Was It Worth It?

Summary: Unique pairing. While he watches Lanhua, our favorite crossdresser begins to rethink his choice to become more feminine. Was it worth it to become what he is now? When the price is high, you're not supposed to buy it...but Lady Bat succumbed to paying for it, and now he regrets his choice. Oneshot, slight Lady BatxLanhua

Disclaimer: I don't own Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch nor Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pure. If I did, Alala wouldn't be so Tinkerbell-ish - or maybe she wouldn't exist at all, and Caren would have a better seiyuu. Also, Beautiful Wish would be sang more often. I LOVE THAT SONG! Oh yeah, and I don't own Peter Pan. Now, onto the fic.

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Beautiful. Her voice was absolutely enchanting. Lady Bat had secretly watched Lanhua practice everyday now, and it still appealed to him. Her song was one that nobody - well, maybe those pesky mermaid princesses - but nobody else could get sick of it. His eyes ran down her lithe figure and back up. Had it been worth it to become what he was now? He pulled at his skirt, wondering what Lanhua thought of him. Maybe some sort of teammate or rival. But he knew, that since he was a crossdresser, she couldn't possibly think of him the way he thought of her.

"Watashi ni kashizuku kawaii shimobe yo

Kirameku shishuu no hagoromo sazukeyou

Kin to gin no hane mau

Hitoyo no yume no utakata yo

Odori odore! Koyoi wa... hana ni you AGEHA no mai.." Each word was pronounced correctly, each note sung delicately, and the chibi Lanhuas played their instruments flawlessly. She didn't need to practice, but she did, and that modesty drove him crazy. Lanhua was so perfect; to Lady Bat, anyway.

And she wasn't some sort of cartoon character like Alala. Yes, he'd watched Peter Pan through the window of a beach house. And he'd noticed that Alala had many physical attributes in common with the one called 'Tinkerbell'. But Lady Bat wouldn't think of liking Alala in the first place. She wasn't nearly as pretty or intelligent as his butterfly.

But Lanhua...he might as well throw himself into a shark. She was too good for him, she deserved better than him, and she wouldn't like him. He was a crossdresser. And for the first time since he'd made that decision, he regretted it.

He slid down the rock, sighing. And suddenly, a wave of sleek, luminous plum-colored hair slid into view. Oh yeah, he was secretly watching. No more sighing next time, he chastised himself.

Ranfa stood in front of him, signature pose on. Her large butterfly wings and two fans were out, and he swallowed. She certainly wasn't lying when she'd told Hanon she was the prettiest villian...(A/N: I'm using the Cantonese version of Mermaid Melody for this reference, so if it didn't happen in the original, don't wonder where you were at when that happened. ;))

"What are you doing here? Did you need me for something?"

"Nope, I came to see what you were doing. I was bored and didn't feel like getting my ass kicked by those mermaid princesses again." Close call. Good thing being a villian also offered great acting lessons. And a sharp mind to think up excuses.

The butterfly-girl visibly twitched. "If you don't want your ass kicked by them again, you'd be practicing like I was!"

Lady Bat scoffed, secretly glad that the subject had been changed. "Unlike you, I don't need practice for my elegant, beautiful, perfect, alluring, angelic, marvelous, enticing, and exquisite voice," he proclaimed, using every word he'd ever used in his mind to describe Lanhua.

Lanhua stared at him for a moment, then broke out into melodic laughter. "I didn't know you thought so highly of yourself, Lady Bat-sama," she teased, wiping a tear from her cherry-burgundy eyes.

He ran his fingers through his mahogany locks before decisively saying, "That has a ring to it. You wanna keep calling me that, or should I go bug Alala about it?"

She giggled again. "Lady Bat!"

"Okay, I'll go bug Alala about it. You want anything from her while I'm there?"

"Mm...why don't we put her on duty today? I'm too tired to deal with those mermaids, and apparently, you don't want to. Gives her an excuse to hang with her fanboys anyway," Lanhua suggested.

"Of course, ohimesama," he joked, overdramatically bowing with a flourish of his arm before swimming off.

The girl's wings fluttered at little at her being called a princess, and she laughed at the implication that she was bossing people around. Lanhua turned and walked back to her chibis, to practice until Lady Bat would deem her nearly as good as he was. Which will be never, with his ego, she mused wryly, giving the chibis the signal to start again.

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Ha! Go me, with the implied potential of the shipping. Ranfa never refers to him as a crossdresser, and treats him like a normal teammate. ... So much for implied. Now it's been bluntly stated. And yes, Lady Bat is male...I Wiki-ed it.