A/N: Longer chapter! Yay! Anyway… I think you guys will like this chapter. Please review!

26. Operation FOX in Action and a Girl-to-Girl Conversation

The next day, Youko awoke in Suichi's bedroom to find that Luna was standing over him, holding something behind her back. The expression on her face was something between a grin and a look of disapproval.

"Wakey wakey," she said sweetly, whacking Youko over the head with a pillow.

"What?" Youko moaned, rolling over. "Go away…"

Luna ignored him. "I found a costume that you could wear," she said brightly, holding up the thing behind her back. It was Suichi's school uniform, only in a bigger size with a nametag that said "Suichi Minamino" on it in messy handwriting. She also held a bottle of red spray-on hair dye and a box of green-eyed contacts.

Youko stared at her. "Not your stupid 'Operation FOX' thing again…" he started.

"Yep!" said Luna. "I just wanna see how this stuff looks on you. I wasn't sure what size you wore, so I got the biggest size uniform."

"Thanks," Youko said dryly. "But what's with the nametag…?"

"It's so people know it's Suichi!"

"But wouldn't it be a little obvious that I'm not Suichi if I have a nametag saying that I am?" Youko asked, wondering how he could think so logically when he was still hung over from last night.

"No," said Luna. "Half of the people at your school barely have enough brains to fill up a can of tuna. Just look at Yusuke and Kuwabara… How they got into that school is anybody's guess…"

"I'm still not saying I'm going to wear that," Youko said. "Now leave me alone!"

"Don't think so!" said Luna. "This is your punishment for running out on me to go get drunk at that tacky bar! It wasn't fun dragging your half-conscious body back to our house! Now get up and try on this uniform!"

Minutes later, Youko emerged from the bedroom to show Luna how he looked in the uniform. He looked absolutely ridiculous; it turned out that Luna had bought the uniform one size too big, so it was baggy on him, except in the back where he had to stuff in his tail to keep it from showing. The tail puffed out like some obscene growth on Youko's backside. Luna, however, thought it looked fine…

"It looks great!" she said. "Now we just have to fix your hair…" She reached for the spray-on hair dye and ushered him into the bathroom.

When she was done, Youko's hair didn't even look all that red. It was more of a sickly orange color; he looked like a long-haired Kuwabara. Youko looked at himself in the mirror and had to resist the urge to break it. "Luna… I look like shit," he said bluntly.

"Nonsense!" said Luna, crossing her fingers behind her back. "You look just like Suichi! Now all you have to do is put in these green contacts. Ever put contacts in before?"

Youko shook his head no. Luna tried to teach him, but it still took Youko over an hour to get them in. He kept poking himself in the eye with his claws. But eventually, he got them in. Luna admired how he looked for a moment, then spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

It was Kurama's stalker friend, wearing her full costume and walking straight toward the house! Luna gasped; what was she going to tell her? She knew who the stalker was, but she didn't know if she had ever seen Kurama in his Youko form. She shoved Youko into Suichi's room and told him to stay there while she made up a story to send the stalker away.

The doorbell rang. Luna ran to answer it, pulling open the door and putting on a big, fakey smile. "Hi," she greeted the stalker.

"Hey, Luna," the stalker said. "Is Suichi home?"

Luna's eyes shifted away as she replied, "Uh… he's um… he's um… he's sick." She turned back to the stalker. "Very sick. Highly contagious. Nobody can see him."

"Oh no," said the stalker, her eyes turning to a look of concern. "Is he okay?" she asked.

"Oh, he will be in… a couple days…" Luna said, scratching the back of her neck nervously.

"Maybe I should go up there… cheer him up…" said the stalker.

"N-no!" said Luna, putting her arms out to block the doorway. "Uh… we don't want you to get sick either! Heh heh…"

"Oh, I don't mind," said the stalker. "If he's not feeling well, I'd like to see him. You know, my mom has a great remedy for all kinds of ailments. Maybe I could--"

"No, no, that's quite all right," said Luna. Then, as a desperate attempt to shoo her away, she said, "Listen, there's this shirt at the mall downtown that Suichi really wants. It's a red T-shirt with the Sailor Moon characters on it, and it says, "Girl Power" on it. If you went out and bought it, that would really make him happy."

"Okay!" The stalker's face brightened. "Well, I'll be off. Tell him I said 'hi', okay?" She turned around and ran in the direction of the mall.

"Whew," said Luna, closing the door. "That was close…"

Many hours later, Kurama's stalker returned, ringing the doorbell at the Minamino household. Luna opened the door; Youko was still in Suichi's room, trying to sleep away his hangover. Luna gasped in surprise as the girl held up the shirt that Luna had described.

"I had to go all the way to Yokohama to find it," the stalker said. "The guy at the store said they didn't carry any shirts like that, but I finally found one!" She held up the shirt, and sure enough, it was a red T-shirt with Sailor Moon characters on it with the words "Girl Power!" splashed across it in big white bubble-kanji. "It was hard to find one that wasn't form-fitting," she said with a smile. "But I got it!"

At first Luna was dumbfounded, then she had to turn away to keep herself from laughing. She thought that his stalker would never be able to find a shirt like that! She turned back to the girl. "Wow," she said. "I'm impressed. Suichi will be… happy…" She giggled.

"Well, I'm glad," she said, her eyes twinkling with a smile. "Can I go up and give this to him?"

"Uh…"

But at that moment, Youko came the stairs, a glazed look in his new green eyes. The stalker's head tilted to one side as she stared at Youko.

Youko scratched his left ear and yawned. "Hey, Luna, make me something for dinner. I'm hungry."

Luna turned around and nearly shrieked in surprise. "Oh! Uh… hey… Suichi… Glad you're feeling better!" She laughed nervously, a large sweatdrop running down the side of her face.

"Uh…" the stalker mumbled, "I think that disease he has is worse than I thought. Here, Luna, you can give this to him." She handed Luna the Sailor Moon T-shirt and walked out of the house.

"Who was that?" Youko asked.

"Youko!" Luna hissed. "Why did you come down! Didn't you hear the doorbell ring?"

"No," he said. "And I came down because I was hungry."

Luna sighed in frustration. "You are such a stupid fox! And you didn't even come down wearing that hat I bought you to cover up your ears!"

Youko frowned, remembering the hideous pink baseball cap that Luna had bought to disguise his ears. "Oh… that…" he said. "Well… I wasn't thinking."

"Obviously!" Luna shouted. "Now because you've been a naughty little fox, I'm not going to make you anything for supper." She turned away, folding her arms across her chest.

Youko grumbled, rummaging through the closet and finding a box of Ritz crackers. "Fine," he said, grabbing a handful of the small, salty crackers and stuffing them in his mouth. "But if I die of hunger, it'll be on your conscience."

The stalker walked down the street back to her house, wondering, That wasn't… Youko Kurama… that I just saw in there… was it…?

Later that night, Keiko sat in her house, flipping through the TV channels, trying to find something interesting to fall asleep to. She landed on a documentary about blueberry pancakes and felt her eyelids getting heavy when the doorbell rang.

It was Botan, a small, nervous smile on her face. "Hi," she said. "I'm sorry I came here so late, but I was busy putting stamps on all of Koenma's outgoing messages."

"That's fine," said Keiko. "Come on in."

Botan nodded, slipping off her shoes and walking into the house. She followed Keiko to the living room couch, eyeing the chef mixing pancake batter in a bowl on TV. She sat down but didn't say anything.

"What is it?" Keiko asked her. "You look tense."

"I'm sorry," said Botan. "But… I know this is a really insensitive question for me to ask you, seeing as how you and Yusuke just broke up… but…"

"Go on."

"But…" Botan's eyes avoided Keiko's. "But… well… I really like Yusuke, and I was wondering, if that's all right with you, if we went to a movie together as a date," she said all in a rush.

"Oh…" Keiko said. She had not been expecting this… "Yeah… uh… go ahead. I don't love Yusuke anymore anyway… I… I already like someone else…"

"Ooh, you do?" Botan asked, her face lighting up in a nosy smile. "Who?"

"Oh… I… I like… I kinda like Hiei…" Keiko said, bringing her head down to stare at the carpet. "He's a nice guy…"

Botan covered her mouth to keep from spilling out that Shizuru likes him too and that she's got competition, but she remembered that she told Shizuru that she wouldn't tell. She took her hand away and said, "Well, I'm glad you're over Yusuke. Hiei's a good guy, I'm sure you'd be great together!" She stood up. "Well, sorry for bothering you, thanks for your time, see you later, Keiko!" she quickly walked out of the house to prevent herself from spilling Shizuru's secret that she wanted so badly to tell.

So Keiko likes Hiei now, huh? she thought. Well, that doesn't matter, as long as I get Yusuke…

NEXT TIME: A NEW ROMANCE AND YOUKO'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

--crazykitsune17--