i give you one more hug

“Hi,” Will whispers.

“Hi,” Ryan whispers back.

He’s trying to figure out what the catch is – beside the horrible hangover taking root in his skull – what series of events could have possibly taken place in the gap of memory between emptying the minibar in his hotel room last night and waking up in bed with a sweet-eyed Will in his bed this morning, when someone starts pounding on the door loud enough to wake half the floor.

“What the hell,” Will says, eyebrows scrunching in annoyance.

Ryan’s annoyed too. If Will is suddenly willing to kiss him, who knows what else he’s willing to do. Who the fuck is interrupting Ryan’s shot at more?

The pounding doesn’t stop. Whoever is on the other side of the door is mad enough to start yelling, too. Ryan can’t make out the words, just the general tone. They are not happy.

“Make them go away?” Will asks hopefully.

Ryan would rather stay here, tangled up with Will. Like. He’s not wearing much. Ryan shifts strategically beneath the blanket. Oh. He’s not wearing anything.

“Please,” Will says, blinking slowly at him.

Ryan huffs.

The asshole at the door has only gotten louder so it’s probably best to go deal with them before someone calls security or even the cops. Then Ryan can get back to the more important work of seeing what Will will let him do under the covers.

Ryan’s not dressed either – he’s got no memory of losing his clothes, but he can’t say he’s sorry to have ended up naked in bed with Will at the end of what must have been a very good night – and he pulls on the first pair of sweats he finds in the semi-dark on his way through a little sitting area to the door, managing to bang his shin against the corner of the couch. The thick blackout curtains are only open a slit. Everything’s dim, though the desert sun clearly wants in.

There’s a moment right before Ryan opens the door when he shoves his hair out of his eyes and something’s off about it, but he doesn’t have time to fully process what before he’s swinging open the door and he’s hit with something much more obviously wrong.

His stomach drops out unpleasantly.

“What—” Ryan says but he doesn’t even get out “—the fuck” before the person – the imposter – at the door yells, “Give me back my body you fucking asshole!” and tackles him to the floor.

Ryan hits the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of him. He doesn’t even fight back right away; one because he can’t breathe, and two because the shock has shaken him so badly.

The guy who’s just pinned him to the ground is… himself? Even in the dim lighting, it’s pretty fucking unmistakable.

“Who—what—” Ryan wheezes. Jesus, he’s fucking heavy. It’s good to know his lifting gains have paid off but also: what the fuck?

“Is that you in there Leonard? I swear to fucking god,” the guy wearing his body snarls.

Ryan blinks. He looks down at his arms, his bare chest. His skin's pale. No freckles. Still feels like a hockey body, same general muscle definition and build, but— “Celebrini?” Ryan gasps.

He’s in fucking Macklin Celebrini’s body?

“You’re real lucky I don’t want to do any damage to my own body for when I get it back, because otherwise I’d fucking kill you for this,” Celebrini tells him in his own voice.

Sunlight suddenly pours into the room, making both of them squint and cover their eyes at the glare.

“Leno?” Will says. He’s standing by the window, lit in the harsh gold of Vegas daylight. “What the fuck. What are you doing here? Get off Mack.”

“No! Will, you don’t understand,” Mack-in-Leno’s-body whines. Actually whines. Ryan does not sound like that when he’s piloting his own body. “I’m Mack. That asshole stole my body.”

“Um,” Will says. “What?”

Ryan realizes, abruptly, what Will’s tender morning kiss was all about. He thinks he’s going to be sick. “Get off me,” he mutters, shoving at Mack. At himself. God, his head is spinning.

“No,” Mack says, pushing him harder into the hotel carpet like he’s trying to grind Ryan into it.

“Get off me or I’ll puke on you,” Ryan clarifies.

Mack hastily gets off him.

Ryan stumbles his way into the bathroom, dropping to his knees on the cold tile in front of the toilet. Will and Mack’s hotel room is not only bigger than his, but the bathroom also has a jacuzzi tub. How is any of this fair?

Ryan dry heaves for awhile, but nothing comes up. Maybe Mack didn’t drink as much as he did last night. Ryan viciously hopes Mack has a brutal hangover in his body. It would serve him right.

“Are you done in there? Leno. We need to talk.”

Ryan spits into the toilet. He still feels like shit, but hiding out in the bathroom all day evidently isn’t going to be an option. Getting shakily to his feet, he sticks his head under the sink faucet to guzzle some water before he opens the bathroom door.

Will looks somewhere between concerned and annoyed. Mack – still wearing his body – looks furious.

Well, Ryan’s not exactly thrilled either. He crosses his arms over his chest. Mack’s chest. Kid doesn’t even have any hair, just an expanse of pale, milky white skin. Honestly, Ryan should have taken the time to check out his dick situation while he was holed up in the bathroom. Maybe if his head hurt less. “What do you want to talk about, Will?”

“Uh. Why you’re in Mack’s body?”

So apparently Mack's been able to convince him of the switch while Ryan was busy failing to commune with the toilet. Ryan stares at him. “You think I did this on purpose?”

“Well, last night you sure fucking objected on purpose,” Mack screeches. God. Is that how Ryan’s voice really sounds? No. Mack’s fucking up his vocal chords. He’s committing crimes in Ryan’s body. “And obviously I didn’t do this.”

“I’m not some fucking magician,” Ryan snaps. “I have no idea how our bodies got switched.” Or how to switch them back. Oh, god. Nightmare nightmare nightmare. Then his brain processes what Mack said. “Wait. Objected to what on purpose?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Mack huffs.

“I’m not playing dumb, I—”

“No, yeah, you really are stupid, I forgot—”

“Oh, shut the fuck up. I was blackout drunk, okay, I don’t—”

Mack suddenly grabs Will’s wrist, holding his hand up in front of Ryan’s face. There’s a slim golden band around his finger. His ring finger.

Ryan stares at it for an embarrassingly long time before it computes.

“God. Do I always look that stupid when I’m thinking? Will, he’s abusing my body with his dumb brain,” Mack complains.

“Is that—” Ryan licks his lips. Mack's lips. They're oddly thin. “That looks like a wedding ring.”

There’s a flash of memory now. Fragmented, disjointed pieces with missing gaps. A gaudy wedding chapel. A glittering Elvis. A bride in a short wedding dress and six-inch heels, wiping at her thickly lined eyes.

Will and Mack in street clothes, giggling at the altar.

Ryan, so drunk he had to lean on the pew to stay upright, yelling – something. It wasn’t nice, he doesn’t think.

He glances down at his own left hand. Mack’s left hand. There’s a matching gold band wrapped around the ring finger.

Mack sees it too. Then he fucking – pounces. Grabs at Ryan’s hand, trying to wrestle the ring off.

“Ow,” Ryan yelps, jerking his hand back. Mack’s grip is too strong, and he can’t break his hold. “You’re gonna break my finger!”

“It’s MY finger I can break it if I want to,” Mack pants, wild-eyed, still clawing at the ring. He digs at Ryan’s skin with his nails. He’s going to draw blood if he’s not careful, and he's really not being careful.

“Well I’m fucking using it right now you psycho,” Ryan says, chopping at Mack’s throat with his free hand. He doesn’t want to do any permanent damage to his own body, but maybe Mack will back off if he can’t fucking breathe for a second.

Will finally steps between them. “Mack, you’re going to be pissed if you have to miss any games with a broken finger once you get your body back, so chill out, would you? Leno will give us the ring.”

Sullen, Mack finally back offs. “Fine.”

Ryan can’t even think about the possibility of being stuck in Celebrini’s body when the season starts again. He doesn’t even know how they’re going to get through the rest of this trip. At least their hockey obligations are done for the weekend. But what’s he supposed to do, fly back to Vancouver and fake his way through the rest of Mack’s offseason training? He kind of feels like he’s going to throw up again.

Will holds his hand out, palm up. Eyes unexpectedly stinging, Ryan blinks rapidly as he pulls the ring off and places it in Will’s hand. Both he and Mack watch as Will closes his fingers around it.

“Mack,” he says slowly. “Let me talk to Leno for a minute, would you?”

Mack does not do nice things to Leno’s face, but leaves the bathroom. He makes his displeasure known, stomping around the room – around the honeymoon suite, Ryan realizes with another sick lurch.

Ryan sits on the edge of the jacuzzi tub, crossing his arms over his stomach. He’s always kind of hated his freckles, but he misses them badly right now. He hates Celebrini’s pale, unmarked skin.

“I didn’t do this on purpose,” Ryan says to his knees. “I swear, Will. I don’t know how this happened.”

Will doesn’t say anything for a minute. “This morning,” he starts. “When we were in bed – I kissed you.”

Ryan nods. He can’t look Will in the eye.

“I thought you were Mack. Obviously.”

There’s a lump in Ryan’s throat. Mack’s body doesn’t deal with it any better than Ryan’s does, but he swallows it down. “Obviously.”

“But you… you knew it was me the whole time. And you let me kiss you. You kissed me back. Why?”

If Ryan drowned himself in the jacuzzi, would Mack be stuck in Ryan’s body forever while Mack’s was laid to rest? Or would Ryan’s soul die and Mack’s revert back to his own body?

Most importantly, would it get Ryan out of answering this question?

“I don’t know,” he mumbles. “I thought – I don’t know.” He doesn’t look up to check Will’s expression. To see if Will believes him. “I really just want my body back,” he says.

Then he’ll be free to crawl in a hole and die without anyone getting up in his business about it. That seems like such a small ask after everything he’s been through.

Will sighs. “Yeah, okay. Guess we’ve got some shit to figure out.”

Ryan hopes he’s adding divorce to that list, but he’s not brave enough to push his luck right now. “Okay,” he agrees. Mack’s voice sounds small and pathetic like this. Ryan has no idea why Will likes the kid so much.

But the ring is still on Will’s finger when he opens the bathroom door and slips back into the room.