“Hey, dear, could you come here for a second?”
“Yeah, sure. What d’you want?”
For Soma and Sophia, college had just started back up. No student ever looks forward to school starting again, but for the couple, university beginning was especially frustrating. They had spent a good chunk of their summer fucking about with the skinsuits that Sophia had discovered back in March. While much of their time was indeed filled with various sexual activities, there was plenty of time spent just with each other, enjoying various relationship dynamics that they otherwise just couldn’t experience as the selves they were born as. It was nice; Soma enjoyed being a girl - a little too much, maybe - and Sophia just found it refreshing to cast her identity away for a little while. But ultimately, the best part of the summer was hanging out with each other whenever they wanted - and school meant an end to that.
On this Sunday evening, Sophia eagerly beckoned Soma over to their closet.
“Oh god, more skinsuit shenanigans?” Soma said, a little disappointed. “Like, don’t get me wrong, I love them, but I have homework due tonight. Maybe another time?”
“No, no, no. Not now,” Sophia said with a sweet smile, “but tomorrow, are you up for something?”
“Uhhh… I guess? I mean, you know I have Mondays free. Aren’t you busy though? Like, you have two classes in the middle of the day, right?”
Sophia’s smile turned mischievous.
“Yeah. Pretty much. You see, I can’t make them tomorrow; my parents want to meet up with me. Since it’s our senior year of college and all that, they want to make sure I have the skills to start working at their company when I get out. You already worked there over the summer, so they have some measure of your skills, but they want to test me now. Plus, they want me to inherit their CEO position whenever they retire (yeah, it’s nepotism, but it benefits us, so I don’t mind), so, I think they want to start training me to be their little replacement as soon as I graduate. So yeah. I want you to go to my classes and take notes for me. Your lab science degree isn’t far off from my bio classes, I think (?), so you shouldn’t have any trouble with that.”
“So, why are you smiling like that then? I can just go and… oh… you want me to be…”
“Yep! You’ll be going as me!”
Sophia opened their closet door and pulled out the skinsuit of herself that she had ordered for their anniversary half a year prior. She wasn’t even fazed by the lifeless, floppy facsimile of herself that she was holding up, nor the fact that she was putting her life directly in the hands of her boyfriend. It’s interesting how normal strange things become when one does them a lot.
Soma wasn’t the most thrilled by this.
“So, you want me to be you for your classes tomorrow?” Soma asked, making sure he was understanding the situation correctly.
“Mm-hm!” she nodded quickly.
“Listen. I’ve been you before. Even in public, we’ve been each other. But you want me to go do your normal stuff as your replacement and possibly interact with other people as you while you’re not watching? You’re not worried by any of this?”
“Nope!”
“What if I did stuff that would ruin your name?”
“You won’t. I know you. You’re too afraid to ask a waiter to fix your order if they get it wrong; you barely talk to others out of anxiety that you’ll say something wrong. Dear, I know you wouldn’t dare to even do anything bad as me. And… I trust you.” She got on the tips of her toes and booped him on the nose. “So yeah, I’m not worried at all. I’m sure you’ll do a great job, too.”
“Thanks for the confidence…” Soma murmured. “I guess I’ll do it. Now, I’m going to finish my assignment. Good night, Pneum.”
She guffawed. “I thought you stopped calling me by that.”
“What’s wrong with your middle name? It’s kinda cute in a weird way. Anyway, good night.”
“G’night, dear!”
Sophia went about her nightly routine, mentally preparing for the next day. She hadn’t seen her parents in person in a while, so she was excited and nervous. She lay in bed, wrapped in her sheets, awaiting a new day.
Soma entered the room only a few minutes after she was done getting ready, mentally exhausted from his homework. He crashed in the bed and cuddled up against his beloved, giving her a little kiss on the cheek. She nestled into him, and they drifted asleep.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Wake up motherfucker!”
Soma jolted awake to hear his girlfriend giggling at the foot of the bed. He looked over at her and brushed some pink hair out of his eyes. She was dressed well, wearing a black skirt and blouse that complemented her figure. Clearly she was ready for the day. Yet, something felt off to Soma; something about himself.
“Good morning?” he said, realizing what was up. Her voice had come out of his mouth. “Goddamn it, I’m you already! How did you even get me in this without me waking up?”
“Well, Pneuma, it was quite a pain. You’re heavy in your sleep. There were a few times I thought you had awoken, actually. Anyway, you should probably start getting ready; class starts in an hour. Good luck.”
She walked over and kissed her doppelgänger on the cheek, then departed.
“Well, shit.” Pneuma uttered. “I don’t even… what do I do?”
She got up from her bed, noting that Sophia hadn’t even bothered to dress her, and began to attempt her daily routine. Even though she’d seen Sophia do it many times, Pneuma was having difficulties remembering exactly what needed to be done. Ultimately, she ended up just doing the standard morning routine that she did as Soma, just with a few added steps. She: went to the bathroom, considered taking a shower, realized that taking a shower would require more time than she had, brushed her teeth, realized that showering and brushing teeth is kinda pointless anyway since the skins don’t really sweat or get plaque, made a mental note for later to look into hygiene in the suits, went back to their room, tried to get dressed, spaced out and started to dread going to school, snapped back and realized she’d been staring at Soph’s sock and underwear drawer for five minutes, “damn that’s a lot of socks”, debated what to wear that Sophia normally would, “fuck it”, put on shorts, a t-shirt, and some knee-high socks, went to the desk to put on make-up, checked the time - not enough, hurried, got some foundation, concealer, eyeliner, and mascara on and called it a day, rushed out the door - almost forgetting the keys, and barely made it on the bus outside their apartment.
“Hey, Sophia! What’s up!” The bus driver called to her as she got on.
Sophia and Soma were the only college students in the immediate area due to the price of living around there, so even though the bus went through the college, they were the only young people that rode this route regularly. Because of this, they each had built up a bit of a friendship with the driver over the past few months. Just a little bit, though.
Pneuma let out the tiniest squeak and huddled over to a chair in the back of the bus. The bus driver looked over his shoulder at her as she scurried off, confused.
The bus ride itself would’ve been uneventful had Pneuma not been anxious to possibly interact with others after it. She knew none of their classmates lived anywhere around here, or at least, she’d never seen any of them. Regardless, the prospect of going into an area where people knew and interacted with Sophia that Pneuma had no clue of made her incredibly nervous.
When they were out together as each other in the past, Sophia, as Soma, had often taken the lead whenever they were spotted by someone that knew either of them, since she was by far the more social and tactful of the two. If that person knew only Soma, she’d act like she always knew them, after all, even if she made a mistake, they wouldn’t think that Soma is actually someone else, just that he was a bit off today. And if she knew the person only as Sophia, she’d introduce herself again and act like she always had around them. Things always would be a bit weird, since they couldn’t have the same knowledge of all aspects of their life, but Sophia generally made things work.
Whenever he had to interact with Sophia’s friends, Soma would just diminish him/herself and let Sophia take lead as himself. Sure, it was horribly out of character for the two of them, but once again, who would think they weren’t their normal selves. This stayed true as Pneuma walked through campus. Sophia had texted her where to go for the classes, so she wasn’t completely lost, but it still took some time to figure out where exactly the room was. The whole time, she stayed hunched over and avoided eye contact with other students to avoid being recognized and possibly put in an awkward situation. Of course, this also looked odd to other students, but it was what Soma knew well.
The first course she had was Ecology. Despite being a Biology major, the university had determined this was necessary. Soma was a Clinical Lab Science major himself (he knew it was a bit outdated, but Sophia’s parents said that they will have some spots open for that major when he graduates), so while many of their courses overlapped, this one wasn’t one of them. Thankfully, it was a full lecture class, so it didn’t matter where she sat.
She looked to the far back corner, Soma’s usual sitting place of choice in lecture halls. Sadly it was filled up already by similarly socially anxious nerds, so she had to find another seat. As she was looking around, a hand waved from the middle of the room. She checked all around her to make sure that there was nobody else it could be aimed at. There was no one.
Pneuma hurried over to the hand that was waving. As she began to awkwardly scoot past all the people in the tightly packed row, the hand started beckoning to her, so she knew she hadn’t made a mistake yet. She sat down in the cramped space, plopping her bag down in front of her and trying to scoot it under the seat with her feet. Sophia’s friend spoke to her:
“Hey-o, bitch! ‘Sup!” she greeted her.
“Uhh, hey, h-how’re you?” Pneuma uttered quietly.
Sophia’s friend gave Pneuma an odd look.
“Ya doing alright? Ya seem a bit down today.”
“Ah, no, I-I’m fine.”
The odd look grew more concerned.
“Ya sure? You were fine last week. Did something happen over the weekend? Anything go bad with your boyfriend? A fight maybe?” She cracked a devious smile.
“What-no, what? No!” Pneuma became somewhat offended. “Everything’s totally fine with us! Why would you even - what? Why?!”
Sophia’s friend raised her hands, widened her eyes, and backed off a bit.
“Jesus! You were just really down, and you’re never that way; I thought something might’ve happened between you two. I don’t know, it just seems like your mood’s linked to your time with him, that’s all. Sorry if that got to you.”
They sat in silence for a little bit. Not wanting to ruin Sophia’s friendship or anything like that, Pneuma leaned over and tried to break the tension.
“So, uhh, what d’you think we’re covering today? The weekend felt long, and I kinda forgot where we’re at.”
“Tch, I have no clue either. Shit sucks. Why do you even care anyway? It's not like ya need to keep your GPA up to get into grad school or anything. Your parents’ll basically hire you, regardless. Lucky bitch.”
While it was clear that there was some genuine jealousy under those statements, her smile gave away that it was mostly teasing.
“Oh come on, I gotta at least pass to graduate.” Pneuma replied. “And you don’t get that safety net, so you better pay attention, motherfucker.”
Pneuma tried to pick up on the vibe of their friendship. It clearly wasn’t quite it, but her friend no longer seemed suspicious of her, so she accepted it as a victory anyway.
The rest of class passed rather uneventfully. Pneuma paid a lot more attention to the lecture than she would any of her own. She knew next to none of the material covered, and while she figured that Sophia probably didn’t need super detailed notes, she jotted down most everything she heard when she wasn’t goofing off with her friend. She was worried that it’d pass by slowly, but Sophia’s friend made it oddly tolerable.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An hour and fifteen minutes after it began, the professor let them go. Sophia’s friend never got her notes out, and had such a tiny backpack, that Pneuma was pretty sure she didn’t even have a notebook in there. She left basically immediately because of this, leaving Pneuma to pack up and wait for the rest of the row to slowly shuffle out after they packed up, too. As she was leaving, she realized that she never actually learned the name of Sophia’s friend. She’d have to ask her about it later.
There was a fifteen minute break between that class and the next one, but Pneuma didn’t want to be almost late again, and quickly set off. It was on the other end of campus from where her last class was, much to her disappointment.
Emboldened, Pneuma walked a little more casually to the next class. She was still grateful that nobody stopped to talk to her, but she felt like she might’ve been able to handle it, maybe.
It took some time to figure out where the hell her next class was. It was in another lecture hall, so it shouldn’t have been hard to find, but it was. The hall was stuffed in the back of one of the music college’s buildings for some ungodly reason.
She made it with a few minutes to spare - not a comfortable amount, but still better than last time. This time she did get a seat in the back corner. However, she failed to account for the fact that she was a pretty girl now, instead of a slightly-above-average dude, and pretty soon found herself the attention of one of the less socially adept geeks she was sitting next to.
“H-hey,” the guy to her right uttered.
“Yeah? What?” she said in a rather flat tone as she turned to face him.
He was pretty average in looks, although it was obvious that he would be mildly attractive if he just took care of himself a bit better. His outfit combo of a graphic tee and cargo shorts certainly didn’t help, either. Soma was used to talking to this kind of person casually, so he didn’t think much of it yet.
“Y-you’re a g-girl, right?”
“Yeah. Do I look like a guy?”
“N-no, not at all, miss. I just haven’t talked to a female in so long…”
‘Oh, shit, yeah, of course he’s into me.’ Pneuma thought. ‘Sophia is pretty cute, to be honest. I’m sure a pretty girl choosing to sit next to him just made his day.’
“Well, y’know, I’m fine talking, but I’d like to focus on class, if you don’t mind.” Pneuma told him.
Soma had taken this course last semester.
“Y-yeah, sure! If there’s anything you need from me, please, let me know!” he awkwardly responded.
Pneuma didn’t really pay attention. This class, Cell Biology, was pretty vital to her major, so she made sure to pay attention and take notes consistently last semester. Said notes were hanging out at their apartment, and Sophia used them a lot as a reference for assignments and studying. Although neither of them studied much; they were intelligent enough to get through college with minimal to no studying.
The guy next to her piped up again halfway through class:
“Hey, you’re not taking notes or anything. I thought you wanted to focus…”
“Oh, yeah. I mean, my boyfriend took this class last semester, so I can just look at his notes if I get bored, plus that way I can listen to the lecture without breaking my attention to jot things down.”
“Oh, I see.” He looked pretty defeated.
She was confused for a moment as to why he was upset, until it clicked with her.
‘Did this dude really think that he had a chance with me?’ she thought, ‘I don’t like being vain, but she’s way out of his league, at least as he is right now. He has potential. And to be honest, she’s kinda out of my league, too. At least, I think. I’m not sure. I’d probably be in a similar position if I hadn’t been friends with her for a while. I don’t really know who’d want to date me.’
She felt bad for the rest of the class about crushing the guy, but at least she could take her mind off of it with the lecture. It was interesting; she enjoyed this kind of stuff. But at the same time, she already had learned it. So, it was a boring kind of interesting; a bit of a refresher, she reasoned.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The class ended after a little while longer - it was now 1:15. She figured it’d be a good time to get lunch and head back home, glad that she was through with being Sophia alone in public. However, as she left, a familiar voice called out from her right.
“Sophia!!!”
‘No!’ she thought, ‘She wouldn’t… Actually, no, she totally would.’
She turned and headed out of the crowd of exiting students. Sure enough, as she gained a better view of what was in front of her, she saw a head of white hair. It was him - himself.
She rushed up to the imposter Soma. He reached his arms out to give her a hug. She reluctantly returned it, angrily whispering in his ear:
“What the actual fuck Sophia? I thought you were busy. Wait, you are Sophia, right? Codeword, or like, safeword? Whatever we’re calling it.”
“March fourteenth.”
“Good. Still, what the fuck, Soph? Why are you here?”
“Well, we got done pretty fast. I don’t know if they were happy with my performance. God, I hope so. But, I had this planned as an extra thing in case we did finish early. I took your skinsuit and some clothes along with me, since I knew you wouldn’t notice they were missing. Gladly, my parents didn’t find it on me. I don’t even know what they’d think about this shit. But yeah! Don’t you like it?!” He spun as if he were showing off a dress. “I’m you! Your loving boyfriend! Surprising you after class!”
“Okay, so like, I enjoy that you’re here; it makes encountering people less awkward, and I love being around you, but also, like, it’s not cool that you just decided to be me without permission. How would you feel if I just became you and went somewhere without you knowing?”
“Ehh, I’d be fine with it, after all, like I said, I trust you, dear. But yeah, I get it, sorry. I should’ve thought about how you felt about it more. I just wanted to have some fun. And it is fun, right?”
Pneuma let out a big sigh.
“I’m glad you trust me. And yes, it is kinda fun. It’s like being out as each other, like we did over the summer. That was nice; I miss it.”
“Well then, why don’t you just think of it like that... We could even go on a date! I have the rest of the day off, and I know you do too, so why not?”
“Yeah, sure, that’d be nice, I suppose.”
“You suppose?” Sophia said, mock questioning her.
“Really? We’re doing this? I said sure already.” Sophia as Soma looked at Pneuma, playfully awaiting a response. “Yes. That’d be fun.” She let out a sigh, then perked up. “Well, then. Where do you want to go?”
“Well, I haven’t eaten lunch yet, and I know you haven’t either, so how about that? I often go by a sandwich shop nearby for lunch. I know it’s not much, but it’s convenient, and I think it’d be nice.”
“Yeah, sure So-” She caught herself before ‘Sophia’ slipped out. “-ma.”
He giggled. “Well then, let’s go. It’s this way.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Half an hour later, they were munching on sandwiches in the shop. SophSoma got an italian, while SomaSophia/Pneuma got a ham and cheese with mustard.
“So, how did classes go, dear?” SophSoma asked his girlfriend.
“Well, I tried to take a bunch of notes in your Ecology class. Your one friend got in the way of that though. She was really talkative. I don’t think she took any notes either. Oh yeah, what’s her name, by the way? I never caught it.”
“Oh, her! Alison! She’s not a very close friend, but I talk to her about stuff in class. But good for you for talking to her! I was worried that you’d just sit alone in the corner all slouch-y and ignore any attempts at conversing with anyone. Seriously though, I don’t think she’s gonna pass; she never pays attention in class and occasionally pokes fun at me for trying to.”
“Yeah, I got that vibe from her.”
“Yeah…” he stared off for a bit. “Well, how did Cell Biology go? I don’t have any real friends in there, so it was probably better for you, right?”
“Yep, I sat in the back corner-”
“Of course. The socially awkward corner.”
“And there was this - Hey, wait! I normally sit there!”
“Yeah, and?” He gave her a toothy grin. “Are you saying you’re not a bit socially awkward?”
“Ehh, fine. You’re not wrong. Anyway, there was this geeky kid who was totally hitting on me. It didn’t get creepy or anything. It was mostly just pathetic. I hope he gets a girlfriend or something; it sucks being lonely.”
“Mmm, I guess? I dunno, I’m not gonna care about the life of some nerdy kid who we only know from hitting on you in a biology class. Did you get any notes? Anything else interesting happen?”
“Nah, I have all of my notes from that class last semester at home, and the lecture itself was actually pretty boring. You can just reference the notes if you get lost or stuck. Or I could help if I’m not busy; I don’t mind.”
“So everything went well today?”
“I suppose so, yeah. Not as bad as I thought, for sure.”
“See! I knew you could do it! I’m proud of you!”
“Ok, thanks…”
After that, they spoke about various other things for another fifteen to twenty minutes - mostly just goofing around, really - before they decided to go back to their apartment to just hang out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So, Pneum, what’d you want to do now?” SomaSophia said as she locked the door to their apartment.”
“Well, I thought we could just chill and do something together, if that’s fine with you.”
“Yeah, I’m up to it. Anything in mind? A game or a movie? Or… study? I dunno, I have no ideas.”
“A game sounds nice. How about that?”
“Sure!”
The two of them sat down on the couch in front of the TV and turned on their Switch. SophSoma decided on playing Dark Souls, since he’d been wanting to make some more progress in it for a while, and SomaSophia had played it to death, so she could help out next to him.
SomaSophia wrapped her arms around her boyfriend and leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder and giving him a nice kiss on his neck. He responded by kissing her on her forehead and ruffling her hair a little bit, before turning his attention to the game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few hours passed in this way. Sophia wasn’t that bad at the game, but he hadn’t played much of it, and was clearly still learning it. He made some good progress, helped by Soma, who would give him tips and point at the screen from her spot on the couch. Due to the difference in where they were looking from, the pointing didn’t help much, but it added to the chaotic fun of casual misunderstandings and dying over and over. Soma often tried her best to calm him down, as he got a lot more heated than she normally does.
“Okay, so, this time,” Soma calmly instructed him, as he stood outside the fog wall, “kill the dogs, then go up the stairs and try to get a few plunging attacks on him. The dogs are the biggest threat here, not the demon, so try to get rid of them first.”
“Alright! Let’s do this! I’ve got it this time!”
“Yeh!”
Sophia went into the boss room pumped… and promptly got his ass kicked for like, the third or fourth time in a row.
“Aaah! It’s those fucking dogs! They’re just, eghhhh, y’know?! Just, agh, goddamn it!”
“Hey, hey, it’s fine, I’m sure you can do it; you’ll get it next time.”
“Yeah, maybe. I’m a little burnt out though. I’d kinda like to, uhh, y’know, maybe, uhh, cuddle, maybe, if you’re into it. I’m a little stressed out - from this and school and my parents and everything - and could use some nice physical contact. Just, being next to the person I love.”
“Yeah, sure, Soph. That’d be pretty nice.”
They moved to their bed, where they could have a little more room than the couch. They decided that Soma would be the little spoon, and thus Sophia the big one. Once they were secure in position, Sophia leaned over, kissed his girl’s neck, and whispered in her ear:
“I love you dear. Like, a lot. You mean so much to me. I just… mmm.”
He reached around Soma and brought her into a tight embrace. She wiggled her body back into him, a cute smile on her face as she brought her body closer to his.
“I love you too, Soph.” She responded. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
She closed her arms around her waist, where his hands were resting. They laid there for a long time, just taking in the wondrous feeling of being close to the person they loved. Soma fell asleep, listening to the breath of her boyfriend and lulled by the rise and fall of his chest. Despite Soma’s reservations about it, the day had turned out pretty nicely, and as s/he drifted off thought ‘I’d do all of that again, if it meant I got to spend more time like this.’