Author's Note: This fanfic is based on one of my friend's ideas. I think it's funny. Tell me if you do too. It's based on the anime.

Title: Soul Switching

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Spoilers for the series… I don't know what parts of the manga I have spoilers for.

Summary: The Jyuunishi wake up one day to discover that they are not themselves…

Disclaimer: Don't we all wish that we owned the fantastic Fruits Basket? But alas… it cannot be…

Setting: This story is set after the anime series.

*** = setting change

italics = emphasis

italics = thoughts

~Uh-Oh…~

It was a nice, normal day in the house of Shigure Sohma. Or so it seemed…

The household was awakened by a bloodcurdling scream. Kyo Sohma, Shigure Sohma, and Tohru Honda hurried out of their rooms to investigate the matter. The cry had come from Yuki's room. The three opened the door slowly.

Yuki was sitting up in bed, running his fingers through his hair. "My hair—my beautiful hair," he wailed. "What happened to it?"

Tohru came into the room. "Yuki-kun? There's nothing wrong with your hair."

"But it's so short! And—" he paused. "What did you call me?"

"Yuki-kun," Tohru replied, puzzled. What was wrong with calling him Yuki-kun? She always called him that.

"Wait a minute. What am I even doing here? I didn't come to visit." The teenage boy's purple eyes flicked upward to meet Tohru's blue ones. "Tohru-kun, why did you call me Yuki? I'm Ayame."

"A-ya?!"

Tohru and Ayame (in Yuki's body) turned toward the doorway. Shigure was the only one in the house who called Ayame that. But just now, the nickname had been spoken in Kyo's voice.

"Gure-san?" Ayame-Yuki ventured.

"Yes?" Shigure (in Kyo's body) answered.

Shigure and Kyo looked at each other. "I think something is terribly wrong," Shigure-Kyo said.

Kyo-Shigure's eyes were wide open in shock.

Tohru fainted.

***

Ring, ring. Yuki got up out of bed and rubbed his eyes. He headed for the phone, following the sound of the ringing. Where was everyone? Tohru and Kyo were always up before him. Why wasn't one of them answering the phone?

He finally reached it. "Moshi moshi," he said sleepily. That was weird. His voice sounded different.

"Yuki-kun?" a timid female voice answered.

"Honda-san?" Why was Tohru calling him on the phone? Wasn't she in the house? (AN: Yes, Tohru has recovered.)

"Yuki-kun, have you noticed something… strange?"

"No…"

A different voice spoke. "Hey, kuso nezumi! Wake up and look at yourself!"

"Shigure?" Was he out of the house too? Shigure never talked like that though… Baffled, Yuki forced his eyes open and looked down at himself. Funny. He wasn't wearing what he had been wearing when he went to sleep…He scratched his head. Wait a second. Yuki pulled a strand of long, whitish-silver hair out in front of him. He said into the phone, "What—what is—?"

Then he heard his own voice. "Hey, little brother! What's up?"

***

Tohru stared at the three males standing in the kitchen. "So you are Shigure-san, you are Kyo-kun, and you are Ayame-san," she said pointing to the bodies of Kyo, Shigure, and Yuki, respectively. They all nodded. "And Yuki-kun is in Ayame-san's body."

Ayame-Yuki winced. "To think what my little brother could be doing that would ruin my image."

Kyo-Shigure snorted. "Ruin what image? The image of you prancing around like a fool?"

Ayame-Yuki chose to ignore that.

The phone rang. Tohru answered it.

"I'm so sorry to be bothering you," came the panicked voice on the line. "Sumimasen. You must be doing something terribly important—"

"Hatori-san?" Tohru asked, recognizing the voice.

"Gomen nasai! I am such a horrible person! I have stolen Hatori nii-san's body! Gomen nasai!"

Shigure-Kyo overheard the last part and declared, "Rit-chan must be in Hatori's body."

Ayame-Yuki smiled. "Oh, Gure-san, you're so smart."

"Thank you, A-ya," Shigure-Kyo replied. "You're my inspiration, you know."

"Stop it!" Kyo-Shigure yelled. It was bad enough when Shigure and Ayame were in their normal bodies. Having to watch himself and Yuki flirting was too much.

"Oh, come on, Kyon-kyon," Ayame-Yuki drawled. "We were just having a little fun."

"Not in my body, you aren't," Kyo said, glaring at Shigure-Kyo.

Meanwhile, Tohru was trying to calm down Ritsu-Hatori. "Rit-chan-san, don't worry. I'm sure we'll figure this out soon."

"But Hatori nii-san will be angry with me for stealing his body!"

"Just stay calm. I'm sorry, Rit-chan-san. I have to go to school now."

"I'm sorry! I'm making you late! Gomen nasai!" Ritsu-Hatori said.

"Bye!"

Tohru turned to Shigure-Kyo and Ayame-Yuki. "Even if there is something wrong, we still need to go to school."

"School?" Ayame-Yuki said.

"High school?" Shigure-Kyo said. High school girls! "Come on, A-ya! High school girls are waiting for us!"

Ayame-Yuki put on a sad puppy dog face. "Aww… Gure-san, don't you love me anymore?"

"Of course I do, A-ya. But there's plenty of my love to go around."

Kyo-Shigure sweatdropped.

***

Ayame-Yuki, Shigure-Kyo, and Tohru arrived at Kaibara High School. They entered the classroom.

Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima came up to Tohru. They greeted each other. Before they could say anything else, however, their attention was drawn to the other side of the classroom.

"What? What did I say?" Shigure-Kyo asked, putting a hand to his face. He was standing in front of a girl, who was looking quite furious.

"Ooh…" Ayame-Yuki was sitting on top of a desk. "Gu—Kyo, you should know better."

"Shut up, Aya—uh, Yuki."

Saki said to Tohru and Arisa, "Something is different today. I can feel it."

"Obviously," Arisa replied. "Orange-head just talked to a girl. Voluntarily."

Tohru grinned nervously. She was about to go to her seat when she noticed two familiar faces at the door. "Hatsuharu-san! Momiji-kun!" She went over to them.

Momiji said to her, "We need to talk to Yun-chan and Kyo-kun, right now."

Tohru blinked. "Why?"

"Onee-chan, it's very important," Haru said. He looked different. His shirt was buttoned all the way and he wasn't wearing any jewelry.

"Huh?" The only person who called Tohru onee-chan was… Kisa! Uh-oh. Tohru whispered, "Did… something happen to you two this morning?"

They both nodded gravely. Tohru quickly got Ayame-Yuki and Shigure-Kyo and left the classroom.

***

Tohru, Shigure-Kyo, Ayame-Yuki, and the bodies of Haru and Momiji were standing in a deserted hallway.

"Momiji-kun," Tohru started.

"I'm Kagura," Kagura-Momiji said.

"Oh, right. Sorry, Kagura-san."

"That's okay."

Kisa-Haru sighed. "Shigure no oji-chan, Ayame no oji-chan, what are we going to do?"

Shigure-Kyo shrugged. Ayame-Yuki struck a pose and said, "Don't worry! I'm sure I'll find a way out of this!"

Everyone sweatdropped. It was so weird to see Yuki posing like that, even when they knew that Ayame was in possession of his body.

"Tohru-kun," Kagura-Momiji said, "who else has… changed?"

"Well, Rit-chan-san called this morning. He seems to have taken over Hatori-san's body," Tohru replied. "If this is going how I think it is going, that means that Hatori-san is in Rit-chan-san's body, Yuki-kun is in Ayame-san's body, Momiji-kun is in your body, and Hatsuharu-san is in Kisa-san's body. Oh, and Kyo-kun is in Shigure-san's body."

"Kyo-kun?" Kagura-Momiji asked, excited.

Tohru nodded. She turned to Ayame-Yuki and Shigure-Kyo. "We should go to class. We'll be late otherwise."

"Wait!" Kagura-Momiji said. "What classes are we supposed to go to?"

Tohru gave Kagura-Momiji and Kisa-Haru directions, then went back to class with Shigure-Kyo and Ayame-Yuki. "Now remember, we just have to act natural."

Ayame-Yuki opened the door and said loudly so everyone in the room could hear, "I'm back! Did you all miss me? Of course you did!"

Several people blinked in confusion.

"You all must have been so bored while I was gone! But worry no more, because I have returned!" Ayame-Yuki winked at Tohru.

"So… wanna go out with me?" Shigure-Kyo asked, sidling up to the same girl he had asked earlier.

***

Hatori Sohma was standing in front of his closet, trying to figure out what had happened to his clothes. Why are they all girl clothes? he asked himself. And why do they look so familiar…?

He peered closer, then realized that something was different. His hair wasn't covering his left eye, like it usually was. He put his hand to his head and touched his hair. It was longer. It couldn't have grown that fast, he thought. Then he looked at it and realized it was a different color. He looked into the closet again.

Oh no.

***

Hatsuharu Sohma had awakened to find that his soul inhabited the body of a twelve-year-old girl. In fact, the body was Kisa Sohma's body. He had been very confused. If he was in Kisa's body, who was in his? And where was Kisa if she wasn't in her own body?

So Haru decided to go to school, because even though something strange was obviously going on, he couldn't make Kisa miss school. She had missed plenty when she ran away.

Haru-Kisa was standing just inside the classroom, wondering where Kisa's seat was. He/she went over to a group of girls and asked, "Do you know where my seat is?"

They looked at Haru-Kisa strangely as one of them pointed to a desk. Then, as he/she headed in that direction, they started giggling and smirking.

"She's so stupid," one of them said, not even attempting to whisper. "She can't even find her own seat."

Haru-Kisa overheard and his/her blood began to boil.

"Yeah, I know," another girl replied. "I mean, she sits there everyday. How dumb is she?"

"Really dumb, I guess," replied the first girl.

Haru-Kisa was really angry. What was the matter with those girls? Kisa was nice and sweet and would never hurt anyone. Why did they dislike her so much? Idiots. Kisa doesn't deserve to go through this everyday. He/she suddenly didn't feel like laying low and not drawing attention to himself/herself. He/she stepped up to the first girl and tapped her on the shoulder.

The girl turned around and said with a sneer, "What do you want?"

"I want you to shut up." Haru-Kisa had a dangerous look in his/her eyes.

"What did you say?" the girl asked, shocked.

"Shut up."

"Why should I listen to you? You're just a stupid little girl anyway."

Haru-Kisa slapped her (AN: Oh, look. It's Black Kisa…). "You are a disgrace to the human race, did you know that? You think I'm stupid? You're the stupid one! You idiot! You moron! You bi—!"

"What's going on here?"

Haru-Kisa looked up to see Kisa's teacher looking at him/her. Oops.

***

Yuki-Ayame did not want to go to Ayame's shop. But he had to keep up appearances, so he did.

He entered the shop, wearing the most conservative thing he could find in Ayame's closet. That had been a challenge. Yuki's older brother was not known for being conservative.

"Tencho?"

Yuki-Ayame looked up to see Mine Kuramae, Ayame's assistant, standing in front of him, smiling. "Kuramae-san. Good morning."

Mine tilted her head. "Why are you calling me Kuramae-san? You always call me Mine."

"Oh, right."

"Tencho, try this one on," Mine said, handing Yuki-Ayame a dress. "I need to see if it's straight."

"I'm—I'm sure it's fine," he replied nervously. He did not want to wear that dress.

Mine said, "You have to try it on! I have to make sure everything's in place!" She pushed him into a dressing room.

Yuki-Ayame stared at the dress. When he got his own body back, Ayame was going to suffer.

***

Momiji-Kagura was sitting in Kagura's room, trying to figure out what to do. When Momiji had woken up that morning, he found that he was taller, his hair was darker and longer, and he was a girl. He/she had screamed, but of course, that hadn't solved anything.

He/she tried calling Hatori. "Hari, are you there? It's Momiji. I'm in Kagura's body somehow and I—"

"Momiji-kun! Sumimasen! This isn't Hatori nii-san. I'm Ritsu. I'm such a disgrace! You wanted to reach him, but you're talking to me instead! Gomen nasai!"

Momiji-Kagura hung up the phone.

***

"Sensei!"

Kyo-Shigure was having a hard time at home trying to get away from Mit-chan. Apparently, Shigure had yet again promised to meet a deadline. Unfortunately, Kyo-Shigure just couldn't seem to find the draft that Mit-chan wanted. So, he was trying to avoid her by finding a good hiding place. However, Mit-chan knew most of Shigure's hiding places already, since Shigure had hidden from her in the house several times.

Kyo-Shigure got an idea. He climbed up on the roof and lay there, dressed in Shigure's house clothes. It felt strange to him, but none of his own clothes would fit Shigure's body. Anyway, Kyo-Shigure was lying on the roof (AN: Funny thought, isn't it? Shigure lying on the roof…) when Mit-chan spotted him.

"Sensei! Sensei, give me the draft!" Mit-chan ran to get a ladder.

Kyo-Shigure groaned.

***

Ritsu-Hatori was treating a patient. He was trying very hard to keep his hands steady as he gave the little Sohma girl a shot.

"Ow!" the girl cried when the needle entered her skin.

"I'm so sorry!" Ritsu-Hatori said, pulling it out. "Gomen nasai! You must be in terrible pain! I'm so sorry that I hurt you!"

The little girl watched the doctor's antics. He had always been calm and steady. Now he was all nervous and hyper.

"Gomen nasai! Gomen nasai!"

The little girl sweatdropped. "Mommy!" she cried, running out the door.

"I'm sorry I scared you! I'm very sorry! I'm sorry to the entire world! The universe!"

***

Kisa-Haru stared at the textbook in front of her/him. Just don't think about it, she/he told herself. Ignore it.

She/he had been holding in the urge to go to the bathroom for over an hour now. She/he really didn't want to go into the boy's restroom. That would just be weird. And it would ruin her image of her cousin Haru.

Still, she/he knew that she/he couldn't hold it in much longer or else she/he'd have a whole new set of problems to deal with. She/he timidly raised her/his hand and asked for permission to go to the restroom.

Just don't look, she thought. Do not look. Just go. And don't drink anything for a while.

***

Ayame-Yuki flounced into the room, having just been to the bathroom. It was lunchtime. He had forgotten how much fun high school had been. But now that he was reliving the experience, he was remembering all the good times he had had with Hatori and Shigure back in the day. Too bad Tori-san didn't get switched with someone here, he thought. He flopped down next to Shigure-Kyo, who was once again trying to get a girl's attention.

"Go away," Shigure-Kyo muttered.

"What?" Ayame-Yuki asked, leaning in close to hear.

"Go away."

"Oh." He looked at the girl sitting on the other side of Shigure-Kyo. "I think he wants you to go away."

The girl gave him a strange look, then got up and left.

"A-ya!" Shigure-Kyo whined. "Why did you do that?" It was strange to see Kyo whining.

"What?" Ayame-Yuki asked, clueless. "Are you angry with me, Gure-san?"

Shigure-Kyo crossed his arms and looked away, settling into the classic Kyo position. "Maybe."

"Aww… I'm sorry." Ayame-Yuki gave him a big hug.

***

Meanwhile, the Yuki fanclub was on the other side of the room, watching Yuki, of course. They all freaked out when they saw their wonderful Prince Yuki hugging Kyo.

"Something is definitely wrong."

***

Tohru was trying to enjoy her lunch—emphasis on the trying. Ayame-Yuki came over to her. "Tohru-kun, I'm bored. Talk to me."

"Aya—" She spotted Arisa and Saki looking at her. "Yuki-kun, we can talk later."

"Hmm…" Ayame turned to Saki. "So… how are you?"

"I'm fine," she replied mysteriously. "But you are very different today."

Ayame blinked. "Yeah, I think it's my hair. Do you think I should grow it out? My ultra cool, very stylish, beautiful, perfect older brother has gorgeous hair. It's really nice." Ayame-Yuki paused, looking down at his clothes. "You know what? The uniform I—I mean, my brother—had in high school is better than this one. It looked good on almost anyone! And—"

Arisa said to Tohru, "I think the prince is sick or something."

Tohru could only nod, speechless.

***

Hatori-Ritsu was dressed. He had found the least feminine thing in Ritsu's closet and was ready to go to his own office. He had called ahead to see, and yes, Ritsu had taken over his body. So, now he was going to see if he could fix this. Ritsu-Hatori had told him that some of the others had changed too.

Ritsu was just going to have to miss class today because Hatori was the best bet to help get everyone back to normal. He was the family doctor, after all. Ritsu could apologize to his professors later. And no matter how much Ritsu looked up to him, Ayame was not going to be a big help.

***

Yuki-Ayame was wearing a dress. Oh, the humanity!

Okay, so the dress looked good on him. So the garment emphasized his golden eyes and made his hair look shinier. It was still degrading. Ahem.

Mine was standing there looking at him. "Perfect," she declared.

Yuki-Ayame grunted, and then went to go take off the dress.

When he came back out, Mine handed him an outfit that needed to be altered. "We have lots of work to do, tencho," she chirped happily.

Why me?

***

Kagura-Momiji wanted to leave. She/he wanted to see Kyo. Okay, so she/he had seen him, but it was Shigure who was inside his body. It wasn't the same.

She/he sighed. Poor Kyo. He was at home all alone with no one to keep him company.

She/he glanced at Kisa-Haru, who had finally come back from the bathroom.

"Was it scary?" she/he whispered.

Kisa-Haru nodded and looked straight ahead. "I stood outside it for a long time," she/he said softly, like she did when she was in her own body. "Then I went in and…" She/he shuddered.

Ack. Just her luck. Why did Kagura have to get switched with a boy? And if it had to be a boy, why couldn't it have been Kyo?

***

Shigure was not a quitter. Well, maybe for some things. But Shigure-Kyo was determined to get a date. And he would have one by the end of the day. He just had to.

Or maybe not. It wasn't going so well. He put his head on Ayame-Yuki's shoulder. "A-ya, I think I'm losing my touch."

"Oh, Gure-san, it's okay. I still love you."

"I know, but I still want to get a date. It's hard. These girls are tough."

"Really?" Ayame-Yuki stood. "All right, I'll try." He addressed the rest of the room. "Okay, who wants to go out with me tomorrow night?"

Most of the girls in the classroom excitedly raised their hands.

"Okay, thank you! That was just a test." Ayame-Yuki sat back down, ignoring the many protests of the girls. "See? It's not that hard," he told Shigure-Kyo.

Shigure-Kyo sighed. "It's always you. Even when you're Yuki, it's still you." Ayame always got more attention than he did. It wasn't fair.

"Eh?"

The door opened and the principal came into the room. "Hello, students," he said. Apparently, he had come for a surprise inspection. Well, that, and he was bored.

Ayame-Yuki elbowed Shigure-Kyo. "That man looks familiar."

Shigure-Kyo looked up. "He looks like the teacher who told you to cut your hair."

"Yeah… Hey, it is him! I think I'll go say hello!"

"Just remember that you're supposed to be Yuki," Shigure-Kyo said, looking very bummed out.

Ayame-Yuki pranced over to the principal.

"Oh, hello, Yuki," said the principal.

"I think you had me—I mean, my brother—as a student once."

"Your brother?"

"Yes, my brother. He's so amazing. And he was really popular at his school."

The principal was starting to look nervous. "When was your brother in school?"

"About ten years ago."

"And he went to a different school?" The principal was starting to look sweaty.

Ayame-Yuki nodded. "He was the class president too."

The principal was staring off into space. He wasn't thinking about the present. He wasn't looking at the boy whom he assumed was Yuki. All he could think about was a loud, silver-haired teenage boy who had graduated from a different high school a decade ago. "Ayame Sohma."

Ayame-Yuki smiled proudly. "That's my brother."

The principal looked at him. "Of course. Your name is Sohma. Why didn't I see it before? You look like him too." He glanced at Shigure-Kyo, who had his head on the desk in his best depressed-Kyo position. "And him. He's a Sohma too. There are more of you in this school." He stepped backward and looked around as if all the Sohmas were surrounding him. "I left that school to get away from the Sohmas, but you've followed me here. Why?!"

Ayame-Yuki replied, "I don't know. We're weird like that. I think it's karma. My brother said that you unfairly told him to cut his hair once. It's coming back to you now. It's your own fault, you see. And—" He kept babbling on for a few minutes like that, not noticing that the principal was running away—far, far away.

Finally, it was time for class to begin again.

***

Kyo-Shigure was relieved when Shigure-Kyo, Ayame-Yuki, and Tohru came home from school. Mit-chan had climbed up on the roof to get to him. Kyo-Shigure had jumped off the roof. However, not being used to Shigure's body, he hit the ground hard instead of absorbing the impact like he usually did. But he got down safely, more or less. He had taken the ladder away just so Mit-chan couldn't chase him anymore.

Well, now Mit-chan was standing at the edge of the roof, threatening to jump, much like Ritsu had when Tohru had met him.

"Hmm," said Shigure-Kyo when he saw the woman on the roof. "That's new."

"Ah!" Tohru ran to fetch a ladder.

"Just get her down!" Kyo-Shigure screeched. "We already have enough strange things going on here! We don't need to add a suspicious death to the list!"

"All right, all right," Shigure-Kyo replied. "No need to get so anxious. Just tell her that you found the draft."

"Why should I tell her?!" Kyo-Shigure demanded.

"Because you're in my body," Shigure-Kyo said matter-of-factly. "It would be weird for me to tell her that, considering I look like you at the moment."

"Gure-san has a point there, Kyon-kyon," Ayame-Yuki said, popping up from out of nowhere. He slung an arm around Shigure-Kyo's neck. "Gure-san's a genius, you know."

"Why, thank you, A-ya," Shigure-Kyo said.

"I never want to lose you," Ayame-Yuki said, gazing lovingly into Shigure-Kyo's eyes. "You're smart and nice and wonderful and—"

"So are you," Shigure-Kyo answered. "I've known that since the day we met."

Kyo-Shigure sweatdropped as the two of them put their hands together, thumbs up, and said "Yosh!" That had been a disturbing sight. To see Yuki and himself looking at each other like that was just wrong. He shuddered. Then he looked up at the edge of the roof, where a very nervous-looking Mit-chan was standing. "Mit-chan!" he called. "I—I found it!"

Mit-chan's face brightened considerably. "Really?"

The next thing Kyo-Shigure knew, Mit-chan was standing right next to him, looking up at him expectantly. "How—how did you—?"

"How did I what?"

"Never mind." He gave Shigure-Kyo a go-find-it-now look.

Apparently, Shigure-Kyo was not good at reading people's expressions, because he just stood there, not trying to find the manuscript or anything. Ayame-Yuki whispered into his ear. "Oh," Shigure-Kyo said as realization dawned on him. "I'll be right back. Excuse me!"

Tohru came back then, holding the ladder. She looked at Mit-chan, then at the roof, then back at Mit-chan. She felt a bit foolish holding a ladder when there was no need for one. So she smiled sheepishly, then went to put the ladder back.

***

Hiro stared at Kisa as he walked her home from school. She had been acting strange. "Why are you being so strange?" he asked.

"Be quiet, Hiro. I have a headache," Haru-Kisa snapped.

Hiro sniffed and looked the other way. If she was going to be that way, then fine.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note: What did you think?