Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong



Chapter 1
     
     Ranma walked into the work office wearing the pinkest shirt on the 
face of the planet. 
  "Don't say anything," Ranma said when he noticed several bemusing 
glances in his direction "One of my daughters decided to do my laundry 
without my knowing"
  "You look like a candy cane" a fellow female worker commented.
  At that moment, the president of the company stepped in.
  Nabiki's jaw almost dropped to the ground "W-what the?!"
  Ranma sighed, knowing that this was going to be a long day "One of my 
daughters decided to do the laundry and she didn't know....the 
consequences of mixing colors"
  For the first time since Ranma had begun working for her computer 
company two months ago, Nabiki cracked a smile. The smile disappeared 
within moments.
  "You will change that shirt as soon as possible" she said. It was a 
command, not a question.
  Ranma nodded, "Um, of course"
  Nabiki disappeared into her office. Ranma turned toward his nearest co 
worker. She was a young girl who had been working there about a year 
before Ranma had started.
  "You wouldn't happen to have a shirt with you, would you?"
  "Sorry"
  Ranma went around the office and asked everyone if they had an extra 
shirt he could borrow, all of them replying in the same fashion "Sorry"
  "The boss usually keeps extra shirts in her private office" another 
young girl said "On many times, she would work through the entire night, 
take a shower in that private bathroom of hers, and then go back to 
work"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders "I doubt it, but I might as well try"
  Nabiki was staring out her window when her intercom rang.
  "What is it?"
  "It's me, Ranma. Um...I don't have a shirt, and I was wondering if I 
can borrow one of yours" his voice filtered into the vast room.
  Nabiki couldn't believe Ranma had such audacity as to asking to borrow 
one of her shirts. This man was already walking a thin line as it is. If 
it was not for the fact that since his arrival and production levels 
skyrocketing, she would had gotten rid of him just one day after his 
employment.
   "No, you may not!" she said.
  Ranma turned around to leave, but not before replying harshly "Fine. 
Then I'll leave you alone"
  Nabiki would have fired him then and there. No one would have even 
dared spoken spoken to her that way, let alone someone whose career hung 
in her hands. This was the last straw.
  "You stay right here, I've been meaning to talk to you"
  "Let me guess," Ranma said "You're going to fire me"
  Nabiki was surprised that Ranma had guess her right. She was about to 
fire him. But the curiosity got the better of her. How did he know? Had 
he read her mind so easily?
  "And what makes you say that?"
  Ranma ssaid, "It doesn't really matter. Because if you don't, then 
I'll have to resign"
  For the first time in her life, Nabiki had been totally caught off 
guard. 
  "W-what?"
  "I have two daughters I must take care of," he said "And for the past 
two months, I have been getting home a half hour before they do, and 
that is considered neglect since no one's there to watch over them. I 
don't want to be a bad father"
  Nabiki was speechless for a moment.
  "Since my hours are so inflexible, and I can't get off work a half 
hour early, I'm forced to resign"
  Never had anyone resigned from Nabiki Tech Corporation. Working for 
NTC was a career anyone and everyone would dream to work for. A person 
who worked there would be set for life, bringing in more money in one 
week than he or she would a month at any other job. But standing before 
her was a man who didn't seem to care about the pay for he was choosing 
to quit over his daughters' sake.
  Nabiki shook her head "I don't think so. You're not resigning because 
I'm not going to give you the chance. You're fired!" 
  Ranma nodded "Fine. I'll go pack my things. I'll be gone in an hour"
  
  Nabiki entered her penthouse. This was the first time in a long time 
she had left work early. She sat down on her couch, her mind 
preoccupied. What a day.
  "I can't believe that Ranma" she said to herself "How dare he resign" 
Even though it would be known that she had fired him, she knew that deep 
down inside, he had resigned. And it was over something as trivial as 
children.
  "Bah, children" she spat. She didn't like children. They would do 
nothing but interferre with her work. That was why she chose not to have 
children. But as she thought more about children, her mind wandered back 
onto Ranma and that rediculously pink shirt he had been wearing. 
  The thought brought a small smile to her lips. She couldn't remember 
having seen anything that had amused her so much. Just the sight of 
Ranma in that pink shirt, even though he was drop-dead gorgeous, made 
him look ridiculous.
   Her smiled disappeared when she realized just how much Ranma's 
termination was going to affect her company. Although she wanted to deny 
it, she knew that production and efficency had increased dramatically 
upon Ranma's employment. She had noticed how all the females in the 
office seemed to come to work extra early, when Ranma came in. But now, 
since Ranma was gone, production would go down.
  "You what?!" her personal secretary, Jun, had said. She had been with 
the company since it was nothing but a tiny office in a run down 
building and she and Nabiki were close friend "You fired him?!"
  Nabiki nodded.
  "Great, now I have nothing to look forward to coming to work to" she 
had joked with a teasing smirk.
  Nabiki  got up from her couch and proceeded toward her kitchen to 
prepare something to eat. She would have to deal with that tomorrow. She 
knew she wasn't going to have much trouble supressing the protests in 
his termination, but she would prefer to avoid the annoyance.
  Ranma was gone. And that was that. They would have to deal with it.
  Besides, Ranma had done nothing more than come to work late everyday, 
coming in at eight thirty instead of eight. He had even challenged her 
authority, something no one else had ever done. And that wasn't it. In 
actuality, he was someone the company could do without...someone she 
could do without. She didn't need someone like him.
  So why was she going to miss him?

Chapter 2  

     Nabiki was driving her ferrari to work when she spotted Ranma 
walking two little girls across the street. Her heart gave a leap when 
she noticed how happy he looked, despite him no longer employed or 
having a steady income. She watched him intently as he crossed, smiling 
happily as he held each of the little girls' hands.
  They must be his daughters, Nabiki assumed. Ranma being a father had 
spread through her company like wildfire when he had first arrived.
  She wondered what was such a hot topic about Ranma and his kids. Aside 
from the janitor and cleaning lady, no one else had kids. Her company 
required ambitious people, some of them having to work sixty to seventy 
hour weeks, and that meant no time for a family. 
  Ranma is a strange man, Nabiki thought. She remembered that he had 
been the only person to drive a beak up station wagon to work, everyone 
else driving expensive cars like ferraris and lamborghinis. Ranma's car 
stood out like a sore thumb, yet it didn't seem to bother him. 
  A car behind her beeped its horn, causing Nabiki to start. She gritted 
her teeth, ashamed at how one man could have distrated her so much. He 
had nothing to do with her anymore. He was on his own.
  Swearing to herself, Nabiki drove on.

  "What? Ranma's gone? How come?"
  "Why did you fire him?"
  "That's an aweful shame. I liked working with him"
  "Why'd you get rid of him. What did he do?"
  Those were some of the questions Nabiki had to deal with when she had 
arrived. Ranma's termination had already spread through her company. It 
was all because the majority of the employees in her company was female 
and gossip seemed to spread around much quicker.
  Nabiki shook her head. It felt as if her fellow employees were up in 
arms against her for what she had done. But she was the president and 
she always got her way. They couldn't do anything about it. She had 
single-handedly built NTC into the most prestigious computer company. If 
anyone else had done that, then she would consider their suggestions, 
otherwise, she wouldn't budge.
  "Tendo-san, do you have a minute? I think you want to check this out" 
a voice filtered into her office via the intercom. It was her personal 
secretary, Jun.
  "What is it?" Nabiki said into the intercom.
  "It's Ranma's computer" came the reply "Anyway, just come out and 
check it out"
  Nabiki went to cubicle Ranma had previously worked in. Jun and two 
other girls were huddled around the computer.
  "What is it you wanted to show me?"
  "Ranma's computer" Jun said, her eyes intent of the computer screen 
"He's been using a totally different OS than we do"
  "Oh?" we all Nabiki could muster.
  "This is some pretty advanced stuff" another girl said "I never seen 
any OS like this. It uses virtually no memeory and is much faster than 
the ones we use"
  "Here, lettme see" Nabiki said as Jun got off the seat for Nabiki to 
sit in.
  Several minutes passed as Nabiki figited with Ranma's computer.
  "Where did this OS come from?" Nabiki asked no one in particular "Did 
he write this?"
  Nabiki seriously hoped he didn't because then that meant she had made 
a grave mistake in firing Ranma, for whoever wrote that operating system 
must be brilliant. 
  "I think Ranma wrote it," Jun said "Afterall, he could do whatever he 
wanted to his computer as long as he had his work done and on time"
  Nabiki stared at the screen, wide eyed. The OS incorporated things she 
had never thought conceiveable. It also ran more than twice as fast as 
the computer that sat in front of her own desk. Ranma had somehow found 
a way to push the computer's specs to it most optimal performance.
  "Open the machine up" Nabiki said. She didn't believe Ranma's computer 
was that fast because of software. It must be hardware that was doing 
it.
  It took almost a ten minutes before Jun found a screwdriver and opened 
the computer up.
  "You've got to be kidding me" Nabiki said in disbelief. Ranma's 
computer had virtually nothing in it, nothing but the required 
necessities to have the computer up and running.
  "How did he do this?" Jun said "Isn't it impossible? I 
mean...technologically, this computer isn't capable to move at those 
speeds"
  "But it is" Nabiki said. 
  Nabiki gritted her teeth. She couldn't believe how big a mistake she 
had made.

Chapter 3  

     Nabiki saw Ranma was walking his daughters across the street again 
at around the same time as she had seen them three days ago on Friday. 
She knew he was walking them to school. It wasn't until she had parked 
her car there two days in a row that weekend before she realized that.
  She quickly got out of her ferrari. As she was about to approach him 
and his daughters, she noticed her heart started to beat faster. It must 
be the children. She was never good with children. That was what she 
told herself.
  "Ranma," she said to Ranma's back.
  Ranma turned around, a bit surprised to see Nabiki, his ex-boss. His 
two daughters gazed up at her. 
  Nabiki regarded the daughters for a quick second. She noticed that 
they were twins, and cute ones. They had silk-like brown hair that 
matched their chocolate colored eyes. They looked like they were around 
eight or nine.
  "Who's that, Daddy?" Meggie asked, tugging at Ranma's hand.
  "Yeah, who's that, Daddy?" Jessie asked, tugging at Ranma's other 
hand.
  "I'd like to speak with you" Nabiki said, almost swallowing her pride. 
She couldn't believe it, she was actually going to attempt to hire him 
back.
  Ranma's brow creased "Um, I'm kinda busy right now. I have to take my 
daughters to school. Perhaps some other time"
  He turned to leave.
  "Um, I'll come with you"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders "Sure, but you're in for a long walk"
  "We can take my ferrari"
  He shook his head "No thank you. We prefer to walk"
  Nabiki contemplated whether or not to go alone. But she was wearing 
pumps and walking would be a killer in them. Besides, she didn't like to 
walk.
  "Nevemind. Forget I asked" she replied. Ranma would regret not letting 
her talk to him. She would had taken him back, but now she was sure she 
wouldn't. Why did she ever consider taking him back?
  "Well, it was nice talking to you then. Bye" Ranma replied with a 
courteous bow.
  He turned around and walked away.
  Nabiki fumed. 
  How dare he!?!

  "Guess what else we found?" Jun's said with a smirk.
  "What?"
  Jun handed Nabiki a computer component "Guess what that is?"
  "It's a hard drive" Nabiki said, a bit annoyed from what had happened 
earlier.
  "Yeah, but guess how large it is?" Jun's continued to smirk.
  Nabiki already knew. She had been around computer compnents for so 
long that she could tell how large the hard drive was just by its weight 
in her hands "It's a 9.5 gig IDE harddrive. Why? I hope there's a reason 
your asking me this"
  "You're wrong"
  Nabiki shot Jun a odd glance. She then looked at the component in her 
hands. She was positive it was a 9.5 gig IDE harddrive. The label on the 
it even said it was a 9.5 gig IDE harddrive "Okay, then what is it?"
  "From what I can tell, it's a 15+ gig SCSI harddrive"
  "What?!" Nabiki said, shock in her voice.
  "Actually, it isn't a SCSI hardrive, but it's accesstime is just as 
fast. Somehow, he had made some physical alterations to the drive that 
made it able to hold 150% more information that it's supposed to and 
have an accesstime as if it were a SCSI drive" Jun said in one breath. 
She couldn't believe she had missed this the other day when she was 
tinkering with Ranma's computer.
  Nabiki regarded the harddrive. Aside from the tiny add on near the IDE 
port, there were no other physical alterations from a regular drive.
  "I don't know about you, considering what he's capable of doing, he 
must be worth his weight in gold" Jun commented.
  Nabiki reluctantly agreed "I guess you're right"
  "It doesn't hurt that he's cute also"
  
Chapter 4

     Ranma was walking his daughters to school when Nabiki pulled her 
ferrari next to them.
  "Ranma, we must talk" she said, stepping out of her car. 
  "About what?" 
  Nabiki took a deep breath "I'd like to take you back"
  "I'm not interested"
  "I'll have it where you don't have to worry about not having the time 
for your daughters" she added, hoping that would be enough to get him 
back. She was shocked when he replied.
  "No thanks. I'm not interested"
  "Why not, Daddy?" Meggie asked "Why aren't you interested? I want a 
new Mommy"
  "Yeah, me too" Jessie sqeaked.
  "Meggie, Jessie. She want's me to work for her not date her. It's two 
entirely different things" Ranma told the twins with the utmost 
patience.
  Nabiki had unfortunately heard what Ranma had said. She couldn't help 
but blush. Her? Dating Ranma? No way! She didn't have time for dating.
  Ranma turned toward Nabiki "I'm not interested. I realized that I like 
having the time off. Besides, I plan on working at home"
  "You mean writing that OS you created?"
  "Eh?" Ranma looked confused for a moment "Oh...I get it. You must have 
checked out the computer in my cublicle. No. I don't plan on working on 
that. I was just fiddling around. I wrote that a few days after I 
started. The machine was running too slow for my tastes. Anyway, I like 
the peace and quiet. No offense, but working for your company can get 
pretty stressful and I don't want to deal with it. I plan on doing 
something else"
  "What do you plan on doing?"
  "Look, I'm sorry, but I can't stay here and talk. I have to take my 
kids to school" he said. He noticed it was getting late.
  Ranma bowed courteously "If you would like to talk some more, perhaps 
tomorrow then. You can find me walking my kids to school at this time 
every weekday. If not, then you can find me at home. You have my 
address"
  With that said, Ranma started toward his daughters' school.
  Nabiki watched as Ranma and his girls headed down the street. But 
before they turned around a corner, one of the twins turned and faced 
her and waved her hand.
  "Bye, nice lady"

  Jun was giggling when Nabiki entered the building.
  "Now what?"
  "If you think you were surprised, wait until what else I found" she 
said.
  "What? What else did you find?"
  "What would you like to see first, the software or the hardware?" Jun 
smiled, resting an arm on top of Ranma's computer.
  "Software,"
  "We found a program in here that detects viruses" 
  "There's nothing new about that" Nabiki said. 
  "I know...but this program is different. It detects it in the 
background, while the computer is booting up. You don't even need to see 
that annoying computer virus program pop up everytime you boot up. You 
don't even need to do this with every new disk you put in. It just does 
it automatically"
  "That's pretty amazing. And what about the hardware"
  "I was hoping you were interested" Jun said "You know the overclocking 
method where you would change a few jumpers on the motherboard to make 
the processor run at a faster speed? Well, it seems Ranma is 
underclocking the chip"
  "Underclocking? You mean he physically making the computer run 
slower?"
  "Well, I decided to overclock the chip and, boy, does that computer 
fly. I mean obscenely fast speeds. There was one problem though, the 
chip got real hot, real fast. I was forced to add a few extra heat sinks 
and fans to compensate, but it now works fine" Jun said. When she 
noticed Nabiki was about to ask why Ranma had underclocked it, she 
continued on "I think Ranma underclocked it because....well, he was only 
here for a short time, and he was scared he would burn out the chip. 
Afterall, he probably wasn't aware of where we kept the extra heat sinks 
and fans"
  Nabiki sighed.
  "What's wrong?"
  "I talked to Ranma earlier,"
  "Oh? W-what did he say? Is he coming back? I hope so"
  Nabiki shook her head sullenly. Her company could use a man like him. 
Unfortunately...
  "He said he's not interested"
  
Chapter 5

     Ranma watching television when the doorbell rang. He went to answer 
it.
  To his surprise, it was Nabiki.
  "Nabiki, what are you doing here?"
  Nabiki eyed him carefully "I took you up on your offer. I came here to 
talk to you. You did say I could come on by your house"
  "Um, well yeah, but I wasn't expecting you to come on by on the same 
day" he said "That's all. Let's go to the kitchen, I'll make you some 
coffee"
  "No thanks" she protested as she followed Ranma. She had to cross the 
living room to get to the kitchen. In the livingroom, she saw a computer 
in the corner of the room. She wondered how powerful that computer must 
be.
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders "Okay, what would you like to talk 
about?" He sat down on a couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table. 
  Nabiki couldn't help be feel uncomfortable nervously standing there, 
in the middle of the livingroom, while Ranma seemed so relaxed.
  "I'd like to talk to you about the job" Nabiki said, wondering if she 
should continue to stand or sit down next to Ranma. She chose the 
former.
  "You mean about my coming back?" he said "I said I'm not interested"
  "How come?"
  "I like the having time to myself, that's all" he said. He didn't need 
to worry about money as far as he was concerned. He had saved enough 
money over the years to live well. 
  At that moment, the phone rang.
  "Hello?" Ranma spoke into the receiver.
  Nabiki watched as he listened intently.
  "Are you sure, is she all right?" his visage turned scared.
  "I'll be right there" he said before hanging the phone up.
  "I'm sorry, but I have to get going. Meggie got hurt in school. She's 
in the nurse's office and she wants to come home" he said, heading for 
the front door "Do whatever you like. I'll be right back"
  With that said, Ranma left.
  Nabiki stood there, dumbfounded. Ranma had just left her in his own 
house. What was she supposed to do? He didn't even know her and he 
didn't seem at all worried about a person he hardly knew being in his 
home, his sacred sanctum.
  "Great, what am I supposed to do?" Nabiki said. She wasn't expecting 
this turn of events. She wasn't expecting Ranma to just get on up and 
walk out on her. Should she leave? Did Ranma bring his keys? God, she 
wasn't some housesitter. 
  After several long moments, Nabiki figured it was best to stay. 
Perhaps he was in such a rush and forget his keys. Yeah, that was it.
  Since she was the president of her own company, she didn't have to 
worry about when she would get back so she had time to herself. She 
figured since she was here, she might as well look around the house. The 
house was nowhere near as extravagantly funished as her penthouse, but 
it seemed more cozy than any house she had ever been in. There were toys 
strewn about all over the floor. She hadn't noticed that before. She 
noticed there was a grand piano in an adjacent room. She went on over to 
give it a better look-see.
  When she sat down on the piano bench, she saw a half written piano-
piece. It must be Ranma's. 
  She decided it was best to pass the time and give the song a try. She 
had learned piano at a young age but was most likely rusty. 
  She attempted to play the song.
  "You should play with more feeling" Ranma's voice filtered into the 
room, startling Nabiki.
  "W-when did you get back?"
  "About two minutes ago. I've been listening to you since" he smiled, 
leaning againt the doorjamb.
  Nabiki looked at her watch. She couldn't believe almost forty-five 
minutes had passed since Ranma left. 
  Meggie's head peered around Ranma, looking into the room. Recognition 
dawned on the little girl's face.
  "You're that lady I waved to before!"
  Nabiki nodded. What should she say? "Um...y-your father said you got 
hurt. Are you all right?" That seemed the most logical thing to ask a 
child, right?
  "I'm fine" Meggie said, stepping forward and extending her arm. Her 
forearm was badly scraped "I fell and went boom"
  "You should be more careful next time" Ranma said, also entering the 
room. Nabiki suddenly noticed how small the room had just gotten.
  Meggie nodded. She turned to Nabiki "I'm Meghan. But you can call me 
Meggie. I like that name more"
  "I'm Nabiki"
  "Hello, Nabiki. You wanna see my room? I've got lots of toys"
  Nabiki's heart started racing. What was she going to do?
  "Um, Nabiki needs to talk to Daddy. You go on and play with your toys" 
Ranma said after he notice how nervous Nabiki seemed to have gotten.
  Meggie nodded before she left the rooom.
  "She's very outgoing" he commented.
  "So I've noticed"
  Ranma gestured to the piano "I heard you playing. You're not that bad"
  "Um, thank you" she replied "Um, did you write that song?"
  "Yes. Would you like to hear it?"
  For some reason, Nabiki nodded.
  Ranma entered the room and sat down on the bench, right next to her. 
His hips brushed against hers. Upon contact, Nabiki felt a feeling she 
had never felt before. Her heart started to race even faster. Perhaps 
she shouldn't have agreed to hear him play.