Chapter six is up! This is the first chapter since the two find out they've been switched. There are guidelines to be set, harvest sprites to talk to, and awkward questions to be asked. So, what are you waiting for? Go!

Yours,

Theatrelove

Disclaimer: I don't own harvest moon. It is owned by natsume. How many times do I have to tell you?

Chapter 6: What are we gonna do?

I watched as Luke processed what was going on. For the first time ever, he seemed to be speechless. All was silent for a moment.

"I need to sit down." Luke said softly. I helped me…her… uh, him over to one of the beds.

"You feel okay?" I asked, concerned.

"Besides the fact that I look like you and I feel like I'm about to barf? Then, yeah, I'm peachy." He said with a grin. Same old Luke…

"How'd this happen?" I asked as I absentmindedly twirled a piece of blue hair around my finger.

"No clue." he said. "But boy, however it happened, it's weird…" as he spoke Luke was examining his manicured fingernails. He then carefully patted the front of his skirt and audibly yelped at what was no longer present. His hands moved up to his chest to find two bumps that he was sure weren't there before. He promptly began bouncing them.

"Haha, it's like two bouncy balls!" He laughed, and then I realized what he was doing.

"Luke! Don't feel me up while you're in my body!" I yelled at him. His cheeks turned beet red.

"Oh, I'm s-sorry, I didn't realize…" he mumbled, putting his hands safely on the bedside. I sighed. We sat in silence for a few more awkward moments. I swear I had never seen Luke this quiet.

"Wait!" He shouted out of the blue, startling me half to death. "I've got it! Maybe it's a dream!" I watched as my old chocolate brown eyes, now in Luke's posession, lit up.

"Come on, Luke. Get real. A dream? You think that we're both dreaming at the same time?" I asked skeptically.

"Well why not? Weirder things have happened." He said. And it was true, weirder things had happened. Hmmm…

"Okay, so suppose we are dreaming, what do you propose we do?" I asked.

"We wake up of course!" He said, obviously proud of himself.

"But it's not that simple, we can't just decide to wake up. How're we going to make it happen?"

"Well, how about we close our eyes for a few seconds?"

"Okay…" I agreed reluctantly.

"On three then, 1…" Luke started.

"2…" I said.

"3!" We both shouted simultaneously. I shut my eyes tightly. 1 mississippi, 2 mississippi…

After a few more seconds, I opened my eyes a crack. Nope. I was looking at a mirror image of myself. Luke still had his eyes closed and was smiling eagerly, probably waiting for some magical, out-of-body experience to take place.

"Luke, you can open your eyes, it didn't work." I said, still marveling at how strange it was that Luke's voice was coming out of my mouth.

Luke opened his eyes, and looked around, only to realize that I was right.

"So, we're not dreaming…" he said.

"And we're definitely not imagining things…" I added.

"Then this must be for real." He concluded. "Do you think it will fix itself?"

"There's no way to be sure, since we don't know how it happened." I told him.

"So what should we do in the mean time?" He asked me. I pondered it. We obviously couldn't tell people, they'd think we were insane. And we definitely couldn't go about our regular activities. So that left only one option…

"We'll have to pretend to be each other I guess…" I said.

"Me? Pretend to be you?" Luke asked, shocked.

"What else can we do? We've got to keep a low profile, go about the other's life as best we can, until we can figure a way out of this mess!"

"I suppose you're right. Who knows, it could even be fun!" Always the optimist.

"Well, we have to lay down some guidelines." I said. "Rule number 1: No touching. You're going to treat my body as if it were your own." He nodded, seeming to follow me so far.

"Rule 2: You've got to keep up with my farm work. I'll help you, but you'll have to work most of it on your own, and I don't want my farm to become non-productive because you're the one working on it. Got it?"

"Aye aye, sir!" Luke said, saluting to me. I groaned.

"And rule 3: Please, just try and act like me. I don't want people suspicious. Okay?"

Luke raised his hand high up.

"You have a question?"

"Which bathroom should I use?" he asked. Oh goddess…

"Ummm, the girl's one I guess." I told him. Truth is, I didn't want him going to the bathroom at all when he was in possession of my body. But he wouldn't be able to hold it forever, and I wouldn't want anyone seeing 'me' walking into the boy's room...

"And how do I…?"

"You just sit." I hurried, saving us from the awkwardness. It was a pretty awkward subject to begin with, but it had to be addressed.

"Okay, now it's my turn." Luke said, getting up. "One: act like me." I nodded, hoping that that part wouldn't be too difficult

"Two: make sure that after you shower, you brush my hair 100 times so that it stays shiny." Luke said in utter seriousness. Come to think of it, Luke's always cared a lot about his hair, and it usually looks really nice…then what he said really hit me. I'd have to shower! Eww!

"And rule three," Luke continued, completely unaware of my discomfort, "Keep up with my carpentry. I don't want to disappoint Dad."

"Sounds good." I nodded.

" Oh, and you just stand, aim, and go."

Huh? What is he referring— Oh. That.

"Thanks…" I muttered, looking down at the space between my legs woefully.

"Don't mention it!" He grinned as he plopped back down from the bed. Immediately, he jumped back up.

"Oh my goddess! H-holy chicken eggs! Great Ignis all-mighty!" he screamed, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"What?" I cried. "What's wrong?"

"I-I sat on something! Someone! And now he's flying next to me! And he can talk! Don't you see him?" I looked in the area around Luke, but saw nothing. What could he be talking about?

Then I realized, Finn. Of course! I wasn't able to see him now, as I had Luke's eyes. But he could appear to me if he knew who I was, couldn't he?

"Ask him his name." I said to Luke calmly.

"His name?" Luke stuttered. "Well, alright," he turned to what appeared to be an empty spot right beside his head. "Greeeeeeeeetiiiiings. Whaaaat yooooouuuur naaaaaaame?" he asked the air slowly. He paused.

"Alright, okay! Sorry!" he said, and then paused again. He turned to me.

"He says his name is Finn. And he can speak English. And he's confused as to why 'Clarissa' doesn't remember his name. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, he was assigned to me by the Harvest Goddess when I first came to Castanet. He's sort of like a little guardian angel." I explained. Wow, I've never told anyone about Finn before!

Luke sighed with relief. "So I'm not hallucinating?"

"Nope." I assured him. He turned towards where I assumed Finn was floating, paused, whispered to him, and paused again.

"He's confused as to why you know so much about him. I tried to convince him of our, er, situation, but he won't buy it."

"Tell him that I'm Clarissa! Tell him to appear for me!" I said, longing to see my invisible best friend. Luke nodded and communicated the message to Finn.

"He says I must be crazy, and asks if I'm feeling okay." Luke told me, still seemingly bewildered by the fact that he was talking to a floating, orange, harvest sprite.

"Well, tell him to appear for Luke then." I said. I really didn't like being seen as Luke, but I supposed I'd have to get used to it. Finn was a good place to start. But, of course, Finn was the only one who would learn what was really going on.

The air Luke had been talking to seemed to thicken for a moment, and Finn appeared. He looked both confused and irritated.

"Luke, why do you want to see me so badly? And how do you know about me? I thought Clarissa promised she'd never tell anyone! What's going on?"

"Finn, it's me. I'm Clarissa." I told him, smiling genuinely. He didn't falter.

"Alright, Luke, what sick joke are you trying to pull? And what's Clarissa doing in on it? I thought you two were arguing!" He still doesn't believe me!

"No, Finn, I really am Clarissa. Somehow, Luke and I have switched places." I tried desperately to explain.

"She's telling the truth, Finn. I'm Luke." Luke said. Finn floated up to me, eyeing me skeptically.

"You don't look like Clarissa…" he said. Then he sniffed my shirt.

"You don't smell like Clarissa either…"

"Come on Finn…please…" I said, my eyes pleading.

"But I've never heard Luke say please before." Finn said. "So that really is you, Clarissa?"

"Yes!" I shouted. I picked up Finn and twirled him around. "You know!" I gave him a big hug.

"Alright! You're strangling me!" Finn shouted. I released him.

"Sorry…" I panted. "I was just so relieved, you finally recognized me!"

"So how did you two end up like this?" Finn asked.

"We dunno." Luke said, shrugging. "We fell in Fugue forest, and we woke up like this."

Finn thought about it for a moment. Then his eyes widened.

"Uh oh…"

"What? What's wrong?" Luke asked him anxiously.

"Well, I went to the Harvest Goddess awhile ago, and I told her about how you two were fighting. And she said she'd take care of it..."

"Oh, Finn! So you think that she did this to us?" I asked him.

"Probably. I'm so sorry Clarissa!" He said. You couldn't help but notice how he didn't say sorry to Luke.

"Well? How do we get back to normal?" Luke pressed.

"She said you'll be fine once you learn to understand each other." Finn said quickly. Luke and I looked at each other for a moment.

"WE'LL BE STUCK LIKE THIS FOREVER!" I wailed.

"Hey! Maybe we can talk to the Harvest Goddess about it! Tell her that Finn had it all wrong!" Luke suggested.

"Maybe." I said unenthusiastically.

"I'm sorry…" Finn apologized again.

"Don't worry, it wasn't your fault. You didn't know what she would do." I said soothingly. Whoa, I've never heard Luke's voice do soothing before.

"So what are you going to do until then?" Finn asked, looking guilty and worried.

"We're going to try pretending to be each other until we can find a solution." I told him, still shuddering a bit at the thought.

"And you'd better keep our situation secret, Finn!" Luke said, pointing a finger at the harvest sprite.

"Who would I tell?" Finn asked.

"You know, he's got a point there…" Luke said.

"Well, now that we've got that settled…you think we should go see the harvest goddess?" I asked. The Harvest Goddess usually wasn't the most reasonable person, but there was always a chance.

"Why the heck not? We might as well try!" Luke grabbed his axe and I put Finn on my shoulder. All of a sudden, Luke turned to me. A realization reached us both at about the same time.

"You can't take that!" we shouted at each other simultaneously.

"Why can't I take Finn? He's my best friend!" I told him.

"Well my axe is my best friend!" He countered.

"You know, I never thought I'd say this, but Luke's right. I'm supposed to be looking after Clarissa, and you, well, you aren't Clarissa anymore." Finn said softly. I could feel some tears welling up in my eyes. I hadn't spent a day without Finn in what seemed like forever!

"Finn…"

"I'm sorry, but until we figure out how to fix this, I'm going to have to follow Luke." Finn said unhappily.

"And why exactly can't I have my axe with me?" Luke asked.

"Think about it Luke, have you ever seen me swinging an axe around?" I asked him.

"Noooo…" He mumbled.

"And have you ever been seen without your axe?" I continued.

"Noooo…" He mumbled again, softer this time.

"And don't you think people would find it weird if the roles were reversed?"

"Yeah…." Luke gave in. "But you've got to take good care of it. Treat it as if it were your own." He said very seriously. He really cares about that old thing…

"O-okay." I promised him as I took hold of the axe. It felt warm and slightly worn, as if it were constantly in use. Which, I supposed, it was. Luke was never seen without his axe, and, from now on, I couldn't be seen without it either. Luke looked at it longingly for a moment, and then turned his head up again to face me.

"So, shall we go?" He said, gesturing towards the door.

"Do we have a choice?" I asked him, even though I already knew the answer.

The end! If you enjoyed it, please review!