Chapter Text
"I'm You and You're Me?"
It seemed like it was going to be a normal quintant for Keith when he woke up in the nest, but something seemed off. He couldn't put his finger on it. His nose was full of his sister's scent, but her headfur was longer than it was supposed to be. He slowly opened his eyes and was met by the strangest sight. Resting in his arms was an exact duplicate of himself. He reached out to touch the other Keith's hair but stopped when he caught sight of his now blue hand. His eyes widened, and he sat up, looking down at his body. He glanced between himself and...well, himself. He looked like his sister! He gingerly but urgently shook who he hoped was his twin. The purple eyes opened, and he heard his voice grumble, "It's too early to be up, Keith. Go back to...sleep."
"Acxa, please it's urgent."
Acxa's eyes snapped open and widened as she looked at her twin who happened to be in her body. She blinked and then screamed.
The scream coming from one of their kits startled the adults of the pack awake. They saw Acxa and Keith sitting up, but the looks on their faces were strange. Krolia inched a little closer to her twins. "Keith, Acxa, what's wrong?"
Keith and Acxa turned to face her and cried in unison, "Mama!"
Krolia was slightly caught off guard when she suddenly had her arms full of both of her kits. She lowered her head to nose at both Keith's hair and Acxa's headfur but was puzzled as she detected Acxa's scent coming from Keith and vice versa. "Kits, what's going on? Why do you smell like each other?"
"We don't know how this happened, Mama. I woke up, and now I am in Acxa's body!" Keith exclaimed.
"He woke me up to tell me this, and I sort of freaked out," Acxa admitted.
Krolia looked at the peach skinned kit with her cheek stripes. "Acxa?"
"It's me."
Krolia looked at the blue skinned and haired kit. "Keith?"
Keith nodded. "It's me."
The rest of the pack was awake and watching the exchange between mother and kits. They found it rather astonishing that the twins switched bodies when neither kit had even left the base in two quintants. Could it possibly be a slow acting agent they were exposed to previously?
Ulaz was going to make sure. He approached them. "Kits, come with me to the med bay. I want to run some tests to make sure nothing else is wrong."
"Tests?" Acxa sounded unsure.
"Needles?" Keith sounded fearful.
Ulaz shook his head. The entire pack knew of Keith's fear of needles, even though they didn't understand it. "No, kit. No needles. Just some scans."
Keith relaxed slightly. "I guess."
Ulaz bent closer to the blue skinned kit. "It wasn't a suggestion, kit."
Ulaz stood up and beckoned the kits to follow him, unaware that Krolia was following as well. The quartet arrived in the med bay, and Ulaz instructed the kits to sit down on one of the examination beds before turning around to grab one of the scanners. He stopped short, seeing Krolia standing there. "Krolia? Why are you here?"
"Something strange happened to my kits. Are you honestly surprised that I am not letting them leave my sights until we have definitive answers as to what happened and what we have to do to fix it?"
"When you put it that way, no." Ulaz sidestepped Krolia and grabbed the scanner. He turned back to the kits and was completely unsurprised to see Krolia nuzzling them. What was slightly surprising was that Keith was whimpering softly.
"What if we're stuck like this? I don't want to be stuck in my sister's body forever. No offense, Acxa."
"None taken, because I don't want to be stuck in your body forever either."
"Don't worry, kits. I am sure that whatever happened can be reversed, and you'll be back to your own bodies soon enough."
Ulaz sigh inaudibly. He sincerely hoped that Krolia was right; for everyone's sanity at least.
Fin