Swap & Run (Patreon)

Author's Note: This short story is based off a story idea prompt I wrote months ago. I've included that original prompt at the end of this post so you can see its humble origins!

Ian was unhappy with his life. That in itself was shocking for a man of forty-seven with a bulging gut, thinning hair and constantly being used by younger men who only cared about the money he would spend on them, but unlike all those other men he actually had something he could do to rectify that. From an outsider's perspective the silver band he wore upon his finger didn’t look like anything special, but in actuality it held a secret that very few were privy to and that secret would help Ian escape his life of mediocrity.

The ring had been posted through his letterbox the previous day in an envelope and accompanied by a letter that at first seemed like insane rambling. It was addressed to Ian by name and had been signed by a Colton Moss, who explained that he had felt compelled to send the ring to Ian as if fate was guiding his hand. To anyone else that might have sounded like balloney but Ian had been raised by a superstitious mother and had even encountered a number of impossible things in his childhood that he had failed to ever explain, so the concept of a complete stranger being guided by some unseen force to send him a ring was hardly the most incredulous thing he had ever come across.

It was the remainder of the words in Colton’s letter that prompted Ian to doubt the other man’s sanity instead. He made the rather bold claim that the unremarkable piece of jewellery was actually imbued with a single magic power - it would switch the body of the wearer with the next living person they touched. The letter detailed how he had once been in a situation that Ian instantly connected with - frustrated, unloved and bitter - but he had used the ring to switch bodies with the arrogant gym trainer who had laughed at Colton’s request to get him in shape. Just thinking about the story, whether it was fiction or fact, awoke something within Ian. The more concept of escaping his miserable life into the body of a younger man with so much more promise was nothing short of invigorating. He didn’t just want to believe it was true, he had to.

There wasn’t a doubt in Ian’s mind about who he wanted to use the ring on either. He had little to do with his days in self-quarantine other than to watch the world go by through the windows of his home and for the past several months he had admired the Ken-doll looking hunk who jogged past his house at nine o’clock in the morning on a daily basis. The man was blessed with all of the masculine beauty an individual could hope for: perfectly clear skin, a chiselled square jawline and a perfectly sculpted build that would make even a marble statue jealous. As he began to watch the man more and more, Ian learned that the hunk lived in the same neighborhood as him and was undoubtedly the most eligible bachelor in the state. How nobody had snatched him up already was a mystery, although he had the look about him to suggest that perhaps he liked living life without strings and was content to just have fun however and whenever he felt like it. It wasn’t as if he’d have to try hard to get attention when he was a golden god walking among lesser men!

Shortly before nine o’clock the next morning Ian left his house and hobbled down the path, using his walking stick to support his weak knees. He walked a short distance down the sidewalk and when he could hear the rapidly approaching footfalls of a runner, he threw his body forward and smashed into the hard concrete ground. Various pains sprung up across his weak body and a sharp pain in his left arm suggested that he had perhaps even fractured the bone, but his fall had done the job as the heavy thud of running footfalls began to slow. “Holy shit, are you alright, man?” a deep voice from above Ian asked and the middle-aged man rolled over to find his target looming over him like the Colossus of Rhodes.

“W-would you mind helping an old man up?” Ian wheezed, grimacing at the twinge of discomfort he felt as he attempted to push himself up into a seated position. The other man offered his hand immediately and Ian accepted it with his ring-less hand, hardly surprised by the ease with which the man managed to pull him to his feet. Up close to the other man’s body for the first time, Ian did everything he could to take in the sight of those gorgeous rippling muscles that were coated in a thin sheen of sweat without his gaze lingering for too long. “Thank you, good sir,” he croaked, slapping down his ring-hand on the hunk’s large pectoral and causing both men to suddenly go rigid.

The sensation of having his aged and crippled body replicate that of the young hunk’s through that small point of physical contact was quite unlike Ian had ever experienced before, or would experience again. A chill rippled through him, as if he’d suddenly been exposed to arctic conditions, and then there was a pulling sensation throughout his being, before both feelings were replaced by a welcoming warmth. He let out the breath that had been trapped within him and as he did so his sagging chest tightened up and began to expand with firm muscle rather than the soft fat he was used to. His rotund gut pulled in to form a flat stomach decorated by six perfectly symmetrical abdominal muscles, while his shoulders and back grew broader in contrast to his slimming waistline. The thickness of his legs similarly shifted along the scale from soft to hard; the strong muscles of somebody who regularly took morning laps of the neighborhood replacing the weak joints of a man who hadn’t seriously contemplated working on his cardio for over a decade. His flat ass blossomed into two perfectly round globes that the fabric of his corduroy jeans struggled to contain, and even his feet grew larger and wider, leaving Ian thankful that he had opted to wear flip-flops rather than a more constricting shoe. 

While his body was undergoing a series of improvements, Ian watched as the reverse happened to his unfortunate victim. The stud’s perfect muscles began to soften and droop one by one and his perfect golden tan and smooth skin faded into a pale and pockmarked flesh. There was a shift in their heights too, the jogger shrinking to five-eight while Ian rose to a comparatively statuesque six-three. Their gazes remained locked on each other though and Ian could see the fear and frustration behind the other man’s eyes even as the colour of his irises shifted from a beautiful blue to a dull brown. He felt sympathy for the other man of course, but his own selfish desire had taken control and made it nigh on impossible for him to consider that he was doing anything wrong. If the hunk hadn’t wanted his body stolen then he wouldn’t have been flaunting it so publicly, after all…

Watching the other man’s cheeks begin to puff out and his blond hair darken and thin, Ian was rising a wave of desire. He could feel his own facial features shifting, a tickling sensation spreading across his visage and right to the back of his skull. The deep-voiced grunt that escaped his throat confirmed that he was adopting the younger man’s velvety tones to boot. Within mere moments Ian’s round face had taken on a more angular design and stubble had even spread across the lower half of his face and around his plump and perfectly kissable lips!

Only once their transformations had settled was Ian able to pry his hand off of the other’s cushiony chest, the ring still in place on his finger and seemingly not even ill-fitting despite the thinning of his previously sausage-like digits. They looked quite the pair standing there on the sidewalk: Ian in a young hunky body but wearing the baggy clothing of an older, shorter and rounder man, while the former stud was shirtless with a heavy gut hanging out over the tight constraints of sport shorts that struggled to contain him. It was so ridiculous that Ian couldn’t help but laugh as he ripped open his shirt, sending its buttons flying everywhere as he freed his muscular chest from the cotton cage.

“Thanks for the help, old man,” he praised, letting the pants drop to the floor leaving him only in a tight-fitting pair of briefs that left nothing to the imagination. He slapped the other on the shoulder but even with the ring still on his finger there was no chance of them switching back into their original bodies, something else Ian had learned from Colton’s letter. For good or bad there would never be another exchange between the two men, nor would Ian be able to pass onto another body in the future. He’d feel compelled to send the ring on to another deserving man who needed the most extreme escape from their monotonous lives. 

In the immediate moments though, Ian’s attention remained with the man whose body and life he had so easily stolen. “I’m gonna need my keys,” he stated in a tone that left no room for argument as he pushed the button-less shirt against the other’s woefully overexposed torso and then kicked his pants across to the other. “I’ll let you keep the shorts though, they can be a memento for your old life. I’m a nice guy like that.” The remark was accompanied by a prideful smirk that was in sharp contrast to the other man’s quivering lip and the burning rage in his watery eyes. He had every right to be miserable, of course, but it only made him look even more pathetic and frankly Ian didn’t really have the time to deal with it. He had a hot new body he couldn’t wait to explore and each moment he continued to spend in the presence of the life he had left behind was a moment wasted. “Now… the keys, before I have to take them by force too. Don’t keep me waiting, old man.”

His victim continued to be putty in his hands, dropping the keys into his open palm even as he began to croak and cry. Once he had turned his muscular back on the other though, Ian cast him out of mind for good - he had the keys to his new life now and it was about time he started living it!

Original prompt:

Ian knew that his "swap and run" plan was a little risky but he just couldn't help himself when he'd seen the Ken-doll looking hunk out for a jog. That handsome face, the perfect hair and beautiful rippling abs were all but calling out to him, begging for Ian to take them. He simply couldn't resist, so he'd crossed the man's path, asked for a favour he didn't really need and then pressed his hand right against the other's sweaty pec. Thanks to that neat little magic ring on his finger their essences had been exchanged and he was expelled from his unimpressive forty-something out-of-shape body into a prime specimen of masculinity! He was smart enough not to wait around either and got right the hell out of there. No doubt the other would be after him to try and swap back but Ian wasn't going to let that happen until he got to have a bit of fun as a delectable piece of masculine beef in the prime of his life!