Oh god I can't believe I lost all my notes to this fic! I left out some characters in the last chapter thaht were supposed to be there! Uh, I just let Inui fix that somehow... For the record, the Ohtori was supposed to be there (the lion's part is his) as well as Shishido and Oshitari.

I'm really sorry it took so long to update this -cries- Million thanks to all those wonderfull people who have reviewed this and have had the patience to wait for this update -bows-

Disclaimers: Everybody knows this...

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Chapter 4: My fair fairy lady

Hn, doesn't it kinda seem like there are more people here than yesterday?" Momoshiro asked when he and Ryoma entered the gym hall the following day as they had been told.

"You two are late, as usual", Inui commented. Next to him stood three guys from Hyotei: Ohtori was blushing heavily, Shishido was red on his face also – though that was because he was boiling mad – and Oshitari was just as calm as ever. Gakuto appeared from somewhere and tried to inquire the Hyotei tensai about the 'secret data' but without success.

"Inui, didn't you say yesterday that everyone was here?" Kikumaru asked. "Then what about those three?"

"Aa, that's just because the author of this story messed things up and refuses to correnct things properly", Inui explained.

Everybody else: "... ... ... ..."

"So shall we begin now?"

"You're not supposed to mention the author in the story, right?" Momoshiro whispered to Echizen.

"No", Echizen shook his head. "And I don't think she will like that tone either. Inui-senpai should watch what he says..."

"Nya! Ochibi, Momo! "Eiji whispered sharply. "You're not supposed to talk about her either!"

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We'll take a short break so that I can remind our boys what they can talk about in the actual story and what should be left in the aftertalk section. Pardon me...

Let's continue.

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"Where did Inui-senpai go?" Momoshiro asked.

"To get a new pair of glasses", Ryoma asnwered yawning. He was getting bored as usual, when he wasn't playing tennis. "The ones she had on were broken when she..."

Momoshiro clapped his hand on Ryoma's mouth to silence him up. "No, you can't mention her again! We'll be in trouble."

Ryoma glared at his senpai. "Hand of or I'll bite", he growled.

"Brat", Momoshiro mumbled but quickly removed his hand.

"Let's begin then", Inui announced stepping out room with a huge pile of paper. He put the pile on a nearby table and started hanging the papers to people. "These are the scripts. The scenes you are in have been marked and all your lines have been highlighted. Make sure to memorize your lines well. You can't rely on the papers at the actual performance. Except Ohitari-san of course but he's the prompter."

"That won't be necessary", Oshitari said. "I know Midsummer Night's Dream by heart." Gakuto gave him his are-you-serious look but just shrugged then. Okay, so the romantic tensai probably knew all Shakespeare's plays by heart. And probably not just Shakespeare's either...

"As I calculated", Inui nodded – he hadn't even offered a script to Oshitari. "Very well then. Now we have all the actors here. There are of course several minor roles that will be filled by the non-regular players of Seigaku's tennis club but since those people won't actually do much anything, there's no need for them to be joioning the rehearsals until the last week. The stage management will be handled by Kawamura and Kaidoh. The freshmen", Inui nods towards Horio, Kachiro and Katsuo, "will be helping. We'll also be getting help from some other schools but they couldn't make it today. By they I mean Akutsu from Yamabuki and Akutagawa from Hyotei."

"Momoshiro turned to whisper something to Ryoma. "Wanna bet that the actual reason that those two aren't here today is coz Akutsu couldn't care less and that Jirou guy probably fell asleed somewhere?"

"Any questions?" Inui asked.

"I have one", Saeki said, flipping through the script. "Echizen-kun is Helena, right? And Kikumaru-kun is Hermia? But shouldn't the roles be the other way around? After all, there's a scene where Helena calls Hermia short. Also, isn't Hermia's hair dark while..." Fuji punched Saeki on the side with his elbow to silence him. Sure, the role choices would be more logical that way but as far as Fuji's match making plans went, the arrangement was better and would provide better results in the end.

"What? Let me see! Where?" Kikumaru jumped to read script over Saeki's shoulder. "Hoi, but that can't be. I'm much taller than Ochibi! We have to change it."

"No", said Inui.

"Why not?" Momoshiro said. "It's not like it's such a big deal."

"It's because the autho... Oh, never mind. The roles will stay as they are and that's it. The hair color thing is not a problem since you'll be wearing wigs anyway and the height... Well we'll just make sure that Echizen is standing on a higher spot than Kikumaru when it's time for that particular scene." Inui glanced at Ryoma. "...a much higher spot", he added.

Snickering could be heard from all over the room and Ryoma kicked Momoshiro who was laughing aloud beside him.

"Now then", Inui continued. "We'll naturally need costumes for the play and luckily our school's fashion club has promised to help us with that." Inui walked to the door to the girls' changing room and opened it – about twenty girls carrying various pieces of clothes and other stuff appeared from the changing room. "So what I understood was that the costume for the fairy queen is the biggest piece of work", Inui said to the girl with long curly blond hair who apparently was the head of the fashion club. "Should we see that first and then worry about the rest?"

"Yes, that would be the best thing to do." The president of the club nodded two younger girsl carrying a long white plastic bag. "Fuji-san, would you mind trying the dress on? It was originally done according to Miyune-chan's measurements of course but you two are about the same size so hopefully we don't have to do too big changes."

"Of course", Fuji smiled.

The blonde girl told her two kouhais with the plastic bag that contained the dress to take it to the changing room. The girls did as they were told and came back. "You won't be able to get it on by yourself but I think you might wanna ask one of your friends to help you instead of one of us." The girl gave a meaningfull glance towards her blushing fellow club members and gave a genuine smile to Fuji.

"Yes, thank you", Fuji answered to the smile. "Eiji, will you help me with it?"

While the two of them were in the changing room, the fashion club president, Kanori-san, explained to the rest of the boys what they would do next. The fairy queen outfit was the only one they had already made so they'd need to take exact measurements for all the other costumes and to make sure that the designs they had already made would look good. They also needed to check that the colors for the clothes would fit every person.

"Aaaah! Fujiko looks just like a girl!" Kikumaru's yell could clearly be heard from the changing room. Everybody turned to look as Eiji pushed Fuji out of the room. What followed was the sound of several jaws hitting the floor and a couple people felling down as theig legs from some unexplained reason went numb.

"Oh, this is wonderfull!" Kanori-san said happily, clapping her hands together. "It looks like it's a perfect fit. I was so worried we'd have to change it – that would have meant much extra work. How does it feel? Too loose or too tight anywhere?"

"Did you make this yourself?" Fuji asked.

"Of course!" the girl answered proudly. "After all, the dress for the fairy queen has to be the most beautiful one."

Fuji smiled. The girl had every right to be proud of her work – it was truly beautiful. The thin white fabric was cut in a skillfull way that really couldn't be expected from anyone still in junior high – or even high school. The upper part of the dress was decorated with complicated silver stitching. "This is the most beautiful dress I've ever seen", Fuji told her truthfully.

Kanori-san's face beamed in delight. "Oh, but it's far from ready yet, Fuji-san", she said humbly. "Ah, let's see what it looks like with all the accessories."

She gestured some of the girls to come closer. One of them carefully put a blonde wig on Fuji's head – the curls were so long they reached over his waist. "Miyune-chan has piercings so we had to change these a little", Kanori-san explained as one of the girls put a clip earring on the boy's ears.

"Well, Inui-san?" the girl asked after they finished. "What do you think?"

"As expected from Kanori-san", Inui said. "Very good, very good indeed." Inui had taken several mental notes of how the other people in the room acted when seeing Fuji like this.

"Well thank you", the girl said very pleased. "Should we start taking the other measurements now?"

"Ah, yes, please."

Yuuta was the first person to pull himself together after the initial shock. "What the hell..! You can't walk around wearing something like that!"

"Why not?" Fuji asked and twirled around in a way that made most of the people in the room gasp for air and if Taka-sanhadn't already fainted after seeing Fuji enter the room in that dress earlier that would have done it. "Does it not look good on me?"

"That's not the point... It's just... too girly!"

"Uh, hello? Isn't that kind of the point?" Kanori-san wasn't the least intimidated by Yuuta's glare.

"Ne, Yuuta", Fuji said smiling, "you'll be wearing a dress too."

"What are you talking about? My character is a guy!"

"Well yes, but he's one of the men that will do a play for king Theseus and the others and he has a woman's role in it."

"Yuuta stared at his brother in disbelief. "No way! I'm not gonna..."

"What do you mean you can't change it?" Everybody turned to look at Atobe who was speaking on the phone. "Yes of course I know it's a classic but there's nothing you can't change with money! If ore-sama says he wants to change the script so that instead of Hippolyta Theseus will marry the fairy queen Titania then you'll better make it happen. And also..."

"What the hell do you think you're doing! Mizuki interrupted him.

"None of your matter, commoner", Atobe said, annoyed. "There's obviously a mistake in the play. Should it not be king Theseus who shall marry the most beautiful lady, yes? And since that would be Titania, played by Fuji Syusuke, so we need to change the..."

"You can't change classics", Mizuki fumed.

Atobe looked at Mizuki like the boy was something very disgusting. "Very well then. In that case I demand the role of Oberon for myself. The fair Titania should only belong to ore-sama."

"I'm Fuji-kun's destined lover... er, rival! I should be the one that gets the role of Oberon!"

"Fuji..." The said boy turned towards the buchou. "Take off that dress."

"Mn, Tezuka... Here, in front of everybody?" Fuji said with a silky voice. "If you could wait 'till we're alone then..."

"Fuji." Tezuka really wasn't in a very humorious mood right now – not that he usually was but... "Get rid of the dress. It's ruining everyone's focus."

"Ah. Fine then, but wil you come help me to remove it then? I can't get it off by myself."

"Why don't you ask Kikumaru?"

"Ne, Tezuka. Don't uoi want to undress me?" Fuji's half-open eyes glinted wickedly.

"I will help you Fuji-kun!"

"No, ore-sama is the only one to touch his wife!"

...And those two weren't the only ones willing to help...

"Tezuka..." Fuji said in a quiet, slightly strained voice. "You better help me out off this. Now."

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TBC...

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Shinji: "What's Atobe's problem... It's not like he has to play a woman's role. I don't want to marry him in the play either... Maybe it would have been a good idea if he had gotten the script changed but can you actually do something like that? It's really annoying. And I have to wear a dress too like Fuji..."

Kamio: Oh, for the love of god Shinji shut the hell up already!

pushes Shinji and Kamio into a closet- You two just stay there and make up... or out, whatever. I'll pair you up later -smile- I really don't know yet what I'm gonna do with the pairings. Or it's gonna be mostly traditional pairings in the end but before that... I just kinda like the idea of 'everybody wants Fuji' -smile- And I'm really sorry about the chapter... I'm running fever so maybe that would explain most of the craziness. I had fun, it that makes it okay! Not? Okay, I'll just go die now...