[lime] For Love of Money (w/apologies to Donny Cheng)

[Jason_Miao]

A Bet


"Frigid to orgasm in less than sixty seconds."

The terms of the challenge were clear.  And her pride meant that there was no question of her declining.  No one caused Tendo Nabiki to lose face, not even her prospective brother-in-law.

"Bullshit, Saotome.  No one's that good.  Do it, and I'll wipe your debt.  If I win, you're doing five film-rolls of cheesecake lingere shots."

Nabiki dismissed a bit of apprehension, when she spotted Ranma sporting an enormous grin.  "Deal!" he shouted, grasping her hand in his own, and pumping it up and down twice.  "We shook on it, so no backing out." 

"Oh, Ranma-chan.  So eager to show me your stuff?  What would Akane say?"  Nabiki cooed, circling her finger on the dining table.

Ranma thought about this for a few moments, as he stood up, without releasing Nabiki's right hand.  "That's a good question.  She seems like someone who'd moan really loudly and get really into it, then half-way through, start hitting the guy, denying that it ever happened and that she's not a perv-"

"Wait, Saotome, wait.  That's not what I meant, and that's more about what you think of my sister than I ever wanted to know."

"Well, you were the one who asked.  Come on, follow me." Ranma gentle pulled Nabiki up from her seated position at the dining table.

"Where do you think you're taking me, Saotome?"

Ranma paused for a moment, confused.  "Your room.  Why, you want to start the on the table here?"

Nabiki shook her head as she continued to follow Ranma, not knowing what to say, and more than a bit bemused at the trouble that Ranma's inability to refuse a challenge was about to cause him.  "Frigid to orgasm in less than sixty seconds," she mused, as she began to climb the stairs towards her bedroom.  "The terms don't really allow for sex.  How does Ranma think he has a chance at winning?"


--

The conversation in the Tendo living room didn't start out this way.  A few minutes before, it was Nabiki who had a clearly flustered Ranma on the verbal defensive.


"Oh, come on Saotome.  Seriously, were you going to hook up with anyone else other than Akane?  I mean, I've never heard of a 'shy' lady-killer before I met you."

"What, and that means I just gotta marry Akane?  Feh."  Ranma normally was wary of voicing such sentiments, since doing so either summoned objects being flung at his head or screaming fathers.  But Akane had stormed off in anger after the last harebrained marriage scheme, draging the two fathers with her, berating them both all the way.

Nabiki laughed.  "It's not like you'd know what to do with her if you did get married."

"How do ya figure that, Nabiki?  Pleasing a woman isn't that hard."

Nabiki arched an eyebrow.  "Ranma, you can't even get yourself to kiss a girl.  You think anyone's going to believe that you could do anything else without passing out from shock?"

"That's different!" declared Ranma.  "I can't just go around kissing girls.  What if they get pregnant?  It's not like I've got a job for money to raise a kid.  But just getting a girl worked up enough that she starts screaming isn't hard."

Nabiki was tempted to mock Ranma for his ignorance with the facts behind pregnacy for a moment, but decided to save that bombshell for a later time, when she could have more fun with it.  "Yeah, whatever you say, Saotome.  I've heard that from a lot of guys at school.  It's all bullshit.  If there were anyone who could actually do that, the girls at school would all be talking about it.  And that means I'd know."

Ranma shrugged.  "Guys just talk that way because they don't know what a pain it is to deal with all the stuff that follows you around when a chick won't leave you alone.  I stopped doing it because it causes way too many girl problems.  I've got enough of those already.  It's not like it's hard to do if I wanted to, though."

"I'll give you this much, Saotome, at least you've gotten better at lying."

"Lying?  I ain't lying.  Hell, I can prove it to you right now, if you want."

Ranma's pride had been called out, and Nabiki fought to keep a smile from her face.  She knew she was about to make a bundle of money.  Now was the time to tread carefully, and make sure that the rules of the contest were rigged so that she couldn't lose.

"Nice pickup line, Ranma.  But if you want a chance to take my clothes off, I want at least to go shopping, dinner, and a movie.  And I'm not cheap."

"Who said anything about clothes?  Easier if you do, I guess, but I wouldn't have to take anything off you.  Heck, it's not like you're wearing a ski jacket or anything, so I shouldn't have to touch any skin except for above the shoulders.  Maybe your hands, too, if I need to move them."

Wait.  What?  "Riiight.  Most fun I'll ever have with my clothes on?  Really, Ranma, what can you possibly do to me like that?"

"Frigid to orgasm in less than sixty seconds."

--

Nabiki was still thinking over the question .  Ranma was about to start, when he paused for a moment.  "Hey, Nabiki, almost forgot to mention that you shouldn't concentrate on anything, hard, or this'll screw up.  Just let me know when you're ready."

"I'm not going to help you win our bet, Saotome.  Get on with it."  Nabiki immediately started thinking, as hard as possible, about how much money she was about to make.  The though of money always made her cold and calculating.  And it was this coldness which would shortly be earning her even more.

Ranma protested.  "Hey, I'm serious here.  Don't think you can just..."

"Ranma, if you want to admit that you're going to lose the bet, we can start shooting those pictures now."

"Fine."

Taking that statement as an admission of defeat, Nabiki turned toward her desk, where her camera lay.  So she was not quite expecting Ranma's left hand to hold her around her waist, as he starting touching points on her back, quickly followed by a light stroke on her lower belly.

And it was working.  Ranma's initial brushes on her were relaxing, but within seconds, Nabiki began to grow tense.  With her heart racing, Nabiki tried to focus on the thought of Yen once more to drown out the increasing tempo of her heartbeat, but a quick yet gentle caress at the underside of her breast, just one in a series of soft brushes across her body, didn't help.  Neither did the feel of Ranma's tongue in the juncture between her shoulder and neck.

Her mouth was desert dry, and the pinpricks that seemed to dance throughout her skin were being chafed by the clothes she was wearing. 

"W-wai-t, I was-n't reaAhAh-!" Nabiki broke off with a gasp, as a small tremor shook through her body for a moment.  As she struggled to get ahold of herself, Ranma glanced at his watch on his left wrist. 

"Hmm...48 seconds.  Guess I could've waited a bit longer, but I didn't want to risk losing the bet.  Sorry."  Ranma stopped speaking for a moment, waiting for Nabiki to stop breathing quite so quickly.  "So, Nabiki.  My debt's cancelled, right?"

Nabiki's attempt glare wasn't quite as effective as usual, with her cheeks still flushed, and her hair, although still mostly in place, slightly tousled.  Even this half-hearted attempt at anger faded, and Nabiki gave a rueful laugh.  "Sure, Saotome.  We made the bet, and you won.  Fair's fair."  She made one last attempt to dig at his vanity, to lessen the blow of losing her bet.  "But downstairs, you made it sound like you could rock any girl's world.  Winning the bet is impressive, but if I'd picked a different wording of the bet..."  As she said this, though, her thoughts raced in a different direction -- 'He didn't even touch me down there!  How the hell did he learn this?'

Ranma merely shrugged, as he headed towards the door.  "Well, yeah, Nabiki.  There's no way I'd be able to blow any girl's mind with just my hands."  He paused for a moment as he reached the door, "Not in less than a  minute.  Anyway, I'm going to take a walk.  See ya later."

"Ranma, wait!  What do you mean by that?"

But he was already gone.




Thanks to Midnight and DarkAlpha, who preread this.

Rather than throw intermingle draft notes as in Better to Forget, I'm keeping them separate.  This should make them easier to parse later on, since it's easier to determine which paths and ideas are obsolete.  This chapter could also serve as a generic opening scene, if others wanted to try writing their own variants.  There are several hooks I've buried in here that allow this...but it's pretty strongly a Ranma-Nabiki interaction, so that may be too limited.

[Jason_Miao]

A Tale


Nabiki was excited about impending business opportunities.  This excitement was of grave concern.

-

The first inkling of her a problems arose when she arrived at Furinkan, early as usual, with the morning dew still making the grass slick, and with determination to make good her losses in her bet against Ranma.  "Nabiki!  Over here!" shouted Eiko by the tall tree, one of the girls who always helped her organize betting pools.  Quite needlessly shouted, since Eiko and Beiko always waited for her in the mornings beside the tall tree (There was no Seiko, and anyone who asked about such a person was snubbed).

Eiko was always a little too enthusiastic when working with Nabiki.  It seemed as if her enthusiasm was rubbing off on Nabiki today, since she was almost tempted to break the pace of her sedate walk.  However, Nabiki understood the power of a carefully cultivated image, and she arrived in her usual style.

Confidently, Nabiki took her place between the two.  As the one who set up most of the betting pools they had during the week, she was entitled to 60% of the take.  Beiko finished dividing the cash into the proper porportions, and handed Nabiki hers.  "This," she proclaimed as she placed the cash into Nabiki's hands as always, "is your share."

The world faded out for a bit.

The next thing Nabiki noticed was Eiko and Beiko looking at her with slightly worried expressions. "Tendo, are you okay?" asked Beiko.

"I'm fine, girls." responded Nabiki, with only the slightest catch in her voice.

Eiko looked suspicious.  "Are you sure, Nabiki?  You spaced out for a moment, and you look like you're sweating.  Maybe you have a fever?"

Nabiki waved off their concerns.  "Maybe you're right.  I haven't been feeling well lately."  A lie, since she felt very well yesterday.  Perhaps a bit too well.  But appearances amongst one's comrades counted more than they did amongst strangers, and Nabiki would show no weakness to either.

-

The next incident was not long in coming.  Nabiki had several loans she made to various students, and most could be paid back by slipping a signed envelope into her locker.  But a few students preferred to pay her back by hand, and Nabiki could usually be found at her desk a half hour before the first classes started, in case someone needed to conduct business with her.

"Um...Tendo?  I have this week's payment."

Tamura Yoshiko was one of those students who paid by hand.  Although normal in most respects, Yoshiko had one quirk: she was abnormally frightened of being cheated.  So rather than put the money in Nabiki's locker and trust that Nabiki would correctly tally what she owed, she preferred to watch Nabiki record her payment.  Nabiki didn't take this lack of trust to heart: Yoshiko didn't trust anyone.

"Give me a moment to take out my book of accounts.  How much is it this week?"

"Two thousand yen."

Nabiki was scrupulously honest, and would never have miscalculated, but wasn't offended.  After all, if Nabiki were bothered by something as minor as that, she could never have survived her home life without going insane.  And it was difficult to take any offense at the meek girl.

"Ah, here we go.  Tamura.  It looks like you owe me six thousand two hundred yen.  Hand me the two thousand, and I'll mark it down."

Certainly, Yoshiko was the last person anyone would expect to cause Nabiki to shriek.  In fact, the girl looked confused, as the desire to catch Nabiki as she fell over warred with the instinctual habit of running at the sudden sound.  The conversations in the rest of the room fell silent, as everyone looked at the uncharacteristic source of the sound.

Nabiki managed to grasp the sides of her desk with her left hand, momentarily stopping her fall, while right hand still grasped tightly to Yoshiko's payment.  "There's nothing to see here, everyone" she gasped.  "Nothing to-" And then, her left hand lost power, and she crashed to the floor.

-

"How the hell am I going to learn to not orgasm at the touch of money?"

Nabiki found herself at home, early on a school day, staring at a pile of coins on her desk.  Since both Genma and Soun were still out, commiserating their latest failed marriage scheme, Kasumi had helped Nabiki to her room and promised to go shopping and make all of Nabiki's favorite foods for dinner.  But Nabiki had barely heard her elder sister, as she was instead remembering the last words her homeroom teacher had told her.  "Nabiki, we all know you're a smart girl.  But pushing youself to make it to class when you're clearly ill doesn't seem smart at all.  Go home; I don't want to see you back here until you've recovered."  Various other students had also chimed in, as to how early Nabiki always arrived, and how she must have exhausted herself by being so studious.

Although the true root Nabiki's problems wasn't exhaustion (even if it could eventually lead to exhaustion), there was a grain of truth to the teacher's statements: Nabiki would have to learn how to handle the situation, quickly.  There was no way she'd be able to avoid handling money at school.  After all, in modern soceity, who could avoid handling money?  She needed to find a solution or a workaround, fast.

"I can do this," Nabiki said to herself.  "I can train myself to stay calm.  This problem started because I was thinking of money during that bet; I can use my brain to cure it, too."  Nabiki was tempted to lay the blame on Ranma's shoulders, but refrained.  After all, Ranma had warned her, and Nabiki was too honest with herself to falsely blame another.  Emotionally distraught people like her father did that.  Akane did that.  But Nabiki was calm.  Nabiki was cool.  Nabiki was Nabiki.

She carefully looked through the pile of coins, until she located a tiny ten-yen coin.  "I'll start small.  I'll just hold it between the tips of my fingers for a minute at a time, until I get used to it.  I can beat this."

-

Ranma had arrived home from school without Akane in tow, since his fiancee was helping out with the school theater club.  Kasumi, oddly enough, hadn't greeted him when he called out at the front door, so he assumed that he had the house to himself.

He was quickly disillusioned of that last point, when, upon passing by Nabiki's room on the way to his own, he heard Nabiki's sharp whisper "Saotome, is that you?  This is all your fault. Get in here and help me with this."

Having heard that line before, Ranma just gave a resigned look at nothing in particular for a moment, before walking into Nabiki's room.  A second later, he was giving no looks at all, tightly shutting his eyes.  Nabiki was spread out on her bed, nude, and looking frazzled.  She also had a light blush.

"Nabiki?  What're you doing?  Put some clothes on; if Akane catches me in your room with you naked, she'll kill me!"  Ranma quickly turned to leave.

"Don't you dare go, Saotome.  I wouldn't be in this position, if you hadn't made that stupid bet, yesterday.  Why didn't you warn me you were serious about not thinking of anything?"

"Gah, don't tell me you ignored me.  Why do you think I warned you in the first place?"

"Do you think I'd-" Nabiki abruptly broke off her rant, for a moment, closing her eyes.  "Look, Ranma, I'm not arguing with you.  I want you to help me!"

"Don't worry about it, Nabiki.  This is what they call a 'psychosomatic orgasm'."  Ranma rattled the term off as if he'd memorized how to say it by rote.  He probably had, at that.  "What were you thinking of, anyway?"

Nabiki gave a stressed-looking tight-lipped smile for a moment, obvously reluctant to say.  But finally, she admitted, "Money."

Ranma boggled, opening his eyes, and incidentally noticing that Nabiki's blush had progressed.  "Um...well, just stay home and don't touch money for a day or two, and you'll be fine.  You don't need my help for that."

Nabiki drew in a breath.  "Yes.  I.  Do."

"Huh?  But you're not holding anything in your ha..." Ranma's voice trailed off, as he saw Nabiki not looking at him, but staring down at herself.  Ranma followed her stare, past her breasts which he did not notice how perky they looked because Akane would punt him to the far side of Tokyo if he did, and to her crotch.  Her crotch, which, now that Ranma was looking at it, seemed rather damp.

"Please say you didn't.  Please, please say you didn't."

Nabiki only blushed harder.

"Aw man.  Forget punting.  Akane is going to just flat-out kill me."

"Shut up, Ranma."

Ranma walked towards, then climed up on her bed, kneeling down next to Nabiki, and ignoring the discomfort he was feeling in his pants.  "How far in?" he asked without too much waver in his voice.

"I- er, can almost reach it with my fingers."  Bad news.  Nabiki had long fingers. 

Ranma had a better angle to work with, though.  He moved his hands forward for a moment, before stopping.  "Uh.  Spread your legs a little bid wider."

Nabiki complied.  Ranma laid his left hand among her abdomen, and used his fingers to spread her open.  That done, he extended two fingers on his right hand and gradually slid them inside.

"Ah!"

"Shhh!  Quiet, Nabiki.  I don't know when Akane or Kasumi are gonna get back home, and I don't want to get caught doing this."

Nabiki tried covering her mouth with the back of her left hand, which, of course, did practically nothing to stiffle the noise, as Ranma continued to move his fingers inward.

"Ah! Ah!"

"Hey, I felt it!  I felt the edge!"

"An-an-and you knocked, ah!, it's in ah!! further ah-ah!!"

Ranma sighed, then moved his fingers back and forth, slowly pushing further in, and having more trouble doing so.

"Damnit.  Nabiki, stop moving your hips."

"Move-AH!!-move your-ohgodohgod!!-palm away..."

Ranma, annoyed at trying to work with the bossy girl, just strengthened the grip on his left hand, and did his best to keep her still, despite the increaing force that was needed to do so.

And then, he felt his middle finger slide over the smooth surface of the coin. Ranma twisted his fingers so that he could hold it between this index and middle fingers.

Nabiki had grabbed the pillow she had been resting her head on, and shoved a corner of it into her mouth.  So any comments she had towards Ranma's actions were lost, since they were muffled as well as her moans.

Nabiki's mouth was desert dry, her thoughts were beginning to become incoherent, as she was slowly beginning to lose the last vestiges of control she had, and she was starting to ramble in her mind and she was almost-

Nothing.  Nabiki quickly spat out the pillow she'd used to muffle herself, and turned to look at Ranma.  "Hurry up and finish."

Ranma held up his right hand, with the ten yen coin clasped between the two fingers.  "We're done."  He flicked the coin over his shoulder without turning around, where it landed unerringly in Nabiki's wastebin.

"I figured you probably didn't want it after where it's been.  Anyway, if that's all you wanted from me, then I'm going to-"

Nabiki grabbed Ranma's hands in her own, and looked him in the eye.  "I said, hurry up and finish me off, damn it," Nabiki demanded, as she moved his hands back between her legs...

-

Since no one else had yet returned to the Tendo home, Nabiki and Ranma sat alone, across from each other, at the dining room table where this whole mess had started.  They were pointedly not looking at each other, both waiting for the other to break the silence.

"I'll never get married, now."

Nabiki glared at Ranma, grumbling "That's my line!"  But given her afterglow from what they'd been finished ten minutes ago, Nabiki's quick ire lost against her embarassment.  So she quickly looked back down, and away.

And since Ranma had explained that the root of the problem, the psychosomatic orgasms, were only temporary, she was actually more relieved than annoyed.  "Sorry, Ranma.  This has been a bit weird, even for something involving you.  At least my problems will be over with in a few days."

Ranma fidgeted.  "Uh...heh.  I did say a day or two, didn't I?  Heh heh."

Nabiki glanced back at him, suspiciously.  "What do you mean by that?"

Ranma started waving his hands back and forth in a panic.  "Yeah, I said two days.  If you don't do anything to make it worse, your body forgets about how it learned to respond to.  But you decided you were going to hold money in the morning.  That, was bad, and going out of your way to hold it when you got home was worse.  Why'd you put it *there*?"

"It slipped, okay?!"

"Yeah, because that happens to me all the time.  I'm going to buy some ice cream, and where I put my change?  Oh, there it is, it fell in my panti-"

"SHUT UP, RANMA!  IT SLIPPED WHEN I WAS FING-"

Kasumi's voice called "I'm home!" from the front door.  A moment later, Kasumi strode into the room, with a basket full of assorted vegetables.  "Oh, Nabiki, you're here?  From outside, I thought I'd heard Akane."

Nabiki winced at the inadvertent reminder that she was giving in to her insecurities.  Now, more than ever, she needed to control herself, and not be controlled by her emotions.

"Welcome home, elder sister"  Nabiki leaned over, and grabbed Ranma's upper arm.  "Come with me, Saotome," she commanded in a cool voice.  "We should finish discussing this in private."  Ranma looked ready to continue arguing, but surprised by Nabiki's sudden change in demeanor, was shocked enough where he followed Nabiki's lead without interruption.

After dragging Ranma upstairs, Nabiki turned to the confused martial artist, both hands gripping his shoulders.  "Saotome, I need you..."

"Oh no, not again!"

Nabiki winced slightly, and tightened her hands for a moment, but quickly caught herself.  Shouting would not help her situation.

"No, not again.  Not as long as I can help it.  I need you to help me run my business at school.  I need you to help collect debts from the people who owe them to me."

Ranma grimaced.  "Why me, Nabiki?  You've got to have plenty of other victims who need to work off what they owe you.  Why not get one of them to help you?

"I can't do it with anyone else, Ranma.  I couldn't work with someone else without them learning why I need them in the first place.  But if that happened, my life would be ruined.  Also, anyone who owes me money is a person I can least trust.  What would stop them from just running off with it all?"

"But you, Saotome, you already know my secret.  You don't owe me anything.  You're perfect."

"No way.  You're right, I don't owe you anything, so why should I?  Go ask your next option."  Ranma knew, from hard-won experience, that being around Nabiki more than necessary would cause him grief.

Nabiki stared Ranma in the eyes, not blinking, and not turning away.  "There isn't one, Ranma.  There isn't a next best person.  There's only you."  Although the words were said in a cool fashion, Ranma could hear the underlying intensity.

Ranma was sorely tempted to just leave.  After all, what had Nabiki ever done for him?  But two factors stayed him from action.  First, Nabiki's stare.  Although her voice was steady, her eyes showed a brief flash of fear.  Second, Nabiki's hands.  The tremors were slight, and had Nabiki not been gripping his shoulders, he would have never suspected that they had occurred at all.  But she was, and he knew.  And, as badly as Nabiki might have treated him in the past, Ranma was not the sort of person who'd turn his back on a terrified girl.

But damned if he wasn't going to get something out of this.  "Fine.  I'll do it."  Ranma moved his arms, taking Nabiki's hands off his shoulders and holding her hands in his own.  "You're going to pay for this, you know.  We'll work out how much, when I know what you want me to do.  But I'll do it."

<optional: Kasumi is in the kitchen with the TV on, crying, and preparing to make dinner.  Someone asks why she's trying, Kasumi says that she is watching her soaps - >



Thanks to MS, DA, and DFR.  This would have been posted a week or two earlier, had I not been so concerned that the dialogue was too strongly from DFR's Tale of Ten Yen.

[Anastasia]

I liked it. I'll have more constructive feedback in a day or two, too sleepy and dazed to give real commentary right now. One small grammar nitpick, though.

"Welcome home, elder sister"  Nabiki leaned over, and grabbed Ranma's upper arm.

Missing your punctuation after elder sister.

[Muphrid]

I like this too.  In particular I like that Ranma and Nabiki haven't harbored some deep-seated lust forever to get the story started.  This opening feels decently natural.  I do think Nabiki is somewhat inconsistent in how she addresses Ranma, beyond what could be intended on her part.  I also notice the betting pools.  Aside from that, I think the response to the coin could've been more justified if, say, she'd been holding on to it and feeling it as a way to resist Ranma's technique.

Overall, though, I thought it was enjoyable, and sexual responses to triggers is subject matter I find very interesting.  Good story so far.

[Yuthirin]

This is highly amusing.

[Jason_Miao]

Thanks for the feedback, all.

In particular I like that Ranma and Nabiki haven't harbored some deep-seated lust forever to get the story started. 

I was writing these chapters as a writing exercise, since lately, I seem to be in a rut where my dialogue is wooden and pretty obviously driven by the writer's goals rather than anything that sounds normal.  "Harboring deep-seated lust" at the outset between two characters who decidedly aren't in love, just to get the story rolling, was never an option.

I do think Nabiki is somewhat inconsistent in how she addresses Ranma, beyond what could be intended on her part. 

As in, mode of address?  Or phrasing in general?  re: the former, I tried to switch how she calls Ranma based on her mood - "Saotome" in a controlled sense, Ranma when she's being a bit more emotionally open (with the exception of the "Ranma-chan" and circling finger line in chapter 1, where she's trying to be sarcastic and it goes over Ranma's head.  I hate the fact that I had to use an honorific at all, but I couldn't make the line work right otherwise).  So that might not have worked as well as I'd hoped.

Specific dialogue lines are probably off, since I didn't go through the manga and research Nabiki lines like I did with Kasumi when I started writing Better to Forget.

I also notice the betting pools.

I don't think I can help that.  IIRC, she actually did do betting at school, albeit not as extreme as fanfic would have people believe (Nabiki does not own a casino, nor run the local Gangster-Jr Division).  If she's not surrounded by situations involving money by her own devising, the concept doesn't really work, so I played up that situation slightly.

Aside from that, I think the response to the coin could've been more justified if, say, she'd been holding on to it and feeling it as a way to resist Ranma's technique.

I'd love to do that.  I don't know how I'd pull it off, since Nabiki is caught off guard when Ranma actually begins in chapter 1.  Also, I have concerns with Ranma's warning, since that feels forced, and I'd hate to have a concentration of contrived occurrences in one scene. 

Hmm...the "keep your mind clear" line still irritates me, as well.  Maybe I can work past both problems at once - I'll have to think it over.