Entourage

How the hell did I get talked into doing this again?! Ranko sighed, holding her head in her hands.

"Okay, so, we've only got a few days to put this together, so we're gonna have to hustle. You girls all still have your bridesmaid dresses, right?" Izumi leaned over the bar, building a checklist on the front page of a Ranko and the Dapper Dragons spiral notebook she'd snatched from the merchandise display behind the service bar. "If not, they actually carry that style at Yoshiko's Bridal now, so it should be easier to get new ones."

Nabiki groaned, resting her elbows on the wooden bar counter and holding her head in her hands. "Please don't remind me. Little princess just had to pick the itchiest dress in the store."

"Are you gonna do the same wedding party this time around?" Mei asked, leaning over Ranko's shoulder. "You've got an opportunity to shake it up a little. Most girls don't get to marry the same guy twice, after all."

"I am NOT marrying a guy!" Ranko growled, her face aflame. "I'm marrying Akane! In a costume!"

Yui cackled. "Suuuuuure you are. The pictures will make that abundantly clear, I'm sure of it! I can't wait to hear the updated wedding vows." She turned to her right, smiling at her own wife. This is why we took the shortcut to married bliss. "What do you think, Ranko, are we adding to honor and obey back in?"

"Oh, we wouldn't do that to her!" Akane said, but as soon as Ranko looked back down at her drink, the black-haired girl nodded emphatically in Yui's direction.

Ranko growled, hiding her face in her hands again. "You guys, stop it! I'm embarrassed enough at having to do this in the first place."

Nabiki shook her head, sneering in her amusement. "Oh, no you're not, little sister. Not by half. This only happened because you decided to go rogue and not involve us when we could have helped you, so, we're involving ourselves now." She turned, resting her hands on the service bar counter and propelling herself upward to sit upon it, crossing her legs in her black skinny jeans. "And you're gonna learn your lesson this time, girl. We're gonna make sure of it." She cackled menacingly, sipping from her open bottle of cider. "You are going to get the full celebrity treatment, you're gonna doll up sweet and smile real pretty for the cameras, and we are gonna make you suffer through every single fucking second of it for our amusement."

Akane nodded in solidarity with her sister. "You bet we are, princess. You're going to get the fairy tale whether you want it or not. In fact… I don't think six bridesmaids is enough. And if the dresses are easily available, we can seamlessly add more in a hurry."

"Not enough?!" Ranko recoiled from her wife's words. "What are you even trying to do to me right now, 'Kane?!"

Yui grinned. "Well, you've got a lot more women in your life now than you used to - people you wouldn't wanna leave out." She leaned to her left, nuzzling into the arms of the Phoenix' co-proprietress. "For example, you have a new sister."

Bobbing her head, Izumi glanced up at a framed photo of the full Dapper Dragons band on stage in Brisbane. "I bet Hitomi and Emi would love a chance to stand with you this time. You've gotten a lot closer with them since the tour started."

"I suppose I did regret not getting to ask Kumiko and Shi'ri the first time," Ranko said sheepishly. "But this is too much. And besides, that would make an odd number, and Izumi would have some kinda OCD freakout."

Nabiki clicked her tongue, glancing at the same photo Izumi had referenced. "What about Zoe? They could be down."

Ranko shook her head. "Zo's not much for the dresses and makeup and stuff. I don't think they'd wanna do it. And, before you ask, Nabiki… you're my sister. You don't get to back out. You don't get a choice in the matter."

Akane smiled warmly. "Well, I was thinking about asking the boys in the band to be my groomsmen… what if we asked Zo if they wanted to be on my side, since they do the boy thing sometimes too?"

Yui giggled, nodding emphatically. "That would be great. But we still need one more bridesmaid to have an even number, then."

"Ukyo?" Izumi scratched her chin with the back of her pen. "If Crash is gonna be on Aki's side…"

The redhead nodded. "We could ask, but I don't know if she'd wanna…" Being in my wedding might be a little close to home for her, considering…

Snickering, Akane nodded. "Oh, I bet she'd love to help give you away to a handsome man…" She ruffled Ranko's hair gently.

"Really, it's kind of a shame we're stopping at twelve, considering thirteen's a lucky number. Anybody else we could throw in there? Maybe your new friend from school, Yumeko?" Yui sipped at her beer contemplatively.

"There won't be anybody left in the seats to actually watch the fucking thing at this rate!" Ranko whined. "We're gonna have to wait until the club's built next door to fit everybody on the damn stage!"

Yui snickered. "The cameras won't care. We'll have to get a little cozy on stage, but… you'll be okay. Not like you like being close to girls, right, little sister? Especially not on the day you finally net yourself a husband…"

"Wait! Actually," Izumi smirked, biting the back of her pen. "We already have thirteen. We forgot someone."

Ranko blinked, an almost offended look in her eyes. How could you accuse me of forgetting someone I care about that much? Can I just not count? "How you figure? I've got the four of you, Nabiki and Kasumi, plus Sakura, that's seven. Kumi, Shi'ri and Ukyo make ten, and then Hitomi and Emi are eleven and twelve."

Izumi gave Ranko a devious smirk. "Well, the whole point of this is to convince Yokai that you're not marrying a girl. So, we can't leave anything for them to pick holes in or raise any sort of doubt."

"Yeah? And?" Ranko watched as Izumi slipped out from behind the service bar, a quizzical expression in her eyes. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Grinning, Izzi put her arm around Akane's back, resting her head on the black-haired girl's shoulder. "You forgot one of your sisters."

"Wait, what?!" Ranko and Akane shouted the exclamation in unison.

"Think about it. If you have six sisters, and all six are bridesmaids, it makes total sense. But, on paper, you have seven sisters, because of Akane. And if Akane's missing, people are gonna get suspicious, and from there, all they have to do is realize how much she looks like Aki, and you're sunk. So the only way to solve this is to not leave Akane out." She turned to her youngest sister's "groom"-to-be, snickering. "Looks like you're gonna have to be your wife's bridesmaid in your own wedding, hon. No pressure."

Akane shook her head vigorously. "How the hell am I supposed to pull that off?! I can't be in two places at once, Izzi!"

Nabiki hopped down from the counter. "No… this actually makes a ton of sense. With a bridal party that huge, nobody will expect to see the whole party in one picture. It won't be weird. So, we get Akane all gussied up with the rest of us, take a few shots of all the bridesmaids, and then she goes upstairs and turns on dashing gentleman mode for the wedding proper. There won't be any pictures of Aki and Akane together, but that's okay. It'll be enough to throw them off the scent. They'll never be able to say Akane is Aki, because Ranko could be like, That's not possible, there's Akane right here in the photos. It's actually friggin' genius."

"I dunno." Akane gave her sister a skeptical look, before turning her eyes to Ranko. "I don't know that we can pull it off. And besides, everybody knows I'm not really the one that usually does the whole waiting hand-and-foot thing in this relationship."

"Akane!" Ranko hid her face, blushing furiously. "Shut u-uuuup…."

With a grin, Akane leaned over her lover and kissed her on the temple. "I suppose I could let her order me around for an hour or two… with the understanding that the more she teases me, the worse she gets it back when the shoe's on the other foot on our honeymoon."

Sakura let out a loud yelp as she was sprayed with cold soda. Ranko coughed and sputtered, putting her pilsner glass down hard on the counter. There was still caramel-colored cola dripping from her nostrils.

"So it's settled. Thirteen bridesmaids. Holy crap! There were six colors of dresses, so we'll have two of each color this time around, and one extra. Ranko, you need to get a hold of everybody today and let them know the date and everything, especially Kumiko, since she'll have to arrange for travel." Izumi continued jotting down notes, listing the baker's dozen names and adding the colors of dresses the original six bridesmaids had worn.

Ranko groaned. "Awww, man, why do I gotta be the one to tell everybody? It's so embarrassin' that I even have to go through all this again…"

"You're the bride, blockhead. And it's not even a shared responsibility this time." Yui grinned, topping off her sister's soda. "You're just going to have to suck it up and embrace princess status, girlie."

"Oh, I want yellow, so I can match Yuri," Sakura said with a giggle as Yui squeezed her tight about the waist, and Izumi wrote the appropriate character next to her name.

Akane grinned, resting her chin on Ranko's shoulder. "I'll take red. I'll match my girl's hair, since I can't match her pretty white dress this time."

"'Kaaaaaane…" Ranko blushed, hiding her face in her hands.

Scratching her head with the saliva-damp cap of her ballpoint pen, Izumi nodded. "Alright. In the interests of time, I'd presume the same flower setup as last time?"

"I mean, I think this time, you might wanna just do white roses for the bouquet, or some of everything, since we won't have two brides. Hey, Ranko, this means you can throw your bouquet this time!" Mei giggled, ribbing her sister with her finger.

Ranko nodded, sneering at her blue-haired sister. "And I'm gonna take your fuckin' head off with it, too! I'd tell you to duck, but you're too short for it to matter, shrimp."

"I want her buried in flowers this time," Akane said. "We have a little money this time, and we don't have to skimp." She traced her fingers gently down Ranko's cheek, sending her shivering. "I want her to feel like a fairy princess."

"Akaneeeeeeee…" The redhead shied away from her lover's smickering gaze.

Izumi turned to a new page in her notebook. "Okay, so now for our groom… I'll go ahead and make Aki's tux, so I can tailor it to account for… certain things. The groomsmen can just rent - it likely won't be a perfect fit for Zoe, but I can help them out some if needed. So, Crash, Shinji, Jake and Zoe, then. Anybody else?"

Ranko sighed quietly, saying nothing, slumping a bit on her stool. She slowly swirled the ice in her drink around in its pilsner glass for something to focus on.

With a sad sigh, Akane rubbed her wife's back. "I know, baby. I don't think he'll be able to make the trip, but we'll absolutely ask Ken, just so he knows we're thinking of him. Do you think we should ask Kaito and Kage, or maybe Tofu?"

The suggestion made Ranko smile again somewhat, and she looked up to her standing lover. "I don't know, do you think you could handle getting married as a boy with Dr. Tofu right there? Wouldn't want you getting too blushy there, Aki."

"Good point," Akane said with a giggle. "And your brothers-in-law would probably feel kinda awkward about the whole thing. So, just the band, then." For the briefest of moments, a frown crossed her lips as she considered that she did have one male friend she might have asked, but she knew Ranko would never be comfortable with including him. "And Crash will be my best man, since he already declared himself the best man last time."

Nabiki nodded. "That's true! Now that you don't both have bridesmaids, Ranko can actually pick a maid of honor this time! So, spill it, girl, who's your favorite?" She turned to Izumi, motioning to her with the neck of her cider bottle.

"I mean, if Akane's gonna be a bridesmaid too, I don't think I got much choice, do I?" Ranko turned, smiling softly up at her wife.

"I'm not sure I'd recommend that," Izumi said with a shake of her head, nibbling on the cap of her pen. "It would look a little odd for the maid of honor to be missing from most of the pictures."

Ranko sighed, throwing her hands up with her elbows still propped on the bar. "But that means I gotta pick a favorite sister. How the hell am I supposed to do that?!"

"You'll manage." Nabiki, who had since hopped back up and retaken her seat on the service bar, reached behind her and tossed her empty cider bottle into the trash can behind the counter. "Iz, can I get another one of those? Oh, and when you're writing the list for tuxedos, don't forget Daddy." She smirked at Ranko. "He has to walk his little girl down the aisle, after all."

Ranko sputtered. "Wait, what? Oh, no no no…"

Akane laughed loudly. "She's right, you know. It's tradition for the bride. And you didn't have a dad until a few hours after the wedding last time, so it's only right that you get to have that experience now. I'm sure he'd be proud to give you away."

"Aww, come on!" Ranko said, hiding her face yet again. Her face was aflame, but Akane noticed something else in her eyes. "We don't have to do all that, do we?" She looked up when Akane rested her hand gently on her shoulder.

"Ranko," Akane said, the teasing in her voice replaced with loving gentleness. "It's okay to be excited about the idea of having your dad doing something to support you. I know you're… not used to it. But he's so proud of you, baby. You don't even know. I think he'd feel honored to do this for you."

"R… really?" Ranko blinked in surprise, biting her lip and nodding as a smile crossed her face. "If you think so, you can ask him."

Akane shook her head, poking the little silver heart dangling from Ranko's white lace choker. "Not a chance. He deserves to hear it from his daughter."

"But you're…"

Yui chuckled, crossing her arms across her breasts. "Not right now. Right now, she's the strapping young man who's riding in to sweep the princess off her feet."

"Yeah?!" Ranko's face discovered a yet deeper shade of crimson. "Well, just for that, I'm gonna make you be the maid of honor. So, how about that?!" She smiled softly to herself. I would have picked her anyway, but I didn't want to make the other girls feel bad.

"That's fantastic!" Yui cackled, turning to her wife. "That means we're on the hook for planning the bachelorette party! Sake, any chance you know any really good male strippers?"