Kai groaned, his eyes fluttering open, then closed, then open again. Something squeezed around his hand, and a tightness squeezed around his chest. He looked up at the night sky, squinting in thought as he tried to figure out what had just happened. There had been a chase, but that wasn't too unusual for them, and a criminal, which wasn't unusual for them either, and a-
A coughing and a choking and a passing right out of consciousness, and, and, and Jay!
Kai sat bolt upright, trying not to freak out and looking to his side to find Jay where he had been when they had both passed out.
He didn't find Jay.
Jay wasn't there.
But something was still squeezing his hand.
Kai looked to his other side, and found…
Himself.
Kai was staring at himself.
Kai gaped at the person who lay next to him. He certainly looked like Kai, with a red ninja outfit, spiked-up brown hair, and a scar across his face. But if that other person was Kai, or at least looked like Kai, then where was Jay, and what-
Kai looked down at himself and saw a blue ninja outfit. His hands flew to his head, and Kai felt around his own face and hair, feeling for a familiar scar and spikes of hair.
But it wasn't his own. It was Jay's. Instead of a scar and spiky hair, Kai felt smooth skin and slight curls.
Kai barely held it together at this point. He fought free of the hand clutching his and patted down the pants he was wearing that weren't his, pulling out a phone from one of the pockets. It was Jay's phone, but Kai couldn't freak out about that. There was too much already to freak out about. Kai tried to unlock the phone, but he didn't know the password. Thinking quickly, he swiped up to get the camera going and tapped the button to turn the view around and-
And there it was, in selfie view.
Jay's face stared back at Kai.
"Oh no," Kai said, but it was Jay's voice that said it.
A voice came from beside Kai. "What's-"
Kai turned and saw himself sitting up, looking around blearily. The person who looked like Kai glanced to one side at Kai, then the other side, then the first side again, then froze staring at the real Kai.
"Jay?" Kai asked, and again it wasn't his own voice that came from his throat but rather Jay's.
"You're me," the person who looked like Kai said. "What- I-"
"Don't freak out," Kai said. "Jay, don't freak out, okay? It's me, it's Kai."
"You're not Kai," Jay said accusingly, gesturing wildly at Kai with one arm. "You're-"
Jay froze again. He was looking down at his gesturing arm… And at the red sleeve that surrounded it.
"I'm Kai," Kai said carefully. "And you're Jay, right?"
"Of course I'm Jay," Jay said, looking down at the rest of his body. "Why am I- I mean, who are-"
"I'm Kai," Kai said again, sparks of annoyance cutting through his concern. He shoved the annoyance down with practiced ease. "If you're Jay, then you have curly hair and you don't have a scar on your face, right?"
"Of course," Jay said. "Duh."
"Feel your hair and your face," Kai said.
"Why would I-" Jay began, flinging up his arms.
One of his hands brushed a spike of hair on his head.
Jay froze a third time. Then, quickly, he grabbed at his head, feeling around at the skin and hair there.
"Yeah," Kai said, sighing. "That's what got me too."
"I need a mirror," Jay said faintly, still cupping his face.
Kai held out Jay's phone, the camera still open on it.
Jay took it and held it up in front of himself. He tapped at it a few times, he stared at it for a long moment, then he turned slowly to Kai. "...Kai?"
"Jay," Kai returned.
"Did we just switch bodies?" Jay asked, sticking his phone in his pocket.
"I think so," Kai said.
"Okay," Jay said calmly, so calmly that it kind of unnerved Kai. "Okay. That's cool. That's cool, I guess. Uh. Okay. I'm going to freak out now."
"Don't-" Kai started.
"We switched bodies!" Jay shrieked, flinging his arms out to his sides. "Kai, this is so freaky! What do we do? How do we-"
"Don't freak out!" Kai interrupted. "We need to figure this out!"
"How can we figure this out?! We're hooped! Don't you get it? Kai, we're in the wrong bodies, we're so hooped!" Jay shrieked.
"Yeah, so we need to stay calm and figure this out!" Kai yelled back. "And I can't do that with you screaming at me!"
"Don't scream at me, then!" Jay yelled, then he started coughing and didn't stop for far too long.
Kai stepped closer to him, patting him on the back and fighting off a coughing fit of his own. "Breathe, Jay, breathe."
They both quieted, their lungs heaving for air in twin gasps.
"Okay," Jay said after a long few moments. "Okay. I think I can breathe now. Wow. Okay. Whatever just happened to us, it's definitely screwing up how well we breathe."
"I think so," Kai said. "My chest feels like something's stomping on it every time I try to take a breath."
"So, we're struggling a little to breathe, that's not good. And we're in each other's bodies, that's really not good," Jay said.
"Thanks for summing that up," Kai said sarcastically. "Any other big observations you want to make?"
"That," Jay said, pointing. "He's gone."
Kai looked where Jay was pointing. Sure enough, the criminal they'd been chasing was no longer dangling from the lamp pole, and not even his hat or his box of things remained on the ground.
"Where did he go?" Kai asked. "I don't think we were out for long enough for him to escape, were we?"
"I don't think so," Jay said, fishing out his phone and taking a look at its screen. "Yeah, we couldn't have been out for more than fifteen minutes or so. So how did he get away?"
"Look," Kai said, stepping closer to the lamp pole. "Look at this."
Jay stepped closer too.
Attached to the lamp post was a piece of paper.
Jay reached out and took the paper off of the pole, scrutinizing it. "This wasn't here before. And it's-"
"It's a note," Kai interrupted, snatching the paper from Jay and holding it up. "It says-"
"That's what I was going to say," Jay said, tugging at the paper in Kai's hands. "Let me-"
"Quit it," Kai said, swatting at Jay's hands.
"No, I had it first!" Jay protested.
"I saw it first," Kai countered.
"I noticed the guy was gone first," Jay said, still tugging.
"And I woke up first," Kai said, still swatting.
"Because I passed out first from coughing first, and I would've woken up first, but you're. In. My. Body!" Jay argued, giving one more tug at the last word.
The paper ripped directly in two.
Jay and Kai staggered back from the force they had been putting against each other.
"Oh," Jay said, recovering. "I didn't think that would-"
"Me neither," Kai admitted. He was still for a moment, then he stepped closer to Jay and held up his half of the paper in offering.
Jay held up his half in turn, stepping closer and fitting his part of the paper against Kai's.
As one, they read out loud. "Dear Kai and Jay."
"How does this guy know our names?" Jay asked.
"Maybe if we read more than the first sentence, we'll find out," Kai said sarcastically. He kept reading out loud, and Jay hurried to join him.
"This meant as a lesson to you," Kai and Jay read together. "I hope this somewhat spirited mystery of how you ended up like this and how you might go back will bring you closer together."
"We're close," Kai interrupted himself. "I'd say we're close."
"Me too," Jay said, gesturing between their bodies, which were crammed close together to hold the paper pieces together. "We're only a few-"
"Don't even finish that joke," Kai said. "I think it means not physically but, you know. As friends."
"But we're not friends," Jay said. "We're ninja. We're brothers. We're close."
"Agreed," Kai said, slinging his arm not holding up the paper piece around Jay's shoulders. "Let's keep reading."
Together, they continued reading, "When you know, you'll know."
"And that means…" Jay said.
Kai shrugged.
"And that's it," Jay said, disappointed. "All that's left is the guy's name in all capitals. Emos. That's a weird name. We don't have any enemies with the name 'Emos,' do we?"
"Not that I know of," Kai said. "Maybe we could ask everybody else?"
Jay gasped. "Everybody else!"
"Yeah, that's what I said," Kai said.
"No, I mean, we need to tell them we're in each other's bodies. They can help us figure all this out. We'll be back in our bodies in no time!" Jay said, cheery for the first time since waking up.
Kai grinned. "Actually, that could work great."
Jay grinned back and unmuted his comm. "Hey, everybody!"
"Hey, Kai," Lloyd said. "Did you and Jay catch the guy and get the evidence? Are you on your way back?"
Jay paused, thinking of how to put it. "Uh. No."
"No?" Lloyd repeated. "No, you're not on your way back?"
"No, we're not on our way back," Jay said. "And also, no, we didn't catch the guy, and also, no, we didn't get the evidence. And also, no, I'm not-"
He was about to say "No, I'm not Kai," but he burst out into a coughing fit instead.
Kai slapped him on the back and turned his own comm on.
"What he's trying to say is, I'm-" Kai began. Then he started coughing too.
"Oof, you guys doing okay?" Cole asked.
"Your coughs sound exceptionally persistent," Zane noted, sounding concerned. "Are you both all right?"
"Fine," Jay managed to gasp, gaining control over his coughs. "Fine, except we're both-"
He tried to continue to tell them that they were in each other's bodies, but then he started coughing again.
"You two should get back to base," Nya said worriedly. "You don't sound too good, no wonder you didn't catch the criminal. We're all on our way back to the Destiny's Bounty already, but we can turn around and come get you if-"
"We'll be fine," Kai wheezed out. "We're fine. We'll see you back."
He muted his comm, gesturing to Jay, who hesitated a moment then did the same.
"We're probably just still freaked out, right?" Jay asked, coughing one more time. "That's got to be why we're coughing so much."
"Probably," Kai agreed. He cleared his throat. "Let's head back. We can tell them everything when we reach the Destiny's Bounty."
Jay nodded slowly. "Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that should work. We'll tell them everything and they'll help us get back to normal and everything will be fine."
"Uh-huh," Kai said, trying to sound confident and mostly succeeding even though he wasn't confident in the slightest. "Everything will be fine."
AN: Because saying that certainly doesn't jinx it or anything, Kai. Let me know what you thought of this chapter!