Slash = In fanfiction, the pairing of the fanfic in question is usually written as name/name, the slash between the names is now synonymous with a very specific type of fanfiction, the male/male (and as fem-slash, female/female) fanfiction. Using the word slash in this way is not appreciated by everyone, and some people feel that there should be a better way to refer to these types of fanfiction, even though it's an easy shorthand to talk about non-straight fanfiction. Related to this is the term 'slashable', which is a way to refer to official anime or manga which makes it very easy to write fanfiction of certain characters of because they're already really close, or because they act in ways that could be interpreted as more than just friendship. I like things that are slashable, because I love imagining characters together, and to imagine them having a happy loving ending in the story, even if they may not end up like that in the real story.

After the fanfiction and fanart panel, Evelyn, Mya, Kevin and I just kind of got stuck in that room for a while. It was so fun to talk to people who make fanart of fandoms that I really love, that I kind of lost track of time. So I had to rush to get us all to the cosplay contest on time. But we did make it, luckily.

One of the cosplay contest staff, Annabelle according to her name tag, looks at Elliot and me. "And you're going together, right? Because that means—" It seems like she doesn't even question it, just confirming what she's assuming, since she's the one in charge of the individuals part of the contest.

"No." I shake my head. "We're both on our own."

"Oh." Annabelle looks surprised. "Right. Could you point out your name on the list?" She holds the list in front of me.

Then Elliot tugs on the sleeve of my dress and I turn to him, curious. "Yeah?"

"We could do it, you know." He looks a little awkward.

"Do what?" I'm getting lost now, my eyes scanning the list again, trying to find my own scrawls from the signing up.

"Go as a team. We'd make a pretty good chance at winning."

I look his way again. "What?" I've not done that before, I've always gone on my own.

"If we go as a team, we'd probably win, and we wouldn't have to compete against each other." He's got a point.

I look at Annabelle. "We're going to need a minute."

"Not much more than a minute." She smiles. "I've got to finalise the list."

"Sure." I nod, tugging Elliot to the side. "Are you sure?" Because this is kind of a big change so suddenly.

He shrugs and I'm not sure how I should read the way he looks. "Unless you think I'd pull down the quality of your cosplay." He keeps looking so insecure. "I guess that could be an issue."

"No." I shake my head. Does he really think that? "I've just... I've always been on my own. I hadn't thought about it." I look at Elliot and then at how well we work together, how easy getting to know him has been and how easily we've been able to pull some of the character moves for shots. "You think we can do it? Pull off a signature move together? We still need to have a little 'act' thing, you know?"

He nods, smiling a little. "I know. I don't think that should be an issue. We just have to time it correctly. Just make sure that we don't step in each other's way and stuff."

"I guess." I shrug. I guess that could work. And Elliot is right, it would mean that we wouldn't have to compete against each other. Because no matter how insecure he is about his skills, I'm not sure I'd win against him. "We should give Kevin a chance to win too, you know." I wink at Elliot, who grins. Kevin is competing as genderswapped Violet.

"True. Gotta give the peasants a chance too." Elliot grins even more when he spots someone behind me.

"Who is calling me a peasant?" Kevin steps up right behind me, his arms around my waist.

"Nobody." I laugh, trying to get out of his embrace, away from those tickly fingers that could start at any moment.

"Right." Kevin laughs too, then lets me go. "You need to get ready and everything, they're about to begin."

"Right!" I grab Elliot's hand and pull him along. We've got to change our sign up sheets.

This is fun, this is so unexpected and fun.

***

I'm out of breath, trying to keep the final pose of the sequence long enough as I look at Elliot from the corner of my eyes. He's out of breath too, but also grinning broadly.

Then we stand up and take a little bow.

"Izzy and Elliot as Sakura and Aoi from Magical Princess Club." The announcer sounds really excited about it, though he sounds excited after every contestant.

The audience claps loudly, cheering and calling things.

I take Elliot's hand, mine is shaking from the adrenaline, and then we take another little bow before we walk off the stage at the back.

That was so awesome, that was just... Wow.

Jason shows up with two bottles of water. "Nobody would have figured out that you only decided on that like... ten minutes ago." He grins as he hands us the bottles.

"Shut it." I carefully keep taking breaths, the dress isn't as easy to breathe in as it looks... It's kind of tight and I'm still out of breath. I thought it was just the adrenaline, but maybe I should have considered this when I made the costume...

"Need me to loosen the back a little?" Jason steps closer but I shake my head, then I walk to a chair near the wall at the back of the area where the contestants wait.

I sit down, carefully breathing. It's just too hot. Way too hot in here.

"Take a sip." Elliot holds an opened bottle out to me. When I don't take it immediately he raises an eyebrow. "I didn't do anything with it, I didn't even take a sip yet. Just take it. You can't accept another win in this contest if you've passed out."

I accept the bottle and take a couple of deep gulps from it. The water is still cold, which is good because it cools me down too.

I shouldn't have done that sequence in this dress, one shortcoming for this dress and the whole outfit. It's hard to breathe in when it's warm.

Annabelle comes over to us, she looks at me closely. "Are you okay? Do I need to get someone from the first-aid?"

I shake my head. "I'm good. Just a little hot. I'll be fine in a moment." Probably. I smile at her.

"Okay. Just let me know, okay?" She keeps looking at me.

I smile. "Yeah, will do." I get why they get worried, like... the organisation is responsible for like... not getting people injured and all, but I'm really good, just a little too hot.

"Okay." She walks off again, though keeps looking back a few times.

I lean back on the chair, my head against the wall. My breathing now easier. "Everybody can stop staring at me. I'm good. I'll be fine." I know that Jason and Elliot are still looking at me.

"Yeah, yeah. Just finish the bottle." I hear Elliot move, and when I open my eyes for a moment, he's standing next to my chair, leaning against the wall, also sipping from a bottle.

I like that they care, but do they have to be this overbearing? It's not like I can't take care of myself, you know. Though, I guess it's not like I've not done the whole 'going against the floor from overheating' thing around Jason before...

"How long until they announce the winners?" I sit up straight again, looking at the back of the stage.

"Half an hour or something." Jason shrugs. They had the individual contestants first and now they're doing the 'groups' second. After this is finished they'll announce all the winners at the same time.

I look around, half an hour... that's not enough time to go outside for some fresh air and get back here on time for the ceremony. Bummer.

Because if we move out of this area, we're going to be stopped for pictures every step of the way, as has been happening all day. So it'll probably take half an hour just to get out there, let alone trying to return...

I sigh.

Right.

Staying here it is.

***

"Third place goes to Ren, Pito and M from 'Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online'."

The crowd cheers, as three really good cosplayers step onto the stage, and wave at everyone. They're out there a couple of minutes as they get asked a few questions, and then, as people keep cheering, they get back off the stage. I'm too nervous to really listen to what's going on.

We're just ten 'groups' back here, all waiting to hear the results.

"Second place goes to Henrietta and Marielle from Log Horizon." Again, not us... Two people step onto the stage, and everything starts all over again.

I grip Elliot's hand, too nervous. I'm just so nervous. I guess that going on my own doesn't give me as many nerves, but this... yeah... this really does make me nervous. Nervous. I'm not really that good with sudden changes, I should have thought of that before I agreed to all of this, I think. Maybe. Probably.

When Henrietta and Marielle come back off the stage, I hold my breath.

"And now, we all want to know who won, right? Who are your favourites?"

The crowd calls out a lot of names, but I'm not sure if I'm imagining things or that Sakura and Aoi are really the names called out the loudest.

The announcer waits until everyone is quiet again. "First place, the winners of this year's contest of the group division, are..."

I gasp, because holding my breath really isn't such a good idea.

"Sakura and Aoi from Magical Princess Club!"

My mouth falls open and I stare at Elliot. We won! We did it! Not that I really believed anything else, but this is awesome. This is so cool.

"Come on." Elliot grins as he pulls on my hand.

I nod as we both walk onto the stage.

We won!

The crowd is cheering, yelling, and I keep grinning. Awesome.

We walk to the front of the stage where Annabelle is standing, holding a trophy for us. She hands it to both of us. Then she turns to the crowd. "Let's hear it for our winners!"

The noise is really loud now.

"Okay." Annabelle turns to us. "What is it like to cosplay probably the most slashable female couple of this anime season?"

I look at Elliot, she's not wrong. Sakura and Aoi kind of are very slashable, I hadn't even thought of that.

"Ehhh..." Elliot looks a little uncomfortable and then looks my way. Oh, yeah. The speaking thing...

I take a deep breath, turning to the crowd. "I guess it's kind of special, but especially unexpected. We hadn't really planned this." I grin. "This was kind of a last minute thing."

"Really? You pulled it off really well though." Annabelle smiles.

"It only comes from the power of being such fans of the anime that we can do anything when it comes to the character, no matter if we practised it ahead or not." I grin, shrugging.

"Kiss! Kiss!" Someone starts chanting and I glare in the direction of the voice, but others start to take it up too.

Kissing? Oh, no. Nope.

"Hey, that's not nice to ask of such cute girls." Annabelle must have seen that we're not really comfortable with it, plus it's just a nasty move.

"Boo!" Of course, not everyone agrees with that, and I know the way some guys look at people cosplaying cute female characters... It's like we're just there to make their fanfiction dreams come true.

I take a short breath, putting on my best smile. Then take the microphone and turn to the public, especially in the direction of the people calling out.

"Be nice to kawaii princesses. Or I'll have to defeat you with the power of chuu." I put on my best anime voice and make the most exaggerated movements and faces, ending by blowing a kiss into the public.

There is one way to stop people from being too creepy, and that's to give them just enough to satisfy whatever interest they have, while keeping enough of a distance and putting boundaries in place about what you'll do. You learn to do this quickly, but it's never easy, especially when you don't exactly know if it could have a worse effect down the line.

But I have to stop this before it gets worse. Elliot isn't that comfortable crossplaying and this would only have added to him being uncomfortable.

And I don't really want to kiss just some guy.

Okay, a really cute and sweet guy, who I wouldn't mind kissing in general, I just don't want our first kiss to be in front of all these people on a stage.

I bow to the crowd one last time and then tug on Elliot's hand as we get off the stage.

Time to get away from all the crazy, preferably to some fresh air.