Monday, 25 November 2013

Story: Matron Apron: Motherly Manipulation

I saw this crop up yesterday, and figured I could go in a slightly unexpected direction



Something was up and she didn’t know what it was. That would make anyone else nervous, given that when something was up it often resulted in property damage or ridiculous martial arts fights. Not so much Nabiki. She didn’t get worried. She got curious. In particular, she got curious about points like “How can I make money from this?” or “How can I maximise my own fun while minimising my own personal risk?”

Right at this particular moment, her instincts were telling her it was something to do with her eldest sister. For once. The girl was walking around like she intended to spend the night having wild, unrestrained sex and didn’t care who knew it. She’d already caught the Saotomes - both of them - staring as she walked past, and dear goodness, Nabiki could have sworn that Kasumi had deliberately stopped just to draw their attention.

That wasn’t Nabiki’s first clue, however. That lecture yesterday had been unusually stern. Nabiki could still hear the sound of it ringing in her ears! That had been the first clue. The gentle Kasumi, the girl that couldn’t hurt a fly had given her a talking down that made Nabiki feel like she was a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

So there she was trying to puzzle it through. What had happened, exactly? Was it magic? Or something else a bit more mundane? Either of which have been known to cause problems here and there. What would be the best way for her to -

There was a knock at her door. “Come in,” Nabiki replied, and the door opened revealing the very devil she’d been thinking about. Though perhaps “angel” would be a better descriptive term to use in Kasumi’s case. It was almost impossible to imagine her as a devil.

“Nabiki, I’ve been thinking,” Kasumi said, sitting down next to Nabiki on the bed. Huh. Strange. Were her breasts always that big? “For a long time now, I’ve been doing all the housework. Akane has been trying to help, but… Well. She is not particularly suited to housework, or at least needs a greater amount of practice. You, on the other hand, do not seem to be even trying to help. No, please don’t interrupt!” Kasumi pressed her finger to Nabiki’s lips, and in spite of herself Nabiki shut up right on the spot. “I think it’s about time you started learning,” Kasumi firmly stated. She stood up, and beckoned for Nabiki to follow. “We shall start with teaching you how to cook.”

And off she walked, without even turning back to look to see if Nabiki followed. There was that peculiar sway she had developed, impossibly pronounced and - And Nabiki caught herself nervously swallowing and rising to follow Kasumi off to the kitchen. Surely whatever horrors awaited her there couldn’t be worse than what would happen if she refused… Besides which! This was the perfect opportunity to figure out what was happening to her older sister. So, off she walked… Not noticing that she was very slightly swaying her own hips as she walked away.

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For a long time the Tendo dojo had to have a rather significant part of its budget set aside for punching bags. The reason being, Akane kept breaking them. Nothing complicated or fancy about it. The girl was strong and wanted to become stronger, and most of the things in her everyday life weren’t strong enough to handle her full strength. Or would break her hand if she tried to punch them. There really didn’t seem to be much in between.

Luckily, her father had found a special store that sold equipment for “advanced” martial arts. Not the same kind of stuff that Ranma’s idiot father used, no no, nothing like that. A punching bag used to be lucky to last a week here. This particular bag she was hitting right now had lasted a full three years so far. And, boy, was she glad of that fact today!

“Stupid Ranma,” Akane sniffed, lashing out at the bag. “Ogling my older sister like that!” One two, quick jabs right at the middle of the bag. “He really is a pervert!” One two three! Faster still, and throwing in a roundhouse kick while she was at it. Akane stopped for a moment, and leaned against the bag to catch her breath. “Stupid Ranma,” she repeated.

Repeated. There was a word with some meaning to it. This feeling in her chest. It felt so familiar. A repeated feeling from the past. An image flashed in her mind of a handsome doctor, whose glasses would fog over whenever Kasumi entered the room. It was almost enough to bring her to tears. First Doctor Tofu, and now -

Oh! What was she thinking! It wasn’t like she, you know, liked Ranma or anything. Certainly not the same way she liked Doctor Tofu. But still. She did have to defend her older sister from whatever perverted planning Ranma had in mind.

Then again… That lecture from yesterday. Kasumi had gone on and on about how she was perfectly alright with Ranma flirting with her, so what did it matter if he did? At the time Akane had been too stunned to do anything but sit there and nod in agreement, her foot fidgeting on the floor. Suddenly she had felt like she had lost ten years and was being told off for punching those bullies that kept trying to take that other kid’s lunch money.

It had been so completely surreal. For Kasumi of all people to do something like that! The way she was walking about like she wanted attention, and Akane could swear her breasts were bigger this morning! Kasumi had just sort of shrugged it off like it wasn’t a big deal, then lectured Akane about how rude it was to enquire about another person’s body in such an obvious manner. Again, Akane had been reduced to wringing her hands and fidgeting her foot, and -

Moments of clarity don’t come often to the good (or bad, or sort of somewhere in the middle) people of Furinkan. This should make a good deal of sense, really. In matters of love alone, a startling number of the residents seem to completely miss that the object of their affections would really rather they were left alone, thank you, or returned those affections wholeheartedly but were absolutely god awful at expressing it. So many wrong ends of sticks were grabbed that it leaves an outsider wondering what non-euclidean hellish landscape the Furinkan trees were growing in. But the odds do have to catch up sooner or later, and on this day Akane Tendo worked a miracle and found her way towards the right end of the stick.
And it gave her such a headache.

“It sort of reminds me of the time Ranma got hit by that koi rod of love,” she said. “Or accidentally swallowed that love pill. Or when Shampoo made him swallow that - Oh. Kasumi’s under some freaky spell.”

And somewhere in the heavens, a god smirked at another god with whom he had made a bet (that he had, of course, cheated on. Such is the nature of games played among higher beings) and accepted his winnings. Meanwhile back on the mortal planes, Akane was rushing back into the house in a vain attempt to warn everyone that Kasumi was - Teaching Nabiki how to cook. What the hell.

“You see, Nabiki?” Kasumi said, reassuringly stroking Nabiki’s hair. “Isn’t cooking fun?”

Nabiki nodded, and when she turned around Akane could see that her eyes were glazed over. Oh, no… What happened to her?

“Come here,” Kasumi cooed, pulling Nabiki into an embrace, “and give your big sister a hug.”

It seemed to Akane that Nabiki was deliberately pushing herself into Kasumi’s cleavage. She swallowed nervously and backed away towards the door, hoping against hope that she could get away before whatever freaky spell this was hit her as well.

“Oh, Akane!” Kasumi called. “There you are. As your motherly figure, I feel it is only right that I teach you and Nabiki a thing or two. Why don’t we pick up from where we left off yesterday?”

Akane wanted to say that she didn’t remember anything from yesterday… Until she felt a little bit dizzy, and suddenly began to recall. Flashes of herself heating water and helping Kasumi prepare dinner. Not with big things. Little things that she had to perfect before doing anything at all. But… How could she forget…?

“Today,” Kasumi said, stroking Akane’s hair. W-wait, when did she…? “I’m going to teach you both how to land yourselves a man. Or a woman. I love you both too much to decide that for you.”

Akane couldn’t remember the last time she felt so weak. It was something to do with Kasumi’s embrace. Every breath she took made her feel safe and secure. Like she was in the arms of a mother figure. So hard to resist, so why even bother? After all. Mommy knows best.

  1. Either Akane or Nabiki is made to wear the apron.
  2. What does Ranma make of all this?
  3. Later on, Kasumi goes hunting for her own man.
  4. What sort of lessons does Kasumi teach?
  5. The next day, Kasumi shows up as a substitute teacher during home ec.
  6. Something else

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