Firelight

"You're so fine! And you're mine! I'll be yours 'til the end of time, 'cause you made me feel… Yeah, you made me feel I've nothing to hide! Like a virgin, touched for the very first time…"Leaning back in her plastic mesh folding chair in a red one-piece lycra bathing suit, Akane swayed in time with Crash's acoustic guitar as she watched her bride dance barefoot in the sand. She felt guilty for not interacting as much as she might have liked with the couple's friends and sisters, but her focus was entirely singular. Despite everything that had happened with Ranko's biological mother - and even Ranko herself wasn't sure how she felt about Nodoka's attempt to salvage the relationship yet - there was an easy, carefree joy evident in every breath the redhead took. It was intoxicating, watching her be free like that. Watching her dance in the light of the fire, laugh with their friends, sing with abandon, and celebrate the future rather than running from the past.Seven days from tonight, Ranko. Seven days until forever, my love.Akane looked up with a smile, squinting into the orange-red glow of the setting sun and shielding her eyes as a shadow crossed them. Yui leaned down, handing her an opened bottle of hard apple cider that still dripped ice-cold water from the red-and-white cooler on which Mei currently sat. "Thanks, Yui." She took a swig of the bitter liquid. She was still getting used to the idea that she was now of drinking age, and she hoped it wouldn't be too awkward if she took her new wife on a date somewhere and she didn't have to wear the underage bracelet while Ranko did."Feels so good inside when you hold me, and your heart beats, and you hold me, and you love me… oh-oooohh, whoa-oh-oh!"Ranko giggled, wobbling a little on the sand as it shifted under her bare feet. She made her way carefully to a long piece of driftwood that lay on the beach, sitting on it next to her best friend. "That was fun! Isn't it harder to play that way, though?"Crash crinkled his nose, shaking his head as his cheeks warmed a bit. "Nah, you don't have to see the strings once you get good enough at it." He took his hands off of his guitar, wrapping them instead around the waist of the brunette on his lap. "And some things are worth the extra effort."Blushing, Ukyo leaned back into her boyfriend's chest, holding the guitar that lay across her lap with one hand as she cupped his cheek, and joined him in a soft kiss from below. "What do you think? Am I the cutest instrument stand you've ever had, or what?"Crash chuckled, shaking his head with a wide grin. "Oh, no question."The guitarist swallowed hard as Ukyo adjusted her weight on his lap, seeming to be doing so for more reasons than to seek a more comfortable position. "Good answer.""Get a room, you two!" Ken laughed, flicking a beer bottle cap at Crash, but Ukyo caught it out of the air before it could reach him. Ken looked up as he felt a hand on his shoulder, smiling lovingly at the tall, muscular man with the blue hair and the unbuttoned blue plaid shirt to whom it belonged."Let 'em be, babe. It's hard to hang out around this much love and not want any for yourself." Ryo leaned down over Ken's shoulder, kissing him ever-so-quickly on his cheek for emphasis. The drummer's face went crimson as his boyfriend straightened again. "Anybody need a drink while I'm up," Ryo asked as he made his way across the beach toward one of the plastic coolers."Beer here!" Hitomi waved her hand from her position laying on a huge blue beach towel in her still-damp red bikini.Her roommate shook her head with a little tsk. "Don't you think you've had enough, Hitomi?"Hitomi scoffed, waving Emi off with the back of her hand. "I'm fine, and it's not like I'm driving or anything. Are we partying or what?"Ducking as Ryo tossed a can of beer over his head to Hitomi, Jacob reached out with one finger, poking at the bare forearm of the young man next to him as if he expected it to turn purple or something. When its owner glared through his dark round sunglasses, Jacob shrugged. "Sorry, Shin. It's just new for me. I didn't know you had, you know, skin. Never seen you without your jacket on!"Laughing, Shinji grabbed the green-haired young keyboardist around the neck with his forearm and poured the last dregs of his beer bottle over Jacob's head. "Oh, fuck off, you!""We got anything else to eat over there?" A lithe brunette with a bob cut dusted the sand from her brown cargo shorts, padding in her flip-flops over to check another of the coolers next to where Mei sat."Oh, dear. I knew I should have packed sandwiches." Kasumi frowned in her sister's direction. "I'm sure I can find something somewhere…"Nabiki let her forehead drop into her open palm before closing the distance to her oldest sister. "Kasumi, listen to me. You're standing on a beach. At a party. In a bathing suit. You're off duty. Just have some damn fun, will ya?""Besides," Izumi said, putting her arm around the shoulders of Kasumi's purple one-piece bathing suit. "Aya said she was gonna stop for some more supplies on the way here.""Hope she brings some more wood," Ariel groaned, tossing another chunk of driftwood from his dwindling pile into the large fire that roared merrily in the center of their gathering.Izumi shrugged. "I could try to call her car phone." She motioned over her shoulder at a sun-faded black payphone under a thatched shelter near the beach's parking lot. "Anybody got any coins on them? I didn't bring my purse."Akane looked up as her view of her sisters was eclipsed by a short denim skirt with a ragged lower hem. She barely had time to put her bottle of cider in the cupholder in the armrest of her folding beach chair before Ranko took her hand and pulled her to her feet.As she did, Crash's guitar came to life with a tropical rhythm. He tapped his foot on the sand to keep the rhythm, and every flex of his foot bounced Ukyo on his knee. Held in place as she was by his arms around her playing the guitar resting on her lap, Ukyo put on a carefree smile as she began to clap along with the music.Not caring at all about the breeze blasting her wavy hair in all directions at once, Ranko twisted in staccato motion at the waist within arm's reach of her fiancee, making sure Akane saw every wiggle of her bare midriff beneath the baby pink tee shirt she'd tied in a knot just below her breast line. She raised both her arms in the air, crossing her wrists and swaying her head left and right between her arms as she dug the balls of her bare feet into the sand and began to sing."Hey, where did we go, days when the rains came? Down in a hollow, playin' a new game. Laughin' and a-runnin, hey, hey, skippin' and a-jumpin', in the misty mornin' fog, ah, with our hearts a-thumpin', and you…"Ranko reached forward, poking Akane's sunscreen-slick nose with her outstretched finger. Her face was joy and adoration incarnate, and somehow brightened even further when Mei, Kumiko and Nabiki each began drumming on the plastic coolers they sat on in time with Crash's guitar."My brown-eyed girl… You're my brown-eyed girl…"Akane blushed as her fiancee took the last step that there was room for between them, taking both of the raven-haired woman's hands in her own. Ranko slowed the motion of her hips for a moment to grant Akane the opportunity to study and match her patterns of motion, and within eight beats, the two of them moved together as one on the pearlescent white sand."Now, whatever happened? Tuesday is oh, so slow. Goin' down the old mine with a transistor radio. Standin' in the sunlit light, hidin' 'hind a rainbow's wall. Slippin' and a-slidin', yeah, all along the waterfall, it was you, my brown-eyed girl. You're my brown-eyed girl!"Ranko released Akane's hands, instead resting her palms on Akane's hips, beginning to move her as much as she moved herself. The pair moved in tandem, Ranko employing the same telegraphing techniques Akane had used to teach her to slow-dance on Valentine's Day to lead her in their shared motion, somewhere between a salsa and a tango. Her face was positively aglow, and the flickering bonfire reflected in her blue eyes was almost as hypnotic as her infectious smile."Do you remember when we used to sing…"Ranko grinned into her lover's eyes as a dozen voices around her, every one belonging to someone she loved, joined her in the merry chorus. "Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah! Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah!"Writhing her hips in place as fluidly as a snake charmed by a pungi, Ranko rested her wrists on Akane's shoulders and moved her in a semicircle around herself. Her eyes never left the black-haired, brown-eyed girl whose love she celebrated."So hard to find my way, now that I'm on my own. I thought about it just the other day; my, where's the time all gone?"Ranko grabbed Akane's wrists, yanking her toward herself as she spun her around with the momentum generated. Still gripping her by the wrists, Ranko pulled her back until her butt collided with the front of Ranko's denim miniskirt. She held Akane tight against herself, using her bride's crossed arms to lock her in place as she danced. She rolled her hips smoothly, alternating which leg was pushed forward to bear her weight in a modified salsa step. Akane could feel every movement of her fiancee's body against her back, using it to determine when to move her legs. As part of Ms. Kanzawa's efforts to keep her prodigy engaged in dance class, she'd been teaching Ranko the basics of other dances besides ballet, and Ranko had particularly taken to the sensual feel of some of the Latin styles."Can't remember back then, gods. Sometimes, I'm overcome thinkin' 'bout makin' love in the green grass, mm, behind the stadium with you, my brown-eyed girl. You're my brown-eyed girl!"The joyful redhead, up on the balls of her feet in the sand as she was, rested her chin on Akane's left shoulder, not slowing the movements of her body against her betrothed. She stole a quick kiss to Akane's earlobe in the space between lines. "Do you remember when we used to sing…"Again, the girls' assembled loved ones joined her in the nonsense chorus. Even Kasumi sung along, clapping her hands gently in time with the rhythm plucked playfully from the six-string guitar in Ukyo's lap."Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah! Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah!"Mei swatted at the cooler under her butt with both hands, using both the fingertips and palms of each hand to give herself four points of contact in order to strike the hollow plastic box more quickly. Playing the cooler like a bongo drum, she thumped out a percussive riff that made Ken proud."Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah! Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah!"Relaxing her tight grip on Akane's wrists, Ranko spun her bride around again so that the pair faced each other. While their sisters and friends sang out the final repetition of the chorus, Ranko instead rested her forearms on Akane's shoulders, closing her eyes and pulling her into an entirely unabashed kiss. Her hips continued to thrash fluidly from side to side, not caring for all the world who, even on this isolated strip of beach just after the sun had set, might be able to see it in the flickering of the firelight."Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah! Sha-la-la, la, la la, la, la, la, la-la, ti dah!"Their lips did not part until long after Crash's guitar had silenced."I am so fucking in love with you," Ranko mewled, the lengthy kiss having taken her breath away more than the dance did.The redhead yelped in surprise as Akane swept her left arm behind her bottom and scooped her off of her feet, supporting Ranko's feet with her right and cradling her in her embrace. "I am so fucking in love with you, too." She spun on her feet slowly, Ranko giggling and wrapping her arms around Akane's neck as Izumi's Polaroid spit out another square of film."Mm, hi there, lover." Sakura emoted in a quiet bliss as Yui wrapped her arms around her waist from behind.Ranko looked around as she was lowered to her feet, making eye contact with each and every guest in turn as the last rays of the sun faded, breathing deep of the salty scent and soft rolling of high tide. Her face was a picture of contentment as her gaze moved from one person to another, all of whom had given up their Saturday night to celebrate what so many people said Ranko and Akane would never - could never - have.Look at all these people who love us, Akane. Look what we did together, baby."You guys," Ranko said sincerely, clasping her hands between her breasts. "Thank you so much for coming and being here tonight, and for just… everything. You've all done so much to make this special for us… hell, to even make it possible for us. Because of you, and all your help, this time next week, I'm gonna get to be Mrs. Akane Tendo." She smiled in adoration at her blushing bride-to-be, Akane squeezing her hand gently as Ranko lowered it. "We love and appreciate you all so, so much. You just don't even know. Just… thanks for being our family."With a chuckle, Nabiki held up a half-empty beer bottle. "I'm not anywhere near drunk enough for all this mushy stuff yet, little sister!"Akane reached out, placing a gentle hand on Ranko's cheek. As the redhead's gaze followed Akane's arm back to her eyes, Akane gave her the softest of smiles. "Well, I am, so c'mere, you." Ranko needed no further encouragement to lean into another kiss, prompting a wave of clapping and whooping from her friends and sisters.The ebullient young singer bounced excitedly on the sand, taking Akane's hand as the kiss ended. "Holy shit, babe, we're getting married in a week!"There was another smattering of cheers, but the onlookers' eyes seemed distracted by something but a bit further up the grassy hill behind the beach, in the small asphalt parking lot. Ranko's eyes turned to follow theirs, and found her eldest sister waving to the assemblage from just in front of her black sedan in an orange sundress."Oi! You guys gonna come help me carry this grill down there, or what?"