Jeff awoke to his mom's alarm going off in the next room. He listened as she hopped in the shower, and he tried to go back to sleep, it was 5am after all, but come 5:10 he gave up... the shower being occupied he threw on yesterday's clothes planning on changing later.
Going to the main bathroom he splashed some water on his face and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Without much consideration he pulled down his boxers and gave himself a once over examining the penis and balls attached to his body. They were so out of place. The thick hair creeping its way just past his belly button and down to his thighs compared to his nearly hairless chest, arms, face, and legs did nothing to help him look or feel normal about this situation.
Jeff began masturbating, his thoughts wandered and landed on the idea that if he got someone pregnant right now, he could make his own siblings, well, half-siblings... and his dad could make his own grandchildren! What a strange family that would be! Jeff came and his mind was flooded with the familiar feelings of orgasm. He cleaned himself up realizing that his pants do not handle his dad's erections the way they handled his.
Hearing that his mom was out of the shower, he flushed the toilet and washed his hands. He went into the kitchen and, as if on autopilot, started a pot of coffee and pulled out some pancake mix and got to work. By 5:30 his mom entered the kitchen to find breakfast made and waiting for her. "Thank you sweetie." she said with a smile.
"I thought something more substantial than cereal was in order." After a few minutes sharing a meal, Jeff put away his dishes and excused himself to jump in the shower. Jeff kissed his mom and offered a final, "You'll be great."
"Oh, remember to make sure Mike has money for lunch!" She called as he was leaving.
"Got it." Jeff went to his room finding a change of clothes and took a shower. Historically his showers were often called out as excessive taking over half an hour but within 8 minutes he was toweling off and getting dressed. It was 6am and time to get Mike moving.
He cracked the door open, flipped on the light, shut the door, and knocked. "Hey kiddo, time to get up..." Jeff paused listening for movement. "Rise and shine sleepyhead, you awake?" a groan came from inside the room, Jeff smiled. "Wakey wakey we've got pancakey!" Another pause and no noise or movement was heard... "Okay buddy, you know the rule, you get out of bed and knock on the door or I think you're sleep talking and come in to make sure you're awake... 1... 2... threeeeeeee..... fo.."
There was a panicked rustling followed by a tapping at the door, "Morning Da... Jeff... I'm up, I just feel like I've been hit by a semi."
"Sick or just tired?"
"Tired."
"Oversleep? You did go to bed early."
"Maybe."
"Breakfast is on the table, Mom and I already ate, It's pancakes."
"Thanks"
Jeff retreated back to the kitchen finding a quickly scrawled note from his mom, "Thanks again for breakfast, love you, you're the best." Jeff smiled and began cleaning up the stove, cookware, pancake bowl, and dirty servingware, rinsing them out and putting them into the dishwasher. He poured the remaining half pot of coffee into an oversized thermos, and cleaned the coffee maker too. He grabbed the pancakes for Mike and popped them in the microwave estimating that he would be down any time now and turned it on to keep warm. Finally feeling everything was in good standing, he sat down and looked at his phone for a minute... he had the strangest sensation that he could loose countless hours to this thing but he didn't have any texts, or emails, and couldn't imagine what could be so engaging about this thing...
Mike entered the kitchen around 6:45, "Food's in the microwave." Jeff said sipping his coffee and thinking about his day... With nothing specific to do besides wait he grabbed his school bag and moved it closer to the door. Re-entering the kitchen he got his first good look at Mike.
"Is that why you're running late? You were playing around with the Chronivac this morning?" Jeff hinted at his irritation.
Mike looked up from his plate and did a double take, "No, but I'm guessing you did."
"What do you mean? You've lost like 100 lbs and sound like a kid. Your beard shadow is just on your jaw, you don't even look like you can grow a mustache. Outside of a forehead wrinkle, you couldn't pass for 20. I certainly didn't do that to you!"
Mike shoveled the pancakes in and when he finished he invited Jeff to follow him to the bathroom. They both stood in front of the mirror, "Jeff, what do you see." Jeff described the teen version of Mike he saw, and when asked, described himself.
Mike got close to the mirror, "Well Jeff, I see myself mostly as I was yesterday, maybe a little lighter? I shaved but can see the shadow, my hair is graying but maybe less so? You on the other hand look 30 to me, you haven't shaved, you're as tall as me, and your voice dropped. I'm guessing we're beginning to see one another the way the rest of the world sees us but don't see ourselves that way yet."
Jeff peered closer at his face, maybe noticing a few specks, but when he lifted up his shirt, despite having just looked earlier that morning, he saw an obvious smattering of chest hair..."Where did that come from!?" it was nothing compared to the dense grove of hair on his stomach but was obvious.
"Maybe it's tied to your role changing or how much you have changed to meet your new role? We both spent all last night and this morning in our new roles and its coming pretty naturally to us, so maybe that's why we are literally seeing each other in that role and starting to see ourselves that way."
"But I haven't changed at all since yesterday?"
"Really Jeff?" Mike smiled and shook his head, "Very seldom do people realize their changing when they are... So you normally make sure the bills are paid, do a long boring task with lots of math in one sitting, check on how I'm feeling before I go to bed, wake me up to keep me on time, make breakfast, and clean up the kitchen?"
"Well, no, but... I suppose that makes sense. Well, do I look good at least?" Jeff asked? He glanced at his reflection seeing that he now had a beard shadow like the one he sees on his dad every morning.
Mike chuckled, "Yeah, I'd say so."
"If you're done with breakfast, lets discuss it on the road." Jeff grabbed the car keys and his backpack and the pair shuffled out to the car, neither giving a second thought to Jeff driving, that he didn't need to adjust the seat or mirrors, nor that stopped to run back to grab his coffee thermos even though he never cared for coffee, and disliked black coffee, which this was.
The pair went on asking about what they looked and sounded like to each other and raised questions like how the size differences would play out on something like an elevator weight limit, or if Mike grew his beard out, and he tied a bow in it, what would that look like? Eventually, at a stop light the conversation eventually got to the topic of touch and Mike reached over and felt Jeff's face confirming that, to him at least, the stubble was there, not just the shadow.
Jeff pulled into Mike's workplace and up to the door. "So if I don't have this conversation with every person I come across, how do I know who I am supposed to be to them?"
"I'm guessing they default to full role switch, our perception of ourselves and each other seem to be special, but really I don't know and I have to go!" Mike said as he noticed the dash flashing 7:26.
"Hey, You need money for lunch?"
"Oh, Yeah."
Jeff reached into his wallet grabbing a 20 and passed it to Mike. In a quick motion he grabbed Mike's head and pulled him down giving him a fatherly kiss on the top of his head. "Alright, have a good day kiddo, I'll pick you up later and don't spend all of that today, make it last!"
Jeff continued to school getting there just before the 8am bell and grabbing his backpack and thermos before briskly walking to his first class. Arriving barely on time he quickly pulled out his notes and prepared for the lecture noticing his arm hair for the first time.