With a yawn, Ranko’s eyes blinked open. The room was far too bathed in sunlight to be seven o’clock, and she hadn’t heard the harsh buzzing of the cheap digital alarm clock on the nightstand ordering her to her feet. For half a heartbeat, she felt a sense of dread that she’d overslept something important, but all concerns were laid to rest when she felt fingers gently stroking her hair. With a sleepy smile and a quiet purr of contentment, she nuzzled into her pillow, hugging Starlight closer against herself and letting her lover’s gentle petting relax her.
“Good morning, beautiful.” Akane smiled down at her. She was sitting up in bed at her lover’s side, her back to the headboard.
Blushing, Ranko released her stuffed unicorn, rolling onto her back to smile up into Akane’s eyes. “Hi, baby… what time is it?”
With a soft smile, Akane shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Crash called and said that Ken had to do some work for his dad today, so they canceled band practice, and I figured you could use the extra rest.”
The redhead nodded. “And what have you been doing?”
Akane blushed, running her fingers softly down the side of Ranko’s neck. “Just watching you. Thinking.”
“Yeah?” Ranko sat up, biting her lip gently, letting the blanket fall around her waist and exposing her nakedness. As the blanket moved, it bumped Ziggy off the bed, and the pink teddy bear slid down to the floor. “Whatcha thinking about?”
“Mostly, how lucky I am.” Akane leaned over to her, propping Ranko’s chin up with two fingers and kissing her. It was hard for Akane to see given how close she was, but Ranko’s face had turned almost the color of her hair.
Ranko scooted closer, resting her cheek against Akane’s chest through her yellow nightshirt. She would have tried to hug Akane’s torso, but the larger girl’s arms enveloped her first. Instead, Ranko curled up against her body, tracing shapes gently on Akane’s chest with her fingers. “Do you know how much I love you? Like, really?”
Akane leaned down, kissing her beloved on the top of the head. “I do. But I never mind a chance to hear it again.”
Ranko smiled softly, closing her eyes. She’d been working on something in secret for a few days, and she wanted to make sure she remembered it properly. Confident that she had, her cheek still resting on Akane’s breast, she broke the silence of the mid-morning still with her singing voice.
“Did you know the way time stops when our eyes meet? The way that everything else fades out of my mind? Did you know I hear your name in each heartbeat? That you’re the one my soul was always meant to find?”
Ranko’s hand slid gently down Akane’s chest as she nuzzled tighter into her love’s arms. “Did you know I’ve never felt this way before? I didn’t know that it was possible at all. Did you know, no matter how much I get, I want more? The more you raise me up, the harder that I fall…”
Akane blushed. “Ranko… is that… did you write…”
The redhead reached up, laying her finger across Akane’s lips and nodding, her cheek rubbing against Akane’s body through her nightshirt.
“I hope you did, but if you didn’t, I wanna tell you endlessly. Don’t want a second to go by that you don’t know you are the very best of me. Most people think my life is music. They hear me sing, and they’re not wrong. But when they see the joy I feel up on that stage, I’m just the singer. You’re my song.”
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Akane blushed, rocking her beloved in her arms as Ranko continued, her voice soft and quiet, almost tenuous, as if she were a little embarrassed to be singing for an audience of just one. In a crowd of hundreds, if one person didn’t like a song, she didn’t notice, but when she was singing a song to just the person she’d written it for, she could see their reactions in real time, and that was daunting.
There was a tenderness to her voice that was rarely seen on stage. She was not trying to entertain, but merely to tell the person she loved the way she felt in the most powerful way she could. Ranko tilted her head upward on Akane’s chest, kissing her gently just under her chin.
“Did you know I’m not the person that I was, and I have changed so many things inside of me? Did you know how proud I am of that because it made my arms a place that you could wanna be?”
Ranko reached up, her hand softly stroking Akane’s hair. “Did you know that I feel safest when you’re holding me? You are the shelter I can build my life beneath. Did you know that I can feel your love re-molding me? I need your presence like the very air I breathe.”
Akane sighed happily, squeezing Ranko tighter in her arms for just a moment. My beautiful girl. I can’t believe she… you know what? Yes, I can. This is who she is now. And I get to keep her forever. She slipped her hand into Ranko’s, and Ranko lifted it, kissing the back of it ever so gently.
Ranko sat up, turning to face Akane, and taking the black-haired girl’s hands in her own. Her eyes sparkled, her nakedness conferring no glitz, no glamor, no showy flair. It offered her nothing to hide herself behind, and there was a sincereness to it that needed no embellishment. She was not an artist, a pop star, an entertainer, or even a waitress right at that moment.
She was just a girl in love.
“I hope you did, but if you didn’t, I wanna tell you endlessly. Don’t want a second to go by that you don’t know you are the very best of me. Most people think my life is music. They hear me sing, and they’re not wrong. But when they see the joy I feel up on that stage, I’m just the singer. You’re my song.”
Akane took her by the shoulders, pulling her into a kiss, and Ranko whimpered gently into her lover’s open mouth as the pair made contact. Akane’s fingers traced lines up her spine, sending the redhead quaking in her arms. Still, Ranko looked up as their lips parted, her voice breaking slightly as Akane stroked her, and continued to sing.
“Did you… know that ev… rything is falling into place? That my life is finally starting… to make sense? Did you know that my whole u…niverse is just your face?” Ranko rested her palm gently on Akane’s cheek. “I never dreamed I’d find a love half this intense.”
She leaned forward, parting her lips and kissing Akane softly, pulling back and singing mere centimeters from her face. “Did you know the way I crave the sweetness of your lips? The way I ache for you each second I’m alone?”
Shivering as Akane’s hand traced up her back, she closed her eyes, trying to maintain enough concentration to continue. “Did you know that… there’s a magic in your f… fingertips, and when you touch me, anywhere we are is home?”
Ranko crawled forward, nuzzling into Akane’s chest again as her lover stroked her back. “I hope you did, but if you didn’t, I wanna tell you endlessly. Don’t want a second to go by that you don’t know you are the very best of me. Most people think my life is music. They hear me sing, and they’re not wrong. But when they see the joy I feel up on that stage, I’m just the singer. You’re my song.”
Akane lowered her head as Ranko finished, kissing her fiancee softly on her bare right shoulder and eliciting a tiny little purr from her before whispering in her ear. “I can’t wait to marry you, beautiful.”
As she felt Akane’s fingers snaking their way up her right thigh, Ranko answered in a high-pitched tone that was somewhere between a whisper and a whine.
“I’m already yours.”