Switched Ch. 04

*

After breakfast, we sat down and Switched bodies for the first time. Until now, all we had done was Possession.

"Whoa," Bryan marveled, looking at her hands. She ran them down her body, then returned to her breasts.

"Stop touching my tits!" I yelled. He was touching my tits and I couldn't even feel it. How rude!

"They're so sensitive!"

I tried shaming him. "Stop molesting me please."

She snorted. "Come on, you can't molest someone with their own hands!"

"This Switching shit is so confusing." I sighed.

She nodded, gently massaging my tits.

I glared at her, then Switched, and while Bryan windmilled his arms for balance. He'd gone instantly from sitting to standing. I peeled my hands off my breasts and sat on them before Switching back.

"Nicely done, superhero!" she exclaimed. "Ooh, that is a firm ass!" She squeezed it experimentally.

Now she stood up, the better to check herself out.

I rolled my eyes. "Will you fucking stop!"

"Oh, tell me you didn't!"

"I didn't. I was in denial. It took me weeks to touch the cookie."

I shouldn't have given her that idea. Delightedly, she reached for the front of her pants.

I Switched with her and put my hands down by my sides.

"Like that's going to stop me," he said after a moment to regain equilibrium. He approached, his hands out, a leer on his face.

Disgusted, I activated my ability.

I was in him again. I put my hands down and watched how Jessica's uninhabited body lolled bonelessly.

Screw this, I would just leave him like this for awhile. Serve his touchy-feely ass right.

*

Declared a Holiday

Jessica

Today I'd declared a holiday and stayed in my bed-cubby.

"We've got to experiment," Bryan said doggedly.

"No way!" I folded my arms and turned toward the wall.

"What's wrong, Jessica?"

I glared at him like a monster in its lair. "It is that time," I gritted.

"Oh. Oh! Oh, shit! I'm so sorry. Can I get you a hot water bottle or something?"

The hot water bottle wasn't too bad. I hugged it against me and laid there, my book forgotten, just thinking in circles.

He came back with tea and that was all right, too. I sat up to drink it.

"Jessica?" he asked after a while. He, at least, wasn't too agitated to read, and we had to sit close to share the light. I didn't want him close but I didn't want him taking away the light.

"I should have I ordered you to be quiet," I said with a smile.

"Can I try it?"

I looked into my teacup. "I thought we were both drinking the chamomile."

"No. I want to know what a period feels like. Women have been complaining for years and I want to know."

"It's different for all of us- them."

"But yours are pretty bad, right? That'll give me a good picture of what it's like."

"Are you fucking serious? You want to feel period cramps? They suck, okay? Take my word for it."

"Come on. You'll get some relief, at least for awhile."

I couldn't argue with that.

"Yeah," she croaked after we'd Switched. "That's pretty bad."

We swapped books and went back to reading.

Why did this seem so normal? I should have been uncomfortable. I was wearing my best friend's body and he was wearing... whoever's body that was. Could I ever go back? Could I even be Chase again? Why did that life seem so far away?

We tried sleeping Switched, as an experiment. It was decided that we'd sleep in the same bed our bodies slept in, so the bedding wouldn't smell like the opposite sex. First, we Switched back temporarily to clean ourselves. No way was I going to let him wipe Jessica's bare body down with a moist towelette.

He went to sleep as her, though. He'd have hours alone on the other side of that sheet.

There was nothing I could do about it. Just like he wouldn't know if I played with his junk. But it was another guy's junk. It was too weird even to pee with it.

As I lay there that night, I was unaccountably horny. More than once, my hands strayed crotchward and I had to stop them at the last minute.

She was probably having multiples over there. She was likely exploring Jessica's body. Intimately. It was only fair that I do the same.

I wrapped my hand around Bryan's cock and suppressed a groan. I needed this so much.

I ran my hands lightly to the end of it, thrillingly horrified by the idea that this was not my dick. Also by the idea that it was thicker and longer than mine. I liked thicker and longer. I ran my hand back to the base.

No. I took my hands away. I laid on them.

No.

*

She was standing over me that morning. "We're Switching back, right now. You've got to change a tampon, or whatever."

"Okay. Uh..."

"Right now!"

Wearily I switched us back and the pain and bloating staggered me. I took care of the necessities, being careful not to dispose of any used products where the vines could get them. Didn't want Jezebel getting a taste for my blood. She'd left us alone after that first night, but I wasn't taking chances.

*

Lot's Highway

Jessica

We foraged the highway that day. It was crammed with abandoned vehicles, many of which had good stuff in them. We found pistols in the glove boxes of two different trucks, plus a fire truck full of gear. We took the former and left the latter, as it was too heavy, but we did appropriate an axe. Bryan had an idea about cutting a hole in the outer wall of the hideout so we could build a hallway into the house next door.

There were bodies here, most of them still in their cars. One of them had been sliced in half by something, a laser maybe, that had bisected their car and the one beside it.

Bryan found something strange. It was a rough sculpture of a crouching person next to one of the abandoned cars, and it appeared to be made of salt. Only the nearby fender had kept it from melting completely in the rain.

Now that we knew what to look for, there were other salty lumps on the highway. The one that was half-in an open car door really made my skin crawl.

"Those salt spots..." I began.

He grimaced, "I know." Neither of us said out loud that they used to be people. Somehow their fate seemed worse than that of the other victims.

"We should really get the fuck out of here," I said.

Bryan crouched to examine a lump of salt, careful not to touch it. Embedded in it was a metal rod with a ball attached crookedly to the end.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's an artificial hip," he said.

Just then, we heard a booming noise. It was very loud but quite far away.

Bryan and I had just turned toward the sound when we heard another one.

"How about now?" I asked.

"Whatever that is, it's miles..." Bryan began, but he cut off when another boom sounded.

He stood up and needlessly dusted his hands. "Let's go."

We abandoned dignity and scampered back to the house as fast as we could.

That night it hit me. I lay awake for hours thinking about.

I crept around the sheet quietly, but for the lamp I knocked over.

"Are you an incompetent Ninja or are you Jessica?" he whispered.

"Both?"

I crouched by his pallet, hugging my arms. He raised to his elbows and turned his lamp up to a dull orange glow.

"What's on your mind, Grasshopper?" he asked.

"We're in terrible danger here."

He rubbed his eyes. "Yep."

"And we'll stay in terrible danger until we actually do something."

"Unless something changes, and it probably won't," he agreed.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Yeah. First we get you figured out, powers and such, and we give them time to let down their guard. In a couple of weeks, your father will be at the Georgia Republican Hog Roast event, and you Switch with him there. As a Senator, you can issue whatever orders you want to get your original body released."

"What if it doesn't work? If there's a countermeasure for my power, you can bet he has it."

"Then we break into his estate and steal or Switch with your original body."

I fiddled with the corner of the blanket. "How the fuck do we do that?"

"Well... You do have super powers."

"But they probably know I can Switch. There'll be passwords and code phrases. You know how important security is to my father."

"There's only so much they can do against an ability like yours."

I laid my head down on my knees and rocked. "I'll need to practice."

"Okay," he said, and suppressed a yawn. "Prepare to be tired and hungry."

I Possessed him.

It was like the world pivoted around where our hands joined, and I was Bryan holding Jessica's hand.

She was slumping, so I lunged to catch her. As I put my arms around her, I felt a strong physical reaction. Her smell went up my nose and made me dizzy. My body tingled where it touched her.

It was more difficult, maneuvering her limp body while keeping it clear of Bryan's boner, but I got her laid down. I should have Switched back and moved. Gotta be smarter about this.

I looked down at her, Jessica. The woman who'd shown up at that convention center two months ago now and been switched with Chase. With me.

Odd. I felt a little... It was when I was thinking about Chase- crap, I was getting aroused! Thinking about my girl-body! But how could I be attracted to myself?

Oh. Bryan was. His body responds to my thoughts. So if I thought about his mom, I'd probably feel warm and fuzzy and if I thought about his dad, I'd feel conflicted by loyalty, respect and rebellion. Thinking about Chase, not the body I wore but Chase, the person... it made Bryan's body flood with oxytocin and his heart go pit-a-pat.

So that's why he was acting so weird about this.

My best friend was crushing on me. Or worse. To think that he wanted to... do things to me. And what's more, he wanted to cuddle me, take care of me, tell me that I was special and kiss me on the forehead. This motherfucker wanted to buy me shoes, I just knew it!

Yeah. Put that in the vault.

I walked to the bathroom to look at him in the mirror. I examined his face, so strong and yet boyish. He was so knowledgeable in the ways of the world, but by some miracle he'd retained some innocence. The guy I used to play ninjas with was still in there. I hoped my inner ninja was there for him, too.

He could get his heart broken. He'd already been pining for me for who knows how long and I never knew. He never once showed it. I thought, Please, Lord, don't let me break his heart.

My best friend had dropped everything and risked his life for me. And not just some one-time act of heroism, either. Bryan was immersed in the risk and he faced it every day without a complaint.

"I'm proud of you," I said, and felt a weird frisson go through me, watching Bryan say those words.

Hmm. What would it be like to see him say other words?

I looked into Bryan's eyes and took a deep breath, then said, "I love you, Chase."

Whoa. Okay. Wow. I panicked a little and before I knew it, I'd Switched back to my body.

"Jessica?" he called from the other room, "Why do I have goosebumps?"

*

Vault

Jessica

The next day it was business as usual, like I hadn't found out last night that my best friend has powerful urges to bend me over the nearest piece of furniture and fuck me rotten.

I was already on birth control. My menses were bad enough, and the mere thought of a baby terrified me beyond words. Luckily, there was a carton of pills in the go bag along with an assortment of condoms. What better currency in the post apocalypse than birth control?

Today, before we got started with our forage, I suggested a run. I needed to take care of this body, because I was going to give it back. My best friend had a plan. And a boner for my sweet ass.

This stuff didn't want to stay in the bloody vault.

After our run, we found a wheelbarrow, which beat the shopping cart because of its large pneumatic tire. Shopping carts were not meant for abandoned city streets, and they are bloody loud. There were a few boxes of ammo in the police station although the gun rack had been smashed open and emptied. Not much else, so we thought about our list of low-priority items and filled the wheelbarrow with firewood and charcoal.

The next day we got a steel drum and became stupidly excited when we located one of those little rental trailers, one that had working tires and wasn't a bloody crime scene.

It took some thinking, but we ended up with a big, black plastic tub meant for dipping sheep or watering buffalo or something, and we used the trailer to get it into the garage next to the car.

We filled it partially with hoses and an ingenious siphon Bryan rigged up, then we got cooking. Propane rings heated the water in big pots, which we then emptied into the pool.

It was dull, backbreaking work, although Bryan didn't look fatigued, the bastard. We finished around midnight. I dipped a hand in and, feeling the warmth, I swooned.

"I want to sleep in it," I gushed.

We'd planned for everything. Unfortunately, in my case, that meant a swimsuit. It was a black one-piece, the most modest one there was, and I felt naked. He got away with a pair of trunks.

"Your scratches from the plant are gone," he said. "It took you less than a day, which means you're definitely a Variant."

That was good news, I guess. "You got a tan," I said. "Looks good."

"Thanks. You look nice in a swimsuit."

"Dick." I stepped into the tub. "Ooh. Bath bomb."

He put in the bomb, and the surface of the pool foamed as we sat and soaked, moaning like whores at how good it felt.

Truly warm for the first time since I could remember, covered at last by a layer of surface foam, I let myself relax.

"So did you get anything?" he asked suddenly.

I had to think for a second. "You mean during the last Possession?"

"Yeah. You said the other day you were finally getting used to being in my body. That was the whole point of the exercise, right? If you could pick up info from the people you Possessed... Dude, that would be huge."

"Yeah," I drawled, keeping my eyes closed and hoping he'd take the hint I really preferred soaking quietly to talking right now.

"So did you get anything?" he repeated, a little more anxiously.

I cursed inwardly. How was I going to handle this? I've got to come up with something better than an outright lie.

Seeing me hesitate, Bryan looked stricken.

This was a strain where something would be way better than nothing, so I said, "I got a little bit. But I swear, if I find anything embarrassing to you, I will put it in the vault. It will not be thought about."

I had never seen him look so uneasy. "Like what? What kind of stuff? Like what did you find?"

"I wouldn't know, Bryan, because that's what happens when it goes in the vault."

He liked that. "Good. I just thought... The tub... I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"I didn't until just a minute ago."

"Sorry."

We soaked lazily.

He said, "I have to admit, it seemed like, when you insisted on the bathing suits, that it wasn't all in the vault. You know?"

"Why not bathing suits?"

"We've been each other. Who cares about nudity now?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll admit it. Because of... the vault contents... I didn't want to tempt you."

"You thought if you were naked, I would just..."

I got a little mad. "Yes, I did. Because I'm not naked at the moment and you are still trying to just dot dot dot!"

"I am not!"

"You're trying to talk my clothes off, Coleman. So just... Go beat off. I'm trying to have a nice bath."

He looked so frustrated and holy shit that was it. He was rejected! I had just rejected him.

Softening my voice, I said, "I'm sorry, okay? But don't you think it's a bit much? Have you even looked at it from my point is view? I mean... The idea of being just done like that. I mean... Dicks, man! Who wants a bunch of dicks flying at them? And I get it, I do. You're cooped up with a hot girl. You're spending time with her exclusively. Constantly. And you can't even stroke it because I might hear."

I didn't know what he would say to that. I'd hoped it would be the beginnings of an understanding, or at least an apology. Instead he just lowered his face, blew a few angry bubbles out of his nose, then looked at me like I had done something wrong. He said, "I think we need to spend some time apart."

He got out, dripping, and stalked into the house. I called after him, "You're dumping me?" But he didn't answer.

Well I thought it was funny.

I wasn't taking this very seriously. Maybe it was dissociation. This was a fucked-up conversation to be having!

I got out of the tub, shivering, and looked for him.

He came out of the storeroom carrying a crowbar. I watched as he jammed it into the second floor patch and started prying.

I tried to take his shoulder and turn him, but he shrugged me off. I said, "Going to live upstairs, are you? You know we sealed it off for a reason, right? Planning on getting carried away by plant life in your sleep? We've gotta stick together, man."

He gave no sign he heard me and continued prying.

"Bryan."

"Come on, Bryan."

He kept on saying nothing. He didn't look at me, didn't even react when I hit him on the shoulder with my little fist.

I felt bad immediately for hitting him, but being ignored like that, it felt like I'd been struck a blow.

I leaned back against the wall and slid down it to my butt. "I need you," I said. "Is that what you want me to say? 'Cause it's true, you know. I can't even boil fucking water out here. If I were running solo I'd have never made it off the front lawn."

He kept jabbing at the patch, but his efforts had become slower and more deliberate. Then something must have occurred to him because he picked up the pace again with even more determination.

"Please," I begged. "Don't leave me." Tears began to fall.

He bent the patch and turned sideways to get through it. Giving me one last regretful look, he slipped through and pulled it shut behind him.

Bryan was gone.

I had lost it all.

I let the tears flow, and I wished my friend Bryan was here for me to cry on. I curled up on his side of the sheet so I could at least smell him, but with my nose running that did no good. For the first time since I was a child, I cried myself to sleep.

*

Jezebel

Jessica

In the morning I was still alone.

The noises from upstairs were reassuring; he'd made it through the night. Sounded like he was bushwhacking up there. A sensible precaution that he should have handled last night.

What was I going to do today?

Fuck it. I ran another bath.

It took most of the morning and I made a wee mess, but when I knocked over the lit propane ring, the water I was trying to boil put it out before it could burn down the house.

When it was finally ready, I climbed in.

It was heaven, or would be If I didn't have all these thoughts in here with me. They ran around in circles in my head.

I could go back, I realized. I could go home and explain things and get a slap on the wrist, maybe, but I'd have a home again. I'd have a bed, and a damn shower, and I could talk to actual, real live people whenever I wanted.

Dad would let me Switch into my old body, no problem. I could be me again.

I looked down at the body I rode. What would happen to its original occupant?

Father wouldn't want her to talk. He'd find some way to ensure her silence like a threat, maybe combined with a payoff. He'd use whatever leverage he could find with the ruthlessness that put him on top of the biggest heap of lying backstabbers in human history. Or he'd kill her. It was the only way to be sure, after all, and he was not a man who tolerated uncertainty.

When I Switched with her, Father would know I was a Variant. I would be exposed as the very type of person his political empire had been built on opposing.

Would he accept me as a Variant or not? I didn't know for sure, so I looked at both sides.