Disclaimer - I do not own Mai Hime. It is owned by Sunrise.
Author's note - Okay so this story is definitely AU. Expect the unexpected in it. I had one of those sudden inspirations that like to hit you upside the head, while I was watching a tv show last night. And even though I have a number of other stories to continue (oh Sexy Lady please wait for me!), I just had to write this story idea down and see where it took me. Hope you all enjoy where it goes as well ^^
Switched At Birth
"Mom! I'm going to go hang out with Nao and Mai at the movies! I'll be back late tonight!" Natsuki Fujino called out as she ran down the spiraling staircase of her family's mansion. She grabbed her black leather jacket from the foot of the stairs, and made a beeline for the front door.
"Ara ara, Natsuki dear. Slow down before you run straight into the door. And please don't stay out too late dear. Please make sure to call when you're on you way home. Oh, and be sure to take your jacket with you...ah, I see you already have it. Though I do wish you would wear a jacket more...befitting of a young lady your age," Kimiko Fujino commented in her soft Kyoto-ben, as she watched her headstrong daughter toss a quick wave over her shoulder, and slip quickly out the front door.
Kimiko sighed softly before she turned and began making her way towards the family's expansive kitchen, calling out to her husband as she went along.
"Honey I'm going to start dinner, what would you like to eat tonight?"
A gruff male voice sounded from the top of the stairs, and Kimiko smiled softly in agreement of what was suggested for dinner, as she entered the kitchen to begin cooking.
~o~
"Shizuru? Shizuru! Shizuru, come on lemme use the bathroom already! I've been waiting out here for like...ever!" Yuuichi Kuga called out, as he banged on the upstairs bathroom door. "Alyssa is using the one downstairs, and you know how long she usually takes," Yuuichi continued to gripe, as he did a little dance while holding the front of his pants.
Finally the bathroom door opened, and a billowing cloud of steam spread outward, veiling for a few seconds a beautiful young girl wrapped only in a white towel.
"Yuuichi...my dear sweet brother...could you please not bang so loudly on the door while I'm taking a shower. A young lady must be fresh and clean after she has been out all day," Shizuru Kuga remarked softly, as she moved passed her older brother.
Yuuichi stopped doing his dance for a few seconds to look after Shizuru's slowly walking figure, before he shook his head lightly and muttered to himself.
Sometimes, Shizuru...you don't act like you're even really part of this family...
~o~
"I can't believe your parents actually allowed you to come out to this club, Natsuki!" a busty, fiery-haired young woman shouted into her best friend's ear as they bounced, swayed, and danced to the loud thumping club beats.
"She probably lied to them," a redhead with startling-green eyes commented from Natsuki's other side, as she sipped at a margarita.
"Shut up, Nao! How the hell did you even get an alcoholic drink in the first place?" Natsuki huffed, but continued to allow her body to sway freely to the music. She almost never got a chance to just...let loose like this. Her parents were just so...stifling...and seemed to have a thousand and one different rules for her.
"The same way we got into this slammin' club, my friend! Fakies," Nao said with a wide, shit-eating grin.
Natsuki allowed a laugh to slip passed her lips, before she grinned back at her friend.
Sometimes...with how differently I act from my parents, and even how we all look...sometimes...I wonder if I'm even truly part of this family...
Natsuki then shook her head, and allowed the negative thoughts to flow away from her mind, and continued to dance the night away.
~o~
It was almost midnight before Natsuki quietly turned the lock to the front door. If she could slip the lock just the right way, she could sneak quietly back into the house.
The raven-haired girl managed to slip the lock quietly in, and she silently stepped through the front door and into the front parlour of the house.
The entire house was in pitch darkness, and Natsuki breathed a sigh of relief as she began slipping forward to sneak upstairs to her bedroom. But of course things couldn't keep going this well for her, Natsuki lamented to herself as the light to the living-room suddenly flipped on, and she saw the unhappy-looking face of her father.
"Natsuki Fujino, you are in big trouble, young lady."
~o~
"So your Dad grounded you for a whole month?" Nao asked as she walked alongside her sable-haired friend, as they walked up the front pathway to Fuuka High.
"My Mom wanted to make it just two weeks. But you know how anally strict my Dad is. I swear, Nao! Sometimes I almost wish they weren't my parents. No true parent of mine would ground me for this long!" Natsuki wailed melodramatically.
"Oi Fujino, watch out!" Nao exclaimed as she watched Natsuki plow right into another person, and the two of them went toppling over.
"Hey, hey watch where you're going!" a sandy-haired boy cried out, as he rushed to a chestnut-haired girl's side. He leaned down and carefully helped the girl to stand back up onto her feet.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't see you...there..." Natsuki trailed off, as she looked at the most amazingly-beautiful girl she had ever seen in her entire life.
"It's quite alright, I wasn't really looking where I was going either," the honey-haired girl before Natsuki replied softly, as she lightly dusted off the front of her school uniform.
"Uhh...my name is Natsuki by the way. Natsuki Fujino. Did you and this oaf...er I mean this 'polite' young man, just transfer to this school? Because I haven't seen someone as beautifu...ahh...as pretty...ah, as nice-looking as you here before," Natsuki stammered out, as she wished a massive black hole would just open up beneath her and swallow her whole.
"Smooth, Fujino. Real smoooth," Nao snickered softly beside her, while enjoying watching her ebony-haired friend flounder.
The chestnut-haired girl allowed a brief smile to cross her lips, while the guy beside her scowled deeply at Natsuki.
"My name is Yuuichi. Not oaf. And I'm her big brother. Come on, Shizuru. This little shrimp is going to make us late for our first day of class," the sandy-haired boy exclaimed, as he lightly took Shizuru's arm into his hand, and gently began tugging her to the front steps of the school.
Shizuru...Natsuki lightly tasted the honey-haired girl's name on her tongue, as she watched the two walk away.
"Methinks that someone is now smitten," Nao hummed lightly into her ear.
Natsuki shook her head slightly to snap herself out of the small daze she'd fallen into, before she scowled at her red-haired friend.
"N-No I'm not. You're cracked in the head," Natsuki huffed, as she started walking swiftly to the entrance of the school.
Nao had to hurry to catch up, and she made sure to tease her raven-haired friend the entire way towards the school.
~o~
"So, this new girl that Nao says you're totally smitten with is in our class?" a small, hacking cough interrupted the speaker on Natsuki's cellphone from continuing.
"Yeah, Mai...and no I'm not smitten dammit. I'm going to wring Nao's neck when I see her tomorrow," Natsuki muttered under her breath, as she pedaled her bike up the long walkway to her family's home. Her bike was one of the very few things she'd been able to convince her parents to let her have, that was completely her own thing. They would have much preferred her to be limo-driven to school, but Natsuki wasn't having any of that. Her bicycle was one of her only true 'freedoms', and she cherished it dearly. Though what she actually truly wanted was a sleek midnight-blue and black Ducati, she'd seen in a motorbike racing magazine that she'd managed to smuggle into her room, even under her father's ever-watchful eye.
"Well, let me let you get back to resting, Mai. I hope you get over your cold soon," Natsuki said as she stopped her bike before the house, reached into her pocket to pull out a remote garage key, and opened the wide garage door.
Mai said goodbye and Natsuki ended the call, as she parked her bike beside her father's expensive BMW. She then pressed the button on the remote key again, and watched for a few seconds as the garage door slid shut. She then entered into the house by the inside garage door and stepped into the front parlour, raising her arms in huge stretch as she tossed her school bag which had been on her back, onto the floor by the front door.
"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Natsuki called out, as she began to make her way up the stairs to her bedroom.
"Natsuki dear, before you head up to your room could you please come here for a few minutes," Natsuki's mother's soft voice called out from the living-room.
Natsuki let out a slightly-annoyed sigh but she backtracked, came back down the stairs, and headed towards the living-room to see what her mother wanted.
What she found was her father sitting in his richly-cushion wooden-chair, with her mother standing quietly behind his chair.
My parents are actually pretty good-looking people, Natsuki thought idly to herself as she looked at her father's strikingly-imposing figure, even seated in a chair. He had hair the colour of softly-spun gold, and eyes that usually glowered a deep mahogany-brown. Her mother was very petite compared to her father, and she had eyes that were the colour of a highly-polished ruby. Her waves of curly chestnut-coloured hair always made the dark-haired girl feel slightly unhappy. Why couldn't her own dark locks match up to her mother's soft, honey-coloured curls?
"Natsuki, we need to talk," her father said in that low, rumbling way that always alerted the emerald-eyed girl that this was not a conversation she was going to enjoy. Those kinds of conversations usually ended up with her either being grounded, or her father expressing his deep disappointment in her for one thing or the other.
"Natsuki, you know that I don't like to waste words in anything with you. So, I'll get straight to the point. You're mother and I...well mainly I...decided to go ahead and do something that has been nagging at us...me...for years now. We went and took a blood test, and compared the results of our blood to yours, using the blood sample our family doctor had for you."
Natsuki felt a sudden unpleasant shiver run down her spine, and her head began feeling light and uncomfortably hot.
Her father continued, as he sat staring piercingly into her eyes.
"There really isn't any easy way for me to say this but...I'm sorry, Natsuki...but you're not a Fujino."
AN - The end? Lol, as I said this was just a sudden on-the-spot inspiration fic. I haven't thought of really much of a plot beyond this, but I could try to figure one out ^^
There are a couple of vague ideas in my head, and actually if any of you have any suggestions, I'm totally open to them =3
That is if you all want me to continue this story, and just see where it goes ^^
Thanks for reading either way, and please review =3