Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron.
A/N so I was completely unaware that there was a kallura/plance week prompt that was called "Body Swap" for the same day that I posted this story... In fact this has been sitting in my drafts since the day after Season 7 aired. I just wanted to get it posted before Season 8 came out and ruined it, like the new seasons have done for every single story I've written for these damn ships. Anyway, on to the show!
Part Two
Someone was screeching - Pidge's body, specifically - but no one knew who was in which body.
"Okay!" Allura's body shouted, causing everyone to look at her - Pidge's body's weird scream halting in the process. Allura knew she wasn't in her own body, because it appeared she was in Keith's body. It was strange hearing her voice without any inkling of her Altean accent, in fact the way that her voice flowed reminded her so much of the owner of the body in which she was inhabiting that she already knew deep down who was in there. She met her own eyes and her body sighed. "Stay calm, everyone. Let's sound off: Keith here."
Pidge's body gasped in shock and her face quickly morphed into a scowl as she replied, "Lance here!"
Hunk's body looked at Pidge - well, Lance - and groaned, "Pidge here."
"Hunk here?" Lance's body stated.
Everyone looked to her and she sighed as she raised her - Keith's - hand and spoke with her typical inflection in Keith's husky tones, "Allura here."
"That's not fair!" Lance exclaimed while flailing Pidge's short arms. "Why do you guys get to switch directly while we were all mixed up?!"
"I suspect it's because they were touching and we were all touching each other but not them when we landed on that flower," Pidge replied as she went to open her computer. When she realized the screen was yellow and not full of her usual calculations, she groaned and gave a pointed glare towards her own body. Lance caught sight of her glare and immediately hustled as fast as his now-shorter legs could take him and lifted up his arm so Pidge could work, though she had to bend down to close the rest of the distance. As fingers flew across the borrowed screen, she continued, "It seems it was the pollen we inhaled that caused us to switch bodies. I'm not finding anything yet in my scans that's on this planet and will help us switch back any time soon."
"What are we going to do?" Hunk groaned, which sounded more like a whine coming from Lance's body. "We can't stay like this forever!"
"Easy for you to say, Hunk, I'm in a girl's body!" Lance replied with so much disdain that it caused Pidge to smack him on the back of the head.
"I don't have it much better, numbskull."
"You just wacked yourself in the back of the head!"
"Yeah, well since it's you I'll live-"
"Calm down!" Keith shouted, coming out more of a snippy hiss in Allura's voice. She cringed at the shrillness of the tone and wondered if that's what she sounded like when she shouted, as well. After a deep breath, he relaxed his face and said, "Let's focus on getting out of here first and back to the lions. Does anyone have a twenty on them?"
Allura looked up towards the cliff they had fallen from and through the trees she could faintly see the Red Lion's tail dangling over the edge of the cliff side. With Keith's eyes, she could see the details much more sharply, and she attributed it to his Galra heritage basically giving her night vision in the darkness that surrounded them. "I have a twenty on the Red Lion."
"How far did we fall?" Keith asked her.
"Far enough that I would be certain that with my own eyes I would not be able to see Red's tail," she replied, then turned to look at Keith - well, herself. She was certainly going to get mixed up real quick. "I had no idea your eyesight was so strong. Why didn't you say anything before?"
Her body's cheeks turned red in embarrassment - something Allura also noticed was weird considering it was Keith really blushing - and he said, "Maybe your eyesight is just bad. I can barely see you guys, even with my visor."
"Alteans have a harder time adjusting to darkness than most," she commented as he approached her with a deep frown. "Most of the time, it's a nonissue but it does become cumbersome when we're in the darker bases of the Galra, which now I understand why they are so dark in the first place."
Pidge sighed and closed the screen on Lance's arm. "I'm going to need to take a sample of the pollen and run a diagnostic on its properties. Then I'll have to run it against the compiled compendium in the Castle of Lions's archives and see if there's anything in this galaxy that we could use to reverse the effects."
"That or Space Google it and see if anyone else has had this problem," Hunk spoke up. To be honest, hearing Lance's voice speak with Hunk's typical rhythm was starting to throw Allura off. She wouldn't doubt everyone else was feeling the same way, most of all between her and Keith speaking with their accents in the wrong bodies. "I'm sure there's a Space Yahoo Questions, right?"
Keith sighed, a heavy and exasperated sound, and he said, "Listen, we need to focus. First, let's get that sample. Then we need to finish our mission. Caldurn's home planet isn't too far from here. Let's get that taken care of and then hurry back to Earth so we can fix this."
"I second that," Lance stated as he crossed his arms. After a few moments of awkward adjusting of the positioning, he nodded with finality and said, "Let's go?"
The paladins all nodded, as well, and activated their jet packs. Though wobbly, they all managed to lift off without too much hassle - except for Keith, who seemed to have forgotten about Allura's super strength and with his push-off launched himself too fast and ended up almost crashing into a tree.
"Hey! Don't break my body!" she shouted at him.
He growled and replied, "Maybe you should have reminded me that you're freakishly strong and that wouldn't have happened!"
They stopped on the big flower - sure to avoid triggering the pollen spores again - and waited until Pidge collected a sample of the pollen that had already been released when they fell. Allura looked up past the trees, seeing the large moon that had dipped into the atmosphere had revolved almost completely away.
How long had they been on this moon?
"Done!" Pidge exclaimed, her flourishing of the tube full of pollen strange-looking coming from Hunk's body. Allura had to keep reminding herself who had been where - especially the uncharacteristically quiet Lance.
"Let's go," Keith said gruffly - though not coming out as harsh in Allura's more-dulcet tones.
"Would you please stop sulking?" she found herself snapping at him. "You're not the only one that's miserable that we're not in our own body!"
He glared at her, then snapped, "Well excuse me, Princess, but I don't see you having any issues adjusting."
Allura chose not to mention the fact that it was hard for her to keep her balance due to the change in her center of gravity, or the fact that her arms just did not want to rest easily against her side because Keith's shoulders were much broader than she was used to. Nor did she want to tell him that having a completely different set of genitals was making it difficult for her to stand comfortably because it was literally right there and every single time she moved she was constantly reminded of their presence.
All of it was grating on her nerves just as much as his change was obviously getting on his.
"Come on, guys," Pidge bemoaned. "We're all suffering. Keith's just mad that he's a girl now, too."
"That's not true, and you know it!" Keith said quickly, almost embarrassingly.
Allura sighed and pushed on forward through the trees, letting the others follow behind her and continue their snippy banter. She was sure their bickering was just the result of irritation due to the body swap, and when they sped past another tree branch, Allura noticed Keith was fidgeting his fingers - well, her fingers. Before he had left them to join the Blades, she knew he would get fidgety whenever anxious or upset. The thought made her anger slip away almost instantly. "Keith? Are you alright?"
Keith quickly nodded and pushed himself off again. "Never better."
"He's lying," Hunk called out teasingly as they cleared the canopy of the trees.
"Shut up, Hunk!"
When they landed on the cliffs that held the lions, Allura immediately went to Keith's side and grabbed her own chin to look him in the eyes. Seeing the blue color in context other than a mirror made her feel weird. Maybe it was Keith's body reacting strangely. Maybe it was a Galra thing. She didn't know. "What's going on?"
A flush went across Keith's cheeks and he averted his eyes.
"Keith..." she warned. In his voice, rough and deep, it seemed more threatening.
"I..." He trailed off and shuffled in his spot. The fingers started fidgeting at his sides again. "It's nothing. Let's just go."
Without letting her stop him, he sped over to the Black Lion. However, he reached the lion's feet and halted entirely before spinning on his feet and looking at the other paladins, eyes wide with realization and a little fear. "Do you think we're going to have to switch lions because of this?"
Allura considered the possibility for a split second before shaking her head. "The lions recognize us by the quintessence, so we should be able to pilot our normal lions without issue. The only problem will be appearances."
"And then that means we'll have to switch bayards because they're with the wrong body," Lance stated with a deadpan look. Allura thought about the fact that her body would be piloting the Black Lion - a dream of hers - while she would be piloting the Blue Lion in Keith's. It was a strange mix-up, indeed. So after all the bayards were switched to their respective owners, all of the paladins went into their normal lions. And with some adjustments to the controls, they were taking off back into space.
It turned out they had been blacked out on that moon for a whole day, and Caldurn's ship set out without them. Seeing that chasing down the ostrich man was too much of a hassle given the circumstances, Keith declared in Allura's voice that they should regroup at the Atlas and figure out what to do from there.
Lance's finger's fidgeted with his controls. Well, rather - Pidge's fingers fidgeted. He was uncharacteristically quiet when they started flying home, something he knew Keith - sorry, Allura - clearly noticed. He considered opening a closed line with Pidge to ask her some questions, but he decided not to.
Here he was, stuck in a girl's body, and he had to pee.
Well, Pidge was the one who had to pee. He didn't know how to take care of it, and now it was getting out of hand. He felt like if he stood up, he would pee all over himself because he was almost incapable of holding it in anymore.
"Oh, fuck it," he murmured as he pressed a few buttons for a closed call. Within a second, Hunk's face lit up his screen - the green glow of the Green Lion's cockpit looking strange. "Hey Pidge. I have a question."
"Okay, shoot."
He felt his cheeks heat and he averted his eyes. "Uh... You have to use the bathroom."
There was silence on the other end and Lance watched as horror dawned on Pidge's borrowed face. "Y-you can't just go?! And that's not a question, idiot!"
Lance scowled and replied, "It's not like I don't know how! It's just- uh... I don't want to violate you, or anything. Yeah. That's it."
Red was clearly visible on her - Hunk's, quiznak- cheeks. "Just go! I don't need a UTI because you suddenly have morals!"
He felt heat rush to his, too. "Hey! I'm always a gentleman!"
"Sorry to interrupt," Lance's own voice cut in, causing the other two to freeze in horror. Hunk's face had lit up another monitor, the yellow lights of his cockpit making Lance's armor look green. "But why don't we all stop for a potty break? I'm sure Keith is about to burst since he's in the same boat as you, Lance."
"I'm just fine, Hunk!" Keith practically screamed into the comms, which in Allura's voice it really was.
"I thought this was a closed line!" Lance found himself saying after a stunned moment. The collective voices on the other side told him that was definitely not the case.
"Fine!" Keith snapped after a few more moments of garbled arguing. "Let's take a pit stop on this next moon coming up. Pidge, hail the Atlas and see where it is. Allura, try to contact Coran. Maybe he knows of something that can fix this before we get back to the Atlas. I don't know how much longer I can handle this."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Allura replied a little too sharply for Lance's case, Keith's voice lilting like Allura's typically did but with a growl at the end. He was well-aware that they had talked about what happened when they were stranded in space back before they returned to Earth, but these tense interactions were still coming more and more frequently. This past mission had started out well between the two - no bickering or side comments from the Princess - but it seemed switching bodies made the worst in both of them come out.
And unresolved conflicts to amplify.
"It means there's something weird with your body and I don't know what the hell it is!" Keith snapped.
"Maybe it's her quintessence," Hunk offered - Lance sincerely hoped it would be enough to calm Keith down. "She's an alchemist and has all of her weird alchemist powers. Maybe that's what's throwing you off."
Silence came from Keith's end for a good minute before he said, "No. It's more... Ugh let's just stop."
The Black Lion veered off to the right and the other lions followed. Soon, they landed on a desert-like moon and hid behind dunes to get some privacy. Luckily - or unluckily, depending on how Lance looked at it - Hunk had already seen Lance in all of his birthday suit glory, so using the restroom on his behalf had been a breeze.
Pidge, on the other hand, was mortified and Hunk had to go help her before she was able to go help Lance. When she reached him - embarrassment clear on her face - she muttered something about getting it over with before helping him out. Lance was courteous enough not to look, and Pidge's discomfort in having to help him was obvious.
When they finished, Lance hurriedly thanked her and they walked together back to where the lions were stationed. From where he was standing, he could see Keith and Allura were deep in conversation. The furrow on Keith's - Allura's - brow spoke of curiosity and confusion more than of anger and frustration.
It was a good sign.
Lance started heading there way to ask about their next plan when he started hearing Allura's inquisitive words.
"... is not how the typical Altean male looks. Though it's not unpleasant -"
And he quickly spun on his heel to join Hunk at the base of the Yellow Lion.
This was going to be a long, strange trip.
Arriving at the Atlas was an odd affair. Shiro and Sam were there to greet them in the docking bay and were quick to realize something was plain off when the paladins stepped out of the wrong lions. Keith had declared there was no point in hiding the fact that the body swap had happened, mostly because of their piloting situation and both Lance and Hunk were horrible actors.
In reality, no one would be truly able to act as the other while they tried to solve the switching back issue. As hilarious as it would be to see Lance try to imitate Pidge with her father as they stepped out of the lions, Keith knew it was better safe than sorry. That way they could potentially solve their problem faster, too.
Pidge was the first to speak, greeting her father as if nothing was off and letting him figure out the issue.
The look on Sam Holt's face was something Keith would remember for the rest of his life.
"Wha... Katie?!" His eyes practically bulged out of their sockets and up against his glasses when he rushed to his daughter - well, the body his daughter was currently in. He looked up at Hunk's face and asked, "What on God's green earth happened?!"
"Porous flower with pollen that somehow made us all switch bodies," she replied. She gestured to each paladin as she explained who was where, and when she reached him Keith could see Shiro's resolve crack into amused chuckles.
"Something funny, Shiro?" he asked when his - Allura's - eyebrow twitched, causing the older man to start laughing even harder. He was sure the scowl he was sporting was a lot more adorable and a lot less threatening now that it was on Allura's face.
"Sorry," Shiro managed to crack out after a moment more of laughing. After he schooled his face - minus the shit-eating grin - he said, "I apologize for making humor of your plight, paladins. It seems you've gotten yourselves in quite the conundrum."
"No, shit," Allura said in Keith's voice, voicing exactly what Keith was feeling. Both Shiro and Sam seemed a little surprised by her choice of words. As far as they knew, vocabulary didn't remain with each body. "Where is Coran? I tried contacting him on the way here and he did not answer."
Shiro and Sam gave each other a knowing look before Sam sighed and said, "Coran is... on a date. With another member of the Coalition. He shut off his communicator because they were going to go see a movie."
"So what do we do now?" Lance asked in a tone that actually make Keith's hackles rise. "We can't be stuck like this forever! Pidge had to help me pee and it was so weird! I don't want to have to do that again!"
Sam's look of horror and exasperation - and, if Keith looked hard enough, some anger, too - told the paladins everything they needed to know about his feelings regarding the situation, so Shiro just stepped forward and started taking charge. "Pidge, Hunk. Try to find a cure with our databases. Lance, go with Sam and find Colleen. I'm sure she can help you where Pidge cannot -"
"Hey!"
"- Keith, Allura, just hang tight," he ended with a little dejection as he gave them both an apologetic look. "I know this is tough on all of you guys but until you straighten this all out I'm afraid I can't condone any of you going on any missions for a while."
"What?" Keith shouted in outrage. "Why not? We're all just fine-"
"Keith, you're now inhabiting the body of the Princess of Altea," Shiro interrupted in the way that he knew would shut Keith up real quick. "With your recklessness, you're risking harm to her body. Get some rest, help out where you can, and I'm sure you guys will be back to normal in no time."
Things were not back to normal in no time.
Apparently, there was no "Space Google" or "Space Yahoo Questions" like Hunk jokingly hypothesized, and many of the Castle's archives were too deep and complex to find something quickly. Pidge, Hunk, Sam, and Matt focused on sifting through the archives while Lance and Shiro asked members of the rebellion if they had any knowledge of such a substance.
With no such luck.
The system that hosted that moon was uninhabited for the most part by any sentient species, least of all one that was a part of the Coalition. So they were back at square one when it came to getting a cure and quick.
They were coming up on a week in the wrong bodies, full of awkward situations regarding bathroom activities and bathing. Plus one situation where Allura had spilled her drink all over herself because she didn't realize that Keith's body was naturally left-handed, despite the fact he did mostly everything right-handed. Keith decided he wanted to avoid everyone and everything until Pidge came running up to him with good news.
Unfortunately, being in the Princess's body meant he could not go off and do whatever he wanted, like ride his hover bike through the desert and towards the setting sun or even training without her with him. Instead he resorted to pouting on a balcony, leaning over the railing and watching as the MFE fighters take off for their daily drills.
How he wish it was him flying in the stars right now.
"Are you going to talk to me now that we can't do anything?"
Keith looked over his shoulder at his own body, hovering in the shadows of the balcony that he stood upon. He sighed and patted the railing next to him, an invitation, and he waited until Allura was right next to him before he stated, "You're awfully persistent."
"You should know that by now," she replied instantly. "I'd say the same about you: persistent in keeping me away. Why is that?"
He sighed and resisted the urge to run his hands through his hair. It was far too long than he was used to and Romelle had styled it so he couldn't ruin it while trapped in Allura's body. Instead, he fidgeted with the button on his sleeve and sighed, "This has all been so weird."
"Tell me why it is for you," Allura pushed. "I'm sure I can relate."
Keith would have snapped at her, had their friendship been on shakier grounds. Snapping wouldn't push her away, it never has. So instead, he sighed, feeling the air fill his lungs and spread its comfort through his veins, and he said, "Being in your body... I feel so strange. All the time. When I'm me, I've cataloged every sensation and I'm used to it. With your body, everything is backwards and there's things I used to be able to do but now I can't, and there's things you can do that I couldn't before so it's throwing me off-"
"Keith, calm down," she cut in as she placed her hands on his shoulders to steady him. Keith absently realized he had been pacing. "Start slow."
He looked at his hands - feeling the crackling sensation under his fingertips that corresponded with the flow of quintessence in the world around him. "I feel... everything."
"It's my ability as an alchemist," she stated. "Though my body itself does not host my quintessence, it is the vessel in which my quintessence has remained the longest. I'm sure you'll be feeling that same residual sensation once we are returned to our own bodies, since I've been inhabiting yours for over a week now."
Keith frowned. "That doesn't explain why it feels so active."
Allura hummed in thought, then looked out towards the expanse of the training grounds before them. "I know what you mean. For some reason, I feel as if I can connect with the quintessence around me just as easily as I could in my own body. Perhaps you are capable of doing it yourself, but you did not have the means."
"What do you mean?"
She seemed to be thinking heavily, pouring out her thoughts as they came to her. "You have a connection with the quintessence around us, better than the other paladins. I noticed it as soon as you came to me in the Castle of Lions, and your connection has gotten stronger and stronger as you have grown. When you returned to us, I had unlocked my alchemic abilities and noticed it even more then."
Keith looked down at the brown hands that he had come accustomed to the past week, feeling the sparks under his fingers again. "That explains enough. I guess since your body is used to it, I can notice it more."
"More or less," Allura chuckled. "Perhaps I can teach you some things. We have nothing but time on our hands, and I can tell you're getting restless."
Keith instantly perked up and turned so he was facing her completely. "Can we go outside of the Garrison to do it? I need to get away from this place before I burn it down."
He was unused to seeing his own lips pulling up into a smile, but for some reason knowing it was Allura really smiling like that - eye crinkle and everything - his heart did a strange little flutter as she took his hand and tugged him back inside.
tbc.
A/N if you have questions regarding my reasoning for the accent/quintessence with the body swaps, let me know!