Disclaimer: Nope still own nuffin' to do with PoT

AN: Been a while huh? Did ya think I'd died? I did, it was called training, it suuuucked! So this was conceived of prior to the birthday story, but I didn't finish it until afterwards so I had to edit some stuff around. Next I'll post the mini-mini-fic I wrote up prior to even this. What can I say, I like doing stuff backwards! (and sadly it took me this long how to put in a line break ::head desk::)


The Great Boyfriend Swap

Well at least that's what it said in my day planner. No, I wasn't tired of Fuji, nor was Miki tired of Eiji. All of this had come about as we were halfway asleep a few nights ago.

One eye on the clock told me it was very, very late…or early depending on how you looked at it. But neither of us could sleep, we were still too wound up over our surprise birthday party. We'd tried everything, but it all flopped. My eyes had often traveled to the picture Fuji had given me, and I knew Miki was still playing with the necklace she'd received from Eiji. We'd hit a quiet spell when Miki asked, "So, is Fuji's all soft, or is it callused?"

"What?!" I nearly fell off the bed. A whispered statement flew through my mind, the last innuendo Fuji had shot my way before we parted.

"His hand," she gave me an odd look. "What did you think I meant?"

"Oh nothing." I was grateful for the dark to hide my flaming face. Now my pulse was skittering all over the place, I was sure Miki could hear it. "Why do you ask?" I hoped conversation would limit her questions.

"Well, Eiji is always holding mine, and he has calluses that I find myself playing with." I didn't need to see her face to know she had a dreamy look on it. "So I was wondering if Fuji had them too."

For a moment I contemplated Fuji's hand in my mind, a small smile on my lips. "There is a bit of a callus on his writing hand, but it's almost unnoticeable." Chewing on my lip I contemplated something then felt an evil grin take over. "Eh, Miki, know what tomorrow is?"

"Thursday?" she twisted her head to look across the dark room at the calendar. "Oh…." I know she'd thought of it too, the party having taken our minds off the actual date. "We haven't done that in ages. Do you think…it won't work. Mom we can fool, probably Saki and Kaidoh, and the rest of the regulars…but Eiji and Fuji will know."

"Oh, I don't know…it can't hurt to try." Leaning towards her I teased and pleaded. "Pleeeeeeease…I want to hold Eiji's hand just once to see what you like so much about it!"

"Okay, but if they catch us it was all your idea!"

So that explained why today I was in Miki's favorite red barrettes and bracelet and she was carrying my bag. Thus far no one had spotted our switch. Mom took it for granted that Miki wore red and I didn't. Eric, our driver, assumed since Miki got in first it must be me. Now all we had to fool was our classmates, but most importantly, two boys specifically.

Leaning close we continued to give each other reminders as we headed towards campus. "Don't yell when Fuji whispers in your ear…no matter what he says."

"Eiji will have to be touching at least some part of you at all times, don't pull away."

"Whatever you do DO NOT ask what he's smiling about!"

"Did you remember to use the right toothpaste?" That has weirded me out…it seemed Eiji and Miki used similar toothpaste now. But for the sake of our prank I'd done it, eyeing my sister like she was an alien the whole time.

As Eric came to a stop we prepared to get out. Saki greeted us and gushed to us both over how fun our birthday party had been, again using our small visual clues to fall into our deception. Waving us off as we went into class, she had to find Kaidoh, we took each other's seats and waited. Since they'd won so far in the regional tournament Inui and Tezuka had pushed for longer morning practices, so it was a while before the boys joined us.

Thankfully they came in particularly distracted, it seemed something was up with Tezuka, though they wouldn't tell us what. When Eiji sat in front of me I did as I'd been told and played a bit with his hair. From the corner of my eye I watched Miki give Fuji a smile as he sat beside her. Before the boys could really say, or do, much class started.

At lunch Miki and I pulled out our lunches. With a start I realized we'd messed up! Laughing I quickly swapped our boxes. "Miki you grabbed my lunch, I don't want your hot and sour soup!" Wincing inwardly I took her overstuffed box and sat. Neither of us was looking forward to this, our tastes were just too different.

Seeing no way out of it Miki started in on my lunch and I on hers. After a few minutes I could tell the spices were getting to her. Thinking fast I doubled over and groaned.

"Miki, what's wrong!" Eiji hopped up and came to my side immediately.

"Cramps!" I whimpered and he blinked furiously before giving 'Michi' and Fuji a look of horror. You would think someone with so many sisters and aunts would be used to it. "Michi can you help me to the nurse?" Getting the hint she quickly helped me out of the class room and once clear bolted to the water fountain.

"Ah! How can you eat that?!" she was furiously scrubbing her tongue. "If you hadn't faked I would have given us away. You know you're my favorite twin, right?" Rubbing my stomach I gave her a half smile.

"I promise I won't tell the others. Now, we need to actually go to the nurse or they'll know and it'll give us away as well." So we spent lunch period in the nurse's office, where I made a swift recovery. Getting back to class we took 'our' seats for afternoon lessons.

Halfway through the next period I glanced up and saw Eiji staring at me. Blinking, I quickly plastered a smile on my face. Looking up at the teachers back he leaned toward me and asked in a concerned voice, "Are you okay now?" There wasn't a trace of his earlier embarrassment.

Keeping my voice low I nodded, "I'm fine, part and parcel with being female I'm afraid." He gave me an odd look and I started, had I said something to give myself away? "Sorry for worrying you like that," I added hastily my mind scrambling to recall how Miki normally reacted.

"Well as long as you're okay." he turned back in his seat just as the teacher turned and gave us both a malevolent glare. You'd think by now he'd be used to Eiji distracting class. Daring a fast glance at Miki I caught her frown and gave her a confused look. What?? But I had to duck my head as Fuji turned to look at me. His gaze was too sharp; he'd see something for sure.

Class was mercifully fast that day, all we had left was cleaning duty, something we'd all originally been excited to get together. The boys pushed aside the desks and Miki and I swept up. Thankfully this gave me a moment to confer with her.

"What was up with the frown," I asked in a sotto voice.

"I don't know…he's not acting normal." we changed directions. "Normally if I leave or anything Eiji pounces on me as soon as I get back. And since lunch Fuji's not tried anything…not even one embarrassing statement."

"Well maybe he's being considerate…Eiji, not Fuji, since 'you' went to the nurse."

She shook her head, "No, in that case he would've picked me up…do you think they've figured it out?"

"I don't know, we've not done anything to give it away…though it's a lot harder being you with your boy. In the past all I had to do was be me, and no one could tell…but now that we have people that actually can tell us apart this is a lot harder. But let's see if they've caught on," the boys had just finished, as had we. "We have to go by the Chess Club before tennis, can you walk with us?" Miki and I stood still and let them come to us. There was no hesitation as Fuji went to Miki's side and Eiji to mine. There was no way, if they knew, it would be so smooth…could there?

Since we'd taken to watching our boys at tennis we'd resigned as chess club president and vice president but we would still go in from time to time. Greeting everyone we quickly went to our longstanding game board and contemplated it. White was up next, my side, but I realized at the last moment the boys knew who was what color. Nudging Miki I grinned, "Can't think of a good way to avoid me taking your queen, huh?"

She got the hint and smacked my arm, "No, I was going to let you sweat it a bit more before I took yours though." As usual our game was pretty even; we'd lost many of the same pieces, and had nearly the same strategy in mind. We'd had each others queens in check for the last week.

Apparently the guys were loosing interest in our fight as they glanced at the clock. Miki quickly moved my queen and we turned back to them. "She'll have to worry about hers another day." she taunted me. As we headed out we shifted our books and finally achieved the goal of our whole ruse. We were holding the, wrong, boys' hands.

My thumb lightly brushed over Eiji's calluses and I lifted a brow; he always looked so soft, but this belied that. Smirking I caught Miki's' eye and lifted our joined hands a bit, she did the same. I could only wonder what she was thinking, but then we parted for the boys to get changed for tennis practice. Spreading out a blanket to sit on Miki and I enjoyed watching them train, though we had to laugh when the whole lot was sent to run laps or suffer 'penal tea'. This reminded me that Fuji had a ton of Inui juice now loitering in our family refrigerator. He'd best come drink that before it started to mutate or take over someone's brain.

Being each other at practice was easy enough. We cheered when 'our' boy was playing, or commiserated when they had to stand around. For some reason the coach's granddaughter was giving us funny looks. Sakuno was a sweet girl, if a little overly obvious in her infatuation with the freshman Echizen.

We thought we were home free…until the guys asked us to go out for dinner after practice. Miki and I exchanged looks but agreed, in a crowd we would be less likely to give ourselves away, hopefully. Walking with them we soon found ourselves paired off with 'our' boys. Fuji had Miki tucked into his side and Eiji had all but wrapped himself around me.

My eyes widened in shock as I felt him casually brush a hand over my hip…and play with my hair…wait, another hand was in plain view! Miki was right; he had to have more than the prerequisite two hands! "Hands," I squeaked and he laughed, ducking his head to kiss the base of my neck. I realized he'd pulled my uniform away from my shoulders and was going to know immediately I wasn't Miki. Especially when the touch of his lips on that patch of skin wrenched a laugh out of me. Part of why I never let Fuji see if I had freckles there was because I'm horribly ticklish at the base of my neck. He'd pick up on something like that quickly and I'd be in for it then!

Twisting away from him I waited for him to expose our deception, or say something, but he just gave a small pout and grabbed my hand. We finally arrived at the restaurant and the boys seated us politely as the waiter took our drink orders.

"This is very sweet of you two," we'd been here a few times with them. It wasn't very pricey but the food was amazing. It also featured a 'Dare you to eat it Curry' that Fuji adored. Every time we came he ordered it and all the staff was in awe.

"Well since we only got half your birthday right we wanted to do something today too." For a second I blushed, not in pleasure as I'm sure the boys assumed of 'Miki', but because due to our dare I was technically stealing her birthday! A foot kicked me under the table and I glanced at Miki, I knew from that she was okay, and had forgotten too. Part and parcel when you were used not having anyone else know is you often forgot yourself.

All through dinner Miki and I chatted about past birthdays and the boys asked how we knew the correct date if even our parents didn't. "We found our birth certificates when we were seven. Until then we just assumed everyone celebrated their birthdays like us, whenever they wanted." Laughing at the memory I blinked as I realized something. "Actually…we don't know your birthdays." We waited expectantly, after all was fair in love and party-throwing.

Eiji laughed and pointed at Fuji, "Fujiko is special. He'll be four on his next one." It took me a minute to figure that out, but I realized this meant he'd been born on a leap year. "And I'm a Scorpio, the 28th of November specifically."

"Well, since we missed Fuji's day we'll have to do something special later. An unbirthday party!" We all laughed over this and finished our meal, Fuji getting his normal accolades for finishing the spicy dish. Rising I felt Eiji behind me and I though he whispered as he leaned over, "Neh, I promise not to tell Fuji." Spinning my head I looked at him, not believing the innocent look on his face. Had he said something?

"What," he asked with a small smile.

Deciding I'd heard things I let it go. As we strolled together back to our homes I couldn't believe we'd pulled it off. Flashing Miki a victorious look as we stopped at the door I couldn't help but gloat internally. But it was short lived as, with a grin, the boys suddenly passed us to the other for a slow kiss. Both Miki and I melted, and sighed, our boys had gotten us terribly addicted to this. After they lifted their heads reality trickled back in; before we could feign anger Fuji spoke up.

"Next time we can play along all the way to the kiss goodnight." He tapped the underside of my jaw to close my mouth and Eiji giggled. "April fools ladies," with that parting shot they left us, even as we continued to gather our faculties. When they were out of sight Miki and I looked at each other and dissolved into laughter.

"That was easier before, guess we can't bait and switch them. But it's sort of tempting…your boy's hand was nice…I bet his kiss would be too." Grateful for my reflexes I dodged Miki's blow that would most likely have put me in traction as I bolted for our room. Now I had to hope for two things. One, that Miki wouldn't really kill me for that comment. And two, that Eiji, for once, could keep a secret. Stopping for a breath I realized something…I was doomed.