#arintrajan

Two sky blue eyes blinked back at him, the same eyes Kai hadseen winking at him from a mugshot on his netscreen just a few hours ago.  The infamous Carswell Thorne, an ex-cadet forthe American Republic air force, wanted in almost every corner of the EarthenUnion.  He’d been shot during his arrest,and taken to the palace hospital for surgery to remove the bullet, which hadgotten lodged in the side of his control panel and damaged part of his retinadisplay.

Unfortunately, Carswell Thorne’s surgery had coincided notonly with Emperor Kai’s monthly data upgrade, but also with a city-wide systemsfailure.  In the chaos and confusion, thedoctors had managed to download both Kai and Thorne’s brain interfaces to thepalace’s back-up system.  But in theirhurry to re-upload their emperor’s consciousness, no one had thought todouble-check that the names of the files they were uploading matched the I.D.tags of the patients.

Kai reached up to touch his cheek.  A strong hand, knuckles lightly dusted withgolden brown hair, copied him in the mirror.

“Well,” said a voice behind him – a voice Kai knew all toowell.  “Hello, handsome.”

Kai – no, the prisoner– stood in Kai’s doorway, lounging lazily against the frame as though he didn’thave a care in the world.  As though hewasn’t facing at least ten years’ imprisonment as soon as they were back intheir own bodies.  

“The correct form of address is Your Majesty,” Kai saidstiffly, but the words sounded almost flirtatious in Carswell Thorne’s slowAmerican drawl.

Thorne smirked, and Kai instantly hated the way that smugexpression looked on his own face. Though he had to admit, he never would haveimagined that he could look so… well, relaxed. Happy, even.  After so many yearsof stress, he’d almost forgotten what his face looked like when his brow wasn’tcreased.

“What’s the matter, Your Magesticness?” He nodded to themirror.  “You look good.”  With apparently noregard for propriety when in the presence of royalty, the ex-cadet eased intothe room, sidling up to Kai and side-stepping Nainsi as she began to beep inprotest.  Thorne caught his eye in themirror and his mouth – Kai’s mouth – stretched into a wide grin.  He flicked his eyes up and downappraisingly.  “Aces, so do I.”

To his extreme embarrassment, Kai felt his – no, Thorne’s – cheeks redden.  True, he’d just been admiring his new body inthe mirror too, but at least he hadn’t been doing so with its usual occupantstanding less than three feet away.

“How did you escape your guards?” he asked, more out ofcuriosity than fear. He was reasonably sure that Thorne wouldn’t try to harmhim while he was in Thorne’s body.  Theman might be a criminal, but Kai knew from his record that he wasn’t stupid,however much he liked to play the daring rogue.

Thorne shrugged.  Thedismissive gesture looked oddly regal on Kai’s lanky frame.  “Got bored, challenged them to a game of cards.  They figured out pretty quickly that I wascheating, but then they got into a fight over how I was doing it.”  Hiseyes gleamed with mischief.  “I slippedout while they were arguing.  You reallyneed to hire better security.”

Kai rubbed his – Thorne’s– temple wearily, and sat back down on the hospital bed.  “I can’t believe this is happening,” hegroaned.

Seemingly unconcerned that Nainsi was now tugging on thetrousers of his hospital gown in an effort to pull him away from her emperor,Thorne sat down next to him and gave him a nudge.

“Why so blue, Your Magesticness?”

Kai shot him a scathing look.  “Oh, I’m just fine,” he said, and this time, thankfully, his voice oozedsarcasm.  “My doctors have stuck me inthe body of one of the world’s most notorious criminals, my guards are utterlyincompetent, and said criminal is now invading my personal space and talking tome like we’re friends or something.  Andmy city has just suffered a major power outage, and my advisors are nowhere tobe found, and – oh, for all the stars, stop smirking, would you?”

“Sorry,” Thorne said, in the same voice Kai used when he wasnot-sorry-at-all.  “It’s just – I have anandroid friend who’s pretty much obsessed with you, and I’m starting to see whyyou’ve got so many admirers.”  He lookedup, leaning dangerously close.  “You’rekind of cute when you get all riled up.”

Kai rolled his eyes.  Stars,just when he thought the day couldn’t get any weirder, now one of his ownprisoners was flirting with him.  Aprisoner wearing his face.  And… and forsome reason, he wasn’t discouraging him.

“Do you often use pick-up lines on yourself?” he asked.  He recalled something he’d read from arecorded interrogation of one of Thorne’s former accomplices.  “I don’t know why I’m surprised – this is the man rumoured to flirt with hisown ship.”

Thorne’s eyes widened. “How do you – Wait, you read my file?” he asked.  He didn’t seem troubled – if anything, helooked flattered.  Kai couldn’t rememberthe last time he’d seen that expression on his face – it was so different tothe strained smiles he gave when addressing the public.  Had he alwayshad dimples?

“No,” Kai lied. Thorne grinned again, and too late, Kai remembered the lie detector hehad installed in his retina display.  Theretina display built into the body that the man sitting beside him currentlywore.  More to distance himself from Thorne– a criminal, he reminded himself –than out of any desire to see the wrong reflection looking back at him again,he stood up, and walked back over to the mirror.

Unfortunately, Kai realised quickly, resuming staring atCarswell Thorne’s strong jaw and broad shoulders and perfectly tousled brownhair wasn’t the best distraction.

“Like what you see?”

Kai didn’t know how to answer that without revealing toomuch, so he said nothing.  But if thesound of his own low laugh was any indication, Thorne knew exactly what hissilence meant.

Hurried footsteps alerted Kai to the arrival of his guardsmoments before the door burst open.  Fora split second, the guards looked ready to seize him; then, remembering the unusual circumstances their emperor hadfound himself in, they turned on the boy lounging on the hospital bed.

“Your Majesty?” one of the guards asked Kai, soundinguncertain.

Kai fixed the woman with his most regal stare.  “Yes?”

She let out a small sigh of relief at having correctlyidentified her emperor from her prisoner. “Your Imperial Majesty,” said the guard, bowing low.  When she rose, she seemed to be afraid tomeet Kai’s eyes.  “I beg your pardon,Sir.  Your android alerted us to theintrusion, but the net is still down in several areas of the palace, and hermessage took a few minutes to get through.”

Kai ran a hand through his hair – his unusually short,perfectly tousled hair.  CarswellThorne’s hair felt surprisingly nice beneath his fingers.  He pulled his hands back to his sides.

“Why was my room unguarded?” Kai demanded.

The guard shuffled her feet nervously.  “I… don’t know, Your Majesty.”

“I do,” Thorne piped up, cheerfully.

“Shut up,” Kai said.

“We shall investigate the matter as soon as possible, Sir,”the guard promised.

“See that you do,” said Kai. “And double the guard for Mr. Thorne, too.  I want the guards who were supposed to bewatching him fired effective immediately.”

Thorne looked proud, as though the extra guard count was asign of his own competence as a criminal. The guard nodded, and recognising Kai’s tone of dismissal, gestured forher companions to escort Thorne from the room. They did so, looking uneasy at the prospect of handling their Emperor’sbody with force, but Thorne went willingly.

“One more thing,” he called as the guards led him to thedoors.  “Don’t use the hospital soap,it’s too drying.  I have very sensitiveskin, you know.”

Kai snorted, although a little part of him noted thatCarswell Thorne had very nice skin.  Nottoo dry at all.

“Goodbye, Mr. Thorne,” he said warily.  “I’ll see you at your trial.”

Thorne laughed again.