AN: Hey everyone. I am back to continue beating the dead horse known as Soul Swap! Hehe, please don't hate me; Soul Swap just so happens to be my favorite project. Plus, it just so happens to be my second most viewed story and most viewed Mario story. With that accolade under its belt, that gives me a perfect excuse to do this! Right?

Ahem.

Now, in terms of continuity, this story takes place between chapters 21 and 22 of Soul Swap, which will dictate how I label the chapters. This will show more of the journey that Lemmy and Ludwig experience. Now, it isn't required reading to understand the rest of Soul Swap, but it will help somethings make more sense and fill in some of the blanks in the story. Hopefully. If it doesn't, we all can consider it non-canon.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 21.01 Can We Go Shopping?

Walking with shorter legs was for the birds. Seriously! He had walked up to his room from Kamek's study thousands of times, and the time never dragged this much before! Keep in mind, Ludwig didn't experience any distractions on the way up, as he more or less kept his mind focused entirely on reaching his destination. Regardless, it felt gratuitous. He really wanted to check the clock in his bedroom to see how much time had passed, because to him it felt like a million years. At least.

When he finally got to his bedroom, he walked in with an air of impatience. He was ready to sleep this day away. Really, what else could he do? Any activity that was available to him would just serve as a stinging reminder that he was in Lemmy's body. Really, he didn't need that. He was already perfectly aware of the body swap. Too aware; he wished that he could forget about it entirely. And what was the only activity that would allow him to do that?

Sleeping.

He dragged himself over to his bed, flopping himself down on top of his mattress. He let out a pretend snore. There wasn't any particular purpose in doing that, he just wanted to feel that much closer to the ignorance bestowed upon him in the Dream World. Everything that he wanted to do he could do after a healthy sleep session.

"Hey Ludwig."

Ludwig shrieked. He jumped up from his bed, his new body already producing a round of cold, striking sweat. He lowered his guard when he saw that it was just Lemmy. The second eldest looked at him in curiosity.

"How did the meeting with Kamek go?"

"Swimmingly," Ludwig scoffed.

Lemmy chuckled. "Swimmingly. Good word."

Ludwig nodded before grunting. "I think now would be a good time to swap our voices back."

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, just give me a second." He reached into Ludwig's hammerspace and pulled out his scepter. "Voce transferia." Just like before, the lights swirled around them, so bright that they were blinding.

When they cleared, Ludwig actually smiled and let out a happy breath as he put his hand to his throat. "Ah, it's so comforting to hear myself talk with my own voice."

Lemmy giggled, the sound fluttery. "I couldn't agree more." He leaned in closer. "Seriously though, what did Kamek want?"

Ludwig felt a wave of embarrassment. "He, uh…he knows about the swap now."

Lemmy blinked. "He does?"

"Yeah, he figured it out when…" Ludwig seized up, realizing that his brother was completely unaware of his attempt at kicking him out of the bedroom and into the dungeon. "Uh…" Crap, what should he say? "He, uh, he found out when he found you in the music hall." A lie, and a bald faced one at that. However, Ludwig was NOT going to let Lemmy know that he was to blame. He would never hear the end of it, and his ego was already bruised enough as it is.

"Oh." Lemmy's face fell. "I'm sorry Ludwig, I really didn't mean…"

"Save it," Ludwig said. He hoisted himself up onto his bed. "I've already tired myself out by yelling; I don't need a reason to do that again."

Lemmy nodded, his face sad. "Okay." His guilty tone and expression actually rubbed off on the eldest Koopaling. He considered telling the truth, if for no other reason than to not have to look into his own guilt-ridden face. Ultimately though, he decided to keep his mouth shut and get under the covers. Rest was so close that he could taste its sweetness.

"Are you gonna take a nap?" Lemmy asked.

"No, Lemmy, I'm going to find a solution to world hunger. Of course I'm gonna take a nap!" He shook his head as he lowered it onto the pillow. "Being you is exhausting; I need as much rest as I can get."

"Okay," Lemmy whispered. He backed off to his own cluttered side of the room, sitting himself down on the bed gingerly.

Ludwig closed his eyes. Sleep was such an inviting prospect. While sleeping, not only could he escape from being Lemmy, but he could also escape from the fact that Lemmy was him. Seriously, Ludwig really didn't want to think to hard about that fact. Lemmy was so undeserving of Ludwig's name and titles, as well as undeserving of piloting such a handsome body.

He stayed in the same lying position for about three minutes. Sleep tended to come easily to Ludwig, so he fully expected himself to clonk out quickly. However, he didn't do that. He certainly wanted to, but he couldn't. There was just one little detail that was preventing it.

"Oh dear word." Ludwig sat up, putting his hand to his mouth as he did.

"What is it?" Lemmy asked.

"Your…your mouth." Ludwig almost threw up right then and there. "It…" he swallowed a lump. "It tastes nasty!"

Lemmy's face turned red. "N…nasty?" He asked.

"Yeah!" Ludwig gagged. His stomach gurgled while twisting itself into knots at the same time. "I can taste every meal you've had in the last week!" He felt around with his tongue, but immediately regretted doing that. "Ugghhh, there's stuff in between yout teeth too!" He swallowed a batch of vomit. "How is it possible for someone's mouth to be this gross!"

Lemmy's face turned an even deeper shade of red. "I'm…I'm really sorry." He chuckled slightly. "I guess now you've just had a moment of tooth?"

Ludwig groaned. "Okay, now I'm gonna throw up for two reasons." He hopped out of his bed. "I can't sleep under these conditions. What are we gonna do about this?"

Lemmy hesitated, his eyes darting back and forth. "Uh…" he snickered. "Maybe you could try brushing my teeth?"

Ludwig glared at him. "Wow. Why didn't I think of that? I marvel at your genius, Lemmy." He crossed his arms. "Obviously, I need to brush your teeth! But I can't exactly DO that without a toothbrush, now can I?" He gagged again. "I think now would be a good time to get those new toothbrushes we talked about."

Lemmy perked up. "Ooh! I guess that means we get to go on a shopping trip!"

Ludwig snorted. "I'm sorry, 'we?' What makes you think you're coming?"

"Because it could be a lot of fun!" He bounced out of bed, grinning from ear to ear. "We never get to do things together!" He embraced Ludwig in a hug.

When Ludwig spoke, his voice was dark and dangerous. "Lemonade, let go go of me right this instant." Lemmy let him go, which allowed him to give his brother a grumpy glare. "Do you seriously think I'm going to unleash you out onto the public in while you're in my body?"

"Unleash me?" Lemmy put his hands on his hips. "What am I, a hungry animal?"

Ludwig sharpened his glare. "You certainly have the hygiene of one," he grumbled.

"Hey!" Lemmy took a step forward. "Just because I don't do my hair like you do. Or take showers like you do. Or…do anything like you…DOES NOT mean that I'm unhygienic! It just means I have my own way of doing things!"

"Yeah, well, your way of doing things has left me with nasty as all hell teeth and breath that is borderline halitosis! You know what word we use to describe stuff like that, Lems? The word disgusting."

Lemmy shrunk back a little, clearly affected by Ludwig's words. The oldest didn't know if it was just because he was in his body, but he actually felt kind of bad for Lemmy. So, he changed topics.

"But that's neither here nor there. If you go out in public looking like me, people are going to have certain…expectations. You can't just wander around willy nilly, doing your own thing."

"I won't!" Lemmy looked at his brother with pleading eyes. "I promise that I'll be on my best behavior! I'll do everything exactly the way you would do it!"

Ludwig sharply exhaled. "Talk is cheap, Lemmy. I know you, and I also know that you nearly killed Wendy less than twenty four hours ago." He glared. "Tell me, was that you on your best behavior?"

Lemmy's brow furrowed. "No. It wasn't. That wasn't on purpose, and besides, that was when I was alone. With you by my side, there will be a lot less ways for me to screw up!"

Ludwig blinked. That was true. Still, it didn't get rid of the uneasiness that the world would see Lemmy as him. Lemmy could potentially damaged Ludwig's reputation to the point of no return. He had already come dangerously close to doing that yesterday. The thought that he could cross the line this time did not enthuse Ludwig in any sort of way.

"Please, Ludwig!" Lemmy begged. He placed his hands on his shoulders. "I promise I'll be good."

Ludwig bit his lip. Oh, darn it. Lemmy wasn't going to let this go, was he? Who knows how much he would badger Ludwig to let him join his brother on the shopping trip? And if Ludwig left right then and there, he would be subjected to Lemmy's puppy dog eyes and pouty faces when he got back. Ludwig didn't even want to imagine what that would look like on his face.

Ludwig sighed. "Fine."

Lemmy's face lit up. "Really?" He embraced Ludwig again. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Ludwig grit his teeth. "What did I say about hugging?"

Lemmy sheepishly let go of Ludwig. "Sorry." He giggled. "Oh, this is so exciting!" Ludwig could actually see the shivers running down his arms. He didn't exactly know how to feel about that.

"Sure, that's the word we'll use: 'exciting.'" He went over to his nightstand table and fished his wallet out of the drawer. He turned toward the door, and Lemmy followed suit.

"Wahoo! Let's a go!" Lemmy exclaimed, quoting the Koopalings' arch nemesis. He was just about to make his way out when Ludwig stopped him.

"Wait." He pointed toward the wand on Lemmy's bed. "Before we leave, we need to do the voice transfer spell again."

"What? Why?"

"Because. I have a certain image I present to the public, and my voice is one of the ways that I get it across." He shook his head. "On top of that, I also don't want people to hear our voices swapped. That might help them figure out what happened to us, and the swap will be all over the news and social media. I definitely don't want that to happen."

"Hmm," Lemmy said. "Yeah, I don't want that to happen either." He made his way over to his bed and picked up his wand. "Voce transferia." When the light cleared, Lemmy let out a little squee. "Oh, this is going to be like a roleplaying experience! We're gonna have so much fun!" He almost put his foot outside the door when Ludwig stopped him.

"Lemmy," he said seriously. "If you make me regret this, you're going to regret this."

"Noted," Lemmy said. He gestured for Ludwig to follow him. "Come on, let's go!"

Ludwig took a deep breath. Once he let it out, he took his first steps out the door. He didn't know what this trip would bring, but he hoped for the sake of his image and sanity that it went well.