Chapter Text
Theo jolted awake with a small snort, a dry mouth, and a puddle of drool under his cheek. Smacking his lips to try and get some moisture on them, he slowly sat upright. His head and body felt… odd. Heavy, even. There must have been some party if he blacked out that hard. Or maybe it was another prank gone wrong? Eh, tomato, potato - either way he needed to get his bearings and eventually scamper home. The hard surface he was laying on top of indicated he wasn’t in his bed. With a yawn and a stretch he ran his tongue over his teeth sleepily. They felt a little sharper than usual… Oh well.
Theo stood up and smacked his head hard against some sort of solid ceiling. He winced and rubbed the back of his head, letting out a quiet slew of Spanish curses when he finally noticed something odd.
Familiar burly and harry arms were placed above his own arms - which seemed to be longer, and the claws he so meticulously took care of were at a sharpened state. Theo’s hands flew up to his face. That too, also felt incorrect. He was just about to calm himself and try to pinch himself awake when he suddenly heard another voice in his head.
“Oof… what happened…?” came the voice of Peppino.
Theo froze up completely. Nope. Nope. This was not happening. There was no goddamn way that this was happening. This was crazy. It had to be some sort of a dream. It had to be. Theo felt the arms suddenly lurch of their own accord - he did not like that sensation one little fucking bit - moving all around to examine them and then…
“EEEEYAAAAAAAAOOOW!!!” Peppino screamed, nearly defining their sudden shared sensitive sense of hearing.
“Can it, will ya old man?!” Theo mentally shouted, “Woke up with a goddamn headache and you’re not making things any better!”
“Wha- Theo?!” Peppino looked around, further disorienting the two, “Where-?”
“In yer head dummy!” Theo responded. It sounded ridiculous - a multi-tonal voice coming out. Yet the fact that it was coming out of one voice made them look completely insane. Just one person talking to themself… Ugh, Theo was just thankful no one else was around to stare at them.
Peppino put his - their? - hands on his/their hips. “This has gotta be some messed up prank!”
“Don’t believe me, eh? Alright, let me show ya!” Theo made a show by taking one of his own hands - he assumed it was his own hands considering the yellow and gloves - and slapped their face as hard as he could. And it sure was painful… Peppino rubbed their cheek to soothe the ache. Theo was going to go for another slap, but was stopped by Peppino grabbing the other hand’s wrist.
“Alright, fine, I believe you.” Peppino responded to the air.
“You don’t gotta talk in the open, y’know. I can hear you thinking.” Theo said, rolling their eye, adding, “Unfortunately.”
“Okay.. so you’re in my head-” Peppino started.
“More like, you’re in my head. But continue.” Theo interrupted.
“Can you remember what happened? Anything at all?” Peppino asked.
Theo strained his brain to try to recall what happened. He remembered feeling a sense of urgency, running on all fours to get… to… get…to a building… and… It was no use. He must have blacked out hard to have forgotten what was so urgent.
“Okay… that was weird.” Peppino muttered.
“What was?” Theo asked.
“I could…” The man took a second to figure out what he wanted to say, “It was like I was recalling my memory. But it wasn’t mine?” Peppino replied.
“.. Oh.”
This was… going to be very hard to cope with if even memories could be easily shared between the two. Even if this was temporary, it was going to be very hard to not recall anything that would give his whole game away.
“Well, since you can’t seem to remember anything relevant… Maybe if I recall what happened last night, it could jog your memory too?” Peppino offered.
“Fine. Fire away, Spaghetti.” Theo sighed.