Chapter 162: Christmas Eve
"You will get a special little feelin' when you hear voices singing 'let's be jolly,' deck the halls with boughs of holly, whoa…"
Akane smiled up at the stage, watching her love dance to the affection of three hundred strong. Nearly everyone at the Phoenix that night was there on a date; that was to be expected for Christmas Eve. Akane was the rare person who didn't need to beg off from work for the most romantic night of the year, because the person she wanted to spend the night with most was not fifteen meters from her, and she was radiant.
Ranko strode the stage in a fur-lined velvet dress, in a bright Christmas red that almost perfectly matched her hair. White lines of soft fluff lined the bottom hem of the high-low pencil skirt that hung below her left knee, but just barely to the middle of her right thigh. The neckline followed a similar angle, such that her left shoulder was bare and her right was not. The capacity crowd was treated to the preferred art form of three of the Phoenix sisters, as not only were they getting Ranko's singing and Yui's cocktail creations as usual, but for the first time, Ranko strode the stage that night in a costume custom-made for her by up-and-coming fashion designer Izumi Sando. Ranko was lucky it had been finished in time; the last stitch had been added less than twelve hours before the birth of the youngest member of the Phoenix clan.
She'd accessorized the dress with a red Santa hat, her jingle-bell earrings from last year, a pair of red patent boots with platform heels that came to just below her knee, the star pendant that had been her bridesmaid gift from Izumi, and the silver dragon that was all but permanently coiled around her left wrist. Behind her, her bandmates held their stations in matching red sport coats over black slacks and white collarless shirts.
"Rockin' around the Christmas tree, have a happy holiday! Everyone dancing merrily in the new! Old! Fashioned! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!"
The crowd erupted as Ranko took a little bow. Her eyes searched the crowd for the red-and-green long-sleeved dress that accentuated the love of her life, finding her between tables sixteen and twelve with a pair of pizzas in her hand.
"You know, everybody…" Ranko said, picking up a handheld microphone and switching off the belt pack for her headset. "It's Christmas Eve. The most romantic night of the year. Who all is here with the one they love tonight? Come on, don't be shy, let's hear you!"
A chorus of loud whoops rose from the crowd, and she smirked, looking to a booth in the front that was occupied by a man and a woman who didn't cheer. He was a regular, and she knew he tended to play along when she wanted to interact with the crowd. "Hey, it's okay, buddy. We know how it is. You can cheer, it's cool." She lowered her voice to a whisper in the microphone, putting her palm to the side of her mouth as if trying to keep the other side of the room from hearing her. "We won't tell your wife, will we guys?" Laughter and cheering filled the room. "Oh, crap! Dude, she's over there, by the bar! Quick! Hide!"
As another rain of laughter showered her from the floor, Ranko leaned forward, pretending to listen for a response that never came.
"What? Your sister?" She laughed, shaking her head. "Didn't see that one coming." She gave an exaggerated nod, winking and flashing a skeptical smirk.
"Well, some of us couldn't get the night off for a date." The crowd gave a little awww, but she continued.
"I know, right?! Who would do something like that to a cute girl like me, on Christmas?" A chorus of playful booooos came from the crowd as Crash began plucking out a jaunty tune on their instruments. Its playful nature sounded like it might have been a children's song once. All that changed when Shinji removed the strap of his bass guitar from his shoulder, bending down behind himself and picking up a shiny brass saxophone. The addition of its smooth tone gave the song an almost sultry lounge quality to it, and Ranko leaned into it, exaggerating her walk on the stage for maximum wiggle.
"I can only think of one guy. You know who I mean, don'tcha?" She sauntered up to Crash, snatching the red Santa hat he wore off his head, making sure the microphone in her hand picked up the sound of her gasping.
"You're a mean one, Mister Grinch! You really are a heel! You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel, Mister Grinch! You're a bad banana with a…" She gave him a gentle shove, and he stumbled a step or two back before resuming his play. "...greasy black peel!" She added an almost overly affected rasp to her voice, as if she was a nightclub performer in the 1940s.
Tossing Crash's Santa hat back toward him, she spun on her heels, stalking the length of the stage between Hitomi and Emi, who vocalized in harmony on their handheld microphones and swayed in perfect synchronization.
Ranko approached Shinji, exaggerating every step. Each time she stepped forward, he stepped backward, maintaining his distance.
"You're a monster, Mister Grinch! Your heart's an empty hole! Your brain is full of spiders; you've got garlic in your soul, Mister Grinch!"
As Ranko picked up the empty microphone stand next to where Shinji had originally stood, Hitomi and Emi smiled to each other before making disgusted faces and turning their backs on each other as they sang. "And I wouldn't touch you with a…"
Ranko held the microphone stand parallel with the stage, poking at Shinji with the narrow end like a lion tamer as he swayed with his saxophone. "Thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole!"
Shooting a wink at Shinji, Ranko dropped the microphone stand and stalked down the steps to exit the stage, her backup dancers following her. She slithered her way over to the table with the man she'd teased from the stage, leaning over the table and wagging a finger at him as Emi and Hitomi fanned out through the crowd, dancing near any guy they could find space next to.
"You're a vile one, Mister Grinch! You've got termites in your smile!"
As the man at the table blushed, Ranko snapped her head back over her shoulder to look at the formally-dressed man at the table immediately behind her. He was there with a date, trying and failing not to be seen looking too hard at the teenager who was writhing a mere meter from where he sat. Ranko jabbed a finger in the air at him, prompting his date to laugh as she sang.
"You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile!" Ranko giggled a little as the middle-aged man's date emphatically nodded behind him.
Ranko pointed at the man she was taunting, then turned back to the first man, her finger following her eyes. "And given the choice between the two of you…"
From their positions in the crowd, Emi and Hitomi each reached the fourth octave as they answered the question in tandem. "I'd take the seasick crocodile!"
Ranko approached the table Akane had just served, where two college-age couples appeared to be on a double date. She motioned to the boy on her left. "You're a foul one, Mister Grinch! You're a nasty, wasty skunk."
As Hitomi and Emi slowly made their way back toward the stage, stopping for a few seconds where they could, Ranko bent over the table, leaning on it with her elbow and resting her chin in her hand as she turned to the boy on the right. "Your heart is full of unwashed socks. Your soul is full of gunk, Mister Grinch."
Emi lifted her microphone as her foot hit the first step of the stage. "The three words that best describe you are as follows."
Hitomi passed the front of the stage, heading toward the steps. "And I quote…"
As both girls sang the next three words, Ranko popped her hips from side to side with each as she leaned over the table. "Stink! Stank! Stunk!" As it was the furthest table from the stage and she looked out into the center of the room over it, it appeared as if she was playing coyly with the crowd. Ranko, however, was acutely aware that Akane was standing right behind her as she moved, and Ranko knew without looking that she was making her girlfriend positively squirm.
Waving to her blushing girlfriend as she turned, Ranko lifted her microphone as she made her way back to the stage. "You're a mean one…"
Hitomi cocked her head to her partner on the stage. "You're a mean one…"
Emi looked over her shoulder, mocking a gasp of shock and offense at her roommate. "You're a mean one…"
Ranko cleared the last step onto the stage, and as she stepped between the two girls, all three sang the final line together. "You're a mean one, Mister Grinch!"
As the crowd roared, Ranko shrugged with a smirk of mock disgust. "I know! What a jerk, right?"
She laughed into the microphone in her hand. "That's okay, though. Let me tell you a little secret: there's nowhere I'd rather be than up here singing for you guys tonight." Ranko flashed a bright smile. She was serious, but there was more than one reason she felt that way. This is where Akane is.
Ranko glanced up at the still-blushing woman in the red-and-green dress. "Besides, when you're with the right person, you don't really need a special day to feel romantic, do ya?" As she spoke, Shinji set his saxophone down and got reset with his bass guitar.
Jacob's synthesizer sprang to life with the electronic approximation of choir bells, and Crash and Shinji's guitars began to sing in synchronization with a tune the audience didn't recognize. And in this bar, that could only mean one thing.
As Akane turned to the stage with the same surprised realization that the rest of the crowd had, Ranko smiled, trying not to make direct eye contact with Akane but still face in her general direction. "This one's for you, baby. Merry Christmas."
As the crowd thundered in excitement for what could only be another of Ranko's original songs, she spun the microphone on the palm of her left hand before singing the first note – a trademark of hers that had been somewhat lost once she had switched primarily to the headset. With Ariel's flick of a few switches, a projection of snowflakes appeared on the back wall of the Phoenix behind the stage.
"Pretty sure there's people singing carols in the street, 'cause my heart is full of music every single time we meet! Every tree and rooftop's all aglow with colored light when I see their reflections in your eyes again tonight."
She hugged herself with her arms, still holding the microphone close enough to pick her voice up. "I could swear it's snowing even though I'm safe and warm; I'm not cold or scared when you're my shelter from the storm. My whole world is red and green, and never, ever blue. It's Christmas every day that I'm with you!"
Flanking the songstress, Hitomi and Emi, in their green velvet dresses similar to the one Ranko had worn at her Christmas concert the year before, pranced the depth of the stage from front to back with her in perfectly synchronized model walks, heel-over toe. As the chorus began, they made exaggerated claps over their heads to encourage the crowd to help keep the rhythm as Ranko entered the chorus.
"There's a holly branch hung up on every door in fall, and even when it's springtime, I'm out singin' Deck the Halls!"
She bent down near the false fireplace at the back of the stage, holding her hands out for a moment as if warming them by the fire. "Cuddled up with eggnog by the fireplace in June, 'cause every night is Christmas Eve and Santa's comin' soon! Joy and love and laughter fill my heart the whole year through – It's Christmas every day that I'm with you!"
Her voice fluttered through the last line at the higher end of her range, giving it an almost angelic pop quality. She held the last you for a solid second and a half, injecting a three-note run downward to back off the note at the end.
Akane watched from the front of the room, setting down her tray and slowly swaying on her feet. She had four tables that needed drinks refilled, and two more that still hadn't ordered. She didn't care in the slightest. She was mesmerized. Ranko had written her a song in anger and a song in regret, but never a love song. She couldn't have asked for a better Christmas gift.
"Santa's brought me what I've asked him for each day this year, cause every morning, I wake up, and baby, you're still here! I could swear I saw some stockings by the fireplace, or maybe this excitement's just because I saw your face."
As she sang, Hitomi and Emi knelt on the stage under the Christmas tree they'd constructed in the back right corner, making a show of unwrapping matching presents as they swayed and vocalizing into their headsets behind Ranko's second verse.
"Might as well be shiny baubles hanging from a tree, and underneath, a present wrapped up pretty just for me. Everything is sparkling and magical and new – It's Christmas every day that I'm with you!"
Ranko sat in front of the false fireplace, a flickering orange stage lamp providing the "fire" that she sat by on the stage platform, crossing her legs at the knee and bopping back and forth on her backside as she sang the chorus.
" Yeah! There's a holly branch hung up on every door in fall, and even when it's springtime, I'm out singin' Deck the Halls! Cuddled up with eggnog by the fireplace in June, 'cause every night is Christmas Eve and Santa's comin' soon! Joy and love and laughter fill my heart the whole year through – It's Christmas every day that I'm with you!"
Emi and Hitomi each took one of her hands, pulling her to her feet, and Ranko put one arm around each of them, giving them a quick hug before the three forked off across the stage and Ranko continued to sing.
"Every night I lie awake and sleigh bells fill the air. I think there's reindeer on my roof, but right now, I don't care! My calendar is always on December twenty-fifth, 'cause Christmas isn't just a day, but who I spend it with!" As she sang, she stood in front of a calendar that hung on the back wall of the stage, tearing off pages one month at a time and throwing them over her shoulder onto the stage.
"Every step I take these days is under mistletoe, so I can feel your kisses almost everywhere I go. You can keep your Golden Week, Obon, and New Year's too! It's Christmas every day that I'm with you!" As she delivered the end of the verse, she pulled the calendar, now containing only December's page, off the wall and tossed it to an excited-looking woman standing at the foot of the stage.
Ranko sat on the edge of Ken's bass drum, crossing her red boots at the ankles and shooting him a smile. "There's a holly branch hung up on every door in fall, and even when it's springtime, I'm out singin' Deck the Halls! Cuddled up with eggnog by the fireplace in June, 'cause every night is Christmas Eve and Santa's comin' soon!"
Shinji leaned into the microphone on the stand in front of him, booming out a deep baritone "Ho, ho, ho!"
"Joy and love and laughter fill my heart the whole year through – It's Christmas every day that I'm with you!
"I wished upon the Christmas star, and baby, it came true – It's Christmas every daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…. " Ranko inhaled deeply before resuming the line, cracking the fifth octave with the last four words of the chorus. "...that I'm with you!"
Ranko turned to Hitomi, gesturing to her with her right hand. "With you!"
Hitomi held up her microphone, responding with an ascending "You-who-who!"
Turning next to Emi, Ranko did the same, motioning to her with her open hand. "With you!"
Emi responded just as Hitomi had: "You-who-who!"
Ranko next faced forward, pointing outward to the crowd. "With you!" A handful of the people in the crowd got the idea, with the same "You-who-who!" Still gesturing to the crowd, Ranko called for an answer again. "With YOU!" This time, the majority of the crowd responded, "You-who-who!"
Wrapping both her hands around the microphone, Ranko raised her eyes to the ceiling, and closed them. She wanted to look straight into Akane's eyes as she delivered the final line in the fifth octave, but she dared not.
"It's Christmas every day that I'm with you..."
Ranko waved to the crowd as their approval blasted from every corner of the room. "I'm Ranko, and that's Crash, Shinji, Ken, Jacob, Hitomi, Emi, and Ariel. Together, we are Ranko and the Dapper Dragons! From all of us at the Phoenix, merry Christmas, happy new year, and we love you!"
Ranko was the first off the stage, hoping to get to spend a few minutes with Akane after delivering her gift, but Akane wasn't at the edge of the stage yet. Ranko knew all too well how demanding the bar goers could be after one of her sets, though, so she wasn't worried about it. However, as she went to go looking for her love, she was tapped on the shoulder.
"Huh? Oh, hey, Crash. Great show. Really loved the way this one came toget…. What's that?"
Crash pulled out a large box that he'd been trying, quite unsuccessfully, to hide behind himself. It was almost a meter long and maybe half that wide, wrapped in red paper with little printed Santa Claus cartoons all over it, and a large silver bow in the upper-right hand corner. "This… is for you. Merry Christmas, Ranko."
"Crash, I… You didn't have to do that!"
The tall musician nodded. "I do a lot of things I don't have to do. Now, you gonna open it, or what?"
Ranko blinked, smiling. "I mean, hell yeah? Let me see that thing." She slipped her gel-coated silver fingernails under a seam in the paper, ripping it open to reveal a plain brown corrugated box.
"I know, not super exciting. Keep going." Crash leaned against the back wall, watching his friend with an excited smile on his face.
Ranko fought the box free of the remnants of the wrapping paper, popping three of the large copper staples holding the box closed through the cardboard, which lifted open slightly. She gently pushed the lid the rest of the way open, revealing a simplistic acoustic guitar. It was constructed of a light wood paneling and had a black shoulder strap attached, embroidered with a silver dragon not unlike the one that kept a permanent residence on her left wrist.
"Oh, Crash… " Ranko pulled it out, looking it over.
"Lessons start after the new year. You're just too damned talented to just rely on me and Shin for music forever."
Ranko stood from her kneeling position, walking over and giving her friend a hug. "Thanks, Crash."
The guitarist - the more experienced one of the two, now - hugged her around her shoulders. "You're welcome, Ran-chan. Merry Christmas."
From the corner by the side door into the kitchen, Akane watched. She exhaled heavily, trying to let go of the feelings of jealousy she harbored. He's not going to see her tomorrow, so he had to give it to her tonight. He's totally not doing it tonight because it's Christmas Eve, right? Right? She smiled as she watched Ranko carefully pack her gift back in its box. There's no way she sees what he's doing. She's too damn trusting and naive. Silly girl.
"Ranko," she said, stepping out of the shadows. "That was incredible."
Smiling excitedly, Ranko wrapped her arms around Akane's shoulders. "Surprise! Did you like it?"
Akane grinned. I don't have anything to worry about. She's all mine, and she doesn't want it any other way. "I loved it. Thank you, beautiful." She smirked. "Maybe next time you want to sing me a love song, though, don't put two other girls on the stage with you?"
Ranko frowned a little. "I'm sorry. Did I do something wrong?"
With a laugh, Akane gave her a tight squeeze. "No, baby. I'm just teasing you."
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