Ranko hummed to herself as she stood in her bedroom closet, pulling her silver dress out of the laundry basket and slipping it onto a hanger. She clipped it to the wooden dowel running across the length of their small closet. We’re running out of room in here. Maybe I should start keeping some of my stage-only stuff upstairs at the bar. She blushed at the sight of that gods-forsaken maid uniform that Izumi had tried to stuff her into the night she first met Takao Tashima. Thank the gods I won that argument, she thought grimly.
She reached behind herself for Akane’s yellow skater dress, but felt a hand in the basket instead. Ranko turned, smiling up at her fiancee. “Hey, Akane. Almost done. How was your orientation?”
The raven-haired girl smiled, starting to fold a tee shirt. “It was good. It’s gonna be busy, though. Woof. Between clinicals, labs and lectures, I’m gonna be working hours like you used to for a while.”
Ranko snatched the shirt out of her lover’s hands. “Then you’d better rest while you can.” She smiled supportively. “We knew it was gonna be tough when you chose this program, but I know you can do it. And I’ll do everything I can to help you!”
Tossing the folded shirt in the third drawer from the top on the right side, Ranko wrapped her arms around her future wife. “And you are just going to be the best damn chiropractor ever. Eat your heart out, Dr. Tofu!” She blushes coyly, running her finger down Akane’s forearm. “You can adjust me anytime, baby.”
Akane nodded, but didn’t seem to respond to Ranko’s teasing, despite the fact that her fiancee was wearing her favorite of Ranko’s dresses: the white embroidered one she’d worn on Christmas morning when Akane first proposed. “I hope so. I figure, knowing how the joints and stuff work will not just let me help people recover after a fight, but, given the way Dr. Tofu hurt people whenever Kasumi came by, I’m thinking it’s possible to turn it into a martial art. And if the dojo doesn’t make good money, I can always practice like Dr. Tofu does.”
Ranko laughed softly with a shake of her head. “Anything-Goes Alternative Medicine. Only you, Akane. But if anybody can do it, you can, sensei! And besides, by the time you graduate, me and the boys are gonna have you living in the lap of luxury anyway, girlfriend.”
The older girl looked down at her hands. “I met my lab partner today.”
Her partner smiled, clipping her black pleated skirt to a skirt hanger. “Yeah? What’s she like?”
“His name is Sho.”
Ranko hung the white plastic hanger up on the rod, turning out of the closet to face her. “It’s… a boy?”
“Yeah. He’s really nice.” Akane smiled nervously. She hadn’t really spent much time around boys so far in her collegiate career, and she’d been more than a little worried all afternoon that Ranko’s insecurities would rear their head at the idea.
Ranko nodded resolutely, turning her eyes back to the laundry. She picked up the mint green dress she’d bought to re-introduce herself to Akane’s father, frowning at the tiny hole in the bottom of the skirt that was torn in it when she’d thrown herself to the gravel rooftop at Soun’s rejection of her. “I see.”
Akane sighed, her shoulder slumping. “I just knew it was going to upset you. I’m not gonna do anything, Ranko!”
“I mean…” Ranko shook her head, turning to hang the dress on the closet rod. “He’s gonna have to have his hands, like, all over you, all the time. It just weirds me out.”
Akane chuckled darkly. Oh, that’s rich. “Yeah, I can’t imagine what that would feel like. I guess I should ask Eiji.”
Ranko froze halfway through lifting the dress to its place on the rod.
“Yeah, Ranko. I know.” Akane stood with a heavy sigh, trying to let her frustration at Ranko’s jealousy go before carrying it into a very different conversation. She walked to the closet, where her fiancee had yet to turn her panicked face out of the darkness. “I know everything. At least, I hope I do.”
“Akane, I… I can explain.” She felt Akane’s hand on her shoulder, and it only made her quake in fear all the more. “I… I did it for you, Akane. I swear.”
Akane grabbed her songstress fiancee about the shoulders, physically turning her to face forward. Her lover’s face was contorted into a miasma of terror and shame.
“Akane, I… please…”
The slender redhead grunted with the force at which Akane pulled her into a hug. “Ranko, I know.”
Akane felt a tear land on the side of her neck.
“You’re… not mad?”
Akane extended her arms enough to look her fiancee in the eyes. “I know you did it for me. I know why. I know it worked. Am I mad? I don’t think so. I’m a little bit hurt, and I have a whole lot of questions. Would it be okay if we talk about it?”
Ranko sniffled, nodding silently, and Akane took her hand, leading her out to the living room sofa. The pair sat down, with Ranko to her fiancee’s left, and Akane draped her arm over the smaller girl’s shoulder, pulling her close.
“So, you know you’re a massive dummy, right?” Akane shook her head, her face somewhere between a goofy smile and a concerned frown. “You could have gotten yourself hurt, really bad.”
Ranko swallowed, her shame painted across every centimeter of her face. “I didn’t care. All I could think about was how bad Sneak fucked things up for you, and I’d have done anything to fix it. I’d have laid down and died to fix it for you, Akane.”
“And that’s my point, silly girl,” Akane said with a sigh. “Do you really think getting to play a third of a volleyball season mattered as much to me as making sure you don’t get hurt, Ranko? Do you really not realize that you are the most important thing in my life? And you always, always will be.” She picked up Ranko’s left hand, holding it in front of her fiancee’s face to indicate her custom-engraved diamond engagement ring. “That’s what this is for. To remind you that you are the most precious thing in my universe. There’s nothing - nothing - I would trade your safety or happiness for, and I need to know, right now, that you understand that. I can’t live every day worried that you’re going to go step into something dangerous on some half-cocked scheme and get yourself hurt. I’d never forgive myself.”
“I can take care of myself, Akane.” Ranko sighed, burrowing more tightly against her lover’s body. “And I have a responsibility to take care of you, too. I promised your father, and I promised you. You aren’t ever, ever, ever going to hurt again, not for one second, if I can take the hit for you. That’s the husband part of my job.”
Akane groaned. “You don’t get it, do you? You don’t have to be a husband, Ranko! You’re a girl! What if he’d tried to…” She couldn’t bear to say it out loud.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Ranko snorted darkly. “Ask Mikado how trying that shit with me works out.”
Akane grabbed her girlfriend by the shoulders, shaking her forcefully. Ranko’s eyes widened in shock and worry as she watched an urgency and a dread crossing the countenance of the woman she was set to marry.
“Ranko! You aren’t listening to me! This is serious! You can not - you CANNOT - risk yourself like that again for me! NEVER! I won’t survive it if something happens to you! This isn’t fucking Kuno up every morning in the schoolyard anymore. This is real life and there are real consequences. Stuff that could mess you up forever! You can’t de…” A sadness crawled across her face, and she could not bring herself to embarrass the woman she loved with what she was about to say.
She did not have to.
“I can’t defend myself. Not like I used to, anyway.” Ranko sighed sadly. “I remember the way you reacted when Pop and I fought. That’s what this is, isn’t it? I struggle with trained martial artists, but nobody in that school would have a chance against me.”
Akane nodded slowly. “That’s part of it. But, there’s other ways this could have gone south, too.”
Ranko scoffed. “Oh, believe me, I know. After you proposed at Christmas…”
Akane put her hand up to silence her lover. “I know what happened, where the whole school thought you were… pregnant. And, I’m sure that was terrible, but imagine how much worse it would have been if…” She swallowed hard. “... if you actually were.”
I can’t believe these words are going to come out of my mouth. I can’t believe I have to ask her this. But I have to know.
“Ranko, honey, please, please, please tell me you didn’t sleep with him.”
The smaller girl’s face crinkled in disgust. “Eww! No way! I never even let him kiss me!”
Akane squeezed both of her lover’s hands so tightly that her rings bit painfully into her second and fourth fingers. “Ranko, listen to me. If… something happened, I would understand if you were ashamed of it, or you didn’t want to talk about it. But if it did, I need to know. I have to have absolutely no doubt in my mind that you didn’t… put yourself through that for my benefit. I promise, I’ll try not to be mad. But if he… touched you like that, baby, you’ve got to be honest with me and tell me.”
Ranko looked up at her, her face a mixture of disgust and hurt. “Do… do you really think I’d let a boy do that to me? I’m yours, Akane. Yours and yours alone.”
The black-haired girl nodded softly. “I… yes. I do. Not because I think you’re a cheater or a tramp or anything, or because you’d want to do it at all, but because I know you love me so damn much that you’d do any stupid thing, make any ridiculous sacrifice, to give me what you think I want. Without so much as talking to me about it first. And there’s nothing in the whole world I want or need enough to risk you for it.”
Ranko thought for a moment, and nodded softly in an abashed resignation. “I wish I could say you were wrong, but… I’m not sure I can. I mean, I thought about it with fucking Tashima. Thank the heavens for Yui on that one. I want to believe I’d have said no if it came down to that, but I can’t swear to you, a hundred percent, that I would have.” She squeezed Akane’s hands back, just as tightly.
“But I can promise you now. My body, my heart, and my soul are yours. My everything is yours, Akane. And, I swear to you, on my honor, and on our love, I didn’t let him touch me more than a hug, and I didn’t touch him like that either. And if another living soul besides you ever tries, he better hope he’s faster than the Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire technique, because I won’t ever give myself to anyone but you.”
“If you promise, Ranko, I believe you. I trust you. But, I have to ask. You’re not…” Akane scoffed. “I can’t believe I’m going to look into your face and ask you this. But… have you ever been curious about what it would be like with a boy?”
Ranko blushed. “I guess, with everything, that’s a fair question. And, yeah. For a little while, right after the Cat’s Tongue thing happened. The first time I washed myself… down there, I damn near drowned myself in the bathtub with the way it overwhelmed me. And, knowin’ I was gonna be stuck as a girl, I wondered if I’d eventually… have to. I thought for sure Pop would sell me off to the first guy with a pulse and a checkbook. But thinkin’ about it just made me sick, and scared. It made me think about Mikado a lot.” She reached up to the back of the couch, pulling Starlight down from her perch on the top cushion. She curled back up against Akane’s torso, pulling her knees into her chest around her stuffed unicorn. Just the memory of that time in her life made her feel fragile and small, and she needed the strength imbued by both her lover’s embrace and her favorite plush friend.
“You are all I am ever going to need, Akane.”
Kissing the top of her red hair, Akane squeezed her tight. “I love you too, silly girl.” She sighed quietly. “Why didn’t you tell me, sweetheart? Like, after it was all over? Or even when the rumors were happening, and I could have helped you? Or at least, ask your sisters for help?”
“Because I was ashamed. And I thought you’d be disgusted with me.” The shuddering girl in Akane’s arms pulled herself even tighter into a ball. “I wasn’t thinkin’ right. After Sneak, I was… Akane, I was so fucking scared I was gonna lose you. I thought I deserved to lose you. It messed somethin’ up in my brain. And when he asked, I said no at first. But after the way your dad treated me that night, and the way you had to throw him out, I just had to make it better for you. Every time I saw that hurt in your eyes and I knew I put it there, it just broke me inside, Akane. I’d have done anything to make it go away. Anything.”
She looked up into Akane’s eyes, her cheek still resting on her lover’s gray Minato University Athletics tee shirt. “And once it was done, after we talked about Sneak, after Call Me Pandora, and after you asked me to marry you, I knew I needed to be more open with you about everything. I wanted to tell you, so bad, and I knew I should, but I was just so fucking ashamed of myself. Gods, when the school started talking about me like that, I wanted to run to you so bad. I wanted to quit school and hide in your arms forever. But then, all I could think about is, every dirty thing they thought about me, if you knew what I did… you might think that way about me, too. And I couldn’t bear the thought of it, so I kept my mouth shut.”
Akane swept a lock of red hair out of her lover’s eyes with an incredulous grin. “Ranko, you are brave and beautiful and selfless and kind, and holy fuck, you’re a dummy sometimes. But I love you, I respect you, and I trust you. And I forgive you. What you did was incredibly stupid. But it was also incredibly sweet. I don’t think less of you for this. Please don’t spend one minute thinking I do. But please, please, don’t spend one minute thinking about doing something like this to the woman I love ever again, either.”
Ranko nodded, rubbing her cheek against Akane’s chest as she did. “I promise, Akane. And I’m so, so sorry.”
Akane kissed the top of her betrothed’s head again. “Apology accepted. But, princess, is there anything else I’m gonna find out about one day? Whatever it is, we can work through it together, but we’ve gotta be honest about it with each other. Let’s put it all on the table right now.”
The singer shook her head, smiling weakly up at the love of her life. The love that had survived Eiji. That had survived Kuno. That had survived Takao. That had survived Sneak. That had survived Jusenkyo itself.
“No more secrets, Akane. There’s nothing left that’s just mine. It’s all yours. I’m all yours. Forever.”