Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Empathy ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Empathy

 

Donald's experimental magic backfires, and our boys are forced to spend an entire afternoon in each others bodies until he can fix it.

RikuxSora(xRiku)

 

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I know stories like this have been done to death, but I couldn't help it. I wanted to write something short and cute, and this is what came to mind. Just give it a chance, ne? ^^

~Etsuyo

 

Disclaimer: I own nothing at all to do with Kingdom Hearts, Disney etc. I only wrote this story.

 

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Donald didn't exactly give them a chance to say no. Or, rather, if he had Sora was way too nice to have actually said no, so the outcome was inevitable. They were going to be science experiments, and as far as Riku was concerned, this was not an acceptable afternoon activity.

“Magic experiments.” Donald corrected absentmindedly, picking up what looked disturbingly like a carving knife, then shaking his head and putting it down again, moving further along the table.

“No real difference.” The silver haired teenager muttered.

As Donald started a lengthy and somewhat tedious rant concerning all the flaws in Riku's comeback, he turned his head to where Sora was standing, simultaneously tuning out completely the specifics of the duck's dialogue.

The keyblade master was smiling, as usual. And like usual there wasn't anything that Riku could pick in the immediate vicinity that would cause his friend to do so. For Sora always seemed to have a smile on his face, and even if nothing was funny, the smile was always there, vacant and happy.

Riku couldn't help but recognize that the smile was very endearing. In fact, a lot of things about Sora were endearing. His ass, for example, looked very nice in those pants…

“Riku?”

“Mmm?”

“The King is here.”

“Wha… oh!” Riku turned around, (somewhat reluctantly), and greeted King Mickey. It was a small study, and with the newest arrival the space was starting to feel slightly cramped. In all actuality, it was probably bigger than it looked, but in a fashion Riku had recently discovered was apparently typical of Donald, the room was stuffed full with books and papers. The walls were, literally, piled to the roof with stacks of magical theory books, and in some cases, where they had failed to fit any longer onto the bookcases themselves, they had simply been stacked on top of the heavy furniture, sometimes somewhat precariously. Riku eyed one pile in particular, the topmost two of which lay horizontally balanced on one book which stood vertically.

But really Riku wasn't too interested in the novels themselves; he preferred practical demonstrations to theoretical reading. The books he saw around him were large and imposing and seemed to have become the most important residents of the study, and he was suddenly glad he never had to spend all those months traveling on a Gummi ship with the small and feathery creature, like Sora had, because the health insurance to cover falling Hard Covers would have been an incredibly expensive burn into his wallet.

The King seemed, if anything, somewhat amused that Riku had been so lost in thought when he had walked in that he hadn't even noticed him. He waved the boy's already-forming apology away before turning to Donald to ask how things were going.

It was obvious to even the doormat that of everyone at Disney Castle, the only person Riku had any patience or real respect for, was the King himself. This came, of course, from the journey's they'd been through together in the past. Mickey had his unconditional trust, whereas he wouldn't trust Donald with a paper bag, lest he accidentally set it on fire, or Goofy with soft pillow, lest he trip over his own feet and send it tumbling over a ravine.

“Thank you for agreeing to be our test subject, Sora.” Mickey said.

“It's no problem,” Smile, “Always happy to help!” Smile again.

“No one's really explained the specifics of what we're doing here…” Riku inserted. Even though Sora would be willing to jump into a pool of raging piranhas at the drop of a hat if the request came from a friend, Riku preferred to ask a few questions first. Such as `what the hell for?' and `how long since they last ate?'

“We wish to try a particular spell on the two of you.”

“What kind of spell?” He was already getting cheesy love potion ideas forming in his mind. Although how that would help the King he wasn't quite sure.

“Essentially it's a sort of `Location Tracker'.” Mickey continued, “The idea is that while the spell is active, no matter where each of you goes, the other will still know where he is.”

“And that's… useful?”

“Very. If something were to happen to someone whilst out on a mission, or investigating an area, we would know where to send the search party.”

Well, can't argue with that.

“So how does it work exactly?” Sora asked.

“Donald wrote the spell…” Mickey turned to where his companion was crouched behind a pile of books muttering about losing something, and then turned back to the other two boys and continued, since clearly the duck wasn't about to interject and explain his theory personally. “The way I understand it, when the spell is cast some tiny essence of your being is switched with the others, which allows you to keep track of where they are.”

“'Essence of your being'?” Riku raised an eyebrow skeptically.

A small smile flittered across the King's face, “Yes, I'm not sure; it's just how he described it to me.”

“Will it be… like there's something.. missing?” Sora couldn't help but glance down at his chest to where his heart was inside of him. Riku knew he was thinking about his other, Roxas.

Mickey was quiet and looked thoughtful for a moment while Donald tipped over a massive stack of books with a loud thudding noise, accompanied by a small quack of pain. “I should think not. This experience will be nothing like having a Nobody, if anything, it should feel like there is more to you than there was before. You will be able to feel the existence of the other person, additional to your own.”

“And thus, be able to tell us where they are.” Donald finished, finally emerging from whatever task he had set himself. He waddled before them, clutching a model of staff neither Sora nor Riku had seen before.

Sora supposed it might have been a Christmas present, since he hadn't seen the duck since November.

“Right. Everybody ready?” Donald raised his staff without waiting for a reply. Riku glanced briefly at Sora, whose smile had toned itself down somewhat, worry lines creeping in around the edges. Apparently he wasn't the only one who wasn't completely happy about being experimented on. That made him feel a bit better, actually.

He'd barely had time to look away again before Donald shouted something and all of a sudden he couldn't see. The words of the spell were completely lost as a roaring sound filled his ears. A cloud engulfed them, and sparks shot out from random directions and grazed his arms. There was light all around him, but the room itself had disappeared, a pale glow inhibited him from seeing anything else. Instinctively, he turned to Sora, needing to discover what had happened to him.

But where everything else had gone, the brown haired boy stood still, only now he had raised him arms to his face to shield himself from anything that might be dangerous. Riku felt instantly relieved that Sora was okay, but since it had been only moments, didn't think he needed to yell out just yet. The spell, he assumed, wouldn't last much longer.

No sooner had he formed the thought, than everything became a blinding white, so overpowering that he couldn't see a thing anymore, and his eyes forced themselves shut.

 

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Riku didn't remember passing out. But then, he thought he couldn't have passed out, because he was still standing up. Normally falling over walked hand in hand with losing consciousness.

Oh well.

“Are you two alright?”

“It was a bit… weird… but it didn't hurt.” He replied. However something sounded slightly off, like his voice had been affected. He thought, although of course one always sounded different out loud to inside ones head, that he normally spoke with a deeper tone.

“Good.” Mickey continued. “Then if you're up to it, I'd like to carry on with the next part of the experiment.”

The next part, Donald had explained earlier, involved getting them to walk to opposite ends of the castle, then see if they could pinpoint where the other had gone to specifically.

“I guess…” Riku did honestly feel he needed another moment to gather himself, but if Sora was feeling alright, then he would follow him on.

He turned to where his companion had been standing before, on his right. Only it appeared Sora had somehow transformed himself into a towering bookcase. Which seemed, on the whole, rather odd.

So, not wanting to rule out the possibility that he was still sane, he did the next logical thing and turned to his left.

Where apparently someone had installed a mirror.

Riku blinked. The mirror blinked back. “Uh… why is… mirror…” He raised his right arm experimentally. The mirror didn't raise either of its arms.

“Mirror?” He heard Donald echo duly from over next to the King, “What are you talking about Sora?”

“Mirror…” The Riku before him repeated, staring back with the same concentrated gaze.

“Not a mirror.” Riku concluded.

With the calm air of a man who knew what was coming next, he carefully lifted a hand to feel the condition of his hair. It was spikier than normal. He then turned back to himself and took a good look at his mirror's face. Normally when he looked in a mirror, he looked at his face straight on, now he was looking at his face from at least a foot below the usual level. Finally he lowered his gaze entirely and observed the clothing he was wearing. It was a lot more brightly coloured than he had remembered picking from his closet that morning.

Realization had actually hit him a few seconds ago, so he neither screamed nor fainted as others might have considered doing in the same situation. Instead he looked back up at himself, still not entirely used to the experience, and said; “Sora?”

The Riku across from him had apparently been occupying itself with similar actions. It looked up at him, having since stopped looking at its shoes; “This is… weird…” Sora looked worried in his face, and Riku fleetingly wondered whether the boy was about to freak out.

He hadn't even noticed Donald's impatient huff's during this time, but the King had stayed contemplatively quiet, simply watching the procedure take place. When he spoke, his voice was filled with a kind of new understanding; “I think I can guess what has happened here…”

“What? What's going on? Why aren't we testing to see if it's worked!?” The duck stamped one foot impatiently, clearly oblivious to the goings on, and a foreigner to the art of careful observation.

To Riku's privately great delight, Mickey ignored him. “…The spell has altered more than what was expected.”

“What are you talking about?” Fumes practically billowed around the bird's head.

“Riku…?” He could swear he had never spoken so softly before. And Sora, clearly concerned, looked at him for some sort of acknowledgment.

Both boys could not help but recognize how weird it felt to be looking at each other and seeing themselves.

“Yeah, it happened. You look like me. I figure I look like you…” Riku waved his hand in a sort of `etc' motion. Sora's hand. Not his.

“This… isn't good then.” Once again exercising his downright devious powers of deduction, Sora set about planting a `thinking' expression on Riku's pale face.

Thankfully, the King interrupted before any epiphanies could be made. “Well, this is an unfortunate outcome. But I'm sure Donald will be able to fix it in no time.” He turned expectantly to his friend.

Donald was gaping quite impressively at the scene in front of him, sheer disbelief practically written in permanent marker right across his forehead. “Sora… is…” His eyes looked at Riku but his hand pointed at where Riku's body actually was. Which was where Sora actually was. Which was not where he thought he was. Because he wasn't quite ready to accept what had happened.

It took fifteen minutes to explain it to him, after which the duck looked exhausted.

Everyone else looked slightly pissed off.

“So what is our next course of action?” Riku pressed on, somewhat eager to formulate a reversal plan as soon as possible. So far he had been very good (he commended himself) at ignoring the fact that he was in Sora's body, and linking it to the knowledge that he was very interested in Sora's body, in more ways than one. Without something being done about it soon, he wasn't quite sure how much longer the dam could hold out against the raging torrent of perverted thoughts that were already leaking through every crack they could find.

“The… the spell is just meant to wear off after a few hours, since it wasn't very strong for the test-run. Normally, in a field situation, one would cast the spell indefinitely.”

“Well, clearly, the spell has produced a somewhat stronger result than you expected it to.” Riku was going to punch him if he didn't get to the point.

“Obviously.”

“Which. Means?” Honestly, were these people ever capable of filing the gaps for themselves?

“Which means I don't know if it will simply wear off or if it will have to be reversed by magic.”

“Oh great. Fat lot of good you are.”

“Riku!” He ignored Sora.

The duck frowned and continued as if no one else had said anything, “Also, I'd have to take a good look around for that reversal spell. Didn't think I'd need it today you see…”

Riku's eye practically popped. Well, Sora's eye. “'Didn't think'… What kind of an idiot are you!? A Plan B is practically essential in any experiment! You have to have something ready in case it goes wrong! … It's like leaving the house without an umbrella in the middle of a fucking hurricane! It's just plain stupid!”

“RIKU!”

He slumped back against the bookcase with a `humph'. Well, what was he supposed to say? He really didn't want in this situation for too much longer. Sora might not have been close to the point of freaking out, but he certainly was.

“Calm down.” The King said, frowning at Riku's outburst; “It'll take some time for him to find it, so just relax and don't worry. It's not permanent.”

Oh God I hope not.

Riku opened his mouth to reply, but a loud jingle interrupted what might have been. Sora practically jumped, and instead he let out a chuckle.

“Wha…?”

Still smiling he explained, “My phone is ringing. It's in your back pocket.”

“Oh!” Sora scrambled to try to find it before it stopped. Riku watched in amusement as his body acted in a very Sora-like and very un-Riku-like way. Even when he was in a rush he didn't tend to get too flustered. With the simple occurrence of someone calling, Sora had jumped fully into action and was devoting a desperate search onto the task of extracting it.

The body was his, but the actions were all Sora. It looked… very… odd.

With something of a triumphant expression, Sora pulled the ringing article from Riku's pants, and began to hand it over.

“No! I sound like you. You answer it!” Riku said quickly, waving his arms defensively, and not taking the phone.

Sora looked practically crestfallen for a second, contemplating how he would never be able to sound like Riku even if he tried, then proceeded to prove the point by answering the phone with a very quiet, and very hesitant; “Hello?”

Sora was not normally such a person of course, he was cheerful and usually answered his phone with as much enthusiasm as a small child on his birthday; it was simply the weight of having to pretend to be someone else that was currently the cause of his jitters.

Acting was never really his thing.

“Hello? Riku?” Kairi's voice echoed through the device back to him.

“Hi Kairi!”

“Yes, hi. Look, where are you? You were meant to meet me ten minutes ago!”

“OH!”

Part of the initial plan had been to have met respective friends at other ends of the castle at pre-disclosed locations, who could therefore verify that they had been there, which could further prove whether the spell actually worked or not. Naturally it wouldn't be necessary to do so now.

“Uh… I'll be there in a few minutes!”

Sora, apparently, didn't think in the same way that most people did.

He clicked the phone shut. “What did you do that for?” Riku asked, a little confused.

“Um…” The truth about Sora was that he tended to act before he thought, and in this case he had done the immediate action of placating Kairi, before thinking that a. the task itself was not really necessary anymore. And b. he was in Riku's body. Which basically raised issues c through m respectively and left little other arguments to be made about the point.

Riku sighed, “It doesn't matter. This is going to take awhile anyway, so you might as well meet her.”

Sora nodded, a little dejectedly, and started to make his way over to the door. Riku wasn't sure whether he should follow him or not, so in his hesitation he stayed where he was.

“Sora…” Mickey suddenly spoke up, and the boy stopped and turned, long silvery hair flowing with the movement. “Unless you feel it is entirely necessary, for the moment, I do not think what has happened here needs to be told to everyone…”

Sora nodded, understanding. Riku was suddenly glad; he hadn't even thought about that, but now that it had been brought up, he quite agreed with the King. The less people that knew the better. At least not until they were in their right minds again. Literally speaking.

“I won't tell Kairi.” Sora promised, and then smiled at Riku. His heart made a little jump of happiness at the gesture, and he promptly told it to be less childish.

Sora then gave a short wave and left, leaving the three of them standing in silence in his wake.

When it was no longer comfortable, Donald began tapping his foot loudly, and said; “Alright, clear out while I look for this spell. Can't have people in the way.”

Riku didn't spare him a glare before both he and the King said some complimentary goodbye's and closed the door behind them.

Sora was, unsurprisingly, already quite out of sight. He sighed, maybe he should have tried to tag along, at least it would have been a good distraction. He didn't think he would be able to come up with a decent excuse to stay by Mickey's side for the next few hours.

Unaware of the boy's anguish, the King excused himself politely as well, one quite prone to disappearing for lengths at a time anyway, and finally Riku was left by himself. In Sora's body. With the task of finding something to do to waste time ahead of him.

If nothing else, at least God had an interesting sense of irony.

 

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End of chapter 1 - I hope you guys enjoyed it! Reviews of any kind will be welcomed with happy smiles, joy and much confetti throwing! Chapter 2 is almost fully written and should be out soon, stay tuned

~Etsuyo