The announcement about there being a school festival had come like fifteen minutes ago, but some of the more interested parties were already deep into the plans. "A maid café!" Kenji announced. Mamoru was nodding vigorously; the other guys from the class seemed to be in agreement very quick, save for Soushi who was reading something and paying no attention, and Kazuki who was just looking out of the window, not all that interested.

"What's a school festival?" Canon asked Maya and Sakura.

"It's just a small one, for a few hours in the afternoon the day after tomorrow," Sakura explained. "We set up booths for different stuff. Sometimes we sell things, and..." She went on with the explanation, with Maya pitching in to give Canon a better idea what was going on. "And you know what, you could help with the world cultures information booth! You know about Europe, don't you? We could..."

Behind them, Kenji didn't seem too impressed. "Hmpt, I keep telling you, our class should do a maid café."

"Oh you do that," Sakura told him. "We already decided on the world cultures booth. Besides, a café means you need coffee, tea, and cake or something." Kenji looked a bit thoughtful, and Sakura rolled her eyes. "Don't even think about it. I'm not making you a cake for something like that. You want this done, Mr. Student Council President, you organize it yourself."

Mamoru leaned closer. "Oh that's not difficult. Totally doable," he stated, nudging Kenji and turning to look at Kazuki. A smirk rose to Kenji's face, and he looked at well.

It took a moment for Kazuki to notice anything. "...What?" He asked, turning to look at the rest of them.

"You're helping us out, that's what," Kenji stated, looming closer all of a sudden, and Kazuki leaned away in his chair, completely taken aback by suddenly being the center of attention. "This maid café needs to happen. Are you a man or not?"

Kazuki, not even completely sure what Kenji was talking about, opened his mouth to say something, not that he could come up with a word to say. He then just looked at Soushi's direction, feeling helpless, even as Kenji and Mamoru were rambling at him about the café already. "I..." He finally muttered. "I, can't do something like that alone..."

"Soushi can help you out, Kazuki," Tsubaki's cheerful voice from the door called, and everyone turned to look at her.

"All right," Soushi said, looking up from the book he had been reading. "...What exactly am I helping Kazuki with?"

"Looking quite nice," Michio noted, looking around. Yumiko giggled and took his arm, dragging him indoors. "Been a while since I saw any school festivals. You sure anyone can visit?"

"I'm a teacher here," she reminded him. "Of course it's open to everyone! What's the point of setting all this up if we don't get people visiting? Here, take a look," she explained as she pulled him to look at one of the booths, with two ten-year-olds standing behind the counter. "They're selling traditional snacks here. The younger kids insisted on having a booth for this."

Michio studied the goods for a second. "Hmm. I'll have one, thanks." He bought some snacks then looked around. "Canon told me some guys had wanted to show off the Fafners, but she had shot them down by telling them they're military property and not for showing off. Speaking of her... What did the pilots do, anyway?"

"They've got a maid café set up in the classroom," Yumiko replied with quite an odd smirk on her face, in Michio's opinion. "Let's go take a look!"

A maid café sounded quite interesting, and Michio allowed himself to be dragged off. Before they made it that far, they came across Canon, Maya and Sakura at a booth outside the classroom. "So what's this then? Doesn't look like a café to me," Michio commented, although he smiled a little at the sight of Canon awkwardly explaining something about old European holiday customs to a couple of younger kids.

Maya pointed at the sign. "World cultures information booth," she explained. "Canon's really good at this. All we know is from books, but she has actually experienced this stuff when younger!"

"Not bad at all," Michio said. "I heard there was a maid café here, though. It's not your group then?"

"Oh we agreed to the maid café," Sakura cut in with a grin. "And we're helping out in occasion, but the agreement to that came with a couple of conditions. Which Kenji and Mamoru seem to be quite good at avoiding..."

Yumiko chuckled and opened the door. "Oh just come take a look yourself. This way," she called to him, stepping in, and Michio followed her into the classroom, quite curious now.

Seri, Rina and Tsubaki sat near the door around a table made from a couple of school desk set up together, sipping tea and eating cake. There were a couple of other students sitting around as well and- "Ah, welcome," Kazuki, in a maid outfit greeted them. "Would you like a table? Coffee, tea or juice?"

The sight made Michio do a double take. "...Wait..." He took a step closer, studying what was in front of him. It definitely was Kazuki Makabe, just with the whole frilly get-up, including a short skirt. "...Not bad at all, indeed," he then said with a grin. "I'll have coffee, thank you." Kazuki looked a little embarrassed but showed them to a table, and Yumiko and Michio took a seat.

Kazuki turned around, and at that point Michio could not keep himself from slapping him on the ass - which of course led to Yumiko smacking him on the head a second later. Kazuki meanwhile yelped and ran off. "Keep your hands to yourself, you old pervert," Yumiko scolded her boyfriend. "Kazuki definitely looks pretty in those clothes, but he's still a boy."

"Nothing wrong with joking around a little," Michio said with a grin. "So where are the outfits from?"

Yumiko giggled. "I had absolutely nothing to do with them. Maybe," she said as Kazuki returned and set two cups of coffee on the table, along with some cake - the whole deal carefully from Yumiko's side of the table to avoid Michio. "They were supposed to take turns, but looks like Kenji and Mamoru really did run off and are doing their best to avoid the responsibility."

"Hmmm. So they made Kazuki wear a dress," Michio took a sip of his coffee. "And who's the pretty girl they managed to talk into doing this as Kazuki's assistant?" He asked, nodding at another maid with pretty long hair who was more or less hiding on the other side of the classroom.

"That's not a girl," Tsubaki cut in. "It's Soushi."

In the end, Kenji and Mamoru managed to avoid the whole café duty. It was closing time already, and Kazuki took down the sign outside the classroom door, shut the door and sat down. "That... Well. I guess it was a success, as far as cafés go," he muttered. "Just, why did we have to do this?"

"I follow the Core's will," Soushi replied, somehow managing to sound serious. "...Even if this was a little..." He frowned, looking at the skirt he was wearing. "As the Battle Commander, I should've just told Kenji 'no', but since Tsubaki wanted it to happen..."

Kazuki smiled. "And it ended up with just the two of us running this café. Oh well, not too bad, and it was only for a couple of hours. And you..." He trailed off and blushed a little. "Look just fine in that."

"I do?" Soushi looked at the skirt again. "Well," he added, thoughtful. "I can't complain about the color, just the frills are a bit too much. And the skirt is definitely too short." He took a look at Kazuki then just sighed. "...Let's go get changed already."

"Yeah," Kazuki agreed, then stepped closer. "We should," he mumbled as he slipped his hand onto Soushi's thigh while taking a careful hold of Soushi's jaw with his other hand and leaning in for a kiss.

They parted after a moment, and Kazuki looked down, embarrassed at the realization of what he had just done, at school of all places. Soushi meanwhile looked at him curiously then smirked. "That was unusually direct from you," he noted, sounding somehow amused. "Bold, even. Kazuki," he questioned. "Does... me wearing this turn you on or something?"

Kazuki was quite bright red on his face by now. "Let's just go get changed before somebody sees us."

Author's notes:

Your own fault, Soushi, for doing anything Tsubaki says. Although he might be getting ideas now if this turns Kazuki on... Guest starring Michio and Yumiko yes.

- Lady Harken (December 2015)