AN: Thanks for your reviews, everybody! They make me more eager to write. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
"Jay, wake up," Lloyd said loudly. "Jay. Jay, hey!"
Kai closed his eyes tighter. Why wasn't Jay waking up? Maybe then Lloyd would stop talking, and Kai could get more sleep.
"Jay," Lloyd said again, and a hand shook Kai by the shoulder. "Jay!"
"Why are you shaking me, I'm not-" Kai began, then a coughing fit took him aback, forcing him to sit up and struggle to breathe.
"Oh man, still feeling bad, Jay?" Lloyd said.
That's when Kai remembered what had happened. For the moment, at least in his teammates' eyes, he was Jay.
"I'm fine," Kai croaked out. "What's up?"
"We're getting together for breakfast," Lloyd said. "A late breakfast, but yeah, breakfast. We thought you and Kai should sleep in a little because you weren't feeling well, but I think it's time to get up."
"I'm getting up," Kai grumbled, finally catching his breath. "Okay. Yeah, I'm up."
"Could you get Kai up too?" Lloyd asked, gesturing across the room to Kai's own bed, where Jay-looking-like-Kai still slept because it had been easier to follow what would normally happen than try to explain why they were switching beds for a night and break out coughing.
"Sure thing," Kai said, a smile creeping across his face.
Lloyd left the room, and Kai got up. Quietly, Kai slunk across the now-empty room, over to his own bed. He leaned in, right up against Jay's ear, and said loudly, "Hey!"
Jay bolted upright, his forehead smacking into Kai's.
Kai went reeling back, falling to the floor. "Ow!"
"Ow!" Jay said at the same time, rubbing his forehead. "What gives?"
"Just thought you needed to get up," Kai said, rubbing his own forehead.
"Well, I'm up," Jay said waspishly. "What's so important?"
"We need a plan to get everyone to know who we really are," Kai said, standing back up. "Acting like ourselves didn't work, so we need something new."
Jay thought for a moment. "Well, what if instead of acting like ourselves, we act like 'ourselves?'"
"What," Kai said flatly.
"Think about it. If we keep being our real selves, we might not get anywhere. What if we act like we are who we look like?" Jay suggested.
"How's that going to get anyone to figure out we switched bodies?" Kai asked.
Jay paused. "It… Probably won't."
"Yeah, no," Kai said. "We need a good plan."
"We had a good plan," Jay protested. "Be our real selves. It's not the plan's fault nobody's picking up on it."
"If the plan isn't working, it's the plan's fault," Kai said.
"No, if the plan isn't working, it's your fault," Jay said.
Kai raised his eyebrows. "Me? How is it my fault?"
"Because I know I'm following the plan, I'm good with plans, but you? You hate plans. You've never followed a plan in your life," Jay said.
"Oh yeah?" Kai challenged.
"Yeah," Jay said, raising his chin. "Name three times you actually followed a plan."
Kai opened his mouth. He paused. He closed his mouth. He thought for a while, then he opened his mouth again, saying, "Give me a minute."
Jay smirked.
"Okay, so I'm not the best at following plans, but I followed this one," Kai defended. "I did what we talked about. I was myself. That's what I'm best at."
"Yeah, it's what I'm best at too, but it's not working," Jay said.
Kai sat on his bed next to Jay. "And all the arguing in the world isn't going to make this plan work or make anyone figure out what happened."
Jay grinned slowly. "Or is it?"
"Are you ready?" Jay asked, hovering just outside of the dining room.
"Ready, not willing," Kai grumbled from next to him.
"It's not my favorite plan either, but it might work," Jay said.
Kai sighed. "Yeah. Okay. Let's do it."
Jay walked into the dining room, Kai right next to him.
"Morning, guys," Cole said as they neared the table.
"Morning," Kai said, walking right past Jay's seat and plopping down in his own.
"Morning!" Jay said as well, sitting in his own seat. "Good morning, good to be here, and good to be sitting right exactly here."
"Me too," Kai agreed.
"But that's not your seat?" Lloyd said slowly.
"Isn't it?" Jay asked.
"It isn't. Jay, aren't you going to make him sit in his own seat?" Lloyd asked, looking at Kai. "You're usually the one who puts up a fuss when somebody sits somewhere else."
Kai shrugged. "That doesn't sound like me."
"That sounds a lot like you," Lloyd said.
"Exactly like you," Nya added, looking annoyed.
Kai just shrugged again. "What's for breakfast?"
"Zane made waffles," Lloyd said, obviously trying to sound casual about it even as he bounced a little in his chair. "He should be in any minute now."
"Nice," Kai said.
"Any minute now," Lloyd said again. "Aaany minute now."
"Not like you're excited about it or anything," Kai teased.
Before Lloyd could refute that, Zane came in, setting a tray of waffles down in the center of the table and sitting in his seat.
"There we go!" Lloyd said, immediately grabbing his green plate and cup from the stacks in the center of the table.
Cole, Nya, and Zane also took their color-coded plates and cups.
Kai waited until each of them had their things, then he said loudly, looking down at the remaining plates and cups, "Oh man, my favorite color is left!"
"Mine too!" Jay said loudly.
"Of course," Zane said, sounding confused. "We each have our color reserved."
"Doesn't mean I can't be excited about it," Kai said, and with a grand gesture of both arms, he reached out and grabbed the red plate and cup.
"Yeah!" Jay said, grabbing the blue plate and cup. "Blue is the best color ever!"
Lloyd dropped the waffle he had been transferring to his plate. It landed on the floor.
"Wrong," Kai said. "Red is the best."
Nya frowned. "Are you two feeling all right?"
"Never better," Jay said. "Except that somebody won't admit blue is completely and totally better than red in every way."
"Kai, did somebody put you up to this?" Cole asked, looking at Jay.
"Not me," Kai said. "After all, red could never be beat by blue."
"Not a chance," Jay said. "Blue would win every time."
"Are you sure you are both feeling all right?" Zane asked.
Kai didn't even answer him. "Please! Red is best, blue is boo."
"That's the best you can come up?" Jay asked. "Ha! Blue is best, red is dead."
"More like red rules," Kai retorted, ready to keep going for as long as he needed to.
As it turned out, that wasn't long.
"Something's wrong here," Cole said. "Jay liking red? Kai liking blue? That's not right."
"I know," Nya said. "And they were acting weird last night too, not just the coughing, other things too."
"I noticed as well," Zane said.
"Kai, Jay, why aren't you telling us what's going on?" Lloyd asked.
"We want to," Kai said.
"But-" Jay began, and he shrugged.
"But you cannot, somehow," Zane said.
Jay and Kai beamed at each other.
"Something's wrong," Cole said again. "Something's really wrong."
"Okay, this might be really off, but I have an idea," Nya said. "Jay's acting a lot like Kai, isn't he? And Kai's acting a lot like Jay, right?"
Jay closed his eyes, and Kai did the same, hoping against hope.
"Maybe…" Nya said, her voice trailing off. "No, that can't be."
"Say it!" Kai said.
"Please!" Jay added.
"Maybe they aren't themselves," Nya said.
"Of course they aren't acting like themselves," Lloyd said.
"That's not what I mean," Nya said. "Maybe they aren't just not acting like themselves. Maybe they aren't themselves. Maybe they're… Each other."
Kai's eyes flew open and he stood from his seat. "Yes!"
"We did it!" Jay exclaimed, jumping up. "We couldn't say it, but we got them to say it."
"That's true?" Nya said, sounding faint.
"It's true, we-" Kai began, but he started coughing again.
"And every time they began to tell us, they broke out into coughing," Zane realized. "Each time they coughed last night, they were attempting to communicate."
"We did it, we did it," Jay chanted. "We did it, we did it!"
"Kai and Jay are each other?" Lloyd asked. "Like, they switched minds or something?"
"Or something," Cole said, looking a mix of horrified and impressed. "Now what?"
Kai and Jay paused. They looked at each other.
"We hadn't really thought that far," Jay admitted. "We just thought we'd give hints and get help, you know?"
"And you gave plenty of hints," Lloyd said.
"Which means now it's time to give you help," Nya said, then she raised her eyebrows. "Well, now I'm glad I was a little mad at Jay. I mean, I'm glad I was mad at Kai-who-looks-like-Jay."
"Why are you glad?" Jay asked.
Nya smirked. "Because that meant I didn't give him a good morning kiss."
Kai was quiet and still for a second, absorbing that. Then he broke out in motion and sound, waving his arms in front of him and exclaiming, "Ew! Oh, EW!"
"Yeah, that's Kai," Nya said with a laugh.