Nabiki watched for Ranma's return from the upstairs window that had the best view of the street approaching their front gate. She had been home for about half an hour now, and she was ready to welcome him home.
She had heard Akane come home a little while ago. Akane hadn't made any effort to seek her out, and she was fine with that.
She found herself worrying about how mad Ranma was going to be with her when he got home. She was sure he didn't understand it, but she figured the best way to keep the peace right now was for her to not fight for him. Until she had things more settled with Akane, one way or another, she wasn't willing to take a real public stand over Ranma. And even if she ever managed to get Akane settled, something had to be done about the rest of the little ducklings chasing after him. Well, maybe not little ducklings, more like homicidal hyperactive ferrets. But, more to the point, Ukyo's challenge and the subsequent melee it had caused were still fresh in her memory, especially Shampoo's attack on her.
Shampoo frankly freaked her out. In some ways she related to Shampoo fairly strongly. On one hand, the beautiful Amazon girl was ruthless and played by her own rules, and Shampoo didn't care whom she had to step on to get what she wanted.
As for herself, she always stopped short of using actual violence. She had no real tolerance for it, and she had always felt that there wasn't really a situation that couldn't be dealt with using logic, good information, and an iron will. She had a feeling Shampoo was going to test that belief of hers if she stayed engaged to Ranma long enough.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she finally spied Ranma making his way down the street towards the house.
Was he ... was he limping? Oh ... oh no! She thought in alarm as he walked closer and she could make out details. He was limping, and using a stick to help him walk.
Oh no, oh no, oh no! She thought in a panic as she dashed from the window and raced downstairs. This was all her fault. She hadn't meant for him to get hurt! She hadn't even thought it was possible for any of them to hurt him! She seriously doubted Ukyo had hurt him, so it must have been the Martial Arts clubs. How had they managed to hurt him? She had never seen him lose a fight to anyone weaker than someone like Happosai or Shampoo's Grandmother. Ranma regularly wiped the floor with Kuno, and Kuno was the best fighter in the school ... well, he had been before Ranma showed up, anyway.
She waited in the entryway for him and danced back and forth from foot to foot nervously. She was chewing on her lower lip and trying desperately to figure out a way to fix the situation. She could hear him approaching the door. She was out of time. What could she do? He had to be just ... furious with her!
She heard the door start to slide open and did the only thing she could think of, distract him. She threw herself into his arms just as he finished opening the door and called out for her angrily. "Hey! Nabiki— oof—" 
"Oh, darling, I'm so happy you're home!" She called out happily to him as she interrupted his angry yell for her. She then buried her face in his neck, and hung on to him with everything she had while her mind was still desperately trying to figure out what to do. She hadn't expected him to get hurt!
With Ranma twitching in place, frozen where she had leaped into his arms, she sighed and decided to just run with the distraction. It seemed to be working well enough.
She knew she wouldn't be able to keep doing this and continue to get away with it forever. Even her considerable feminine wiles would lose their effectiveness on him over time. Still, maybe if she was very nice to him tonight, he might forgive her? He had forgiven Akane after every time she'd hit him, hadn't he? She shrugged inwardly and figured it was worth a try.
"You must be tired. Why don't you take a nice long hot bath while I fix you something to eat, OK?" She called out happily to him as she hung on him.
Ranma tried to lean back away from her with a panicked gasp, but she held on tightly. "Want to take a bath? I'll wash your back." She pressed him.
Ranma was blushing now, she could feel the heat of it in his neck. He managed to stutter back a shaky reply. "Wh-wh-what are you t-t-t-t—" he froze at that point, and she could tell something was wrong when he again gasped and tried to pull away from her. She lifted her head up to see what had spooked him.
Across the entryway was Akane. She was just standing there, watching them, but she had an angry other-worldly stare fixed on her face. She was sure if she was trained in the Art like Ranma was, she would probably be able to see a battle aura pouring out of her sister. She could see it sometimes, but only when Akane was really angry.
Well ... tough for Akane. She wasn't interested in offering him back to her sister right now. She needed to make up with him before she did anything else. Still, she couldn't help but be satisfied with how easy it was to trap Akane. The girl had no control over her emotions.
Ranma struck as defiant a pose as he could while she was still hanging off him and yelled to Akane defensively. "Hey, what's your problem? Would you quit starin'?"
Akane seemed to deflate at that. She watched her sister out of the corner of her eye as Akane seemed to lose her entire fighting spirit. Ranma, being who he was, continued to fight the fight he had already won. "If you want a fight, it's a fight you'll—"
Akane stomped out of the room before he could finish. He watched her go with wide eyes and made a confused sound as she left.
Well, at least he wasn't running after her. That was a start. Ranma looked down at her and cleared his throat. She looked up at him sheepishly and whispered, "Are you all right?" He nodded his head hesitantly.
"I-I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I'm sorry. Do you forgive me?" She asked in probably the most sincere voice she had used in this house since before Mom had died.
Ranma looked down at her, and the angry creases in his face disappeared as he nodded mutely. She smiled up at him as she pulled herself off of him. "Good. Want to go get some dinner?" She held her hand out for him, and smiled happily when he took it. She led him to the dining room where Kasumi was already laying out dinner.
Mr. Saotome and Daddy were already in the room, sitting around the table watching Kasumi expectantly as she laid out the food. They were such gluttons. She wondered idly when or if Kasumi would ever get tired of playing housewife for the family.
She sat in her usual place, and Ranma sat down next to her. She released his hand and smiled at him again. He started to return the smile, then Akane entered the room. His face froze then turned into a mask of innocence. She recognized it as a mask she herself wore frequently.
She watched Akane's eyes and saw her sister note where Ranma was sitting. But Akane didn't say anything. Akane just sat down at her usual spot and picked up the rice bowl Kasumi had set out for her, and began eating slowly while staring straight ahead at nothing. So ... Akane had decided to ignore them. Well, that was fine with her.
She still wanted to be nice to Ranma, and unlike Akane, she had no problem doing so around other people. She really didn't care what anyone thought about what she did in her personal life. 
She held up some food from her plate to him. "Here you go, Ranma. Say Ahh." She said sweetly.
Ranma looked sideways at Akane, and winced at what she was doing and leaned away from her attempt to feed him.
She looked over at Akane then back to him and frowned. "What's the matter? We're engaged, right?"
Ranma looked back at her and nodded, then waved his hands in a warding gesture and protested, "B-but I can feed myself!"
"Come on," she said as she got him to eat a little, "one bite for your little Nabiki?"
He swallowed the food then clamped his teeth closed and looked at her sternly. Okay, she had to admit, she was pushing it. She shrugged and stopped trying to feed him, and for the rest of the meal everyone ate in silence. She watched Daddy and Kasumi as she ate, and noted that Daddy seemed fine with everything. Kasumi, however, looked disapproving and kept trying to lock eye contact with her. She would have to deal with her older sister at some point.
After she finished eating, she sat quietly and waited for Ranma to finish. Akane stopped staring at nothing, and started staring at her. She smiled at her. Akane scowled but didn't say anything.
Ranma finally finished, and stood up. She got up to follow him. Before she could leave the room though, Akane, deliberately stepped quickly across her path and knocked into her with her shoulder. Not enough to hurt her, just enough to push her off balance. Akane looked back at her grimaced and apologized in a sweet tone. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there." Then Akane continued to stomp out of the room.
That had ... annoyed her. She was no longer content with ignoring Akane. Now she wanted to teach her a lesson. She followed her little sister upstairs and waited until Akane had gone into her room before she also went into her own room. She knew just what would get Akane riled up, too.
She waited inside her room for about a minute without doing anything, then she went to her door, opened it and closed it, then started talking to nobody in a loud voice. "Hello, Ranma. Come on in!... Oh! Ranma, stop! ... We mustn't, not before the wedding!"
As she yelled out her bait for Akane, she walked calmly over to her bed and sat down. When she had yelled the last syllable, she counted down in her head ... three ... two ... on—.
Her door crashed open before she even finished thinking one. Akane stood there in the door frame, having kicked the door in. Her shoulders were heaving as she breathed heavily in anger and looked around the room wildly as she yelled, "Ranma!!!"
She just looked at her little sister. This, this was the nonsense she was sick of. The overreactions. The anger. The violence. The childish temper tantrums and overly territorial behavior. Sometimes it was exhausting just being in the same house with it.
Akane locked eyes with her and harrumphed as she realized she'd been trapped. All too easily too. She thought to herself smugly.
At first when she had decided to do this to Akane, to teach her a lesson, she had thought about offering to sincerely sell him back to her again. But, just seeing her kick in her door made her not want to do that. So she decided to taunt her instead.
She turned her head and did her best overly dramatic pose. "Well, well, if it isn't Ms. jealous looking for her former fiancé." She said as she turned back to face Akane, and found her sister glaring at her. Good, maybe if everyone stopped giving her what she wanted when she did this, she would stop doing it. In the most sarcastic voice she had, she continued. "Now quit being so stubborn and buy him back from me!"
Akane twitched when she heard her tone, but didn't back down. Akane stomped over to her and leaned in so she was less than half a meter away. "Listen very closely, I'm not going to buy him back from you!" Akane growled.
She just looked at Akane expectantly. Finally, Akane relented a little bit. "Are you trying to tell me ... you really don't care about Ranma?" Her little sister asked.
She smirked. "Of course I care," she paused and looked away, then back to Akane, still doing her theater-major routine and held up five fingers as she said, "five thousand Yen worth!"
Akane twitched again and stood up to leave. She yelled over her shoulder as she stomped out of the room, "I'm not paying you anything!"
Okay, she had to admit. That had been fun, and Akane had had that coming. She smiled happily to herself as she got up to close her door. Just as she was swinging it closed, someone put their hand on the other side of it and stopped it. Then they knocked gently. She pulled back the door curiously and found Ranma standing there looking both worried and unamused. 
"Can I come in?" He asked in a very quiet voice.
She nodded and stepped back away from the door. As soon as he was in the room he closed the door behind himself and brought his eyes up to hers. He looked ... troubled. Before she could say anything, he held up a hand for her to listen and said quietly, "We need to talk."