“Hey, uh, Matt? Something's going on..” Tim – ‘well it must be Tim’ Matt thought – said as he opened the door just enough to poke his head through. Even in his state of shock it was obvious that whatever was happening to Matt, something similar was happening to Tim. Already his face looked different, his hair was darker and shorter – and at a guess it was poking through the door at too great a height for Tim not to have grown at least a few inches.
For a moment they just stared at each other, each confused about what was happening, and neither quite knowing what to do. But eventually Tim made the first move and opened the door fully to walk in. And that was a sight – having fully stood up to walk in the room it was obvious he was taller, finally past 5 foot, possibly as tall as Tim was – before this nightmare. Looking at the changes, his face, his hair, his height, even the fact he was a bit broader – Matt wasn't exactly built, but Tim had always been skinny – it was obvious to Matt ‘if I’m becoming him, he’s fucking becoming me’.
“We must be swapping somehow” the thought had left his lips and was said aloud, with a voice that sounded much higher pitched, before he had a chance to think better of it. Actually hearing himself say it almost set off another anxiety attack, but curiously Tim didn’t seem to be that effected. He looked more confused than anxious or scared. “You, uh, you okay?” he asked, still trying to play his rightful role as bigger brother.
“Swapping?! What does that even mean?!” the now larger boy cried as he moved further in to the room to stand near directly in front of where Matt sat on the bed. “What's going on? I wasn't feeling great, I was about to puke, but when I got up to go to the bathroom I was taller! And you! you're tiny now.”.
Matt winced internally at that last remark – he had taken to goading Tim when he was being a brat by calling him Tiny Tim. ‘Oh god, I cant do this, I cant be my kid brother, I cant be tiny while he’s basically a grown up’ and there were those fretful thoughts again, but that made something occur to him ‘Christ, I think I got his fucking anxiety as well. Fucking awesome’.
Another deep breath “Look Timmy -” but before he could finish a deeper voice cut in “I told you, don’t call me that!”.
“Okay, look, Tim” Matt was trying to muster as much authority as he could, well beyond how he currently felt, “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, okay? I felt dizzy in the shower, then I could see something was wrong in the mirror, so I came in here and you walked in right after. Something has obviously gone really weird”.
As he finished talking Tim had started to make slight groans – he was holding his hands palm up to his face, staring at them intently. It took a second for Matt to realise why – ‘he must still be growing’ he looked down at the floor and could see ever so slowly that Tims feet were pushing forward. Growing out, the foot itself widening and enlarging, the individual toes lengthening the way his had a couple of years ago, the way all teens do, as they get adult proportions. Still transfixed he could even see the small hairs start to sprout on the joints – his gaze followed upwards to the lean, hairy calves, and then across and down to the thin hairless ones that now appeared at the bottom of his own body. The smaller, slightly pudgy feet at the very end.
“I’m going to fix this” he barely mumbled at first, mostly to try and convince himself “We’re going to fix this” he said louder, enough to get Tims attention. And for the first time, he noticed that the older looking boys eyes were green now, not blue as they had been. ‘Baby blues’ as his mom liked to say. And if Tim's eyes were green like his should be, then he would have those blue eyes now. He was really going to look like his dweeby baby brother.
“Oh yeah? And just how are you gonna do that?” the slightly snide retort interrupted Matt's thought process, and frankly irked him. ‘Fucking brat, always has an attitude, always trying to get a reaction – even now’ he couldn’t believe even with all of this going on, Tim was going to pick a fight.
“Look dipshit, just because I don’t know what's going on right now, doesn’t mean I cant figure it out. Some of us don’t just run away and cry when things don’t go our way” it wasn't all that convincing to his own ears attached to such a childish voice, but it got the reaction Matt wanted. Tims eye’s narrowed in annoyance, and then he stepped forward, looming over his now smaller brother – and suddenly Matt's glee died in his chest, it pooled in his stomach as dread. He was the childish one now.
“Whatever you fuc, fucked up” Tim never really cursed, so he was obviously having trouble wrapping his lips around it now “we’ve both changed. So what did you do?”
“I … don’t know – really I don’t!” but as Matt said the words, the metaphorical penny dropped in his mind, making a small plink as he whipped his head to the right and zeroed in on the ring sat on his bedside table. “The fucking ring!”.
Tim followed his brothers eyesight to also settle on the outwardly appearing unremarkable ring. “The ring what dummy?”.
Matt scooted across the bed and reached to pick the suspected source of his troubles up, but just in time thought better of it. “I found it today, it was just laying in some dirt. But its weird. It was warm earlier – like hot in my pocket, and-and actually I started to feel weird not long after I got home with it”. Suddenly a story was making sense, it was the ring that had done this. Somehow him bringing it home caused these changes.
As Matt had stilled his hand whilst talking, Tim instinctively reached (easier now with his longer limbs) to pick up the ring himself – but he recoiled when his hand was knocked back. “Don't touch it you idiot!”.
“Don’t call me an idiot you fucking retard!” Tim roared, turning and pushing Matt back on to the bed with both hands at the shoulders – with far more force than he expected. Enough force he almost lost balance of his gangly body and fell over as his now much smaller brother bounced from his touch and landed splayed on the bed.
Both teens suddenly stilled, Tim from the shock of his strength, Matt from panic of his weakness. Neither spoke, but their eyes met as Matt propped himself up on his elbows, and Tim took a shuffled step back.
Putting a hand on the towel around his waist and making a small huff, Matt went to stand up – but suddenly the world spun again and he automatically moved to steady himself with both hands on the bed. The sole item of clothing he has been wearing fell to his feet as he plopped down and bounced on the bed.
This had been the strongest feeling yet, and there was almost a tingling sensation all over his body. But then it was done, and he … felt fine? Wide awake even, no aches, no dizziness. But as good as he felt he was immediately worried, his eyesight was worse – he wasn't blind, but the world was was blurry at the edges. A minute ago he could read the calendar on his desk, now it was a calendar’ish shape with blobs for writing.
Tim had his hand against the wall to steady himself, having gone through a similar experience. “Whoa. I feel … better”.
“Me too. But... I need your glasses”
Tim looked over at where his reduced brother sat, then behind him to the poster on the wall – it was blurry now – so he bent his head down and looked over the rims of his glasses.
Perfect vision – he could read the poster fine, he could see everything fine without glasses. A small smirk rose on the right side of his mouth – an expression he was known to make, but which looked significantly more sinister now he wasn't a little cherub. He pulled the glasses off and strode forward to hand them to Matt. And for the first time the thought that this could actually be good was suddenly front of his mind.
As Matt situated the glasses on his face and the world refocussed, he was staring directly as his crotch – his brothers crotch – his naked crotch. He could feel his face turning red as he moved to cover himself with his hands as quickly as possible – but this just made Tim smile more. “Nothing I haven't seen before, little bro”.