Chapter Text
Swapping bodies with your soulmate can happen at any time. The participants may or may not occupy their soulmate’s body for the same length of time; it may not even occur at the same moment. It is unclear what happens to your partner while you occupy their body in this case - often you return to your own body as though no time has elapsed. Regardless, use your time wisely. This is your chance to discover who your love is, leave a message, or make plans to meet.
This is your chance to bring you and your soulmate together. Don’t waste it!
----
Eric blinked and one moment he was baking in the kitchen with his mama, and the next he was in his soulmate’s body, and everything was too loud. His head swam. There was a beer can in his hand. It was too loud! His eyes hurt. There were people everywhere crashing around him and they were too close. He sucked in a breath. Why was the music so dang loud?
He took a step backwards, suddenly needing to escape. He was so tall. Why was he dizzy? He couldn’t breathe. He needed to get out of here. He should figure out who he was. That was important, right? Leave a message, at least. He just needed, just needed some air. Why was it so hard to breathe in here? Why was everyone so close, too close? Why was it so loud? Eric didn’t imagine parties were like this.
An older boy, shorter than he was, crowded in. He had blond hair and his eyes looked green, or ... Eric wasn’t sure. He was too close, pressing in to Eric’s borrowed body. He tried to take a step back, but there was someone standing there already. He asked something and it wasn’t English. Oh lordy, that was just- he needed help. He was shaking and he couldn’t ask for help. He shook his head, trying to convey how confused and lost and that he wasn’t the person this guy thought he was speaking to, and-
The guy pulled the beer out of his shaking hands and grabbed his arm, forcing him away from the crowd. Eric didn’t know what was going on, but he was being dragged away from the noise and the press of strangers and he still couldn’t breathe but this was better. “Thank you,” he muttered, and was startled at the sound of his voice, his soulmate's voice, but it sounded like he couldn’t get enough air, like his lungs didn’t work.
He could barely stand by the time he’d been dragged to a bedroom. He couldn’t make out any of the details. His heart was racing like he’d been on the ice for hours and pushed so hard he collapsed. Eric was terrified. Was his soulmate dying? All he could hear were his own ragged breaths. He sunk down on the floor, wrapping himself up tight, wondering if he would ever get his lungs working. It hurt so bad.
Then the blond rested a hand on his shoulder. “Been a while since you had such a bad one, huh. C’mon man, breathe with me.”
He tried to ask a question. The guy spoke English, so he needed to know, but he couldn’t form the words. Eric had always been so free with words, and they wouldn’t come.
“Shhh. It’s okay. It’s okay.” The blond rubbed his shoulder. “Gimme a sec.” He got up and rummaged around and Eric couldn’t watch because he couldn’t function. “Where the fuck did you pack your- nevermind. Found 'em.” He returned and dropped a pill and a glass of water into Eric’s hands. “You need to take this.”
Eric could feel his eyes go wide, but he did. The blond took away the glass and sat back down next to him, muttering soothing repetitive things.
After a while, after forever, because it felt like forever, Eric’s heart slowed and his breath came easier but he still hurt everywhere and felt frightened and unfocused and he had trouble figuring out how to choke out words. “Why is this happening?”
The blond hugged him tight and held him for a long while. He tried to figure out how to ask what he needed to know and the words just wouldn’t come, and he was so tired. Then he was pulled up, and gently pushed towards the bed. “Get some rest. I have to go mingle,” and the way he said ‘mingle’ was filled with disdain. “So I’ll be back in a little bit. Don’t forget to take more if you need it.” He set the glass of water and the prescription bottle on the dresser next to the bed. “Back soon.” His eyes looked blue, flashing with some feeling he couldn’t identify. And then he was gone so fast. Too fast.
Eric did not feel better. He needed to know what was going on. His hands were shaking again. He tried to choke back a sob. This was his chance to learn about his soulmate, and he couldn’t move right, or ask the right questions. He looked at the bottle, and it had information written on it. He could at least learn his soulmate’s name. That was plenty. That would work.
He didn’t realize how blurred his vision was - why was it so blurry - until he realized he couldn’t even read the text on the label.
He said take another one if he needed to, right? Eric fumbled with the safety cap and downed a pill, and waited.
He couldn’t breathe again. His heart hammered in his ears. His heartbeat sounded too loud, like it would explode. He held himself and shook and rocked back and forth, and wasn’t the other guy supposed to be back soon? And he took another pill.
It wasn’t getting better. Eric wanted to just go home. His soulmate would do better than he could manage, and he would find Eric and everything would be fine. He just had to make it through this, whatever it was. He looked around, trying to get his bearings.
Was he in a hotel room? He tried to get some air into his lungs but his heart was going to burst, he was sure of it now. Maybe he should call for help. But he had the pills here, and so it was okay to take more. He wanted to be well enough to look around. He tried to stand up and was so dizzy and his vision nearly went black. He grabbed the pill bottle and tried to cross the room. His original goal was the bag, where maybe he could find something personal to identify himself.
Eric wasn’t going to make it that far. He felt sick. He was going to die. His soulmate was going to die and there was no one here to help him. He was aiming for the door, to find help, but he felt so sick and awful he stumbled into the bathroom instead. He sunk down over the toilet, but he was still shaking. He had forgotten what air tasted like. He heaved, but nothing came up.
He scrambled at the pill bottle he had dropped on the floor and took another one dry. It made him gag. Why weren’t they making him better? It was supposed to make him better. Eric’s heart was going too fast too fast too fast, like the blond boy, everything was hurting and too fast and air wasn’t a real thing anymore.
He tried to stand, bracing himself against the wall until he was upright, at least a little. He was so afraid. Everything was wrong and broken and terrifying, it was like a nightmare.
Eric caught motion in the corner of his blurry vision and looked up and met his eyes in the mirror.
Tall, blue eyes wide with fear, shaggy dark hair, well built. Hot. He laughed out a sob, but he couldn’t breathe, so he crouched over.
He wanted to look again, but his vision was dark and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to see anyway. He felt so awful but it was funny how attractive his soulmate was, but his hands were so cold.
Why was he so cold?
Eric wasn’t sure why he was cold and hurt everywhere and everything was dark and awful.
The noise was too loud. It was the blond boy’s voice, he thought. Oh good, you’re here. He tried to say it. He couldn’t find the words. Couldn’t find the breath to speak with. The boy was shouting something. He thought he felt hands on his chest, on his throat, but nothing felt real anymore.
Eric thought he might be able to rest.
----
Eric hurt so much when he woke up. His body felt wrong. He was disoriented. Where was he? There were noises he couldn’t identify, and his heart felt too loud in his chest.
There was a noise and a woman gasped and squeezed his hand. He didn’t recognize her and he wanted to cry. She was blond, with bright blue eyes. She had been crying.
“Bob, Bob,” she sobbed, and a man joined her. He had brown eyes, dark hair, and his face was so pale and sad.
Eric wasn’t sure he could speak, but he forced “Where am I?” out in a whisper.
The man took his hand, and said, “Jack-”
And Eric blinked-
----
Jack didn’t know what it felt like to live without weight, to breathe easy, until he blinked and the party disappeared and he was in a bright kitchen, in his soulmate’s body. The sun was warm. A blond woman he didn’t know hummed next to him wearing an apron.
With a slight start, he looked down, and Jack realized he’d stopped in the middle of mixing a bowl of batter.
The woman looked at him with warm brown eyes. “Everything alright, honey?”
“Who am I?” His voice was young, and had a heavy accent he couldn’t place, like the woman who beamed at him, eyes shining with joy.
“You’re Eric Bittle’s soulmate, darling. What’s your name?”
“It’s-”
----
Jack was suddenly back in his own body, and it hurt more than normal and for the briefest of moments he thought it was because he finally had known a second of peace, of warm sunlight where everything was well, but then he realized his parents were leaning over him. Maman was crying, and Papa said, “in the hospital.”
----
He dropped the mixing bowl. It crashed against the ground and shattered. Eric was crying already and his mama was wrapping her arms around him. He sobbed, but he could breathe again and he sucked in air like he could never get enough.
“Jack!” he sobbed into her shoulder.
“Jack, honey, what’s wrong?”
“Mama, he’s really hurt. I- I don’t know if he’s going to be okay.”