The Gingerbread House

by kawaii-witch181

A/N: A birthday fic for Tezuka-buchou! I can't think of any other ideas, so I just settled with a fairy tale like.. ^^ Btw, italic font is the story being told. Just imagine them in chibi form (especially Fuji in the female chibi form, when the story starts). And just ignore the honorifics.

Sei no! Otanjoubi Omedetto Gozaimasu, Tezuka Kunimitsu-kun!

Prince of Tennis © Konomi Takeshi

~oOo~

Ding Dong!

The sound of the school bell ringing was heard in the whole school of Seigaku Kindergarten, students went inside their classrooms…but they don't remain quiet.

Some are scribbling in the board, drawing stick figures in a paper and sushi logos, doing paper airplanes and the likes, muttering lowly, sitting stoically, smiling innocently, starting a fight from a simple cause, sleeping, worriedly worrying, waiting for their sensei to arrive, talking animatedly, and some are just minding their own businesses.

An ordinary scenario, indeed. For a kindergarten, that is.

"Settle down class." Their patient sensei finally arrived.

"Hai! Sensei, Ohayou!" They obediently sat down and greeted.

A hand was then raised.

"Yes, Momo-kun?" Sato-sensei asked.

"It's Tezuka-buchou's birthday today, sensei!"

"It is? Then, let's sing him a happy birthday, ne"

Otanjoubi Omedetto!
Otanjoubi Omedetto,
Otanjoubi, Otanjoubi Tezuka!
Otanjoubi Omedetou!

"Arigatou, minna." A small smile appeared on Tezuka's face.

"Maa, sensei…you can read us a story for Tezuka's gift." Oishi suggested.

"Very well then, hmm…let's have the Hansel and Gretel."

"Is it the one with the gingerbread house?" Momo asked.

"All you think about is food, fssshhh" Kaidoh said to him.

"Nani, mamushi? You're picking a fight?"

"Bring it on!"

"Stop it! Sensei might let us drink Inui's concoction ~nya!" Eiji yelled, causing everyone to shudder. The two eventually shut up.

"Let's start the story then."

Once upon a time a very poor woodcutter lived in a tiny cottage in the forest with his two children. Sato-sensei began.

"Ne, sensei…to make things fun why don't we make it like a play?" Fuji said

"Eh? A play? What is a play?" Everyone repeated.

"A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading." Inui explained while reading his notebook.

"?" They stared blankly at Inui.

"In simple words, it is just like acting." Fuji furthered explained.

"Ah! Sugoi, Fuji/Fuji-senpai! You're really a tensai!" Everyone said.

"They called Fuji tensai again, though I have the most wonderful explanation." Inui muttered.

"But we don't understand any of it, Inui-senpai. Not a single one of your explanation. It's so complicated." Ryoma said, facing him, and then went back to drinking his ponta.

"Echizen! It's bad for our health to drink soda!" Oishi reminded.

"Whatever." The tennis prince rolled his eyes, going back to drinking his ponta. Oishi is trying to get the ponta out of Ryoma's hands but the prince just let it out of his reach. Seeing Oishi is about to get the soda can, Eiji, thinking that he is playing with Ryoma, also reached for it, thus, with the added weight, Ryoma's chair tumbled backwards, resulting the three of them to get soaked by the sticky soda juice.

"Uhhh…"

Sato-sensei ordered them to go to the infirmary immediately for them to change clothes. After a few minutes, the three returned.

"Anyway, let's get back to the story. I made twists so you'll like the story more, ne?" Sato-sensei winked and resumed in telling the story.

Once upon a time a very poor woodcutter in the name of Taka-san, lived in a tiny cottage in a forest with his two children, Tezuka and Syuu (they are twins). His second wife kept on trying to persuade her husband to abandon his children in the forest.

"Ne, I don't think Fuji and Tezuka can be twins! –laughs-" commented Eiji.

"Sou da ne…They are complete opposite, Fuji-senpai is such a sadist and Tezuka-buchou is stoic." Momo joined in laughter.

Tezuka glared at them, "Shut up, or you'll run laps around the classroom!"

The two zipped their mouth shup.

"Maa, Tezuka-kun, you shouldn't do that even if you are the class president..Anyway, let's go back to the story." Their teacher said.

"We must get rid of the two brats, we don't have enough food! Just take them very far away from here and leave them, that way they'll never find their way home again." She said.

Poor Taka-san doesn't know what to do. This time, Tezuka and Syuu heard their conversation. Syuu cried and cried. Her twin brother, Tezuka comforted her.

"Don't worry, if otou-san will leave us in the forest, I'll make sure that we'll find our way back." Tezuka assured his younger sister. He went outside and he put small white pebbles in his pocket. Syuu also picked some.

As the dawn came, the woodcutter led the two in the forest. As they went further into the depths of trees, they noticed that their father is gone. He really left them behind!

Night fell but their father didn't return.

"What should we do onii-chan? Otou-chan wouldn't come back for us. And I'm getting hungry, too." Syuu wondered.

"Don't worry we'll surely find our way back home, I left trails." Tezuka replied.

"Baka onii-chan! You forgot to leave a trail!" Syuu said, looking back to where they had walked previously.

"Eh! Gomen, Syuu. I was too caught up in watching every tree." Tezuka made up an excuse.

/ What an excuse onii-chan! I will not believe that. We come here often, ya know. / Syuu thought.

"Hai, hai. Let's just find our way home, then"

The whole class laughed.

As the two walked, they saw a strange cottage in the middle of a glade. Out of curiosity, they went near it. They found out that it was a gingerbread house!

"This is chocolate!" gasped Tezuka as he broke a lump of plaster from the wall.

"And this is icing!" exclaimed Syuu, putting another piece of wall in her mouth. Starving but delighted, the children began to eat pieces of candy that is broken off the cottage.

"Sugee! I wanna see a gingerbread house, too!" someone said, soon all of them agreed, Sato-sensei just continued the story.

"Isn't this delicious, onii-chan?" Syuu commented.

"We'll stay here, that way we'll never get hungry." Tezuka declared, munching a bit of nougat. The two of them were just about to try a piece of the biscuit door when it suddenly swung open.

"Maa, aren't you children having a sweet tooth? Come in! Come in! There's more inside." Said an old man with square glasses, he led them inside.

"Saa, I'm interested on what color his eyes is, ne onii-chan?" Syuu whispered. Tezuka looked around.

"Psssttt…Pssttt…"

The twins looked around but found nothing except the old man, doing something in a pot.

"Over here!"

They looked around again, this time they settled their eyes on the table nearby. A pink cat is resting above it, licking its paws; a snake on a chair with a green bandanna; and a peach with eyes and mouth.

"Finally you noticed us ~nya!" said the pink cat.

"Ne, Syuu…The cat just talked right?" Tezuka asked, blinking.

"Ah, hai onii-chan…I think everything here is magical?" Syuu said, unsurely.

"Iiya, not everyone here is magical. Only the three of us." The peach explained.

"Fssshh…That witch cursed us." The Snake added.

"Why do you have a green bandanna?" Tezuka asked randomly.

"That so rude nya~!" The cat said.

"Sou, sou." The peach agreed.

"Ne, the cat is similar to Eiji-senpai! And the Snake is like Mamushi complete with the bandanna!." Momo said, laughing.

"And you're the talking peach, porcupine!" Kaidoh added. The two fought again. Everyone just ignored them, they got tired on making them stop.

The Snake didn't answer.

"Saa, do you have a name?" Syuu suddenly asked.

"Watashi wa Neiji nya~!" The cat introduce himself, standing on two feet, and making a bow.

The girls from the class squealed. "Kawaii~!"

"You can call me Momo." The peach jumped up and down.

Again, the girls squealed. "Kawaii~!"

"It has the same name as you Momo-senpai! So you're a peach, after all." Ryoma smirked.

"Ryoma-kun, hidoi." Sakuno said.

"Ryuzaki-chan is right Echizen. Though Momo really means peach." Momo said, then began thinking deeply, mumbling about 'peach' and stuffs.

"Kaishi" The snake hissed.

"I'm Tezuka. Nice meeting you."

"Watashi wa Syuu –smiles-"

"Since, we have introduced ourselves. You should get out of here. That witch will make you one of his ingredients to the juice he's making." Momo warned.

Syuu and Tezuka looked at the old man.

"That old man is a witch? But witches should be women, right? And why does he wear that none-see through glasses?" Tezuka wondered. The others just shrugged.

The old man turned around. "The juice is almost ready, I just need you two to mix with it." And went back in stirring the concoction, while taking glances to a nearby recipe notebook.

"Saa, he's not that scary for a witch." Syuu suddenly said, then went to the old man.

"C-chotto!"

Syuu just pushed the witch inside the cauldron. And thus, resulting to witch's death.

/ Even at this story, Fuji/Fuji-senpai is such a sadist. / The regulars and the ichinen trio thought.

"Eeeeh?" All of them yelled.

"There, he's dead…The curse might now be lifted, ne?" Syuu smiled innocently.

"You've got one hell of a sister Tezuka nya~!" Neiji shivered.

A bright, glowing white light engulfed Neiji, Momo, and Kaishi. Syuu and Tezuka covered their eyes, when they opened them, the three 'magical animals' were now humans.

"Yay! We're human again nya~!" Neiji said.

"Hai, demo you should stop saying 'nya' by now, onii-chan." Momo reminded her.

"Hehe, I can't…It has been a habit nya~! Habits die hard." Neiji winked.

"We're forgetting something." Kaishi said.

"Sou dane…Sei no!" Neiji agreed.

"ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU, TEZUKA-KUN AND SYUU-CHAN!" They all said in unison..

"As a gratitude of thanks, we'll give you some gold coins and some sweets." Momo said, all three of them, put the gold coins and sweets in a brown bag and gave them to the twins. The twins gladly accepted them.

"We have to go now, arigatou, ne…" Tezuka bid goodbye.

"Sou ne, arigatou! I hope me, and onii-chan will see you again! Ja ne!" Syuu said, then bowed…and then run ahead to catch up with her Tezuka-nii.

~oOo~

.-In the woods-.

"How do we find our way home onii-chan?" Syuu asked.

A man holding an axe passes by in front of the twins. His daughter was beside him. He stopped walking when he noticed the twins.

/ He has weird hair. / The twins thought.

"What are you kids doing here in the forest, alone?" He asked.

"We're finding our way home, Dansei-san." Tezuka replied.

"Ah, socca. What is the name of your father? I might know where he live."

"Kimura Takahashi, though people call him Taka-san."Syuu answered.

"Ah! Taka-san is it! Just follow that path, and then turn right. You'll eventually see your house."

"Otou-san, let's hurry up! Okaa-san is waiting.." His daughter said.

The twins looked at his daughter, she wore her hair in a twin braid and she's hugging a doll. A male doll to be exact. The doll? Oh..just imagine Ryoma in a doll form, wearing a winter outfit, complete with the scarf and the white fila cap, of course.

"Hehe, Sakuno-chan is the girl, and the doll is ochibi!" Eiji teased.

The two mentioned blushed, though Ryoma hid it with his ever-so-present white cap.

"Arigatou." Both Tezuka and Syuu bowed.

The father and daughter then resumed on their trip. The twins followed the man's directions. Soon, they were in front of their house. Their father went outside.

"Tezuka! Syuu! Yokatta! You finally found your way home! I-I'm really sorry that I left you in the forest all alone..Hontou ni Gomenasai." Taka-san apologized, tears are visible.

"Your stepmother died, few days ago.. Stay with me again, Tezuka, Syuu." He added.

"Mochiron, Otou-chan!" Syuu cheerfully agreed, hugging her father.

"Promise to don't left us again ne, Otou-chan." Tezuka said.

Taka-san smiled and nodded and then, hug both of them.

"Look, Otou-chan! We're rich now . . . You'll never have to chop wood again and we have sweets to eat!." Syuu said, opening the brown bag.

Together, they went inside their house and lived happily ever after.

"The End." Sato-sensei finally said.

"Awww, that's so cute sensei!" Some, wiped tears off their eyes.

Ding Dong!

"It's the end of our class now, children. You can have your snack." Sensei said, and took her leave to the classroom.

"Tezuka-buchou! Otanjoubi Omedetto nya~!" Eiji greeted him, and gave him his present.

Soon all of their classmates gave Tezuka their presents, wrapped in colorful paper.

"Arigatou minna!"

That night in Tezuka Kunimitsu's bedroom, lay the presents given to him on his desk:

A tray of sushi plush toy given by Taka (made of cloth and cotton); A tennis racket pillow (given by Eiji); A good story book and a manual for both singles and doubles of tennis given by Oishi; A basket of fruits given by Momo; A bandanna given by Kaidoh (with stitches on it related to tennis,too); A bright green hat given by Tomoka; A booklet given by Inui (inside it are the list of good places for fishing and camping); A tennis key chain (complete with the racket and tennis ball) given by Ryoma; And plush dolls of the regulars, plus sakuno and tomoka (given by Sakuno).

"Kuni-chan! Time for dinner, come down here." His mother called.

"Hai! Just wait a minute kaa-chan." Tezuka said.

He closed the photo album which is given to him by Fuji as his present. He placed it on his desk, too. Their memories and fun moments were captured in each and every photo.

He smiled.

Good friends, I'm really glad I have them.

Tezuka Kunimitsu's bedroom door closed.

.Owari.

~oOo~

A/N: Wanna say sorry for the grammatical and spelling errors, and for the OOC-ness, hehe…Well...Forgive me also, if the b-day song is wrong, I just copy pasted it ok? So yeah, I hope it's correct! ;D

Somehow, the peach, cat, and the snake turned out to be cursed, more like from the story of Beauty and the Beast. I just found myself writing them like that. XD …this fanfic should be like the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale., but my hands have minds of their own. ;D The name Neiji is the combined word of Neko and Eiji. And Kaishi is the combined word of the name Kaidoh and Mamushi. Dansei is another japanese term for man.

~oOo~

Got confused? Meet the Cast!

Tezuka Kunimitsu as Tezuka a.k.a Hansel

Fuji Syuusuke as Syuu a.k.a Gretel

Inui Sadaharu as the Witch

Kikumaru Eiji as the Cat of the Witch a.k.a Neiji

Kaidoh Kaoru as the Snake a.k.a Kaishi

Momoshiro Takeshi as the Talking Peach a.k.a Momo

Oishi Syuichiro as the Woodcutter with the weird hair

Kawamura Takahashi as Hansel & Gretel's father

Ryuzaki Sakuno as the Woodcutter's daughter

Echizen Ryoma as the doll

~oOo~

I just realized I didn't get much reviews to my fics. XD .oh well…it really doesn't matter, as long as I was posting stories right? but!

~Reviews are all welcome! ;D