Title: Variations on a Theme
Characters: Fuji Yuuta, Saeki Koujirou
Summary: Three versions of Yuuta and Saeki's thing, done just a little differently.
Notes: For Cliché Bingo, prompt: "Wildcard: Genderswap." Yes, I've done this before, but I like it so much I decided to do it again. Genderswap. 1446 words.

Variations on a Theme

Yuuta has been in love with Kou-chan for just about as long as he can remember--which is about as long as he's known her, since their families lived next door to each other for the longest time, and he can't remember the time when the three of them--him, Aniki, Kou-chan--hadn't played together.

He's known for just about as long that Kou-chan isn't for the likes of him. She's meant for Aniki, which he knows from having overheard Kaasan and Saeki-kaasan talking over tea, practically planning the wedding and calculating how many grandbabies they'll get out of the union. It makes sense, at least in Yuuta's head, because, hello, Kou-chan, who is tall, and beautiful, and smart, and nice to everybody, and popular because of it. And, hello, Aniki, who is, okay, not tall, but is also beautiful and smart and popular and maybe not exactly nice to everybody, but is definitely good at making people think he is, at least until they get home later and say, "Hey, wait a minute..." which counts for about the same thing. In any case, it's like they were made for each other, really, especially when Yuuta compares himself to the two of them. He's tall, yeah, but gawky, and he's rougher and knobbier and angular where the two of them are smooth and elegant, and it's all just hopeless, really.

So, yeah. He tries not to think about how desperately he's in love with Kou-chan, and gets along with the fact that he does get to be her friend, which is awesomeness incarnate in its own right. Kou-chan is just about the coolest person Yuuta knows, besides being the only girl he knows who in not only a fan of video games, but also good enough at them that she can (and does) beat him at them. It's not so much that he likes losing, but he does like having a challenge, and Kou-chan is that.

Besides, Kou-chan is beautiful when she's laughing and triumphant, like now: she's practically crowing with the joy of having finally won a round, and her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are bright. Yuuta watches, rueful and indulgent, enjoying how much she's enjoying herself, until she looks at him. He's not quite quick enough to school his expression, or something, because all at once her laughter switches off. "Yuuta?" she says, tilting her head and looking at him like she hasn't ever seen him before.

"I think I want a rematch," Yuuta says, embarrassed, and looks away fast.

"In a minute," she says, and reaches out to lay her hand on top of his. "Look at me first, will you?"

Well, Yuuta thinks, resigned, sixteen years isn't a bad run for a secret. "Yeah, what?" he asks, looking at her and doing his best impression of Aniki at his most inscrutable.

Too bad Kou-chan sees right through Aniki, and him, whenever that happens. "Yuuta," she says again, startled, and her eyes go wide as she seems to realize what's been going on under her nose. "Why didn't you say something?"

"Um," Yuuta says, and waves his free hand. "Where should I start? I mean, aside from the fact that you are so far out of my league that it's not even funny?"

The sad thing is, Kou-chan has known him for so long that she gets right to the bottom of that without even missing a beat. "Oh my God," she says, and smacks her own forehead. "This is another Aniki thing, isn't it?"

Staying quiet seems like it might be the safest bet, so Yuuta does. It doesn't matter; after a moment, Kou-chan raises her eyes to the ceiling and says, exasperated, "Fujis. Seriously. You afflicted me with Fujis. Couldn't it have been something else?" And then she looks at him again, and smiles, wry. "You two are going to be the death of me," she tells him, and hooks a finger in his collar, dragging him close. "And I am going to install some self-esteem in you one of these days, if I have to do it with my bare hands, I swear to God."

Yuuta thinks that maybe he should be terrified by this promise, but when Kou-chan leans in and kisses him, all he can think is that he is the luckiest bastard in the world.

Shuusuke thinks that they should have seen it coming when Yuu-chan's favorite anime was Utena when she was all of eight. They really should have seen it coming when she took the Utena to heart, and found the loophole in Seigaku's school handbook that let her wear a boy's gakuran to school.

And they really, really should have seen it coming when she went out for field hockey.

Kou-chan is about as diametrically opposed to Yuu-chan as it's possible for two girls to be. Yuu-chan is tall, and loud, and brazen; she has Opinions about makeup and clothes hair--as in, she has no use for any of them--and the whole school is just a little terrified of her. Kou-chan is refined, and elegant, and wears her hair in a long shining waterfall down her back. She was the first girl in their grade to wear cosmetics and the first to develop a chest, and she is unfailingly sweet to everyone.

And she and Yuu-chan are inseparable. No one gets it, possibly not even the two of them--Shuusuke has seen Yuu-chan looking at Kou-chan like she doesn't understand how such a person can exist. He's seen Kou-chan watching Yuu-chan, eyes amazed, as Yuu-chan does something that is as ungirly as can be.

And really, he thinks, even if no one else saw it coming, he should have done, because no one else in the world is closer to the two of them than he is.

Even so, he's still shocked when he walks in on the two of them, all pressed against each other and kissing like their lives depend on it. They're so engrossed in each other that they never even notice that he's standing there and gaping at them.

Shuusuke backs out of the room, quietly, and shuts the door behind him as gently as he can. And then, and only then, does he laugh, open and wry.

Yeah, he thinks, they definitely should have seen this one coming.

"Oh my fucking fuck!" The explosion that's Yuuko punctuates that announcement by kicking her pumps off, hard enough that one of them slides halfway across the room. "I hate the fucking world!"

"Welcome home," Koujirou says, putting his book aside and measuring that entrance on the Fuji scale. He decides it's well with in the acceptable range of 'normal' and adds, "How was your day?"

Yuuko strides into the apartment, already halfway out of her blouse and wriggling out of her skirt. Koujirou gets up and follows after her, picking them up and shaking them out. "I hate people," she declares, as he follows her into their bedroom, admiring the lines of her back and the curve of her rear under the silky cling of her slip and her camisole. "I think I broke a guy's finger on the train home."

"Another one tried to grope you, huh?" Koujirou asks, amused--it isn't worth being angry over, since Yuuko can handle being angry for the both of them, and probably ten more people besides, and has already dealt with the pervert, to boot. Instead, he hangs the skirt up and tosses the blouse into the laundry basket. He turns just in time to see Yuuko peel the camisole off, too, and that's a sight that's enough reward for a life well-lived.

"Oh, he tried," Yuuko says, with vicious satisfaction. "Won't be doing that again any time soon." She pushes her slip and her panties down, steps out of them, and stretches. "Fuck! I should have been a boy. Boys don't have to deal with this shit."

"Well, no," Koujirou agrees, and goes to her, winding his arms around her and cupping the swell of one of her breasts in his hand. "But if you'd been a boy, we couldn't do this."

"Oh, please," Yuuko says, though she arches a little into the touch, and her voice goes a little huskier. "They're only tits. And also, you are reading the wrong manga, buddy, if you think it takes a guy and a girl to fuck."

"Still think I like this better," Koujirou says, and buries his face against the side of her throat.

Yuuko huffs, but she twines herself around him anyway. "Guess it doesn't suck," she agrees, and kisses him.

Really, Koujirou wouldn't have it any other way.

- end -

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