This is nice, Ranko thought as she chewed the last bite of her chicken tempura. We haven’t done this in a long time. It used to creep me out so much before, and now I can’t believe how much I’ve missed it.
“You about done, little sister?” Izumi tossed her chopsticks into her empty udon bowl, looking around at the signs of all the various shops surrounding the food court of the Shibuya shopping mall. “We’ve got more to look at!”
Ranko stood, picking up a white paper sack containing the dress she’d already purchased. A wisp of the baby pink material poked out of the top of the little bag, and Ranko blushed at the thought of it. Akane’s gonna lose her mind when she sees me in that. She shivered with a coy little grin, almost feeling her fiancee’s hands on her body in her imagination.
“What’s next?”
Izumi smiled, tossing the trash from their lunch into a nearby receptacle. “I wanted to swing you by the florist quick, and then we have one other stop that’s a surprise, unless you see something you want to look at along the way.”
Ranko strapped the silver chain of her little black purse across the front of her blue crushed velvet shirt. Not sure what use I’m gonna be in a florist shop, Izzi. Hope the other errand is something that makes more sense to me, but why won’t you talk about it?
“Lead the way,” the redhead said with a confident smile that she was entirely faking.
Izumi squeezed her sister’s hand as they walked south through the mall, a peal of thunder from the storm outside echoing a bit through the cavernous building. “So. Two months until the big day! You getting nervous yet?”
“Every time you try to stick me in that dress, a little more so, yeah.” Ranko frowned a little bit as she walked, her hand enjoined with her sister’s. “I don’t feel like I’m s’posed to be nervous, though. I know I want to marry Akane. There’s not a doubt in my head about it. So, why am I scared shitless? I’m almost mad at myself for it. Like I’m doing something wrong, ‘cause my brain isn’t supposed to be saying anything that isn’t full speed ahead, you know?”
Ranko’s older sister giggled brightly. “Oh, no, honey. That’s perfectly normal for a bride. Probably boys, too, but they don’t ever admit it.”
Because boys are taught not to admit they feel anything, Ranko thought grimly.
“Seriously, though,” Izumi continued with a reassuring smile. “You’re nervous because you care so much. You want everything to be perfect, because you know you’re only gonna do this once with the person of your dreams. And, I mean, even if you’re a hundred and ten percent sure about what you’re doing, decisions that are forever are always gonna be a little bit scary. I bet Akane’s nervous, too.”
The younger girl laughed. “Are you kidding? I’m not sure Akane gets scared of anything anymore. She’s… just so strong, Izzi. I’d have fallen apart a hundred times this year alone without her.” When did I stop being the strong one emotionally? It’s almost like she’s become the boy in our relationship. She blushed at the intrusive thought.
Izumi shook her head, pulling Ranko after her as she turned right toward the flower shop. “I promise, she does. That’s what a partnership is all about, taking turns being strong for each other when your partner needs you to be, even when you’re faking it for their sake sometimes. And sometimes one of us has a rough patch, like you did with your father, and your partner has to steel their spine a little bit to help you get through it. I mean, when I was pregnant with Mioko, Kaito was… gods, he was so perfect. I knew it was running him ragged, especially when I couldn’t do much to help around the house or with Hoshi, but he did it and never complained. And now, things are settling down, I’m getting into a routine with Mioko, and I can take care of him more again when he needs me to. It’s all about give and take. One day, Akane’s gonna have to deal with something, and you’re gonna be there for her, too, right?”
Ranko nodded emphatically. “I’d lay down and die for her if she needed me to.”
The brunette smiled. “See? So she didn’t do anything for you that you wouldn’t do for her. That’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s just called being a family. It’s not transactional. Nobody’s keeping score to see who owes who. If you’re doing it right, it’s not that she helps you with your problems and you help her with hers, it’s that all of your problems and all of hers are team problems that you solve together, and it doesn’t matter which one of your lives the thing came from to start with. Sorry, I feel like I said that weird, but does it make sense?”
“I think so. Thanks, Iz.” Ranko looked up at a brightly-colored wooden sign hanging from a chain in front of a sweet-smelling storefront. “This it?”
Her sister and wedding planner smiled. “Mm-hmm. C’mon, let’s pick you something pretty.” She stepped through the open door, inhaling deeply through her nose with a happy sigh. “It always smells so good in here.”
Ranko blushed, her eyes scanning the room and slowly taking in the overflowing baskets of flora crammed in every available space. “Yeah, I guess it does. So, what are we after?”
“Well, we need bouquets flowers for the bridesmaids, and for at least one of the brides…” Izumi giggled, nudging Ranko with her forearm. “Maybe something for decoration around the tables and stuff, if we have any money left over in the budget.”
Ranko blushed at the idea of a bridal bouquet. She remembered, a little over a year ago, having caught Izumi’s bouquet, her abject terror at the Western superstition that the woman who caught it would be the next to get married, and how much Yui had teased her and Akane when it had happened. Now, there she stood, the tradition fulfilled, and she couldn’t have been happier about it. I swear, I’m just gonna cram these flowers right up your ass in front of Sakura. See who’s smirking then, big sister.
“See anything you like, Ran-chan?” Izumi smiled softly, looking over a display of get-well baskets on the far wall.
Ranko shrugged, giving Izumi a mystified look that Izumi recognized - she had seen it on many a shopping trip with her youngest sister. “Izzi, do you honestly think I recognize any of these, beyond those are blue ones and those are yellow ones?”
Izumi giggled, wrapping her arms around Ranko’s left forearm. “Oh, Ranko, honey, whatever are we going to do with you, girl?” She smiled warmly. “So, you don’t have a set color scheme, so you could do pretty much whatever you want. Classic white, any color… Red could be cute, ‘cause of your hair. What do you think?”
Ranko blushed. “I bet this is kind of a silly idea, but what if me and Akane each had flowers in our things that match our own sisters’ dresses? Like, having sides, but a lot more subtle. So Akane would have purple and orange for Kasumi and Nabiki, and I’d have blue, red, yellow and green for the four of you. And maybe some white in both of them, for ourselves, and then each of you can have your own color of the same flowers in your own bouquets, so people can tell what it’s supposed to mean?”
The bride’s elder sister rubbed her chin. “The colors clash a little bit together, but if we get a little creative about mixing lights and darks, I think we could pull it off! Are you planning on throwing your bouquet?”
The young bride blushed, having only just thought about it herself. “I don’t know. I thought I was supposed to, but if you’re only supposed to throw it to the girls, and there’s two of them, that could get weird. Why?”
Izumi picked up a large glass vase. “So, hear me out. What if we bound your bouquet and Akane’s both with just a simple ribbon, so they’re easy to take apart, and then at the altar, you and her both undo them and put your flowers together in the vase? So, like, your bouquet represents your family and hers does hers, and then once they’re in the vase, your families are blended together?”
Ranko’s eyes widened. “Oh, Izzi, I love that! Gotta run it past Akane, but I think it’s great, and I bet she will, too!”
The brunette nodded. “Then we’ve got some flowers to pick! For white, do you want to go with daisies, or roses? Petunias, maybe?”
Ranko blushed with a blissful sigh, remembering the white rose Akane gave her the morning after the first time they made love. “Roses are classic, don’t you think?”
Izumi nodded, jotting something on a little notepad with a stubby little pencil she still had in her purse from a mini-golf outing with Hoshi last month. “Check! Now, red. Normally we’d do roses there, but that’s taken. Stuff like tulips come in just about every color, so that gives us some options.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“What’s a tulip look like?” Ranko blushed as Izumi pulled a red flower from a vase on a nearby shelf to demonstrate. “Okay,” Ranko continued. “If that is an option for lots of things, let’s come back to it, but it’s really pretty in red.”
Stepping to the opposite wall, Ranko pulled a long stem with a cone-shaped orange flower atop it from a vase. “What’s this called?”
“It’s called a calla lily, and it’s gorgeous. Is that Nabiki’s flower?” Izumi grinned. She’s doing better at this than I thought she would.
The bride nodded in reply. “I think so! If Akane likes it, of course.”
“You don’t have to keep saying that, Ranko. We know your wife gets a vote, baby sister.” Izumi shook her head. “I swear, you’re a mess, kiddo, but you’re our mess, and we love you.”
Ranko smiled warmly. “Love you too, sis. Yellow?”
“For yellow, it doesn’t get more classic than a daisy. Plus, I know Yui likes them.” Izumi pulled two from a nearby vase to go with the calla lily and a few white roses, starting to build an example bouquet in the vase in her hand. “Green’s kind of tough, but…” She pulled a stem bearing a large fluffy ball of petals from a vase. “Hydrangeas work well for that. And they’re kind of flat compared to some of the taller flowers, so it kind of looks like a grassy field they’re growing in.”
A nod and a smile came in response from the bride-to-be. “Done and done. Blue? What’s that one that looks like a flower… stick?”
Izumi walked over to the opposite wall, reading the sign as she withdrew a shaft of flora. “Delphinium. That works, if we get some lighter shades.” She added it to her notepad, and slipped a few of the stalks into the vase. “What do we want that’s purple?”
“Isn’t violet a kind of flower, and not just the color?” Look at me, knowing artsy girl shit!
Ranko’s bridal planner smiled. “Yes, but Kasumi’s dress is much lighter in color, so we probably want to stick to something a little lighter, especially since the orange we picked is kind of dark. Maybe a lavender?” She picked up a sprig of the aromatic plant, holding it up for her sister’s approval.
Ranko shook her head. “Not really a fan. Looks too much like the blue one. What about this?” She pulled a large pinkish flower with a bright green sprig from a jar, smelling it with a happy sigh.
“It’s called freesia. You like it?” Izumi smiled happily. She’s actually starting to get into this.
The redhead nodded. “It smells pretty, too. So if we use this, then we’re back to using red for tulips, and we’re done?”
Izumi nodded. “We’ll want some baby’s breath and stuff, too. Just filler things. Nothing to stress over.” She pushed her notepad back into her purse with a bright grin. “I think we’re all set here until we talk to your lovely bride, then. Next stop?”
“Sure!” Ranko slipped through the open door ahead of her sister. “You’re really not gonna tell me where we’re going, are you?”
The elder woman shook her head with a devious smirk. “Look, you’ve never planned a wedding, so you’re just gonna have to trust me, little sister.”
Chuckling, Ranko adjusted the strap of her purse across her body with an amusedly exasperated shake of her head. “Alright, Obi-Wan. You lead, I follow.”
Over her sister’s giggles, Izumi rolled her eyes. “Mei finally got you to watch that crap, huh?”
The redhead shook her head. “Kumiko. She can’t get enough of that stuff. And I’m pretty sure she wants to marry that Luke guy.” Wonder if he’s as gay as her last crush.
Ranko held up her hand to shield her face as the pair walked by a bustling record store, hoping not to attract the attention of any of its clientele. It was always awkward walking by a store and seeing her own face staring back at her at five times its normal size from a poster in the window. The cardboard standees were the worst. She blushed, remembering the first time she’d seen one, and how Akane had pretended to make out with it, just to make her blush until she wanted to crawl under the display and hide. Hana had suggested getting one to advertise her shows at the Phoenix, but at least so far, Ranko had been able to talk her out of it.
So focused was Ranko on hiding her face and just following behind Izumi’s heels that she didn’t notice they’d entered one of the storefronts on the other side of the plaza until her sister stopped walking.
“Okay. Time for some wedding essentials.” Izumi tittered, nudging her sister in the shoulder. Ranko looked up, and found herself in a well-lit store dotted with hot pink displays and mannequins in every direction, surrounded by every manner of… interesting lingerie. It was unlike any store she’d ever set foot in.
“What the shit?! Izzi, what are you trying to play at here?!”
Izumi laughed loudly, putting her arm around her trepidatious sister’s back. “We’ve been so focused on getting you ready for your wedding day, but the wedding night is just as important. Maybe more so.”
Ranko felt lightheaded with all the blood in her body having rushed to her face. “What do… how do… what… ahhh…”
Izumi cackled at her flustered little sister. “It’s simple. The objective here is to pick the thing that will stay on the shortest possible amount of time once Akane sees it. Ideally, something in white, for our blushing bride.”
The blushing part, at least, Ranko had down pat.
“Well, this is cute.” Izumi pointed to a white lace… something… hanging from a nearby silver display rack.
“Iz, I wouldn’t even know how to put that on. Like, where does it even go?” The redhead all but hid behind her big sister. Even after having been a girl for almost exactly two years, she felt like a pervert just for looking at the displays, let alone being expected to bring something from them home.
Izumi giggled. “The floor, I think, honey.”
Ranko picked up a shimmery sheer negligee, holding it up in front of herself. “Like, what’s the point of this? Might as well not wear anythi…” She was utterly mortified to even be standing in such a store, but if there was one thing that could have amplified her shame, she’d just heard it.
The distinctive snap of a camera.
“Oh my gods! It’s really you, isn’t it? Ranko Tendo! I can’t believe it!” An ebullient twenty-something woman pointed through the glass window at the front of the store to Ranko’s two-meter-high face in the window of the record store on the opposite side of the mall. Next to it hung a second poster featuring the Phoenix Rising album cover, which itself featured four waist-up photos of Ranko in different outfits against different colored backgrounds, representing the themes of Rise, Sneak, Demon in Your Radio and Not Yours, Don’t Touch.
Ranko sighed in defeat. That makes two of us, lady. I can’t believe you’re seeing me here, either.
“Oh, um, hello.” Please keep your fucking voice down, before one nut job becomes a hundred and traps me in the damn kinky bra store. She was convinced that her body was frantically producing more blood, just to have additional supply to pump to her face.
“Are you…” The enthusiastic fan covered her mouth. “Are you shopping for your wedding?! We heard all about it on Bangers on the Beach! He’s such a lucky boy, you know.”
Izumi smirked at the young woman. “Oh, you really have no idea.”
“Could I maybe… get a picture with you?” The green-haired woman bounced nervously on her heels, her flowy ivory skirt billowing around her knees.
The songstress sighed resolutely. “Tell you what. I’ll take a picture with you, and I’ll sign a poster for you, if we can go across the aisle to do it.” She held up the nearly non-existent garment still in her hand. “I’m a singer, not an underwear model, ya know?” Her face was neon red.
The fan jumped up and down, clapping her hands. “This is great! Thank you so much! And yeah, you’re right. Nobody needs to see that. Your husband should be the only one to see you in something like that.”
Izumi smirked at her cringing sister at the mention of a husband. “You do know, if you go over in front of a record store and start signing shit, you’ll be there for at least an hour, right?”
“Sorry!” Ranko waved over her shoulder as her fan dragged her by the left wrist, her fingers hooked inside Ranko’s silver dragon bracelet, toward a gaggle of screaming music store shoppers in the aisle between the shops who had clearly noticed the commotion.
“What am I supposed to do,” Izumi called after her starlet little sister.
“Pick something cute out for Kaito!” Ranko snickered, throwing up a pair of fingers as the cameras surrounding her began to flash.