Fandom: Numb3rs
Characters: David & Colby
Summary: David wakes up one morning and finds himself in Colby's apartment... and then finds he's also inside Colby's body.
Word count: 1153
Rating: PG (FRK+)
Spoilers: No spoilers, but set during season 5 or 6
Notes: Written for a prompt from
rounds_of_kink for round 27. Prompt: envy. Kink: body swap. Prompter:
naemi. Comments & feedback much appreciated! :)
Read on AO3David opened his eyes, letting the soft daylight seep into his bleary vision. He rolled over, intending to glance at the time on his alarm clock, and clumsily hit the floor with a loud, painful thump.
"What in the hell?" he muttered to himself, still only half awake. He stared at the ceiling in disbelief from where he lay on the floor.
He was in Colby’s apartment, but had no recollection of how he ended up there. Anyway, why had he been sleeping in Colby’s bed? Colby was his best friend, but he wasn’t entirely sure that sleeping in each other’s beds was part of their friendship.
David started moving one hand up to rub his eye, but something about the way his arm moved didn’t seem quite right. Nonetheless, his hand did end up hovering above his face as intended.
But it wasn’t his hand. This hand was really really pale. Like, well, a white guy’s hand.
He sat up with a start, leaning against the edge of Colby’s bed. He looked down at the rest of his body, rapidly concluding that he now had the same white skin all over. He also appeared to have bulked up some serious muscle. In fact, he looked like Colby. Not that he was complaining about suddenly having acquired Colby’s good looks, but it was profoundly alarming. It was what could be described as an ‘out of body experience’, but literally, and very much for real, it seemed.
It’s not as though David hadn’t envied Colby before. He was almost any white girl’s dream handsome man. If he actually made an effort with the whole dating thing, he was sure Colby could easily get himself a girlfriend. Realistically speaking, David knew he could too. Although if either of them dated Nikki’s running joke that he was dating Colby would come to an end. But he sighed, thinking that even if he went to the gym every day for a million years, he’d still never look like his best friend. He just couldn’t compete with him on the asset of being ripped.
He gazed back up at the alarm clock, and just at that moment, it went off. Colby always set his alarm. David always woke up at the right time before work. Clumsily, he reached up to turn off the alarm clock, knocking it right off the night stand.
"Oh yeah, Colby is really strong. Oops."
He put the alarm clock back where it belonged and got up have a wander about, for what it was worth. What if Colby was in the next room, about to face the sudden acquisition of an identical twin? What if David found his own body dumped somewhere as a corpse? Finding corpses was never pleasant. David swallowed, trying to let his thoughts pass. But who knows what really happened?
"Colby? Are you here?" David called out, trying to stay calm.
No answer.
David had a quick search through all the rooms, and even looked inside Colby’s wardrobe, but he was alone. Just him and himself in the apartment. Or rather, him and Colby’s physical body.
David walked past the bathroom mirror, staring at the reflection he saw in astonishment. David gazed into the mirror, and Colby gazed back. It was surreal. What if this was what he looked like for good? Could he deal with that? What if he had to pretend to be Colby for the rest of his life? Could he even pull that off?
David spent a half hour stumbling around Colby’s apartment, putting Colby’s clothes on and making himself look reasonably presentable for the day, before grabbing a quick breakfast and going outside to find Colby’s car.
He was almost running late, and desperately wished he knew the passcode to Colby’s phone so he could give his phone a call. Was Colby in the same situation he was in? He wished he knew. He searched the car park outside Colby’s apartment complex as efficiently as he could until he eventually located the car he was looking for. He quickly set off to work, anxious about what he should expect.
He drove around the FBI’s car park, hesitantly trying to search for his own car without making his behaviour too noticeable. He drove up and down the rows of cars just like he would if he was searching a car park as an agent, until he eventually found it.
He parked in the next closest space and got out, almost surprising himself with Colby’s strength yet again as he opened the car door.
"Hey Colby" Don said, quickly walking towards the entrance. It took David almost too long to respond.
"Oh, ‘morning Don" he replied, trying to keep his voice stoic and steady like Colby always did. Gee, at least the body David seemed to have appropriated had a matching voice.
Luckily, Don didn’t stop to make conversation. He wasn’t sure how easy it would be to act as if he really was Colby. That was his only option, right? Nobody would believe him that he was David walking around inside Colby’s skin. David almost laughed at the absurdity of it.
He walked across the car park to where his own car was parked. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found himself sitting in the driver’s seat, as strange as the sight was. His own eyes looked up at him, an expression of anxiousness easily readable. He carefully went and knocked on the window.
The window opened.
"Hey, ehrm, Colby…"
David didn’t know where to start. How does one go about asking a best friend if a body-swap has been mutual?
"It is you, right? You’re, like, in my body or something"
"Yup, it would appear so." David had to smile at the experience of hearing himself do the most accurate impression of Colby’s mannerisms possible. Colby giggled in response.
"So, shall we go into work and try out best to impersonate each other then?" David suggested, trying to remain pragmatic so they wouldn’t be late for whatever Don needed the team to do that day.
"Well, I guess there’s not too much else we can do, right?" Colby replied. "Oh and by the way, what does it feel like to have my body?"
"It’s, ehrm, a little weird, a little sureal. I guess that sums it up. You’re really strong, dude, I keep underestimating that"
"Yeah, you know, being just a tiny bit taller is really weird too. I hit my, I mean your, head when I got in the car"
"Well, anyway, we’ve gotta get going, right David?"
"Of course, partner"
Soon enough, they walked into the office together, nobody else any the wiser about what had happened. Nikki did remark they were acting even more like a couple than usual, but even she didn’t manage to get to the bottom of the constant giggles coming from their shared desk booth.