Hi guys, here's my new story. This one's about Shouhei and fem!Bandou. It's set in the same world as my other genderbent fics but you don't really need to read them to understand this one, which is good because I am so not writing them in order.

That's all guys, hope you enjoy. I own nothing!


Chapter 1: Red ribbons


Saburota Bandou was five years old.

She was also minding her own business in her own little world that, for perhaps the last time in her life, was peaceful and quiet.

Her peace was ruined when a small brown-haired boy with a red shirt and bright amber eyes hurled into her and almost knocked her out of her chair.

"Oof!" Said the boy.

"Ow!" Said Saburota.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Bandou adjusted her pigtail which had been mussed when he'd knocked into her and glared at the boy who was now apologizing to her.

"Watch where you're going!" She scolded petulantly, scrunching up her black eyes, not because she was that angry or upset but because, without keeping her head down and away from the bright light, her eyes immediately began to hurt.

The boy however apparently believed she was about to cry, "please don't cry!" He exclaimed loudly, some of the other kids looked over at them.

"I wasn't going to cry!" Said Bandou, equally as loudly, flushing crimson, now everyone was going to think she was a cry-baby thanks to this boy. She stopped squinting to glare at the boy.

He rubbed the back of his head looking slightly ashamed, "I'm really sorry," he said again.

Bandou's bottom lip stuck out slightly as she pouted and scowled, "you've said that already," she pointed out.

The boy rubbed the back of his head again, "yeah, I did didn't I? Um," his mum told him it was always polite to tell people your name, unless they were strange adults, but this girl was making a strange expression but she certainly wasn't an adult. "I'm Shouhei Akagi, nice to meet you," he offered. "What's your name?"

Saburota chewed the inside of her lip for a second before deciding, correctly, that if she didn't give her name the boy, Shouhei, would keep badgering her until she told him. Bandou wasn't always the brightest crayon in the pack but she was one hundred percent right in this case.

"I'm Saburota Bandou," she told him reluctantly.

No matter how hard Shouhei tried, and he tried very, very hard, he couldn't wrap his mouth around Bandou's first name, eventually he wrinkled his nose and gave up.

"How about I just call you 'San-chan'?" He suggested.

A nickname? Bandou's cheeks flooded with colour, no one had ever given her a nickname before, not even her mother. She brushed the strange burst of pleasure aside and frowned, "you can't call me that, we aren't friends!" She said grumpily.

"Well..." Apparently the boy hadn't thought of that, or if he had, he hadn't considered it an obstacle, "how about we be friends then?"

Bandou wrinkled her own nose, "I don't want to be friends with you!" Why would he want to be friends with her?

"Please?" Shouhei begged, he had very big amber eyes that reminded Saburota of a puppy, they made her want to give in to him, which made her not want to be his friend even more.

"No," she said.

"Pretty please?"

"No!"


It had been two years since they first met and, if Saburota Bandou had to, absolutely had to say something nice about Shouhei Akagi, it would be that he was a persistent little brat that was for sure.

And that was about the only nice thing she'd ever say about him, the boy was annoying. All of Saburota's friends didn't think so, they thought he was nice but she couldn't stand him.

He was better than her at everything, which was annoying enough for a start. And he was friendly with everyone; half the time he hung out with them Bandou was sure her friends liked Shouhei better than they liked her.

And he was friendly towards her too, her rejection of his friendship when they were five hadn't stopped him from sticking to her like a particularly annoying and talkative thorn in her side. Always smiling, always laughing, always kind to her even when she yelled at him to go away, it drove her crazy!

And he was even better than her at the things that she was genuinely good at, Bandou wasn't a particularly competitive person, at least not all the time, so if it were just a couple of things she probably wouldn't have cared, but he was better than her at everything and everyone loved him! Eventually Bandou, who was normally apathetic for a seven year old, was being driven mental by the smallest of activities because all of those activities contained one person, Shouhei bloody Akagi. Everything she tried, tennis, volleyball, basketball, all sports, sewing, drawing, painting, anything and everything, if he heard she had signed up for something, he signed up for it too. And he was always better than her at it. Eventually, Bandou snapped.

"Why the Hell are you following me!?" She yelled, slamming her badminton racket down in disgust.

"I heard San-chan had signed up to play badminton," Shouhei said innocently, his usual friendly smile dancing in his eyes and on his mouth, "so I signed up too!"

Over the last two years Bandou had probably tried more different after-school activities than the rest of her year level (minus Shouhei) put together, just to get rid of this guy!

"I got that," she growled, "but why?"

"Because I want you to be my friend, and I thought if we spent more time together maybe you would want that too," said Shouhei honestly.

"But why do you want to be my friend?" Demanded Saburota.

"Because San-chan is someone worth being friends with," said Shouhei, causing Bandou to stop and stare, no one had ever said that to her before.

Her cheeks reddened, "I don't want to be friends with you!" She told him vehemently, "and stop calling me San-chan! It's getting annoying and now other people are doing it too!" She stormed off, making as much noise as her small self could, the instructor hurried after her but Bandou ignored the woman.

Shouhei smiled, San-chan was so cute when she was blushing and she was angry!

Shouhei did, however, take Saburota's words to heart and left her alone during her after school activities, he quit badminton after their conversations and when he started talking to her in school he would go away if she yelled at him to. He always came back though, but it was still an improvement.

Bandou actually quit badminton not long after Shouhei did, it was lacking something now. A tiny voice in her head asked her if it was lacking him but that was ridiculous! Saburota did not like Shouhei Akagi! They were not friends!

However, Saburota's mother was pushing her to take up another activity, Mrs. Bandou was worried, her daughter was anti-social in the extreme, she had friends but she wasn't particularly close to anybody, she would much rather spend her time alone than with them. Whenever she joined a team or a club or something she at least had another chance to interact with kids her own age aside from school.

The problem was, Saburota couldn't think of any other sports or activities she wanted to try, she'd covered pretty much everything.

She mulled over it for a few weeks before she overheard an older student talking about swimming lessons.

Bandou had never tried swimming before, it seemed like fun.

Unfortunately, or, depending on who you asked, fortunately, when Saburota started lessons, she ran into a familiar face.

"San-chan!" Saburota's back stiffened as she heard the voice. Thanks to Shouhei constantly using that unwanted 'nickname' plenty of people now called her 'San-chan' but only one person had that bright, happy voice when he used her nickname.

"Shouhei?" She noticed he was in a pair of swimming trunks and had a towel tied around his neck like a cape, "what are you doing here?"

"I started taking lessons here at the beginning of the year!" He said brightly.

Oh brilliant.

"What are you doing here San-chan?" Shouhei asked.

"I just started lessons here," Bandou admitted reluctantly.

"Oh," Shouhei smiled before remembering his unspoken promise to leave San-chan alone, "well should I stop taking lessons here then?" He wondered.

Saburota felt herself blush though she wasn't totally sure why, she just seemed to do that whenever she was angry, and Shouhei always made her angry.

"You idiot! You started here first! If one of us needs to leave, it's me! And you didn't have to go anywhere you know," this last sentence was a mumbled whisper. "You could've stayed."

Shouhei wasn't the most sensitive of children but something told him San-chan would get angry again if he made a big fuss over her statement.

So he just smiled hugely and said, "how about we both stay here and learn together?"

Wordlessly San-chan nodded, Shouhei's face broke into a huge smile and he skipped off to his class bidding Bandou a cheery 'goodbye.' For now.

Having been there since the beginning of the year Shouhei was several classes above Saburota but she surprised herself with the speed with which she caught up, at last, here was something she could do, this was fun, this was easy. Swimming wasn't one of the many things Saburota had achieved a mild level of skill at by months or even years of practice but something she had a natural affinity and love for and by the time she was nine she had caught up with Shouhei and they were in the same class.

Had she been the one who started earlier and he been the one who caught up to her, Saburota thought she would have been upset by him, once again, proving to be better than her at something. But Shouhei wasn't like that at all (maybe because she'd never been better than him at something before?).

On the contrary, Shouhei was thrilled to be in the same class as her and spent more time in the water excitedly yammering to her than he did actually swimming.

It was over this period of time that Saburota was at least semi-honest with herself and admitted she didn't hate Shouhei Akagi, she didn't even dislike him, he was kind of fun, or at least interesting, to be around and his smile always made her want to smile back at him (though she never did of course).

But, being the petulant and contrary little thing she was, Bandou was naturally suspicious of someone who just refused to get mad over anything, seriously, was this kid an angel or something? Saburota spent at least half of her time with Shouhei being rude and snappish in the hopes that he would eventually get fed up and leave her alone.

This wasn't because she disliked him and wanted him to go away; she didn't feel like that anymore, this was because pushing him away, having him get mad and leave her alone, would hurt less than having him realize she definitely was not as amazing as he seemed to believe. Everyone did that eventually, Saburota still had friends now but she wasn't sure how long that was going to last, and none of them, no one, had ever thought she was as amazing as Shouhei did.

However, Shouhei just wasn't getting the hint.

One lesson the instructor decided that they were going to take it in turns to swim the whole length of the pool and back and he was going to time them, and, if they did well enough, both in time and technique, they would get to advance to the next class.

Of course, he didn't actually outright tell them that, probably to avoid disappointing those who didn't do well enough but they all knew how this worked by now.

They went alphabetically by surnames so Shouhei was up first and Bandou was second, Shouhei finished his and the instructor called out his time. Saburota personally thought he'd done really well and instead of envy she felt warm happiness for her friend, because yes, that's what he was. Shouhei would definitely get into the next class.

But there was no way she was telling him that though, Shouhei was excitable enough as it was, if Bandou complimented him he'd probably faint from excitement and drown.

Bandou was up next, she swam quickly but not too quickly as to ruin her technique and when she got back her instructor told her that was 'brilliant.' Then he told Bandou her time. She'd beaten Shouhei by 1.5 seconds.

Grinning Shouhei swam over to her and threw an arm around her shoulders "good job San-chan!" He said happily.

Yeah, he was way too good to hang out with the likes of her. So instead of shouting at him for using the stupid nickname he gave her and for touching her Saburota just turned scarlet and mumbled, "thanks. You too."

It was the least she could do.


After their lesson Saburota came out of the girls bathroom her towel and bag over one arm, she had to meet her mother in the car park now, but she stopped at the sight of Shouhei sitting on the front steps of the swimming centre, idly staring at the sky.

"What are you still doing here, are you waiting for someone to pick you up?" Bandou asked.

Shouhei looked up at her and smiled and shook his head, "no. I live just there," he pointed at one of the houses opposite the swimming centre, "I was just waiting for you."

"Why were you waiting for me?" Asked Bandou, she didn't give him a chance to answer as water dripped from Shouhei's hair onto his shirt.

"You idiot!" Saburota threw her own towel over his head and began to furiously dry his hair, "you can't just dry your body, you have to dry your hair too! Otherwise you'll catch a cold!"

Shouhei chuckled and sat patiently, "San-chan really is a caring person, isn't she?" He asked softly. Bandou didn't hear him and continued to dry his hair, scolding him all the while.


"This is stupid," said nine year old Bandou, scowling.

Shouhei, who had just turned ten, turned back to grin at her, "it'll be fine, you worry too much."

"I do not, you're just reckless," the girl replied, squinting a bit and raising her hand to cover her eyes, the sunlight was hurting them, "seriously Shouhei, come on, let's go back. I don't want to be part of your idiocy."

"Let's just go swimming for a little bit," Shouhei begged he gave her his biggest smile which he knew would always get him whatever he wanted from her, or shouted at.

Bandou huffed, her cheeks dusting pink, he knew, that bastard knew the effect his smile had upon her, he was like an overly energetic Labrador puppy or something!

How was she supposed to say no to that?

"No," like this apparently, "that river's dangerous, you can go swimming there if you want but I'm not going to." She turned on her heel and walked off.

Even though she had walked away from Shouhei, Bandou couldn't get him out of her head or this nauseating, worrying feeling out of her stomach, something was wrong, she could feel it. Her footsteps slowed, then stopped.

She didn't feel right leaving him there without supervision, Saburota's mother was at home and Shouhei's parents were both at work, it was up to her to keep an eye on him.

She turned back around.

That river was dangerous, as she'd said, but knowing Shouhei, which she did, he wouldn't pay any attention to that, he was so reckless.

Bandou ran back to the river, when she got there her blood ran cold.

Shouhei was drowning. The water seemed to suck the air straight out of his lungs and leave in its place a sense of panic, he couldn't see, he couldn't breathe! He tried to fight his way to the surface but couldn't tell which way was up anymore.

Suddenly his hand broke the surface of the water for a split second; Shouhei could feel the cool air stinging it.

He tried to swim in that direction but before he got too far a hand grabbed his and with a huge tug, yanked him out of the water. He popped out of the river like a cork and Saburota grabbed him and yanked him away from the river.

"Shouhei, are you alright?" Bandou asked urgently, he was conscious and breathing at least.

Shouhei took a huge gasp of air and nodded.

Saburota hugged him tightly, "you idiot! You shouldn't have gone in alone, you could have died!" She gave a dry sob, "I so sorry I left you."

Shouhei, his breathing calming down, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her tightly, pressing his face into her long black hair, "thanks San-chan."


"I got you this," Shouhei dropped a red ribbon into a bewildered Bandou's palm, "it's for your hair." Shouhei looked uncharacteristically serious, "San-chan? Thank you for saving my life."

Bandou's hand closed around the ribbon, "you're welcome."

Needless to say they both had a slight aversion to water after that, Shouhei quit swimming lessons and Saburota took up the piano instead.

They didn't see each other for almost another ten years.


And there's the first chapter, hope you enjoyed guys, bye!