Phoenix Ascendant
Book Five: Climb

“Are you sure you’ve got everything?” Hana handed Ranko’s camping backpack to her, looking her over with a matronly care.

Ranko giggled, shouldering the backpack over her red Phoenix staff tee shirt. “Mama, you’re not selling the place. I’m gonna be back in like, four hours for work. If I forgot something, I’ll grab it then. Besides, I can’t carry much more.”

Akane put her arms around Ranko’s shoulders from behind, resting her chin on the backpack. “I can take something if I need to, you know. You’re not a pack mule.”

The redhead smiled, leaning back a little into her girlfriend’s arms. “I got it.” She knew she wasn’t a guy anymore, but some things, she felt like she should be the one to handle.

Hana looked the pair over. “Now, Ranko, you’re sure you want to do this? You know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you want.”

“Let me check.” With a grin, she turned to look over her shoulder at Akane. “What do you think, babe? Do you still want to keep me?”

Akane giggled, picking up a canvas tote containing more of Ranko’s clothes. “Well, it’s gonna be tight for space, but I suppose you are awfully cute.” She leaned forward, giving Ranko a kiss on her nose that made her scrunch up her face and blush.

“Come on, Ranko.” Akane reached down, taking her hand. “Let’s go home.”

With a happy smile, Ranko nodded, turning and waving to Hana. “See you tonight!”

Hana nodded, but as Ranko got a step from the door, she spoke up. “Hey, come here, kiddo.”

Ranko turned around, and found herself enveloped in her adoptive mother’s arms.

“I want you to know how incredibly proud of you I am. Don’t you think for a second that this means you’re off the hook with us, girl. Wherever you sleep at night, you’re part of this family forever. If you ever need anything…”

Ranko blushed, squeezing back before stepping out of the hug. “I know, mom. Thanks. For everything.”

Hana reached forward, tucking a strand of Ranko’s flame-red hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear for her. “You are so welcome, baby. Now, go on, get out of here. You’re keeping Akane waiting.”

With a blush, Ranko took her girlfriend’s hand, and pushed her way through the glass door of the Phoenix Bar, the place she worked, and for the last ten months, had also called home. The place where she met her new family, her mother and all four of her sisters. But, really, also the place where she had discovered herself.

She looked back at the door from the street, with a sigh that was equal parts happy and nostalgic.

Akane gave her hand a squeeze. “Are you okay, Ran-chan? Do you need a minute?”

The redhead smiled, wiping a single tear with her free hand. “I’m good. Just… this place really saved me, you know?”

With another squeeze of her hand, Akane nodded. “It did. I know it was the first time in a long time that you felt like you had somewhere you could really call home. It’s okay to be a little sad. Don’t think that just because you’re happy to start something new, it means you’re expected not to miss what you’re leaving behind.” Over the last few months they’d been dating, Akane had learned that it was pretty common to have to cue her girlfriend from time to time that she was allowed to feel feelings, after so many years of bottling them up. She didn’t know how Hana had managed to break down the walls around Ranko’s heart as much as she had, but she was glad of it. Without her efforts, Akane wasn’t sure she’d be holding Ranko’s hand at all right now.

Ranko turned her back to the door, leaning into Akane’s chest. “Home is wherever you are.”

The pair started walking south, as their new shoebox of a furnished apartment was only a few blocks away. After nearly killing herself for three months studying, Akane had earned a partial scholarship to the local college, and between the funds that were left over after tuition and books, and Ranko’s earnings singing at the Phoenix, they could just barely afford the place. Financially, it would have made a lot more sense for Akane to stay with her father and commute, and for Ranko to continue living rent-free above the bar, but that meant going back to seeing each other one night a week, maybe two. They’d opted for broke and happy.

Ranko blushed, stopping in front of a white wooden door with brass numerals affixed identifying the unit as number 206. The door, and the whole of the greenish hallway, badly needed a paint job, and the hall itself had something of a musty smell to it, but to Ranko, it may as well have been the Taj Mahal.

“I feel like I’m supposed to carry you across the threshold or something, but my hands are kinda full.”

Akane shook her head with a giggle. “You’re a silly girl, you know. But I love you.” She pulled out her keychain, jingling with two silver keys and a little metal heart keychain, and selected one of them, slipping it into the deadbolt and turning it with a loud click.

They stepped into their new home, a tiny apartment not much bigger than the one Ranko had just left. To their left, a tiny but decently-equipped kitchen with faded pink walls was situated behind a white half-wall that extended to the bottom of the kitchen counter, and there were two barstools on the living room side of it. A tiny square table, the top of which was covered in a white ceramic tile, was surrounded by four rickety pine chairs in the corner nearest the kitchen.

The center of the room had a small couch against the wall, facing a blank wall covered in a light blue patterned wallpaper on the other side. A loose white cable dangled from a wall jack near the baseboard to connect a television. Two closed white doors on the right led to the bathroom and the bedroom.

There was a small window facing the street, and there were boxes stacked to the windowsill, courtesy of Akane’s father having helped her move her own things the day before. She’d hated to have to lie to him about the cost of the apartment, but he’d have known she couldn’t afford it on her own. No one in the Tendo household, other than Nabiki, knew that Akane and Ranko were together, or even knew for sure that Ranko was alive. That was a conversation none of them were prepared to have.

Ranko dropped her backpack on the couch. “It’s bigger than I expected.”

With a laugh, Akane set the tote bags she was carrying down as well. Whereas Akane had brought an entire bedroom full of her things, nearly everything Ranko owned was clothing and it hadn’t been a big deal to carry it all.

Ranko pointed toward one of the two doors on the right, then the other. “Which one’s the bathroom?”

Akane smiled. “The one on the right.”

Ranko pulled the door open, entering the tiny restroom. It wasn’t that different in structure from the bathroom she had at the Phoenix; it was entirely possible the same floor plan was used for both buildings given their proximity to each other. There was a combination shower stall and bathtub with a hideous yellow shower curtain that matched the bath mat, and a little white sink embedded in the beige countertop atop a dark pressboard cabinet that concealed the pipes.

Akane, meanwhile, picked Ranko’s backpack up from the couch, carrying it into the floral-wallpapered bedroom and setting it on the bare mattress of the queen-sized bed. She unzipped the bag, pulling a few of Ranko’s dresses out of it and laying them flat on the bed. Reaching into the open closet, she grabbed a few plastic coathangers and began to hang her girlfriend’s clothes next to her own.

Another door between the closet and the long white chest of drawers opened, and Ranko emerged, as the bathroom had access doors from both the bedroom and the living room.

Akane managed a small smile, sitting on the mattress as Ranko took over putting away her clothes. She wished she’d had time to take care of at least some of the things she wanted to improve before Ranko saw the place. She would have brought Ranko home to a castle if she could have, though. “It’s not much, I know. But we’ll fix it up.”

Ranko smiled. “It’s ours. Stop apologizing for it. Believe me, I’ve had way worse.” She walked to the far wall, turning on a little brass lamp that sat on a little desk covered with peeling white paint and a few deep scratches in its surface.

Walking back to the bed, she scooped out a handful of undergarments from the bottom of her backpack and stuffed them into one of the drawers in the chest. “I’ll take the right side, you take the left?”

Akane nodded. “Works for me.”

Ranko reached down into one of the pockets of her backpack, pulling out her compact Polaroid camera and smiling at it. “Hey, Akane, c’mere a second.”

Akane scooted close to her on the bed, and Ranko held the camera out as far as her right arm would reach, pointing it toward herself. She wrapped her left arm around Akane’s shoulders, leaning into her and nuzzling against her cheek as she pressed the button to snap a picture. The little film square ejected from the plastic cartridge and their image began to take shape.

Ranko turned her head, kissing Akane on the cheek as she set down her camera, bringing her right arm around her girlfriend as well. “We have to document the first day of forever.”