"What was that about 'gods?'" Megumi asked.
"Uhhh, Goth," Keiichi said, suddenly. "She meant Goths, they're ones that paint themselves blue right?"
"Actually, that's the Celts," Urd said.
"You're not helping, Urd," Keiichi muttered under his breath while his sister's eyes were on the white-haired goddess.
"Right," Megumi said, eyes narrowed. "Is that what you meant, Skuld?"
"Uhh..." Skuld stood there trapped. She couldn't lie, well she could, but that would be very bad. She didn't really want to tell the truth either, and in her predicament she forgot the rule of answering questions with questions.
Midori meanwhile watched this curiously, holding Nabiki's hands and humming.
"Who believes in gods these days?" Nabiki asked dismissively a smirk on her face. "Really, that's a silly idea. Like something you'd hear out of Juuban or Nerima."
"Yeah," Ranma said, confused. He was about to add more but he caught a look of Nabiki flashing him the "keep quiet" face. "Weren't we going to have break when they got here?"
"Right," Megumi said. "It is silly. Especially since that would mean my brother's been shacking up with a bunch of goddesses, and I just know that's not possible." She shrugged with a smirk toward a fuming Keiichi as she left the room to get the promised sodas.
"We shall need to talk to you later," Belldandy said.
"Of course," Nabiki agreed almost off-handedly. Then Megumi came back with sodas and they all retreated to their intangible corners.
"Okay everyone," Megumi said. "These are my housemates, Ranma, Nabiki and Midori Tanaka. And this is my brother, Keiichi. His girlfriend, Belldandy, and her sister's Urd and Skuld." She gestured toward each person in turn.
"I am pleased to meet you," Belldandy said, bowing politely. Urd waved and seemed to be trying to dissect (oer maybe dismantle) them visually.
"Yeah, us too," Ranma said. Nabiki nodded from her seat next to Ranma.
Midori at this point felt herself falling to sleep, and fought valiently against the emerging yawn. It eventually came out in a loud, stretched yawn. This produced the reaction she was dreading.
"Oops," Ranma said. "Looks like nap time."
"I don't need nap, Daddy," Midori protested, blinking and yawning again.
"Don't try to fool us, little girl," Nabiki said in an amused voice. "Let's go. Ranma want to help me with this?"
"No problem," Ranma said, following Nabiki.
"Don wanna," Midori complained loudly as Nabiki picked her up and carried back to one of the cleared rooms.
"She even sings her whining," Megumi noted, blinking at the departing family.
"Well," Urd said watching them go. "I've had my fill, why don't the squirt and I go and get started on cleaning one of these rooms?" She grabbed Skuld, who was discovering the wonders of the root beer float.
"But..." she said hesitantly before being dragged away, barely managing to save her drink from spilling.
"Well, that was a shorter break than I expected," Megumi said somewhat surprised, more at Urd saying she was heading to do some work.
That statement worried her actually.
"I'm sure they'll be right back," Belldandy said.
"Yeah," Keiichi said. "When was the last time you knew Urd to work for longer than ten minutes at a stretch?"
As they set Midori down for her nap, which she struggled greatly but vainly against, Ranma and Nabiki looked at the girl's little bed with its safety bars.
"I don't know if I'm going to be able to get used to this," Nabiki said as she watched Midori sleeping quietly.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "Be kinda odd sleeping alone now."
"Who says you'll be sleeping alone," Nabiki asked, a trifle hurt.
"But..." Ranma started before Nabiki cut him off.
"You don't think it would be a little funny for a married couple our age to be sleeping separately in this day and age?" Nabiki asked. "Really, we've gotten by this long without anything happening."
Just barely, both thought in addition to that. Good thing I never tried anything.
"Besides," Nabiki said. "You're better, and cheaper, than an electric blanket."
"Errr, thanks," Ranma said blushing. I wish she wouldn't tease me like that. "Now, uhh, what did I miss?"
I really shouldn't tempt myself like that, Nabiki thought as she softly rocked the crib. Ranma stood right behind her, less than an inch away, but she barely noticed that. "Saffron called himself a god, right?"
"Yeah," Ranma said. "Why?"
"And you said our auras resemble his, right?" she asked.
"Sorta," Ranma said. "We're more whole and balanced, and a lot more powerful. Though you still don't fight the best. But I sorta interrupted his growth or somethin' so maybe that's why."
"So is there a possibility that we're gods?" Nabiki asked. Ranma's gaze broke from his daughter to look into Nabiki's face, now turning up from the little girl to look at him.
"Okay squirt," Urd said. "We're clear now, pull down some files."
"You almost made me spill my drink Urd!!" Skuld whined. "I would have lost all the ice cream!"
"Just figure out who these gods are and what they're doing her," Urd asked. "There's something odd about two gods with an infant daughter coming to midgard."
"Don't I know it," Skuld said, producing a square out of her pocket that unfolded into a computer. She typed at hyper speed for a few moments, and then laughed out in victory as her computer began to display three files.
"All three third class gods," Urd noted. "Provision, Change, and Rebirth. Okay, okay, this is all the basic stuff, can you pull up affiliations?"
"Of course, I already glanced at that," Skuld said, rolling her eyes at the unintenional insult. "There are no official affiliations, but Ranma's a cat deity."
Contrary to popular belief, and Bast's supporting implications, there were many cat deities. Just like their were many powers connected to ravens and wolves and bears, and so on. Bast was just the most well known.
It wasn't really a domain, the afforementioned "Goddess of Cats"' official title was "Goddess of Pleasure and Pregnant Women." (A domain she had acquired for obvious reasons) However, those deities connected to animals did have certain tendencies attached to them, however.
"And a dual god(dess)," Urd noted whistling. "Cat, that makes him trickster, war, or hearth."
"Or all three," Skuld said. "Primarily concerned with hearth and home, very strong martial aspect and trickster trends. Nabiki has a trickster aspect strong enough to be her secondary domain. Still most likely a hearth goddess."
"What about the kid," Urd asked, reaching around Skuld.
"Hey!" Skuld snapped irritably as Urd scrolled down.
"Hearth," Urd said as if it were predictable. "If she grows up with that father she may have a martial aspect before long, too. Now to pull up their backgrounds."
"Urd," Skuld said warningly. "Get your hands off my computer."
"Do gods live hand ta mouth?" Ranma asked.
"Do mortals go without food for a ten months?" Nabiki countered. "Because, before that meal with Megumi yesterday, that was the last time either of us had eaten anything."
"It don't make sense," Ranma said shrugging.
"And you conceiving and giving birth within two days does?" Nabiki asked.
"Point taken," Ranma said reluctantly.
"And that is something straight out of a myth," Nabiki said.
"What made you think of this?" Ranma asked.
"Something Megumi's friends let slip," Nabiki said.
"Oh yeah," Ranma said. "Did you notice they have those same marks on their head that we do?"
"You don't say Ranma-Baby," Nabiki said dryly.
At which point there was a muffled explosion and scream. Nabiki glanced to Ranma, who nodded before leaving for the sound. Nabiki looked down nervously at Midori and then back at Ranma.
"Don't be concerned," a voice said as Belldandy appeared in the door to block Ranma's path. "My sister's sometimes fail to get along."
"Urd, Skuld!" Keiichi called out from elsewhere in the house. "Can't you two avoid destroying other people's property for once?"
"My poor house!?" Megumi cried out, somewhere near her brother.
"Is this a regular occurence?" Ranma asked tightly.
"Because we left our homes to avoid situations like that," Nabiki added. "Random explosions and such."
"Bad for kids," Ranma finished.
"Urd and Skuld would never allow any child to be endangered," Belldandy said. Then she laughed. "In any case you live with Megumi, not us."
"Good point," Nabiki said.
"Really," Megumi said irritably. "Sneaking off to play video games, I thought better of you Skuld."
"Hey, what about me?" Urd protested cutely. Keiichi, Megumi and Skuld glanced at Urd before turning back to Skuld.
"Yeah, Skuld," Keiichi said. "I thought at least you knew how to behave maturely." Better than Urd at least.
"Hey!" Urd protested.
"Well," Belldandy said returning with Ranma. "Nabiki is watching Midori, but I suggest that the rest of us get started on working."
"Right," Megumi said. "The sooner we get started the sooner we're finished."
"Aww, man," Urd sighed. "I should have skipped while I had the chance."
It took most of the day to clear out the house of all the junk infesting it. Urd kept grumbling to herself about "easier ways" and Skuld about manual labor. There was little other complaint, however.
Everyone was certainly impressed by Ranma's physical skills. Keiichi kept worrying that the pig-tailed god was going to blow the goddesses' cover. If he had known that Ranma was doing what had been mild labor before ascending, his eyes would have bugged out.
"Thanks a lot for the help guys," Megumi said cheerfully, as she considered the bath she was going to draw in a moment. "Come by and visit anytime!"
"And you and your friends may visit us as well," Belldandy said. "As usual, at any time."
"Of course," Megumi said. "As usual."
"Thanks for the offer," Nabiki said bowing.
"Can we go home now?" someone whined. It wasn't Skuld, but it was female.
"Be careful, Megumi," Keiichi said.
"Bye bye!" Midori sung.
He wasn't too worried. With a couple of gods watching over her, his sister was probably fairly well protected. Until, of course, he remembered the "act of god" clause on most insurance policies. It was the reason most such policies were useless in his life.
"Stop worrying, Bro," Megumi said, waving off the concern and waving goodbye as the temple group walked down the path. She turned to Ranma and Nabiki. "I don't know about you two, but I'm getting a bath and heading for bed, see ya."
"Good thing there's a separate shower in this place," Nabiki said. "I'm tired and I don't feel like waiting for the bath."
"But why can't I sleep in the bed with you?" Midori whined wearily when they set her in her bed.
"Because you have your own bed now," Nabiki said. "You're getting to be a big girl, and big girls don't sleep with their parents."
"If you need us we're right in the next room," Ranma said.
"Are we going to get a TV?" Midori asked petulantly changing the topic of conversation.
"We'll see," Nabiki said. "Now, go to sleep." And her tone allowed for no argument, though it was laced with affection.
"Night, kid," Ranma said. "And if there are monsters under your bed you know what to do."
"Tie 'em into knots," Midori said proudly, yawning. Then she was pleading. "Can you tell me a story Daddy?"
"Yeah, you do that and I'll get my shower," Nabiki said, patting Ranma on the shoulder.
"Uh, okay," Ranma said shrugging as he tried to remember a story to tell Midori.
"Tell me about the silly panda again!" Midori asked, clapping. Ranma sighed as Nabiki rolled her eyes on the way out.
****
Ranma and Nabiki looked at the western bed they had salvaged. It was full-sized, not much room. Still, they'd shared smaller beds with Midori between them before.
Nabiki and Ranma settled down on opposite sides of the bed, their customary foot or so apart. By habit they both lay facing the other.
"How do you think they're doing in Nerima," Nabiki asked.
"I hope they're doing good," Ranma said. "You know we'll go back to make sure they're all right and help them if not. We promised that."
"Yeah," Nabiki said. "But how soon? Good night, Ranma-Baby." Nabiki yawned.
"You too, Nabs," Ranma answered, yawning himself before shifting around for a little and falling asleep.
Midori yawned as woke up later that night and wiped at her eyes. She looked at the safety bars for a moment in puzzlement before finding the "childproof, hidden" latch and unlocking it. She slipped out of bed and rubbed at her eyes some more as she walked to through the darkness to where her parents were. She opened the door quietly and yawned loudly
Nabiki shifted forward in bed, reacting unconsciously to hearing Midori, and reached out with arm to locate the noise she had heard. At the same time Ranma also reached out to unconsciously protect and sooth his daughter.
Midori giggled musically as her mommy's hand found her daddy and, fogged by the fact that Nabiki was technically asleep, grabbed the young man tightly and pulled herself closer, reaching one hand up to a strangely tall child's head. Still she was quite strongly asleep, and even the presence of an arm holding her gently and securely also went mostly unnoticed.
Nabiki started to snuggle closer to the big warm thing that made her feel safe. Her sleeping mind had somehow forgotten Midori once it had determined that Midori was not in her bed. And now she was grasping more like someone seeking comfort than giving it.
Ranma's arms held her tighter, but still gently. The thing in his arms didn't seem to be Midori, and something in the back of his sleeping mind reminded him that she was in her bed, but he still responded to the other's desire to be held.
Then Midori took a step and tripped on a loose section of the floor. The charm of the scene was ended as she smacked into the floor and loudly complained about the impact.
Ranma and Nabiki had originally been deep sleepers, the both of them. The earth could move and they wouldn't even notice, and that had been proven in the last earthquake.
This was before parenthood.
They both woke up and realized exactly the situation they were in. The pose wasn't sexual, but was very intimate, more intimate than sex on its own really. Rather more intimate than they had expected, especially considering they had fallen asleep about a foot apart originally.
They did not dwell on this issue at all, and it was hardly a split second before they were out of bed to see what Midori needed.
Later, after Midori had been soothed back to sleep, they stared across from each other cautiously.
"Well, Ranma-baby?" Nabiki asked trying to keep her voice at its usual tone.
"I think we need to talk," Ranma said.
"Yeah, that seems obvious," Nabiki said.
"Right now?" Ranma asked nervous and tired.
I need more time, Nabiki thought. "Maybe tomorrow."
"Yeah, tomorrow is good," Ranma agreed. Whew that was close. They both lay back down on the small bed and Ranma started to pull the covers.
"It really doesn't make sense to sleep so far apart," Nabiki said, not noticing the implications of her choice "so far."
"Yeah, it'll be more comfortable in the center of the bed," Ranma agreed. Ranma and Nabiki, cautiously at first, snuggled closer, in more or less the same position they had been on waking up, before letting themselves fall back to sleep.