The Evans Brothers [Part II] (Patreon)

Make sure you read part one of this four-part story first!

Chris wasn’t entirely convinced that he was actually awake. If he was still in a dream - one that looked and felt incredibly realistic, he had to admit - then at least the notion of switching bodies with his younger brother could be rationalised. If he wasn’t dreaming and this really was reality then life was a whole lot weirder than Chris had ever given it credit for. Body swaps were the stuff of cheesy B-movies and horny internet fan fiction, not real life occurrences! Still, something had caused him to wake up in bed next to his brother’s new boyfriend and in a body that, while still clearly belonging to an Evans son, was a little too thick and soft to be Chris’ own.

Seeing his own face from an external perspective was so startling that it should have shocked Chris right out of whatever dreamscape he was in (calling it a nightmare was perhaps a little harsh to his brother) and yet he remained right there in that moment, his last hope slipping away in an instant. Chris could recognise his brother behind his own face - a confusing notion, for sure, but the brothers shared a connection that went far beyond words. Their mother had always fondly remarked that Chris and Scott were more like twins than just brothers, and even he had to admit that she was right; they were probably closer than most other pairs of adult brothers.

No amount of closeness could ever prepare them for this though.

As if the situation wasn’t stressful enough, the sounds of stirring from the room behind Chris only caused his anxiety to escalate. He’d only just come face to face with Scott in his body and now Scott’s new boyfriend was going to join them and make things even more awkward? They’d have to tell him the truth, that was obvious, but how on earth would they actually make him believe them? It was hardly a logical story and deep down Chris really didn’t want to scare Steve off. He seemed to be a good guy and Scott was genuinely happy with him, so Chris didn’t want to be the cause of any issues between them.

“We tell him the truth,” Chris hissed in the direction of his own body (he refused to think of it as his former body because this was definitely only temporary… right?) before the guest bedroom door opened. Steve was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he stepped into the corridor and paused when he saw the two brothers face-to-face only a few feet away. A look of confusion settled upon the man’s face and even Chris had to admit that it was actually pretty cute.

“What’s goin’ on?” the new arrival grumbled, glancing from his (supposed) boyfriend to (who he believed to be the) global movie star. The Evans brothers shared a look and Chris nodded towards his younger sibling to indicate that he should take the lead.

With some visible reluctance, Scott cleared his throat and began: “Well, uh, Steve, this is going to sound pretty wild but…” His tone didn’t exactly inspire much confidence, although Chris was also still trying to get used to hearing his own voice from an outsider’s perspective. He’d heard it hundreds of times before whenever he was forced to rewatch any of his film performances back but to hear it in person was a whole new experience. There was a severe sense of uncanny valley to it all. Beside him, Scott let out a heavy sigh after an awkward pause. “What I’m trying to say is… Scott and I are brothers.”

After a moment of complete silence, Steve let out an awkward chuckle. “Uh, I’m already aware of that but thanks, Chris,” the other man remarked politely, although he shot a questioning look towards the real Chris, as if to ask “what the hell’s up with your dumbass brother?” It wasn’t as if the other Evans would have any answers for him. He’d made it quite clear that they had to tell Steve the truth, so why had Scott come out with some complete nonsense instead?

“What he’s actually trying to say is that we are brothers.” As the words left Chris’ mouth, he immediately understood why his brother hadn’t told the truth. Chris had tried his very best to form the words ‘we switched bodies’ but they had been substituted the moment he’d attempted to speak them aloud. “I mean, of course we are, but we also have the same surname.” When his second attempt fared no better than the first, Chris turned towards his brother and mirrored the terrified gaze he saw there. What the ever-loving hell was going on with them? As if a body swap wasn’t wild enough, now they had some sort of internal block that stopped them from actually expressing what was going on? This was unquestionably a recipe for disaster.

The two brothers remained locked in that silent stare for several more moments before Steve spoke up again to snap them back to reality. “Okay, so I’m just gonna go back to bed and hope that when I wake up you two aren’t being so weird,” he huffed, shaking his head slightly before making a hasty retreat back to the guest bedroom. Chris felt a pang of regret at his brother’s boyfriend's departure, and the unsettled feeling in his gut only grew worse as a consequence.

As soon as the door was closed, Chris grabbed his brother by the arm and dragged him down the hall to his private study. It was where he normally put on some ambient music and read through potential scripts for consideration, but that tranquil atmosphere was completely lacking in that moment thanks to the turbulence of the situation and combined confusion of the siblings. “This is getting too weird now,” Scott groaned, rubbing his temples as Chris marched across the room to open the window and let some air in. The cold morning breeze unfortunately didn’t wake him up from his chaotic nightmare.

“I don’t know, I think it classified as ‘too weird’ when we woke up as each other,” the older brother remarked in a wry tone that wasn’t too uncharacteristic for him. “But hey, we can say it out loud again. We switched bodies! I’m Chris and you’re Scott!” A wave of relief rushed over him. His brain attempted to assort the scrambled puzzle pieces into their correct place and after a few seconds, he came to some level of conclusion. “We can say it in front of each other but not Steve and presumably not anyone else. So what if we just record a voice note or something and then play it for him?”

Chris had been so wrapped up in his thought process that he hadn’t paid any attention to what Scott was doing until his brother let out a disappointed groan. “I don’t have the highest hopes for that,” he sighed, standing up from where he’d been leaned over at the writing desk. He held up a piece of paper for Chris to see. There were only a few words written on there, but they were depressingly familiar: Scott and I are brothers.

“I’m presuming that’s not what you wanted to write?” Chris asked weakly. Scott’s silence said more than enough. “Shit. Well, it’s worth trying, right? Go grab my phone, it’s by my bed.”

“Why don’t I just go get mine?” Scott countered, a hint of ridicule in his town. Like most brothers, they were rather prone to winding each other up even under the most extreme of circumstances.

“And explain to Steve why Chris is walking into his room to take it? Yeah, that sounds like a fun conversation for you.”

The younger brother rolled his eyes. “Well, why don’t you get yours from your room?”

“You’re a goddamn pain in the ass, Scott,” Chris groaned, offering a gentle shake of his head before slipping out of the office. Within a few moments he had returned to his bedroom and collected his phone but was soon granted another reminder as to what was going on, as the security system refused to recognise his face. As a result he was forced to tap in the passcode while returning to the study. The small and trivial act left him feeling disproportionately irritated.

Upon arriving back at the study, Chris was caught by surprise at what he found waiting for him. Scott had positioned himself in front of the mirror and was leaning in to closely inspect the handsome face that had ended up on so many billboards since he’d taken on the role of Captain America back in 2011. Then, having not noticed that Chris had returned and was lingering in the doorway, Scott leaned back and ran a hand over his hairy pecs and down across the cobblestone abs. Deciding that he’d let things go far enough, the older Evans brother cleared his throat. “What are you doing?”

A sheepish expression decorated Scott’s face as he turned towards his brother. A pink flush had spread across his cheeks and a cocktail of embarrassment and guilt lingered in his eyes. “I-- uh-- did you get the phone?” Scott stammered, folding his large arms across his bare chest. Chris wasn’t sure how in the hell he was supposed to breach the topic of his brother’s inspection of his body, so he was actually rather thankful for the redirection of the conversation at hand. He lifted up the phone to confirm its presence, then navigated through the screens to open up the voice note application.

Much to Chris’ frustration, it soon became clear that Scott’s suspicion had been correct. The moment they had hit record and tried to explain what had happened, their voices had been hijacked and made to express the same mundane statements about them being brothers. After a few minutes of trying and getting absolutely nowhere, Chris swore and ended the attempted recording. “What are we going to do?” he asked in a low voice, unable to bring himself to look his brother in the eyes. In his eyes.

Scott’s response came through just as quietly as Chris’ question, although the words carried an incredible volume to them: “What can we do?”

+++

“So… are we gonna talk about the weirdness that was this morning?”

Chris had been silently hoping that Steve would forget he’d even stumbled upon the two brothers during those early hours, but it seemed that he wasn’t so lucky. Even worse, Steve was having the conversation with him, under the understanding that he was Scott! That’s a mindtrip to even verbalise in thoughts, let alone say out loud. The real Scott was busy making them some breakfast in the kitchen - he’d insisted on doing it alone, telling Chris that he needed some time to calm down before he had a proper freakout - so the former Captain America was having to deal with the conversation alone.

You’re an actor, Chris. Just think of it as another role! Besides, if there was anyone in the world that Chris knew just as well as himself then it was his brother. They had always been as thick as thieves and the secrets between them were minimal. Playing Scott wouldn’t be too difficult for Chris, especially when compared to some of the more challenging roles he’d accepted after leaving the Marvel franchise behind. There was only one slight issue: Scott hadn’t shared all that much with him about his relationship with Steve, and that was a pretty major blindspot. Time for some improv, I guess…

“Oh, that was just some, uh… Evans weirdness. It’s like a tradition with, uh, partners. Yeah, when they first visit,” Chris rambled, hoping that he was able to pull off Scott’s easygoing charm. “You passed, so congrats!” Then, to prevent himself from making the situation any worse, he busied himself in taking a long gulp from the coffee mug. Of course Scott had given him the one with Captain America’s shield on it! That punk thinks he’s got a sense of humour, huh…

Steve raised an eyebrow and flashed a brief smirk before letting out a long sigh. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but your brother’s dorkier than I thought he would be,” Steve articulated carefully. “Scarily personable for a worldwide superstar too.”

Chris couldn’t help but snort in amusement. Being referred to as a worldwide superstar always felt weird, but being called a dork by his brother’s boyfriend was definitely a new one. “I guess Chris is a dork, yeah,” he agreed, hiding back behind his raised coffee mug again so that the other wouldn’t see him blushing. The more he conversed with Steve, the more he could see why Scott was so enamoured with him. He wasn’t a pushover but nor did he ever enforce control of the conversation; he was as easy going as either of the Evans’ and that meant he fit in with them perfectly. It was Chris’ professional opinion as an older brother that Scott had lucked out!

“I still think you’re cuter though,” Steve added, reaching out and placing a hand over Chris’. For a brief moment the actor tensed up, caught off guard, before he realised how unnatural a reaction that would be for Scott and forced himself to relax. There was a momentary look of confusion upon Steve’s face in response to the tension, so Chris knew he had to do more to try and cover up his error.

“You’re the cutest one in the house right now though,” he fired back, putting down his coffee and placing his remaining hand on top of Steve’s. The comment had left Chris’ lips before he’d put any active thought into it, but in retrospect he figured it was the good boyfriend thing to say anyway. It certainly managed to bring an adorable blush to Steve’s already handsome face, so Chris took that as a victory.

The sounds of a throat clearing brought the pair crashing back into reality. Chris’ heart did a somersault in his chest as he looked over to see his own body standing in the doorway, a plate loaded with breakfast foods in either hand. Mercifully Steve was the one to pull his hand back first, so Chris didn’t have to feel guilty about making the wrong move. Still, he couldn’t help but notice the strange look in his brother’s eyes. He’d definitely seen them holding hands and of course that would evoke some uncomfortable emotions within Steve’s actual boyfriend. Chris was certain he had only played along in order to protect his brother’s relationship, but he also knew that the brothers would have to have a conversation before things went too far. The last thing they could afford was for their own relationship to get messy, it would only make the situation ten times worse than it already was.

“That looks delicious,” Steve announced, breaking the uncomfortable moment of silence. “Thank you, Chris. You’re a much better host than Scott said you would be.” The words were spoken with a lighthearted tone and clearly meant as a joke, but the thick pairs of eyebrows on both brothers raised in surprise. Is that so? Chris thought to himself, an easy grin settling onto his face.

“Oh, is that right?” Scott asked in mock surprise, once again proving that the two brothers existed upon the same wavelength. “The punk needs to learn to respect his elders!” As he placed the plates down in front of the supposed couple, Scott winked at his older brother and in doing so helped alleviate some of the anxiety that had crept up inside of Chris from the moment the other had entered. Chris didn’t know why he was so worried about it, in all fairness, but there was definitely something about the whole ordeal that wasn’t quite sitting right with him…

Scott returned a few minutes later with own plate and the trio sat together in near-silence for a time, enjoying the meal. Scott had always been a better cook out of the two of them, so Chris was glad that his brother was making a good impression on his behalf. Once their plates began to empty, Scott then began to ask Steve a number of questions that, as his boyfriend, he surely would have known the answers to: What did he do for a living? What were his feelings on dogs? Was he a big sports fan? It took Chris a few minutes to realise that his younger brother was actually doing it for his benefit; considering he was playing the role of Steve’s boyfriend, these were all things he should already know! Scotty, you smart boy! His brother was really coming through for him.

“You’re not filming anything soon are you, Chris?” the real Chris spoke up, fixing his brother with a look that he hoped would communicate that he was trying to do the same for him. “You wouldn’t be opposed to us staying a bit longer than planned, would you?” That would hopefully give them more time to work out what the hell was going on with them and find a way to reverse it. Truthfully Chris didn’t have any projects lined up for the immediate future, he was enjoying a bit of peace between filming commitments, and he thanked the heavens this hadn’t happened during a filming cycle for one of the major Marvel movies.

“Uh, no, you’re right,” Scott agreed after only the briefest of hesitations. “Yeah, always great to have company here. I mean, there’s plenty of room because I’m super rich and therefore have a massive house.” The remark was in jest, of course, but Scott delivered it in a completely dry fashion. Chris scoffed and shook his head while Steve chuckled politely, evidently not quite used to the brotherly war he was co-existing with.

“That’s settled then. Uh, unless you don’t want to stay… babe?” Chris asked, suddenly recognising that he was supposed to be conversing with Steve on these choices. He’d been single for so long that he’d almost forgotten how to properly play the doting boyfriend!

Steve just chuckled and smiled back at him. “Trapped in the house with the two Evans brothers - whatever will I do?” he joked, before blowing a kiss towards his presumed boyfriend. Chris felt the heat rise to his cheeks in response to Steve’s casually flirtatious tone, but strangely for the straight brother, something underneath the table was noticeably beginning to rise too…

To Be Continued...