If I die young

[Reagan Ryang]

"Like you even know what weird is." This guy, acting like he knew him. Yeah right! Rae couldn't remember spending much time with this guy. Definitely no time alone. Ryland was only around, a peripheral satellite orbiting Aldon. Most of the time, Ald kept him away, which was a good move, considering how little Rae and Josh wanted him around. Rae wasn't stupid, anyhow. He knew not to bring Alva around all the time, too. (Even if sometimes it was unavoidable.)

Okay, Ryland was grasping onto him like he was afraid to let go of him. The idea made Rae uncomfortable and he tried to step back. Also, when the hell did he get shorter than the fox? Like, seriously. He was shorter! What the fuck?

The look he gave Ryland when he started to call him Aldon again must have been enough to keep him from uttering the name again because he stopped himself. And then he made some utterly stupid joke about feeling his legs. Rae scoffed and shook his head.

"Yeah, obviously." There was something weird about this. Being called Aldon, being in this place and not where he was, yeah that was all weird. But the way Ryland was talking, while the voice was different, there were certain inflections. Not to mention the way he was going on about chair and his legs. Rae pushed Ryland back onto the couch, then leaned down and stared him hard in the eyes.

"Alva?" he felt like a fucking idiot even saying it but... If he could be shorter and in some weirdo's apartment then anything was possible.

[Alva Ren]

"ACK--WHY" Alva protested—volubly—when he was shoved back down. Thankfully the couch cushions were soft, but they didn't manage to take the edge off of his surprise. Alva stared back at Aldon—or rather, glared. What. Was his. Problem? If Alva didn't know better, he would've said that Aldon had been taking lessons from Rae.

"...yeah? Yes?" Why was Aldon speaking his name that way? As if he couldn't believe that it was Alva he saw? Impatiently, Alva pushed at him to get him to stop being so close; it was disconcerting being in such close proximity. Besides, he was Ryland's... something or other, and Alva didn't want somebody to see them and misunderstand the situation.

Sighing, he looked away and his gaze landed on their blurry reflections in the window nearby. Aldon's reflection was normal. Dark hair, pale face and all. But Alva... Alva's reflection was not Alva. There was red hair. He was sitting taller than usual and he was slimmer. Blinking hard, he stared at their reflections. Then he rubbed his eyes and stared some more. The reflection rubbed its eyes too. Alva lowered his hand—the reflection lowered its hand. He raised the hand back up, and so did the reflection. For a long moment, Alva sat there and stared.

He kicked out a leg, narrowly missing Aldon's shin. "I'm." Alva's voice came out a breathless gasp. "I'm... in...side... Ryland..."

[Reagan Ryang]

Rae frowned as he was shoved away. So it was Alva? It really was Alva inside of that body? My Alva? His eyes narrowed slightly but he was watching him, the Alva in a body that wasn't his. He followed his gaze to the reflection in the window, watched him staring, watched him move and stare as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. It wasn't until Rae actually looked past Alva's reflection at his own that he truly realized the horror.

Recoiling backward, he flipped right over an ottoman and didn't bother catching himself. He hit the ground hard, the air expelled from his lungs. Or rather, Aldon's lungs. Now that he thought about it, every time he spoke, he didn't sound right. His head voice didn't sound right but there were so many other strange things going on around him that he sort of just... forgot about that. Or he wasn't that worried about it.

Now he was lying flat on his back and staring at the legs of his ex-boyfriend that weren't really his. I'm inside Ryland. Rae laughed and he placed a hand over his face because he could hardly believe what the fuck was happening.

"You're inside Ryland," he said wryly, breathlessly, a smirk on his face. "And I'm inside Aldon. What the fuck are the chances of that?"

[Alva Ren]

"Ah--watch ou--" Alva's warning came a beat too late, as Aldon flipped over an ottoman and landed square on his back. It looked like he landed on his head, to be honest; Alva gave a sharp gasp and instinctively tried to wheel himself over, except... couch. Gingerly he set both feet down and tried to stand. It had been so long since he'd stood up that he sorta forgot how to do it, and his knees ended up buckling. Taking one cautious step forward, he breathed out; learning to walk all over again was strange.

Luckily, he made it over without falling--only he half-fell against the upturned ottoman anyway, and put out a hand to touch Aldon's shoulder, to make sure he was okay. The wry, humorless laugh didn't sound like Aldon at all. Alva couldn't ever remember Aldon acting this squirrelly and he'd seen plenty of Aldon's freak-outs.

"What? You're..." He was inside Aldon? The same way Alva was inside Ryland? Alva sat back, stunned. If this wasn't Aldon, then judging by all the wild cursing and unnecessary roughness, there could only be one person inside there. "R-Rae? Is that you?" What were the chances that they both switched bodies? What were the chances of anybody switching bodies with anybody at all?! Alva ran a hand over his face--er... over Ryland's face--feeling as if he'd aged twenty years.

"How did this happen?"

[Reagan Ryang]

The perfect, sickeningly couple when they were together... could there be a more perfect pairing for the two of them to be inside? Seriously? It was almost like the universe was saying something. Like: Alva belongs with you, see? This whole time, he's belonged with you. And maybe he would know it, now. Slowly, Rae sat up, pulling his legs into a more dignified pose as he stared at Ryland--no, Alva. It had to be Alva. He was more and more certain of it, even if the face was wrong. And the voice.

"No, it's Aldon," he said sarcastically. A wry smile crossed his face as he watched Alva-in-Ryland touching his face. He couldn't tell if it was supposed to be some kind of expression of exasperation or if he was just feeling up his cousin's face. After a moment, unable to contain his curiosity, he touched his own face, too. Ohhhh yeah. That was not his nose. Those eyes were not his. Lips, all wrong. Hair, totally wrong. Shape of the face was wrong....

But he knew who he was and he didn't have to check what was outside. And he knew what was inside that body. Some part of him was elated that Alva knew it was him. He heard his voice saying his name over and over again, in confusion. Maybe happy confusion. He drew up closer to Alva-inside-Ryland, using the ottoman almost as a table between them. He slid his fingertips gently over Alva-in-Ryland's wrist. Did that still work on a body that might not respond to the same things?

"I don't know. Magic, probably." But if it was really the witch, as he originally thought, why would he put the two of them together? He grinned. "Must have been an accident, him putting you with me."

[Alva Ren]

Yeah, that was Rae all right. Despite their strange and terrifying new predicament, Alva couldn't help but let out an exasperated laugh at the sarcasm. Leave it to Rae--now he was almost certain it was Rae inside of Aldon--to make a crack in the middle of a serious situation.

Alva watched as Rae touched his own face, and as the realization dawned that it wasn't even his own face that he was touching. Honestly, everything about being in the wrong body was freaky. The hands and limbs that weren't theirs, the way that their voices sounded, even the height differences, it was all alarming. Alva was surprised that he was holding it in so well; so, too, did Rae, although Rae did tend towards anger more than any other emotion.

"Him?" His gaze was on the hand against his wrist, mind on whether or not he should pull the hand away. They weren't... anything right now. Even incidental contact like this was uncomfortable, though he couldn't help that his heart gave a strange flutter. Maybe that was just Ryland's body reacting to Aldon's touch. Everyone who knew Ryland and Aldon knew what they were like--how touchy-feely they were. Even if the consciousness was different, might not the physical reactions be guided by muscle memory more so than logic?

Alva's--Ryland's--hand twitched but he didn't pull it away. It would only agitate Rae, and he needed Rae to be calm right now. "If you mean Susu... he wouldn't do something like this." Why on Earth would Susu do it? To what ends would he want to switch two people's bodies? Besides, Alva was sure that Susu would never target him. "It must be somebody else."

[Reagan Ryang]

"Uh yeah, who else can do this?"

Rae was certain after he'd been cursed and ALVA had been cursed that they were aware this guy could weld powerful magic. Wasn't that enough to push the blame off onto him? Besides, who else gave enough of a damn about them to throw them into other people's bodies? Or was it some kind of... whatever that magic was called that was just an illusion. An illusion. Whatever. Yeah, that.

He grasped Alva's wrist that wasn't his and he pulled him closer. Despite everything, he was glad. Alva might be in Ryland's body but he was still with Rae. That couldn't have been intended and that gave him a vicious brand of victory. The fight back there with the witch was all but forgotten because whatever the witch tried to pull on them, he'd failed.

"Besides, who else would?"

[Alva Ren]

Susu wasn't the only witch in town! Alva just didn't think that Susu would pull a stunt like this. And for what? There was no good reason for him to do it, despite how sure Rae seemed to be. Then again, Rae wasn't exactly unbiased in his opinion of Susu. Maybe it was a territorial wolf thing, even if Rae was the one who went and did the deed with Josh, of all people!

Alva allowed himself to be pulled in, with half of his body leaned over the ottoman. It still felt strange having legs that worked, after so many years of being handicapped. Part of him wanted to try out the new legs, to stand up and walk and run and jump around. There was such a profound sense of freedom in just being able to walk across a room, that most people took for granted. Alva couldn't remember the last time he got anywhere without a wheelchair. But... this didn't seem like the time to take a joyride in Ryland's body, not knowing where Ryland was and who was causing this strange body-mix-up.

He scrutinized Rae, too, inside of Aldon's body. It was so... so... jarring. All of Rae's mannerisms and words coming out of Aldon's slightly silly face. The two just didn't match up! Wasn't Rae disturbed by all of this? Gently, Alva shook his head. "I don't think he did it, Rae. But if you think so... Why don't we go back to his apartment and ask? Maybe Ry and Ald are in our bodies right now, over there!" All bets were on Aldon having a major freak-out, though, Alva thought wryly to himself. Aldon wasn't exactly the most level-headed in a crisis.

[Reagan Ryang]

But he didn't get it. Seriously, who else would do this to them? Unless... it wasn't just them. Nah, that was too weird. Rae was very much attached to the theory that SUSU the witch had done this to them. Why he'd put Alva into Ryland's body and send him away to Rae, he didn't know. But he definitely felt like he was being punished, being stuck in a body like Aldon's. No offense to Aldon or anything. It was just that... well, Rae liked himself. He was pretty damn confident and also--he wasn't so short. It was already annoying being short and he'd only been this way for like... a couple of minutes.

"Yeah, why don't we?" Rae sprang up, all for getting his revenge. (Since his previous attempt had been interrupted so rudely!) "And if Aldon does anything to my body..."

What would he do? Do something to Aldon's body? What if... what if Aldon wasn't the one in his body? What if it was Ryland? What if it was SUSU? Immediately, he grabbed onto Alva-in-Ryland's body, taking his arm and pulling him along with him.

"Come on, we have to hurry before they do something even worse!"

[Alva Ren]

"HNNG!"

When he wanted to try out Ryland's body, he didn't mean like this--being dragged around like a ragdoll! He barely got his legs to work in the proper way as he stumbled after Rae. It was silly, because Ryland was a little taller than Aldon, and Alva was pretty sure that if he resisted hard enough, he could start dragging Aldon the other way.

"They're probably as shocked as we are! Nobody's going to DO anything in your body Rae!" Alva said in exasperation as he tried to catch up, inwardly still marveling at the use of his legs. Ryland's legs. Better not get too used to this walking thing, he thought sadly; he'd have to get back into his own body soon and that meant getting around in a wheelchair again.

"Besides, what do you think people would do anyway? Kill somebody and pretend it's you?" It was meant as a joke but he sort of regretted saying it because... Well, Rae's temper was bad enough that he might well kill someone in the heat of the moment, if they pissed him off enough. Alva used to think that Rae had at least some shred of restraint but... his opinion of Rae had changed quite a bit lately.

[Reagan Ryang]

"No," he said, as if that was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard. He wasn't worried about his reputation. Truth be told, Rae's reputation was pretty much trash from the start anyway. If Aldon or whatever sap got stuck in his body, he didn't care if they did something stupid. (All right, he cared if they murdered somebody.) But he sure cared if he did something stupid like... like screw Alva because he looked like his precious Ryland. Not that he was saying that out loud but he did give the Ryland body a once-over. As if he compared to his Alva. Because he didn't.

He refused to think Alva still wasn't his. They spent five years together. That had to mean something. It did to Rae, anyway. Even if he was the one who blew it. (But he stood by the idea that Alva pushed him to it!)

As he dragged the Ryland body with him out into the hallway, he looked for an elevator.

"You really should be more worried," he declared, since Alva didn't seem nearly as much in a hurry as he was. "Because if Josh is still there, your precious witch is probably the one who's dead."

[Alva Ren]

"Susu can take care of himself!" Alva declared with more confidence than he felt, because knowing how feral Josh could get, it might well be an ugly aftermath that he would have to go back to. Why was Josh involving himself in this anyway? It was none of his business to begin with! Biting back the words at the tip of his tongue--unpleasant words, to say the least--Alva finally tugged back on his captured arm to stop Rae from dragging him around.

"Why were you two at Susu's apartment anyway?"

His gaze turned suspicious. Did Rae ask Josh to come along with him? Just to start trouble or... to hurt him? Alva would have thought that after their break-up, Rae might have gained some perspective but it looked as though all he did was simmer in anger and resentment. And knowing Rae, that was a bad cocktail--it only led to trouble. Rae wouldn't target him, though--same way that Susu would never curse him--but he sure could raise a lot of hell. He was sort of known for that.

"What did you go there to do, Rae?"

[Reagan Ryang]

Rae didn't immediately respond because Alva was already asking him like he knew or had an inkling. Obviously, Rae didn't go there to have a nice spot of tea with the bastard. There was no love lost between them and Rae went with Josh, so... So it was pretty fucking obvious--he felt--that he was there to fuck dear SUSU's shit up. He frowned and urned away from Ryland's stupid looking face. Not that it could ever affect him the way Alva's would. Hmph.

Walking off with his head in the air, he made a big show of looking for the elevator. Where the fuck was it, even? FUCK. Oh. Ding! He swung around, back toward Alva. Kinda sucked, now that he thought about it, that Alva had legs. But it was kind of a dream come true, too. The dirty side of him wanted to know what it would be like if Alva could actually feel all the things he did to him when they were together. People thought they didn't fuck at all but they did. How much enjoyment did Alva really get out of it, though? Maybe that was why it was so easy for him to go to somebody else.

Maybe... that was why it was so easy for Rae to turn to Josh.

A couple came out of the elevator, which was on the side of the hall that Alva was standing in. Rae headed back toward him and past him, grabbing the elevator doors before they slid shut again.

"Hurry up."

[Alva Ren]

No reply. All swagger and bluffing. Alva inwardly sighed, not sure what kind of face he was making with Ryland's features. Probably a disappointed one. An unhappy one, definitely. That Rae would go this far just to... what? Get back at someone for supposedly stealing what was his? That was bad enough but to bring along the person that he went and slept with was a new low even for him.

Why are you doing all this?

The sad part was, everybody warned him--Alva, that was, about dating Rae. They warned him about Rae's temper, about his instability, about the fact that he was more feral than human. More wolf than man. Alva ignored them all; love put the blinders on around his eyes but now that they were forcibly removed, he was beginning to see things that he didn't like. Or maybe he saw them all along, and chose not to acknowledge them, thinking that over time Rae would change. That he would change Rae.

"...no." Alva turned to look at him but he didn't move from his spot. "I'm not going with you." He would go alone, but he wouldn't go with Rae. This all had to be sorted out, but Alva didn't want Rae to assault Susu again, once he was put back into his body.

[Reagan Ryang]

Rae stopped, turned, and looked at him. Disbelief and then annoyance colored his expression. They must have because that was how he felt. He stared at Ryland--Alva--for a long moment, wondering if he'd gotten things wrong or Ryland was lying to him. Maybe this was all an elaborate prank. He couldn't imagine Alva doing this to him again. Saying no. Why was he saying no? He wouldn't go with him?

"Fine."

He wanted to punch something but he couldn't very well punch Alva. Or Ryland. Whatever. He'd punch Ryland if he was sure that was who he was. At this point, he couldn't tell what the fuck was happening anymore. But fine. Alva or Ryland or whoever he was could just stay here in this hallway like an idiot. Rae was going back to where it all started so he could finish it.

Instead of punching Ryland or the wall, he stalked the rest of the way into the elevator and looked at Alva as he hit the button for the lobby. Yeah, it was Alva. He could see it in his eyes and his mannerisms. Fine. Fine. The doors closed on him and the redhead on the other side was gone. Finally letting out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding, he swore several times before the elevator landed at the lobby and he headed out, on a mission.