Tough Love

Akane leaned back in her chair, draining the last of a glass of soda with a smile. She missed being a part of the volleyball team, but it was good to have more free time to spend at the Phoenix with Ranko again. Plus – and she felt only a little guilty for taking pleasure in it – the Mystics had badly lost their first match without Akane, and their second was tonight. Judging by the few minutes she'd caught on one of the televisions mounted above the bar, her former teammates were in for another whooping."Hey, cute stuff! C'mere," she called out from her seat.Shaking her head, Ranko walked slowly over to the VIP table closest to the stage. Her head was pounding, and she'd lost track of how many energy drinks it had taken so far today to keep her upright. Still, she couldn't help but smile at the sight of Akane. "You know, most people who call me that here get thrown out."Akane grinned playfully. "Most of the people who call you that wouldn't be waiting up for you when you got home afterward, either."Ranko blushed, leaning in toward her girlfriend's ear. "Promises, promises." She stood up straight. "Can I get you something to eat?"Craning her neck to look behind Ranko at the empty service bar, Akane shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I know it's just you, Hana and Yui tonight, so there's really nobody to make it." Mei had an exam in the morning, and Hana had insisted she take the night to study.The waitress looked down at her with a smirk of mock outrage, putting her fists on her hips where her blue jewel tone shirt met the waistband of her black calf-length skirt. "Do you really think we can't make you a pizza or something? Mama's doing the bills, but I can go throw something in the oven for you." Her mouth smiled, but her eyes were sunken, like two burned holes in a blanket. Normally, when she was that exhausted, it could be hidden somewhat with makeup, but Izumi and Mei hadn't been there to help her tonight. Ranko could pull it off well enough in a pinch, but sometimes it took two or three attempts to get it right and she hadn't had time to try between homework and the start of her shift.Akane laughed. "Alright, alright, but only because you'd likely just end up cooking when we got home anyway."Ranko scrunched her nose with a smile, slipping through the blue saloon door into the back of the house. She walked to the brick pizza oven in the back corner of the kitchen, and knew even from several steps away that it was plenty hot enough to cook on. She could barely stand next to the thing most days, but Mei wasn't here, Hana was busy, and she'd promised Akane. She could have used the regular oven like they used to, but the addition of the brick oven to their little kitchen over the summer made their best-selling food item come out so much better, and Akane deserved the best.Shaking away the cobwebs of the encroaching caffeine headache, she picked up a large pizza peel, laying it on the counter and beginning to pound out a ball of dough from a plastic container into a mostly round shape.She hummed to herself as she added a dollop of red sauce from a small plastic container with a ladle. She barely noticed that she'd skipped a few notes in the tune she was carrying as she sprinkled a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese over the doughy disc. Ranko bent down and reached into an open bag under the counter, pulling out two large handfuls of pepperoni. As she rose, her equilibrium wobbled just for a moment, but she steadied herself on the counter with her elbow, distributing the toppings liberally over the cheese. Balance issues weren't something she had much experience with, but between the headaches and the heels, they'd been more frequent of late.She picked up the pizza peel, turning and sliding the raw pie into the oven. Even though it was quite uncomfortable being that close to the open brick furnace with her ever-sensitive skin, she enjoyed using the giant wooden spatulas. It made her think of Ukyo.As she didn't have much going on at her other tables, Ranko decided to wait for the pizza to finish baking. In the new oven, a pizza only took about five minutes, so they were easy to overcook, and she wanted to make sure it came out perfectly. It wasn't for just anyone, after all.As she waited, Ranko ran through a checklist in her mind. When she got off work tonight, she still had three pages of math homework to finish, then a chapter of reading for her homeschool humanities course, and she had promised Kotone she'd take a look at the choreography for next week's soccer game and see if she could punch it up. Oh, and Akane was out of clean socks, so she'd need to throw in a load of laundry, too. Not too bad, compared to some nights, she thought with relief.Man, her head was killing her. Her face was almost numb, and the constant throbbing between her temples was a more consistent bass line than most of the songs she sang had. In fact, it was so bad that she hadn't been on stage at all yet tonight. The speakers were just too loud.She watched as the cheese bubbled merrily atop Akane's dinner through the open brick arch that granted access to the cooking surface within. It was mesmerizing. Soothing. You could get lost in it if you let yourself. It was strange – she thought she felt bubbles popping gently in her head, too, as if the blood throbbing in her temples was carbonated like a soda somehow. It had an almost hypnotic feel to it, enough so that she was willing to bear the radiant heat of the oven to watch it and ensure Akane's meal did not burn.Ranko forced herself to look away from the oven, leaning on the wall to her left as she stole a quick glance up to the digital clock on the side wall. Wait, was that an eight or a three? She blinked twice, looking again. Three. Okay. Just a few more minutes, Akane. In the time it took her to blink, somehow the clock on the wall had ticked forward to a new minute twice. Just another minute. It was almost… almost…Akane sighed, closing her eyes. It was good to relax. Things were finally getting good again, after all the arguments and the volleyball drama and all the other bullshit. There was more trouble on the horizon when she told her family, and the money concerns were worse than ever, but she and Ranko were closer than ever for having walked through the fire and come out the other side. Tonight, she had no worries.At least, not until she heard the bloodcurdling scream coming from the kitchen.Akane rocketed out of her seat, running toward the gap between the main and service bars. Yui got to it first, and the two of them crashed through the saloon door together. They found Ranko sitting on the floor of the kitchen, tears welling in her eyes but not yet escaping them. Hana was already on her knees beside her, cradling her almost-catatonic youngest daughter in her arms. Akane vaulted the counter with ease, and gasped at what she saw. Bright red, angry blisters were already forming in both of her girlfriend's palms. The wooden pizza peel lay a half-meter away, broken lengthwise into three pieces, and the smells of burning cheese and burning flesh poisoned the air."What the hell happened?!" Akane knelt next to Hana, looking her lover over.Ranko was still shaking too badly to speak, so overwhelming was her agony. The bar's matriarch looked up at Akane, then at Yui, a desperate worry in her eyes. "She just fell over on her feet and hit the damned oven! I couldn't catch her in time. She's damned lucky she didn't hit face-first!"Akane reached out, brushing Ranko's hair out of her eyes. Only she out of the three women tending to the girl she loved understood the nature of the Full-Body Cat's Tongue. Hana and Yui had burned themselves before to be sure, but neither could remotely fathom the agony Ranko was experiencing. Of all the sensations the Cat's Tongue amplified, temperature and pain were the worst. It was why there was a girl and not a boy sitting in Hana's arms in the first place right now."Yui, get some cold water?" Akane's eyes were locked on Ranko's. The redhead's pupils were wide and she shook as if she was in shock. As Hana cradled the redhead's shoulders, Akane just watched her, placing her hand on Ranko's leg gently. Come back to me, baby. I know it hurts. We'll fix it.Yui set a yellow plastic mop bucket on the floor at Ranko's feet, and Akane very gently manipulated her girlfriend's wrists, guiding her hands into the frigid water. The shock of the cold stirred her at least, but Ranko howled in pain as the icy liquid sizzled against her scorched palms."Shh, Ranko." Akane winced, hurting on her lover's behalf. "It's okay. We've got you.""Thank you." Ranko spoke weakly, the throbbing pain from her hands competing with the thundering marching band in her skull for attention.Hana squeezed her youngest daughter tight around the shoulders from beside her, careful not to hurt her. "Ranko, I love you, baby, but I'm not asking anymore. Something's got to give, and I mean tonight. You've got to let some things go. You could have killed yourself!"Ranko looked up at Akane, a pleading expression on her face. She couldn't fail. She owed them all too much. She couldn't bear to let them down.Yui spoke up first. "I agree, Ranko. This has gone too far now."Akane leaned forward and kissed Ranko's sweat-glazed forehead. "It's okay, princess. You don't have to prove anything to any of us."Ranko sighed, shaking her head. "But… I can't stop. I just can't. I've gotta graduate, and I've gotta finish the choreography for the Invitational, and the band needs me, and I've gotta…"Nodding, Hana gave her another determined squeeze. "Okay, baby. If that's the way you want it."Yui snapped her head to stare at her mother incredulously. She couldn't believe the woman that built their strange family from nothing with her own two hands, whose resolve was made of tempered steel, would cave so easily.But Hana continued."You can keep your classes. And your homeschool work. Cheerleading too. Housework, band practice, join the circus, whatever else you want." She sighed heavily. This was going to hurt her at least as much as her daughter."But you will not work in this bar or step on that stage out there again."