Chapter Text
When Sousuke woke up that morning, he was staring up at a decidedly unfamiliar ceiling. Frowning, he shut his eyes once more and thought hard to the night before wondering if something had happened. Yet he couldn’t recall anything out of the ordinary. He had gone to sleep in his dorm room, Rin cramped up against him in the bottom bunk, just as usual. He blinked his eyes open again and became aware of the warm weight on top of him, but it wasn’t one he knew well. It was significantly lighter…and there were too many limbs. Far too many limbs. Sousuke stiffened when looked down the length of his body to see two young children, middle school age at most, sprawled in various states of slumber on top of him. Panic struck through him like electricity and he fought every urge to bolt. White noise crackled through his mind as he frantically thought How the fuck did I end up in bed with a couple of kids? He took a deep breath in an attempt to slow his racing heart and to bring some kind, any kind, of relief to the panic gnawing at him. But the expansion of his chest caused one small head, long hair tangled and knotted around delicate features, to nuzzled against him. The young girl lifted her head and rubbed sleepily at half lidded eyes.
“Good morning, Onii-chan.” She mumbled through a yawn.
Sousuke didn’t trust himself to speak.
“Mmm…” Makoto hummed at the light warming his face, pulling him from the depths of his unconsciousness. It was warm in the room and the oppressive weight rested heavily on top of him made it even more so. He brought up a hand to rub lazily at his eye, wiping away the night’s crust with a yawn, and blinked up at what was definitely not his bedroom ceiling. The apprehension that immediately rose up within him only exploded into pure terror when his eyes fell on a distinctive mop of red hair tucked against his chest. Before he could stop himself, he let out a horrified screech that immediately jolted the body against him awake and off of him. The resounding clang followed by a colorful stream of curses when Rin hit his head on the bed frame of the top bunk did little to alleviate the panic washing over Makoto.
“WHAT THE FUCK, SOUSUKE?!?” Rin snarled, doubled over as he held his head in pain. The name that ripped from Rin’s lips only made the dread in Makoto’s chest increase a hundred fold. He recoiled, frozen in shock as he stared at Rin recovering from the blow to his head. “Sousuke! What the fuck was that about?!?” Rin bit out again, seething with rage, as he demanded an explanation.
“R-Rin…?” The name came out in barely a whisper, timid and terrified. Rin immediately looked up at that, the anger lighting his eyes flickering to confusion then concern.
“Sousuke?” Rin tried again more gently, apprehensive. “What’s wrong?” Everything was wrong, Makoto thought frantically. Everything was wrong from the position he was in to the name falling from Rin’s lips.
“R-Rin…” Makoto finally breathed, suddenly aware that the voice coming from him was too deep, too gruff, “I’m not Sousuke…”
Sousuke’s grip on the lip of the sink basin tightened. He had managed to escape the bedroom without uttering a word, barely glimpsed the confused and upset look from the little girl, and fled into the hall. The boy, whom he had assumed was her brother, had remained asleep, thankfully. To his luck, the first door that stood ajar lead to the bathroom and he had locked himself inside, mind racing. Sousuke glowered at his reflection. The face staring back at him had eyes that were too green, almost obscured by hair too long and too light. Lips that were too full drew into a thin line, curving down into a hard frown he knew had no business replacing its usual smile on the angled planes of the face. There was a knock on the bathroom door.
“Makoto?” A kind voice called from the hall. “Are you alright? Ran came running in saying you were acting strange.” Sousuke knew he had to reply.
“I’m fine.” he all but snapped, the voice coming from him too high for his taste. But he winced immediately in regret. Directing his anger at the poor woman wouldn’t do anyone good. “I’m sorry.” He apologized, softer, timbering his voice to take on that gentle tone he tried to recall. “I’m just…not feeling well.” It was a lame excuse, so he prayed that the woman wouldn’t pry. There was a brief silence.
“Alright.” She said gently, eliciting a sigh of relief from Sousuke. “Let me know if you need anything, I’ll make you some porridge.” Before he could protest, the footsteps had already diminished. Sousuke sighed again and ran a hand through hair that wasn’t his and looked at his reflection once more. The sight of Makoto’s body taking on Sousuke’s posture and visage was an odd one that unsettled Sousuke to his core. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his shoulders, briefly noticing that the pain that always lingered on his right was no longer there, and schooled his expression to a neutral mien. Better, he thought, though it still wasn’t quite right. But when he attempted that overly sweet smile he had gotten to know over the past few months whether he wanted to or not, it was far too forced and too strained and looked more like a grimace. Sousuke clicked his tongue in irritation. Neutral expression it is.
“This a fucking joke right. Because if you’re joking, Sousuke, I’m going to be pissed. This isn’t funny.”
“Rin!” Makoto bemoaned, dragging his hands down the face that felt nothing like his in despair. “I’m honestly, truly not joking! It’s me, Makoto! I have no idea what happened or how I ended up here in…in…in Sousuke’s body, but it’s true!” Rin stared at him with a look of bewilderment crossed with horror, and if Makoto told the truth, a smidge of disgust.
“Don’t do that.” Rin deadpanned.
“What?” Makoto replied reflexively.
“That.” Rin emphasized, gesturing at Makoto’s face. “Using Sousuke’s face to…to…”
“…Be me?” Makoto supplied helpfully with a timid shrug. Rin only glared before raking a hand roughly through his hair, ending to pinch the knot on his brow.
“Let me get this straight.” He muttered through gritted teeth, “Somehow, in some absurd way, you and Mako-I mean Sousuke switched bodies. Are you sure you didn’t just hit your head too hard, somehow?” The last question was tilted with tinge of desperation.
“I wish that was the case, Rin.” Makoto sighed.
“So is there a chance that Sousuke is actually in your body?” Makoto rubbed the back of his neck, and shrugged.
“I have no clue, Rin.” Rin clicked his tongue in annoyance before grabbing Makoto’s, or rather, Sousuke’s, wrist to drag him out of the dorm room.
“Then I guess we have no choice but to go find out.”
Makoto’s room had thankfully been emptied by the time Sousuke slipped back into it. The plan was to leave the house as unnoticed as possible and to find Rin immediately. At the very least, he’d have some sort of action plan. But first he had to find a change of clothes. Sousuke opened the closet and grimaced openly at the atrocious array of bright colors. He had never really noticed before, but thinking back to the few times he had seen Makoto out of his school uniform, the man did have a rather questionable fashion sense. He rifled through the shirts and pants, careful not to displace anything too much, and picked out an outfit that he felt assaulted his eyes the least. He had just finished buckling the belt (careful to mind Makoto’s modesty as best as he could. Sousuke preferred not to think about the more intimate aspects of the whole experience) when the bedroom door burst open and a blur tackled his middle with a loud cry of “Onii-chan!” The forced hadn’t been much but Sousuke had been caught so off guard that he stumbled backwards slightly. “Onii-chan!” cried the child again, whom Sousuke recognized as the boy of the pair of kids from before. “You didn’t wake me this morning! You’re ALWAYS the one to wake me up!” It was just then that Sousuke finally recalled Makoto mention in passing the existence of twin younger siblings. He couldn’t, however, remember their names. The woman from before had mentioned the girl’s, Sousuke was sure, but he had been so distracted by his situation, he couldn’t recall it. Unsure about how to respond to the whining child clinging to him, he hesitantly brought a hand to pat awkwardly on the boy’s head.
“I’m…sorry…” he apologized cautiously. The boy gave a loud sniff before looking up at him with large watery eyes, mouth open as if to say something when,
“Ren!” Sousuke and the boy both looked over to see the girl standing with her hands on her hips at the doorway. “Onii-chan is sick! Momma said not to bother him!” The boy, Ren, sniffled again and looked back at Sousuke for a moment before pulling away.
“Onii-chan is sick?” He asked, eyes wide in worry. Sousuke hesitated.
“That-“
“That’s right, Ren!” The girl cut in. “And I’m going to help Momma take care of Onii-chan, so you should go away.”
“Ran!” Ren whined in distressed anger. “That’s not fair! I want to take care of Onii-chan, too!” Sousuke’s fought desperately to keep his face neutral but all the whining and crying was beginning to give him a headache. It finally made sense how Makoto appeared to have an endless reserve of patience. The siblings continued to fight until Sousuke finally moved to walk out the door.
“Onii-chan!” Ran cried. “Where are you going? Momma said you should rest!”
“I’m going out.” Sousuke said, struggling to keep irritation from his tone. “To uh…get some fresh air. I’ll be fine.” And he went about finding the exit to the house.
To his credit, Sousuke didn’t end up getting as lost as he had expected. It taken only the second turn before he found the house’s entranceway, lined with an array of shoes of varying size. He selected a pair of sneakers he only remembered Makoto wearing because he had noticed it was the same brand he wore. He exited the house as quickly as possible.
Rin clicked his tongue in irritation as he glared at his cell phone. “Goddamn it, Haru, why don’t you ever keep your phone on you.” Makoto sighed in defeat, slouching in his seat on the train beside Rin. When the adrenaline of the whole situation had worn off, he finally become aware of a persistent pain that throbbed dully in his shoulder. “And it’s not like your phone’s working either.” Rin continued, “Sousuke probably didn’t pick it up, the bastard.” Rin jabbed violently at the number pads to fire off what was probably the twentieth text to Haru. “Knowing Sousuke, he’d probably wander out and get himself lost. And then we’d have to go find him and it’d take all of eternity to figure out this mess.” His voice trailed off into dark incoherent muttering. Meanwhile, Makoto lamented quietly about how exactly they’d get this situation fixed. It was so absurd that this all must really be a bad dream. “Stop that.” Makoto jolted at Rin’s tone.
“W-Wha-“
“Stop making him look so pathetic. Sousuke never looks pathetic.” Makoto recoiled into himself.
“You think I’m pathetic?” Rin blinked at him then looked away with another click of his tongue.
“That’s not what I meant, Makoto.” There was a brief silence between them. “I’m sorry.” Rin apologized, wringing his hands. “I’m just stressed out by this whole ordeal. And seeing him make an expression like that even though I know it isn’t him, I…never mind. I didn’t mean to insult you.” Makoto couldn’t help but smile.
“You really love him, don’t you?” The way Rin whipped around to stare wide eyed at him looked almost painful. Makoto watched red creep up Rin’s neck to stain his cheeks enough to rival his hair. He let out a laugh as Rin grit his teeth in embarrassment.
“Goddamn you, Makoto, making him smile and laugh like that with his stupid face and his stupid voice.” Makoto indulged him once more and let out another laugh.
It really was absurd to believe Sousuke would know where to go when he exited the house. Gritting his teeth he turn towards the only plausible way at that moment: a set of stairs winding down the hillside to the main road. He had barely stepped onto the first set of stairs when,
“Makoto.” Sousuke almost didn’t react, but in the split second remembered that he was Makoto at for the time being. Sousuke knew that voice and he dreaded it, but he turned anyway to face Haru’s ever-present bland expression as he stood at the platform one level above him. Sousuke bit back the annoyance rising within him. Though he and Haru no longer harbored any real animosity towards each other, Sousuke had little patience left from the morning to deal with Haru’s antics.
“Haru.” He chose to greet politely, albeit a bit curtly. A flash of shock flitted across Haru’s face, lips curving ever so slightly into a frown. Sousuke knew his cover was blown, not that he was doing much to maintain it.
“Makoto, what’s wrong?” Haru asked easily as he stepped towards him to reach his level. Sousuke heaved a sigh and took a half step back when Haru suddenly entered his personal space.
“Everything is wrong. Do you have your phone, I’ll explain it to you then.” Haru was outright frowning at him now, eyebrows pulled into a knot over his prominently blue eyes. Clear as water. Sousuke distantly recalled Rin saying. Without another word, Haru took out his phone and handed it to Sousuke. Sousuke took it and almost clicked his tongue when he found that it was turned off. He sighed darkly, ignoring Haru’s penetrating stare at him, and pressed the power button. The screen blinked to life, played a brief opening animation, before it settled on a plain home screen. Then suddenly, there was a barrage of message pop ups as text after text flooded the screen, sprinkled occasionally with a message notifying a missed call. They were all from Rin and for the first time that morning, relief spread through Sousuke like a welcoming blanket. He flipped through a couple of the messages, enough to glean that Rin already knew of the situation and was in fact on his way over to him at the moment, before he handed the phone back to Haru who was looking increasingly agitated. “Read these.” Sousuke said without fanfare. Without breaking his steady, searching gaze on Sousuke, Haru took the phone. Sousuke raised an eyebrow expectantly and Haru looked down to read. With each subsequent message, Sousuke watched as Haru’s eyes widened until finally, he looked up straight at Sousuke, grimaced and took a large step back.
“Give me Makoto back.” Haru demanded darkly. Sousuke fought the urge to roll his eyes, before replying sarcastically.
“I would if I could because I’m certainly having a fantastic time in your boyfriend’s body.” The horrified look on Haru’s face, Sousuke had to admit, was an amusing spectacle. “Enough of this.” Sousuke sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Rin said they’re coming right? They should be here soon. Let’s go to the station.”
“It hurts quite a bit, you know.”
Rin looked up as they walked together towards Makoto and Haru’s houses. “What?” Makoto gestured vaguely to his, to Sousuke’s, right shoulder. Rin’s eyes widened. “Does it really?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper.
“Yeah…” Makoto said quietly, knowing this might not be the best thing to say, that this was treading on private territory. “I didn’t quite notice it at first because of everything but…it’s been throbbing pretty badly during the train ride. I’m sure he usually does some rehab exercises for it that I didn’t do…” Makoto began to panic at the tears that had suddenly welled up in Rin’s eyes. “Oh god, oh no, Rin, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-“
“It’s fine.” Rin bit out, roughly wiping the back of his hands across his eyes. “I’m glad you told me. Stupid bastard wouldn’t have said anything otherwise. Idiot’s too selfless for his own good, the moron.”
“I’m sure he just doesn’t want you to worry, Rin.”
“I know that! You think I don’t know that?” Rin sighed in frustration and raked a hand through his hair. “I know he doesn’t want me to worry but I can’t help but worry and I can tell he downplays the pain he feels for my sake but it just makes me MORE anxious!” Rin’s hands fell to his sides and he flexed them, wanting desperately to reach out and take those familiar warm and large calloused hands into his own, to feel their fingers lace easily together as if was the most natural thing in the world. But it wasn’t Sousuke with him right then, it was Makoto, even if he was in Sousuke’s body, and it wouldn’t be fair to either of them if he did something like that. He only sighed again and shoved his fists into his pockets. “We agreed that we would work through it together, but even still he doesn’t always give me the whole truth. I just wish he’d be a little more honest with me.” Rin didn’t dare look back at the other walking beside him, he knew what kind of look Makoto would wear and he couldn’t bear to see it on Sousuke’s face instead.
“Rin look!” Makoto suddenly said after a drawn out moment of silence.
“Hn?” Rin look up to see two familiar figures walking towards them.
“It’s Haru! And well…me, I guess?” Rin had to swallow a laugh. It was comical how wide of a berth Haru gave the Makoto walking towards them and any doubt that Sousuke might actually NOT be in Makoto’s body was immediately extinguished.
“Yo, Haru.” Rin greeted when they convened on the side of the road. “And…” Rin turned to the Makoto standing bit a ways beside him, “Sousuke?” And even though Makoto was usually always smiling, the smile that split this Makoto’s face couldn’t have looked more wrong because Rin immediately recognized it as Sousuke’s smile. Relief spread through him. “Oh thank god. At least everyone’s HERE…even though things were switched around a bit…” He trailed off when he noticed Haru glowering at Sousuke’s body, whose hands were raised in a placating gesture as he smiled in that distinct Makoto manner. The image couldn’t look more wrong that Rin openly grimaced.
“Now, now Haru, it’s me, alright? Even though I’m in Sousuke’s body, it’s still me, Makoto!” Haru didn’t grace him a response, only directed his glare right at Rin.
“Fix this.” He demanded, voice clipped with barely concealed rage. Rin blinked, instinctively looked over and shared a brief glance with Sousuke in Makoto’s body. Then for the first time that day, he burst out laughing.