Rules of Engagement

Ranko sat alone on the rooftop, hugging her knees. The mid-November air was starting to get chilly, especially this early in the morning, when dew still clung to the metal handrails she was leaning on. She made a mental note to check with Shiori and see if it was permitted to wear pants or something under her cheerleading uniform skirt, because she was freezing.She sighed, the fight from the night before flashing through her mind. According to Nabiki, she'd missed the worst of it, but what Ranko had heard was plenty. Akane had been all but disowned by her father last night for the crime of loving the person he would have given anything to make her fall for just a short year ago.And it's all my fault. I should have just kept my damned mouth shut.She allowed herself to get so upset over an arrangement they'd both agreed to. She could have just told her she was struggling. Cried more. Begged. Something. Anything. Instead, she'd written that nasty, angry, mean-spirited, thrice-damned song. She thought for sure Sneak would have ended their lives together, but instead, it did maybe the only thing that could have hurt Ranko worse – it brought her and Akane closer together than ever, just so she could have a front-row seat to watch every other part of Akane's life fall apart because Ranko had forced her hand. She had shamed Akane into taking a sledgehammer to her entire existence, and now Ranko could only watch helplessly as Akane gave her everything she asked for, and her whole world crumbled because of what she had unleashed.She was heartbroken for Akane. At least Nabiki and Kasumi had stayed, and hanging out with them had been wonderful. Kasumi had somehow even managed to salvage dinner after Ranko abandoned it when the fight got bad. But even as Akane had laughed with her sisters, and shared stories of the couple's exploits, Ranko had been able to see the sadness behind her eyes that her father wasn't there for her. It was a disappointment Ranko knew all too well, and one she'd prayed in vain for months that Akane would be spared.Ranko blushed, to no one in particular, remembering Akane putting on the Rise cassette in and playing it for Kasumi and Nabiki while Ranko sat in awkward silence on the couch, as if it hadn't been her voice coming out of the little battery-operated radio. She thanked the gods that there was no recording of her second song to be found in the apartment, or as far as she knew, anywhere else. The sooner that cursed song fell out of memory, the better for everyone.At least she'd made Kasumi proud. Akane had gone out of her way to give Ranko credit for every spotless surface, every meal she'd made, the creative ways she'd found to cook while minimizing her potential exposure to hot water, all of it. Akane had tried so hard to build Ranko up, and she really did appreciate it. As absurd as it felt, as far as it was from any ambition she had ever known in her former life, Ranko had been desperate to earn Kasumi's approval as a homemaker. She wanted at least someone in the Tendo household to know Akane was being well-cared for. That at least she was doing something right, even if in their eyes, the best she was capable of as a human being was managing to keep the bathroom clean.She couldn't have been more grateful to Nabiki for having kept her secret all this time. Had Akane's father found out about their relationship when it first began, before they lived together – before they had fallen so completely in love with each other – he could have smothered it in the cradle. Beyond that, he probably would have dragged Ranko's father to the Phoenix to retrieve her before she had a chance to become, for the first time, a person whose skin she could stand tall in. Ranko literally owed Nabiki her life, and she would not soon forget it.Ranko dreaded the inevitable fact that Akane's father had already told hers what had become of his child. He couldn't have done otherwise, especially coming home without his daughters. How else could he have explained that he left the house with two of his three daughters, and returned with none of his four? Not that Ranko expected he would ever consider her part of his family again, but she was with Akane to stay, whether he liked it or not.She supposed she would have to go back to looking over her shoulder for crazed pandas everywhere she went. It had been a welcome respite for the past year, but now that her father knew exactly where to find her, she suspected that the reckoning they were due was all but a matter of time away. Ranko wanted nothing in the world more than to be accepted by Akane's family, but if there was one thing she could be permitted to want just as badly, it was to never have to hear the name Saotome again.She stood, shouldering her bag and looking out over the quad, where her classmates were slowly filtering into the schoolyard. She had made up her mind.She was going to fix it. At least, as much of it as she could.Last time she'd screwed up Akane's life, fixing it had literally almost killed her. This time, at least what she had to do wouldn't hurt physically. All it would cost her this time was her dignity, and that was a price she'd learned to pay more times than she cared to count. Over the last year, she found herself wondering more than once whether she had some karmic credit card that worked on shame, given the number of times her pride had gone into the negatives and had to be built back up just to get back to zero.Akane was worth it. She deserved no less.The cheerleader pulled open the roof access door and scampered down the twenty-two steps to the second floor. She needed only to follow the screeching of teenage girls to find her objective. Pinned against a locker stood the towering form of Eiji Kanda, in his basketball uniform, surrounded by some sixteen hopeful girls.Ranko swallowed hard. Just another performance. Just like I do on stage. But this one's not for applause, it's for Akane. For Akane, I can do anything.She stalked quickly toward the mob, affecting a fury in her approach. "Eiji Kanda, there you are!"The girls stopped their clamoring for a moment and turned to see what new challenger had approached.Ranko pushed through the throng until she was next to him, forcefully grabbing his hand. It might as well have been the damned pizza oven, because every second holding his hand burned her, just on the inside. "You were SUPPOSED to meet me for breakfast! You forgot AGAIN!" She turned to one of the girls in the crowd, shaking her head and gesturing to the basketballer with her free hand. "I swear, these boys. They're cute and all, but you practically gotta keep 'em on a leash, right?!"Maintaining an iron grip on his hand, Ranko dragged Eiji out of the crowd, continuing to berate him. "I can't believe you forgot me. I was sitting there for two hours, Eiji!" She could hear the gossip mill creaking to life behind her even as they walked.As soon as she had him out of earshot of the other girls, she pulled Eiji into the same disused classroom where they'd spoken a few days earlier."Sheesh, Ranko, you didn't have to be so rough!" Eiji rubbed his wrist.The cheerleader smirked. "I needed it to be convincing that I broke up with you if this conversation doesn't go the way I want it to."Eiji shook his head. "Wait a minute... Broke up? You said you didn't want to do this."Ranko nodded with a shameful sigh. "And I still don't. But… I think maybe I have to."She backed the giant boy against the blackboard. "Okay, Kanda. Ground rules." She cracked her knuckles. "Number one, and I should hope I don't have to say it. No sex. Like, not at all. You don't touch me like that, I won't touch you like that. You don't try it. You don't ask about it. You don't talk about it. You don't answer questions about it. Don't even fucking imagine it."Eiji nodded, blushing. He might be the only boy at Yusue High that would agree to that condition. "Of course.""Rule two: Akane does not find out. Your sister doesn't find out. Anyone who knows them doesn't find out. Anyone who knows anyone who knows them doesn't find out. Ever."Again, the basketballer nodded. "Fumi doesn't really talk to anybody else from Yusue, so that should be doable as long as you don't slip up.""Rule three. No pictures. No evidence that this ever happened if I decide it was a mistake, any more than I already have."Eiji smiled a bit. "I'll do my best, but if we're at a school event or a game or something together or something, I might not be able to help it."Ranko bobbed her head, her ponytail and the red ribbon that restrained it swishing over her shoulders. "Speaking of which. Rule four. This happens at school and school functions only. No movies, no dinners, no going to each other's houses, zip."Eiji swallowed hard. She's really thought this through. "Uh, sure.""Rule five, and this one is important. The Phoenix is off-limits to you. You don't set foot in that place. Ever. It's mine. If someone invites you, you have a headache. If somebody is walking down the sidewalk with a receipt for a damned pizza in their pocket, you cross to the other side of the street. You are allergic to that bar. Got it?"With a sigh, Eiji nodded. "Anything else?"Ranko shook her head, pointing her finger up at him. Way up at him. "I swear, Kanda, if you don't come through on your promise and get Akane back on that team, I will hand you to every one of those girls out there. One piece at a time. Do we have an understanding?"Eiji nodded. "I'll start working on it tonight. I promise." He reached down, taking Ranko's hand and giving it a little squeeze. "Hey. Thank you for this, Ranko. Really."She hated that he was so much taller than she was. She hated that he looked down on her. It made her feel so small and vulnerable. It reminded her of fears and feelings she'd tried hard to bury since beating Mikado Sanzenin half to death behind the Phoenix. Her skin crawled, radiating from the surface where her palm was touching his. She felt nauseated just thinking about it.Eiji had led her halfway to the door out of the classroom when Ranko stopped him."Hey. One more thing: No fucking kissing."