Chapter Text
"Oh, no. I'm locked in this tower. Who's gonna rescue me?" the child cried from the top of the stairs.
"Don't fear, Blue Princess. I, the Gray Prince, am going to rescue you!" Raising the broom they had, the child stepped forward to attack the mountain of pillows lodged at the foot of the stairs.
"Wait! This is wrong. Isn't it supposed to be the Blue Prince?"
"But... you have to be the blue one, Aoko. Your name says it. And I have to be the gray one."
"Yeah."
"Unless... You can be the Blue Prince, and I the Gray Princess."
"But I'm a girl, and you're a boy."
"Do you really care about that?"
The child thought for a second. "Not really. Let's do it. But if you're the princess now, you'll need a dress."
They disarmed the pillow monster and went to the child's wardrobe to get a dress. Then, after they redo the monster, they returned to the game, places interchanged.
"Save me, Blue Prince. This monster don't let me get out of my tower."
"I'm here, Gray Princess! I'll defeat the monster." The child took a banana out of their pockets and pointed it to the pillows, "Bang!"
"What's that!?"
"A gun!"
"Princes don't have guns! They have swords!"
"Well, I'm a Prince from the future then!"
"Then I'm a ninja Princess, so I can defeat the monster by myself. With a sword."
"But, why I am rescuing you then?"
"I don't know!"
The children argued until their parents arrived.
"We have to go home now."
"But Otou-san—"
"Kaa-chan already made the dinner. You can come play with Aoko-chan tomorrow."
"Fine. Bye, Aoko."
"Bye."
"Why do you have a dress, by the way?" the dad asked on their —very short— way home.
"Oh, I forget return it! It's because Aoko is Aoi, and it's Blue Prince, you know? So she had to be the prince, and I the princess."
"Oh, obviously, why I didn't though that?"
"Don't worry, we neither though on that at the beginning!"
· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·
It didn't ended there.
The two kids started to interchange genres while they were playing more and more often. And so, they were doing it all the time.
Until...
"I don't want to just play as a girl."
"Ok, no problem. You can return to be a boy."
"No, no. I meant, I don't want it to be just in our games. I want to be a girl all the time."
"Oh. Ok, sure."
"Aoko wants to be a boy all the time too?"
The kid wrinkled his nose. "That sounds complicated. Adults are weird, they already think I'm a girl, and I don't mind if they keep thinking that. It's easier."
"But, don't you want?"
"Yeah, be a boy all the time sounds very nice..."
"So, why not? Since when Aoko like easy things?"
The boy looked at her for a while, and then slowly smiled. "You're right, easy is boring. So, you're a girl, I'm a boy. What do we need?"
"Um... I don't know. Clothes?"
"Oh, we can exchange everything! You already have half of my dresses, anyways."
"Yes!"
"And we should think in new names, don't you think?"
"Yeah... I don't have any ideas."
"Me neither. So, let's do that other day."
It took three days to them to get all the clothes in the other house. And another day to one of their parents notice it.
"Aoko, are that clothes yours?"
"They are now."
Chikage laughed and patted him on the head.
"Look like we have a little kaitou here."
She went back to making breakfast and didn't notice that the boy's eyes were shining.
"I have to go."
He went to his friend's house, but she was not there. Knowing where she could be, he went to the clock tower.
Sure enough, there she was, waiting for Ginzo.
Smiling, he walked over and made a rose appear in front of her face.
"My name's Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you, friend!"
She turned around and looked at him with bright eyes.
"You decided on a name! Kaito," —she put a hand to his chin, then smiled— "I like it!"
"Do you have any ideas already?"
"Well... I was thinking... If Kaito doesn't mind, since you're not going to use it anymore... Can I be Aoko? It's the cutest girl's name I can think of."
"Of course! This way a good name is not wasted."
"Although it's going to be difficult to get used to. When someone says Aoko I'm going to think they're talking about you."
"You just have to repeat it a lot."
"Yes. I can… Aoko can do that."
· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·
A few days later, both child were at Kaito's house chatting about school, using their new names as much as possible, much more than they would naturally come up in conversation. Chikage listened to them, a theory coming up to her mind. She went to look for Touichi.
"I don't think they're playing anymore," she whispered.
Toichi listened to them for a while, then nodded.
"It seems to me that you are right."
"We have to tell Ginzo-kun."