"I thought we were going to talk more, not have you stand grumpily next to me more often!" Lissa huffed, putting her famous pout to use as Lon'qu stood a few feet away, looking into the trees and avoiding eye contact.
"Even with the recent attempt on your life stopped, you are still a princess. We must stay vigilant."
"You mean stay BORING!" Lissa attempted to attach herself to his arm, but he dodged out of the way, causing her to fall forward. "I thought we were going to be friends now…" Her pout was now aimed at the ground as she picked herself up, and Lon'qu was about to feel a bit sorry for her when he spied a movement from the bushes.
"Keep alert!" In an instant he launched himself in front of Lissa, but he had misunderstood the method of attack. Instead of arrow to the shoulder, a non-solid, glowing orb of energy passed through him, and through Lissa behind him.
Both frozen at first from shock, Lon'qu was the first to snap himself out of it, shouldering Lissa aside without looking at her and bolting in the direction the magic came from. Lissa, didn't object, staring wide-eyed after him, surprised at the lowness of her own voice as she gasped "Did I just see myself..?"
Though he was quick on his feet, Lon'qu seemed to have overestimated the size of his strides; suddenly his feet were flailing through air, and his knee hit painfully against metal. In a second, he was on the ground, falling awkwardly around attire that he quickly realized wasn't his own, unlike the embarrassing, hearty laughter erupting behind him.
"Stop that! Hearing my own voice soun' like that ish embarssing!" His face, no, her face, unintentionally contorted with confusion, his words slowing down as his Chon'sin accent stumbled against his new, very Ylisssian tongue, worsened as he heard the high pitched voice coming from it. For his struggles, Lissa only laughed harder, and Lon'qu felt his face grow hot the longer he heard his own over-exaggerated laughter.
Hurting from falling on her hoop-skirt, the same one he hit himself on while running, Lon'qu struggled up and looked back to where their assailant had been hiding, though, predictably, whoever it was had fled long ago. His back to her (her back to his?), Lon'qu mumbled quietly to himself, attempting to get used to speaking in his new body to avoid looking like a fool again.
"What're you saying?" Lon'qu jolted, his own silence and speed apparently being used against him.
"Nothing! Go away!" His objections only sounded more silly in her voice, like a whiny, put-out child.
"Don't we need to figure out what to do about this? I don't want to be a boy forever, you know." She coughed, her (his) voice dry from all the laughter. "Ugh, I can barely talk- I don't think you've ever made so much noise in your life!"
"I haven't. You're far too chatty."
"Nuh uh! You just need to practice more!" Lon'qu cringed, everything either of them said soundly horribly unfitting coming from the other.
"You're right. We need to fix this."
"Alright, so how abooout…" Lon'qu was nearly overcome with the need to force her to be more tacit while using his voice. "Okay! I'll get one of the dark mages to help us, and in the meantime you can cover for me!"
"Wha? Why!?" Lissa's voice squeaked unnaturally high in protest to his shock.
"Because think about what would happen if my princessly duties were neglected!" Lon'qu could see she was scheming now, he had guarded her long enough that she had no real 'princessly duties'. "Besides, you wouldn't be able to ask Tharja for help, and I don't know your schedule nearly as well as you know mine! Now work on that smile, and don't mope around too much, okay? I have a reputation to uphold!" Before he could protest further, she was running away, leaving him to worry about his own reputation.
"Why couldn't we have just gone together!?"
As Lon'qu, to everyone else Lissa, entered camp, it continued to dawn on him how difficult it would be to impersonate the woman he now resembled. When he had been guarding her, it is true he had gotten to know her well enough; well enough to know he could never muster anything close to the interactions she maintained with Maribelle.
Well, he actually knew this because, while wandering aimlessly about, Maribelle had found him. Suffice it to say, Lissa's body reacted very badly with his phobia and Lon'qu found himself fighting back tears at the sight of her, causing an event Lon'qu was sure he'd hear about later and clearly telling him that he could not inhabit Lissa's body without a plan. The safest option he could think of, Lon'qu made his way to Chrom's tent.
"Lissa, are you alright?" Chrom looked at him (her) with worried eyes, and Lon'qu he had once again messed up.
"I'm fine, brother. I'm just, ah, a little sleepy is all."
"Ah, that explains it. You've just been so quiet today, I thought you may have been mad at me or something. You're usually bothering me and clinging onto my arm, you know?"
"You mean like this?" No, this is wrong wrong wrong and completely disgusting even if 'I love you, Chrom!' sounded fine in her voice it didn't sound alright in his head. Chrom was a man that Lon'qu liked and respected, but he doubted he'd ever be able to look him in the eye again after today. "Umm, have you seen Lon'qu recently?"
"Lon'qu? Oh, I saw him running into camp a little while ago, he looked like he was in a big hurry." Yes, a big hurry like Lissa's own excitableness? Good gods she only entered camp and even in that made him look like a fool. Before he could forget to give a reason for leaving his tent, Lon'qu was stopped by a bit of laughter from Chrom, a knowing look on his face.
"Are you going after him again, Lissa? You talk about him so often these days, I have to wonder."
Does she now?
It didn't that Lissa too long to find the camp's two dark mages, Henry and Tharja. Even though she had given talking to the latter as a reason to leave Lon'qu behind, she was hoping she wouldn't have to talk to her. Both of the mages scared her, but of the two she decided that Tharja scared her worse. Whenever she was playing with Robin, or sneaking up on the tactician with a frog in tow, she could always somehow feel Tharja not far away. On the other hand, Henry seemed happier and not quite as 'dark', so she made her way over to him.
"Hey!"
"Hey-ya Lon'qu, what can I do you for?" At the reminder of who she supposedly was, Lissa cleared her throat.
"I need your help with something." Henry smiled at her expectantly, and Lissa could feel a sudden aura around him that made her reach for some of Lon'qu's bravery he may have left behind in his body. "I've been cursed."
"Ohh? What kinda curse? Is it a death curse? Please tell me it's a death curse!"
"No! It's…. I'm Lissa."
At that moment, Lissa was sure Henry was going to devolve into laughter, but despite the extra curl in his smile he seemed to believe her. "Um, should I get Lon'qu? Actual Lon'qu, I mean?"
"Oh, he's alive? Yeah, go get him, I'll get my stuff together so meet me here, okay?"
Taking a note from Lissa's mistake, Lon'qu ran through the camp, scanning the tents for any sign of himself. It didn't take him long, for his own figure came running from the other end of camp and slammed into him.
"Idiot! Don't go running around in the middle of camp!"
Lon'qu didn't realize his mistake until the words came out far too loudly in Lissa's voice, and immediately he could hear the whispers of people nearby, reaching a crescendo as Lissa grabbed his hand, looking to all the world like the other way around, and started running off again in the direction she came from.
"Come on, we're gonna get fixed!"
Despite the speed which Lissa insisted on dragging him, rumor seemed to spread even faster, reaching Henry before they did.
"Hey you two! I heard you were getting hitched! Congratulations!" He was snickering a bit, almost looking proud of their predicament. "Well, the story actually goes that Lon'qu is forcing Lissa to marry him, but you got in a fight, and Lon'qu made Lissa cry!" The last sentence was sang out like some sort of taunt one would hear on a playground, and Lon'qu felt ready to snap the mage's neck, his mood already sour from the previous events.
"See what you've done? I do not see how you could have tried any harder to not act like me, even after I have struggled!" The memories of his visit to Chrom's tent were still haunting him.
"I don't see what I did wrong, you're the one who yelled at me!"
"I. Don't. Touch. Girls. And I did not cry!"
Henry rested a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Okay you two, save the lover's spat for later!" Lon'qu shivered as Henry's finger squeezed deeper into his shoulder, his face growing darker. "Ohhh, that's a curse all right, and not a good one!" Henry took a second to laugh at the look of horror on Lon'qu's face, compliments to Lissa.
"Basically, your souls've been swapped, but you weren't hit with a soul-swap spell. You were hit with a soul-separating one!"
"What's the difference?"
"Weeell, with a soul-seperating curse, the person is just supposed to lose their soul. Ca-plop! Their body just falls down dead. You must've gotten in the way though, because instead the soul was knocked into you, and the other sould went to the nearest soulless body, you!" Henry looked proud of himself, with the look of a man that just solved a difficult puzzle.
"But can you fix it?" Lissa's voice came from Lon'qu, it's pitch covering his annoyance but doing nothing to hide his concern.
"Yeah! It'll be a little harder, but I'll get you back in a jiffy! Good thing you came to me so quick too, cus with the hex working all wonky like that, your souls might not've lasted long!"
With that, Henry recited the most ridiculous magic words either of them had ever heard, made a downward motion with his arm, and instantly both of them were knocked out.
"Wakey wakey!"
Lissa was greeting by Henry's chirping voice upon regaining consciousness. "Hey, can you do me a favor and say 'ahh'?"
"Ahh… Ah! That's my voice! I'm back!" She was instantly on her feet, jumping with joy and relief and she would've hugged Henry except he still kind of freaked her out a little.
At the sound of a low groan, Henry turned around.
"Ah, looks like he's up too! I guess neither of you died then…" Lissa followed his eyes to Lon'qu's lying form as he propped himself up with his elbow.
"Ugh. I feel like death."
"But you're not. So close!" Henry's inappropriate comments were all but ignored as Lissa launched herself at Lon'qu, causing him to quickly wriggle away.
"Did you hear that, Lon'qu? We're back! We're back to normal!"
"Get away from me!"
"You better not have done anything weird with my body, now!"
"You have no right to say that to me." Even as he spoke, he spotted Maribelle dashing for the tent, most likely having heard the rumors, and Lon'qu decided that one last dash through the camp wouldn't hurt at this point. "Explain to her for me!"
Before she could protest further, he was running away, leaving her to worry about her frantic friend.