I am apparently snowed in with requests! It's really awesome! Thanks guys! I love doing requests and challenge fics because I end up writing stuff I'd never have thought about on my own. The wonderful Schwarzeil requested a body-swap real world Bubbline AU, so pretty much completely different in every possible way from the last fic I wrote. This is also gonna be at least two chapters because I just couldn't do everything I wanted with it in one. So here is the first chapter. I solemly swear that I'll update 40 Weeks tomorrow night too, promise. I've just been stuck with a particularly tricky scene. But tomorrow, I give you my word.
Serious talk; there's some stuff in here that isn't terribly graphic but does imply at least a level of creepiness and mild sexual assault. So if that's triggering for you then I really suggest you don't read it, even knowing that retribution is pretty much instant in this case. Just, I'd hate to think anyone was triggered by reading something they weren't expecting, cause PTSD and stuff isn't a joke.
Content Warning: boobs, piercings, nudity, feels, unwelcome touching, injury, implied kinkiness, borderline partner abuse. This turned out more serious than I'd intended.
"I'm only doing this because I need to eat."
"Yeah, you said. Now be quiet and let me set up the equipment."
Marceline fell silent but she couldn't resist rolling her eyes, just a little. She wasn't strapped down but there were connection points on the chair, it looked decidedly kinky. Man science was weird.
"Do we have a safe word?" she asked after a few moments of silence.
"Ha ha. Yeah, your safe word is 'thanks for working it so I can be part of the paid experiment, so I don't have to sell all my stuff on Ebay again to afford food this month because I suck at money management and being an adult in any form'. Think you can remember that?"
"I'll paraphrase. If it gets too kinky I'll just say 'Bonnie's a smug butthole' and you'll know I need untying."
"Marceline, please. I need this experiment for my thesis. If I can prove that our brain patterns can influence each other through direct electrical connection-"
"Yeah you win some kinda fancy science award, I know. Do they have a 'Best Lab Rat' category? Cause I'd be an odds-on favourite to win that."
Bonnie just sighed and shook her head, still staring at the screen of the large and very sci-fi looking machine she had her friend hooked up to. Marcy tried to catch her eye and grin but the redhead was determinedly looking at her work and ignoring her. Marceline couldn't even have begun to explain what transcranial neurobiological signal transduction actually was but it involved her and Bonnie both being hooked up to a big machine and trying to guess what each other were thinking. It sounded pretty stupid and pointless but Marcy was getting paid for it and she'd blown most of that semester's student loan on tickets to a festival so she was grateful for the money even if it wasn't a huge amount. Whatever, when she was old and wrinkled she'd remember rocking out for an entire weekend much more vividly than what she'd eaten anyway.
"Right, we're nearly ready. We'll start with me and see if you can guess the objects I'm imagining. I'll run through a series of surreal objects, I won't tell you what they are. Just try to picture them too and see if you can pick up any idea of what those things are. Is that simple enough?" Bonnie asked after several long minutes of silence.
"Oh yeah, simple enough even for my feeble little musician brain to understand. You clever science woman, me stupid music woman. Duhrrrr."
"Remind me again why we're even friends?"
"You wanted someone with a car to move your stuff at the end of your first year and Finn helpfully volunteered me without asking first. It's entirely your dumb boyfriend's fault."
"Finn isn't my boyfriend, he isn't dumb and I bought you takeout and paid for your petrol so don't whine about me asking to borrow your car, you could have said no." Bonnie replied with a frown. "Now shut up, we've gotta start. I only have half an hour booked with this machine and it's taken like, half that time just to prepare." Bonnie sighed, exasperated.
"Anyone ever tell you that you're super bossy?"
"Nope. But I've been told I have good leadership skills so maybe you just have a problem with authority."
"Yeah right. I think the object you're thinking of right now is a pair of handcuffs and a spanking paddle, am I right?" Marcy grinned back at her. Bonnie turned an interesting shade of pink as she took her own seat opposite and attached a set of electrodes to her own head.
"I'm not going to dignify that with an answer."
"That is an answer."
"Do you have to have the last word every single time, Marceline?"
"Yep."
"You're impossible!"
"And I still have the last word. Are we starting?"
"Yes. Shut up and focus on what I'm thinking. I'm switching the machine on now."
"Shutting up."
Bonnie sighed again but didn't argue and flicked the switch to begin the electrical signal exchange. She tried to think of innocent objects but thanks to her friend's earlier comments she found the first thing she was thinking of was a pair of handcuffs.
"Handcuffs!" Marcy shouted triumphantly. "You're thinking about handcuffs! Whoa, I'm psychic!"
"That's a lucky guess because you were just talking about them! Try this instead."
She tried very hard to think about something else. Tennis balls. Yeah, they were innocent. Sorta looked like a ball gag though, and that wasn't innocent at all, it was actually pretty damn filthy-"
"Um, BonBon, your mind is disgusting. Could you not think about tying girls up and doing kinky stuff to them? This brings shoving your sexuality down my throat to a whole new level. I'll retaliate you know, start thinking about Ash and stuff." Marcy told her, blushing just a little.
"I'm thinking about tennis balls." Bonnie lied. "Oh my God, but this is working! What am I thinking now?"
"A big palace?"
"Yes! And now?"
"Uhh... Oh! Building a house with your weird brother!"
"Ned's a sweetheart, he's just really shy and introverted. And yes, building with Ned. Now?"
"Bats flying out of a cave."
"Right again! And now?"
"Dogs? Oh, that's not dogs, that's doggy style. Ew, you did that with that one armed chick from your course? She's so weird!"
"Sorry! Accident! I'll just think about something else."
"So much candy. Is that your ultimate fantasy or something? It's a wonder you have any teeth left. Ooh, brushing your teeth! Guess you do that like, four times a day? I bet you're wicked prone to cavities."
They continued in that way for another couple of minutes before something wholly unexpected happened.
Oh man what if she can hear my thoughts? Nah, she'd tell me, right? I'm sure she would. Gorgeous little nerd that she is.
"What?"
"What?" Marcy replied out loud, frowning.
"I mean, uh, what was the last one?"
"Oh. Grapefruit. With a tiny dog in the middle instead of one of the segments. You're weird."
And really hot. Dammit, why do you have to be hot? I was so comfortable just being straight.
"Right, I think we'll leave it there for today." Bonnie replied hurriedly. "I've got some time booked in here in a couple of days' time if you can come back and I'll try to guess what you're thinking. But these results are fascinating, I'm so happy!"
It was just as she was reaching to flick the machine off; there was a sudden flash of light and then the lab was plunged into darkness. In the same instant there was a stab of abrupt pain through the electrodes and both girls yelled out at the momentary agony.
"What happened?" Marcy asked, and for a split second she didn't realise anything was wrong. Then- "Wait, what?"
"That's-"
"My voice-"
"Put the lights on!"
"What the fuck did you do to me?"
The lights flicked back on. Redhead stared at brunette, panic beginning to grow on unfamiliar features.
"We... we've swapped bodies. Fucking hell. This can't be real!"
Next second the fire alarms were ringing and the brunette who'd previously been Bonnie grabbed Marceline's arm (her own arm, what the fuck?) and towed her from the room as the machine they'd been using burst into flames behind them.
"Something must have shorted inside the equipment! We've got to get outside and register with the fire staff, let them know we're safe."
By the time the fire engines came screaming around the corner the whole building was blazing, flames shooting up into the evening sky. No way was any delicate electrical equipment surviving that.
"My research..." Bonnie mumbled brokenly through her friend's lips.
"Never mind your stupid research, nerd. We're stuck like this." Marceline growled back in Bonnie's voice.
...
Hours later they sat huddled dejectedly on Bonnie's bed in her student room.
"I can't be you. I'm not a scientist." Marcy murmured for the hundredth time.
"I'm not wild about being you, you know. How do you even walk in these shoes? Your clothes are so tight! Why aren't you wearing a bra? What's the deal with these weird lumpy things in your shirt?" Bonnie shot back.
"They're called 'breasts', nerd. Most women have them, apart from you, apparently."
"Fuck off. I mean the weird lumpy bits on the end- wait, do you have nipple piercings?"
"If that's the most disturbing thing you can find on my body right now then imagine how much fun it'll be for you when you need to shower me. I've got piercings everywhere." Marcy replied. Her trademark impish grin looked weird on Bonnie's face.
"That's-"
She was going to say how gross that was, but then another problem abruptly presented itself. Marcy's phone started buzzing in what was now Bonnie's pocket.
"Answer it, it's probably Ash." Marceline told her.
"But-"
"Answer it!"
Reluctantly she put a hand that was a little longer than she was used to into unfamiliar jeans and slid out the phone, trying all the time not to notice that she was brushing unfamiliar and rather shapely hipbones too.
"Hello?" Bonnie asked nervously when she answered the call.
"Where the fuck are you? I've been standing here for like, an hour."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Tell him you're ill and you'll call him tomorrow and not to come over." Marcy hissed at her.
"I'm, uh, ill. I'll call you tomorrow, ok?"
"You sure babe? I could come over and-"
"No! No, it's fine. I'll call you tomorrow. Don't want you to catch this. I've got the squits." Bonnie added, a little maliciously. If Marceline was going to make her talk to her stupid boyfriend then the least she could do was use a really disgusting cover story.
"Urgh, that's gross. You're lucky you're so hot that I still wanna fuck you. Love you, babe."
"Uh, yeah, Bye then."
She hung up the line, avoiding Marceline's frown.
"He's gonna know something's up. I tell him I love him like, a million times a day."
"Well I don't. So sorry, it's difficult for me to say that even in your voice." Bonnie shot back defensively.
"Look, it's getting late. I should go home." Marceline sighed, too tired and weirded out still to care more about Ash feeling rejected.
"You can't go anywhere! I can't stay here in my room in your body! You need to stay here or my roomies will know something's up!" Bonnie told her with a frown.
"I'm not staying here! And I'm not staying over with you, they'll think we're hooking up in here!" Marcy replied, horrified.
"Stay here, just for tonight. I'll call around other universities, see if we can find the same equipment and try to reverse whatever this is. Unless you want to spend the rest of our lives being experimented on by excited neuroscientists?"
They'd already gone over the pros and cons of going to the hospital and explaining that something completely impossible had happened. Bonnie had immediately shot that idea down; the neuroscientists would have an absolute field day with them, she should know. Or they'd both be declared legally insane and be forced into a secure unit. Both scenarios were equally unappealing.
"Fine." Marceline sighed reluctantly. "I'll come over and get my car at first light and you better be able to reverse this. I'm not getting stuck being a ginger nerd forever."
"I don't want to be a heavily pierced sarcastic asshole forever either." Bonnie muttered sourly. She picked up Marceline's bag and immediately started packing some overnight clothes.
"What are you doing? I have clothes at home. And that's my body, you're not dressing it in your weird nerd clothes! I don't want your giant unsexy grandma panties rubbing up against my junk."
"Fine. Just, try to keep my body in the routine it's used to, ok? I get up at seven and I have a jog around the block, I do a little yoga and then have a light breakfast. Do not feed me anything with lactose in it unless you really want to deal with the situation that arises with my intestines when I fail to digest it. I'll see you tomorrow." Bonnie murmured. She shouldered the bag and grabbed a couple of books before disappearing out the door, leaving Marceline alone in an unfamiliar body.
"Right. One night as a nerd. I can do that." she muttered to herself. "First things first, this place looks like a dirty clothes bomb went off. Time to clean."
She was shoving things away wherever it looked like they might fit but a lot of Bonnie's stuff didn't appear to have a home, so in the end Marceline dragged everything out of her wardrobe and cupboards and set about rearranging it. She tried to sing while she cleaned but Bonnie's throat was uncooperative and she sounded reminiscent of a strangled cat so she stopped and switched the radio on instead, humming along quietly.
It was almost relaxing, organising stuff. She liked being organised and neat; it was what Marceline considered to be one of her few positive character traits. Of course she was cleaning someone else's room so she had no idea what she was going to find and when she pulled one of the drawers on the nightstand open she yelled in shock.
"Ew, what? What even is that? ...Is this some kinda harness?" she asked herself in surprise.
"Bon! You ok in there?" a voice called through the closed door. Oh man, roomies. She'd forgotten.
"Um, yeah, just got a fright. There's, ah, a spider in here."
To her horror the door opened and Finn The Most Annoying Boy Ever rushed into the room.
"Where? I'll get it, don't worry! Just sit on your bed and breathe calm, I got this!" he announced importantly, eyes scanning the room for the fictional spider. Ok, so Bonnie was afraid of spiders and got her roomies to rescue her from them? Would've been good to know that before.
"No, it's fine. It, um, it went out the window." she muttered, trying to block the still open drawer from view.
"But your window's closed." Finn replied with a frown. "What- oh. I'll, um, just let you, er, I gotta go. Bye."
Apparently she hadn't blocked the drawer well enough and he'd caught a glimpse of the exotic looking objects inside. Well now they'd both need therapy to get those images out of the brains. Beet red in the face and still stammering nervously Finn backed out of the room and disappeared. Marcy sighed to herself and closed the door behind him. She meant to close the drawer too but curiosity burned stronger than her admittedly feeble moral code and it wasn't really invading her friend's privacy, right? Not if it was looking at stuff that was used on the body she was currently inhabiting. She slid the bolt across the door, locking it to avoid any more interruptions, before going back to the drawer. She was blushing heavily but curious to see what else was in there.
...
Bonnie wasn't faring any better either. Marceline's apartment was tiny and she lived alone, after the large student household Bonnie was used to it felt like being stuck in solitary confinement. The freakish neatness of the bedroom and obsessively cleaned surfaces were unnerving her too so she'd tried to stretch into her relaxing yoga poses, only to discover that not only were Marceline's jeans the most constrictive items of clothing ever made but also that she had absolutely no flexibility. Annoyed, frustrated and more than a little creeped out Bonnie did the only other thing she knew would cheer herself up. She went to take a shower. But of course, that was weird too.
Turned out Marceline had been joking about the other piercings, which was a relief. She'd failed to mention the huge raven tattoo stretched across her chest though, that had been a shock. In fact stripping down and getting naked in her friend's body had been intensely weird, but Bonnie couldn't exactly avoid it. It was a human body; it had needs like being fed and cleaned, using the toilet and being clothed in things it was used to. The sensation of unfamiliar shapes moving under her clothes as she walked and limbs a touch longer than she was accustomed to had made it a very awkward walk back to Marcy's place. And the feel of lying on a bed both familiar and strange was decidedly weird. Her hair felt too heavy, longer than her own ginger locks and much straighter. It fell across her face in dark sheets if she wasn't careful and got in her eyes and mouth. Marceline must have completely donked her hearing listening to loud rock music too because Bonnie had almost be flattened by a truck she hadn't heard crossing the road.
And now she was standing in her friend's shower, trying to wash the body she was stuck in without staring at it in a creepy way which was proving difficult. It wasn't that she was attracted to her friend, it wasn't, she told herself over and over. It was just that it had been months since she'd seen a naked female who wasn't herself and Marcy hadn't been wrong when she'd pointed out in her oh so subtle way that Bonnie was significantly smaller in the chest department. And oh God they were right there and pierced and she was so very gay, it'd be weird if she didn't look just a little bit, right? And it wasn't like Marcy could avoid seeing her nude anyway, sooner or later she'd need to shower too.
So knowing that it was at best morally questionable Bonnie opened her eyes, intending to look down and maybe have just a quick peek at the body she was trapped in. Instead she screamed in shock because she was no longer alone.
"Hey gorgeous, knew you weren't really sick." Ash smirked, sliding into the shower next to her, incredibly nude with one arm moving rhythmically against himself. "Naughty little slut. You need to be taught a lesson about what happens to bad girls that lie to their men. Bend over and grab your ankles babe, tonight I'm gonna be your backdoor lover."
Large, masculine hands slid down her naked borrowed body and there was something absolutely repellent happening between his legs, Bonnie felt like she might be sick from how disgusting he was. And her self-defence instinct took over completely when her horrified brain worked out what he was implying.
Ash let out a bloodcurdling scream as her fist slammed heavily against his soft, vulnerable balls. He dropped to the floor of the shower like he'd been shot.
"KEEP THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME YOU DIRTY FUCKING PERVERT!" Bonnie screamed, incensed. Who the fuck just let themselves into their girlfriend's shower without asking and told them to bend over? How long had he been standing there watching her, touching himself? Fucking hell, he was so disgusting! She fled from the room, grabbing a towel on her way, and pulled on the pile of clothes she'd left on the bedroom floor in a state of blind panic. She'd just punched Marcy's boyfriend in the nuts hard enough to castrate him and left him crying on the shower floor. She was trapped in her hot friend's body and might never be herself again. She was stuck having definitely not platonic thoughts about the body she was currently trapped in, and she'd had intimate parts of that body touched by a disgusting naked man in a state of deeply disturbing arousal who apparently didn't see anything wrong with ordering his girlfriend to bend over and grab her ankles without asking if she wanted to first. Dressed and pulling on the first pair of shoes she could find, Bonnie grabbed the keys and bag and sprinted for the door.
"Get back here you little bitch! What the fuck is going on?" Ash yelled from where he'd managed to stumble through from the lounge. Too late, she slammed the door in his vile face and bolted away into the rain, heading instinctively for the place she felt safest; her own bedroom. She arrived breathless at her own front door a few minutes later and hammered against the wood, staring back over her shoulder in panic in case he'd followed her. But nobody was chasing her down the street, it was deserted. The door finally opened and thank God, Jake was blinking back at her. She threw herself on him in relief.
"Jake, oh God, that sick fucking pervert touched me and I hit him. He wanted to- I can't even say it, it's too sickening. Urgh I feel so gross! Is Marcy here? Please say she's here. I need to talk to her."
"Uh, hi. This is pretty weird. You are Marcy." he replied, stiff in her arms with shock. "What the hell happened? There's soap in your hair."
"I meant Bonnie. Is she here? I need to stay the night." she replied, mortified that she'd forgotten even for a second.
"BONNIE! GET DOWN HERE, WE'VE GOT A SITUATION!" Jake yelled over his shoulder. A minute later a familiar rusty coloured head peered around the staircase at them.
"Hey, I shoulda known. Come on up, we'll talk in your, erm, my room."
It was weird to hear her own voice without the feeling of her throat moving. Bonnie followed her own body back up the stairs to her own room, sat down on the edge of her own bed and burst into tears.
"Hey, what happened? Why is your hair leaking shampoo everywhere? Why is my sweater on backwards and inside out?" Marcy asked her quietly the minute the door was closed.
"I was in the shower and A-ash tried to t-touch me! He said he w-was gonna teach me a lesson and told me to bend over, so I punched him in the balls and I r-ran." Bonnie sobbed against her own shoulder.
Marcy just sighed heavily, guilt and horror swirling through unfamiliar guts. She should have warned her friend about him but that would have meant admitting to herself just how controlling and borderline abusive he was and she hadn't been ready to do that yet. He'd spent so long telling her she was stupid and worthless that she'd started to believe him.
"I'm sorry." Marcy murmured. "I guess I didn't see it until now. Did you hurt him? Tell me you hurt him."
"Yeah, pretty badly. I think he's probably infertile now. You've got really strong fists." Bonnie admitted quietly around her sobs. "Probably he'll be peeing blood for a few days. Something crunched down there when I hit him."
"Well that's a relief." Marcy replied, still feeling unbelievably guilty.
"I'm not going back there." Bonnie told her. It was weird to look into her own eyes and see how open and vulnerable the expression was in them. She'd never been open with her feelings.
"Stay here for the rest of the night then, I think you roomies already know something weird is going on."
So just for comfort, just because the whole evening had been so far beyond bizarre that they'd completely run out of cope or fight, they curled up in Bonnie's bed together. Because in a world where everyone thought they were someone else, each other, nothing felt right apart from being close together. And neither of them had any strength to be in denial about that any more.
"Hey, Bon?" Marcy asked sleepily, just on the right side of consciousness.
"Yeah?"
"Why've you got a draw full of kinky stuff?"
"Oh. You found those, huh? Cause, um, I'm a bit kinky sometimes."
"Ok. Just asking."
"Marcy?"
"Yeah?"
"Sorry I saw you naked. But you know what? You've got magnificent boobs."
"Thanks."
"I mean that objectively. As your friend. I've seen lots of boobs but yours are really good."
"Yeah, I'm pretty proud of those puppies. Now go to sleep nerd, you gotta figure out a way to switch us back tomorrow."
Bonnie went to sleep curled against her own shoulder and feeling a weight of contentment in her borrowed chest that she didn't want to examine too closely because she wasn't certain which of them it belonged to.