-The Secret Sohmas-
Their alternate ending------------
Chapter 13 - Epilogue
She watched as she lost it to the wind, remembering only now that it had been given to her by her cousin, that it was a gift from a young boy.
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"Kyo-kun! Your face is all better!"
Kyo blinked down at Tohru before realizing that she had been talking about his cheek. "Of course it's all better. Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well," Yuki started. "It just seemed like you'd reopened the wound so many times with all the shouting you did."
"Shut-up, ya damn rat! I wasn't asking you!"
Tohru giggled. The days had begun passing at their normal speed again and things were slowly returning to normal. The beam in the kitchen doorframe was fixed, as was the broken tatami mat. Shigure's books had fallen, once again, into disarray and the sleeping mat in Tohru's room had been rolled up and returned to the closet.
"I'm back! I've got them!" Shigure paraded through the front door, overly pleased with himself.
"You got what?" Kyo groaned, sticking a finger in his ear in an attempt to regain his ability to hear out of it. Shigure continued his parade into the main room where Tohru and Yuki had been sitting before Kyo had finished with his bath and Shigure had returned.
Shigure waved around a fat envelope. "I got the pictures developed."
"Pictures?" Tohru asked, her eyes wide, inquisitive and adorable. Yuki had a similarly motivated expression. Shigure plopped the envelope on the table and Tohru immediately took it up, opened it and laid the pictures out. Kyo leaned over her shoulder to see them. "Gah! Shigure! They're all double exposed!"
"Oh no," Tohru sighed, sifting through the pictures.
"Oh dear," Shigure whined. "Those one hour photo places never seem to do it right."
"Then why do you keep going to them!?" Kyo growled.
"What were they pictures of?" Yuki asked, looking at the pictures one by one to try to decipher them.
Tohru looked them over as well. "They look like young girls."
Yuki and Kyo both frowned very heavily at Shigure who tried to hide the sweat drop that formed on his head. "Must've been someone else's pictures exposed onto ours."
"Well, wait a minute," Yuki pointed out, sorting out a few pictures. "These don't seem double exposed."
Shigure immediately swooped down and scrapped up the pictures of his precious high school girls. He returned one photograph to the table, though. "Look, Tohru, it's you."
Yuki, Tohru and Kyo all leaned over to see the picture. It was a cute picture. Tohru was standing by herself, though there was room enough to fit at least three more people into the picture. Tohru was in pants, which was rare, and she was smiling very brightly.
Tohru had to stare at it for a minute before she figured out what it was. "Oh!"
"You were wearing that when you rescued us, right?" Yuki confirmed.
"Yes!" Tohru said proudly at Yuki. She was happy then but, when she shifted her smile from Yuki to the picture, her smile began to fade ever so slowly.
"What's wrong?" Kyo asked her as her eyes began to shine.
Tohru sniffled, patting her eyes. "Kyoko, Yukiko and Hara were supposed to be in this picture. They didn't come out."
Kyo and Yuki felt the sting of Tohru's words and glanced at the picture again themselves. It almost looked like someone had erased the three girls from the picture. Erased the memory.
"But the picture's still here," Kyo pointed out.
"Yes, Tohru," Shigure coaxed, smiling down at her. "I did take the picture of you and them. That much cannot be undone. The proof of that is right here."
Tohru sniffled and tried very hard to dry her eyes. Kyo lifted up the picture and starred at it for a moment. Tohru's smile in the photo was not the kind that she shared with herself, but with others by her side. This picture was proof enough that there were others with her on the day. "We should frame it." Kyo said simply, placing the picture back down on the table.
"Yes!" Tohru chimed, her tears beginning to finally dry. She took up the picture and ran it to her room. Kyo and Yuki slowly followed her. Tohru stumbled into her room and dug through her closet, finding an extra frame that she had been keeping to put another picture of her mother in.
She slid the picture into the frame and smiled at it. She placed it down on her table and joined Yuki and Kyo to admire it. She had placed the frame next to a hat that had caught the wind and floated to her feet the same day as the one when the picture had been taken, a hat that now sat next to an almost identical one that she kept for sentimental reasons. The hat that had been given to Tohru by a young boy in her childhood that had saved her when she was lost.
They didn't vanish. They thought. They didn't vanish at all. They're right here where no harm will ever come to them again: Here, safe, in our memories and in our hearts.
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That's the end. That's the story of the Secret Sohmas, a wonderful collection of people who freed themselves from their suffering the only way they knew how.
What I really wanted to do with this story wasn't to just write a story about the Sohmas with their genders' switched. I wanted to recreate the Sohma's lives as how they would've/could've/might've been if they had been the other gender. I wanted the Secret Sohmas to seem like they had grown up as their gender.
Kyoko, Yukiko, and Hatsuhara, even though there was great animosity between them, they would still help each other because they needed to protect each other. I felt that girls could do that much better than guys could.
Momo didn't require much changing, but she was very focused on being a part of her little brother's world.
Kagiru became a friendly soul with a violent side. Kagiru was less emotion driven than Kagura.
Ayaa, though it was hard to tell, had an easier time connecting with her little sister. Yukiko's condition is also much more sensitive than Yuki's so Yukiko's less violent, but has a greater capacity for destruction.
Shigeru has more of a paternal side than Shigure. She still flirts left and right, but she's getting on in years and needs a nice man.
Miss Hato has more concealed emotions that Hatori. We never got to hear much about what had happened to her, but she would never tell us or bother to dwell on it.
Kisa turned into a shy boy. That works just as well as a shy girl. People can make fun of Kisan more 'cause he's a boy.
Hiro has even more reasons to get mad 'cause Hinata's a girl and she has to protect Kisan. She wants to be strong, but she wants Kisan to be strong too.
Lil' Momiji is just adorable and wishes very much to have a family. Perhaps being alone is what caused his eyes to be so empty.
Ren became a bit nicer than Rin. He's a guy and he's less emotion driven, but he cares very very much about Hara, but he tries to hide it. He doesn't want to have to hide it, of course. He wants to be able to protect her, but Hara keeps doing things that he can't protect her from and he keeps doing things he can't protect himself from.
Ritsuzou turned into Ritsu's mother, I think. She shouts. She still thinks she's bad at everything and it affects her a lot because she's not the boy her parents wanted and she never will be. She blames her gender a lot. She's less suicidal than Ritsu, though.
Kurenai turned into this beautiful damsel trapped by her responsibilities. I think a female Kureno would feel more trapped than a male one.
Akito just turned into a cocky teenager. Add cocky, arrogant teenage boy to a handful of lowly, attractive teenage girls. Yup, it sucks. He used to taunt all three of the girls, but when Kyoko tried to burn him down, he started to focus on her. It's no wonder she was looking for someone to love.
The Secret Sohmas, ladies and gentlemen!
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I would like to thank all the wonderfully amazing and supportive people who have read my fanfic and gave me reviews and truly enjoyed my story.
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I'm honored that you could enjoy my story with me. I'm glad to have written it.
Your attention and kind words have touched my heart. I am very thankful.
Sighed,
Winged Enchantress
The voice of the Secret Sohmas