Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoy this story. This author's note probably won't really change for the rest of the story, so you won't have to read it after you've read the first part. I'll put the story info here, I guess.
Title: Switch-A-Roo
Rating: T
Description: "Did you see the new kid? Gilbert, I think his name was. Yeah, he's weird. He doesn't change in the boys' locker room, his voice is a little strange, and the way he walks is almost like a girl! Oh, and did you notice he always wears a hat? Yeah, he's definitely a strange one."
Warnings: AU, fem!Prussia, PruCan, USUK, some swearing. (I'll post a big !LOOK! If there's a warning for a certain chapter.) !LOOK!: I attempted at fluff here. Tell me if it's any good or not...?
I stand in at the door of Matthew and Alfred's house. My heart pounds as I wait for someone to open the door. What do boys even do at sleepovers? Paint each other's nails and give makeovers? Probably not! It's not much fun unless somebody's getting a terrible makeover. Oh, why did I even agree to go?
Alfred opens the door. "Hey, dude! We were waiting for you to show! This is awesome! Now we can actually do stuff!"
"Am I late?" I ask.
"Nah, we're still waiting for Arthur to get here. He always takes forever!" he exclaims.
Matthew comes up behind him. "He does live a little farther away, so you can't blame him for that." Noticing me, he says, "Oh, hello, Gilbert."
I hold two fingers up in the universal signal for peace. At least, I think it's universal. "'Sup."
When I walk into the living room, I recognize the people there. Francis is sprawled out on the floor (why he's even here is unknown to me, since I never see Francis talking to either of them), Kiku's sitting politely on the couch, Feliciano is chatting excitedly to Francis (who isn't paying attention) about how West-why does Feliciano call him 'Doitsu'? That's weird-was teaching him how to play some sport or another.
"Hey," I say, setting my bag on the ground and plopping on the couch next to Kiku.
The doorbell rings, and Alfred scampers (like a little squirrel, might I add) to go get the door. After Arthur walks in, Feliciano asks a question probably everybody has on their mind.
"Ve~! What are we going to do now?"
"I actually don't know," Alfred answers.
"So you invited us all here to do nothing?" Arthur asks. "What a waste of time."
"Nuh uh!" Alfred protests.
"We could watch a movie instead of doing nothing," Arthur suggests.
"As long as it's not a horror one," Alfred says and shudders. At the same time, Matthew says, "Let's have a horror movie marathon."
Matthew? The horror type? Wow, I would've never guessed. I decide to side with him on this because, hey, sleepovers aren't fun until somebody pees their pants. Or maybe that's just what I think...
"Majority rules." I smirk as Kiku and Francis join me on Matthew's side.
About fifteen minutes later, everybody's either on the couch or on the floor. The lights are turned off, the curtains are closed (the sun is already setting, anyway), and a big bowl of popcorn is on the coffee table. While Francis went to 'prepare popcorn the French way', we all played rock-paper-scissors to see who had to sit next to him. Unfortunately, I lost. I guess the good thing is that Matthew's on the other side of me.
The creepy intro music starts to play, and Alfred is already covering his eyes. I think I even heard him mutter 'is it over?'. He's such a scaredy-cat. I'm more manlier than him, and I'm a girl. Besides, the awesome me isn't scared of-
"Oh. My. Gosh. What is that?" I squeak. I choose to 'pull an Alfred' (as I have dubbed this move), and I take the nearest pillow, hugging it close to me and hiding behind it when the scary parts are coming.
Then, it goes quiet. We're all completely silent, and I think everybody's holding their breath. Suddenly, with a loud BOOM, a scary, bloody face appears on the screen. I'm pretty sure everybody yells at least a little bit. The creepy thing is, all the power goes out after that. We can tell because the DVR isn't lighting up, and a storm musts have started while we were watching the movie.
"This is freaky!" Alfred shouts.
I nod, but it's so dark I'm sure nobody can see me.
"Ya think the monster's going to get us?"
"Don't be stupid, Alfred. Ze monster isn't real."
"Ve~! I wish Doitsu was here to protect me."
BOOM! We all scream as a flashlight lights up an eerie face in front of the TV. In fright, I burrow my face behind Matthew, and Francis almost grabs on to me (ew!).
"YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN YOUR FACES!" I swear, I might just murder Arthur someday. He's cracking up. "That was hilarious!"
"Are you kidding me? THAT WAS HORRIFYING! DUDE, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Alfred cries. We're all starting to laugh now, though.
I peek out from behind Matthew. "Alfred, did you pee your pants?" I ask accusingly.
That question makes everybody laugh. Probably because I was serious when I asked. Arthur sets the flashlight face up in the middle of the room and turns it on so there is a circle of light on the ceiling.
So...tempting...I give in and start to make a shadow puppet. I love shadow puppets! They're so entertaining.
"Enter, MEGA BUNNY!" Alfred holds his two fingers close up to the light so it looks giant.
"Oh, no!" I exclaim in a high-pitched voice. "Mega Bunny is murdering me! Oh, no! Oh, nooooo!" I make my shadow fall slowly until it disappears.
"Because making shadow puppets kill each other is so mature," Arthur says sarcastically.
"Like you haven't done it," I scoff in reply. Lightening my tone, I add, "It's fun, so it doesn't matter whether it's mature or not."
"I wonder when the lights will turn back on," Kiku says randomly.
"The dark is scary!" Feliciano says.
"It's not that scary." I almost forgot Matthew was even here!
For a moment, lightning illuminates the room, quickly followed by thunder. The rain is coming down hard, but I don't mind.
"I like the sound of rain," I comment. "Anyway, what should we do now that the power's gone?"
"Um...we could...go swimming," Alfred suggests.
"Swimming? Are you kidding me?" Francis decides to speak up. "It's raining!"
I imagine he shrugs. "So?"
Minutes later, I find myself (and all the others, except for Feliciano, who decided to go to sleep) in the backyard getting soaking wet. Now I'm really wondering why I agreed. I watch as Alfred jumps into the pool, despite the rain. What the hell is he thinking?
"It's not very cold, guys! Come on in! I DARE YOU!" He laughs insanely and dives under.
Nobody really moves. After Alfred doesn't come up for a while, we all start to get sort of worried and look over the edge of the pool. All of a sudden, I am pushed into the pool. Please don't let the wig slip off, please don't let the wig slip off, please please PLEASE don't let the wig slip off!
Bless that feminine boy! He must have assumed something like this would happen because the wig stayed on! HOORAY! I find that everybody else was also pushed into the pool by Alfred. My teeth start to chatter. It's really cold! And not to mention dark.
"This is a really bad idea," I say.
"ALFRED! I'M GOING TO BLOODY KILL YOU!" Arthur shouts.
"It's payback for scaring us," Alfred replies.
Kiku has already gotten out of the pool and is now sitting on the edge. "I wasn't expecting that." Man, this guy is kind of boring.
"My hair! You got it wet!" Francis cries. ...We're all in risk of getting hypothermia and he cares about his hair?
"Sometimes I question whether I am really related to him or not," Matthew tells me.
I hoist myself out of the pool and almost reach behind me to wring out my hair. Almost forgot that my hair isn't long and girly right now...Soon we're all out of the pool (we only got Alfred to get out because we threatened to leave him there all night) and back inside. We use warm towels from the laundry room to dry off. So warm...I choose to go change into dry clothes, and everybody else follows my example.
Eventually, we're back in the dark living room. By now, its way past midnight. Around three o'clock. How could time pass so quickly?
"Hey...Feliciano was the first one to fall asleep. Somebody, hand me a Sharpie!" I exclaim.
I kneel beside the sleeping boy and carefully draw a moustache on his face. It's one of the simplest things I could draw, but hey, it's still fun.
"Draw glasses!"
"No, a monacle would look better!"
"How come zat moustache isn't French-looking?"
Three minutes later, Feliciano's face is graffitied with 'mona-glasses' and moustaches. How it is suddenly possible to grow a moustache on your cheek, I have no idea.
"I'm bored..." Alfred groans a little while after we're finished.
I'm only just barely hearing him, though. I'm pretty sure everybody else is already asleep, but that's my last coherent thought before I give in to sleepiness.
Mmm...it's cold. Where's the blanket? Oh, I found warmth. So warm...must cuddle into it...
...
...
Hey, wasn't I just awake? Why is my warmth moving! Stop moving! Aha! I got you! Must hug warmth...
I open my eyes to see violet-ish eyes staring back. Matthew's blushing, and I'm pretty sure I am, too.
"Oh, sorry," I mumble and start to move. "I was just cold..."
"I'm cold, too."
"We could pretend this whole conversation didn't happen and go back to being warm." I hope that didn't sound as creepy as I think it does.
"Yeah, that'd be better," Matthew agrees.
I shift back to my original position, which was having both arms around Matthew. We are both sort of hugging each other, but it's warm so I'm fine with it. I bury my face into his chest when I realize my nose is extremely cold. It's so weird when that happens. It's still pretty dark out so the others probably won't wake up for a while. I'm so tired...
...
...
"Sore wa kawaidesu!" [That's cute!]
"Ve~! I wish Doitsu could do that with me~!"
"All of ze ladies usually end up waking up like that with me. Ohonhonhon..."
Meh...Flashes are so annoying...I'm trying to sleep here!
...
...
I wake up again when I realize my warmth-I mean, Matthew-is gone. I sit up to find that the storm is still raging on. None of the other boys are awak, so I assume it is safe to go change. I lock the door behind me and start to change. Ouch...I don't think sleeping with my chest bound was a very good idea...When I'm done changing, I go into the kitchen. Everybody is sitting at the table like they were waiting for me or something.
"What?" I ask. "Is there something wrong?"
"No," Alfred answers a little too quickly.
I shrug and ask if I can get myself cereal. Japan tells me that they were waiting for me to get up to eat, and that Matthew and Alfred's mother is making cinnamon rolls. Mmm, cinnamon rolls are delicious! Maybe that's why the kitchen smells so...so heavenly.
Soon after the cinnamon rolls are devoured (and I was only allowed to have one! No fair!), Mother (I call all of my friend's parents stuff like that. For example, Feliks's mom and dad are 'Mama' and 'Papa'.) tells us that we should all go home, much to our dismay. It's fun here. Something is always going on.
After we all gather our stuff, Mother announces, "Alright, everybody, get into the car! There's enough room for all of you!"
I think I paled a little bit when I heard that. The top two things I'm afraid of are bridges and driving when it's raining. After a nightmare I had when I was younger, I always thhink the car's gonna swerve and fall, or a different car will end up hitting us.
"No, thanks," I refuse politely. "I can walk. I don't live too far."
"Nonsense, sweetie! It's storming! You can't possibly walk in all this rain!"
"No, really, it's fine! I can-"
"Sweetie, if you walk in this rain you'll catch a cold! Let me drive you!" Why does this lady have to guilt-trip me into this?
I reluctantly get into the large car, sitting next to Matthew. I hope it isn't all awkward after what happende earlier. When the car starts moving, I grip the armresst rather tightly.
"Are you alright?" Matthew asks.
"I don't know," I answer honestly. "I'm scared of driving in the rain."
"Okay, I'll distract you, then. Um...did you know that crocodiles don't tear you to pieces on land? Instead, they drag you into the water to drown you. Then, they put you at the bottom of the lake and occasionally take bits and pieces out of you." He obviously doesn't know what else to say.
"This isn't working very well," I say and start to look out the window. I try to focus on the houses instead of the liquid coming down from the sky that could kill us all. I wait until I see a familiar house and tell Mother, "Okay, this is my house!"
After I'm sure they're out of sight, I start walking towards Feliks's house for two reasons. Reason one: I don't know how to get this wig off. Reason two: If I showed up at my house looking like this, my mom would freak. I climb up the ladder and knock on the window. Barely two seconds later I'm being pulled into his bedroom.
"Like, why would you, like, climb that ladder in, like, the rain? That's, like, so totally dangerous!" he exclaims.
"I need help with the wig," I say. "And a towel would be nice."
It only takes a half hour for me to change back into a girl and tell Feliks all about the sleepover. I leave out the part about Matthew and I, deciding to save it for later. I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary, though. A strange feeling is telling me to get home. After I slide down the ladder, I sprint home and use my spare key to open the door.
"I'm home!" I call, taking off my shoes. I walk into the living room to see Mom crying on the couch. "What's wrong?"
"It's your father," she sobs. "He's...he's dead."
...Wait, what? Did she just say the my dad is dead? Okay, this has to be a joke! No, it can't be. This is way too serious; I can see it in her eyes. This is crazy! This is...this is...I'm crying. I didn't even realize it. I can't even speak anymore. I'm too busy breathing rapidly. In fact, I can barely see anything anymore. Whoa!
Falling, falling, falling...this is actually kind of fun. I'm still falling and falling and falling...Whenever I fell when i was a kid, my dad would catch me.
Right. Dad. Dead. Crying. Can't see. Falling. What's going on? Am I even still concious? I hear a voice...what is she saying? Something about a...hambulance? Does that have bacon?
Losing track again...No, not hambulance. Ambulance? What's going on? Oh, I see something. It's very white. Oops, there it goes again. At least now it's not dark. There's purple swirls...so pretty...
I'm getting scared now. Where is everybody? Why am I here again? Oh, there's the white again! It's getting bigger and brighter. I can almost touch it...
I'm now on my bed. How did I get here? There's a person standing near me...it's a doctor. Doctor Russo, judging by the nametag.
"What happened?" I ask.
"You fainted," she answers simply. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm a little thirsty." I sit up, the covers sliding off of me. "But I'm okay now. Uh...can I be alone?"
Dr. Russo stands up. "Yep! I'll just talk to your mom for a few minutes. I'll be seeing you, Gilda!"
I wave as she closes the door. Crazy lady...
But did I really faint? From learning that my dad is...not with us at the moment? I start to breathe quickly again. Nope, this is not happening a second time! He's not dead! He's only on a business trip. Yeah, a really long business trip. I bring my knees up to my chest and bury my head in them. I wish Matthew was here...
Author's Note: Yep, there was my attempt at fluff. Was it good? I want to know if that fluff was fluffy enough. Yeah, Gilda's father is now dead. She had a little panic attack/fainting thing there. I'm not sure if that's what fainting feels like (as I have never fainted before), but that is what Gilda feels when she faints.
Ren-Kyo: Please review! Thank you for all of the alerts, favorites, and reviews! XiXi-dono loves you for that.
Me: But totally not in a creepy way! See you next chapter~!
-XiXi Scarlett (accompanied by her Renny-chan)