Hello! This is a short Fairy Tail fic, which I just blurted out an hour or so ago. It's open to continuation, if anyone wants more, though I can't really promise anything given by chaotic updating schedule (haha, like I even have one at all; I'm so sorry, lol). This is an AU of the episode "Changling" (episode 19), where Natsu & Loke, Lucy & Gray, and Ezra & Happy get body & magic-switched. This is kinda running from a headcannon that I've seen around the place, that it's painful for Loke to stay in the human world for so long.
Well, there you have it. Enjoy! (Hopefully!)
Loke blinks in confusion. The constant, persisting pain from staying too long in the mortal realm had... vanished. Which he knows is impossible. He's forbidden from- his train of thought breaks off as he hears himself scream.
His head jerks up and he sees himself, laying on the ground and writhing in agony, throat cracking and surely hurting from the sheer amount of screaming, limbs thrashing around like he's drowning, pupils covered by glasses blow wide from the violent and sudden sensation.
Loke hears gasps and concerned voices flood his ears. He notes absently, his shocked gaze still locked on himself, that his hearing is dulled, weaker than it should be.
"Na- I mean Loke!" Lucy-in-Gray's-body yells. "What's happening to him! Come on, you've got to help him!"
Loke is frozen, still reeling from the lack of pressure and pain, mind muddled and thoughts all over the place from the muffled senses.
"Snap out of it, N-Loke!" she-in-Gray's-body yells again. "LOKE!"
"Wha-" he breaks out of it like he's broken the surface of water, his eyes snapping to Gray-actually-Lucy's in a panic. "Right, right!"
He-who-looks-like-Natsu rushes over to Natsu-who-looks-like-Loke and drops to his knees beside him. "Move away!" he shouts wildly, and the concerned crowd obeys, but only slightly. "Right, okay, okay. Uh..."
He's lost, confused, his senses are muffled, and he thinks he might be going into shock, but he pushes through and takes a deep breath before preparing to detailing out the agony that Natsu-with-Loke's-pain is going through.
"Natsu! Natsu, can you hear me!" he says loudly, trying to catch the other's attention. He is successful, he's glad to note, as not-really-Loke's hazel eyes flicker towards him before he sees himself shriek in clear anguish. "Calm down, Natsu, and focus! I know that- that your head feels like it's going to burst, like your heart is beating so fast it's- it's trying to support you while your nerves are on fire, I know it's painful, but you have to listen to me!
"You have to focus, Natsu, focus on- on building a barrier between the pain and yourself! You can't stop the pain, Natsu, but you can beat it back!" he panics as his words seem to do nothing, as himself-who-was-actually-Natsu kept writhing, kept suffering, like he couldn't do anything to change his fate, couldn't do anything to stop his hurt.
"NATSU!" Loke-in-Natsu's-body shouts. "Natsu, you have to focus!"
He struggles, his guildmate- his friend, he corrects himself, is still thrashing around, no sign to say it was going to end and his body clearly getting tired of supporting him.
"Natsu..." he murmurs, his thoughts no longer tied down with shock and racing to find the answer. "NATSU!" he roars, the lion coming into his voice.
It strikes him.
"Build a wall of fire, Natsu! Beat it out with fire! Tame the pain, Natsu! Come on, you have to! Fire, Natsu!" he pleads with him.
Natsu-in-Loke's-body gasps in shuddering, agonizingly long breaths as his hazel eyes close and his body stills.
It's working, Loke-in-Natsu's-body almost smiles in sheer relief, the weight of panic lifting off his heart, his heart rate settling even as not-really-Loke's does.
Actually-Natsu's breathing calms but does not settle, and he struggles to sit up, his friends rushing to help him. He's still in pain, as is clear to the naked eye, but it's under control now.
As worried guild members stream past him, Loke sits back onto his heels and tilts his head to the rafters of the guildhall, his breathing calming itself but his senses still so muffled and muted and not-there.
"Loke?"
"Yeah?" he murmurs tiredly.
"What was that?"
Ice fills his veins.