Technology was ever advancing, allowing modifications and things that were once only dreamed of in science fiction. While it wasn’t for the most ethical of reasons, eventually the technology to transfer consciousness between human bodies was created, decommissioned, re-commissioned and tested.

Naturally, the science and technology behind the body swapping was used primarily to assist people with mismatched bodies in some way or another. Though that was only recently. For a longer than it should’ve been time, some people used it when their child wasn’t quite as they were expecting. Parents who wanted a son would often swap with parents who wanted a daughter, and vice versa.

This naturally was stopped as soon as possible. The ramifications to a child’s mental health were too high risk. Especially if they found out what had happened to them as infants. Now, exceptions were made for the health of the infant, but naturally this allowed things to slip through the cracks.

However, by the miracle of humanity pulling its collective head out of its collective ass for once, there were no scars and if a child did go through the process, it was reversable. So, now that the process had become commonplace, everyone was likely to know someone who had at least part of their body swapped. Some used it in place of difficult surgeries, some used it for fun.

But that was the reality of today. In year 20XX where humanity had managed to make something cool for once. The concept of the self was more malleable than it had ever been, more flexible and fluid. Humans were their own playthings now, at least to a point.

But for some, there was a feeling that something wasn’t right. Not in the traditional sense of dysphoria or dysmorphia, those were now easily solvable, but in the sense that something wasn’t as it should’ve been. That nagging feeling of discomfort was just something that Aaron couldn’t shake. At home, at school or anywhere really.

The teenager had initially chalked it up to those awkward growing pains. Since he couldn’t place the discomfort, he had chosen to ignore it. But it was still there, ever present in the back of his mind, and nothing he tried was helping.

At least in school he could distract himself by trying to pay attention to science lectures in class. They weren’t boring by any means; it was just the same things repeated day in and day out. So, he let his eyes wander, his mind following suit, and it settled on someone else in the room.

A girl just a few desks away from him. Miranda was her name and as Aaron’s friends would tease him about. He was down bad. If he wasn’t trying to deal with whatever was going on with that nagging discomfort. He was trying to think of what games Miranda liked, or what she would want to do if he asked her out and said yes.

Miranda, however, was doing the same thing Aaron was. At least she would if having an eye on the back of your head was still legal. They had exchanged exactly one sentence with each other, both teens could remember it perfectly.

“Charizard is overrated.” Aaron had said during one of the many times a teacher had been running late. Which Miranda has overheard.

“Yeah, Blastoise is better.” she had responded, both nodded at each other, then went back to their own business. If clichés were able to physically manifest, it was love at first nerd. It had been over a year since then and they had managed to accidentally pick most of the same classes.

Eventually their friends had had enough and got them sitting right across from each other one lunch time. Hoping that this would actually let them talk to one another. The awkward teen romance was becoming hell for everyone, as even that attempt barely got them talking to each other.

“I don’t know...” Miranda said to one of her friends after another attempt at this. “It feels like... something’s off?”

“I don’t know why?” Aaron said, mirroring that sentiment with his own friends. “Whenever I try to talk the words get stuck in my throat. It’s really annoying.”

“You’re telling me,” Their friends would say, but eventually the attempts stopped. If it was going to happen it would just have to rely on them not getting stuck on what to say. So, they stopped, and eventually say them ever so slowly say more than single word answers to one another.

“Hey...” Aaron eventually said, managing to get words out of his throat. “You uh, look good?’ Miranda looked at him with a million-yard stare in response, like something had just forcefully inserted a Lego brick under her foot.

“Thanks...” she responded, trying her best to not blush. “You, too.” her response got a similar feeling out of Aaron, and neither of them knew why. It just made it more awkward, if that was even possible.

They tried again, but both had that same strange feeling. Not that either of them was hiding something, but something that matched up with that strange discomfort in the back of their minds. Each time they tried to talk outside of a class they just froze.

“Why can’t we talk?” Aaron had written on a note, trying to see if that was going to cause the same thing. He slid it over to Miranda and got a response back.

“No idea, maybe it’s something about our voices?” the note said, with a little drawing of a shrugging cat under it.

“it’s the only thing that makes sense I guess?” Aaron wrote back. The thought of their voices throwing them off was a possibility, but a weird one at that. The bell rang before they could try to piece anything else together, meaning they had to try and focus for the last class of the day.

That night however, both teens decided to look into things. The idea of their voices triggering something uncomfortable was too weird of an idea to shake. A couple hours of searching online brought them to the same conclusion.

“Body and Aspect Swapping. If the process is done incorrectly or too early, the recipients of the swap may experience mild to severe anxiety when meeting with the recipient of the traded aspects.” several articles reported on. The idea of having it done too early was a strange one, but that’s what the restrictions on the process were for. Though, the dates were strange, and both of the teens realized it and opened their emails.

“Did we switch bodies?” they both sent within seconds of the other. “Holy crap we did, didn’t we?”

“Does that mean I was a guy?” Miranda said, not hating the idea and finding some comfort in it that she didn’t quite understand yet.

“I was a girl? Awesome!” Aaron said, something in the back of his mind clicking at that revelation. They quickly started sharing that detail to one another in emails, back and forth. They agreed that this was just something they would’ve found out sooner or later but needed to think of what to do. After all, their parents probably didn’t want to bring it up, let alone have it be brought up to them.

Both teens knew their parents weren’t the type to do it out of malice, that was the one comfort for this. But they wanted the truth. So, it needed to be addressed before the school week resumed.

Each one started the same way with their parents. Asking to speak to their parents in the living room with a bit of printed out information. And for both teens, their parents knew the jig was up the second they saw the papers.

“There were...” one of them would start. The similar story being matched up later. “Complications.” That wasn’t surprising, even if it was before the practice was completely limited to emergencies, swapping infant bodies was used as an attempt to save children.

What no one expected was a mathematic formula of how convoluted the entire procedure was so no laws were violated and all parties involved were kept healthy.

“So... where did the clown come in?” the teens asked, very confused as they looked at pictures taken of the entire procedure.

“The doctor was on call and didn’t have time to wipe the makeup off.” The parents responded, admittedly realizing how bizarre that situation was in hindsight. “It was... a bigger mess than they thought.”

“How many kids were involved in this?” the teens asked, wondering how much of their bodies were on a technical level someone else's.

“We needed at least seven, it was a lot of parts being changed due to blood types and compatibility.” the parents said, taking some time to get the documents out for their kid to look over. “It... was tricky to bring up, and we’re sorry we didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Thanks.” both teens said, looking at the forms.

“So why was I a guy then?” Aaron asked.

“Why a girl?” Miranda asked.

“That... is just how it shook out to be honest.” the parents responded. Trying to find any documents that could help them or their child. “Those parts had to be changed from other kids, and we agreed that if you wanted to change. Well. We'd support you.”

“I need to think on this.” both teens said, turning down the offer of hugs as they went to their rooms.

“How’d yours go?” Aaron asked, trying to not have a kneejerk response. “I... need to think on what to do.”

“Smoother than I expected.” Miranda replied a few minutes later. “Take some time to think, I already know what I want to do.”

“Already?” Aaron responded, frankly surprised his crush had a plan already. “Lucky. No wonder you get better grades.”

“Hey, I can always help you study after this.” Miranda responded. “Just, need to not freeze up when we speak.”

“Yeah, that makes it harder.” Aaron replied.

They went to bed soon after that, with Miranda already knowing what he wanted to do. He fell asleep within a few minutes. Aaron was struggling more, he... didn’t hate his body, but the idea of being a girl was too exciting to deny. Even if they both knew their bodies didn’t affect what their genders were.

It was the most awkward breakfast the next morning. Mostly since the parents were, frankly, expecting more than a quiet acknowledgment of what happened. But the morning went like most others, a tired good morning, breakfast, and both teens sitting in their rooms afterwards.

“I want to swap some things back with you.” Aaron wrote, sending the email before self-doubt could stop it. The teen waited for a while, or rather, what felt like a while. The seconds crawled by with a brutal lack of urgency.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Miranda wrote back. His email response only pausing as he tried to think of something. “Call me Joey now, by the way.”

“So, we’re on the same page,” Aaron responded. “Why Joey?”

“Dunno, seemed to fit.”

“Fair.” Aaron laughed, not bothering with the beating around the bush of trying to justify mistakes on his name. “You seem really prepared for this.”

“Hey, if we get this figured out then we don’t need to worry about it later.” Joey’s response had a big thumbs up on it. “Plus, did your parents have those forms? Mine did and I read through them with breakfast. We can schedule a change easily.”

“Couldn’t focus, but that’s good to know.” Aaron responded, the idea of what names she would pick from were starting to bubble up. “How soon?”

“Next weekend is open to schedule.” Joey replied, sending the website and needed formed. “We just need to agree on what’s being changed.”

“Want your shoulders back?” Aaron said, including a gif of a dog laughing. “Do we have to do this all-in-one go?”

“Hey, it’ll work better for me.” Joey responded. “And I don’t think so? One of my dad's mentioned it could take a couple sessions to get it right.” there was a sigh of relief from Aaron at that. Even if Joey wanted to rush forward, it didn’t sound like he was going to force Aaron to do the same.

“Screw it,” he replied after downloading the forms. “I want the longer hair.”

“Shoulders for hair? Sounds like a fair trade,” was the response. “Anything else?”

“Take my testosterone, please.” Was Aaron’s reply. “And why aren’t we using a chat room?”

“Didn’t think of it,” was Joeys response. Both teens swapping to a chatroom to hash out what was going to be swapped with what.

The parents weren’t ecstatic about it being done, but thankfully if it was reversable now, it would be reversable later. The appointments were made, documents were signed and the next weekend, both teens were ready to go.

Frankly, the procedure had machines right out of a horror movie. But both teens soon were unconscious, and everything started to go to work. Mass was transferred, body shape was altered, and those weird cramps you get in your feet were dealt with.

This was the first time they did this. A general one to allow them to see what they wanted to keep.

Joey loved the fact that now he wasn’t expected to wear skirts. He did so anyway because an entirely new closet of clothes was expensive, and it annoyed people. His hair was short and rough when they both came out of the first session.

Aaron was still picking out her name and had to fight her dads and Joey’s parents to get a dress that no longer fit her crush. Instead of the short buzzcut for simplicities sake, she was now sporting long blonde and pink hair. Right down to her shoulders.

“So...” Aaron started, expecting her voice to give out like it had before when talking to Joey in person. “...what now?” it had been three weeks since the first swap, everything had healed, and Joey had already swooned over Aaron suplexing a bully at school. “I still... like you.”

“Well, we can figure that out.” Joey had grinned, getting Aaron to blush at his smile. “How do you feel about your, old body? I guess?”

“it’s familiar?” Aaron said, trying to hide her blush. “But... not too familiar? Like I can grow into it.” she looked at her hands, a little shocked at how much softer her features had been becoming. Even after the swap her features just got smoother. A doctor mentioned her body was going to be overcompensating for a while on balancing her hormones out.

“Same, I wonder if I'll get taller?” Joey laughed, taking advantage of Aaron looking at her hands to let himself blush. He was definitely feeling the same side effects of the transfer. A level of machismo was hitting him, and aside from noticing girls more, he swore he could take a bear in a fight.

Apparently, this was a near universal male instinct to try and think of an animal they could beat up. Even if logic said they would lose. But it definitely felt better for him as a person. School had been going well, their friends were just glad the awkward teen romance could move past the awkward stage more than worrying about their genders and bodies.

Also seeing the first person to try and start shit wind up with a bloody nose was a very good deterrent. Especially since it was at the first provocation, no one would mess with someone if there was an immediate consequence for doing so.

But the school year went on, and despite the awkward phase staying far longer than anyone would’ve predicted. Eventually Aaron chose Dot as a new name, Joey was still dressing in any way he wanted, skirts and dresses some days but jeans and tank tops other days.

A walking middle finger to the people who still would hold onto his pronouns determining how he was allowed to dress. Meanwhile Dot was going all in on femme fashion, her dads even ordering frilly fancy Lolita style dresses that she would wear on weekends while playing games. The dissonance between her playing Doom and dressed like she was supposed to be a princess was something Joey couldn’t get enough of.

And that was something that, after literally so many events that should’ve pushed them together, it happened at the last possible moment of high school. With their friends celebrating just for the mental relief of not having to picture the two dumbasses not being together when they should've been.

The cream pies being thrown at them was definitely their revenge for the years of indecisiveness after an immediate connection. Everyone was laughing as pie filling was being cleaned off the pair, their friend groups ribbing them endlessly as they finally had their first kiss.

At least, first one that didn’t result in literal butting heads due to a height difference. Or a phone going of, or any other number of perfectly timed mood killers. Both of them were, frankly, happier, even if they didn’t realize they were unhappy before. The weight of discomfort they’d both been experiencing hadn’t bothered them for the last years of high school, and they certainly weren’t going to bother them in the future.

“So... what next?” Dot said, still picking bits of pie out of her pink and blonde hair. She didn’t even remember what she asked her natural hair color to be at this point. “More school? Work?”

“How about an actual first date,” Joey chuckled, knowing his prom suit and dress were going to have stains on them for years. “Unless you want to count when I schooled you at the arcade?”

“You mean where I kicked your ass?” Dot teased, flicking a bit of pie off her dress onto Joey’s shoes. “Someone doesn’t remember how many tokens you spent on me.”

“Fine, rematch!” Joey laughed, sending a bit of pie back at Dot. “And then a date!”

“Works for me!” Dot laughed as they resumed the pie slinging until they were forcibly stopped by their parents.