Summary: Hori has been asked to fill in as one of the leading roles in the upcoming play. However, it's a challenging role for both him and Kashima to deal with, considering there's a kiss scene and both of them continually find themselves too flustered to act properly without one or the other getting hurt in some way. Hori and Kashima fluff!

A/N: Here's my one-shot for the Horikashi week 2015, day 3 prompt "star." At this point I'm just late and have come to terms with it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun or any of its characters, this is a fan work.

3. Star

"Why can't you just come on time like a normal person?" Hori sighed as he dragged an almost lifeless Kashima along behind him, away from a group of teary-eyed girls and towards the drama room. When he opened the door he saw the vice president standing in the middle of the room, staring down at a script looking like she was going to cry. He let go of Kashima's arm, depositing her on the floor, and moved over, "What's the matter, Haruna-chan?"

"Sazama-chan broke her leg and we don't have any who can fill in for her this close to the play!" Haruna said sobbing into the script. "We might have to cancel."

"Hori-chan-senpai can do it!" Kashima volunteered as she popped up alongside Hori, grabbing him by the arm and raising his hand for him. "I nominate senpai!" She said cheerfully with a big grin across her face. Despite the fact that he had dealt her quite a blow to the head in the hall, she had sprung back to life immediately at the idea that Hori could play a part in the play. Especially since he'd get to play a girl in the play, which was secretly his dream; well, he'd sort of get to play a girl, considering it was a body swap play. Basically, he'd have to pretend to be a girl in the opening and ending scenes, since during the middle of the play he'd just be acting as a boy who was trying to deal with being in a girl's body. The point was that he'd have to dress like a girl for the play and surely that'd make him happy enough.

Hori pulled his arm back and growled, "Shut up Kashima, it's a girl's role!" He smacked her on the side of the head, but that didn't get rid of the disturbing grin she had on her face.

"She has a point though…you'd be perfect for the role since you memorize lines so fast and have been a good stand in for every role we've needed you for so far." Haruna interrupted. "Besides, you'd mainly be acting as a confused boy in a girl's body. So, to be honest, it's absolutely perfect to have a guy play that role." She said, before dropping to her knees, setting the script down beside her. "Please do it president!" She begged, holding her hands together and bowing. "Please!"

"Yes! Yes! Do it!" Kashima cheered, clenching her fist together and holding it out in front of her. She was playing the role of the girl who swapped into the boy's body. It had been a challenging role for her to get down, because she had to pretend to not be comfortable as the "popular boy" and be weirded out by acting like a boy, obviously something that was totally the opposite of how she was in real life. But, the role had been perfect for her because in the opening of the play and the end of the play she was supposed to pretend to be the boy and act princely. She obviously fit his description far better than any of the other club members did.

"Fine," Hori sighed, shaking his head as he grabbed the script from the ground, "but just because we've put a lot of work into this." He glared over at Kashima, "And you, if you say anything about this, I swear I will send you into next week."

Kashima just smiled and said, "This is going to be fun!" She moved behind Hori so she could look over his shoulder and was scanning over the script as he flipped through it, only to freeze when she remembered there was a kiss scene. Oh no, I forgot about that! She thought, turning extremely red. It was supposed to be a passionate kiss, not some quick thing or a kiss on the hand too.

Wait, there's a kiss in this, isn't there? Hori thought as he flipped towards the end, eyes widening when it was confirmed. Fuck! He thought; his face was turning a deep shade of crimson.

"Anyways," Haruna said as she pulled herself off of the ground and wiped off her uniform, "let's get practicing. I don't think you two will have a problem pulling off the hate part. It's the ending that'll be more challenging." She looked over at the two of them, who were both red faced. It was interesting to see Kashima blushing since it wasn't something she did very often.

Both Kashima and Hori looked up at Haruna and glared at her. She was making fun of the fact that they'd have to kiss.

"Let's get started then," Hori said, forcing himself to calm down. He was very aware that he liked Kashima, but he hadn't wanted her to know that. Not yet anyways.

He's okay with this? Kashima wondered staring at Hori's back as he moved over to the stage. Of course, he's an actor, why wouldn't he be? Plus we can just do a stage kiss. …Yea, he'd just grab my face and cover my lips with his thumbs, right? Besides, who do you think you are, Mikoshiba? This is nothing to be nervous about!

"Kashima, get over here!" Hori called out as he moved to the middle of the stage. "We're going to start with the swap."

"Oh, okay!" Kashima said, nodding and bounding up to the stage. This part was easy. "There you are Hikari," she said, grinning as she leaned up against the background which had lockers painted on it, "were you hiding in the library again?" The story was that her character, Karou, was supposed to have been childhood friends with Hikari and once they entered high school they had a falling out because he had become popular and started acting like he was a hot-shot. Then one day after a fight that led to the two of them almost being expelled from school they ended up wishing on a star that the other would stop being so inconsiderate of the other, causing them to be forced to live life in the other's body for a week.

"W-what does it matter?" Hori stammered as he read Hikari's lines, looking away from Kashima, "W-what are you doing here, Karou? Where's your followers?" These lines are incredibly cheesy, what the hell Nozaki?

"Gone home for the day," Kashima said as she reached out to grab Hori's chin and grinned down at him. She went to speak, but suddenly she felt nervous because she was thinking about the fact that there was a kiss scene again. "Ah, sorry…" she murmured, pulling back from Hori, "I forgot my line." Why is this making me nervous? I kiss people's hands all the time…and I've kissed his before. She wondered, chewing on her lower lip. I've never been nervous before thinking about something like this, so why now?

Hori took a deep breath once Kashima had walked away to grab her script from her bag. God, this will be awkward. He thought to himself as he continued reading through the play. Basically Hikari was supposed to get mad at Karou for treating her like she was one of his fangirls and for leaving her behind when she needed him to be there for her.

"Okay, I got it now," Kashima said as she moved back onto the stage. "Let's continue." She said, taking her place again and they started the scene once more. Once she got the part where she had stopped, she said, "That leaves the two of us alone my delicate flower…"

"Stop it!" Hori shouted, pushing Kashima back. He clenched his fist and held it up in front of him, making a mental note that if he wasn't holding the script his other hand would be doing the same thing. "Stop treating me like all of those stupid girls who follow you like sheep! It's annoying! And you think it makes up for the fact that you ditched me for your new friends or that you left me waiting for you for two hours at the train station on the day that I needed you to be there for me the most?!" He felt awkward at first trying to sound like a girl, but somehow he managed to fall into a voice he felt would fit. "You're a jerk!" He cried, bringing his arm closer and closing his eyes tightly.

"That wasn't my fault!" Kashima called breathlessly, reaching out for his arm. "You know that I didn't leave you there on purpose, you just refused to listen to me explain!"

"Don't touch me!" Hori yanked his arm back and pushed her backwards, into the wooden prop that they were using for a practice trophy case.

Kashima fell backwards into it, hearing it crack open and letting out a cry of pain as something sharp pierced her hand. The real prop was supposed to fall and the fake glass was supposed to break, but not snap in half. This one was supposed to be sturdy enough for them to keep knocking over for rehearsal. A nail had come loose and that was what had gone through her palm. She had pulled it away and began to cradle it with her uninjured hand.

"Shit, are you alright, Kashima?" Hori asked in an uneven voice as he rushed to her side. "Let me see your hand," he said as he forced himself to be calm, gingerly taking it in his own, "I'm so sorry…I didn't realize I pushed you so hard." He said softly, not meeting her eyes. She was supposed to fall backwards into it herself, but he must have used too much force in his shove. He was so used to her being able to take stuff like that that it hadn't even crossed his mind that he might be using too much strength.

"It's okay, senpai." Kashima said shaking her head. There were tears in her eyes, but she wasn't letting herself actually cry. "It wasn't you. I let myself fall backwards too fast, that's all." The prop they were supposed to break was going to be made with candy designed to look like glass so that it would break easily when she fell into it. That design made it so that she didn't have to use too much of her weight and would minimize the chances of her getting hurt. Basically she just had to use enough weight to knock over the frame they would put the "glass" into so that if she didn't break the candy herself it would break when the prop fell. She hadn't even expected the practice prop to break so readily.

"Oh my god, this play is cursed!" Haruna cried as she ran over with the first-aid kit. "Are you okay, Kashima?" She asked, watching as Hori took the kit from her hands.

"Aside from my hand I'm fine." Kashima replied, giving her a reassuring smile despite the fact that she wanted to cry from the pain. That nail had been pretty thick. Luckily the nail hadn't stayed in her hand, although she felt like there was definitely something in there still. Maybe it was her imagination, considering her entire hand was throbbing and shooting pain was going up her arm.

Hori grabbed antiseptic spray and said, "This is going to burn." He sprayed her hand and watched her wince, then very loosely wrapped a cloth bandage around it. The nurse would want to take a better look at it, so he didn't bother with gauze; especially because he didn't want to risk pushing anything further into her hand if there was something he hadn't seen. "You had a tetanus recently, right?" It was a requirement to be up-to-date on your shots for the school, but you could never be too sure.

"Yea." Kashima replied with a nod. She was still holding back tears.

"Okay that's good. Let's get you to the nurse now." Hori said, bringing her up to her feet. He looked over at Haruna and said, "Have the extras practice with stand-ins for me and Kashima right now and I'll tell you what's going on after the nurse looks at her hand."

"Senpai, you can go home," Kashima said as she glanced over at Hori, "you don't have to wait with me here." They had gone to the hospital since it seemed that a piece of the nail had broken off in Kashima's hand and she needed it to be removed. They had been there forever, just waiting in an examination room. Her hand wasn't even bleeding now, but she knew she'd need stitches once they removed the nail.

"This is my fault to begin with and besides, they haven't been able to contact your parents." Hori replied, shifting so he was crossing his left arm over the right one now and doing the same with his legs.

"I told you, I fell into it. You barely pushed me." Kashima replied, frowning. "And my parents are probably still on their plane." They were going to America for the wedding of one of their college friends.

"I understand that part…" Hori said shaking his head. "It's the stupid prop. I should have made it instead of letting one of the first years work on it." How could he have been so careless? He always worked on things that Kashima was going to be using if she had to stand on them or if there was a chance that she'd get hurt if they broke, even if they were just for practice.

"That doesn't make it your fault." Kashima shook her head and she shifted a bit on the examination table. Her legs were falling asleep. "Besides, don't you have homework or something?"

"Don't worry about that…how are you going to do yours though, that's the hand you write with isn't it?" Hori asked, nodding towards her hand.

"Yea, I'll figure something out." Kashima replied with a shrug. "I'm glad I can still do the play though. Haruna-senpai would lose her mind trying to come up with someone to play Karou."

Hori chuckled. "I'm sure she's at home crying about how this play is cursed." Then he remembered he shouldn't be laughing, because it was his fault Kashima was here. "How about this…" Hori began as he grabbed her bag and pulled out the folder he knew she put her homework in. "You tell me what you'd write. You'll just have to explain to the teachers why it's not your handwriting."

"Okay," Kashima said, nodding, "let's start with English then…are you good at spelling in English?"

"Pretty decent," Hori said getting up and moving over, getting up onto the examination table and sitting beside her, "Just tell me if I'm doing something you wouldn't do."

"Okay, we only have to do the back page." Kashima said, reaching over with her uninjured hand and flipping the paper over. She brushed his hand a bit when she did so and blushed. Do I like him…? She wondered, looking over at him as he was reading the first question aloud. Her heart was fluttering now that she really looked at him and realized the answer was yes. Yes she did. And she has for awhile now. How didn't I notice that?

"Oh wait," Kashima said pulling herself from her thoughts and suddenly leaning forward. Hori had just turned back to look at her so she smacked her cheek and nose against his face. "Oww..." She murmured, bringing her hand to cover her nose.

"What was that?!" Hori asked, covering his nose as well. He was fairly certain it was bleeding from how hard she had hit him.

"I'm sorry senpai...are you alright?!" Kashima asked, moving her hand away from her nose when she saw blood running down his wrist. She got off of the examination table and grabbed a box of tissues, pulling some out and handing them over. "I'm so sorry! I just meant to tell you that this wasn't due tomorrow and we could start something else..."

"Next time...use your words..." Hori said, taking the tissues from her and pressing them to his nose. He used his other hand to grab another tissue and wipe the blood from his arm. "At least we're in the emergency room already...not that I think this is that serious."

"I'm sorry senpai!" Kashima cried, bowing her head some. She heard the door open and a nurse came in.

The nurse just stared for a moment, taking in Kashima's bandaged hand and Hori's bloody nose, and then said, "Which one of you is actually the patient?"

"Man, we were there an awfully long time." Hori remarked as they headed up from the subway to the street. He opened his umbrella and moved closer to Kashima so that she'd be covered too.

"Are you really going to walk to my house with me?" Kashima asked, looking over at Hori. "I'll be fine on my own." She was blushing a tiny bit, glad for the cover of darkness now. It was harder to hide her embarrassment now that she realized how she really felt. It was so easy to be calm and collected when you weren't actually crushing on the people you were flirting with.

"It's pretty late; I'd feel better if I did. Besides, it's been pouring all day and you didn't bring an umbrella." Hori replied looking up at her and giving her a small smile. He felt his phone go off and pulled it out, looking down at the texts. Oh right, Nozaki. He was supposed to help him with backgrounds tonight. He quickly texted him back, Sorry, something came up. I'll come tomorrow.

If the trains are running tomorrow. It seems there's flooding in some areas. But we have time. Nozaki replied back.

"That your parents?" Kashima wondered, stifling a yawn.

"No. My parents are asleep…they think I'm at Nozaki's. I sort of forgot about them." Hori replied shaking his head and yawning as well. He replied to Nozaki real quick and then put his phone away.

"Stay at my house," Kashima offered as they turned a corner.

Hori blushed a bit, "I don't think so…"

"Why not? You can sleep in the living room. My sister is with our grandparents, so no one will even know you were there if that's what you're worried about." Kashima replied, glancing over at him. "And the rain seems to be picking up."

"Somehow that makes it sound worse…" Hori replied shaking his head. He was so tired though and he figured he'd have to get a taxi, since the trains would probably stop running soon, so it honestly didn't seem like too bad of an idea. "But I guess you're right." It didn't take them long to reach Kashima's house. Once they were inside, Hori took his shoes off, slid on a pair of slippers, and followed her into the rest of the house. He had been there a few times, mainly to yell at her for going home instead of going to drama club, but also to bring her work when she had missed school. Mikoshiba would have done it, but he had stopped him and offered to do it as an excuse to see her.

"Are you hungry?" Kashima asked as she turned on the lights. "I have some leftover stew from last night."

"That sounds good," Hori said, stifling a yawn. "So does anything right now though."

"Wait in the living room and I'll bring something out." Kashima said, trying not to yawn from watching him yawn. "You can turn on the tv."

Hori headed into the living room, sitting down on the couch. He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, switching to the news. "Oh hey, schools are closed," he called out when he saw the banner at the bottom of the screen, "I think ours might be one of them." Just as he had said it he got a text and looked down at it, chuckling.

THIS IS AWFUL! SCHOOL IS CLOSED TOMORROW! HOW WILL WE PRACTICE?! Haruna had texted, followed by a slew of crying emojis, and he imagined she was lying on her bedroom floor in a pool of tears. Or on her computer trying to find the superintendents number so she could tell them they couldn't close the school in an angry worded e-mail.

"Looks like it is," he corrected, looking up as Kashima returned.

"That's good. Now you don't have to do homework." Kashima said as she handed him a mug of hot chocolate. "The stew should be done heating up in a couple minutes." She said as she moved back into the kitchen and got her mug, since she couldn't carry two with an injured hand.

"Haruna-chan is freaking out." Hori said when she returned laughing before taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "Though I guess she does have a point, considering we need to practice…or at least I do."

"Well, we can practice here." Kashima suggested, setting her drink down and sitting down. "I mean, we have the most parts anyways. The others should be okay missing a day or two of practice."

"True." Hori agreed, setting his drink down as well. He was more awake now that they weren't just sitting around in the emergency room or walking in the dark while it was raining. "Want to go over some lines now since today was sort of wasted?" He thought about it for a second and realized he left his script at school. "Oh wait, my script is in the drama room..."

"We can use mine." Kashima said, getting up. She went to the entryway and grabbed her backpack, taking out her script. Once she returned she said, "I have my lines memorized so you can use my script." She handed him the script.

Hori took the booklet and opened it, seeing her notes neatly printed in the margins and areas she had highlighted and underlined. Hikari's part had some lines underlined, with notes on what she should be doing while she listened to her talk on the side. "Did you really write "stare at her boobs" here?"

"Huh?" Kashima asked, blinking and grabbing the script. "I didn't write that, Seo did." She shook her head. "I was asking her what she thought I should do to make it seem like I don't understand how men act, since this is where I'm Hikari in Karou's body."

"Ah right…that makes more sense." Hori replied, thinking about how crude she could be sometimes according to what Wakamatsu told him and the few experiences he had of being near her. "I guess I should ask Nozaki, Wakamatsu, and Mami…koshiba what they think it's like being a girl." Hori said, thinking about how sometimes they were just so far off base when it came to thinking like a girl. It was a wonder Nozaki managed to write a successful shoujo manga in the first place.

"Mikoshiba will give you horrible answers. Go for it." Kashima said, laughing. She heard the timer go off in the kitchen and got up. "Find a spot you want to start." She said as she headed off into the kitchen.

"Will you just stop?!" Hori shouted, grabbing Kashima by the arm. They were rehearsing the ending of the play now and at this point Hikari and Karou were arguing after Karou had confronted Hikari about how awful her home life had become. He felt awful and was upset about how she hadn't confided in him when things had started to get bad, before they had their falling out. Hikari had told him it was none of his business and tried to leave. "Stop trying to run away and listen to me!" He said, spinning her towards him. "Had I known any of those things, do you think I would have let our friendship fall apart so easily?"

"Stop it! Stop it!" Kashima shouted back, trying to yank her arm free. "You're just trying to get me to listen to you by playing up the prince act! It's not so charming in my body though, so it won't work on me!"

"I'm not!" Hori said, moving closer. "You were my best friend in middle school and then I was stupid. I pushed you away by acting like someone I'm not for popularity and I realize that now. But I'm not going to let you go now, Hikari…" He placed a hand on Kashima's cheek and said, "I love you. So don't go."

Kashima froze, forgetting her lines. She was supposed to yell at him and tell him something about how she didn't believe him. Instead she just stared down at him.

"Kashima, your lines," Hori reminded her, though he honestly had no idea what she was supposed to say. He just knew it was something. The kiss was still a couple seconds away.

"R-right…" Kashima stammered, nodding. She pushed him back and quickly turned away, "I don't believe a word you're saying!" That wasn't her lines, but improvising worked too.

"It's true!" Hori said, moving in front of her and grabbing her uninjured hand. "I always have. I'm just an idiot who wouldn't admit to it." He went to spin her around, only to realize she was slipping on the script he had set on the floor. He caught her and held her there for a second and stared at her. Without thinking he leaned in to kiss her.

Kashima's eyes widened and for a second she didn't know what to think. Was this real? Was this acting? Then she decided whatever it was, she liked it and leaned into the kiss.

After a moment they pulled apart and Hori went to move away, realizing what had just happened. That was just acting. He thought, but before he could fully turn away Kashima had grabbed his tie and pulled him back into a kiss. Or maybe not… He brought both hands to her face and deepened the kiss. When they broke apart he said, "Want to try that scene again?"

"Only if we can skip to the end." Kashima said, laughing.

"Whatever you want," Hori replied with a smile. He took her hand and brought her over to the couch, sitting down beside her. He was about to lean in to kiss her again when the power went out and instead they just bumped heads. "Ouch…" He murmured, placing a hand on his forehead.

"Hey now, we need to be more careful. We can't have both stars of the play injured now can we?" Kashima said chuckling, rubbing her own head as she got up, opening the curtains. The lightning storm outside should provide them enough light to not trip over each other and die. She sat back down beside him and said. "Lightning is my favorite."

"I like it too." Hori replied, bringing an arm around her. "As long as neither of us gets struck by it at the rate we're going today." He said chuckling and leaned in to kiss her again.

FIN

A/N: I had a nail go through my hand once. Let me tell you, it hurts. Badly. Very badly.