Seanday Shorts: Bait and Swap

I chuckled watching the two boys jostle each other as they walked down the street.

It was a good thing I'd done; I'm sure. At first I thought what had happened to me was a curse just destroying everything I touched, but I'd learnt to control it. Instead, I'd turned it around making it a tool for good, at least I thought so.

My heart warmed as I watched Tom--the smaller of the two boys--whisper something into David's ear. I could see David blush, and with a resigned smile he nodded. Tom hugs his friend; lovingly David puts an arm around him and lifts him like a small child. David was always the stronger of the two. Tom just sighed resting a head on David's shoulder.

I watched them walk up the street knowing I'd matched them well.

---

It hadn't been all fun and games with this new skill. Before I'd mastered it I only needed to touch someone, and I'd absorb everything that made them up into me like a huge sponge. All that would be left would be a pile of clothes, and I'd find myself changed into them; a perfect copy.

I'd ended up walking around gloves on all the time, in the showers I'd have to stuff my hands under my arms--just in case I touched anyone.

My last change was an accident, I'd just had a piss--I always took my gloves off for that. Before I could pull them on again a guy walked in the restroom and right into me. Seconds later I looked like him, with a groan I pulled off what I was wearing and started to pull on... Jack's clothes.

That was three months ago, now I'd mastered this power and no longer needed gloves. I had control; able to extract just parts, even put them back into a person--that's how I'd changed David and Tom.

I'd found them both at a club. Tom was a bully, aggressive, short tempered, and a dominant jerk. The more he drank the more he picked fights with others. I just had to touch him to extract all of his aggression and frustration leaving him a docile shell of himself. "Sit!" I told him, pointing at a chair.

David was less of a challenge; passive, shy, introverted but looked after himself. I wasn't even sure why he was at the club; perhaps he was coerced by someone. A touch to his arm and I had everything he was. David was just as docile as Tom, so I got them to sit together looking into each other’s dull eyes.

"You two follow me," I muttered leaving for my apartment. They trotted along behind me like obedient animals.

I worked my magic; pulling at each of their attributes, discarding the worse and combining their best. I worked on combining David's honesty, patience and strength with Tom's confidence and self-assurance. It took a while balancing their attributes, satisfied with the changes I pushed their new identities back into their bodies.

Confident, I left them to sleep. The next morning I found them in each other’s arms, and I knew it was going to work.

I sent them on their way following them down the street happy with their new found friendship.