Tennis no Ohjisama Halloween Special!
by Suke

1. About Pinks and Peaches

It was supposed to be a one-shot fluffy piece! I even had the basic idea laid out in my mind but then, Suke-san just likes to talk too much. Sigh.

Oh, and I know it's not yet Halloween ^_^ We don't exactly celebrate Halloween over here but a few shops have started selling some Halloween related stuff lately so I thought I should just write something stupid for fun.

*****

Instalment one of three: Ryoma-chan

*****

"Aniki," Fuji Yuuta lost his train of thought.

The cute, scruffy-headed boy stood in the doorway of his brother's usually tidy room, hand on doorknob and jaw hanging about a foot below its usual position. He blinked. And he blinked again. No, the picture before him did not change.

His brother had looked up upon his entrance and was now standing in front of him beaming that same beatific smile he always wore. Behind him, other members of his brother's tennis club sat around the room in various states of costume.

Fuji Syusuke was already completely in costume from tan boots with shiny spurs to the fringed jacket, string tie and Stetson. All he lacked for the party was his plain black mask that waited on his desk. All in all, Fuji Syusuke made a very delectable cowboy, chocolate bangs hanging in his eyes and tight jeans.

"Nya! It's Fuji's otouto!" One Kikumaru Eiji in cat ears, cat paws and cat tail sprang up from his reclining position on the bed and shouted. "Neh, Shuu, he's so cute!"

Oishi Shuichiroh merely smiled at his doubles partner and nodded. Fuji, however, was more enthusiastic about this pronouncement.

"Ee (meaning yes), Yuuta you look so cute! You're such an adorable Red Indian!"

Yuuta blushed a dull red. He would not have chosen to wear this costume except that their sister had been so excited about her brothers dressing as a cowboy and an Indian. Neither of them was good at refusing their sister, although Yuuta didn't see why he had to be the one with paint on his face and his vest, ahem, open.

Yuuta tugged the two sides of his unbuttoned garment together for the hundredth time. And he'd only been wearing it for an hour too! Fuji smiled at the unconscious action. His little brother was so cute!

"Anyway I just came to tell you that the rest of your club members have arrived," Yuuta mumbled and glared at his brother.

Yuuta tried to keep glaring but he couldn't help looking at the boy standing in the middle of the room and as he did that, his jaw dropped again. Echizen Ryoma sure looked different when he was dressed as a girl.

*****

It took Yuuta all of five minutes to realise that Echizen Ryoma was glaring at him. Then, a whole string of other insights poured in: He had been standing there staring like an idiot for five minutes. His stupid aniki had taken the opportunity to creep up on him and hug him and was now still, with arms wrapped around him, smiling his same annoying smile. The two other Seigaku members, after smiling at Yuuta for some time, had returned to their original task of, well, preening Echizen.

"Itte!" The small boy suddenly growled and jerked his head back an inch. "Kikumaru-sempai, that hurts!" He complained.

The red-haired boy, however, showed no sympathy and continued to brandish a mascara brush at Echizen's eyes.

"Nya, Shuu! Make him hold still!" Eiji pouted cutely at his doubles partner who was seated on the bed still, looking like he wanted to bolt himself.

"Maa, Eiji, maybe you should leave off the mascara," Oishi intervened for his kouhai who he had begun to pity the moment he had found out about the lost bet. Oishi didn't want to be a part of this at all but he had to make sure that the tensai and his little Eiji didn't get too carried away.

"Echizen-gen, a bet is a bet," Fuji said cheerfully.

"I didn't say you could blind me!" Echizen retorted immediately.

"Mou! I'm trying my best already! It's not like I usually use any of this!" Eiji whined and then suddenly turned to the boy gaping at them at the door with the cutest smile. "Yuuta-chan, come help me, please. Shuichi is so mean."

"Yuuta-chan?!" Yuuta was taken aback and to his own annoyance, he blushed.

Yuuta swept the room with a glare, spun on his heel and stalked off, his brother's soft laughter in his ears. Stupid aniki!

But what in the world were they doing to Echizen Ryoma?

*****

Echizen flinched from the cute hairpin with the little flower coming towards his head. It was peach! And pink! These two colours were the bane of his life!

If he looked down, there was that pale pink skirt layered with white lace and peachy frills. It was a part of a dress that hung straight down from the neck so as to remain ambiguous about Echizen's chest, or lack thereof, ending above his - gasp! - knees. The dress had a peach sailor collar and a little white cape tied on beneath it with a ribbon.

His arms were left bare by the cute cap sleeves, or would have been if not for the long gloves of pale peach, white ribboned silk that reached midway up his upper arms.

And his feet! He was wearing lace stockings of that same disgusting pale peach with white ribbons. His shoes were a similar disgrace. They were white patent leather Mary Janes with a little *pink* flower on each buckle.

Fuji had decided that Echizen should go without a wig. Instead, they teased his longish unruly hair into a girly semblance of coquettish curls. A little blusher and some pretty hairpins finished the job.

The truth was that Echizen Ryoma made a very pretty picture right now.

"Nya! Kawaii!" Eiji laughed, excitedly grabbing Oishi's hands and jumping up and down.

"You'll be the prettiest girl at the party," Fuji said, looking satisfied at their handiwork.

"It's true, Echizen," Oishi offered encouragingly. "You look very pretty."

The result of all this was that Echizen blushed.

How he wished that he had never agreed to that bet. How he wished he knew how to keep his stupid mouth shut. How he wished someone would come and shoot him right now and take him out of his misery.

Echizen glared again at his three sempais smiling at him with that self- satisfied look in their eyes. He hated them.

Stupid Kikumaru-sempai! Echizen bet this was all his idea! And stupid Fuji- sempai. Echizen would have skipped out if Fuji-sempai hadn't foreseen that and come to get him from his house, rope and gag in hand. And stupid Oishi- sempai, although Echizen knew that he had been spared a few more extreme items of feminine dress because of the soft-hearted vice-captain, he still hated Oishi-sempai for being too soft to stop his cute little Eiji.

And stupid Momo-sempai! Echizen didn't know why but he was angry at that goofy, grinning spiky-haired sempai as well.

*****

Downstairs, four Seigaku regulars sat on a couch a little bewildered by the myriad of activity going on around them. Tezuka stifled a yawn. Kawamura smiled in general, making small talk with Inui in a rabbit suit. It had to be one of the strangest moments of Taka-san's life.

Kawamura was dressed somewhat unimaginatively as a sushi chef. That costume far surpassed those of Tezuka and Kaidoh, however, because both had declined to wear any costume at all although they wore the required masks.

The Fuji house was decorated with the traditional orange and black of Halloween. Wicked looking pumpkins sat staring at them from all around the room. On their right was a long table heaped with food, currently surrounded by a mass of boys split distinctly into two groups.

One of the groups must be the Hyotei Gakuen tennis team, Kawamura decided, noticing a boy dressed as a sailor fast asleep, obviously Akutagawa Jiroh, being dragged around by another much larger boy dressed as a butler, obviously Kabaji. The butler was following the dictates of a third person who had undertaken the colourful costume of a pirate.

The pirate, gleaming unruly dark hair in a brilliant red bandana, loose white frilly shirt unlaced to his navel, and heavy jewellery ringing his fingers, seemed to be deciding exactly what he wanted to eat while the butler hovered alertly by with a pair of tongs, ready to pick up whatever the pirate decided on.

No points for guessing that the flamboyant pirate was the lovely, arrogant captain of Hyotei's team, Atobe.

The other group at the food table was Fudomine. Ibu Shinji was looking very cute dressed as some caped hero talking to himself. Kawamura would never have guessed that he was the type who liked superheroes. He glanced back at Inui to see that the dataman found this to be new information as well and was hastily scribbling in his notebook.

"Yii data," Inui mumbled to himself. "Kamio is dressed as Robin Hood. How interesting," Inui remarked on the red-haired boy standing next to Shinji.

As he spoke, the captain of Fudomine appeared between the two boys and put an arm around each of their shoulders.

"And Tachibana is dressed as a Fudomine student," Inui ruminated.

"Ah, Inui-san," Kawamura said hesitantly. "I think Tachibana-san isn't wearing that as a costume."

St Rudolph was clustered at another corner of the room around a Playstation, both of Hyotei's best doubles teams with them.

Most of the Yamabuki team was here. The Rokkaku and Jousei Shonen teams were here. The reporters Inoue-san and Shiba-san were here. The teams' coaches were here. The Seigaku first and second years were here. And a whole bunch of other people none of them recognised was here. It seemed like Fuji had invited everyone, from his relatives to his kindergarten classmates.

But Fuji himself was absent. Tezuka stifled another yawn. Fuji had said he was going to be dressed as a cowboy. Tezuka couldn't go home before he saw that.

*****

Well, what do you think? ^_^ Please review and let me know.

I don't like this so much. The style of writing is not very disciplined. It's quite meandering out of point. Sigh. But I've already written so much of it, I thought I should just post it.

Next chapter coming up soon: 'She' Appears

Oh, and believe it or not, I drew Echizen -- in costume. Suke-san couldn't help it! I was writing the description of his dress and stuff and he just seemed cuter and cuter so I had to draw him!!! I'll post it when I scan it if anyone wants to see.