Phoenix: Reignited Edition Vol. I (Ranma 1/2)

1.18: Lights Out

Ranko glanced up at the clock mounted to the small divider separating the employee area behind the service bar from the entertainment area of the bar, where the pool table and Pac-Man machine were. At Yui's suggestion, she'd made it a point not to sing at the same time each night, so that people had to stay - and drink - longer if they wanted to be sure to catch a show. Alright, it's almost eleven thirty. It's probably about time for another one, she thought, looking herself over in the mirrored wall behind the service bar.

She was wearing a black velvet choker, a birthday gift from Mei, and the silver dragon bracelet Yui had given her. The latter had not been removed from her wrist other than to bathe since she'd received it. She sported a just-shorter-than-knee-length denim pleated skirt, and Izumi had threaded a length of wide red ribbon through its belt loops and tied it off in a small bow on her left hip. The skirt was paired with an orange blouse with a neckline that revealed a bit more of her chest than she was used to, and Ranko found herself glad of the support her new undergarments gave her shape if it was going to be on display. As with most of her shifts since she'd started performing, the outfit was almost entirely borrowed from Izumi's closet.

"Mmm!" Izumi made an urgent noise around the straw in her mouth to get Ranko's attention, waving to her sister as she swallowed and put her glass of soda down on the wooden bar counter. "C'mere a sec, hon."

Izumi pulled the white ribbon out of her sister's disheveled ponytail, eliciting a blush from the smaller girl made all the worse by Ranko's noticing it in the mirror. "You're running around like a chicken with your head cut off in here tonight, and your hair's getting all messed up." As her right hand teased Ranko's hair loosely with her fingers, she reached into her yellow purse under the bar counter and withdrew a small plastic hairbrush. "Don't worry, little sister. I gotcha covered."

The young redhead squirmed as Izumi corralled her hair back into a tidier ponytail, gritting her teeth a bit as her sister pulled it tight on her scalp and began doubling over a hair elastic around it. Does she have to pull so hard? Owwww! Doesn't look bad though, I suppose, Ranko mused, smiling at her reflection as Izumi again tied a large bow around her hair with the length of white satin ribbon she'd removed earlier. She winced slightly at the sight of the golden heart studs decorating her still-sore earlobes. Crap. Gotta remember to clean those again when I get upstairs, she admonished herself. Man, bein' a girl is a lot of freakin' work.

Every shift since her birthday, she'd tried to perform at least two songs on stage, split apart in order to hit the early and the late crowd. She generally didn't even need to be encouraged anymore; in fact, as her confidence grew, the moments in her shifts where she traded in her order pad for a microphone were fast becoming the highlights of her evenings. Already that night, she'd performed Diamonds by Princess Princess - enduring no small amount of Mei's teasing concerning the band name - and Gloria by ZIGGY, but the song Mei had selected for her third act of the evening made her nervous. She dared not tell the bar's de facto entertainment manager why. At least it's pretty simple, she thought hopefully as she willed herself to stop marveling at her reflection. It wasn't the cute outfit or her newly-restyled hair that kept catching her eye; it was still just so foreign to look in a mirror and see a smile.

Picking up her cork board serving tray, she darted between groups of revelers and made her way to table eleven, as she'd noticed their glasses were nearly empty. "Hey, everybody! We still having fun tonight?" The redhead started collecting the depleted glassware, stacking a trio of red plastic baskets that once contained a variety of fried finger foods. "What else can I get you to drink?"

A flurry of requests rose from the six women at the round table, and Ranko jotted everything down on her notepad as quickly as she could with the disposable pen in her left hand. "Okay, I've got some fried pickles, two Dragonfires, a whiskey sour, a Manhattan, a lemon drop shot and a Tequila Sunrise. Did I miss anything?" Receiving confirmation that she had not, Ranko smiled proudly at herself. "Alright! I'll get the girls workin' on this for you right away!"