Feeling bold with his surprise plans, Luke twisted the knob slowly and carefully opened the door, keeping a light step as he snuck in, shut the door behind himself, and popped the deadbolt back into place.
He could just make himself at home with some tunes on his headphones while he waited for his brother to wake up. Luke was used to being the one to get up first, being the born athlete of the two, so wouldn't have been like James to be up this early anyway.
The living room looked like a mess of unwashed clothes spread around, a few articles getting kicked while Luke tip toed to the bedroom whose door was open to confirm his brother was sleeping in.
There wasn't enough sun to make out anything distinct, forcing Luke's vision to adjust. Long enough for him to think on how unlike his brother it was to leave his door unlocked or his clothes unsorted on the floor or.... hook up with the front page model for Men's Fitness...
Ten seconds was all the time Luke needed to make out the mass under the thin sheets was in fact his brother spread out over a mountain of a man that was too big for the twin, his lower legs over the edge with his size 16s flat on the floor.
From the scene to the smell of the room to the way that man was holding him, there was little to no wiggle room that these two had had a good Sunday evening.
As infrequent as it was, Luke's default reaction would have been to quietly slip back out and let James wake up at his leisure. This brawny god of muscle sharing a bed with his brother was not in any way default.
Luke was frozen in a mix of embarrassment and awe at the monster he could barely even say his brother was sharing a bed with, it being more accurate to say the monster was the bed at his proportions while his brother was one of the luckiest gays on the planet.
Embarrassed and getting a bit clammy at the sight of James's boyfriend, Luke missed the grip on his tumbler getting looser from all the sweat up until it slipped from his frozen grip and slammed into the ground.
Luckily the lid had enough of a seal to not explode, the impact sounding more like a bell before falling over and spilling its contents instead. The bear flinched while Luke cursed, looking back and forth between the bed and his spilled coffee, trying to pick which one to focus on while James very slowly woke up to look in the direction of the sound.
"Mm.... Luke?" he managed groggily rubbing his eyes while he processed. His brother was here and shifting a bit he could feel his boyfriend cradled between his biceps and pecs, getting a smile and a tingle before the rest of his brain started catching up.
"L....LUKE!?" James shouted, sitting up with the rest of his wakeup getting supercharged with adrenaline. Luke, dealing with the reality of his brother hooking up with an 11, was now processing that this 11 knew him by name, only able to respond with his mouth agape.
Miles couldn't be bothered, somewhat awake himself but keeping his eyes shut and his head against James's chest. "Mmph... babe. Ten more minutes..." he mumbled, turning his face into James's chest hair.
Babe? This... this wasn't a hookup? This 11 was his BOYFRIEND?! Luke stumbled back into the hall, slipping on some of the coffee and falling on that perfect O'Deorain butt with a WHUMPF, his head reeling.
James carefully tried to get Miles off him and off the bed, both wanting to let his boyfriend keep sleeping while making sure his brother was all right, the fact that he was now the bigger brother in more ways than just age not hitting him just yet.
The toy had presumably fallen out at some point, though James also didn't remember fully stripping either, panicking and looking around and just swiping the sheets with him as a wrap, swinging the bed's usual default comforter back over Miles who smiled and curled up in it.
James was still focused on making sure his brother was okay, standing from the bed. Making his first step towards Luke however, the wrap, while noble, was short lived. Trying to walk with lower legs that had been hanging off the bed all night and were asleep across spilled coffee, James took about a second to lose his balance and the wrap, fumbling and stumbling his way over to Luke and having to catch himself on the wall before falling on his flustered baffled brother.
"Are.... are you okay?" James finally managed to ask. "Would," Luke vaguely mumbled, his eyes bugging out. "Huh?" James asked, not fully following until looking further down to see that familiar morning wood, assuming this was what Luke had said. It still hadn't sunk in for James that he was going to be waking up this way every morning.
Seeing the python though started to really wake James up. While being concerned for his brother falling down was normal, he wasn't himself. He was as far as Luke was concerned a stranger standing over him fully naked while the man Luke thought was his brother kept sleeping in the room behind him.
"I AM.... I.... gah. Sorry," James stammered, carefully stepping back to get the sheets and wrap them around his waist before leaning over to help Luke back up. Luke was still a bit of a mess but at least able to stand, his pants currently soaking up spilled coffee, not really noticing while being helped up by this beefcake, heating up at being this much closer to his gorgeous hairy chest.
Similarly to the man that had lived in that body regularly up until yesterday morning, Luke had an eye for men and women. He leaned more into the women but couldn't resist men of a particular height of masculinity, such as the one currently rushing around the apartment shirtless and panicking.
"You're uh.... you're.... Luke, right?" James fumbled, needing to get it into his head that he was Miles at the moment. "Y... yeah," Luke responded in a similar stammer, looking this daddy up and down. Even if his brother had dibs he couldn't help but eye hump the massive alpha male. Forget D cups, this man had to have H cups going on.
James eventually caught on what was going through Luke's head after following his eyes, trying instead to keep the matter out of his head. "I'm uh.... I'm.... Miles. Miles Wright," he eventually said, holding a hand up to shake.
Luke swallowed and took the hand to shake it, his chest fluttering when he felt the slightest hint of a squeeze. He could only nod and return the handshake on autopilot, not taking the queue James had given.
"I'm.... I'm a coworker.... of James's," James kept trying, gritting hit teeth and frowning. Learning how to bodybuild and how to lead a business would be challenging but possible so long as he and Miles stuck together. His brother being hard for him though....
"Mhmm," Luke said, biting his lip. He was answering, sure, and continuing to shake his hand while imagining that towel dropping and getting another look at that gargantuan manhood. James was gonna be limping whenever he woke up and Miles looked like the kind of man that always needed to be pleased.... Luke swallowed again, blushing and wide eyed.
"And.... and....," James stammered some more, hating everything that was happening and starting to wonder how difficult it would be for the two of them to completely uproot their lives and just skip town to anywhere else on the globe.
His escape fantasy was short lived with a quiet mumble of a "Babe?" coming from the door, Miles stepping out a bit. He'd managed to get dressed, albeit in the clothes James had been wearing yesterday.
Being about three to four sizes past his current frames, the tight black t-shirt and athletic fit sweats looked like pajamas on Miles, who shuffled over and brought James in for a good morning kiss on the lips, smiling and perking up. James was admittedly able to calm down a bit with both the presence and actions Miles was taking, actually smiling back and getting an arm around him to kiss back.
"I was uh... just saying hi. To your brother. Luke," James carefully listed off. In spite of still waking up Miles nodded and turned to face Luke, shaking the recently released hand too.
This pushed Luke from flustered to confused, looking back and forth between the two. James just gave a weak sheepish smile while Miles tried to assert control of the situation while still waking up. "What uh... what brings you over?" he eventually asked, yawning and cracking his neck some.
"I... wanted to... surprise you?" Luke attempted, trying to come back from the complete mental lapse he'd been going through for the past five minutes. Once he had he pulled Miles in for a hug, who blinked and hugged Luke back, patting his back some.
"Oh uh... thanks," Miles answered. As an only child himself he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to be saying or acting like, brushing that to the side when he felt the hint of a chub through Luke's jeans, breaking the hug. While Luke was a looker for sure Miles had picked up on James's panic attack from the bedroom, knowing what he needed to be prioritizing at the moment.
"How uh... how about some coffee?" Miles attempted, having stepped over the puddle and making his way to the small kitchen James's living area was directly connected to.
While looking through what James had to prepare, Miles quickly made the deduction that James was going to need at least several times this. He could barely make a decent breakfast for himself, much less a full fledged bodybuilder's stomach. "Or we... could go out for some breakfast?" he said eventually, standing back up.
"Forgot to go grocery shopping. Sorry babe," Miles said, getting both James and Luke to turn their heads. James went from discomfort to confusion, still apparently not fully in sync with his body's needs and thinking what he had would have sufficed. Luke meanwhile was similarly perplexed as this was another thing unlike his brother to do. What was going on?
Miles returned from the kitchen and patted James on the arm before gripping his pec. Unlike the usual moan and warm smile he'd been giving off to this, James was just frozen, looking to Miles in silently shrieking desperation.
"Again, while I love the look you can't be going out like that," Miles teased before yanking James by the sheets and guiding him back to the bedroom. "We'll be ready in just a minute Luke, help yourself to the kitchen while we get dressed," Miles yelled back, shutting the door behind him.
Luke stood there puzzling, not taking up the offer that had been extended. His shy and awkward brother who had needed to come out at least twice a year was in some office romance with what he could only describe as a sex god who he had just led around like a zookeeper handling apex predators. And what had he done with his hair? Since when did James keep hair gel, much less use it?
The sex god meanwhile was trying his best to not have a meltdown, leaning against the closed door and slowly sinking down with his hands on his head. "Good to know the good looks are hereditary," Miles tried to distract him, patting James on the shoulder while working himself out of the emergency clothing he'd donned. "Or maybe I've just got a bit of a taste for the clan O'Deorain."
"I... he.... Miles he... he was checking me out," James managed to say, sounding distant and horrified. "Well. I mean. Have you seen yourself?" Miles offered, knowing this wasn't the best comfort but also not having much else, trying to focus on the present. James instead just looked up, baffled and incredulous.
"Miles, he... I can't let my brother get a crush on me," he managed to say, still reeling from the past ten minutes and still sitting down against the door. "Well I mean... technically he's my brother right now, isn't he?" Miles again tried to swerve. James didn't budge, instead just glaring at him.
"Look, okay. Okay. Take a breath, hun," Miles finally said, dressed in clothing his size and better suited for going out, walking over to James and rubbing his shoulder. James did so, closing his eyes and leaning his head in the direction of the hand Miles had put on him.
"So. To start. Even with everything I said yesterday about my stance on other guys, this proves there are exceptions. Bit of a no-fly list that I promise I'll never push you in to," Miles started. James stretched his face but nodded, looking Miles in the eye.
"Second, I don't know what the policy is between you two regarding people you bring home or start relationships with. But from an outside point of view, you're my boyfriend. I don't care what your brother thinks or feels, you're off limits if he has any amount of respect for you and your own needs," Miles assured, which James was able to nod in a bit of confirmation.
"And last. If push comes to shove and he doesn't take any sort of hints we drop, then..." Miles trailed off, looking to the side and trying to think. "Then.... we need to tell him," James finished the sentence, looking down. This got Miles a bit surprised instead.
"I... wasn't.... you'd do that?" he asked, his head going in a few different directions. "I mean... only after finding some way of proving it. We might have to go back to the shop, see if there's any other rings for sale, think of some way to trick him into switching with a hookup or something. Or anything, I don't care," James said idly, admittedly grasping at straws with everything he'd just listed off.
They both knew it would sound completely insane and thus why it had been brought up last. But it still seemed to calm James somewhat who was able to stand up and start getting dressed himself. Miles meanwhile was still reflecting.
"I... I was actually going to suggest...." Miles started to say, looking down. "That... we get the safe open. And just... unswitch. For whenever he's around, at least," he managed to say, getting James to pause and look to him.
"Miles. Be honest. How many times have you thought about getting the ring back since finding out where it's gotten stuck?" James asked, looking Miles in the eyes again. Miles had to think, blinking a few times, really trying to give a good answer.
"I.... I haven't," he finally managed to say, his voice a mix of relief and realization. James smiled back with legitimate warmth and stepped over to give Miles a similarly warm kiss, getting an arm around him and giving a good squeeze, getting the twink to giggle in his man's strength.
James didn't clarify if he'd had a similar experience but the actions seemed to convey anything Miles would have asked all the same. Not only was undoing the switch low on either of their priority lists, it was being actively pushed down for any alternative, regardless of how difficult it would prove to be.
While a longer kiss would have been nice, James still needed to get ready. Letting Miles go to browse his options, James slid past an old t-shirt of his he still liked and reflexively pulled off the hangar to be reminded of his recent change in weight class. James frowned at this for a bit before lifting the shirt over him and pulling it down anyway, and after some struggling popping his way into the old shirt which now looked more like a crop top on the beast's body.
Miles smirked at the start of the outfit while James kept looking and returned with a loose fitting tank top that was in his size, slipping it over before working himself into a decent pair of jeans, holding his arms out to display and making a flex.
Miles was impressed, looking the big guy up and down at the inadvertently experimental look. "Think we need to go shopping soon cuz you're looking like you had a growth spurt pretty recently, babe," Miles teased, tugging at the snug top a layer below. James was still too put off to joke back but did still pull Miles back in to peck at his cheek, getting a bit of his optimism back in the gratitude, eventually stepping back out into the hall with Miles.
Luke hadn't budged an inch, seemingly rooted to the spot in the living room. While sound could travel nothing coherent had made it through to him, mostly sounding like gibberish from his side of the door. Miles led the way though with James's hand in his, patting Luke on the shoulder while making their way for the door.
Not one to turn down breakfast or be deterred by the fact that he was effectively going to be third wheeling for the morning, Luke about faced and followed his brother and his brother's boyfriend, making sure to lock the door behind him as they went.