Chapter Text
Looking back, Goro, er, Aqua, felt he could be excused for not noticing at first. After all, dying and then being reborn as your favorite idol’s child was…a lot, to say the least. And as he began to accept this bizarre situation as real, he also realized he was no longer technically a he.
Aquamarine Hoshino was born a healthy girl, twin to her brother Ruby.
It didn’t have as much of an impact as he (she?) expected. The reincarnation…thing, and being Ai’s child dominated his (her?) thoughts. And while looking in a mirror was startling, it wasn’t due to blatant feminine features (which he–she didn’t have, because all babies were potatoes). Aqua already looked vastly different from Goro; blonde hair and blue eyes with perfect vision, as opposed to black hair and brown eyes framed by glasses. A change of sex didn’t really seem all that dramatic comparatively.
If a person’s soul could exist past death and enter a new body, why did that body have to be the same sex as the old one when everything else was different?
And so Aqua accepted her pink onesies and tiny hair clips without complaint. Besides, how could he complain when it was Ai presenting them?
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Ruby Hoshino realized early that she was not a girl. She felt the extra appendage between her legs and came face to face with it whenever her diaper was changed. And as much as she liked the color blue, the blue onesie felt far more suffocating than the roomy fabric should.
It was awful because in every other aspect, this should be her ideal life. She had come back to life, as Ai’s child! It was a dream, a miracle!, come true. Ai doted on her and her sister Aqua, held her, sang to her, and gazed at her with the most loving expressions. It was heaven.
And yet.
The worst part was she never felt settled in her new body. While she still startled at her appearance in the mirror, she did so less and less as time went on. She liked her appearance; thick blonde hair, with eyes that matched her namesake gem. With Ai’s genes, she would be beautiful without a doubt.
She would roll on the floor, crawl, and eventually toddle around, playing with her toys and running to Ai whenever she returned home. Those moments were perfect.
But then she would need a diaper change and she came face to face with something that should not be there. She took to staring up, either at Ai or Miyako or the ceiling. It was okay if she didn’t see it or think about it, and a new diaper covered it soon enough.
Only for her to once again be wrangled into a blue onesie. She started to hate the color blue.
Which wasn’t fair, because it was also the color of her sister’s eyes. And wasn’t that fun? She had a sister! Aqua was quiet and observant, constantly surveying her surroundings, blue eyes often following Ai. Ruby looked forward to being a big sister, since she was obviously older.
Or so she thought until late one night, when Aqua found her in the living room arguing with haters online.
“Do you share the same fate as me?”
Hearing her baby sister speak so articulately was a shock, but also made her happy. While she soon realized she wasn’t the older sister anymore, she could actually talk to Aqua. And with that realization firmly in place, the morning after their discovery, Ruby grabbed the hem of Aqua’s night shirt.
“Can we switch colors?”
“Huh?”
“Can I wear your pink clothes, and you can have my blue. It’ll make more sense! Because of our names.” Ruby sucked in a breath while Aqua looked at her carefully. Had she been too obvious?
But then Aqua shrugged, “That’s fine with me,” and handed Ruby her clothes.
Ruby raced out of the bedroom in her pink clothes giggling and feeling giddy. She almost bumped into Ai’s leg, but Ai scooped her up first.
“Aww, you’re happy this morning Aqua!”
“That’s Ruby,” Saito said from the doorway. “Can’t even tell your own kids apart.”
Ai held Ruby up to her face. “Oh! Ruby! Aw, don’t you look cute!”
“Why’d you dress your son in girls’ clothes anyway?” Saito came over, looking down at Ruby critically. She felt herself flinch.
“Ruby put them on himself! He’s such a big boy!” Ai patted Ruby’s head, but Ruby shrunk in on herself. “What’s the harm, President? Besides, now he and Aqua are color coded!”
That made Ruby perk up. Exactly! She should be red and pink! Aqua looked better in blue anyways.
Saito sighed but let the matter drop.
That day cemented her color choice. Ruby always wore red and pinks, and Aqua wore blues. Few people commented on it, mostly accepting the name-color explanation. That was one issue sorted.
The next was her hair.
Ruby was so happy to have such lovely hair, yet the adults insisted on keeping it short. She didn’t want short hair! She spent so much of her past life with no hair at all, she wanted it as long as Mama’s! She glared with envy at Aqua’s ever-growing hair.
And of course, her ever observant sister noticed.
“Why are you glaring at me?”
“I want your hair.”
“What?”
“I want long hair like you and Mama. But they keep cutting mine short…”
Aqua looked thoughtful. She gathered some of her hair and looked at it appraisingly. “I think I’d like mine shorter honestly.”
Ruby blinked in surprise. “Why? You look good with long hair.”
“It gets in the way when I’m reading.”
Memories of Aqua hunched over a book too big for her to lift, her hair hiding her face, sweeping across the page as she moved her head.
“That’s why?”
“I had…shorter hair before. I guess I’m just not used to it.” That appraising look turned towards Ruby. “Did you have long hair in your past life?”
Several responses cycled through Ruby’s mind at the same time, forcing her to bite her tongue until the words stopped swirling. “No, but I wanted it long.”
Aqua considered that for a moment. “Ruby, were–were you a girl? In your past life?”
“Yes!” The word was out before she could stop herself. A wave of giddiness (relief?) swept through her. “Yes, I’m a girl.”
Aqua nodded. “I was a guy.”
“Oh. Oh! Should I call you my brother?”
Aqua blinked. This time she looked confused. “I…never really thought about it like that.”
Ruby frowned. “You don’t think you’re a boy?”
Aqua’s mouth opened and closed. She–He, stared past Ruby for several moments. “Yes?”
“Yes you’re not a boy?”
“No.”
“You are a boy?”
“I mean…”
Ruby huffed. She didn’t get this. If Aqua was a boy before, then he was a boy now, right?
Aqua shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Point is, if you want to grow your hair out, just ask. Ai doesn’t seem to care.”
Her exasperation melted away. “Okay! And you should ask for shorter hair, if you want it.”
Aqua nodded.
So, she didn’t have a sister and she wasn’t the oldest. That was fine. Aqua was an accommodating sibling, passing her all of his hair accessories and cuter outfits.
And as he predicted, Mama didn’t mind Ruby growing out her hair. The President muttered about it one evening after Ai informed the Saitos that Ruby was not getting a haircut, but Aqua had a plan for that.
“Pull the hair on the sides of your head back and tie it up in a small ponytail. That’s what the Director does.”
So Ruby did. It wasn’t really the look she wanted, but it was still cute and it made the President quiet down. She had her outfits, her color, and her hair. She deliberately sat on the toilet and didn’t think about it. She was happy.