บท 229: Come What Mei
Ranko bounced on her backside, her ankles crossed as they dangled off the round tabletop. She wore a sleek black knee-length dress with puffed sleeves and a long pearl necklace, both on loan from her sister. She didn't really have much in the way of her own clothing for dressing up, unless one counted the things she had for the stage, and most of that had hardly seemed appropriate for today. The colored crowd lights spun over an empty dance floor, Little Fluffy Clouds pounding out of the twelve Electro-Voice speakers hanging from the Phoenix ceiling.
Yui whooped loudly, bopping out from behind the bar and handing out shots to her mother, her three oldest sisters, Sakura and Akane. Ranko hadn't really been in the mood to drink, despite her mother approving of it for both her youngest daughter and her still-underage fiancee at the private party. She'd told Yui she had a bit of a headache, but Akane knew the truth: Ranko was on watch for trouble. She said she was ready for whatever would come out of her past, and while Akane was proud as hell of her for being willing to face it, she also knew her future wife hadn't been sleeping again.
"Can you believe it?! My baby sister is a college graduate?! When did I get so fucking old?!" Yui laughed, downing her shot of top-shelf tequila and wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her orange blazer.
"Hey," Mei said with a blush as she slammed her own empty shot glass to the table. "Not the baby anymore. You still get to do this one more time." She motioned with a smile at the black-clad redhead bopping on the tabletop to her left.
Ranko waved her hands with a smirk. "Yeah, fat chance. I'll be lucky if I make it to high school graduation, let alone college." She uncrossed her ankles, wrapping her legs around the black-haired girl walking past the table and pulling her close with them. "You can do one when your first sister-in-law graduates, how 'bout that?"
Akane turned in Ranko's grasp, rolling her eyes. "I don't know how many times I've told you, Ranko. You could do it if you wanted to. You're plenty smart enough, silly girl."
The redhead tossed a paper coaster like a shuriken, catching Ayako in the shoulder with it. "I don't think my math tutor would agree on that one, babe. And even if I'm smart enough, I'm certainly not rich enough. But it's cool. I don't need a diploma, just a microphone. Save all the smartypants crap for you and the girls."
Hana gave her youngest daughter a little tsk. "It's never a bad idea to have a backup plan, Ranko. Singing is wonderful, but it might not last forever."
Ranko shrugged with a whaddya gonna do smile. "Then I guess I'd better just make a shitload of money as fast as I can, huh?"
"Mmmm. That sounds nice." Akane scrunched her nose, poking Ranko on the tip of hers with a giggle. "I always wanted to marry somebody rich."
"Then you better run while you still can, Akane!" Ranko tittered as Akane leaned into her for a hug.
Akane leaned up, meeting the redhead perched on table twelve in a kiss as she bent forward. "Oh, no, no, no. You're not getting rid of me that easily, Ran-chan. You'll try anything to get out of putting on that wedding dress, wontcha?"
Ranko shrugged again with the most fulsome laugh her future wife had heard from her in days. "Hey, can't blame a girl for trying!" She waved to the guest of honor as she darted from one group of her friends to another. "Oi! Mei! Whaddya want me to sing for ya?"
The youngest of Ranko's elder sisters approached with a warm smile. It was downright unsettling to see her in a semi-formal teal dress and with her hair in a light curl around her shoulders, rather than her trademark denim jumpers and pigtails. "I want you to sing not a damned thing. It's your night off, Ranko. You're here to be my sister, not the entertainment."
"Hang on. Night off? What's that?!" Ranko giggled, squeezing Akane tight around the waist of her kelly green empire dress with both her arms and her legs.
Izumi laughed, handing Ranko a fresh glass of soda. "It's what a certain someone is going to have in a few weeks when we throw her a bridal shower."
"Um… say what now?" Ranko blinked in surprise and more than a little dread. "You know, Izzi, I remember yours, and I think I'm good. I don't need any more kiss-the-half-naked-guy games, thankyouverymuch."
Ranko and Akane's de facto wedding planner flushed, nodding softly. "I agree. It would be weird to do some of the usual bridal shower stuff. You and Akane are a special couple and you need a special event." She threw her arm over Ranko's shoulder with a devious smirk. "Which is why I put Yui and Sakura in charge of it."
Ranko's face fell into her palm, blushing further by the second. "Oh. I'm sure that'll be fine."
Yui cackled in the singer's direction. "I told you I was gonna have fun with you before all this was over, little sister. But don't worry, we won't leave Akane out of her fair share of embarrassment. We've already got Nabiki working on it with us."
"You little shit!" Akane giggled, swatting at Yui with her purse as Sakura squeezed her girlfriend around the neck from behind.
"Could be worse, Ranko." Yui leaned over the table, putting her arm around her sister's back as she flanked her from the opposite side as Izumi. "We coulda let Kasumi give you a nice, traditional girly-girl time. Matching kimonos, the whole nine. At least our way's gonna be fun."
Leaving Yui to torment her sister further, Sakura slid over to the next table, grabbing a seat next to Mei and smoothing the skirt of her yellow pencil skirt. "So… any thought to what you're gonna do next?"
The new graduate shrugged. "Taking that one day at a time. For now, I'm perfectly happy right here, helping Mama and Yui with things. I'm still not sure what, if anything, I'm gonna want to branch out into from there. I've thought about teaching, social work, medicine, who knows? But today, I'm majoring in drinking." She held up her Dragonfire cocktail for emphasis.
"And only barely passing!" Ayako cackled. "Here, some more homework for you." She placed another shot of tequila on the table in front of her sister.
"I'll be right back." Ranko slipped off of the tabletop, careful of her skirt, and made for the kitchen. Akane frowned. It was the fifth time she'd left the party to take a walk around the bar in two hours. She wished Ranko would at least let her come along. Akane knew what her soon-to-be-wife feared finding in the alleys around the little bar she called home, and she did not want Ranko facing it alone if it came to pass. Ranko had been spending a lot of time alone over the last few days. While Akane was still watching her closely to ensure she didn't seem to spiral too badly, she was trying to give Ranko space to work through her thoughts. She couldn't imagine what would go through anyone's mind to essentially meet their mother for the first time in twenty years, let alone a mother-daughter relationship as complex and deadly as Nodoka's and Ranko's had the potential to be.
As Ranko disappeared from view, Akane put her arm around her bride's mother. "Hana, can I talk to you a minute?"
The Phoenix's matriarch turned, a half-empty beer in her hand. She wore the gray blazer and slacks she'd had on the day she took Ranko to register for school - the only semi-formal outfit the old barkeep owned, despite Izumi's desperate pleas to get her in a dress for the upcoming wedding. "Sure, honey, what's up?"
Akane bit her lip, watching to make sure Ranko wasn't returning yet. "So, I wanted to give you a heads up. That other shoe we've been waiting to drop? It's happening any day now. That's why Ranko's been so on edge the last couple of days. If some weird lady shows up with a sword strapped to her back, come get me, alright? Nobody else - especially not Ranko. You can not let her in a room with Ranko when I'm not here." I will not allow her to take another beating because I wasn't here to protect her.
Hana nodded. "Easy enough to agree to; I'm not letting someone that walks in here with a freaking sword near any of my girls. Not after what that prick did to Ranko last month."
"I know, Hana. That's the smartest possible move. That's why I said I need to be the one to deal with her." Akane nodded resolutely.
Hana put her arm around Akane's shoulder with a reassuring smile. "And who says you aren't one of my girls? Just let that bitch try to fuck with any of you on my watch."
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