"I know a great place to celebrate!" Nagisa had said.

After their first swim meet, the Iwatobi team packed into the car — Ama-chan-sensei's little sedan was too small to fit all six of them, so Makoto had borrowed his mother's SUV for the afternoon under strict orders that only he and Amakata were allowed to get behind the wheel — and sped off toward the address Nagisa had entered in the GPS.

This hadn't been a big competition. Just a practice meet for the local teams to size each other up and get used to swimming in front of strangers. Samezuka chose not to participate, so Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa had taken first in their events with little difficulty, and even Rei had managed third place in the 100m butterfly. The relay was closer, but they'd edged into first place in that event as well. Still, Kou thought as she watched the scenery flash by, they had a lot of training left before they would be able to compete with her brother.

The car came to a halt in a dingy, out-of-the-way strip mall. "An American-style Chinese restaurant?" Kou wondered aloud as Nagisa led them inside. "I went to a place like this once in Australia while visiting my brother. I didn't know there were any in Japan..."

"American-style?" Rei asked. "What's the difference?"

"More fried foods, fewer vegetables, and Western ingredients," Kou said with a note of disgust.

"And the most important thing!~" Nagisa interrupted with glee. "But you have to wait. It's a secret!"

Haruka idly shifted his half-eaten shrimp fried rice with his chopsticks, but ate no more; he had expected more shrimp and, now that he had picked the seafood out, he was disappointed with the dish. Still, everyone else had finished their plates, so Nagisa flagged down their server, a wizened old woman with a sly gleam in her eye, for the "special secret", which turned out to be —

"Tsujiura senbei?" Kou asked as the woman passed out the cookies. "We can get these any old place."

"No!" Nagisa slammed down his hands on the table in offense. "They're not simply tsujiura senbei! They're lighter! Sweeter! They're —" and this he pronounced in English — "fortune cookies!"

"Well, they sure look like tsujiura senbei to me, Nagisa!"

"Well, they're not, Gou!"

"How many times have I told you to call me Kou?!"

"Gou!"

"Kou!"

Makoto blushed as his friends' voices raised. "Guys..."

But the server effectively stopped the argument with the silent placement of a cookie in each of their hands. "Enjoy your cookies," she said with a smile as she turned back toward the kitchen.

By the time the two teens had gone silent, Rei was already opening his cookie. "Do not fear what you don't know," he read aloud slowly, as he had to translate from English.

"Rei-chaaaaan," Nagisa whined. "The rules are you can't read your fortune until you've eaten the whole cookie!"

But no one listened to him. Amakata waxed poetic about the implications of her fortune ("We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone") while Haruka helped Makoto struggle over his own. Both were fairly bad at English, so between the two of them they only managed to come up with "They will conquer you and your fears." Over Makoto's shoulder, Rei pointed out it was probably "Conquer your fears or they will conquer you," which Makoto had to admit was probably more applicable to his life.

In fact, Nagisa and Kou were the only ones not poring over fortunes — the former because he was busy savoring the taste of his cookie, and the latter because she was still fuming. Finally, they both reached for their fortunes and simultaneously read:

"A journey soon begins,

its prize reflected in another's eyes.

When what you see is what you lack,

then selfless love will change you back."

As the last words escaped their mouths, the ground began to shudder. "An earthquake?!" Makoto gasped — Mako-chan was scared of everything — and, as the shaking grew, everyone ducked onto the ground for cover.

And then... everything was calm. Too calm. An unnatural silence draped over the room as everyone climbed back into their seats, initially too shaken to notice Nagisa and Kou.

"Ehhhhhh?!" they both cried aloud as they looked at each other. "You're—"

"You're a boy!" Nagisa said. Indeed, Kou now was; her ponytail had become his shock of shaggy hair. Shoulders had broadened, hips had narrowed, and the hand clasped to his mouth in shock only brought the further shock of a day's worth of stubble lining his chin.

"You're a girl!" Kou said at the same time. Likewise, this had come true for Nagisa as well: she now sported a pair of plaits that were a bit soggy despite having been tucked carefully beneath a swim cap. The already-slim swimmer had a less dramatic change in build, but still took pleasure in noting her new A-cups and much curvier hips.

"Wow, I'm hot!" Nagisa exclaimed with glee, running to the mirrored wall to examine herself.

"I'm— I'm—" Kou stammered, clearly not as pleased. "But— would Haruka-sempai even like me as a boy?" His hands went to his mouth once again as he realized what he'd said aloud.

Haruka turned away, not meeting anyone's eyes. "It doesn't matter," he said quietly in a tone that was impossible to decode. Kou wondered if it was an admission of bisexuality; Makoto had more of a feeling he was turning down Kou regardless of gender.

Nagisa turned toward the table with a look of suddenly realized horror on her face. "Wait. Are girls beautiful at all to Rei-chan?" The only response Rei gave was a coughing fit and a bright-red blush, quickly followed by an attempt to hide his face in his napkin.

"That's enough. We're getting this undone," Amakata said simply. She stood up matter-of-factly and marched into the kitchen, from which the swim team heard the words "E-x-c-u-s-e me..." drift threateningly.

Written for a fic prompt on Tumblr. I tried to do my best on research, but since I'm not really into Chinese food and have never been to Japan, I almost certainly must have made some mistakes in the setup. Sorry!