Chapter 5 - Hormones

It was Wednesday, they had survived the first challenging showers that same morning and mother and kids were now gathered in the living room.

They had to make a plan. Robert and Lily had agreed that their kids would have better stayed at home for the rest of the week, hence, Claire and Chris had five whole days to prepare for their comeback to school. But there was more than that. They had to prepare to meet again their friends and switch roles. It turned out to be far more complicated than expected, yet none of them had ever thought it'd have been easy!

As Chris was 2 years older than Claire, he was two grades ahead. This means he had 2 years of education more than her. As now it was actually real Claire supposed to walk into her brother's classes, she was dramatically worried she would lower his grades. Especially with maths. She was pretty good at it by herself but she was still 2 years behind in the studying. She might manage to study history, English and other subjects but with maths... She just couldn't learn the equivalent of two whole years of lessons in just five days.

Real Chris' attempts to alleviate those worries were pretty useless this time: she cared about Chris' education too much. His future, the college, depended on his grades. She was thinking this, assuming she would have given him his body back sometimes for sure, but there was no certainty about that. At all. But if they'd never manage to switch again, Claire thought, the problem wouldn't be anymore as real Chris would have to go to college in her female body, just two years later than expected. Her own grades as fake Chris weren't important.

Real Chris, on his side, disagreed with her. Her education was most important, too. If it ended up her just skipping those two years and going to college as a boy, she'd have to recover the missing education and fill the gap.

It. Was. A. Hellish. Mess.

They had to compromise. Even though Claire somehow won the dispute putting Chris' sake first. In fact, for now the plan was to use those five days to teach her the strict necessary to confront the maths test fixed on next Monday. The rest could wait.

They also had to prepare for the meeting with their different groups of friends. For the moment they had told their friends they both got a bad flu, this way, being at home was justified and, at the same time, it'd have avoided any of their friends to pay an unwanted visit.

They had to switch, as real Chris would have to stick around with Jill, the helpless talkative Rebecca and the other girls while real Claire had to do the same with those crazy guys her brother's friends were. What if they noticed the difference in their demeanour?

Chris was concerned about his sister hanging with his friends. They were all teenage boys who, when they weren't talking racy about girls, they would act like a bunch of idiots most the time.

Chris himself was kind of an exception in that group, 'cause he was... Chris, but what would she think of him when his friends would just start talking dirty about girls, girls parts and sex with girls? Because that brat of Carlos would definitely talk about it most the time. And Leon... well, despite his angelic face and his naivety halo, he was the absolute master in dirty talking and vulgarity. Only Piers wouldn't talk smutty about girls... but his mouth was full of obscenities about sex just the same. Chris was aware that Claire already knew all of them (as they came often to their house) but she did it as his sister. They always behaved well at her presence. Chris didn't allow any vulgarity in front of her, and sure none of them would ever dare dirty talking to her or being disrespectful.

Real Claire had her own share of worries too. Her friends knew kinda everything of her as they were really close. They knew how she reasoned, what she thought about other people, who she liked. They knew some secrets of her that Chris just ignored.

Jill, for example, she was well aware about her slight crush on Leon, and would always tease her about it when Rebecca wasn't listening. If Chris knew that...

Or even worse, they knew about such intimate details (some pretty indecent) about her past that only thinking about them made her blush now.

Jill herself was a problem too. What if real Chris noticed too what was plainly evident to her, that Jill had a huge, incredibly huge, secret crush on him that she wouldn't admit even to herself? That was another whole mess.

At least, she thought to comfort herself, Chris didn't had a girlfriend at the time. That would have been very hard. She... knew she didn't like much having... sexual activities with girls. She knew as she had tried. With Moira. Another secret to worry about.

There were also lots of other minor issues. Claire went twice a week at a ballet school. She even had a recital fixed for next Christmas. Her thin body was trained but would Chris be able to dance the same flawless way she did?

And Chris, he went to the gym three times a week! He was kind of addicted to working out. His perfect body required lots of sweat and hard work to be kept that way as all those steroids related jokes were just false. Would Claire keep his pace?

Only their phones had followed their souls in the switch, since the day before, so they could keep chatting with friends. It was a bit of normality for them, even if voice messages were obviously out and the fingers tapping on the smartphones screens weren't their usual. Even typing required a bit of exercise.

They spent the rest of the day talking about how to behave and how to make a good impression of each other. It was pretty fun though, mocking each other gestures and manners. Real Claire spent two whole hours teaching Chris how to walk at least like a girl (if not just like her), to sit without spreading legs like a gorilla, and how to make a good ponytail. Because Claire wore ponytails almost daily.

Accordingly, real Claire had to learn how to walk and move in a lesser feminine way as well.

"I don't sashay like that!" Chris said with a pointed look.

Claire stopped by the tv and rose her arms to the sky, rolling her eyes and huffing.

"How am I supposed to do then?" she groaned.

"I don't know! It comes natural to me… it's my gait! I showed you how to!" Chris exclaimed a bit exasperated "You always say I'm a gorilla, why don't put up a documentary and learn directly from them?!"

He soon repented of his own words.

Fake Chris started to leap around like a real big monkey, with closed fists based on the floor in front of her feet and scratching her head and armpit, crying like a wild beast althroughout. With a deft movement she threw away her slippers and, jumped on the sofa, she started beating her chest, drumming alternately her pectorals.

She really looked like a gorilla and, albeit real Chris grimaced in disapproval, not him nor Lily could exempt from sniggering in front of such a scene.

"Better now?" Real Claire joked "or am I still too human to look like you?"

Real Chris got up and threw his delightful body on her, spanking her butt. Soon the playful spank turned into a wild reciprocal tickle and they ended up in a huge tangle of legs, arms and laughters.

Lily called to order her kids only when, wiggling, they risked to break the black glass of the coffee table.

The afternoon flew just like this, with awkward attempts, some laughs, and lazy conversations on the sofa with their mother. Anyway, it was a very busy day and when it ended, they went to bed pretty exhausted.

The following morning Claire woke up at the sound of a loud thunder. It was raining and raining hard. It was about 9 a.m. and as she stretched in the bed she thought that she might just go downstairs and make herself a cup of coffee to drink it in bed, wrapped in soft covers like she usually did on rainy days.

Mom was surely gone back to work and Claire would just enjoy a bit of loneliness in her cosy house. She moved blankets aside and... fuck.

Morning wood.

He was standing there, between her muscled thighs, erected under her pants.

Shit.

She mentally said goodbye to her mug of coffee.

Chris didn't tell her what to do in these cases. He didn't talk about boners at all. What was she supposed to do? Just lay there until her penis would... fall asleep again?

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

She kept her eyes locked on the bump past her navel and finally decided to try pushing it back to see if it would do any effect. She reached it with her hand and gently started pushing it down. It sent shivers along her whole body.

She wanted to withdraw her hand but she just kept it in place keeping pushing. The feeling of the touch was too pleasant to resist it. She grabbed it.

It lasted less than a second as she swiftly tossed her hand back on the mattress. She was breathing pretty heavy. Damn, that felt good! And dirty.

She clenched her eyes and shook her big bearded head vigorously.

It's Chris' penis! Washing it is ok, but touching it is not. It's not alright. It feels so fucking good but it's not alright at all.

She looked down and saw that her inappropriate touching had had quite the opposite effect than intended. Her boner was even more evident now. Shit.

Someone knocked at her door. As she knew Mom and Dad had gone to work, it could only be Chris. She soon covered herself again with blankets and let him in.

He was bent forward a bit and he had a painful look on his - her - face. It was a mixture of pain, embarrassment and rage. He looked like a devilish version of Claire.

"Good Morning Chr-" real Claire started to say even before she spotted that gorgeous body, but was cut off by him.

"Shit, Claire. I need your help! I don't know how to handle this!" real Chris said raising his hand and showing his blood stained fingers.

Real Claire had to blink twice before noticing the red stain between the legs.

Oh, shit. How could have she forgotten such an important thing?

With all the fuss going on she just forgot she was a woman. And women have periods. And now it was Chris having it. Dammit. That was embarrassing.

By the way real Chris stood up, she knew it was one of those times her period was painful. Sometimes it happened with nothing more than a slight annoying sensation on her belly but some other times, and apparently this was one of those, it happened with most painful womb twitching.

"I'm so sorry Chris" she said getting up and reaching her own suffering body "don't worry I'll teach you this too" she said stroking gently real Chris' head.

She talked softly as she was so sorry for him. So sorry for having forgot. So sorry for her brother having to go through that. She knew it wasn't pleasant at all.

They both went to the bathroom and real Claire went back to her room picking some clean underwear from her drawer. She went back to Chris and found him sitting on the toilet, panties and shorts laying on the floor. He was in big pain, pressing a hand on his lower belly and hissing and huffing desperately.

Claire showed him how to use pads and gave him all the tips that came to her mind. She was embarrassed, and she would have been blushing for sure if her brother wasn't in those bad conditions. She was concerned about him but, at least, it had had a good effect on her erection as it was much less evident. Hopefully, Chris hadn't noticed it.

She brought him back in her room and eased him down on the mattress.

"I'll be right back Chris, I'm going to take some painkillers for you" Claire said whispering while stroking Chris' head again "They will make all the pain fade away. Trust me."

"Ok, Claire" real Chris hissed "it... It hurts so bad..." and he watched her leaving, wondering how do girls survive such a thing every month.

Claire darted to the bathroom again, taking a couple of pills from a blister and put some fresh water in her glass. As she returned to Chris, he swallowed the pills greedily as the pain was nearly unbearable.

"It will make effect in about twenty minutes, Chris."

"So much?"

"Yeah... your empty stomach will speed it up a bit but usually it won't take less than 20 minutes..." she said in a sorrowful tone and she leaned her big body down, next to Chris, and hugged him.

"Massaging this way will help a bit" and she placed her big warm hand on her brother's lower belly and started massaging it in slow circles applying a little pressure. She could feel her body twitching under her palm and almost sense the piercing pain coming from that womb. She watched her body, the thin delicate body curled up next to her, legs folded and clenched, the head resting on her shoulder. And she saw her brother's body too, hers now, welcoming that petite girl on him, rubbing gently the back with the hand she had slipped behind real Chris' head and the other inserted in the curl of that body, massaging. It was such a thing Chris would do.

Now it was her turn to play the protective older brother role, as Chris wasn't prepared to face that. She placed tiny pecks on his forehead. Definitely Chris-like.

They stayed in that position until real Chris started feeling better, the painkillers working their way to his brain.

She felt sorry for not having warned him. She should've seen it coming though! A quick glance at the calendar hanging on the wall upon her desk confirmed her it was indeed the twentyseventh of the month.

"I'm so sorry Chris" she finally sighed "I should have noticed it was that time of the month again. I should've prepared you."

"Claire, don't even say it! With all we've been through these past days no wonder you forgot it!"

"But Chris, I should have remembered it at least yesterday when we were 'making our plans'... I... just didn't even slightly think about it!"

"It's not your fault, darling. I didn't thought about it either. I mean, I know women get periods... I just didn't really understand I am a woman now... well uh... I have a woman body. It even took me a while to figure out what was that horrible pain that woke me up!"

She smiled and kissed his forehead again and, trying to relent his last remaining pains, she said playfully "well we both forgot about another thing too..."

Yes, she was going to talk with her brother about penises and their weird habit to rise up in the morning and in other situations. Having had to help him deal with menstruation made her feel a lot more at ease with those kind of subjects now.

"You mean... boners, right?" real Chris giggled.

"Yeah... you saw it too, uh?" Claire replied sheepishly.

"Yep. I was in big pain but... I couldn't help noticing it anyway." He laughed. "How did you felt?"

"Well... It was unexpected. I woke up and… it was there!"

"And... What did you do?..." He questioned trying to sound neutral.

"I didn't really know what to do... I mean, I tried to push it down but it didn't work."

Chris went pensive a bit till he started again, eyes closed and head still resting on her round shoulder, "so you touched it... did you feel anything?"

He could feel real Claire shifting nervously and her heart racing in her chest. She remained silent. He then raised his head and with one hand palmed her face forcing her to look down.

"Claire, remember is your body now." He said looking deeply at her eyes. His own eyes. Still quite a mystery.

"I know."

"Everything about your body is fine, Claire."

"I know."

He smiled at her and again asked "Did you feel anything?"

"Yes"

She was opening to him. Slowly but she was.

"And what you felt?"

"Pleasure" she answered looking away.

"Don't be ashamed, Claire. I have been in a male body all my life, I know perfectly what it means to live with it, and with a penis. Just like you know what it means to deal with menstrual cramps and blood. It's natural. I know that touching it is pleasant. So fucking pleasant. But it's alright. We are made this way." He said shrugging in the end.

The conversation was getting tough. Chris could talk about sex or anything related to it way more easily than Claire and without any apparent embarrassment. Not even if he was talking about it to his own sister - as long as it would remain general and don't involve her sex life. Maybe that's because he was a boy, she thought.

But Chris had also this magical power to put her at ease no matter what. They have been living in that condition for a couple of days by then, they were starting to get used to it. They were slowly overcoming mutual shame. Going to the toilet had got much easier for both, even though showers had still a bit too much of shut eyes. But it was getting better. For real.

"I know it's natural, Chris. But..." She hesitated.

"But...?"

"But it shouldn't be alright, right? I mean..."

"Claire it's yours."

She sighed. He was right. She was going to say that it was his penis they were talking about, but he was right. It was hers now.

"You can feel free to touch it every time you want without feeling ashamed at all. It would happen you might have to adjust it like I had to do with… my breasts yesterday. Also, you might feel the will to touch it in other ways, too. And that would be fine as well."

She widened her eyes. He had said that.

"I can't do that..."

"Why?! Are you listening to me, Claire? It's your body!"

"I know but..." she sighed and seeing how she wasn't going to be right until he kept repeating that now it was her body, she snapped scornfully "So, you saying that you would touch yourself? I mean your new vagina without even blinking?"

That caught him off guard. Dammit. He felt the very same embarrassment she was feeling.

"Well... uh... I don't know... I haven't thought about it yet." He was sincere. He hadn't. But he had to do now as his sister was staring at him and waiting for an answer. He took some time to think and then said "Yes, I would."

They fell silent until Chris shifted up and placed his head at the same level as hers.

"Does it make you feel bad?" He spoke so softly, he didn't want to hurt her "I mean think of me touching my... this body."

She thought about it a bit. "A little, yes."

"I won't do it Claire. I don't want you to feel bad." He said. He didn't even want to touch himself at all, actually. He still had some issues thinking about it.

Claire looked back at him with the sweetest gaze ever of her manly face. He was the best brother. She was the worst sister. He wouldn't mind her touching him-... herself and she just forbid him to do the same, to do what she had done herself before too, to be honest. As she knew for sure that now he felt it was forbidden to him. His sister was above anything else for Chris.

"I don't want you to not... I mean… you can do it, Chris. You're right. It's yours. And if you say you have no problems then I will have no problems as well." real Claire said after a while "I want you to feel good."

His sister was the best he thought. He felt how she cared about him. "I won't Claire. I know it makes you feel bad".

"I said it's ok Chris! You can! It was so selfish of me to feel uneasy about it... But you convinced me. It's natural. It's alright." She hurried saying to make up for her previous selfish rashness.

"Ok Claire. If I'll ever feel like it... I will. I just want you to know that I still don't want to. Actually I think you would feel at ease with your penis far before I would even accept the fact that I don't have one anymore" he said laughing loudly.

How wrong he was. How naive. How much he underestimated the power of hormones!

It was a strangest feeling. He had a real hard time that day. Feeling blood flooding outside his body was upsetting. He spent the morning going to the bathroom every hour just to check if there was too much of it in the pad.

He wasn't ready for it. That sudden hit of womanhood was freaking him out. He had never experienced anything like that before. The sight of a bleeding vagina was too disturbing for him, not that he stared directly at it, but he saw blood every time. He was so pissed off he wanted to cry, he wanted to smash everything.

Truth was, his hotheaded disposition combined with that twirling amount of female hormones was too much for him to repress. He would just scream if teased - even if it was only his mother asking if he needed help - and then feeling so sorry for it he would just start sobbing.

Periods were horrible. He never saw Claire act like that before, she never had such bad reactions when on her periods. Why was he then? Why was he losing control over himself? What did Claire know about how to deal with hormones that he didn't? Absolutely nothing.

Truth was hormones, disposition and so much accumulated post traumatic stress were overwhelming him.

At least pain had gone.

"It will get better soon, Chris. Trust me, I know my... that body. It won't take more than three days. The fourth is so easy it doesn't even count!" real Claire tried to comfort him.

"I hope so, Claire. But I'm glad it happened while I'm home at least." Chris replied.

Yes, the condition he was in would've had such explosive implications if he was at school.

He would have killed for a cigarette right now. Since the accident he never smoked again as he thought he didn't have the right to ruin Claire's lungs. She had told that it was ok if he wanted to smoke but he wouldn't do it. He just hoped Claire wasn't feeling the need to let some nicotine in her pretty addicted body and maybe get the bad habit, and start smoking once - hopefully - she would have had her body back.

The weekend went on pretty slow. They studied, and spent much time together. Chris felt soon better and by Sunday evening periods were just a memory.

Their father was working even in the weekend, putting as much effort as possible in looking for the hoped solution. Lily had recovered from the initial shock and her jovial nature soon showed up again. Smile returned on her face and that made her kids really happy. Seeing their mother in a good mood just improved theirs too. She eventually started even doing small jokes about her kids' identity swap, and they would all laugh. It was a way to exorcise it.

The Redfields weren't weak people at all. They were natural born fighters. And Lily Carter Redfield was as well.

On that Sunday evening, before going to bed, real Claire approached her brother in the living room. Lily was cleaning the kitchen while poor Robert was already in bed as he was too tired to stay up late, even for some quality family time.

She sat next to him on the sofa opposite the television and waited for the commercial break to start to speak.

"Chris, I was thinking we should swap our bedrooms too".

"Why?" He answered looking away from the big screen and directly into those light hazel eyes.

"As long as we'd been home it was ok, but as we're going again to school tomorrow we should switch. You'll have to wear my clothes and me yours, and we'll both have to get ready in the morning. Going back and forth between our rooms would be messy."

Claire was right. But the idea of not waking up in his room wasn't enteraining him at all.

His room, his vintage rock bands posters, his vinyl albums, his guitar, his old gaming consoles, his collection of videogames, were all that remained him of normality. Of his past self. His boyhood. Waking up in her sister bright room, filled with flamingos, damned unicorns, pink neon quotes in the closet, fluffy things and tons of other girlish stuff would mean losing the last bit of masculinity that surrounded his hot female figure. Still, she was right.

"Ok Claire. I don't really want to do it but it sounds like a most reasonable thing to do."

"I know Chris..." She replied smiling at him and grabbing his hand she said "come with me! I have to show you my other clothes! We have to pick up what you'll be wearing tomorrow."

"I'm watching a movie right now, actually" he said.

It was true, but he'd be a liar if he said it wasn't also an excuse to procrastinate the room swap.

"Yeah sorry" she laughed slapping her forehead in an exaggerated manner "I forgot it! Ok then... I'll wait for it to end!". And that said, she adjusted on the sofa placing her head on Chris shoulder like she was used to, but with switched bodies that position wasn't much comfortable, so she ended up laying on the sofa and resting her big bearded head on his lap, grinning jokingly.

"Uhm... your thighs, I mean these manly thighs down here, are way more a better pillow than those skinny legs... of ours". She said pulling a cushion under her head.

He reached that head with his hand and started caressing the beard. How bad he was missing it. He was so proud of his beard! Many other guys of his age would envy it! He had already taught his sister how to trim it so it would remain always the same length. It wasn't much long though, just few millimetres. But he offered to do it for her every time. Of course... that wasn't like having it but at least taking care of it was still better than nothing! He didn't want to let go of his long coveted beard. It had taken all his adolescence to grow it after all!

Being in Claire's face wasn't that bad too. Her skin was really smooth and pleasant to touch... no, her face was perfect. Simply perfect. It was that ridiculous amount of cosmetics he had to learn to name the real problem. Conditioner, body lotion, hands lotion, face cream, lipbalm... He huffed at the thought of all those annoying small bottles. But looking at the bright side... at least she didn't wear any makeup. Because he would have refused to waste hours of his life to splatter his face with… well those colored creams he didn't know the name.

Mascara, that was a problem. Damn, he laughed at himself for even knowing its name. Claire had spent an hour trying to teach him how to apply it without splashing it inside the ball of his eye, just to agree that she either put it on him herself or... none of it at all. He preferred the latter option but he feared his sister would come across and force him to wear it. He smiled again as he pictured a funny scene on his brain.

"Why are you smiling like that Chris? It's a zombies movie! The cop has just died eaten!" Claire laughed hard from his lap. Her growling laughter filled the whole room.

"I was just thinking about something scarier than any zombie apocalypse!" He giggled looking down at her and, with a solemn tone, he whispered "Mascara!"

They both couldn't hold their laughs. Real Claire was actually laughing to tears and rolling on the sofa.

"You... hahaha... you don't... Ohoohoooh… have to..." She was fighting against her laughter to speak "You don't really have to wear it if you don't want to, Chris! I mean... I like how it improves my eyes. that's all, but as they are yours now...". She had to wipe her tears from the side of her head, still laughing hard.

"Improve?! Your eyes are beautiful the way they are Claire!" He told as he calmed his giggling.

She blushed a bit, well, laughing had already reddened her face so it wasn't much obvious. "Thanks, Chris. But believe me, the result is awesome! I love that." And with a smirk Chris didn't like, she added "well... I'm curious to know how mascara would be on these eyes!" And pointed at her hazel brown eyes with both her thumbs.

Real Chris stared at her in disbelief. "Don't you dare!"

Again both laughing. Even if he wasn't much sure she was joking.

The movie was over. It was bedtime.

They went upstairs and in Claire's room. They agreed that by that moment they would call that the Girly Room and the other the Man's Cave, to avoid any misunderstanding by saying "his", "hers", "mine", "yours".

Real Claire was sitting on the crimson armchair next to her bed as she had just finished explaining her closet tour.

"Wait. What are you doing?" she said serious.

"I am... uh... picking clothes?"

"I can see. But what make you think that shirt would match with those pants?"

Chris sighed, lowering what he was carrying.

"Let me help you with that, Chris." Claire said and walked in the closet picking a pair of dark jeans. "These are much better, I usually wear them with ankle boots, the ones over there."

Chris thanked her and put the clothes on the desk. As he was pretty tired he kissed her goodnight and his sister left the room kissing him back. The following day was going to be a tough day, both thought. Better take some rest.

He looked back at the closet, at everything surrounding him.

We have to pick up the clothes you'll be wearing tomorrow, she had said. Actually she just entered the closet, started saying what was where and then picked up many pieces, tossing them all on him, storming his brain with dozen of rules, tips, dos and don'ts that apparently girls follow willingly.

He frowned so bad thinking that maybe Claire was turning him into her sister.

UNLOCKED CONTENT: you can now safely read chapter 3 "Hermanos' Hormones" from the spin-off "Behind The Scenes Chronicles".