The Phoenix Saga

Ranko blinked her eyes open, reacclimating to her surroundings after a blissful few hours of dreams. They were so real last night. She could have sworn that Akane…
Her eyes fell on her bedroll, still rolled up tightly on the floor. Why would that be there, unless…
She started to move her arm tentatively, but found she couldn't, as it was being pinned down by the left arm of the person holding her from behind. Holy shit. It was real. Her mind raced through her memories of the evening. Akane had kissed her. What followed were the most awkward ten minutes in recorded human history, followed by Akane helping her out of her costume. She had intended to sleep on the bedroll, but Akane invited her to share the bed. They were both girls, after all, so it was fine. Nothing else had… happened, but it felt nice to be held. It was a chilly morning, and she was grateful for Akane's body warmth against her back in addition to the pink duvet that enveloped them both. She played with the white ribbon that still adorned her braided pigtail, sighing happily. She didn't know what would happen next, but right now, she liked how this felt.
Ranko lay there quiet and still for about twenty minutes before Akane stirred. Akane sat up with a stretch, the pale blue nightshirt she had borrowed from Ranko sliding up her arms and barely exposing her panties. "Good morning."
Ranko rolled over, smiling up at her. "Good morning to you, too." There was a contented glow about her, lying on her back in her yellow nightshirt, her pigtail laying across her chest. "Breakfast?"
Akane shook her head, smiling down at the redhead. "Not right now." She wasn't ready to stop being close just yet, but Ranko sat up in bed next to her, pulling the duvet back up around her waist.
"Akane, about last night…"
Akane blushed. "I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry."
Ranko rested her hand on Akane's, gazing sincerely into her eyes. "I guess, what I wanted to say is, I'm not."
"Y…you're not?"
The redhead shook her head, grateful to no longer sound like a wind chime when she did so. "It was… kind of nice, actually. Just unexpected."
Akane swallowed hard, stammering. "Well, I, ahh, I didn't mean to… I should have…"
Her voice quieted when Ranko laid her index finger across her lips. "Shh. Come here." Ranko removed her finger from Akane's lips, closing her eyes and softly kissing her on the lips.
Akane was smiling when Ranko leaned back out of the kiss. "Well, that was nice."
Ranko nodded. "For me, too." She bit her lip. "So… what does this mean?"
Akane blushed. "I don't know. What do you want it to mean?"
Ranko sighed. "I'm not sure it matters. We both know it can't happen."
Akane rested her hand on the redhead's back. "I'm willing to try if you are, Ranko."
Ranko blinked up at her. "Y…you are?"
A nod and a smile came in reply. "What about you?"
Ranko wrapped her arms around the black-haired girl, squeezing her tightly. Akane hugged back, laughing. "I take it that's a yes?"
Ranko let go, looking her in the face and nodding with a huge smile. "Yes."
Akane smiled brightly, but her expression faded as reality set in. "So, what do we do now? We can't just go back to how things were before, obviously. We're both girls now. Our parents don't even know you're alive."
Ranko laid her head in Akane's lap, sighing. "For now, let's keep it between us. Until we figure out what it all means and what to do. But right now, this minute, I don't care what we call it. Worrying about that is what got us in trouble last time. For now, I just don't want it to end."
Akane took a moment to consider her words, and she was right. She and Ranma had been deemed to be engaged less than two hours after they met, and the pressure it added to their relationship had caused nothing but problems. "You're right. I care about you, you care about me, and the rest will take care of itself."
Ranko sighed. She didn't know how that would ever happen. For weeks now, she had agonized over having developed feelings for Akane just as soon as they had become utterly inactionable. If there was a way, she'd have thought of it already.
"Now, are you going to get off of me so I can go to the bathroom?" Akane poked the redhead gently on her shoulder.
Ranko burrowed closer to her. "Nope. Too cold."
Akane chuckled. "Listen here, you little brat, I'm gonna…"
Her voice devolved into uncontrolled giggling as Ranko began tickling her ribs. "Hey! Stop that, you!" She squirmed, but could not escape Ranko's lightning-quick hands until being ultimately shown mercy a few moments later. The roughhousing caused Ranko's still-damaged hand to ache, but she didn't care much.
Akane stood and walked into the little bathroom, and when she returned, Ranko was sitting up smiling at her. Akane's hair was a chaotic mess and her makeup was long removed. "Yeesh, I'm a wreck."
Ranko shrugged. "Well, I think you're cute. "
Akane blushed. Ranma had never said that to her - quite the opposite, quite often. "Y..you do?"
Ranko nodded emphatically. "Yep. Bed head and all."
Akane brushed her hair down with her fingers, smirking. "You know, you're pretty cute yourself, missy."
Now it was Ranko's turn to blush. In all the times she'd inhabited this feminine form, she couldn't remember a time where she had expressly wanted to be cute. There had been plenty of times where it was advantageous as a means to an end, but never had she wanted it for its own sake. And now, nothing in the world sounded better as long as it came from Akane. If she was going to subject Akane to all of the stress and stigma of being with another girl, she wanted to be worth it. But that brought up another question that darkened her face.
"Is… is that what you want from me?"
Akane looked up from her skirt as she slid it up over her legs. "What do you mean?"
Ranko blushed. This was an awkward subject. "I… how to say this?" She bounced her leg on the bed nervously. "I mean… We're both girls. Nothing's gonna change that now."
Akane nodded. "Yeah, I think we've established that."
Ranko frowned. "That's not what I mean." She swallowed hard. "Like, how do you want me to be?"
Akane swiveled on the bed, wearing just her bra and skirt. "Ran-chan, you're not making sense. I don't understand what you're asking me."
Ranko looked down and off to the side. There was a shame in her voice and on her face that Akane had not seen since Ranko's last night at her house. "Like… Do you expect me to act like a guy again if we're together? I mean, as far as I know, you don't, ya know, like girls. "
Akane cringed. That had to have been hard for her to ask, considering everything. "Ranko, listen to me." She waited to speak further until the redhead lifted her eyes from her hands and met Akane's. "I don't like girls. I don't like most guys, either. But I like you. I expect you to be you. You're still learning who that is right now, and that's okay. I'm not exactly a Disney princess all the time either. You are a girl now, and I have no more right to make you act like a boy than you would have to make me." She leaned over the bed, playing with the ribbon in Ranko's hair. "If you want to be cute, then you be cute. If you want to be a tomboy, then do that. But whatever you do, do it for you, and I'll be happy to be along for the ride."
Ranko smiled. "Thanks, Akane. I think… I think I like where I am right now. I mean, it's a lot. The clothes and the makeup and everything is so much more… complicated… for girls. But I spent the last few years feeling like I couldn't really be a guy and I couldn't really be a girl either. So now I kind of just want to settle into one and do it right, ya know? Feel normal?"
Akane slipped her sweater over her head and stood, opening Ranko's closet and looking back at her with a mischievous grin. "Then I suppose we'd better find my totally normal girlfriend something pretty to wear."