A/N: Set after Small Talk and before Alien.
Being in the Justice League, John and Shayera were used to dealing with super villains. They were both also used to dealing with magical trouble, Shayera more so than John courtesy of her Nth metal mace. They were used to beating up said super villains. What they were not used to was getting taken down by a self-proclaimed warlock. Everything was going fine against the fight against Abra Kadabra until he managed to hit John with a blast and knocked him back into Shayera; managing to knock them both out cold. So now the couple were in the medbay with what was assumed to be concussions.
John felt odd when he woke up in the medbay. There wasn't really any other way he could describe it. John couldn't quite pinpoint it but something was wrong. He knew it even before he opened his eyes.
There was the soft sensation of hair on his forehead, which confused him because he knew for a fact he didn't have any hair. He lifted a hand to brush it away and ended up accidently poking himself in the nose but it didn't feel like his nose. It was a different nose.
He haphazardly moved the hair to get it out of his face and was meant with a quick stinging pain as he tugged a strand out by accident that had gotten intertwined around his finger.
Now truly perplexed, and more awake, John sat up, rubbing his eyes; another action that felt weird. All of this felt weird.
"What the hell?" he mumbled.
There were three things he immediately realized. One, that was not the tone of his voice. Two, his back felt weird and stiff. Three, the body he was looking down at was definitely not his.
John raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes at the sight. He saw his body sitting up in the bed next to him and looking at himself in shock. He was literally looking at himself. Well, his own body. He then looked down at the body he was in. With how familiar he was with the body it took him less than a second to realize he was in Shayera's.
"John, do you know what's going on?" Shayera asked as she got out of bed and turned towards him. When she saw her own body staring back at her she paused, swallowing roughly. "Um...that is you right John?"
"Yeah babe, it's me."
Shayera nearly cringed hearing that in her own voice. "What the hell happened?"
"I think Abra Kadabra must have gotten us," he answered. "He must've hit us with some kind of spell." John then ran a hand over Shayera's hair, which was now essentially his. "This is so weird. I mean, how do you deal with having long hair?"
Shayera rolled her eyes, "I'm going to go find Zatanna or Fate. One of them will probably know how to switch us back." She turned and was about to leave but then she heard a yelp, which was shortly followed by a thump. When she turned around her boyfriend was sprawled out on the floor.
A laugh left Shayera to which John growled at her to shut up.
"You can't even get out of bed," she teased as she continued to laugh.
"It's your damn wings," John complained. "How do you even balance yourself to stand or even walk?"
She laughed some more; she just couldn't help it. The Green Lantern's distress was amusing.
"Are you done cackling like a hyena?" John gave her an unamused look.
It was awkward looking down and seeing her own face but she brushed it aside as she helped John stand. The situation was so awkward she didn't know what else to do other than laugh.
"This is serious," Shayera said, a bit more laughter escaping with her words, making her remark paradoxical. "We need to get this fixed ASAP."
John lifted up a section of Shayera's hair, "First off, I'm getting this cut."
"Do not touch my hair," Shayera reprimanded, angrily pointing a finger at him.
"Fine, Rapunzel, I won't touch your silky locks," he sarcastically replied.
Shayera just gave him a look that told him to quit it. At least, John thought that was what it meant. It was odd seeing Shayera's facial expressions being made with his face. Her infamous glare wasn't as effective since it was now on his face and not her own. John wondered if that meant he didn't seem as threatening as his Thanagarian girlfriend.
She smirked before speaking, "First off, you need to learn how to walk."
"Do not."
"Do too, I don't need you to trip and injury one of my wings," Shayera paused. "Just lean slightly forward as you walk. You'll balance your weight better that way."
"Okay, whatever," John sighed. "Let's just try to find Zatanna or even Doctor Fate."
At the thought of finding one of the magic users, they both tried to leave the room at the same time. They bumped into each other and couldn't seem to get out of the other's way.
"Shayera, just move."
"No, you move."
"I am moving."
They tried going through the doorway at the same time again. This time John was so fed up with it that he grabbed Shayera's arm and stated, "Look, I'm smaller so I should get the right of way."
Shayera snickered, "That's pathetic. You just back up and let me out. Ladies first after all."
John conceded with a roll of his eyes, then promptly crossed his arms, and backed up.
Shayera turned her head towards him after stepping out, "See, was that so hard?" She then paused as she placed her hands on her hips and titled her head a bit to the side. "Am I really that short?"
John just groaned. "I can't believe this is happening to me," he mumbled to himself. "And don't do that."
"Do what?"
John let out an exasperated sigh as he gestured to where her hands were, "That! Putting your hands on your hips. Guys don't do that. I don't do that."
Shayera raised an eyebrow as she instead crossed her arms over her chest, "I might be in your body but that doesn't make me a guy."
"Can you please just pretend to be me in the meantime? This is emasculating."
They tried to make their way to the control deck of the Watchtower. However, their coordination was terrible, or rather John's was. John kept banging into things and a few times into Shayera, claiming that he wasn't used to the "damn, awkward wings" as he so eloquently put it. Once they had finally made it to the control deck the duo learned that Zatanna had been sent on a mission and there was no telling when she would return. Doctor Fate was also not an option as he was dealing with a mythical crisis in a whole other dimension.
They had to give up for the time being and were now in the rec area, trying to pass the time with attracting minimal attention to themselves.
"Why couldn't this bozo have just tried to kill us like any other super villain?" John asked with a scowl. He put his head in his hands. He was really hoping this would all turn out to be some awful dream.
"He's definitely got one hell of a sense of humor to use a spell like that," Shayera said with a chuckle. "I'll give him that."
John lifted up his head and deeply frowned, "There is absolutely nothing funny about this situation Shayera."
As if to argue a laugh had bubbled up from Shayera, like she was trying to hold it back.
"This isn't funny!"
"It's kinda funny when you think about it."
"In what way is this funny to you?" He glared at her.
Shayera sobered up a bit and answered, a smile on her face. "Come on John, I mean, I'm watching myself but it's you trying to act like me. I never knew I looked that threatening when I glared at someone. That and I'm way shorter than I thought I was."
John stopped to think about everything. He'd already dwelled on the awkwardness of this, far too much really, but he hadn't thought of it from Shayera's perspective. And then it was his turn to laugh. It wasn't long before their deep, uproarious laughter was echoing throughout the room By the time they managed to get a hold of themselves they were wiping a few tears from their faces.
John sighed and leaned back, "You know, maybe this situation isn't all that bad. When was the last time we laughed this much?"
A chuckle escaped Shayera, "I don't think we've ever laughed this much."
"Maybe we should thank that idiot rather than send him to prison," John joked. "At least we have some entertainment for the day."
"Nah, I still want to knock his block off next time I see him," Shayera said with a smirk.
"You're right," John agreed. "I want a piece of him too." As he leaned forward some hair fell in his face. "Dammit not again."
"What now?" Shayera asked.
John looked up. "Your damn hair is in the way." He stood up and declared, "That's it. I'm taking care of this."
"No, no, no, no, no!" Shayera also got up and tried to grab onto his arm.
When that didn't work she barred John's path as he tried to leave the room. John looked defiant; his feet shoulder width apart, his back straight, and his arms crossed. The only thing off about his stance was that he was clearly not used to having to look up at people.
"Shayera, get out of my way."
"Not if you plan on cutting my hair."
"I'm not going to cut it," John said exasperatedly.
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really, now move."
"No."
John growled in frustration. "Shayera." John tried stepping past her but Shayera got in front of him.
"Don't make me punch you John"
"Don't make me punch you. Remember I'm the Thanagarian now. I'm stronger than you."
Now they just glared at each other, their expressions set with determination.
"John, you're being ridiculous! It's not like you have to deal with my hair forever."
"You're ridiculous! Look I'm not going to cut your hair. I love you hair...just not when I have to deal with it. I was just going to get a hair tie," John explained. "This mess needs to be put in a ponytail." He gestured towards the bangs that had fallen in front of his face once again.
Shayera huffed, "Fine."
So maybe the ponytail hadn't been his best idea. John obviously had never put hair into a ponytail before and Shayera was currently laughing her ass off.
"Will you quit it? This is technically how you'd look with a ponytail, so you're laughing at yourself."
"But I'm still laughing at you," Shayera explained through her laughter. "I would never make a ponytail that bad."
John wished that Shayera would do something stupid so then he'd have something to laugh at.
"We should just go home and wait for them to tell us when Zatanna or Fate get back," Shayera suggested. "There's no point in us wasting our time up here. We'd be better off at home."
"True," John agreed. "We'd be out of the way at least. I mean if neither of them get back today we'd have to go home. I'd rather not stay up here and have more people than necessary find out what happened."
"Like Wally," Shayera snickered.
John chuckled, "Exactly."
The two had Mr. Terrific beam them back down to Detroit. At first John was thrown off when they were walking down the street to his apartment and he was met with multiple glares by people passing by. Then he remembered who's body he was in. That and the enhanced Thanagarian hearing meant he was picking up on many snide remarks being made about Shayera.
John sighed as he looked at Shayera. He hadn't seen her walk that confidently in public in years. Honestly, he couldn't blame her. Right now she was a regular human, not a disgraced Thanagarian. That and she was in the body of the highly esteemed and respected Green Lantern of Detroit.
Once in his apartment he saw her frown as she sat on the couch.
"Shayera what's wrong?"
"I'm sorry."
"About what?"
She swallowed, "I go through it every time I go out there. The glares...the comments."
John shrugged as he sat next to her, "Sticks and stones Shay. It was nice to see you not being so awkward in public though."
"I won't lie. It was nice to be able to walk around with people and not get those stares. For once in a long time no one hated me. It was like the old days when I was Hawkgirl."
"I can imagine how nice that must have felt."
Shayera shrugged, "It did but anyway I still want my body back. It feels really, really weird not having wings."
"You can gladly have it back. I just don't know how you deal with heightened senses on a daily basis. People not even talking loud sound like they're right next to me. Plus don't get me started on the wings again. Is your back always this stiff?" He asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"That's because you're tensing your muscles," Shayera said. "You're keeping the wings too rigid and that's straining all of your other muscles," she patted John's chest. "Relax the muscles in your chest first. Those pull on the shoulder and back muscles."
John sighed as he rolled his shoulders and then his neck. Eventually the wings drooped slightly, "That feels a bit better."
"You'd probably have to be in my body for a few days to get used to having wings and controlling all of the muscles. It's not something you get used to in an instant," Shayera looked down at the power ring on her hand. "How do you use this thing?"
John smirked, "Just because you're in my body doesn't make you a Green Lantern."
Shayera pointed the power ring towards the wall and raised an eyebrow, "It's not doing anything. What do you just concentrate?"
"Well yeah part of it is concentration. You need a lot of willpower to even get it to work."
Shayera looked at the ring again before pointing it at the wall. She frowned as she seemed to be thinking hard.
"Shay it isn't going to work. You're not-" A weak beam of green light hit the wall, putting a small hole in it. John's mouth just hung open as he looked at the wall, then back to Shayera, and then to the wall again.
"Oops," she quickly dropped her hand down.
John sighed as he shook his head, "I should have known. You're stubborn as all hell."
"I didn't mean to do that," she held her hands up in defense. "I honestly didn't think I could even get it to work."
"It's fine Shayera. A little spackle and paint and it'll be as good as new," he then paused and stood.
"What?" Shayera asked him.
"Get up for a second. I always wondered about something."
Shayera tilted her head as she stood, "About what?"
John didn't say a word as he used one hand to lift the side of the couch up. His eyes widened a bit. "It doesn't even feel like I'm lifting anything. It's like I'm lifting a piece of paper."
Shayera smirked, "Told you I was stronger than you."
"I know that but I didn't realize just how much stronger you were than a human. How much can you bench press?"
Shayera paused as she thought, "Normally I stay around two thousand but if I really push it I can do three thousand pounds."
"You can bench press over a ton?"
"Yeah," Shayera shrugged, "I still don't see what's so special about that. Honestly that's below average for a Thanagarian. I blame my petite build."
John sat back on the couch, "Comparing that to a human...that's like having super strength Shayera."
She sat next to him again, "I know but I just still find it so odd, even after all of these years. I mean I'm not Diana or Clark. Now that's what I consider to be super strength. They can lift buildings over their heads."
"You're still one of the heaviest hitters in the League Shayera. Behind Clark, Diana, J'onn, Captain Atom, and Orion you're probably the next strongest in terms of raw strength."
Shayera chuckled, "Flattering."
"I would kiss you but it's way too awkward."
Shayera shook her head, "Don't worry I get it. It would be like kissing yourself but not kissing yourself at the same time. I have no desire to do so either."
"Hey I just got back to the Watchtower and was told that you two need some magic help," Zatanna's voice suddenly came over their commlinks.
"Oh thank heavens," Shayera let out a sigh of relief.
"You have no idea how happy we are to hear your voice Zatanna," John said to her.
They heard Zatanna let out a light giggle, "Bruce told me. Don't worry I can get you guys switched back in no time. I need you both back at the Watchtower."
"You're sure this is going to work?" John asked Zatanna.
"Don't worry it definitely will work," Zatanna assured him. "Alright I need you to stand directly in front of Shayera."
John stepped in front of her and looked back at the magician, "This good?"
"Perfect, now stay still," Zatanna raised her hands in the air as they began to glow. "Seidob eht ot sluos eht etinuer dna hctiws." She then fired a beam at John that knocked him back into Shayera.
The two grunted as they both hit the wall behind them hard and then fell to the floor.
"Dammit Zatanna that hurt!" Shayera rubbed the back of her head but then immediately paused and looked down over her body. "It worked."
John sat up as he looked over his own body before looking over to see Shayera in her own body and he sighed, "Thank god it worked."
"Told you it would work," Zatanna stated with a smug smile.
John stood and rubbed the back of his head, "Nothing against you Shayera but I never want to switch bodies again."
Shayera nodded in agreement as she stood as well, "As fun as it was, I share the same sentiment."