"Mikoto. We have been cross-dressing for nearly a year."
"I know! Isn't it awful?"
"So, how can it be that you still can't put eyeliner on correctly!"
"You're so mean, Shihoudani!"
"Give it to me. I'll do it."
"No! I can do it!"
"Mikoto..."
Tooru heard a crash and a scuffle.
"You made me stab myself in the eye!"
"How unladylike of you, Mikoto!"
"I'm a man! A man!"
Tooru ignored the cat-fight unfolding mere feet from him in favor of his Rose Corail lipliner. He had only recently added the product to his routine. Application was difficult, but it did wonders for his pitifully average lips, creating the illusion of fullness. Plus, it helped his lipstick last longer.
"Take it like a man, Mikoto!"
"Get off of me! I hate eyeliner! I have sensitive eyes! Ah! You stabbed me!"
"That's because you won't stop moving. Be grateful I'm bestowing my wondrous makeup skills upon you."
"Just get off of me!"
"No."
Tooru smiled at his finished face in the mirror. There would only be a few more events like this - only a few more times he could transform into such a beauty. True, the shoes hurt his feet and the layers of fabric could be suffocating. True, his wig was itchy and the makeup made him sweat. But Tooru embraced all of it. Just physically feeling his costume was, ironically, a comfort. Through all the unpleasant sensations, he could perpetually feel his character and his mask around him, giving him the freedom to think and behave as only a lovely girl is permitted to.
"There, it's done. What a pretty little girl you are!"
"I'm not a girl!"
Mikoto surely didn't share Tooru's sentiments, and he honestly wasn't quite sure how Yuujiro felt about their frequent gender switches. Yuujiro seemed happy enough in a skirt, but Tooru had a feeling it was simply because Yuujiro had the confidence to remain, at his core, unaffected by any outfit.
Tooru gazed at the blue-haired beauty in the mirror. According to the student body, he was both lovely and tantalizing, but he couldn't help but wonder if Yuujiro also found him attractive as a Princess.
"Come on, Tooru," Yuujiro called. "We'll be late."
"Coming," Tooru sighed, and reluctantly turned his back on his reflection. This year had nurtured his vanity, if nothing else.
"Wait!" Mikoto darted in front of him. "What's that, Kouno?"
"Hm?"
Mikoto whirled him around to face the mirror and gestured toward at a small, red and purple bruise at the base of his neck. A hickey. Tooru flushed. Damn Yuujiro...
"So... what is it Kouno?" Mikoto wagged his eyebrows in a startlingly lewd manner - for Mikoto, that is.
"U-uh. I got a hurt by a... by a... It was a..."
"A cat!" Yuujiro called.
"Yes! Yes, it was a cat!" Tooru nodded enthusiastically.
Mikoto narrowed his eyes. "It doesn't look like a scratch."
"That's because it was a bite." Yuujiro sauntered over and swung his arm around Tooru's shoulders. The rouge on Tooru's cheeks appeared to darken. "I saw it myself, Mikoto. It was a sexy little kitten, wasn't it Tooru?"
"U-uh, I wouldn't call a kitten sexy... It was cute, I guess."
Yuujiro's hand slid down Tooru's arm and around his waist. "You sure the kitten wasn't sexy, Tooru?" Yuujiro's hand slid lower... lower... "You certainlt seemed to like the kitten, Tooru." Just as Yuujiro's hand was closing in on his ass-
"I've got it!" Mikoto exclaimed.
"What, idiot?" Yuujiro and Tooru simultaneously drawled.
"Kouno has a girlfriend, and that girlfriend is a cat!"
Neither Tooru nor even Yuujiro could conjure an appropriately snarky and/or sarcastic response: Mikoto's stupidity had truly reached a new level.
"O-or maybe not..." Mikoto shrunk away from his friends' blank stares. "Maybe Kouno has a girlfriend that pretends to be a cat? Or looks like a cat? Or is named Cat? Or- or... something..."
"I don't have a girlfriend, Mikoto."
"You do!" Mikoto stomped his high-heeled foot. "There's no other explanation that you have a... a..." Mikoto surreptitiously glanced around the room before leaning in and whispering "a love mark."
In spite of the anxiety raised by nearly having their almost-relationship discovered, both Tooru and Yuujiro burst into hysterics.
"A love mark!" Tooru choked out.
"H-he had to whisper it!" Yuujiro gasped.
"Sh-shut up! I was being serious!" Mikoto whined.
"H-he was... serious!" Tooru braced himself on his makeup stool.
"S-say Mikoto." Yuujiro began to compose himself. "Does your girlfriend ever give you love marks?"
This set Tooru in to a fresh bout of hysterics, and he promptly collapsed to the floor.
"N-n-n-n-n-no!" Mikoto's face was pinker than his hair. "W-we never... I-I mean she never d-did anything like-"
"Looks like we beat him there, Tooru!" Tooru leapt up and high-fived his friend.
"I knew it!" Mikoto called.
Oh shit.
Yuujiro and Tooru quickly sobered. They had been discovered - through their teasing of Mikoto, of all things. Tooru supposed this may be considered Karma.
Now what were they going to do? Word would surely get out. And whether they were considered to be two lovely ladies or two teen boys, they would certainly be labeled as gay. And, as Yuujiro frequently pointed out, what they were doing was not gay.
"Kouno did do... do... do that. And that must mean..." Yuujiro and Tooru shrunk back in embarrassment. "Kouno does have a girlfriend named Cat who looks like a cat and enjoys pretending to be a cat!"
"Uh..." Yuujiro and Tooru shared a look of disbelief. "You got me!" Tooru smiled. "I do have a mysterious girlfriend who you definitely don't know. Sorry for keeping it from you!"
"I fully support your relationship!" Yuujiro grinned and slapped him on the back.
"Thanks, Yuujiro! Maybe you'll get a girlfriend too!"
"Yes. And her name will most certainly be Dog."
"Then we can go on a double date in the park with Cat and Dog."
"That sounds splendid."
"It's a date!"
The two shook hands and whirled toward the door, calling behind them "Come along, Mikoto!"
"Hold it!" Mikoto grabbed the Princesses by their ruffles.
"Is there a problem, Mikoto?" Tooru's plastic grin strained wider.
"Everything is as it should be. Right, Mikoto?"
"Kouno!" Mikoto pointed dramatically at the aforementioned teen. "You have a girlfriend, so now you really must understand that we can't be in a kissing booth! You'll be cheating on her, Kouno!"
"If it's for work, it's not cheating," Tooru replied easily.
"Is that what Cat would say?" Mikoto challenged.
"Oh, Cat knows all about the Princess job and is very willing to let me kiss men."
"Y-you told her!"
"Yes, Mikoto," Yuujiro openly smirked, now fully aware that Mikoto was perfectly oblivious. "Tooru has an honest relationship."
"I have an honest relationship too!" Mikoto cried.
"Well you are about to cheat on your girlfriend, Mikoto. After all, you haven't told her."
"No!" Mikoto cried.
"Let's go," Yuujiro nodded to Tooru, and the two promptly dragged the screaming pink-haired Princess out of the dressing room.
Tooru did not enjoy being in the kissing booth. His customers were either frozen and quivering as Tooru gently brushed his lip against theirs, or pushy and desperate. The latter would sloppily lick Tooru's pursed lips - thank God for lipliner - before the student counsel members, who served as body guards, forcibly removed them. Tooru did not enjoy either type of male student.
Of course, he didn't have the worst of it. It seemed as though every student was intent on sucking face with poor Mikoto, whereas all but a few students had the balls to attempt more than a chaste kiss with either Yuujiro or Tooru.
While he was far from enjoying himself, Tooru's disgust was somewhat of a relief. After all, if he didn't feel a thing after kissing nearly every man in the school, he certainly wasn't gay. The question of homosexuality actually hadn't troubled Tooru at all until Yuujiro had brought it up the night before.
"Tooru... what's this?" Yuujiro pressed his palm into the obvious bulge in Tooru's jeans.
"A-ah!" Tooru attempted to pull away, only to find himself trapped between the wall and a panting, flushed Yuujiro. "D-don't-"
"What's wrong?" Yuujiro began to slowly rub. "You like it, don't you, Tooru? You were hard even before I touched you, Tooru."
This was another first. What should he do? Tooru awkwardly placed his hands on Yuujiro's biceps, then his face, then his waist, then... then... Wait. Shouldn't Tooru be, well, returning the favor? "W-w-well... what about... you, Yuu-chan?" Tooru gently pressed his fingers against Yuujiro's crotch - he was, in fact, hard.
"Tooru!" Yuujiro sprung away. "What are you doing?"
"I-I-I... Well, I never really know what I'm doing..."
"You can't touch me. That would spoil the illusion! You're pretending I'm a girl!"
The thing was, Tooru had never thought of Yuujiro as a girl. "R-right."
"If we're both dudes... mentally... this would be gay. But we like chicks. I like big boobs, and you like the comforting type, remember?"
"Y-yeah."
"So, we're not gay." Yuujiro stomped off to bed, leaving Tooru dumbfounded, unsatisfied, and oddly ashamed. "I'm not gay," Yuujiro muttered to himself, now hidden beneath his covers. "I'm not."
Yuujiro didn't seem to like the prospect of either himself or Tooru being gay, and thus, Tooru was pleased to find that he was still straight. He just happened to like his male best friend... and Tooru supposed he'd have to keep the "male" part a secret.
The kissing booth was just about closed - there were only six boys left - when they suddenly heard a shriek.
"MIKOTO!" The three princesses looked up to behold a pretty brunette girl standing in the doorway, violently shuddering with rage.
"How could you do this to me?" She stomped over to the table.
"W-wait! Megumi-san!"
"You're wearing women's clothing and kissing boys!"
"I-It's not what it looks like!"
"Actually," Yuujiro whispered to Tooru, "it's exactly what it looks like."
"Your sister told me you were gay, but I didn't believe her!"
"She what?" Mikoto's high pitched shriek did nothing to promote a manly image.
"You broke my heart, Mikoto." With that, she ran out of the room.
"Wow, your girlfriend is pretty, Mikoto," Yuujiro patted him on the head.
"Yeah, she's lovely, Mikoto," Tooru nodded. "How did he manage to catch such a pretty older woman?"
"Yes, yes" Yuujiro's patting grew a little rougher. "There's no telling why a girl like her would date him."
"Guys, this is serious!" Mikoto cried.
"Go after her then," Tooru shrugged. "I'm sure she'll understand."
"The fact that he hasn't already makes him a pretty bad boyfriend, doesn't it Tooru?"
"Yes it does, Yuujiro."
And Mikoto was off.
Yuujiro and Tooru only had a moment to mischievously grin before they were interrupted by a pointed grunt from the next student in line.
Oh right.
"Next, please!" Tooru smiled.
"Come here, Aizawa-kun," Yuujiro winked.
"She knows my name!" The indiscriminate teen swooned.
Yuujiro and Tooru were formal Princesses once more.
The last students blissfully stumbled off, the student counsel members congratulated the remaining Princesses on a job well done, and Yuujiro and Tooru were permitted at last to wash off their make-up, step out of their heels, and peel off their dresses.
"There sure were a lot of students there," Tooru commented as he peeled off his fake eyelashes, happy to be within the safe walls of the dressing room.
"Not everyone showed."
"Yeah, like Akira. Which I was glad for." Tooru chuckled.
"And sadly, Cat didn't show her lovely face either."
"Mmm," Tooru affirmed, unable to keep a smile off his face. "And I was so hoping she'd bring her best friend, Dog. You'd make such a nice couple!"
"God, Mikoto's an idiot."
"Yeah, he is... Hey... Yuujiro?"
"What?"
"What would we do if Mikoto actually did find out what we're doing?"
Yuujiro's washcloth-clad hand froze for the briefest of moments before continuing the path down his face. "We would tell him the truth, and he probably wouldn't believe us. I mean, he wouldn't believe I'm selflessly posing as your girlfriend. He'd probably think I-I like you... or something stupid like that."
"Yeah, that would be pretty stupid," Tooru muttered.
"And he'd also probably think you liked me as a guy. Which is stupid... right?"
"U-uh, yeah, stupid. Look, I've got homework, I've got to go."
"Tooru? Hey!" But Tooru was already gone. He ran barefoot to his room, his half-pinned wig nearly flying off in the process, hoping in vain that doing so would stop that painful stabbing in his chest, that stinging in his eyes, that burning in his throat, that thought echoing in the back of his head that he was the worst kind of liar. Because what he was hiding was truly disgusting.
Yuujiro, I've always seen you as a man, and I've always, always liked you.
But, of course, he could never say that. So maybe Tooru was a little gay. He could be fine with it, but if Yuujiro knew... it would ruin everything.
AN: Thanks for reading!