Inside the clubhouse wasn't exactly what Lum, Ryuunosuke or Shinobu had expected. It had the furnishings of a usual after-school club room: there were two large lockers against the far wall, tall and wide and painted with purple and pink flowers, abstract shapes and little dancing figures. Beside the lockers were a long table that reached the corner, furnished with a lamp, a large mirror, and a CD stereo system. Four tables were arranged against the near wall, chairs stacked neatly on top.

But there were also furnishings that weren't part of an average after-school club room: all of the walls were covered in drapes of fabric in various colours and patterns, acting as wall decorations and curtains to block the windows. Three dressmaker's mannequins stood in a corner opposite to the desk, like soldiers to attention. A curtain hung a third of the way across the room, on a rail that reached fully across. And dotted around the room were metal folding chairs and an old, ratty couch. It looked for all the world like a fabric store exploded in the middle of the room.

"Make yourselves at home, guys!" Nagisa sang as he danced across the room, Kenta lugging his box over to the long table. "Me and Kenpii are just gonna start setting things up for you guys!"

Ataru and Mendou quickly sat down in the middle of the room, while Ryuunosuke leaned against a wall. Lum hovered over the room, arms behind her head, while Kenta set down his big black box on the long table and pulled up one of the chairs in front of it.

Shinobu peered over Kenta's shoulder as he lifted the lid off the box, and undid some latches inside. Her eyes widened as the box unfolded to reveal shelves of lipstick, foundation, rouge, eye liner and mascara, in various colours and forms, arranged around a centre spacing filled with various brushes, wipes and a pack of cotton pads.

"You… You do makeup?"

Kenta looked at Shinobu for a brief, stony moment before returning to the fold-out makeup station.

Nagisa watched Kenta's silence, and frowned. He quickly moved up behind Kenta and grabbed him roughly, arm around his throat in a sleeper hold. "Kenpii, don't be so rude to our guests! Greet Shinobu properly!"

Kenta choked for a moment, a brush flying from his hands to land on the floor. Then he clutched at Nagisa's arm, pulling on it roughly to try and get free. "How can I when you're trying to choke me out?!" He snarled out as he tried to fight Nagisa's hold.

The two struggled for a moment, Nagisa holding on as tightly as he could. Kenta then suddenly dropped to his knees, tossing Nagisa over his head to land on the floor in front of him. As Kenta tried to breathe again, Nagisa was already to his feet, kneeling in front of him in the traditional sumo starting pose.

"You got some nerve, attacking me when I was getting my gear ready!" Kenta wiped his mouth on the back on his hand, preparing for Nagisa to move again.

"You were being rude to Shinobu!" Nagisa answered. "You promised to be a good boy today, didn't you?"

Kenta's face twisted into a snarl. "Does that mean you'd make a mess of my gear?"

The two stared at each other for several long seconds, as if daring each other to make a move. Ryuunosuke watched the staredown impassively, more concerned with how worried Shinobu was getting than the wellbeing of her fiancé.

When the door opened again, and three young men stepped inside, it was almost a relief. The three boys were definitely students from Tomobiki, even though they didn't seem to be from class 2-F. The one in front, quickly stepping inside, was the shortest of the three. He had sandy blond hair, slightly longer than most boys wore their hair. His face had the youthfulness of a first year, and the energy to match.

Behind him, the boy to the left was definitely older. He looked like a second year, but his poise was almost that of somebody older. He had black hair, immaculately brushed and styled into a side-parting and square-rimmed glasses that shone in the late-afternoon light. He reminded Shinobu somewhat of Mendou, but with an added air of cool neutrality.

To his right was a boy who was definitely a second year. He had distinctively fluffy brown hair, not combed or brushed in anyway. His face, though, was extraordinarily pretty, even for a boy. Almost like Nagisa, in fact. Put him in the right kind of dress, and you'd never think he would be male.

After a long moment of silence, the young man with the black hair pushed back his glasses with a finger, his face betraying no emotion whatsoever.. "Have you and Kenpii fallen out again, Nagisa-senpai?"

Nagisa quickly snapped to attention, leaving Kenta to relax. "Hi guys! Kenpii was just being rude, as usual. But I've brought our new project in, just as I promised!" He turned towards Shinobu, Ryuunosuke and Lum. "Everyone, these are the members of the Crossdressing Club; Kenpii, Junchan, Tsucchi and Nacchan."

The blond— Yutaka Tsubasa, aka "Tsucchi"- went over to Ryuunosuke, examining her closely. "Is this our new project, Nagisa-senpai? He certainly has potential." He grinned at Nagisa, not noticing Ryuunosuke's quickly darkening expression. "Hell, it wouldn't take much for him to be a girl!"

"I AM a girl!" Ryuunosuke bellowed right in Tsubasa's ear, sending him skittering back to the safety of his two companions.

"You silly boy," Nagisa said. "That's Ryuunosuke, my fiancée! She can join in later if she wants! The project I'm talking about is right over there!"

The three followed Nagisa's pointed finger to stare at Ataru and Mendou. Their gazes held for a moment, before the three looked back at Nagisa.

"Please tell me you're kidding." Tsubasa said.

Nagisa sighed. "Do you think I would have called all of you in here just for a laugh, Tsucchi? I thought you knew me better than that."

The black haired boy— Oozora Natsuki, aka "Nacchan", pushed his glasses back. "I suppose it's possible, but it'll be a bit of a challenge. We'd have to give them the works, and that's going to take us right to the evening. Plus there's the matter of outfits, and proper posture." He looked over at Nagisa, the sunlight catching the glasses and hiding his eyes entirely. "This isn't going to be an express job."

"What about tonight, Nacchan?" Nagisa asked. "I want to show them off at Rainbow Rock. I want all of Tomobiki to see Ataru Moroboshi as they've never seen him before!"

Ataru and Mendou slightly quailed. This was obviously not what either was expecting when they asked Nagisa for help.

Natsuki just snorted. "And here I thought they were trying to sneak in Busumestu Girls' High School for some lewd deed."

"You think we can pull this off by then, Natsuki-senpai?" The brown haired boy— Arikawa Jun, or "Junchan"- asked. "Rainbow Rock starts at seven sharp."

Natsuki just sighed. "We'll have to go off the rack for outfits. But at least we'll have time for alterations. And I know Ogami is a quick worker." He turned to the other two boys. "Arikawa-kun, you're on first stage depilation and moisturisation. Yutaka-kun, you'll be on second stage posture and poise."

Yuuto nodded. "Leave it to me. I'll make sure that the process isn't too painful."

The blond- Yutaka Tsubasa or "Tsucchi"— also nodded. "I'll do my best, Senpai!"

Natsuki turned towards Kenta. "You better get yourself busy, Ogami-kun. You can go on a supply run down at the Panda Mart while me and Arikawa-kun put them through the first stage."

As the four boys laid out their plans, Ryuunosuke looked over towards Nagisa. "Hey, you think this is really gonna work? I mean, these people don't have your good looks…"

Nagisa smiled. "Ryuu-chan, you flatter me too much. You don't have to worry about these boys and me. Together we can make silk purses out of sow's ears!"

"I hope you mean that metaphorically," Shinobu said idly. "But it's strange that such a manly boy like Ogami-kun does something like makeup as a hobby…"

"Oh, that boy can work magic with that big black box of his," Nagisa said happily, as Kenta went over to finish setting up the makeup station, pulling over a large pivoting mirror next to the box. "He picked it up from his mother. She does makeup for television."

"Yeah, I remember him now," Ryuunosuke said. "He was at the beach last summer…" Her eyes widened as recognition struck. "The Beachside Sumo Championship at Hamachaya! You were second place!"

For the second time that hour, Kenta paused in front of his makeup station.

"I didn't know you did sumo, Ogami-kun," Natsuki said. "Though it certainly is fitting."

"My old man did it as a tribute to Nagisa's late father," Ryuunosuke said. "Least that's how he says it. Nagisa was our undefeated champion, and every man on the beach took him on that summer. And this guy…" She pointed towards Kenta. "He lasted the longest out of of all of them."

Kenta just snorted. "It doesn't matter, he still beat me. There's no points for second place." He looked over towards Nagisa. "I suppose the champion would agree, huh?"

Nagisa blushed slightly, cupping his face in glee. "You're too nice, Kenpii… You shouldn't be flattering a girl like me!"

Ryuunosuke just coughed as Kenta blushed as pink as Nagisa did, trying to dispel the awkward feeling of seeing more than she expected of her fiancée. "Yeah, I should say so. I'm his fiancée, after all."

Nagisa smiled and wrapped his arms loosely around Kenta's shoulders. "But he's good with makeup and fashion! And he's so adorable when he's flustered! Aren't you, Kenpii?"

Natsuki sighed as Kenta tried to dislodge Nagisa. "Ogami-kun, would you mind going out to Panda Mart now? Time is of the essence in this operation, after all."

Nagisa blinked, then sprang off of Kenta like a cat confronted with tin foil. "Yes, of course! We'll go on ahead while you start off with the first stage!" He turned to Lum, Shinobu and Ryuunosuke. "You'd better come with me, too. You probably don't want to watch Ataru and Mendou getting depilated."

Ryuunosuke blinked. "Um… What's depilation?"

"Oh, that's nothing," Jun said dismissively. "We're just going to just remove almost every hair on the bodies of these boys."

The expression that crossed Ryuunosuke's face in reaction was something that nobody who witnessed it would've been ever able to forget.

Kenta just sighed and helped lead Ryuunosuke outside, Lum and Shinobu following behind him. He looked back briefly, seeing the worried looks on Ataru and Mendou's faces.

"Don't worry," Kenta said, in a half-hearted reassuring tone. "It'll only hurt for a second." He closed the door behind him, shutting out the whimpers of terror.

If there is one thing that Mrs. Moroboshi could count on when she slipped out of her shoes in the doorway of the Moroboshi home, it was her husband's amazing ability to shut himself out from the world beyond his paper. She peered into the living room and saw, sure as anything, Mr. Moroboshi sitting at the low table, hidden behind his newspaper.

Well, it wasn't like she was planning on bringing him along, she thought to herself as she skipped to the bathroom to freshen up. She imagined that he would only get in the way. No use in stringing along dead weight.

And still, Mr. Moroboshi sat and read his paper. He sat and read while his wife cleaned herself up, before heading upstairs. He sat and read as she changed into a slinky short red dress, put on her makeup, and styled her hair.

And he sat and read when she peered back in the living room again. "You're going to have to get your own dinner tonight, honey."

Mr. Moroboshi barely moved from behind his paper. "That's alright, honey."

Mrs. Moroboshi smiled. "I'll be going off on my date with Miss Sakura, then…" She stepped into a pair of red high heels, and skipped out of the house.

There was a long silence in the room, a long sense of stillness coloured by the orange of the setting sun streaming in through the screen door of the Moroboshi home. And then Mr. Moroboshi put down his paper.

"Wait, what?"

"You didn't have to come with me," Kenta said as he lugged the basket full of snacks and drinks around the floor of the Panda Mart. "I can carry all this around by myself."

"You don't have to always shoulder the burden, Ogami-kun." Shinobu said, lugging her own basket around. "Is that what the club always does with you?"

Kenta shrugged. "Pretty much. Everyone's busy doing their own thing, so somebody has to make sure all the wheels are greased. The second something goes wrong, they have a bad habit of turning on each other."

Lum hovered over Kenta and Shinobu. "Is Darling gunna be okay with those guys? You said something about hurting, didn't you?"

"It's just bathing and depilation," Shinobu said. "It's not going to be seriously scarring, okay?"

Ryuunosuke, standing silently by Shinobu's side for most of the conversation, chose that moment to speak up. "That isn't painful? I thought you said that they were removing all of their hair?"

Kenta shrugged. "I think it's just shaving and that. Hey, it's no worse than what most girls go through."

Ryuunosuke stared at Shinobu. "You mean you depilate, too?"

Shinobu blushed a deep red. "Well, yes… Girls grow hair on their bodies too, you know?" She paused, clapping her hands over her mouth, her face tomato red. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that!"

Ryuunosuke couldn't help but blush herself. "Wow, no wonder I heard of it. I just thought girls just didn't have any hair if they were feminine enough."

Shinobu squeaked. Lum burst into giggles. Kenta coughed.

"What?!" Ryuunosuke's face looked about as red as Shinobu's. "You didn't think the same thing?"

"I thought you were rough before, Ryuu-kun!" Lum cried out as she twirled in the air. "But never like this!"

Ryuunosuke scowled and stalked off, grabbing random items from the shelves and dumping them in Kenta's basket. Shinobu quickly sprinted up behind him, a worried look on her face.

"She wasn't trying to make fun of you, you know." Shinobu said quietly.

"Yeah yeah," Ryuunosuke said. "It's not her fault I'm too much of a man. Feels like everyone just likes to laugh at me because I'm not enough of a woman for them!"

"That still isn't your fault." Shinobu said. "Just because your father raised you to be a man among men doesn't mean you're still a real woman! I mean, what do you think a real woman is like, anyway?"

Ryuunosuke paused, a box of cooling plasters in her hand. She looked over towards Shinobu, her face stone serious. "Maybe… like you?"

Shinobu blinked at Ryuunosuke, a blush forming on her face. The moment dragged on between them as they continue to stare at each other, their faces starting to turn pink.

Quietly, Ryuunosuke moved first, carrying the plasters past Shinobu and throwing them in Kenta's basket. Kenta looked down at the plasters, haphazardly placed along with a bottle of hand lotion and some pens, before looking up at Ryuunosuke again.

Ryuunosuke scowled at Kenta. "What?"

By the time that Kenta had paid and the four got back to the clubhouse, Ataru and Mendou had used the clubhouse's showers to clean off and go through a rather thorough shaving and moisturization routine. Thankfully, despite Kenta's warnings, the two didn't find it that painful. They even asked for their facial hairs to be plucked, despite Jun's warnings of the long, painful process; to do anything perfectly, as Megane said, one must be prepared to suffer.

So when the group stepped into the clubhouse, they were greeted with the sight of Ataru appreciatively stroking Mendou's legs. The two wore pink fluffy dressing gowns with turquoise trim, and had their hair pinned back from their faces with bobby pins.

Kenta sighed as he lugged the bags in, leaving Ryuunosuke and Shinobu to stare in shock at the sight. He muttered to himself as he laid the snacks and drinks out on a table. "Why is everybody so weirded out by guys with shaved legs…?"

Ataru looked up as he noticed the dumbstruck Ryuunosuke and Shinobu. "Oh hey guys! Shuu-chan was just letting me have a feel! Any of you guys wanna have one too?"

Ryuunosuke made a strangled sound and turned away.

Mendou hid his face from the pair. "Oh please, Tacchan! Don't go saying things like that!"

Shinobu tore her eyes away from the sight, only to see Megane staring out from between the curtains of one of the partitions, his face frozen in a stern frown, glasses shining in the sunset light. Against her better judgement, she approached Megane quietly. "Megane? What are you doing?"

"Watching," Megane said, his face still rictus still.

Shinobu looked back towards Ataru and Mendou, then back at Megane. "Watching what?"

Megane's expression barely changed, but a trickle of blood slowly came down from a nostril. "Heaven, Shinobu-san."

Shinobu quietly backed away, ducking behind Ryuunosuke. "I don't think I even want to know what's happening with him right now."

Ryuunosuke only nodded in response.

Lum floated in, only slightly less surprised at the sight of Ataru stroking Mendou's legs. "Darlin', stop slobberin' over his legs!" She crackled as she tried to lift Ataru to his feet. "I don't want you pervin' on Mendou again!"

At the same time, Jun and Tsubasa pushed Megane out of the way as they led Ataru and Mendou over. "Stop staring, you," Tsubasa said. "You'll scare the others." He handed Megane a bottle of moisturiser. "Make yourself useful at least."

Jun peered at the grin spreading over Megane's face like gnarled ivy as he gazed down at the bottle, then looked pointedly at Tsubasa. "Give him Tacchan to work on, Tsucchi. I don't trust him with Shu-chan." He looked over at Kenta filling a mini-fridge with drinks. "Kenpii, could you put the stereo on? I want to hear some Madonna."

Tsubasa made a face. "We already heard some Madonna all week, Junchan. Why don't we hear something different?"

Jun snorted and turned his nose up. "I think our guests should hear a better class of music than Debbie Gibson, that's all."

Tsubasa scowled at Jun. "And you think Madonna is any better? She's just a old throwback associated with hoary stereotypes!"

As the two crossdressers stared each other down nose to nose, Ryuunosuke went over and looked at the CD rack. "What kind of music is this?" She pulled out a disc. "It's got romaji all over it…"

Shinobu went over and looked along the rack, plucking out a couple of discs at random. "Blondie? David Bowie?" She replaced them and scanned the spines of the rest of the rack. "Cheap Trick, Velvet Underground, The Cult, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Madonna… This is all Western rock and pop music!"

"We got some Yellow Magic Orchestra and P-Model too," Kenta said. "Junchan and Nacchan like to collect this stuff." He rolled his eyes as Jun and Tsubasa continued to argue and walked over to the sound system, plucking a CD from the rack. "Cheap Trick at Budokan, then." He loaded the CD into the system and pressed play, ignoring the glares from Jun and Tsubasa as they flounced over to help Ataru and Mendou in the little moisturising booth.

But as the clubhouse filled with the sound of screaming teenage girls, followed by the grinding opening riff of "Hello There", already the vibe was starting to change. Shinobu started to dance with the beat of the music, her hips swaying. Ryuunosuke watched appreciatively as Shinobu started to dance around the space, a smile forming on her face.

Then Shinobu danced her way over to Ryuunosuke, and reached over to take her hands. "Come on, you can dance too!"

Ryuunosuke shook her head furtively. "No, I can't dance. I don't wanna step all over you."

But Shinobu was already tugging her out onto the floor. "Don't worry, just follow my lead!"

Lum hovered over to Kenta, grinning, as she saw him moving his body slightly to the beat of the music as he shuffled around. "You wanna dance while Darlin' is busy in there?"

Kenta shrugged. "If Tacchan won't mind? I'm sure him and Shuuchan can..." He was quickly cut off by Lum grabbing him and swinging him towards the middle of the room.

By the third song, both couples were dancing together to the beat of the music, barely noticing Ataru and Mendou hurrying out from the booth, a rather shaken-looking Megane following behind, only slightly supported by Nagisa. As they did so, Ataru and Mendou both noticed the dancing couples, and started to giggle amongst themselves.

Natsuki stepped out after them, uniform jacket already left behind. As he did so, Kenta stopped dead in his tracks, Lum hovering confused above him. Ryuunosuke and Shinobu's dancing ground to a halt soon after, looking nervously at Natsuki.

Natsuki nodded towards Kenta briefly, before looking at Ryuunosuke and Shinobu. "I see you're currently enjoying yourself. We were wondering if you two would like to join us as Rainbow Rock tonight, be a part of Tacchan and Shu-chan's debut."

Ryuunosuke looked confused. "Tacchan? Shu-chan?" She looked over at Ataru and Mendou, who were being lifted up and being led over to one of the raised curtain partitions.

Natsuki only raised an eyebrow at Ryuunosuke, his face otherwise neutral. "Well, calling them just Ataru and Shutarou wouldn't fit their new looks." He paused, his gaze still fixed on Ryuunosuke. "Well? What do you think? I'm sure we've got something in the closet for the three of you."

Ryuunosuke was silent for a moment. She looked towards Ataru and Mendou, poring through the large makeshift closet. She looked at Megane and Nagisa, stood in front of the curtain partition and looking at her, waiting for an answer.

Then Ryuunosuke looked back towards Shinobu, still standing half-hidden against her back.. Shinobu only smiled in response, a reassuring hand placed on her back.

"Let's go together," she said. "Tonight, me and you."

Ryuunosuke turned back to Natsuki, a look of resignation on her face. "What the hell, I'll go. What've you got for me?"

Natsuki gazed at Ryuunosuke and Shinobu for a moment. Then, in the space of a second, his hand whipped out, fingers snapping like the crack of a bullwhip. Almost instantly, as if they had came out of thin air, Jun and Tsubasa flanked him.

"Girls," Natsuki said. "What do you see?"

"I think she'd look cute in something from our gothloli collection…" Jun said. "That dark blue sailor dress with the pleats…?"

Tsubasa shook his head. "No, no… She looks like she needs something more… dangerous. Remember that Replicants homage from February?" He chewed on a fingernail. "With the black latex shorts and the crop top and the thigh high boots?"

Natsuki stepped forward as Ryuunosuke looked between the two kouhai, slightly worried.

"Your suggestions are interesting, girls." Natsuki's eyes seemed to take on a strange glint as he advanced on Ryuunosuke. "But our subject here provides us with something else. I see somebody straddling the line, standing on the divide between east and west, slavery and freedom, man and woman, top and bottom!"

Shinobu's face suddenly lit up. "You've seen Hedwig, Nastsuki-senpai? I love that film! I know all of the songs off by heart!"

Nagisa frowned. "I'm pretty sure we don't have a Hedwig wig around here…"

Natsuki glared at Tsubasa, making him shrink back. "We're not talking about wigs here… We're talking about androgyny!"

Ryuunosuke blinked in confusion. "Androgyny? Are you going to make me into a robot or something?"

Natsuki deflated at Ryuunosuke's question. "No. That's androids…" For a moment, he deigned to look somewhat flustered. "You really are a babe in the woods, aren't you?"

Ryuunosuke snorted. "I was raised on the beach, not in the woods."

Shinobu giggled, and raised a hand. "I think Ryuunosuke would be better off deciding for herself what she wants to wear tonight…"

Natsuki sighed, and turned towards the lockers, deliberating for a few seconds before pulling out several items of clothing. He walked over to one of the bare tables, and draped them over for display. "Here, have a look. What do you like the look of?"

Ryuunosuke approached the table, her eyes moving over the spread. Even though there was a dazzling array of colours and fabrics, nothing among them seemed to be it, the kind of dress she wanted to wear. Nothing, that was, until she caught a flash of red out of the corner of her eye.

She reached out and pulled the deep red dress up, a cocktail dress with a black band around the middle and a halterneck, that felt light and airy in her hands.

"Looks a little bit short for you," Natsuki said. "But we can help you make it work." He turned to Kenta. "Kenpii, if you would assist our dear Ryuu-chan…"

Kenta nodded simply, turning towards his makeup station. "Already on it."

Natsuki turned back towards Ryuunosuke. "You better get yourself cleaned up, if you don't want to be overshadowed by Moroboshi and Mendou."

Ryuunosuke scowled at Natsuki, but Shinobu had quickly taken her arm with one hand, and led her towards the showers, carrying a bushel of hair and beauty products in the other.

"Come on," Shinobu said. "We can shower together!"

"Okay…" Ryuunosuke muttered.

Half a second later, she spluttered out, "Wait, what?!" just as Shinobu had her out the door.

Notes: At last, I finally update TRC! After months of procrastination, family issues and piles of dirty laundry thanks to broken washing machines, Chapter 4 is finally published. Hopefully I can finish this thing before the end of the year. But for now, I give you this.

Yeah, I kind of got self indulgent at the end with the musical references, but I wanted some bit of me in there, really. It kind of blossomed out of listening to Cheap Trick At Budokan and went on from there.

A couple more notes:

The members of the Crossdressing Club take their family names from well known crossdressers in anime and manga, and their first names from certain seiyuu: Yutaka (Mikoto, from Princess Princess) Tsubasa (Yonaga), Arikawa (Hime, from Himegoto!) Jun (Fukuyama) and Oozora (Hibari, from Stop! Hibari-kun) Natsuki (Hanae).

Club Kitty, where Rainbow Rock is being held, is named after Kitty Films, the company that produced the Urusei Yatsura anime.

Natsuki's idea for Ryuunosuke's Rainbow Rock look is a gratuitous shout-out to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, one of my favourite musicals. There'll be a couple more of those in the next chapter, too.

Whenever I finish it...