章 276: The Envelope
Akane sighed, rubbing her watering eyes. They seemed to burn all the time lately, and it was driving her crazy. It's probably just because I haven't been sleeping, she thought with a frown. She rested her head back in her seat, closing her eyes to give them a moment to rest. She still had four more stops until her train reached her destination, and she would be happy to give them any reprieve they could get.
She was so tired that her muscles ached just from the exertion of walking around campus for the day. She'd been working more hours at the Phoenix of late, as Ranko's popularity had not only packed the bar, but rendered it all but impossible for her to do anything except sing and sign autographs when the bar was open. The bar had been advertising for a new server for weeks, and she hoped Hana would find someone soon. Ideally, someone Hana and the girls don't have to put back together. I'm not sure Ranko can handle any more sisters.
Beyond that, her sophomore semester of her chiropractic education was absolutely brutalizing her with homework and clinicals. Akane didn't remember the last time she came home without four or five hours' worth of homework to do, although thanks to exams in three of her classes today, tonight offered her a rare reprieve. I am going to walk in the door, kiss my wife, and sleep for a month, she thought hopefully. She felt bad; it was a Tuesday, so Ranko would be off of work, but she just didn't think she had it in her to hang out.
Her current curriculum dealt more with general anatomy, as it was required for all medical students, so she had clinical sessions in hospitals to watch the nurses work in addition to her classwork. She knew she'd never use most of the things she was learning in chiropractic practice, and that only if she decided to practice instead of just using the knowledge for martial arts like she'd planned, but she supposed it wasn't bad to know considering how injury-prone her Cat's Tongue-addled young wife seemed to be. Plus, it was kind of cool to get trained on some of the more basic techniques. She'd just gotten certified last week for the Heimlich maneuver and CPR, as awkward as it had been to feel like she was making out with that rubber dummy.
She jolted up as the person in the seat next to her jostled her shoulder. "Huh?"
The young man pointed out the window. "I think you fell asleep. Isn't this your stop?"
Akane shook the cobwebs from her head. "Shit, yeah, it is! Thanks so much!" She gathered her school backpack and made for the exit, hopping down onto the train platform and beginning the short walk for home.
"Witchcraft, and I'm finally gettin' through to you, through to you…" Akane sang under her breath as she walked. Dammit, that freaking song is nailed into my brain, Ranko. It's gonna be another hit, I just know it.
Nine minutes later, Akane sighed as she trudged up the stairs to her second-floor apartment, her hand full of junk mail she'd collected from their little mailbox downstairs. She slipped her key into the lock, turning it and popping the door open. "Hey, Ranko. I'm home." The exhaustion was evident in her voice, but she did her best to sound excited to see her young wife anyway, because she always was.
She kicked her shoes off and dropped her bag by the door, not even bothering to hang it up, but when she turned to face the kitchen, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Okay, what the…?"
Ranko beamed at her exhausted wife, closing the few steps from the kitchen to wrap her arms gently around her. "Hi, Akane." She giggled quietly, knowing full well why Akane found herself nearly speechless.
"Okay, what's up with… this?" Akane motioned across the entire length of Ranko's body as the redhead released her from her grip.
Ranko blushed, giggling coyly and fidgeting with the hem of her white lace apron, which she wore over the maid outfit Izumi had bought her for a show more than a year ago. She'd never worn it on stage, and she was glad of it after seeing what a pervert Takao had turned out to be, but it had been in the back of her closet all this time. Seeing the way Yui's Halloween costume had made Sakura squirm a few days prior had reminded her about it.
"Well," she said, her face aflame. "I know you're whipped, and you're stressed, and so I am going to make it my personal mission to make sure you don't want for anything tonight. Dinner's ready, and afterwards, I'll take care of the dishes, I'll fetch you drinks, rub your shoulders…" She dragged her fingers gently down Akane's chest between her breasts. "Anything you want me to do. I want you to relax and feel wonderful and amazing and loved all night long."
Akane blushed deeply, rubbing the backs of her fingers down Ranko's neck and eliciting a shiver and a gasp from the ever-sensitive young woman she'd married four months ago. "You really are the best wife anyone could ever ask for. Do you know that, beautiful?"
Ranko blushed brighter still, fidgeting with her hair coyly. "I hope so. I want to be perfection for you. Always. You deserve it." She giggled as Akane lifted her, albeit with more of a grunt of exertion than usual, onto the kitchen countertop. "Well, okay then. If this is where you want me…"
"I know what you're after, Ranko, and… I want to, so bad, but I'm so tired…" Akane sighed. "I don't want to disappoint you after you've done… all this for me."
Ranko shook her head, resting her hand on Akane's chest gently. "Akane, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't hate it if you felt up to… taking advantage of the help a little bit." She giggled playfully at the suggestion. "But that's not why I did this. I honestly want to take care of you, and if that means rubbing your back until you fall asleep, then that's exactly what I'll do and it won't bother me at all, I promise." She giggled, biting her lip impishly. "That said, if you wake up with a little more energy…"
Akane nodded, still eyeing her wife wolfishly. "Oh, I think I'll find a way. I'm just floored that you decided on your own to wear that thing. It's super cute on you. Like, you have no idea. Maybe you should wear it on stage after all."
Ranko shook her head, leaning forward on the counter and kissing Akane's bare skin just above her breasts at the edge of the low neckline of Akane's green sundress. "No. This is just for you, Akane. Nobody else."
Akane sighed happily, wrapping her arms around the slender songstress. "You are just the most amazing woman on the face of the earth. I am so in love with you, Ranko."
"I love you too. But, go eat before it gets cold." Akane nodded, heading for the table where two places were already set. Ranko hopped down off the counter to join her, giggling as the tulle petticoat under the dress tickled her legs. It didn't help matters that Akane holding her like that had gotten her excited, and that never failed ratcheted the Cat's Tongue sensitivities up into an even more heightened intensity.
"How did your tests go," Ranko asked as Akane lifted a piece of salmon to her lips with her chopsticks.
After swallowing the fish, Akane replied. "Pretty good, I think. I'm pretty confident I did well on the pressure points exam, and the organic chemistry one too. Not as sure on the one about drug interactions, but I guess we'll see."
Ranko grinned. "Well, if your acupressure class ever mentions a cat's tongue, you be sure and let me know, okay?"
"You've got a deal, babe." Akane swallowed again. "Gods, this is good." Between work and school, the couple hadn't had a home-cooked meal together at home in nearly a week.
Beaming, Ranko nodded. "Well, I couldn't very well say I was going to do anything you want tonight and not start off with your favorite dinner, could I?"
Akane shook her head. "You really thought of everything, didn't you, flower girl? Gods, you're incredible." She sighed quietly, willing the food to give her enough energy to reward Ranko for her consideration and her obvious effort.
Ranko stood, walking behind Akane's chair. She hadn't eaten very much, but she wasn't especially hungry, and besides, she had higher priorities. She reached down to Akane's shoulders, beginning to knead her sore muscles with her strong fingers. "Good grief, Akane, you could bounce a 500-yen coin off of these things."
Akane could only purr quietly in response, lolling her head back into her wife's massage even as she chewed.
"I'll be right back." Ranko slipped into the bathroom door behind her, returning in just a moment with a tube of cucumber-scented lotion. She pulled her wedding ring and her promise ring off her hand, handing them both down to Akane. "Keep an eye on those for me, would ya? They're pretty important to me."
She squirted some of the lotion into her left hand, shivering on contact with the cold substance. Ranko rubbed her hands together quickly, trying to warm the lotion both for Akane's benefit and her own, before returning her grip to Akane's shoulders. "We're gonna get this all fixed for you. You're gonna relax, and I'm gonna take such good care of you." Her voice was halfway between a whisper and a purr, and the effect it had on Akane was almost as soothing as the massage itself. Ranko resisted the overwhelming urge to lean down and kiss her. She said she was too tired to play around, so I shouldn't encourage her, even though I desperately want to.
As Akane finished her meal, Ranko sighed happily. "There we go. This is feeling much better in here already. What do you think?" She squeezed at Akane's deltoids, finding them far more relaxed and pliable than they had been.
Akane turned in her chair, looking up at her wife. "I hope, when I get through four years of chiropractic school, I'm half as good at making people feel amazing as you are right now." She stood, wrapping her arms around Ranko and pulling her into a kiss, feeling the slight girl in the maid outfit shudder in her arms at her touch.
"I'm gonna go get changed, I think, so I can relax."
Ranko looked up hopefully. "Would you like me to help? After all, I did say I'd wait on you all night..."
Akane shook her head with a laugh. "Somehow, I think if I take my clothes off in front of you right now, resting is not what I will end up doing."
Blushing, Ranko licked her lips. "I mean… you could just lay back, and I could do all the work if you want. If it will relax you, of course. I'll be good, I promise."
"Yeah?" Akane grinned deviously, and Ranko squirmed, knowing already what was coming. She'd walked herself right into it. She'd never tell another soul, but it made her insides quiver every time Akane said the phrase. "Are you saying you're a good girl?"
"If… if you want me to be." Ranko's voice positively oozed desire.
Akane shuddered. "Ooooo-kay then! I'm gonna go get changed, before I need a cold shower. Or ten." She leaned in and kissed Ranko once on the side of the neck, giving her a little tease to think about while she walked away.
Trying to regulate her breath, Ranko walked back over to the dining table. Gotta focus on something else. She said she's tired. Gotta respect her boundaries. She picked up the bundle of mail, beginning to flip through it. Nothing to turn a girl off like coupons for the local car repair shop.
Tucked between the third and fourth pages of the apartment community newsletter was an envelope. It had Ranko's name and address listed, but no return address - a tell-tale sign of an ad dressed up to look like something official. Still, the envelope was a really nice, heavy ivory linen. It felt a little too classy to be an advertisement, even one in disguise. Okay, you got me. Let's see what this is. She tore the letter open with her fingernail, a skeptical smirk on her face.
~~~
"Okay. That's better. Now I can relax." Akane walked out of the bedroom five minutes later in a pink satin nightgown. She froze in place as her eyes fell on Ranko, still in her maid dress, splayed on her knees on the yellow linoleum dining room floor. The redhead was holding an ivory tri-folded letter in her hands, and she was crying.
"Ranko?! Baby, what's the matter?!" Akane closed the distance between them in four strides, and Ranko looked up into her wife's eyes from her knees. Her cheeks were flooded, but she was smiling. She could not form words, so Ranko handed the piece of paper up to her wife with a trembling hand.
The letterhead had an embossed gold foil logo Akane had come to recognize from more than one magazine Ranko was subscribed to, and her eyes widened even before she got to the first paragraph. No way! Did she really…
Dear Ms. Tendo:
We at the Japan Composer's Association are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for the following Japan Record Award recognitions in the Pop/Rock category:
Lyrics Award: Ranko Tendo, "Once Upon a Rhyme"
Album (New Artist) Award: Ranko and the Dapper Dragons, "Phoenix Rising"
Gold Disc Award: Ranko and the Dapper Dragons, "Once Upon a Rhyme"
As one of the recipients of the Gold Disc Award, your single "Once Upon a Rhyme" has also been nominated for the Japan Record Award for Best Song. As a recipient of the Album (New Artist) Award, your album "Phoenix Rising" has also been nominated for the Best New Album (New Artist) Award. The winners of these awards will be announced live on our awards telecast.
As a multiple award winner, we request that your act perform one song on our live telecast. Our producers will be contacting you shortly to discuss song selection and placement within the program.
Enclosed, please find passes for you and a guest to our awards gala on December 31st. If you are unable to attend, please contact us at the number below no later than December 15th and designate someone who will collect the award(s) on your behalf.
Congratulations, and we look forward to seeing you at the event!
Akane dropped to her knees next to her wife, hugging her tight. "Oh my gods, Ranko, you did it! I'm so, so proud of you, princess!"
Ranko buried herself into Akane's chest, squealing joyfully. "Can you believe it, Akane?! Crash is gonna die! This has been his dream forever. What am I gonna do? What am I gonna wear? What am…" Her eyes were frantic with excitement.
"Well, I wouldn't recommend wearing that," Akane said with a giggle.
"Akane!" Ranko blushed deeply, fixing her hair from where it had gotten mussed against Akane's chest. Her smile was absolutely infectious. "I told you, this is just for you. Speaking of which…" She wiped the happy tears from her eyes with the back of her quivering hand, gazing lovingly up at her wife. "I'm supposed to be waiting on you, remember?"
Akane laughed, shaking her head. Adrenaline and excitement had erased all hope of sleep from her mind. "Silly girl. I think this justifies a few minutes of celebration."
Ranko smiled brightly, shaking her head. "I told you, I am all yours tonight. Now, what can your girl do for you?"
Akane stood with a scintillating grin. "Actually, you could help me with something, now that you mention it."
Taking Akane's hand, Ranko raised herself to her feet as well, smoothing out her petticoat. "Anything you want. All you have to do is ask."
In one fluid motion, Akane swooped her arm behind Ranko's legs, scooping her up into her arms and cradling her just above waist level.
Her eyes wide, Ranko reached out, wrapping her arms around Akane's neck for support. "Hey! This doesn't feel like me taking care of you."
Akane grinned down at her, lowering her head to kiss her wife on the forehead as she turned toward the bedroom door. "Sure it is. You're about to give me exactly what I want. See, I've always had this fantasy about making love to a Japan Record Award-winning musician…"
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