The Gender Switch Incident
A/N: Dimes help very much. And I don't think Ayame had long hair when he was very young. In flashbacks of him ignoring Yuki, his hair is a little longer than adult Shigure's. When Ayame is in high school, his hair was about as long as Tohru's.
Ten-year-old Shigure and Hatori Sohma were at a local library on one fine Autumn day. Their class had been assigned to pick a profession and write a short paper on the kinds of things one would need to know for it. So the Madubachi trio had planned to set out to the library to look for books with information on their possible future careers.
Hatori had found several books about human health and anatomy. He had surprised Shigure with his excitement on the subject. Hatori's fingers were itching to start reading the books. Shigure had gotten nothing for himself, but had got a list of books Ayame had requested. The silver-haired boy had to cancel at the last minute because his parents had needed to talk with him about something serious. Shigure frowned. That was odd. Ayame's parent had the tendency to... ignore him most of the time. They had never before interfered with his plans. Shigure signed and continued his search for books on sewing and women's fashion.
Shigure had just managed to stagger to the check-out counter with the large stack when Ayame entered the building. He dragged his feet and sighed as he reached the two other boys.
"Aya?" Shigure peered into Ayame's face, "What's wrong? What did your parents say to you?"
Ayame fixed his stare on his shoes, "I..."
Shigure wrapped his arm around Ayame while Hatori rested his hand on his shoulder. "What is it?" Hatori said gently.
"...I have a...new little brother," Ayame murmured.
Shigure blinked at stared at Ayame, "Then why are you so upset? I think it'd be cool to have a little brother."
Hatori narrowed his eyes at Ayame, "What else is bothering you?"
"Well, my mother and father got angry when I asked them how he got here," Ayame paused, "Oh yeah, and he's cursed with the Spirit of the Rat, too."
"Oh Aya, I'm so sorry. That must be so hard on your mother, having two children she cannot hold," Shigure's eyes began tearing up. Even Hatori seemed upset.
"That's not why I'm upset," Ayame said, "Mother and Father would ignore me more if I had a sibling who wasn't cursed. I'm glad the little thing is. Anyway, I just want to know how it got here. I'm not entirely sure a stork brings babies, but that's what they told me..."
Shigure laughed loudly, causing the bespectacled librarian to send the boys the Look of Death, "Aya, you're so silly, that's why I love you so much."
Ayame blinked in confusion, "Where do babies come from, then?"
"From under a cabbage leaf."
At this Hatori began laughing so loudly that the librarian literally threw the boys out the doors with their books. Even after landing with a smack against the concrete, Hatori still kept laughing.
"Ow..." Shigure said, standing up.
"It's okay, Gure," Ayame said, reaching over to brush off the seat of Shigure's kimono.
Finally Hatori stopped laughing long enough to stand up and say, "You idiots," before collapsing into giggles again.
"Why are you laughing so much, Hari?" Shigure asked, "Do you know?"
Hatori picked up one of the books he had just checked out, "Let's go home and see if I can explain things to you with the help of this."
Later...
"...And then the cell begins to divide, and after nine months, the baby is born." Hatori finished.
Shigure and Ayame stared wide-eyed at the illustrations in the book Hatori held on his lap.
Shigure took a deep breath and poked to a spot on the picture, "Is this where the baby comes out?"
"Through the vaginal canal, yes."
Ayame blinked, "Um...Hatori...I don't think it would fit..."
Hatori sighed and began to explain.
Even Later...
Shigure and his mother and father were sitting down to a quiet dinner. Shigure's father was sitting to Shigure's right at the table, his tie loosened and his hair mussed. He had just spent a long day at the office he managed in the city. Shigure's mother seemed tired as well, simply from housework and worrying over every little thing that came their way. The meal was silent, not from anger or annoyance, but from the simple happiness of being able to relax a bit at the end of the day.
Shigure's mother looked at her son as he ate, who was obviously contemplating something in silence. "Shigure," She asked, "You're very quiet tonight."
"Yes, you are, " His father said, "What are you thinking about?"
"Well, it's just I forgot..." Shigure trailed off, slightly embarrassed.
"What is it? Did you put your work off until the last minute again?" His mother seemed miffed.
Shigure giggled nervously, "No I finished my paper...I wrote it on being a writer..."
Shigure's father smiled, "That could be an interesting job... writing can be unstable, just to warn you if you're serious about it. But anyway, what did you forget, then?"
"You see, I can't remember if it's men or women who have fallopian tubes."
Shigure's mother and father choked into their rice.
"And I don't see why people would want to go through sexual intercourse to make a baby," Shigure continued, "The people in the pictures seemed to be yelling in pain..."
Shigure's mother fell over and his father developed a rather nasty eye twitch.
A/N: I know a girl who did this once. She was taking a test and had to fill in the names for various parts of the male anatomy, and labeled the vas deferens as fallopian tubes. -