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"For the last time dad, I'm telling you, that jerk's going to be just fine." Akane was getting extremely tired of repeating herself, now that her father's worries had been keeping her from her studies for over an hour.

"Bu- but, the omens..." her father sobbed out, having temporarily – and blessedly – exhausted the fountain of tears he seemed to somehow carry within him at all times.

"Cologne herself even said she'd made sure Ranma would be safe. So quit making such a big deal about it."

"Still, how can we trust...?"

Irritation beginning to flare, the youngest Tendo daughter bit out a response that was a great deal less polite than could be expected. "She has as much reason as any of us to want him hurt, dad, and more reason than someone to want him back to normal."

Nabiki, in a rare show of sisterly solidarity, poked her head into the room with a raised eyebrow and tight, sardonic grin. "Hey, sis. Daddy still scared for his young bride-to-be?"

The Tendo patriarch's tears dried up immediately as he spun his head to see his middle daughter. "Nabiki, it's impolite to sneak up on your father when he's having a heartfelt discussion with one of your sisters." Just as quickly, he was back in tears and pleading dramatically with his youngest once more. "Oh, to be so mistrusted by my own children. You must know I would never try to steal your fiancé from you. It was a foolish joke meant to spur him on to greater heights, you must believe me!"

"Oh, my! Auntie Saotome will be so disappointed to learn that young Ranko has been abandoned already." In spite of herself, Akane nearly burst out laughing at the look her father cast towards his eldest, who'd just entered the doorway. With all the Shakespeare she'd read for the drama club just for the chance to play Juliet, she could almost hear the "Et tu, Kasumi?"

Every face in the room drained of colour at the next words spoken, though. "I'm sorry, the door was open and you were all speaking so loudly I wanted to make sure you knew I was here. Did I hear you right, Kasumi dear? Has some dishonourable young man walked out on your cousin?" Much to their grief, standing before the chattering Tendos was one Nodoka Saotome, coming by for another of her impromptu check-ins.

Smothering herself with her open biology textbook worked about as well as expected, but at least it let Akane cover her face enough to get her complaints straight. 'Just great. Ranma's gone and his problems still won't leave any of us alone. At this rate I'll never get ahead in my homework, and to top it all off, I'll bet that jerk is just having the time of his life bothering that strange girl with his perversions.'

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5809142/7/