Following the Leader

"I can't freakin' believe you talked me into this, Akane." Ranko's voice echoed around the corner from her bathroom as she adjusted her high ponytail in the mirror above the sink.Akane laughed dismissively from the bedroom, pulling a yellow tee shirt over her head to pair with her black jeans. "It sure sounded like you had your mind made up before you ever told me about it."Ranko came back into the bedroom in her new red-and-silver cheerleading uniform, a white lion silhouette embroidered across the front of the shell. "Yeah, but you were supposed to talk me out of it and you didn't. And then mama telling me to miss work any nights there's events! You guys are no help at all!"Ranko was only half-kidding. She felt as if she couldn't refuse, knowing the girls were going to perform to Rise. She didn't have the time for the practices, let alone going to games and dancing for the boys on the basketball team. She really was worried she'd overcommitted, but if she were being honest with herself, she knew she just wanted to perform more. It made her heart soar every time.Thinking of herself as one of the popular girls in school just made her face catch fire, though. Kumiko had actually called the cheerleaders "princesses" a few weeks ago. She shook her head with a chortle under her breath. If there was ever any chance left for a return to her masculine form, the idea of being a "princess" had ground it into unrecognizable dust. She looked herself over in the bedroom mirror with a devious little smirk. Boy, if Pop could see me now, she thought to herself with flushing cheeks."Well, next time be more specific in your requests if you want an excuse to get out of something!" Akane grinned as she put her arm around Ranko's shoulder, looking at their reflections in the mirror above the dresser. She reached down to the dresser, picking up a length of silver satin ribbon, about two centimeters wide, and starting to tie it in a bow around Ranko's ponytail.Ranko stood still, her face somehow finding an even deeper shade of red as Akane fidgeted with her. It was one thing for Izumi to have helped her get dressed and do her hair, because that was her big sister and her mentor in femininity. That was, well, as close to normal as anything that had happened throughout the course of her transition from Ranma to Ranko over the last year. Watching the contented smile on Akane's face as she did it was something else entirely. Compared to the way Akane could paralyze her on a whim with the slightest touch, a bow in her hair was a trivial thing, but it was just another sign of how much Akane was beginning to enjoy laying claim to her.Ranko looked herself over in the mirror, watching the way the red pleats gave way to silver ones beneath as her legs moved in the miniskirt she wore with the sleeveless shell top. It was significantly shorter than anything she'd worn before, even on stage. "I honestly don't know how I'm supposed to even go out wearing this."Akane wrapped both of her arms around Ranko's waist from behind, gently kissing a bare spot where the chain holding the diamond star pendant Izumi had given her at the wedding lay. She felt the smaller girl's body go almost fully rigid in her arms as her breath caught in her throat. "You focus on being taken out of it when we get home."Ranko blushed even deeper, almost getting lightheaded from the amount of blood rushing to her face. "You… that's not fair, Akane.. You know I'll do…" She shivered mid-sentence with a quiet purr as Akane kissed her again. "...just about anything you ask if you touch me like that.""Oh?" Akane giggled, running two of her fingernails down the side of her girlfriend's neck and almost making her knees give out. "I hadn't noticed." She did have to admit, since having discovered the power to render her girlfriend utterly helpless to her with the slightest gentle touch, she had quite enjoyed taking advantage of it to torment her.The cheerleader whimpered, every cell of her hypersensitive skin screaming for more attention. "Akane, if you don't stop that right now, neither one of us are making it to this basketball game.""Fine, fine. It's not my fault you're irresistible, though." Akane grinned over her girlfriend's shoulder in the mirror.Ranko turned, wrapping her arms around her love's neck with a playful smirk. "Typical jock. You think that just because you're the new star of the undefeated volleyball team, that you're just entitled to the cheerleaders, huh?"Akane leaned down slightly, as she had grown a few centimeters over the summer, kissing her on the lips. "Not all of them, silly girl. Just this one."Ranko smiled. "Forever. Now, come on, you. We're gonna be late. I mean, I guess you don't have to come if you don't want to, but I'm supposed to be there in a half hour, anyway."Laughing, Akane took her hand. "The person who used to call me an uncute tomboy is about to have her first event as a cheerleader. If you think I'm missing this, you are out of your friggin' mind, girl."Akane locked the door, starting the short walk toward the school gymnasium. Akane selected a slightly longer path, just so they could walk by the record store and smile at the poster for Rise with the SOLD OUT sign again.Akane smirked, pointing up at the poster in the closed store's front window. "Would you just look at that chick? Gods, that girl is hot as hell. Can you even imagine how amazing it must be to date a girl like that? I mean, wow."Ranko blushed until her face almost blended in with her uniform, tittering with her beloved. "No. I guess you'll have to tell me sometime."Akane put her arm around Ranko's shoulder, pulling her closer and kissing the top of her head, right above the bow she'd decided needed to be there to finish off her outfit."Count on it."