Disclaimer: I don't own, so don't sue! Though I do own the original characters, Leiko and Furushima.

Warning: same as before, some shounen-ai (though not in this chapter) and some slight gender bending/ cross dressing ( how ever you see it)

An: this scene goes in order, so even when you jump 'worlds' the scene is still going in the same order.

Chapter Three: Scene one, Act Three:

Part one

X

X

"Mr. Higgins, are you there?" Came the high-pitched voice from the center of the room, and after a couple of seconds of no response she asked again, "Mr. Higgins, are you there?"

Still, no response came from the boy as he stood there, his beautiful scarlet hair sprawled over his shoulders, hiding his face from view. "Minamino-san!" an older voice then the first called, "Minamino-san!" It called, finally able to break the boy from his trance.

"Gomennasai Sensei." Kurama muttered as he bowed his head to the woman. "Where were we?"

"Act one, Scene three." She said in a snappish tone.

"Right." The youko said as he picked up his script to bring it to his face. "What is it, Mrs. Pearce?" he said, pretending to turn down the volume on one of the stage props.

"A young women wants to see you, sir." The high-pitched voice sounded again, but this time with a sense of jealousy.

"A young woman!" Kurama exclaimed, putting some effort into this rehearsal, "What does she want? Has she an interesting accent? Let's have her up. Show her up, Mrs. Pearce."

"Very well, Sir. It's for you to say." The girl said, pretending to leave from an office and go fetch another girl.

Kurama turned to the other boy on stage with him and started repeating his lines, "This is rather a bit of luck. I'll show you how I make records. We'll set her talking, and I'll take her down in the Bell's Visible speech; then in Broad Romic; and then we'll get her on the phonograph so that you can turn her on as often as you like with the written transcript before you." He ranted.

"This is the young woman, Sir." The girl said, and next to her was the girl that was supposed to be playing Eliza. Though, Kurama thought, this girl looked nothing like she was supposed to.

He picked up his script again to read the summery one more time. It said that the girl was supposed to be dressed in the ugliest of clothes, and her face not all that appealing. But this girl before him was extremely beautiful and, she knew it. Sure, none of them were dressed in their costumes, but Kurama thought if he had been, she'd be just was beautiful.

"Why this is the girl I jolted down last night. She's no use: I've got all the records I want of the Lisson Grove lingo, and I'm not going to waste another cylinder on it." He said, trying to ignore the stare the other girl was fixing him with, "Be off with you: I don't want you."

"Oh, we are proud!" The girl started, before a earsplitting shrill went through the air, signifying the end of class, and the end of the school day.

"Ok everyone, pay attention! Tomorrow I will only need to see the three main characters for this scene, that means Mianamino-kun, Furushima-kun, and Hoshishita-san, you are the only ones who need to be here." The woman said, addressing everyone, "You are dismissed."

The class piled quickly out of the classroom, tired of the long day they had had. Only a few students remained in the classroom, and among those few was Kurama. He stopped to pick up his bag, lazily putting his book inside. Most of the day he had spent with his thoughts on a certain fire demon and how quickly he had wanted to get home, now it was all he could do to just stand.

"Hello Minamino-Kun." The girl from earlier sang, abandoning the rough voice she had put on before. "I was wondering if you'd like to go and get something to eat?" She asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry Hoshishita-san, but…" He started.

"Please! Call me Leiko!" The girl interrupted quickly.

"Uh, Leiko-san. But I really must be going. Sorry." And with that Kurama slung his bag over his shoulder and headed out of the classroom, desperate to get home.

"What did he say?" said a girl as her and one other ran to Leiko. "What did he say?!"

"He said no." She replied, her eyes hard and determined looking.

"How can he say no!" the other squealed, "No one in their right mind would turn you down!"

"Well, we'll just have to work on that, now won't we?" Hoshishita said, eyes fixed on Kurama's retreating form.

X X

"Oh, aren't we so proud!" Hiei screeched. "He ain't above giving lesson, not him: I heard him say so. We'll, I ain't come here to ask for any compliant; and if my money's not good enough I can go elsewhere."

"Good enough for what?" Minamino asked hotly.

"Good enough for ye-oo. Now you know, don't you. I'm come to 'ave lessons, I am. And to pay for 'em too: make no mistake.

"Well!" the professor said stunned, "What do you expect me to say to you?"

"Well, if you was a gentleman, 'ou might ask me to sit down, I 'hink. Don't I tell 'ou I'm bringing you business?" Hiei said, throwing her head away from the professor.

"Urameshi," he said turning his body towards Colonel Urameshi, "Shall we ask this baggage to sit down, or shall, we throw her out the window?" Minamino said in a uninterested tone.

"Ah-ah-oh-ow-ow-ow-oo!" Hiei said as she ran three feet back, "I won't be called a baggage when I've offered to pay like any lady!"

"What is it you want girl?" Urameshi asked gently.

"I want to be a lady in a flower show stead of selling at the corner of Tottenham Court Road." She spoke timidly, "But they won't take me unless I can talk more genteel. He said he could teach me," Hiei said nodding her head in the direction of the professor, "well, here I am ready to pay him-not asking any favor- and he treats me as if I was dirt. I know what lessons cost as well as you do; and I'm ready to pay."

"How much?" Minamino asked, walking over to the girl.

"Now you're talkin'!" Hiei said triumphantly, "I 'ought you'd come off it when you saw a chance of getting back a bit of what you chucked at me last night."

"Sit down." He said peremptorily.

"Oh, if your going to make a compliment of it…" Hiei started.

"SIT DOWN!" Minamino roared, scaring the girl away from him.

"Sit down, girl. Do as you're told." Mrs. Yukimura said severely.

"What is your name?" the Colonel said kindly, as he walked over to the girl where she was still standing.

"Hiei." She said softly.

"Won't you sit down, Miss Hiei?" he said reaching his hand out to point at the chair in front of the desk.

"Aow, I don't mind if I do." She said coyly, sitting down on the chair.

"How much do you propose to pay me for these lessons?" The professor asked.

"Oh, I know what's right. A lady friend of mine gets French lessons for heighteen pence an hour from a real French gentleman." Hiei said, sitting up sophistically, turning her head to talk eye to eye with the man in front of her, "Well, you wouldn't have the face to ask me the same for teaching me my own language as you would for French; so I won't give more than a shilling. Take it or leave it."

"You know, Urameshi," he said standing from his seat from behind the desk, and walking around, "If you consider a shilling, not as a simple shilling, but as a percentage of this girl's income, it works out as fully equivalent to sixty or seventy pounds from a millionaire." He continued, walking over to the piano and picking a candy from the bowl and popping it in his mouth. "By George, it's the biggest offer I ever had!"

"Sixty pounds!" Hiei said raising from her chair, and screaming loudly, "What are you talkin' about? I never offered you sixty pounds! Where would I get…"

"Oh, Hold your tongue!" Minamino said, trying to get his voice above Hiei's.

"But I ain't got sixty pounds…" She wept loudly.

"Don't cry, you silly girl. Sit down. Nobody is going to touch your money" Mrs. Yukimura said, trying to calm down the hysterical girl.

"Somebody is going to touch you with a broomstick, if you don't stop sniveling. Now, SIT DOWN!" Minamino snapped, pointing at the chair.

"Aooow! One would think you was my father!" Hiei cried, wiping her tears on her sleeve.

"If I decide to teach you, I'll be worse than two fathers to you." He tiredly, "Here-" he stuck his hand into his finely ironed jacket pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, and handed it to the girl.

"What's this for?" She said, her big crimson eyes looking sadly at the man.

"To wipe you eyes. To wipe any part of your face that feels moist. Remember, that's your handkerchief," He said pointing at the cloth he had just given her. "And that's your sleeve," and he pointed to her arm. "Don't mistake the one for the other if you wish to become a lady in a shop."

"Minamino, I'm interested." Urameshi spoke from his corner in the room. "What about your boast that you could pass her off as a duchess at the Embassy Ball? I'll say you're the greatest teacher alive if you can make that good." Slowly he got up from his spot and walked over to the professor and slapped his hands together as if a stroke of genius had occurred. "I'll bet you all the expenses of the experiment you can't do it. And I'll even pay for the lessons."

X X

Kurama sighed as he pushed open the front door of his house, sliding the key back into his pocket. Where had the day gone? And why had it left him so tired? As he walked into the kitchen he saw the house was empty. Normally, the house was busy, with his mother in the kitchen and his stepbrother running around all over the place.

Thankful for the quiet, he made his way up the stairs, and to his room. Before opening his door he listened to make sure that no one was upstairs, and when he had confirmed that he was in fact the only one there, walked into his room.

What he saw made his brilliant jade eyes light up with amusement. There, on the bed, was his friend, sprawled out and tangled viciously in the blankets. His beautiful raven colored hair was ruffled and sticking out of place in some areas, and his mouth hung slightly open.

"So much for sleeping beauty, huh?" Kurama said softly under his breath, and walked over to the little fire demon. Placing his bag on the floor, he bent down and started his task of untangling his friend.

As soon as he was finished, the phone rang slightly startling the youko from his quiet. He quickly ran down the stairs, and into the living room were he picked up the receiver.

"Hello? Minamino residence." He spoke.

"Hello? Shuichi?" his mother spoke from the other end.

"Yes, mother?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could do me a favor son." She asked from the other line, sounding kind of rushed.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Well, were having some company over tonight and I was wondering if you could straighten up a little, seeing as I will be late a bit." Shiori spoke apologetically.

"Of course mother." Kurama said.

"Oh! Thank you so much son! I will talk to you later, good bye!"

"Good bye." He said plainly, and hung up the phone turning to head back upstairs before he'd have to start his cleaning.

'So much for my peace and quiet.' He thought.

X X

"Oh, you're real good. Thank you, Captain!" Hiei said gratefully from her seat.

"It's almost irresistible." Minamino said tempted, eyeing Hiei in front of him. "She's so deliciously low-so horribly dirty!" he walked around her, surveying the unpleasant sight of her clothes.

"Aoooow! I ain't dirty!" she cried dejectedly, " I washed my face and 'ands afore I come, I did."

"I'll take it!" he said arrogantly, "I'll make a duchess of this draggle-tailed gutter snipe!"

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An: that was fun to write! oh, the imagery of Hiei nearly made me lose it sometimes.... but ya enough of me and my silly musings. please R&R! alway welcomed! and a speacial thank you to all of you who did review!

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