Capítulo 196: Fireworks
"Akane, what is this place?" Ranko looked up at a posh three-story building from across the street, in the harbor corridor of the Minato district. She'd walked by the building every day on the way to school, but had never paid it much attention. She saw several other couples, dressed as formally as she and her date, coming and going.
"It's a restaurant. Well, sort of. C'mon, you'll see." Akane took her hand, looking left and right before leading her into the crosswalk and across the street to the marble building.
Opening the door for her, Akane smiled as Ranko trundled her dress through the brass doors and approached the maitre'd stand. There's no way we're going to get into a place like this on Valentine's Day. They've probably been booked for tonight since November. But, it's really sweet of you to try, Akane, Ranko thought to herself.
"Reservation for Tendo, please?" Akane waved to the tuxedoed man, who glanced down at his reservation book. "Yes, sir, right this way, please. Miss?"
Following, Ranko looked up at her date incredulously. How in the… Akane, what did you do?
The maitre'd led the pair to a small table in a secluded corner of a large dining area, dressed with a white tablecloth with a vase containing three red roses as a centerpiece and set with pink china. The dining room itself was carpeted wall-to-wall in a regal red, and a grand staircase with red carpeting and brass handrails led up to the second floor and whatever lay beyond. The man in the tuxedo pulled a chair out. It took Ranko a moment to realize it was meant for her, and that the restaurant's host wasn't just planning on sitting with them while they ordered. Blushing, she carefully slid her dress under the table and lifted her feet gingerly off the floor as the host slid her chair back under the table with her in it.
"Please, look over your menus, and Henri will be over shortly to take your orders." The maitre'd gave a flourish, returning to his stand.
"Akane, how are you doing all this? How are you even affording all of this?" Ranko's face was afire, dreading to even look at the prices on the menu.
The "man" sitting across from her grinned. "I got all of my students to pay for three months of classes up front." And a little help from Nabiki, but let's not worry about that right now.
Ranko blinked. "Is this really what we should be using that money on, though?"
With a smirk, Akane sipped from the glass of spring water in front of her. "The way I figure it, the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts made you a girl, so it might as well contribute to finishing what it started."
Giggling, Ranko sipped from her own water glass. Oh, Pop, if you could see me now and know what all your precious training has turned me into… "But, how did you even get reservations for a place like this at the last minute? I mean, you've only known about Aki since Monday."
Akane grinned, saluting her with a tip of her water glass. "You can thank Kage for that one. His movie industry connections were able to pull some strings for us." She motioned to the leather-bound menu resting on the table in front of Ranko. "Do you know what you want to eat?"
Somehow flushing further, the redhead in the blue ball gown shook her head. "Akane, I don't know what half the words on this thing even mean."
"Oh, that's no problem, baby. Just ask the waiter, and they'll bring stuff out and show it to you." At least, that's what they told me on the phone.
~~~
Ranko sat back in her chair, longingly eyeing the last bite of raspberry cheesecake on the pink china plate in front of her. "I don't think I can do it. I gotta tap out. Oh my gods, that was amazing."
Akane nodded. "Well, then, let's go, shall we?" 'He' stood, making sure the amount of money in the tray was sufficient to cover the bill - Ranko dared not even look to try to guess the total - and pulled Ranko's chair out for her before offering a hand.
Ranko nodded, slipping her corsaged hand into Akane's and standing carefully. "It's been an absolutely amazing night. I can't thank you enough."
"Oh, uh-uh." Akane grinned, squeezing her hand. "We're not done yet, young lady." Akane led her not to the front door from which they'd entered, but toward the grand staircase, which Ranko eyed a bit nervously.
"You'll be fine. Take it nice and slow, and lean on me if you have to." Akane held her left hand tightly as Ranko carefully lifted the hem of her dress and tentatively took one step after the next. The higher she got, the more sure she was that she heard music coming from the second floor, and when she reached the top of the staircase, she realized why.
The large room was mostly devoid of furniture other than a border of small tables around its periphery and a small stage along the back wall. No one occupied the stage, but Ranko did notice a young man in a sport coat working the audio equipment in a small booth similar to Mei's at the Phoenix.
In the large, open center of the room, some sixty couples in formal attire were joined in embraces, slow dancing to the ballad crooning its way through the sound system - which, Ranko had to admit, put the equipment at the Phoenix to shame.
"I don't understand, Akane. Am I supposed to sing? I didn't rehearse anything."
Shaking her head, Akane turned to her. "No, silly girl. You're going to dance." The taller girl in the black suit pulled her gently onto the dance floor, turning and wrapping her arms around Ranko's waist.
"Akane, I… I don't know how to dance like this, especially not…" Ranko didn't need to finish her sentence for Akane to know it would have ended with "as a girl."
"It's okay, baby. Let's start really basic. Put your arms up around my neck, okay? There you go. Now, just sway with me. I'll move, and you pay attention to which way I'm going and come with me. Don't lift your feet super high off the floor, and you won't have to worry about stepping on me." Akane grinned, sighing contentedly as her lover's body coiled around her own. "Thatta girl. It's no different from martial arts; just feel my movements and mirror them."
Akane stepped forward, smiling as Ranko intuitively moved her left foot backward to make space for her. Ranko next followed her a step to the left, shuffling her foot alongside the brown men's loafer Akane had borrowed from Kaito. "See? You got it."
Ranko pulled herself closer, resting her cheek on Akane's chest as she swayed with her to the soft ballad. "Akane, I love you."
Not stopping the pattern she was leading the couple in, Akane lowered her head and kissed the top of Ranko's hair. "I love you too, princess." She turned, pulling Ranko with her and motioning discreetly with her elbow at a group of three couples, who all seemed to be looking their way. "See those people over there?"
"Mm-hmm." Ranko's voice was dreamy and distant. As far as she was concerned, there was no one else in the room besides herself and Akane.
"They're watching you." Akane took one of her hands off of Ranko's waist, softly stroking her hair as they swayed in unison.
Ranko looked up to her. "Why? Am I doing something wrong?"
With a soft smile, Akane shook her head. "Not at all, silly girl. You're just beautiful. I can't tell you how glad I am I got to show you off tonight. I'm so proud I get to be with you, do you know that?"
Blushing, Ranko hid her face in Akane's chest, careful not to burrow too deeply against the undoubtedly uncomfortable bindings that restrained her breasts beneath her dress shirt. "Oh, c'mon. I'm just a cheerleader who's barely passing math."
Akane shook her head again. "You are a superstar, Ranko Tendo, and I'm not going to stop telling you until you come to terms with that. But even if you weren't, even if you'd never set foot on a stage or in a recording studio, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."
As the song ended, Akane stilled herself, holding Ranko as she also stopped swaying, but the redhead's cheek did not leave Akane's chest, and she squeezed even tighter into her lover.
"Akane, this has been the best night of my life."
The "boy" holding Ranko smiled with a contented sigh. "Me too, baby. Me, too."
Pulling back so she could see Ranko's face, Akane motioned with her head toward the other side of the room. "C'mere. I want to show you something." Akane took Ranko's hand, leading her from the dance floor toward one of the doors at the back of the room. She pushed one open, holding it for Ranko and watching to ensure her dress did not snag on it as she stepped out onto a small unoccupied balcony overlooking the harbor. A small wrought-iron table and a pair of matching chairs sat off to one corner of the balcony.
Ranko stepped to the edge of the balcony, leaning over the waist-high marble wall and looking out on the water. She watched as a few pleasure craft darted here and there, the reflections of the city lights waving gently in the inky surface of the dark water. "It's so pretty out here."
Akane nodded, picking up one of the wrought iron chairs quietly, her eyes not leaving the girl in the sky-blue ball gown. "Yeah. It really is."
Silently, as Ranko's back was turned, Akane slipped the chair under the handle of the door they'd passed through, blocking it from turning and ensuring their privacy continued. Satisfied with its position, Akane walked to the marble railing, leaning on it next to her lover just as a red firework exploded in the sky over the water.
Ranko reached out, wrapping both of her arms around Akane's right arm, squeezing it and nuzzling her cheek against the sleeve of Kaito's suit coat. "Is all of this really real?"
Akane laughed. "What do you mean, silly girl?"
"It's just… I'm here, and you're here, and you made me all pretty, and we didn't have to hide from anybody, and… like, do I really get to spend the rest of my life with you? With my family? Making music with my friends? I keep thinking I'm gonna wake up back on the floor in your dad's guest room. If this is a dream, I don't ever want to wake up."
Akane grinned. "It's real, Ranko. You're real. I'm real. We're real. I've never been so sure of anything in my whole life." She lowered her head, resting her forehead on the top of Ranko's head as the redhead snuggled her arm. "I did want to talk to you about that, though."
Ranko released 'his' arm, turning from the fireworks to face Akane. "Sure. Is everything okay?"
"Well, sort of." Akane blushed, raising her hand to fidget nervously with her hair before remembering that it was all but shellacked to her head. "I kinda screwed something up a little bit, and I want to fix it."
The redhead shook her head. "If it's about tonight, no you didn't. Everything's been so far beyond perfect. Like a fairytale."
Akane bit her lip. "No, it's not that. It's about Christmas."
Ranko blinked. "You didn't screw anything up. You asked me to marry you, silly." She couldn't quite bring herself to say silly girl, given Akane's current appearance. "You aren't regretting it, are you? Now that you know what an expensive date I can be?" She giggled, reaching for Akane's hand to give it a squeeze.
"That's the thing, though. I didn't. Not really." Akane sighed, looking out at the water as a pink and white heart blossomed in fire in the sky. "I gave you a promise ring. And that's not the same as being engaged. It's basically a promise to get engaged when we can. But, at the time, I thought that was all we were ever going to get to have. It wasn't possible to do anything else."
"Akane, don't be silly. We're planning a wedding. It's the same thing to me. I'm gonna get to be your wife and I don't care what anybody calls it from now until then." Ranko smiled reassuringly to her lover. "You didn't mess anything up. Not ever. You're just perfect, my love. Everything is."
Ranko looked up with a smile as an orange starburst bloomed in the night sky, its twin rising to meet it in the reflection oscillating lazily in the waves below. "Besides. Even if you did want to change it, what could you do now? It's not like you can go back to Christmas." She blinked, turning slowly as she felt Akane's hand sinking toward the ground as she held it. What the…
Her eyes fell on Akane, resplendent in the black suit that made her the picture of a dashing young gentleman. She was smiling. She was radiant.
She was down on one knee.
"Akane, what are…"
Akane's left hand emerged from the pocket of Kaito's suit coat, producing a small object that scintillated with pink and yellow sparks, the small heart-shaped diamond mounted to its top refracting the light from the pair of fireworks that crackled through the night sky above her.
"Ranko Tendo, will you marry me?"
Ranko covered her gasping mouth with both of her hands. Her nostrils flooded with the sweet fragrance of the white roses strapped to the back of her wrist, bringing her a welcome recollection of the rose Akane had given her after the first night they'd made love. For a moment, she could only nod, but she did so emphatically, eventually lowering her hands to reveal an exuberant smile. "Akane, I will marry you right now, right this second, on this balcony, if I can find a way. I will marry you over and over every single day for the rest of my life if you want."
Another flash of white light boomed from the sky, granting Ranko the first good look she'd gotten at the ring in Akane's hand. The heart-shaped diamond solitaire was set in a silver ring, and some sort of scrollwork had been etched around the full length of the band. Something seemed to be inscribed on the inside of the band as well, but in the darkness, she couldn't make out what.
Akane reached out with trembling hands, pulling the promise ring, the twin of the one that still hung from a silver chain around her neck under her shirt, from Ranko's left ring finger and moving it to the same finger on her right hand. She started to slide the diamond onto Ranko's hand, but Ranko interrupted her. "What does it say? I can't see it."
Akane held it up for her just as a trio of white and green explosions lit up the night sky, and Ranko was able to get a quick enough glance to see that the scrollwork around the outer band was composed of three parallel lines. Dotted on and between the lines around the entire band were tiny musical notes.
"Oh, Akane, it's beautiful."
As the grand finale of the fireworks show began splitting the air with its screeching and booming excess, Ranko was able to glimpse the three words etched into the inside back of the band in English, where the ring would rest in her first knuckle. She covered her mouth with another incredulous gasp.
The band read, "you're my song."
Before Ranko could say another word to react, Akane had slipped the diamond onto her finger and kissed the back of her left hand.
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