A/N: Technically a crossover (curse you, CLAMP, for your canon crossovers), but it wasn't getting any hits and it's TRC-centric anyway. This takes place in episode 20 of Kobato (the only episode of it I've watched!) and is based on the comment Fai makes about how he and Kurogane were mistaken for cosplayers because of their clothes. The beginning and ending dialogue is copied directly from gg fansubs' translation, with some minor changes/edits.
"I'm going to be late!" Kobato cried as she flailed about. "The nursery's on break, but I need to be at Tirol this morning or else!"
"We tried to wake you up, but..."
"You were sleeping so soundly!" Mokona finished for Fai.
"Who you sleep with doesn't matter at all, does it," Ioryogi added grumpily, then was quickly grabbed up from the floor by Kobato who stuffed him into her bag.
"I'm sorry! I need to leave now, but please feel free to use the room as you please!"
Fai stopped her. "Kobato-chan, you're going to a bakery, right?"
"Yes! To help out!"
"Hm... to get ingredients for making chocolates for Valentine's day, wasn't it?"
"Right!"
"Then we'll help out too!" Fai told her with a smile.
"That's a good idea! Then we can repay you for letting us stay over," Mokona added.
"Then who should go to the store...?" Fai asked, and looked over at Kurogane and Syaoran. "Syaoran, why don't you go with her? You're good at cooking, and Kuro-sama working in a bakery is a little..."
"I refuse anyway," Kurogane said as he turned up his nose and looked away.
"Kuro-tan and I will find another job in order to earn some money," Fai assured her.
"Huh?" Kurogane asked, but Fai ignored him and addressed Mokona next.
"And you, Mokona?"
"I'll go with Ioryogi-san!"
"Eh? Why?" Ioryogi demanded.
"Because I feel so close to you!" Mokona replied with a giggle.
"I'm not feeling it at all!" Ioryogi raged.
Fai interrupted his outburst and stood up to say, "All right then, everything's been decided. Everyone, do your best!"
Mokona cheered with him from his shoulder. "Yay! Ioryogi-san, you too! Do your best to get along with someone just like you!"
"We're not alike!"
"Ioryogi-san is jealous of Mokona's cuteness!"
"No way!"
The two of them argued all the way out the door and down the hall as Syaoran followed Kobato out. Once everything had settled down, Fai turned to Kurogane and smiled.
"What?"
"What?" Fai mimicked back at him. "Didn't you hear what I said? Let's get going and make some money for Kobato-chan!"
"I don't see why we need to bother," Kurogane grumbled as Fai took his arm tried to pull him up off the floor, but couldn't budge him and nearly fell over when Kurogane finally decided to stand up.
"It's for a good cause," Fai assured him when he regained his balance. "Besides, we should pay her back for letting us stay here."
Kurogane sighed. "Whatever. Let's go, then."
#
"We're getting lots of strange looks, don't you think?" Fai commented to Kurogane as they sat down on a bench together in the small park they'd come across. There were people out strolling, some giving the pair long stares, others sneaking quick glances to make it look like they weren't staring. Of the latter, there was a group of giggling schoolgirls in uniform huddled together. Every few seconds, one of them would glance over at them then turn back to their group and talk and giggle some more. Finally, the girl who seemed to be the leader of the group broke away and came over to them as the others hovered some distance away and watched.
"Um, excuse me, but are you two cosplayers?"
"Oh?" Fai asked with a smile, "is this something that would be considered cosplay here?"
"Eh?" The girl asked, looking confused. "Are you... or aren't you?"
Fai opened his mouth to reply, but Kurogane hit him on the head before he could say anything else stupid. "Uh, yes. We are," he replied, and the girl beamed.
"Is it okay if we take some pictures of you then?"
"Sure!" Fai replied enthusiastically before Kurogane could say no.
"Really? Thanks!" she squealed, and whipped her phone out of her purse as she waved the other group of girls over. Most just had phones to take pictures with, but two girls had their cameras and they all began to snap away.
"Ah... should we pose or something?" Fai asked, and was greeted with a chorus of yes's and some directions of how they should stand. Fai responded with enthusiasm, but Kurogane wasn't happy about it and took some persuading to cooperate. "Smile!" Fai encouraged, but he refused.
As they posed, Fai noticed one of the other girls whispering something to the leader, who nodded and came back up to them. "Can you stay here for a minute?" she asked them, and when Fai agreed to wait they all moved back into their little group huddle to discuss something which much excitement.
"What are they doing now?" Kurogane demanded grumpily; this was not his idea of "work".
"I don't know. But look," Fai said, and nodded over at them. The girls had begun to dig through their purses. "Maybe cosplay is very popular in this world?"
Kurogane opened his mouth to berate Fai again, but the leader of the girls came back over. "If it's okay... if we give you 10,000 yen, will you two let us take pictures of you kissing each other?"
"Is that a lot of money?" Fai asked as Kurogane choked in surprise behind him.
The girl didn't seem to know how to answer. "Er, well, yes... are you foreign...?" she wondered aloud, and Fai nodded. "If you don't want to that's okay, but..."
"Sure we'll do it!" Fai told her with a smile, and she squealed and ran back to her group to collect the money from them.
"H-hey!" Kurogane protested, finally recovering from the shock. "You can't just volunteer me for something like that!"
"Don't be silly," Fai told him, "it's easy money! All we have to do is kiss."
"I'm not going to kiss you!" Kurogane sputtered. "I refuse!"
"It's just a little kiss," Fai replied innocently, "Nothing wrong with that. Please, Kuro-sama? For Kobato-chan? For me?" He put on his best pouty face and sad puppy-dog eyes and looked up at Kurogane.
"Cut that out, you look stupid," Kurogane grumbled, but it was working. He sighed. "Oh, all right. But only this once. Then we go look for a proper job."
"Yay!" Fai exclaimed, and clapped his hands together as the girls came back over, phones and cameras at the ready. "How should we pose?" he wondered out loud, then with a grin flung his arms around Kurogane's neck as the girls began snapping pictures in earnest. "Go on, put your arms around me too!"
"I said okay to kissing you, not..."
"Oh, quit complaining," Fai scolded him with a giggle as Kurogane hesitantly put his hands on Fai's waist. "Now kiss me!"
"Do I really...? In front of such an audience...?" Kurogane asked, embarrassed.
"For the money!" Fai reminded him, "Just try and pretend they're not there."
"Impossible," Kurogane muttered, then sighed. "All right..."
He leaned forwards, stopped, hesitated for a moment, and then Fai got tired of waiting and went for it himself – and he wasn't shy about it at all. The gasps and squeals of the girls and their clicks and flashes faded into the background as Fai turned the promised "little kiss" into "full-blown make-out kiss," but when he tried to get some tongue action in, Kurogane – no matter how much he wouldn't admit he liked it – had had enough and pushed him away. The girls cheered for an encore, but Kurogane turned away and refused as Fai smiled in triumph as he collected the cash.
As the girls drifted off in a group, reviewing and comparing the pictures they'd took, Fai and Kurogane sat back down on the bench as Fai counted the money and put it away. "See? That wasn't so bad, was it Kuro-tan?"
"Easy for you to say," Kurogane mumbled as he put his hand over his mouth, tried not to blush, failed, and looked away while pretending not to be interested. "You didn't have to do it like that."
"Oh? Well, I just thought they'd want to get their money's worth," Fai replied with a playful grin. After a few moments, he asked, "Did you like it?"
"No!" Kurogane replied sharply.
"Liar," Fai accused him.
"I am not!"
"You're lying~" Fai said in a sing-song voice, and poked Kurogane's cheek.
"Am not!"
"Then why are you blushing?"
"I'm not blushing!"
"Yes you are! Your face is all red!" Fai accused him, laughing.
"I've had enough of this!" Kurogane exclaimed, and stormed off. Grinning from ear to ear, Fai got up and followed.
#
"Nobody will hire us because of how we're dressed," Kurogane complained as they sat down on a bench and ate their lunch.
"Well, we could buy new outfits for this world... but we should give this money to Kobato-chan first, then earn money for clothes," Fai replied with a smile.
"Then why did you spend some of it on lunch?" Kurogane demanded.
Fai finished and licked his fingers. "Well, we still have to eat! And lunch didn't cost very much at all. I think we got a good deal from those schoolgirls."
"So? What are we going to do?" Kurogane asked after he too had finished his lunch.
"Well, if we can't find any work today I guess we should go back to Kobato-chan's room and wait for everyone to get back," Fai suggested. "Maybe Kobato-chan will have some idea of where we could try to find work tomorrow."
"She doesn't seem very... together," Kurogane commented.
Fai smiled. "I'm sure she means well and tries her best. That's why we should do our best to help her, too!"
"Letting girls take pictures of us kissing is not 'doing our best'!" Kurogane griped, but Fai only smiled at him.
#
"Welcome home!" Fai greeted them as Kobato opened the door. "How was working at the bakery?"
"We're back! Syaoran is very talented and the manager praised him over and over!"
"Oh, I'm not..." Syaoran began as he was taking off his shoes.
"Though, the manager also said he was wearing unusual clothes," Mokona added.
"Oh, you too? Our clothes were a problem for us as well. People asked us if we were cosplaying," Fai replied.
"Things got complicated because you asked if such outfits would be considered cosplay in this world!" Kurogane scolded him.
"Here you go," Fai said as he handed the envelope of the money they'd made to Kobato. "It's only from one day so it's not a lot, but..."
"Are you sure? Is this okay?" Kobato asked him first before accepting it.
"Of course. It would make me happy if you'd take it. As payment for letting us stay here and all," Fai told her with a smile.
"Thank you so much! I'll use it for Yomogi Nursery!"
Just as Kobato finished speaking, Mokona's earring began to glow brightly – the signal that they needed to move on to the next world, so they said their goodbyes and departed, leaving the rest up to Kobato.