Phoenix: Reignited Edition

"This is perfect," Mei said with a giggle as she turned her gift over in her hands. It was sky blue, almost the same color as her hair, with pixelated white flowers embroidered onto its nylon body. She pulled open the hook-and-loop closure, examining the internal storage of the small carrying case. "Oh, rad! There's spots for the games and everything!"

Ranko beamed, stealing a quick, victorious glance at Ayako. Toldja she'd like it. "Well, I thought, you keep dropping your Game Boy in the bar, and one of these days, it's gonna break if you don't have something better than your purse to carry it in."

With an emphatic nod that sent the red bows in her long blue pigtails bobbing, Mei reached for the shabby yellow cloth drawstring bag that served as her daily driver purse. "I mean, this is the third one I've had as it is, so, you're totally right!" She pulled the grayish device from her purse, tucking it into the padded main compartment before beginning to connect the periwinkle plastic clips of the shoulder strap to the matching loops on either side of the bag.

"At least she only cracked the screen on the second one," Izumi said, giggling as she sidled back to her spot on the couch between her boyfriend and son, handing Kaito a disposable plastic cup full of eggnog that smelled strongly of cinnamon and rum. "The first one ended up in the freakin' fryer."

"Proof," Yui said with a grin at Mei, "that not everything is better deep-fried. Most things, I'll grant, but…"

Ranko giggled, pulling her knees under her skirt from her seat on the floor next to the sparsely-decorated Christmas tree in the living room of Hana's apartment. She wore the velvet green dress and hat from her Christmas concert, it being the most festive outfit she owned. She nearly froze in it on the short walk from the Phoenix in the dawn hours of Christmas morning, but she wanted to fully embrace the event. I'm having a real Christmas, with a real family. I want them to see just how excited I am. How grateful I am just to get to be a part of it, she thought as the twinkling white lights on the artificial tree sparkled in her blue eyes.

She smiled brightly up at an orange origami bird, made of a heavy construction paper, that rested on one of the lowest branches of the tree. She had made it that morning, at Hana's insistence. It took her four tries, but she wanted it to be flawless. It bore her name, written in romaji lettering like the signatures she'd occasionally give bar patrons, along its belly. Most of the tree was decorated with white swans, but there were eight paper birds of differing colors sprinkled throughout, each with a name written on them. As Hana described it, they were not swans like the white ones, but phoenixes - and each represented a member of their family. Hana's black bird rested near the middle alongside Ayako's green and Kage's gray, while Mei's powder blue and Yui's tan bookended the silver plastic star at the treetop. Izumi's fuschia ornament was flanked by Hoshi's red on the left, and the deep purple one Kaito had been invited to make alongside Ranko that morning on its right. Our little flock. And I get to be a part of it, Ranko mused in wonder. 

So engrossed was she with every detail of the tree that she did not notice the projectile flying at her head. It struck her on the temple, the impact mostly blunted by the overlap of her Santa hat. It didn't matter all that much; even with the power of the Full-Body Cat's Tongue amplifying her every physical sensation, Ranko doubted that the lobbed wad of cerulean wrapping paper would have hurt. "Hey!" She turned, gasping in Mei's direction.

"Well, you're not doing your job, blockhead! Get in the game, here! The youngest girl's always on distribution and trash duty! Let's go!" Mei laughed as Ranko retrieved the wrapping paper from the floor and crammed it down into the bulging black trash bag at her feet. 

"She's enjoying that far too much," Hana said with a laugh in the direction of her eldest daughter. She wore a heavy red plaid pair of flannel pajama pants and a plain black sweatshirt, her hair held back with a simple white headband. 

Ayako nodded, grinning at the redhead seated on the floor. "Can't say as I blame her; she spent three Christmases down there. She was just hoping for a promotion before it ended up being Hoshi's turn." 

"Aww, man, do I have to?" Hoshi whined, looking up from his new Godzilla figurine for the first time in twenty minutes. 

Laughing, Ranko shook her head as she reached behind her for a bulky square package wrapped in a shiny gold foil paper with a pair of large silver bows with long tails that dangled almost all the way to the floor. "Nah, little man - I showed up just in time to spare you. Let's see, this one's for…" She searched the package for a loose bit of wrapping paper that had been folded over itself and taped to the box between the bows. Finding it, she opened it like a tiny book, reading the immaculate calligraphy written within. "Me, from Izzi, Kaito and Hoshi. Aww, you guys! I already got one from you." Indeed, the young redhead was grateful for the heavy violet electric blanket she'd been gifted previously. Man, that heating thing is gonna feel so good when it gets cold tonight, she thought with a toothy grin.

Izumi shrugged, sipping from her cup of eggnog with a satisfied grin on her cheeks. "Well, you need a lot of stuff. Besides, there's three of us. Now, you gonna bitch, or you gonna open it?" 

Needing no further encouragement to tear open the paper with her green gel-coated fingernails over the sound of her sisters' laughter, Ranko extracted a large brown shoebox. It was more square than those she was used to seeing. Okay? Popping a few strips of transparent tape holding the box closed, she removed its lid and the crinkly white tissue paper underneath to reveal a pair of white boots with flat soles. They looked to be about ankle-height, made of a puffy, almost plastic material not unlike Mei's winter coat. The ankle openings were lined with a soft white fur-like material.  

"Hopefully, those'll keep your feet warm," Izumi explained. "Since you're always shivering whenever we go out, Little Miss Frosty."

Yeah, well, the Cat's Tongue is kind of a bitch in ankle-deep snow, Iz, Ranko thought as she excitedly pulled the thin black boot off of her left foot and slipped the corresponding white one on in its place. She stifled a giggle as the soft fur tickled the backs of her calves. Definitely gonna need bigger socks with these. "Oh, wow! Yeah, these are so much better, thanks!" 

After donning the matching boot and putting her black pair in the box in its stead, she returned the box to the second-largest pile under the tree, where she'd been organizing her gifts. Only Hoshi's pile was bigger, as Ranko expected given the inexpensive toys the child had received, and the family's insisting to the boy that half of them had come from Santa Claus himself. 

Ranko blushed as she reached for the next wrapped gift, remembering her own brief encounter with "Santa" at the mall a few days prior. We'll see if you pull that request off, buddy, she thought with a grin as she checked the gift tag on a large package wrapped in green paper dotted with illustrations of red cartoonish elves and reindeer. I wonder what Akane's doing. I hope she's having fun.

"To Ayako and Kage, from Yui," she read aloud before handing the package up to her eldest sister on the loveseat behind her with both hands. "Careful, it's heavy."

Grunting as the weight of the box was transferred into her hands, Ayako pulled it back into her lap. She herself was seated on her new husband's lap, her ankles crossed under the viridian A-line dress she wore. It was printed all over with large red poinsettia blooms. "What do you think it is, babe?"

Kage leaned down and rested his chin on his wife's shoulder, tickling her neck a bit with his stubble and eliciting a bright laugh and a slight squirm from her. "Based on the size and the weight, I'm thinking… a pony."

"A pony?! Okay, Mr. Jirito, no more eggnog for you," Ayako said as she searched for a seam in the wrapping paper big enough to slip her slender fingers under. She tore the paper from the box, revealing a stainless steel slow cooker. "Oh, wow, Yui! This is gonna be so great!" 

The blonde shrugged, looking over at Mei with an air of surprise in her eyes. "Yeah! I hear that kind makes really good… food." Her sister and roommate giggled in response, and Yui hid her face in her hand. You don't gotta make it that obvious you picked it out for me, Mei! Damn, girl!

"Since we have a master bartender here, maybe you could settle a question for me, Yui," Kaito asked with a chuckle. "Does red wine or white go best with food?"

Giggling almost uncontrollably, his wife-to-be turned to him and answered on her sister's behalf. "Definitely wet wine. The very best kind."

"Look here, you little shit, it ain't my fault I've been parked behind the bar for years and never get to go in the kit…" Yui's voice trailed off as the wadded ball of wrapping paper that had been torn from the slow cooker ricocheted off the shoulder of her ivory cable-knit sweater. 

Ranko shoved a large box, almost a meter on a side and wrapped in shiny silver foil by a clearly unpracticed hand, across the hardwood floor toward her sister's feet. Despite its size, it seemed to have very little weight to it. "You wanna focus, sis? We're still gonna be opening presents on Foundation Day at this rate." 

Leaning down to the floor, Yui picked up the box, a curious expression building on her face. "The hell? What's in here, air?" She tore into the paper, letting it fall in a few large shreds to the floor around her ankles and revealing a box labeled as containing four bottles of a popular brand of rum. It had obviously been opened and resealed with clear packing tape.

"Alright, what in the heck could…" The blonde popped the last strip of tape free of the box flaps and it burst open, as if its contents did not fit properly in the box without the support. She peered down into the box, her eyes widening - and watering. "What…"

Reaching down into the large corrugated box, she extracted a plush bottle-nosed dolphin, its dorsal side blue and underside grey. It was soft to the touch and not firmly stuffed, with large, expressive blue eyes made of plastic and a little indentation atop its head to indicate a blowhole. The bartender's jaw fell slack as she lifted it, examining it from every possible angle. "It's… who the hell could have… I never told anybody…" 

She set the plush down on her leg, reaching down for the discarded wrapping paper and searching for the tag. Finding it on the third shred of paper she checked, she lifted her eyes across the floor to her youngest sister, who sat silently, watching her with pride painted across her face. "Ranko, this is…"

The redhead stood from her cross-legged seat on the floor, closing the three-step distance to stand in front of the battered green recliner that Yui occupied. "You know… a very wise woman told me something once: our pasts will never go away, but we can choose not to let them mess with the present."

Yui rocketed out of her seat, the dolphin nearly falling off the armrest of the chair to the floor. She wrapped her arms tight around Ranko's neck, resting her elbows on the shorter girl's shoulders. "I don't know how you even knew, but… Ranko, it's perfect. Thank you."

"No, Yui," Ranko said, her voice muffled as she spoke into the plush sweater sleeve pressed around her. "Thank you. For everything. For showing me there's a way out of the hole I was in when you found me."

The tall blonde sniffled, lowering her head and wiping her damp eyes on the shoulder pad of Ranko's green velvet dress. "I love you, kiddo."

With a happy sigh, Ranko squeezed tight around Yui's waist in return. "I love you too, big sister."

A merry laugh pierced the tender moment, and both women released the hug to turn to Yui's right and face the source. Mei stood from her white plastic folding chair, shaking her head. "Would you girls mind taking it a little easy on the mushy shit? It is way too early to have to redo my makeup."

"It's okay," Yui said, pulling her diminutive sister between herself and Ranko and hugging them both in her arms. The pair almost seemed like children standing next to her, with Yui having nearly thirty centimeters of height advantage over Ranko before the heeled boots she wore, and Ranko herself being a few centimeters taller than her next eldest sister. "It didn't look that good anyway." 

"Heeey!" Mei whacked Yui in the forearm with her left fist, her right arm still draped over Ranko's shoulder. "You didn't say anything before we left the apartment!"

The blonde shrugged, speaking over the laughter of the rest of their haphazard little clan. It all but echoed in the small living room. "You were gonna make us later than we already were, and besides… we're all family here. All of us already knew you're a fucking disaster."

Izumi stood from the couch, stretching her back with a loud vocalization as she reached for the ceiling with clenched fists. "Man, we're gonna have to start earlier next year at this rate! Santa was awfully generous to us again this year. We must've been really good!"

"Or at least, good at it," Hana said in reply, earning a blush and a scoff mid-yawn from Izumi. 

"Mama!" Izumi shook her head, a look of shock on her face. "In front of Hoshi? Really?!"

Yui laughed, throwing her arm over Izumi's shoulders. Ranko had flitted off behind the Christmas tree, leaving her a free side for hugs. "Kiddo's growing up in this family; he's gonna have to get used to it." 

The old barkeep started to stand from her seat next to Kage and Ayako, but Ranko waved her back. "Just a second, Mama. There's one more thing." She emerged from behind the tree, a large, flat package wrapped in paper depicting a mosaic of lit candles in every color and size in her hands. The family's youngest ward handed the final gift to Hana, who eyed it curiously. 

"Well, go on," Ranko urged, a contented smile on her face. "Clearly, everybody's hungry, so…"

Hana tore into the paper, letting it fall to the floor. Her eyes widened as she took in the black-framed canvas painting Ranko and Ayako had selected, a red near-silhouette of a regal-looking phoenix preparing to take flight from its perch against the backdrop of a rising sun. 

Ranko reached down, helping tear the paper from the last corner of the unwieldy gift so Hana could see it in full. "I figured, for your office? Give it a little more life, ya know?"

"I think it's beautiful, Ranko," Hana said, starting to set the frame down on the floor to stand. 

"Hey, Mama?" Mei motioned to the frame, wagging her finger at it. "There's something written on the back."

As Ranko looked on, beaming with pride, Hana hefted the frame back into her hands. She turned it over in her lap, beginning to read the characters aloud. The characters were written in a sloppy but careful hand in silver marker to allow them to stand out against the black lacquered frame. 

"For the woman who made a bar a home, and made a bunch of strangers a family," she said in a quavering voice. 

* * *

"Look out!" 

Mei ducked her head, not that she needed the extra clearance as a wooden tray passed harmlessly over her head in Ayako's hand. "Low bridge!" she exclaimed with a giggle.

Raising her voice over the loud mechanical whirring sound that filled the apartment's tiny kitchen, Hana rested her hand on Izumi's back to alert her daughter to her presence. "How we looking on the potatoes?"

Pausing the old, industrial green stand mixer to quell the racket, Izumi looked back over her shoulder with a smile. "Five more minutes, tops? Just trying to get the last few lumps out."

"Mmph. Needs more butter," Mei declared as she swallowed, pulling her finger back out of her mouth. 

Blinking down at the narrow trench that had been swiped through the mashed potatoes in the mixing bowl, Izumi shot a glare over at her little sister. "Mei Hotoro! You little…" The brunette sighed, chuckling with a defeated shake of her head. "Get me the butter." 

"I got it," Ranko said, darting off to retrieve a red ceramic dish that had already been carried into the living room. There, Hana's small dining table and two folding tables retrieved from the Phoenix had been butted end-to-end and covered with holly red tablecloths to create enough seating for nine people. There were four chairs to each side, with a place of honor for Hana on the table's far short side. As befits the head of her clan, Ranko thought with an easy smile. 

She paused for a moment in the narrow archway between the living room and kitchen, watching the chaos as the meal came together. Ayako stood at an electric frying pan, dropping the last few drumsticks of raw chicken into sizzling peanut oil. She wore a red full apron styled to look like a winter dress, as if it were of the same design as Santa Claus' signature suit, with a thin fringe of white lace dangling from the hem. Mei hovered over the small butcher block island, filling dozens of five-centimeter pie crusts with a bright green mixture from a bulging pastry bag. Izumi continued coaxing the potatoes into the path of the mixer's twin beaters with a plastic spatula. Hana had lined up a series of stem glasses on one edge of the countertop, and was bouncing a chilled bottle of fragrant red wine over them in sequence. 

Ranko turned her gaze back to the living room, where Kaito and Kage sat on the couch, watching a pop music performance from a popular girl group on Hana's small television. The concert was being broadcast live from an amphitheater in downtown Shibuya. Ranko recognized the venue. She'd slept huddled behind the speakers on the concrete stage one night in October, when a torrential rain had forced her to take shelter under the overhang protecting the audio equipment from the elements. Hoshi sat on the floor at his soon-to-be stepfather's feet, surrounded by his new action figures, seemingly oblivious to all the commotion surrounding him.

"Shit," Yui cursed under her breath, turning off her sister's portable video game device after losing her final life as quickly as she had the previous two. She slipped it back into Mei's new carrying case, returning it to its place hanging off the back of the threadbare green recliner in the living room. She glanced back up at the television as the idol group's song ended. With a gesture toward the screen, she turned her gaze up toward her youngest sister. "Who knows, Ran-chan? Maybe next year, we're all gonna be sittin' here watching you up there."

A tinny metallic clatter rang out behind Ranko, coming from the direction of the kitchen. The young singer turned to seek its source, finding Mei dropping to her knees. Mei began to wipe a bit of her lime meringue from the pale green tiled floor with an old shred of yellowing bath towel that had been cut into a size more befitting a dishrag. A broken pie crust lay a few centimeters away, where it had fallen from the counter and landed upside-down. 

"Hot chicken!" Ayako yelled as she rescued the last breaded drumstick from the crackling hot oil in her electric frying pan with a pair of long aluminum tongs.

"Mm! Save me a thigh," Hana called back in reply, rushing to respond as she swallowed the mouthful of wine she'd drunk directly from the now-empty bottle owing to it not fitting in any of the glasses arrayed in front of her. 

"We know, Mama! You always want the dark meat," Mei shouted as she rose from the floor, tossing the larger pieces of the graham cracker pie crust into a waiting plastic trash receptacle on the floor next to the butcher's block.

"Hey, Ranko?!" Izumi looked back over her shoulder from the mixer, urgency in her eyes. "Where the heck's my butter?!"

Crap, Ranko thought, stirring from her looking down at the butter dish still in her hand. Despite having been caught slacking in her responsibility, she couldn't help but linger in place for one last moment to soak in the scene.

It's absolute chaos, Ranko mused as she watched her benefactors finalize their preparations. It's a disorganized, wild, weird-ass mess from one end to the other. This whole thing has absolutely no business working. 

She beamed brightly, watching as Ayako scolded Mei for pilfering a steamed pod of edamame with her fingers. 

But it does. 

Hana whizzed past her youngest charge, beginning to distribute wine glasses around the long table. Ranko heard her say something in the periphery of her consciousness, probably calling Yui and the boys to the table, but paid it no mind. She watched, almost enthralled, as Ayako, Mei and Izumi laughed together in the kitchen, with Ayako wagging a long pod of edamame in Mei's face as if scolding a misbehaving puppy. 

They all come from different places. Different backgrounds. And yet… it works, for no other reason than because they decided to make it work. I guess at the end of the day, that's all it really takes. Ranko looked up, a giddy smile still lingering on her cheeks as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder and sought its source.

"Hey, little sis. You gonna come sit down, or what?" Yui asked, gently rumpling the shorter girl's wavy red hair with her hand.

"Not yet, she isn't!" Izumi shouted back. "I still need my damn butter!"

They are a family, Ranko asserted in her mind, blushing at her flightiness as she hurried back into the kitchen to deliver the butter dish. Crazy. Mismatched. Strange. 

And absolutely perfect.

The loud whir of the stand mixer ended, and Izumi pulled the stainless steel bowl from its turntable with a clatter. She tapped each of the two beaters on its rim a few times to free the last few gobs of potatoes caked within them, the loud metallic ping of each strike effectively sounding the dinner bell. Ranko stood transfixed next to the butcher block, watching as Izumi passed her with the bowl, took the seat between her son and fiancé, and handed the bowl to Kaito on her right.

"Ranko! Do you need an engraved invitation? C'mon, honey! It's gonna get cold!" Hana waved to the dazed redhead, pushing the empty folding chair to her left out from under the table with her foot.

They are a family, Ranko repeated in her thoughts as she rounded the table, smiling sweetly to Hana and taking her seat.

And I am one of them.