Dual Persona

Chapter 05 : Forging a Profound Bond

Ben's pov

Math class was boring. Sitting and listening to the teacher ramble about numbers and solving for X was mind numbing. It's not like I would need to retain it, anything I forgot Riley usually knew. He enjoyed math, or rather he enjoyed being better than everyone else at math. School was something of a joke now that I had an academically inclined(at least in terms of math, science and English) sixteen year old stuck in my head. I was tired and losing focus on what the professor was saying, I started to drift off feeling a strange sensation of weightlessness .
"X=6." A voice faintly said, an intense feeling of worry mixed with a dull sharpness surged through me.
"Very good Mr. Poole but do try and look more attentive." My teacher said. Wait why was he talking to me. I didn't say anything.
"Of course." The voice said as a surge of worry added to the sensation of disgust and something else.
The world slowly started coming back into focus as the pleasant weightlessness faded. Panic started to set in as I realized I couldn't feel anything. The surge of worry flowed into panic.
"May I go to the nurse, my stomach hurts." My voice asked the teacher.
" Yes you may. You don't sound well." The teacher responded.
{" Ben please calm down I'm gonna get us sent home then we'll figure this out."} Riley's voice echoed sounding strained.
Riley walked to the nurse's office and informed her that we weren't feeling well. After listing several symptoms all of which were made up, the nurse called my parents and informed them I was I'll and needed to be brought home.
Now all we had to do was wait. The outside world began to fade away as the pleasant weightlessness sensation from before began to set in. Riley seemed to have a plan I could just rest and let him take care of things for now.
{ "Ben focus!" } Riley said as a sharp pain surged through me snapping me out of my daze. { " You can't zone out like that right now, I know it's hard and it'd be easier to let go but you need to stay aware until we figure out how to change back. "}
{ "Are we hurt?" I felt pain just now."} I asked, curious to know if he felt the pain I went through.
My Mom arrived just as Ben was about to answer. Mom fussed over him as she walked us to the car. I could feel how awkward he felt but the feeling of pain while dulled continued to remain keeping me from drifting off. A short drive later and we were home. Riley took us to my room and immediately curled up in the blankets after Mom promised to bring us some chicken noodle soup later.
{ " So to answer your earlier question, sort of. What you felt was the full amount of pain I experienced upon accidentally taking control."} Riley explained his voice sounding miserable.
{ " Taking control hurts you that badly ?"} I ask realizing that what I'm feeling now was probably the state he was normally in. The pain suddenly disappeared altogether after I finished speaking.
{ " Right, sorry about that I was letting it go through the bond to keep you from drifting off don't worry about me." } Riley started before continuing. { " Also you shouldn't worry about experiencing it when you take back control from me. It's likely a side effect of going from being disembodied to having a body. You hopefully haven't gotten used to not having a body so it shouldn't be as bad."}
Despite the fact that the notion should be comforting I could also feel Riley's uncertainty in what he was saying. A stark contrast from normal where he was able to hide his feelings a lot better. I wonder if this was because he was in control of the body or because he was in evidently a lot of pain.
{ "The feeling of weightlessness, is that what it's like for you all the time?" } I couldn't help but to ask the question. If he felt like this all the time why was he always so present, he could just let go heck if I were in his shoes I probably wouldn't have contacted me if I could feel like that all the time.
{ "It is."} Riley confirmed his confusion radiating across our link before settling into understanding as he answered my unasked question. { " It's too nice of a feeling, that's how I stay so present without you having to send me doses of pain."}
His distaste for the sensation was practically rippling off of him. I'd never thought that he would view it that way or given much thought to how he existed beyond the fact he was tied to me.
{" Alright time to try and switch back."} Riley said breaking me out of my thoughts. { " Now how did you lose control? "}
{ " I don't know, I felt really tired than I slowly lost focus. Next thing I knew you were in control."} I replied.
{" Ok and I wanted to answer the question so you didn't get in trouble." } Riley began as he repositioned us so that our mouth was muffled by a pillow, {" So if we try to get into those respective mindsets of wanting something maybe we can change back. I'll try letting go and you try wanting to take control."}
I started focusing on wanting to be back in control. I could feel Riley starting to let go when all of the sudden intense pain ignited everywhere all at once. I screamed though it was all muffled by the pillow. Eventually my screams faded to whimpers until I was able to silence myself despite the bad still being present.
{ " How did you not scream when we switched during school? "} I asked weakly. I could still feel Riley's emotions fairly well, which thankfully proved that it wasn't because he was in control. But guilt was now rolling off him in waves.
{ " I'm sorry. I should never have said anything to you I should've just stayed silent."} Riley said his guilt was somehow increasing.
{ " What are you talking about ?"} I responded with anger tainting my voice.
{ " Good you should be angry with me. I possessed you like some sort of parasite and the pain you're in is my fault. If I had just stayed silent this wouldn't have happened." } Riley shouted.
{ " You're blaming yourself for this. Did you intentionally take control? Did you know it would hurt? Obviously you didn't, this was an accident that in the long run may be a good thing."} I said my anger was gone in the face of his determination to blame himself.
{ " A good thing, how is this a good thing?"} He asked, a flicker of hope flashing through from him.
{ " You obviously have physical skills I don't know and now rather than simply instructing me you could simply take over. Or in a life or death duel rather than me attempting to play you could duel in my place." } I responded trying to convince him that maybe this could be useful.
{ " That answer proves how much I've ruined your life. Looking at being possessed and the pain it brings both of us both as an asset in the grand mission rather than what it actually is, a massive breach of trust. " } Riley responded despondently.
I wasn't sure how to respond to that. Did he really think he ruined my life, that if I didn't want to go along with his let's prepare to confront the future problems strategy, I would be doing this. That he'd manipulated me into this mentality when he was the one constantly trying to get me to have fun and not be too serious. My life is better now than it ever was before, my grades were better, I had more friends now thanks to Duel Monsters a game I wouldn't have played without Riley's influence. But given his response and emotional state just telling him that probably wouldn't mean much, he'd just discard it as him corrupting me.
All of the sudden it became obvious what I had to do as I remembered something. Feeling for him mentally I gave a hard shove as I mentally stepped back forcing him into control. This time he screamed into the pillow.
{ " Riley listen to me !" } I began. { " Do you remember when I had cut a few weeks ago and you had me press it so that in the moment it would hurt more but once I let go it would hurt less when I let go. Well apply that mentality to this. Maybe what you've done has ruined my life but I don't see it that way. Everything is better for me now than it ever was before, but if you think your influence ruined it then you're wrong. You didn't break my trust because I trust you with me, I trust you to fight off whatever is coming down the line, I trust you enough to deal with all of my problems and more importantly I trust you enough to split my time with you."}
{ " Ben what are you saying?" } Riley was actually in tears at this point. His emotions rotating between guilt, confusion, despair, and a very fragile bit of hope.
{ " I'm saying that from now on we're going to switch every day." } I declared feeling his despair and confusion fade, but the guilt and hope magnify.
{ " I don't deserve that, and you shouldn't put yourself through that much pain." } He responded.
{ " Well that's what's going to happen. Regardless of whether you think you deserve it or how much pain it is. It's my choice."} I said before continuing. {" Obviously there will be some rules and we'll have to make a schedule but it's going to be the new normal."}
{ "Ok, but remember you can stop it at any time."} Riley said the guilt was still there but it was heavily dulled and mixed with gratitude and resignation.

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So the events of this chapter originally going to just be mentioned off hand after a time skip but I felt like that was a cop out so I rewrote the whole chapter yesterday and ended up with this. Please please let me know what you think of this. I'm actually curious to know since it's so different from what I originally had planned.
Which was a duel against Joey Wheeler. That will still happen sometime in the future(probably in the next 5-10 chapters) but I felt time skipping over this would be detrimental to character growth and future character arcs I have planned.