bit meekly.

"Akane, YOU were the one who told us Ranma was the perfect scapegoat!"

"Spatula-girl right, you no have right to back out of this." Shampoo said sternly.

"Is that a fact?" A new voice said.

All three gulped and turned to see Kasumi standing at the doorway looking none-to-happy.

"Kasumi I..."

"Akane just shut up." Kasumi said in a calm yet commanding & scary tone.

Akane backed away she didn't like that tone.

"I've stayed quiet about this too long. You three DISGUST ME! Not because your lesbians...but for using poor Ranma like that! Do you know how much emotional pain he was in when he found out?!"

All three shook their heads.

"He found out shortly after Ukyo joined your little threesome, he was devastated, he though you girls actually cared for him in some fashion, and he discovered he was used by you all no different than his Father does.

Now THAT was a heart-stabber, Kasumi compared them to Genma?

"Your all lucky Dr. Tofu & I were able to clam him down...he was just about ready to come and claim your blood that night. I'm amazed he hid it so for as long as he did. Now here's my main warning to you three. STAY AWAY from Ranma! He's found his own happiness, and if any of you three or anyone else dares to interfere I'll be backing Ranma in his corner. I may not be a fighter but I won't stand for this. Ranma's done a lot for you three girls and if you interfere with his happiness.... you’re scum...lower scum than Genma, Kuno, Happosai or anyone else you've encountered who fits that bill." Kasumi's gaze then got harder. " And your secret will be spread all over Nerima faster than it takes for Nabiki to start the rumor mill at your school."

The three girls were shaking Kasumi was giving them the sternest lecture they could ever get, and threatening them to boot.

"All I can say more is I'm VERY disappointed in you three...especially you Akane." With that Kasumi turned and walked out of the room.

********

Nabiki got out of the cab and just left, the driver owed her a favor and was more than happy to be out of debt to her. 'Heh, it's good to be me sometimes.' Nabiki thought with some amusement, sure nearly everyone in Nerima owed her a favor or four, but she never made them do anything serious, well some of the things she made Ranma do were bordering on serious, but she knew why he allowed her to get away with that stuff. "He's got too good a heart, I'm just glad he found someone to share it with." She mumbled to herself. As she was walking, she heard a noise that she heard whenever Happosai was around, groaning, she turned around to see, not Happosai, but a tiger-man running as if his life depended on it, and from what she heard, it did.

Tirga was not having a good day, first Sheila introduces him to her newest Kapowie ability, and then her boyfriend hits him in the chin, knocking him completely out of the district. 'That kid hits nearly as hard as Julia.' Thinking back to the time she trained him. Then to top it all off, when he was heading back to rip that little shit apart he slipped in a puddle and grabbed the first thing he could to prevent falling, which happened to be a woman's rear-end, now normally this wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact she turned around, put her hands together in a diamond formation and yelled, "Happo No-Yen Return!" And blasted him with some sort of energy blast, which then sent him crashing into an ice-skating rink and into a compromising situation with an extremely hyperactive girl.

Said girl started crying about how he was as bad as Mikado when a child, who was dressed like that woman who blasted him showed up and cried out, "You're being a delinquent! Happo Fifty-Yen Satsu!" He didn't know what that would do, but from the looks of things from the couple that got in the way of the attack, nothing he'd want to get hit with. He quickly got up and ran away as fast as possible, especially when he saw that Demon woman return and now both that skater, and the woman were chasing him. That Demon woman blasted him in the back and flung him into a girl wearing a leotard. Who'd a thought a laugh could be used as a weapon? But that wasn't the worst part, she snagged him with a ribbon and flung him into a girl riding a HUGE pig, now he had some sort of Demon woman, an annoying laughing girl, a hyperactive skating girl and a girl on a big pig chasing after him. Normally he wouldn't mind having woman chase after him, but these girls wanted to kill him.

Nabiki shook her head, not sure why she wanted to help this guy, but felt sorry for him. Anyone to get the ire of any Neriman female was someone to pity. Ducking into an alley, she waited until she saw him, grabbed him and pulled him into the alley while everyone else ran past. Turning she suddenly felt herself in a glomp. 'Hmm, usually Ranma gets hit with a glomp, well at least I now know how he feels.' She thought. "Alright, you can let me go now."

Tirga heard her request and let her go. "Thank you, I thought for sure they would kill me, who'd a thought there were people like that around here?"

Nabiki smirked; obviously this guy wasn't from around here. "So what's your story? Why were they chasing you?"

Tirga sighed and told her everything from when he arrived in Japan, 'After all she saved me, the least I can do is tell her what happened.' When he was done, Nabiki was holding her sides trying to control her laughter. "This, heh, kind of stuff, haha, usually only, heehee, happens, har har, to Ranma, HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

After a few more minutes of laughing, Nabiki turned serious, "Do you know where Ranma and this Sheila person are staying right now?"

"Yeah, I remember, in fact after I lost those four I was going to head over there."

"Riiight, whatever. So lead the way Tiger-man."

********

Nodoka sighed; it had been a week since she had seen her son or husband. While she could see Ranma staying at the Tendo Dojo to get and know his fiancée better, she really wished her good-for-nothing husband would come home and perform his duties. She really wished that she hadn't forced that contract on Ranma, and then they could have known each other better than what they do now.

Meanwhile outside . . .

"I'm still surprised that Tirga and I aren't drawing more stares Nabiki, it's kinda got me on edge."

"I hate to say it but he's right." Added an equally some-what freaked-out Tirga. A half an hour after Tirga and Nabiki met up, they ran into Gar, who was in his human form, after finding out what Ranma and Sheila were up to, Nabiki told them to follow her to a friends house. Along the way Nabiki convinced Gar to switch back into hybrid form. While he did it reluctantly, he and Tirga were surprised that no one went screaming in terror or even freaked out. Most people muttered something about a 'Juice-en-key-o' place and curses; there was even this Chinese boy with a dragon-vest muttering about the damn Musk, perverts and fem-boys. In short, it confused the hell out of the two Lycanthropes.

"I told you two, you have to be down right freakish to get more than quick glance around here. Hell, there was this one time an alien in a bikini, who had horns, green hair and shot lightning bolts showed up and only the resident perverts showed any interest in her, and that was because of her body, nothing else."

"But still, I find this a little weird." Gar mused, this place was nearly as weird as Atlanta, then again, that was probably a good thing.

Nabiki shook her head, "As long as you aren't destroying someone's property, no one cares what you're doing. Hell, the construction companies pay Ryoga to knock down buildings, that is, whenever he's in town." If anyone had seen Nabiki at this point, they would be freaking, Nabiki 'Ice Queen' Tendo, giving information away for free? Well, Nabiki was feeling generous, that's all.

Reaching the front door of the Saotome home, Nabiki knocked and waited for Nodoka to show up. The door opened and revealed the Saotome matriarch. "Nabiki-chan, what are you?" She then noticed two people behind Nabiki. "Nabiki-chan, who are your friends? Cosplayers? Furries? Or Lycanthrope?"

Gar and Tirga face faulted upon hearing that, and Nabiki blinked a couple of times. "Lycanthrope. How'd you know about this kind of stuff?" Nodoka was one of the most traditional women around.

Nodoka smirked, "Well before I met Genma, I had a friend in high-school that liked to cosplay a bit. Then there was my other friend who was a werewolf, but she moved away before graduation. And during one of Genma's training trips, I met this cat-girl who was a dancer, Felicia I believe it was. Anyways that's how I know of that kind of stuff."

Nabiki shook her head, 'Should've figured that Genma wasn't the only one who Ranma got his weirdness from.' "Auntie Nodoka, I'm here to talk about Ranma."

Nodoka got all serious when she heard that, "What do you mean, what happened to Ranma?"

"Nothing serious, but let's go inside."

Nodoka stepped back and let all three of them in. After serving them like a proper Japanese housewife, Nodoka got down to business. "What happened to Ranma?"

"Well, it's like this." Nabiki went on to explain what had been going on between the fiancées, who the two out-of-towners were, and how Ranma was doing and how his relationship was going with Sheila, with occasional help from Tirga and Gar.

When Nabiki was finished Nodoka sighed, "And here I thought Akane was a nice girl. I'll have to have a talk with Soun about the engagement soon."

"Don't." Nodoka looked at Nabiki in surprise, "Don't tell Daddy about what's going on until it's too late, he'll just try and stop it, same with Mr. Saotome, and Cologne."

Nodoka nodded her head, "You're right." Then a wide smile spread across her face. "But there is one thing I've got to say about Ranma."

"Oh, what's that?" Though Nabiki had a idea what was coming up.

Taking a deep breath and pulling out the Japanese victory fans Nodoka went "WAI MY SON IS SOO MANLY!! HE'S GOING TO GIVE LOTS AND LOTS OF GRANDBABIES!!" to the heavens. Gar and Tirga did a sitting face fault and big-sweated at the site of Nodoka doing the happy mother's dance. Nabiki just shook her head, she was used to it.