Karin: Okay, random oneshot that I decided to write for this awesome series. It's TamaYuji so I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bamboo Blade. Plain and simple (grabs a tissue to blow her nose)

Social Woes

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To say Tamaki Kawazoe was about to have an anxiety attack was the biggest understatement of the year. Her heart was pounding. Sweat build up on her brow. Her hands were clammy and shaking. And she couldn't help but gulp every few minutes in her current predicament.

She felt as if she was going to have a heart attack.

You all are probably wondering what the smallest member of the Muroe High School Kendo Club is doing at that precise moment. Surely from her nervous stature and stiff posture, you would think the kendo prodigy had finally met her match in a round of kendo, however this matter was more fearsome than kendo. So fierce that it could tear the very fabric of time to pieces if she made one wrong move.

"A-Ah, welcome to our cosplay café!" she squeaked out as some customers went inside the clubroom turned café for the annual school festival. "Have a good time…" her voice pretty much turned to a small mumble at that point.

And it was this precise school festival that Koujiro-sensei had concocted his "brilliant and mind-blowing plan that will change the world" in order to get the kendo club to gain some publicity in their school. Now the idea of a cosplay café wasn't so bad—dare she say genius, but none of the club members would dare admit that less they'd increase their teacher's unnecessary silliness—and Tamaki found the idea to be interesting and unique.

But then it all came crashing down on the poor girl. It seemed that Koujiro-sensei had got it into his head that they needed something to draw in the costumers. Something that would charm them into stepping inside to have a bite to eat.

And she was the bait that lured them in.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they just wore their uniforms. After all, it was a kendo club. Why not show off their skills and such for entertainment as the guests ate? But her sensei had something totally different in mind—thus she was forced to stand in front of the classroom wearing this—this monstrosity!

Tamaki fingered the giant pink bow above her head nervously as the other hand clutched her skirt tightly. As she stood there holding the sign that advertised their café, she couldn't help but wonder why she was actually doing this and why she didn't just say no to Koujiro-sensei.

Because of the new anime boxset he promised you, remember? A voice chimed inside her head mournfully. Again she cursed herself for forgetting to pre-order. It's ironic because she's been waiting for this anime to come our for months and when it does she forgets to preorder. If she drew in customers at the front door then Koujiro-sensei would give her the new anime boxset she so desired.

Translation: Kirino and Saya will end up buying it because they too wanted to see Tamaki dress up and look cute while Koujirou-sensei claimed it was from himself.

And what luck that Tamaki had to be the one to cosplay the leading role. Their eccentric and lazy teacher had decided—of all the random things. He's been spending too much time with Saya-senpai apparently—to do an Alice in Wonderland theme. Unfortunately, the small girl had been picked—more like downright manhandled—into being the role of Alice.

Currently the small girl was wearing a cotton blue dress ending at the knees with short puffy sleeves. Around her torso and shoulders was a cute white apron with a big bow tied at her back to keep the thing around her. She wore white ankle socks and black dress shoes and finally a big pink bow was atop her head.

Basically, she was the epitome of cuteness.

But the young swordswoman didn't see it that way if her constant fidgeting wasn't an indication. To be honest, she thought she was the worst person for the role of Alice. Kirino-senpai or Azuma-san would've been so much better for the role. They had a certain aura about them and while Azuma was shy, she had charisma. In fact, Kirino-senpai would've been the first choice in Tamaki's opinion. She was always good with this sorta thing.

It didn't help that a lot of guys have been staring at her or have been trying to speak to her. She didn't even know them. Why were they trying to talk to her when the café was inside? The poor girl was only more confused when the males seemed to be a lot more interested in staying outside the door where she stood than inside eating at the café.

It only made it worse that Tamaki was socially awkward to begin with. Oh sure, give her a kendo stick and she could yell her heart out, but make her talk to people in a conversation and she's worse than Azuma-san and her clumsiness.

Maybe I should just leave. Tamaki thought to herself with a sigh. All this nerve-wracking made her tired and wishing she could go home. If she had known that clubs had to do these kinds of things, then she would've quit the kendo club a long time ago—she could still protect them! Just not be a member!

But… she really, really, really wanted that boxset…

And Kirino-senpai and Saya-senpai looked really happy to see her dressed up like this. She didn't want to make them unhappy by leaving abruptly...

But the boxset was what was really making her stay if she was being honest. She absolutely, positively wanted that thing to death.

"Eh? Kawazoe-san, is that you?" asked a boy from her homeroom class. He and a couple of his friends stopped to look at the girl making her freeze on the spot from the attention. It only made her shyer as she realized they were all males.

"H-hai …" her voice trailed off and her amethyst eyes shifted to anywhere else but her classmate. With dread she noticed they were staring at her with that weird look that all the males she had encountered today seemed to adopt when they saw her standing here.

I wish I had a shinai… she thought despaired.

"Kawaii! You look very nice, Kawazoe-san!" the boy said while he and his companions nodded appreciatively.

"Ah! Is she in your class, Takashi?" asked one of his friends gesturing to the tiny swordswoman. It didn't help her frazzle nerves as all of them were almost twice her size. Darn being small at times…

The boy Takashi nodded with a smile and his friend let out a sigh.

"Lucky, and yet you didn't put any moves on her at all? You must be stupid or something." Now Tamaki raised an eyebrow. Moves? Was he talking about kendo? She wasn't aware that Akashima-kun did kendo.

"Yeah, she's super cute!" another one said and then turned to the girl. "Hey! Do you have a boyfriend?" he boldly inquired of her stepping closer as he did so making Tamaki jump a little at her invasion of personal space.

She really wished she had a shinai.

"You know… cause if you don't, I'd like to take you somewhere." The third guy told her before she got a chance to answer with a wink. This made Tamaki's brow furrow slightly.

She really really wished she had a shinai. If only it was to knock some sense into the boys who kept asking her to go somewhere or go out. She couldn't go anywhere! She was doing advertising for her club! An anime boxset was on the line!

"Ah! How's the job doing, Tama-chan?" a new voice barged itself into the conversation. The party turned towards the door to the kendo clubroom to see Yuji Nakata. He was dressed as the Mad Hatter. Leaving his place by the door, he approached the group with a good-natured smile on his face. "Why don't you guys come inside? There's plenty of food in there and a lot more interesting than standing out here." he suggested to the group of boys.

Some of them looked as if they were about to protest, but then Yuji said, "Tama-chan is going to leave soon anyway. She's really tired and I'm sure she's in need of a break." his smile never left his face as the boys begrudgingly filed in. Once they were inside and the door was closed, Yuji turned towards his female friend. "Mou, Tama-chan, why didn't you tell them to leave you alone if they were bothering you?" he asked her curiously.

"I didn't have a shinai or anything…" she muttered quietly. It was true—without a shinai or something similar to it, her confidence seemed to evaporate out of her like it always does when kendo or injustice's not involved. She heard him let out a tiny sigh beside her.

"If it happens again, just say you have a boyfriend or something and then they'll leave, okay?" Yuji told her. Tamaki gave him her usual neutral expression.

"But it's been happening all day… for some reason boys have been really weird today asking me if I wanted to go somewhere when they obviously see I'm doing a job. Then they're saying something about moves and boy friends which confuses me more. I mean, I'm in the kendo club so it should be obvious I have male friends and I can move properly." she said in a monotone with the same expression making Yuji sweat drop. She didn't get it at all…

"I see…" he let out a nervous laugh with a sweat drop on the back of his head doubling in size. It seemed Tamaki was dense in anything outside of anime and kendo.

"Yuji-kun, shouldn't you be getting back inside now?" she asked him titling her head slightly. Yuji gave her a smile in reply.

"Sensei let me go on break so I decided to come out here and join you since I though you might be lonely. Sorry Koujiro-sensei singled you out and made you miss all the fun." he said to her.

"It's fine." Tamaki replied. Anime boxset…. Anime boxset…

So Yuji had stayed with her to keep her company during her break. Oddly enough, his break had seemed to last the whole day because he didn't once go back inside the clubroom. Tamaki was surprised Koujiro-sensei had let him go on a break for this long. While he was lazy himself, she didn't think that he would encourage his students to be lazy when they were doing something important. Additionally, she felt a little envious that she couldn't go on a break too.

Still the young girl didn't complain. Yuji-kun's presence made the boys stop approaching her with odd questions as he talked to her to keep her entertained. Plus, she liked Yuji-kun's company. After all, she grew up with him so she was used to his presence around her. It was comforting to have something familiar in the uncomfortable atmosphere this advertising position provided.

When it was finally time to go home, Tamaki couldn't have changed out of her costume fast enough. Collecting her reward, she raced off into the courtyard to gather her bike and head home. All the while not noticing Yuji smiling after her as she went.

It would surprise Tamaki when she remembered a lot later in the evening meanwhile she was sitting on her bed watching her new anime boxset that Koujiro-sensei had proclaimed loudly that very morning when they were preparing for the cosplay café that no one would be allowed breaks period.

Karin: Done! I hope it was good. I tried to keep them all IC as best as I could. Anyway, I really like this series and I really wanted to write something for it. I'm a real big fan of Tamaki/Yuji so I wanted to write something on them. Reviews are highly appreciated. Thank you very much.

See ya Next time!