Author's note: the following contains scenes of incest.
There comes a time in every marriage where the spark dims, or goes out entirely. For some, it can happen very quickly, over the course of a few months or years. For other couples, it can take much longer, but at some point, it is inevitable. It doesn't mean the love isn't there. It just means that the romantic fire is smoldering, or about to go out altogether.
Peter and Christine were in that season of marriage. They never thought they would get there, and perhaps for good reason. They had said their vows in their early twenties, and were still very much in love after 42 years. They weren't in the best of shape, the wrinkles were plentiful, and everything seemed harder to do. But they'd say they were happy, and if asked, would say they wanted for nothing. But that wasn't entirely true. Because they both felt their marriage was in a slump.
The love was still there, but the sex life had wained. This is something that for so many years they would have thought impossible. They felt their sex life was richer than most, especially since they were both bodyhoppers.
Their first date had been while inside other people's bodies, as had their second. For the third they met up in real life, and had been together ever since. They hopped many people all throughout their relationship, and lived out each other's fantasies in any body that caught their eye.
There were certainly lots of people to choose from. They could be anyone, their neighbors, the clerk at the grocery store, the waiter at a local restaurant, a random passerby, or a person at their place of employment. Peter had fucked so many of his secretaries that he'd lost count.
And there was the problem. It all felt the same now. Even their ability to be anyone new had become a rut, because after a couple of decades living in the same town, they had been there, done that. Was this how they were to spend their golden years? Just come home, drink wine, watch television, and sleep. And the problem would just get worse when they retired in a few years. What they needed was to renew the spark. Could they? Is that what they wanted at this stage? Or would it just be better to coexist in a loving but sexless marriage?
Peter especially had felt this for a few months. As he poured his wife a cup of coffee that particular morning, he decided they should finally talk about it.
"You know," he started carefully. "It's been awhile."
Christine half heard him as she cracked his eggs. Her husband liked his eggs cooked in a very specific way. It was both endearing, and a little annoying, because if they weren't perfect, he wouldn't eat them. He really should have learned to cook his own eggs by now. But no. Like so many other things, she was always the one to do it because he proved too incompetent. She was sure he could have mastered them by now, especially folding laundry, if he just put in the same effort he did with his hobbies. But he hadn't when they were young, and so why would anything ever change. She was stuck making his eggs until one of them died.
As the eggs sizzled and marital complaints ran through her mind, her only response was a mumbled, "Put it on the calendar."
"You want me to put our sex life on the calendar?"
"I...what? No! What are you on about?"
"It's been awhile, hasn't it?"
"Since what?"
"Since we've had sex."
"With each other?"
"Yes. But also, as other people."
That answer gave Christine pause. They hadn't hopped someone to have sex in long while. They used to do it all the time in their first couple decades of marriage, multiple times a day, whenever they got half a chance. It had lessened after that, both getting swept up in the busy of life and preferring to relax at the end of the day. When was the last time they had bodyhopped someone for sex?
"Didn't we hop the Johnson's?"
"Yes, what for my birthday last year, right?"
"The Smith's?"
"For your birthday two years ago, I believe."
"Oh, what about the Parker's?"
"Is your memory alright? That was ages ago!"
Christine sighed. "I know. But we had really great sex in them, didn't we?"
"I suppose," Peter agreed. "Maybe if we hadn't hopped them after work for a month straight they wouldn't have lost their appeal."
"Or maybe if they hadn't gotten old like we did."
"So that brings me back to my question. When was the last time we had sex?"
"I...I don't know. Oh damn it! I've ruined your eggs."
"That's okay, I don't have to-"
Her glare made him change course.
"But I will, I will eat them, because I love you so much," Peter finished.
"Smart man," she smiled as she scraped them onto a plate. As she started making her own, she asked, "So what are you proposing?"
"Well, I mean, I think we should have sex."
"I gathered that much. You want to do it now, or after breakfast." It was as romantic as scheduling a trip to the store.
"Are you in the mood right now?" Peter asked curiously.
Christine pursed her lips. "Not particularly. You?"
"Me neither."
"Part of getting older I guess."
"But when did that happen?"
"For me it was probably after the millionth load of laundry, or maybe thinking about all the repairs that need done to this house. Or one of the other hundreds of things that I'm thinking about all the time."
Peter nodded. "For me it's just, well, I come home, and I don't even think about sex."
Christine furrowed her brow. She felt the same way. "And no one does it for you out there anymore?" Christine gestured to the outside world. "No people you want to hop, or make me hop?"
"I mean, don't get me wrong. I'll think about it every once in a while. But not as much as I used to. And when I do, it's fleeting. By the time I get home from work, it feels like another thing that I, we, keep putting off to do other things."
"Oh, speaking of work. I'd better get going. I've got a meeting."
Peter checked his watch and made a face. "Me too. I guess we can pick this up later."
"Don't forget your eggs."
"I'll be late."
"But you'll be alive."
Peter paused, then quickly ate his eggs under the watchful eye of his wife.
As the hours passed that day, both husband and wife would ponder this conversation. It was one of those brief interactions that gnawed at both of them. They both wondered, was the other person getting bored of them? Why had they stopped pursuing each other as they had in the past? Both took note of the people around them throughout the day, and briefly fantasized about their significant other hopping them for a sexual liaison. Every person they saw, no matter how attractive, barely moved the needle.
Peter arrived home from work first and poured two glasses of wine. He looked at the dark red liquid in the glass. As he did, he wondered if he should pick up that morning's conversation, or let it lapse.
Two minutes later, Christine practically burst through the door. She moved quickly to where she knew her husband would be and picked up her glass of wine. She downed it in two gulps, and then said, "I've been thinking about it, and I think we should hop the next couple we see, and fuck."
Peter took a sip of wine and shook his head. "Look, I wasn't trying to upset you this morning. We don't have to rush into anything. It's been a long day and-"
"No, no, you were right earlier," Chrstine said firmly. We are in a rut. We've become boring."
"There's nothing wrong with boring," Peter argued.
"Boring is fine sometimes. But is that's what our marriage has become all the time. We used to take chances, and hop someone at the slightest hint of arousal. Let's step outside of our comfort zone and try something new."
Peter sighed. At their age, when they assumed an incorporeal form, their range was limited. "So you want to go out? Cause new is several miles in any direction."
"We could pick one of the neighbors."
"I thought you said new."
Christine crossed her arms as she thought about potential candidates. The well really had run dry all around them. Even if there was someone that piqued their interest, it would still be the same. Their sexual proclivites over the years had been very vanilla by other bodyhopper standards. But still, it should be this hard to convince her husband to go out with her to bodyhop and fuck someone. The situation was really more dire than she thought.
"Well, we need to get out there and start looking?"
"That's the problem isn't it. I haven't seen anyone that gets me going anywhere recently. Maybe we find someone if we go into the city. And you know how that story goes. I have to fight city traffic. We take forever to find someone we like. And if and when we find a pair we can agree on, we have the logistics of getting somewhere private to have sex, and that's a whole thing. And then it's late, and I have to fight traffic on the way back. And then we're both tired the next morning-"
"I get it, Peter. But we can't just shove this under the rug. It might take some effort on our part. It's not like the perfect solution is just going to show up right outside our door."