Hey! It's been quite some time since I started a longer project but this time, the idea just wouldn't leave me alone. I'll try to update about once a week but I can't promise anything – my muse is still as fickle as ever.

Summary: Thanks to his twin Sora, their gambling addict of a cousin and a bit of blackmail Roxas finds himself cross-dressing as a girl and going to the local high school. He has to get through one month without getting busted and at first, it even seems like he'll succeed… if it weren't for that perverted redhead and his idiotic friends.

Pairings: AkuRoku, Zemyx, maybe others

Have fun reading!

Shiruy

Mirage


"Families are about love overcoming emotional torture." – Matt Groening


Now before I explain anything else I have to make one thing clear: This was not my idea. I never wanted to be involved in any of this crap. If I could I would run away and never ever come back.

"Woah, Roxas, Kairi did a really good job on you! If I didn't know who you were I'd feel tempted to ask you out!"

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: I HATE YOU SORA! How could you do this to me, your own brother?! No, not only brother, your own TWIN!

"Aw, how cute! Kairi, look! He's pouting!" Stupid Sora. I was not pouting, I was glaring.

My ex-best friend giggled and nodded while searching through her handbag. I wanted to strangle her. She poked me in the side and smiled at me soothingly. "Don't worry, Roxas, it's just one month. Before you know it it'll be over! And who knows, maybe you'll make new friends!"

I paused in my Sora-the-treacherous-twin-glaring to give her a look. She had the decency to at least try to look like she didn't enjoy my misery way too much.

Sora came over to stand beside me in front of the floor-length mirror and slung an arm over my shoulders. "Just think of what we'll get if you succeed!" He grinned brightly. "I mean, a brand new car! And all you have to do is spend one month as a girl at the local high school! Isn't that great?"

I glared at him. Then at my reflection. Then sighed in resignation. Kairi had stuffed me into a black and white checkered skirt that went just above my knees, a tight black blouse that had two wings spray-painted in white on the back and two belts hung loosely on my hips, one white, one black. The make-up she put on me made my eyes seem impossibly blue and my hair… I have no idea what she did to my hair. I mean, it still kinda looked the same… only not. It was still very short, very blond and very dishevelled but now, it was girl hair.

Why, just why did I get dragged into this again?

"And remember, if you chicken out I'll tell Cloud that you've got a crush o-hmpf!" Oh, yeah. That's why. Blackmail.

I glowered at him over the hand I had clamped over his mouth and growled, "If you value your life you will not mention that in my presence, understood?" He nodded hastily but I could feel him grinning beneath my hand. Bastard.

"Roxas?" I turned around to look at Kairi… and blanched. Oh no. Please, NO! "Which boots do you like better? The red ones or the black ones?" Oh god, why won't somebody just kill me already?


Now, maybe I should explain how I got into this situation in the first place. Like most things, it started with Sora, our cousin Luxord and a bottle of vodka. I'm not exactely sure what led up to it but at one point, my stupid drunken twin blurted out: "Oh come on, cross-dressing as a girl can't be that hard! I bet even Roxas could do it."

There they were. The Magic Words. The words you were never allowed to say in Luxord's presence:

I bet.

By the time I escaped my cute but unbearably clingy cousin Garneth, it was already too late. They just finished writing down the terms of their bet as I came over and any attempt to dissuade them from their great idea was pretty much in vain.

Of course I refused to participate in their hare-brained scheme, although Luxord had promised us a car if I succeeded. Because if I failed, he would be allowed to take photos. Of me. As a girl! And PUBLISH them!! Thanks a lot but if I wanted to commit social suicide I could find faster, less cruel ways just fine on my own.

So I told Sora I wouldn't do it and thought that was it. Disaster avoided. I went to bed and didn't waste another thought on the stupid bet. What a mistake.

Because you see, I have a secret – one that could get me killed. And Sora knows. I never thought he would betray my trust like that, but that's exactely what he did. Bright and early the next day he threw me out of bed and woke me with the words: "Roxas! If you don't win the bet for us I'll tell Cloud that you've got a crush on Leon!"

And so I was doomed. I mean, what would you have done? I like being alive, thank you very much! If Cloud knew that I have a bit of a crush on his boyfriend… well, let's just say I wouldn't live to see my sixteenth birthday. Or the next sunrise, for that matter. My dear older brother is just, err, possessive like that.

Of course, once he had my grudging agreement Sora went all out. He got Kairi to help us with clothes and stuff, enrolled me at the local high school and threatened me on a daily basis to make sure I held up my end of the… deal. (Blackmail! He likes to say 'deal' but it's freaking blackmail!)

And that's how I ended up here in front of the mirror, horrified at the prospect of wearing shoes with three inch soles and mourning the brutal and sudden death of my masculinity. Suddenly a delighted squeal brought me out of my self-pity and I once again stared at Kairi in horror.

"Aren't these just adorable?" She held up black knee-length socks with tiny white skulls on them. "Now we only have to shave your legs and you'll be ready for tomorrow!"

What have I ever done to deserve this?


With a sigh I stared up at the gloomy grey building known as Hollow Bastion High and immediately missed Twilight High. Sure, I lived in Hollow Bastion but for as long as I could remember, Sora and I were going to the boarding school a five hour drive away.

All around me people were greeting each other, groups standing around discussing what they did over spring break and generally just being sociable. I glared at them. Okay, so I felt kind of lonely. (And ridiculous. Very ridiculous.) Damn Sora, most of the time he was a pretty good brother but every now and then he had to go and blackmail me into one of these awkward situations. And while I was stupidly standing around here with no idea where to go, freezing my ass off in the damn wind because I had refused to wear the knee-length socks but couldn't talk Kairi out of the skirt my bastard twin was at Twilight High, probably telling all our friends about my misfortune and laughing at me. Damn him.

Resisting the urge to randomly kick one of these annoyingly happy morons I slowly made my way into the school and started my search for the secretary's office. According to the brochure they had sent me I just had to follow the main hallway, take a right, go up the stairs… and maybe look where I was going.

"Ouch!" Before I was really aware of having bumped into someone I lost my balance and found myself sitting on my beloved bottom in the middle of the hallway. Muttering about stupid shoes and damn schools with way too many hallways, I got up and started to pick up my papers which were scattered everywhere, not acknowledging the guy looming over me.

"Hey, don't you think an apology is in order?"

Having gathered my papers into a messy pile I stood up again and glared at the unfortunate guy that was about to be at the receiving end of my abysmal mood. Tall, muscular, blond hair peaking out from under a black beanie and grinning arrogantly at me. Oh, and he wore an absolutely preposterous coat. How could I possibly forget He was obviously waiting for that apology he wanted and so I smiled innocently and obliged.

"Oh, I'm so sorry you ran into me. How ever could you make it up to me? Oh, I know! How about you do me a favour and fuck off?" The smile that lit up his face turned progressively darker during my little speech until at the end, he was scowling at my unwaveringly sweet smile. Around us, a few people who had stopped to watch laughed at the idiot.

"Now listen up, you little slut", he growled at me and took a step closer. "I haven't seen you around before so that means you're new and this one time can be excused. I'm Seifer and if you like your pretty face the way it is you'll be very nice to me from now on, understood?" I shrugged and gave him a kind of impassive 'what-you-are-still-here?' look.

"I don't care who you are, Sissy, and if you want to rearrange my face you are free to try. But please don't go crying home to your mommy if you break a nail, yeah?" I watched fascinated as his face turned a dark purple I had previously thought impossible for humans to achieve and he snarled. Our spectators who were finally picking up on the fact that this could become violent and maybe it would be better for them not to get involved, quickly scattered. There were still a lot of people in the hallway who now all started to ignore us and rushed on, giving us a wide berth.

I had to give him credit where it was due – he was pretty fast. I had barely time to clutch my papers to stop them from going flying again before he slammed me into one of the lockers lining the hallway, his hand on my neck. He leaned so close that I could feel his breath on my face as he growled threateningly at me.

"Not so brave anymore, huh?" It was kind of difficult, what with lack of air and all, but I maintained my blasé look, raised an eyebrow and answered in a conversational tone. "You know that there's a teacher coming down the hallway, right? If you don't let me go right now I'm going to scream 'rape'."

He let me go before I had finished my sentence and hastily backed away, looking left and right to spot the teacher. A small smile of satisfaction flitted over my face and before Mr. Big and Dumb could understand that there in fact wasn't any teacher nearby I made myself scarce and vanished into the sea of students around us. Hah, gullible dumbass.

Feeling distinctly cheered up I continued on my quest for the secretary's office and lo and behold, it only took me another ten minutes to find it. By then the late bell had sounded and the hallways were practically empty, but whatever. I was new, so I was allowed to be late.

When I entered the office the secretary was on the phone and motioned for me to wait for her to finish. Suffice it to say that in the next ten minutes of standing around doing nothing, my good mood decided to flee the country. I spent my time alternately glaring at the secretary, the clock and my skirt (Oh god, I still can't believe I'm wearing a skirt. And a... no, don't think about it. Just don't think about it.)

I sighed with relief when she finally hung up… but then she had the gall to start dialing another number. My (not really there in the first place) patience gave out and I snapped at her. "Excuse me, Miss, but could you please help me now?"

She gave me an owlish look that indicated she had forgotten all about me and quickly nodded as she noticed my frown. "Ah, yes, yes. What do you need again, sweetie?" I rolled my eyes at the nickname but didn't say anything about it. "I'm a new student."

She lit up at my words and nodded happily. "Oh yes! You must be Roxanne Strife, right? I see you've got your schedule and papers, good. We have a student guide assigned to you, please wait a moment, I'll just have his teacher send him over!" And once again she was on the phone. She must be absolutely in love with that thing.

After a few minutes she hung up and turned to me with a smile. "Alright! Zexion will be here in a moment, he's a very nice boy! I'm sure you'll like him!" Blinking at her apparent enthusiasm I nodded and leaned against the wall, prepared to wait in silence. Unfortunately, the secretary seemed to have a different idea.

"So, my name is Miss Train, but you can call me Yuna! Why did you change school in the middle of the year?" She looked at me with an eager light in her eyes, giving me her full attention and obviously expecting me to tell her my whole life story. It was rather scary. I mentally told that Zexion kid to hurry the fuck up.

"…personal reasons." Her expectant expression didn't change but I refused to elaborate and so the silence grew slightly awkward. After a full two minutes of silently staring at me she finally seemed to give up and clapped her hands. "Anyway! Where did you get that skirt? It's sooo cute and really suits you!"

"…" Another awkward silence followed and she started to look a little uncomfortable under my stony gaze. I felt a bit sorry for her but at the same time, slightly amused.

Finally, after another five extremely long minutes someone deigned to save the secretary and knocked on the door before coming in. I expected to see one of these nice, popular and excessively friendly people that normally volunteered to be student guides but instead… He wore black. Black shoes, black pants, black hoodie, black make-up, even freaking black nail polish. His hair was some kind of silvery blue and hung over the right half of his face, making me wonder why he didn't constantly run into people, and he seized me up with a look of bored indifference that suggested he couldn't care less if someone dropped an anvil on my head as long as I didn't get blood on his clothes.

I immediately liked him.

Then Miss Train recovered her normal bubbly self and interrupted us in our staring. "Hello Zexion! This is Roxanne Strife, our new student! You have the next two periods to show her around and get her books but please be back in class for fourth period, okay? Okay, bye!" And with that she shoved us out the door. Nice lady.

So we stood in the hallway and… looked at each other. He didn't seem to want to be here any more than me. I shrugged and decided that I needed something to cheer me up.

"Wanna go for a coffee?"


Ten minutes later I found myself sitting in a booth in a little café just down the street from the school, sipping at the delightfully black (and scorching hot) brew. I could practically feel my mood rising with the caffeine in my blood.

Across the table sat Zexion, nursing his own cup of liquid life and looking like he was trying to work up the will to talk. He wasn't very successful, I can tell you. Twenty minutes later we still sat in (kinda companionable, now that I think about it) silence and our coffee was almost gone. Resigning myself to being the first to open my mouth I asked, "Can we get my books?"

He blinked at me like he had expected me to spend the rest of our free time just as silent as the first half an hour, then he nodded slowly. "Okay."

By the time fourth period rolled around I had my books, wouldn't get lost trying to find my classrooms and knew where the most important things were. (The whole thing went something like this: Zexion opens door. "Lunch room." Zexion closes door. We walk on. Yeah, I know, all the excitement nearly gave me a heart attack, too.)

I was a bit nervous about stepping into a room full of strangers and introducing myself but then I reminded myself that I was only staying for a month and that friendship was a bad idea for me anyway. I couldn't allow people to get too close to me or they would notice that I was a guy, and that was the last thing I wanted. It was the first and most important term of Sora's and Luxord's stupid bet: If anybody found out about me, it was an automatic failure.

I was surprised as Zexion briefly laid a hand on my shoulder and smiled as he nodded at me before entering the room. Nice to know that the sympathy wasn't completely one-sided.

I steeled myself and took a deep breath before following him into our math class which – like expected – proceeded to stare at me as if someone had pinned a note on me that said 'Exhibit A'. Urks. Luckily the teacher noticed me right away so there was not too much awkwardly standing around on my part.

"You're the new student, right? I'm your math teacher, Mr. Vexen." And that was that. No big introduction like I had feared, he just told me to sit next to a silver haired girl that was too busy glaring at nothing to notice me and then started with his lesson.

I was happy to note that my old class had been further along in the curriculum so I already knew all the stuff Mr. Vexen was trying to teach us. Other than that… nothing happened. I know, I could hardly believe it myself. It actually looked like I could get through this month without getting busted, make Luxord buy me (if Sora really thought I'd be sharing he had another thing coming) a brand new car and then forget this ever happened.

I was happy. I was hopeful. I was, of course, dreadfully wrong.


Poor, poor Roxas. If only he knew what my twisted mind has cooked up for him… (he'd probably run for the hills.) Not a lot happened in the first chapter but I needed to explain blondie's situation before I startet to make things complicated. So don't fear, things WILL get more interesting! I hope.

Next chapter: Zexion talks. Axel makes his glorious appearance and things get progressively worse for Roxas. Demyx is confused.

Feel free to review and tell me what you think should happen, I always need new inspiration seeing as I only have a rough plan about future events.

Thanks for reading,

Shiruy