Picture A Second Chance (Patreon)

“How can you say that?!” Austin roared, his round, full face flushed with anger.  He wasn’t worried about keeping his voice down, it was after midnight on a Tuesday morning so they had the boardwalk mostly to themselves, but he doubted that he could have held back either way.  “How can you look me in the face and tell me it wasn’t real?”

David sighed and rubbed his sharper, more distinguished face in frustration.  Though they were both in their early forties they each looked closer to the end of the decade than the beginning, their features weathered through a life of struggle and a life at the office, respectively.  “I’m not saying that what we had wasn’t real,” the dark-haired man explained, keeping his tone calm.  “But we were just kids!  Come on, Austin…for god’s sake, we were only eighteen!  That’s not magic…that’s just being young.  It’s a lot easier to put the weight on as we get older.”

“I’m not just talking about my body,” the balding brunette spat, looking down at his hefty frame.  “I’m talking about all of it.  We were happy!  Do you really not remember that?”

David blushed, his heart racing as Austin reminded him of the strange summer.  Prior to their last encounter in the photo booth more than twenty years ago, the other man had always been his tormentor.  They’d grown up in the same town and were in the same grade, with the burly jock playing the role of varsity athlete while David was one of the few openly gay kids at school.  Given the social strata at the time, those opposing poles put them in direct opposition with one another, an arrangement that Austin had always been happy to exploit through hurled insults and hallway shoves.

Until they’d run into each other on the boardwalk that fateful night after graduation, when Austin had cornered David in the very same photo booth.  Somehow, one of them had bumped the button that caused the camera to begin flashing, causing enough of a distraction to defuse the situation.  As they’d blinked the blinding lights from their eyes, David had immediately noticed the change to Austin’s expression.  Instead of arrogant and angry, the buff brunette just looked confused.  It was a state that David shared when he’d seized the opportunity to scamper through the curtain and out to freedom, only to discover a strange set of pictures waiting for him.  Instead of showing a blustering bully and a trapped target, the strip of photos had shown a grinning couple.  Austin's large, sculpted arm had been draped around David’s thinner shoulders in the first frame, while the remaining four showed the two of them vigorously making out as the jock’s shirt vanished and his muscles seemed to swell.

David always told himself that the last part had just been in his head.  At the time, he’d only ever had a few stolen glances in the locker room after gym class to compare the image to, and Austin had always been an athletic pretty-boy.  It was also true that he didn’t recall their lips meeting in the booth, and he’d been certain that Austin still had a shirt on when he’d darted through the curtain, but it had all happened so fast, and he’d been so flustered, that David couldn’t be sure of anything.

Austin, though, hadn’t shared any of the wiry man’s uncertainty.  Despite the haziness of the preceding events, David doubted that he’d ever forget how it felt to turn around and see the shirtless stud trotting after him, begging him to wait.  The chocolate-haired hunk’s heavy pecs had bounced with each step, his tight waist and impressive abs accentuated by the exposed strip of boxers that loomed above his low-riding cargo shorts, and, acting on an entirely foreign impulse, David had stopped fleeing.  He’d still instinctively averted his eyes from the handsome jock’s exposed torso, only for a hand to gently guide his sharp chin back upwards to meet Austin’s soft, waiting lips.  Instead of intimidatingly stern, the burly brunette’s face had been soft and warm when they’d finally come up for air, a bright, eager smile hovering above his wide, dimpled jaw.  From that moment on, Austin had simply acted as if they were a couple and always had been.  There had been no apologies or explanations, but neither had David sought any out.  As confusing as it had all been, it still felt right at the time.

And David had told himself that there were any number of logical explanations.  They’d just graduated, which alone removed a massive obstacle to coming out, and he’d wondered if Austin’s tormenting over the years hadn’t been the stunted equivalent of pulling the hair of someone you liked on the playground.  David had always been lean and wiry, more bookish than athletic, and he’d never had to worry about macho expectations being placed upon his bony shoulders the way Austin might have.  Such a rush of freedom would also explain the shift that occurred in the jock’s personality, how he’d gone from cruel and cunning to delightfully dimwitted.  David knew that Austin had never been the smartest kid in school, but after their encounter in the photo booth the handsome hunk leaned hard into his role as a “dumb jock.”

The difference, though, was that the new Austin had a heart as big as the rest of him.  He’d still been plenty aggressive and unrefined, but in a different way, and his rough moments had been counterbalanced by proudly protective ones.  He’d leapt to David’s defense when former friends tried to continue their tormenting.  He’d always had an arm around the smaller man’s shoulder, or David’s slender hand in his calloused mitt, regardless of where they were or who’d been around.  He’d wake up clinging to the dark-haired man like a teddy bear, refusing to let him go until he’d had a good morning kiss at the very least.

And it wasn’t as if David had been interested in looking a gift horse in the mouth.  Being one of the few openly gay people in town, his own romantic options had been limited at best.  So to suddenly find himself with unrestricted access to the very definition of a pretty-boy jock had been a dream come true.  Austin had been nothing but patient as he’d guided David through his first fumbling attempts in the bedroom, mentoring his lean little lover the way the older guys on the team had imparted their wisdom.  The first time they’d gone all the way, when David had taken Austin’s log of a cock between his perky little cheeks, the tapering top had been hyper focused on making sure the other man was okay.  He’d been slow and steady and methodical, wanting David to enjoy what would become a frequent occurrence.

Austin had been entirely successful.  David had been embarrassed at first by the brunette’s uninhibited enthusiasm, as well as some of the things the chiseled Adonis wanted him to do, but he’d quickly learned to embrace it all.  If the hung hunk wanted him to prance around in nothing but bright little briefs, David had been all too happy to comply, mostly because the sculpted stud was eager to reciprocate.  They’d developed a quid pro quo system, where the thin young man would wear whatever Austin wanted, or let the horny jock finger and fuck him senseless, as long as the brawny brunette would then wear the thongs or bikinis that David wanted while he played with his lover’s plump pecs or otherwise worshipped the bigger man’s bulk.

It had been a stress-free summer of endless sex and magical muscle.  The two of them were hardly ever apart, clothed, or, most importantly, unhappy.  They’d experienced a kind of uninhibited freedom that they’d never felt before, where all of David’s insecurities were forgotten in the previously forbidden embrace of Austin’s strong arms.  He’d felt a kind of safety where before there’d only ever been danger, while his gorgeous, grinning lover seemed perfectly content as long as his two needs of wearing as little as possible, while getting off as often as possible, had been met.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last.  David may not have felt the kind of pressure that Austin did to excel at all things masculine, but that didn’t mean his life had been free of expectation.  Attending college had essentially been predetermined since birth, making the arrangement with Austin unsustainable.  No matter how much a part of him had wanted to, David couldn’t simply deviate from the path that had been laid out for him just to stay with his hung, hunky himbo of a boyfriend.

So he’d gone off to college as planned, leaving Austin, and the supposed magic, behind.  Thinking back on it now, David had to wonder if his former partner hadn’t been right along, that something supernatural really had been behind those wonderful weeks.  The change had been almost immediate afterwards, a return of the crushing weight and mounting insecurities that kept him mostly single ever since.  David did just as well in his classes as always, and he’d landed the lucrative career that fueled his luxurious lifestyle.  He was still lean and toned and had grown into his sharp features over the years, but he hadn’t been truly happy since the summer he’d walked away.

The same went for Austin.  Once the supposed spell had been broken, the old version of the smug stud returned.  He’d gone back to his bullying ways for a few years at college himself, before an injury put an end to his athletic scholarship.  An unplanned pregnancy followed shortly after, and instead of basking in his uninhibited glory, Austin toiled away in a stagnant, mid-level career, losing his beautiful body bit-by-bit over the years.  As the muscles faded and his frame softened, as his hair started thinning and vanishing altogether, the former hunk became desperate to find a way back.  His miserable mess of a marriage had ended, his daughter wanted nothing to do with him, and the trajectory of his life only seemed to point downward.  He’d searched for the photo booth for years, scouring every boardwalk he could find, only to have the mysterious structure suddenly reappear a few weeks ago right where he’d encountered it in the first place.

The two had loosely stayed in each other’s orbit over the years thanks to social media, but David still hesitated when he’d received Austin’s message to meet him at the booth again.  He barely recognized the other man, and not just because of Austin’s now-heavy frame or the way the former jock seemed to run out of breath after only a few steps. It was the aura of defeat, how David found himself wishing that Austin would at least hurl an insult at him again just to show some kind of spark.  But, at the same time, he knew he was in the same boat himself.  He saw his own dim, dark eyes staring unhappily back at him in an expensive mirror every morning.  He felt the same crushing weight of a meaningless routine, uncertain of why he even bothered to go through with the motions in the first place.  Hearing Austin talk about their past wasn’t just the first time he saw a semblance of a spark in the other man’s eyes; it was the first time he felt one himself.

“But…but Austin, listen to me,” David finally sputtered, his attention pulled back to the present.  “If what you’re saying is true…if this booth really is magic…then I did you a favor!  You were a smart, straight pretty-boy who got turned into a gay, horny dumb jock.  I gave you your life back!”

“You call this a life,” Austin spat, squeezing his softened belly as he spoke.  “And I’m still not talking about my body.  I’m talking about the other kind of weight.  Everyone wanted me…expected me…to be something!  I had to be the star athlete, then I had to be a good husband, then I had to be a fucking dad.  Are you kidding me?!  The few months we had together was the only time I ever had a chance to just be.  Compared to all that, you think I give a shit that I was suckin’ a dude’s dick?”

“Did you…try again with anyone else,” David asked, still finding Austin cute when he blushed.

“Of course I did.  But it wasn’t the same.  They weren’t you,” the balding man said, his eyes dropping.

It was David’s turn to blush.  “Oh, Austin,” he said, putting a hand on the other man’s supple thigh.  Despite the loss of the former jock’s stunning physique, there was still a part of him that wanted to strip the heavy hunk out of his loose t-shirt and mesh shorts and pick up where they’d left off.  But he couldn’t.  His anxieties were raging, and all he could think about was how the late night was going to slow him down at work later in the morning.  “Even if we could go back…I have a life now.  A career.  I can’t just throw it all away.  I’ve worked hard to…”

“Be just as miserable as me,” the bigger man grunted, meeting David’s eyes again.  “You’re still all pretty in your tight little polo and cute khaki shorts, but I can see it.  What?  You in a rush to get back to your big, empty house?  Then what?  Can’t you see?  We have a second chance!  Don’t ask me how, but I know…I know…if we walk away from this we aren’t going to get a third.  I mean, fuck…it just showed back up!  I was afraid it’d vanish again before we had a chance to even try.”

David sighed and shook his head, moving to scoot past Austin and out through the curtain.  “I’m sorry.  I really am.  But I should probably get…”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Austin growled, shoving David back down into the corner.  He shifted his imposing size to fully block the exit, giving a short, humorless laugh as he looked down at the dark-haired man.  “Huh.  This is just how we started the first time, isn’t it?  You all cowered in the corner?  I take that as a good sign.”

“No, Austin, wait!  Just hear me out!  We can’t…” David was cut off when the other man’s pudgy hand slammed the button down.  A buzzing hum momentarily filled the booth before the first flash went off, eliciting gasps from both of them as the changes immediately followed.

This time, David had no doubt that supernatural forces were involved.  As Austin loomed over him, the other man’s body began to shift and reshape itself.  Just like before, the balding brunette’s loose t-shirt vanished altogether, but David only had a momentary glimpse of the soft, doughy frame underneath before it started to harden.  Sagging tits pulled flush before bulging back out as a sculpted, meaty shelf.  Broad, hulking shoulders reemerged from the excess flesh that had buried them, revealing a thick neck and a pair of chiseled pistons for arms on either side.  Below, Austin’s loose love handles and plump belly pulled tight into a ripped muscle gut, while further down his heavy thighs and fattened ass settled into an equally solid set of granite quads, granite globes, and rocky calves.  The loose basketball shorts seemed to shrink in the process, creeping up the striated pillars until they were a compact pair of mesh shorts clinging so tightly to Austin’s heaping bulge and ample rear that the outlined straps would have made the jock underneath obvious even if the entirety of the elastic waist hadn’t already been on display.  And while the newly defined hunk’s hair didn’t regrow, the purposely shaved scalp only served to accentuate the middle-aged stud’s lantern-jawed looks, as well as emphasize the light dusting of chocolate fur that had sprouted over the rest of his chiseled bulk.

David didn’t know how to respond, nor did he have time before the second flash set his own changes in motion.  As with Austin, his lean body began to swell with muscle, though not nearly to the same degree.  Instead, David’s trim shoulders pushed slightly apart, his modest pecs becoming an officially chiseled, compact set, while his arms and legs thickened by a few inches.  Where Austin had become a massive meathead, the newly christened, dark-haired hunk looked merely athletic by comparison, a state that he soon realized he’d be showing off.  Like the bigger man, David’s conservative outfit vanished.  His tight gray polo became a cropped, muscle shirt adorned with super heroes, while the plain khakis became a pair of ridiculously small, neon nylon shorts.  And, as if the garish outfit wasn’t embarrassing enough, David was mortified at the hot pink whale tail that hung exposed, and the way his own smaller, though serviceable, bulge was so clearly outlined.  He looked like a mix between a nerd and a jock, the youthful attire making the middle-aged man feel all the more foolish.

Until the third flash, at which point David’s head began to swim.  The hazy memories he’d been reliving earlier in their conversation came surging back in crystal clarity, only this time they didn’t end.  This time he didn’t go off to college and leave Austin.  Instead he stayed, working whatever jobs he could to make ends meet while his handsome hulk of a boyfriend focused on growing his bountiful body.  He did the thinking and the working while Austin did the lifting.  Now, instead of getting injured and failing out of college, the brawny brunette made a minor name for himself on the bodybuilding circuit, before making a major name for himself in porn.  The hung, happy-go-lucky hunk started off doing guest spots on various websites, but as the technology caught up he’d started a site of his own.  Or, more appropriately, David had handled that part of things while Austin flexed and took his clothes off for the camera.  Either way, the money began rolling in afterwards, and while they didn’t make as much as David had in his more miserable state, they were still plenty comfortable.

And it wasn’t an entirely one-way street.  Though David had started out taking care of Austin, and then the mountain of a man had returned the favor when his site took off, they’d eventually settled into an even equilibrium.  The newly muscled man was a frequent co-star in Austin’s videos, worshiping the sculpted stud’s titanic size while getting manhandled and tossed around in the way he so loved.  And David had a strong following of his own that stemmed from his video game and nerd-culture streams.  It helped that he usually did his gaming and talking either naked or wearing as little as possible, but, no matter what he did or didn’t have on, he’d at least been able to hang onto that part of his youth.

In this new world, David hadn’t been forced to give up, or at least feel foolish about, the things that brought him joy.  And while a part of him wanted to be horrified at the thought of his new life as an internet porn star, when he felt his old life and wealth fading away, he also wondered what good was money or modesty if he was miserable?  Austin had just turned back into a brainless, bodybuilding beauty and was already beaming, so what was he really losing, if anything?

The fourth flash confirmed that the answer to David’s question was a resounding “nothing” when their lips finally met again after decades apart.  The smaller stud could feel the more subtle changes to his body taking place as he writhed in Austin’s arms, the way his body began to automatically respond to the bigger man’s touch and the way his tight hole loosened to accommodate the ten-inch girder that frequently split him open.

When the fifth flash brought them fully together, David knew there’d be no running away this time.  His shorts and thong hung off one ankle while both legs were hoisted into the air, with Austin’s impossibly strong arms pinning him to the seat while the burly brute’s piledriver cock hammered in and out of him.  David’s ecstatic whimpers and moans joined with the bigger man’s deep grunts, but since it was late and they had the boardwalk mostly to themselves he wasn't worried about them getting caught.

After all, they’d been doing it for years.  They’d had plenty of time to practice.