There was a long moment of silence between them. Each had their elbow resting on the tile floor, supporting their upright torso. Their legs were stretched out in front, and the broken shards of the two-headed eagle surrounded them. Both brothers were facing in different directions, attempting to give themselves as much space as their shared set of shoulders would allow.
Kyle stared at their feet. They were wearing mismatched socks, unlike the blended clothes that covered the rest of their body. With his eyes, he followed their two legs to their shared hips. Kyle's gaze paused at the area between his and Josh's legs before continuing up to their chest. Despite the situation, he found himself curious about how he and Josh looked. Finally Kyle turned to face his brother, who was still looking at the broken pieces of the necklace. "Look, we both want get away from each other, but who knows when that will ever happen." Kyle said, careful to say 'when' they would be free rather than 'if'. He still held hope that their predicament was not permanent in spite of his brother's dumb, rash idea of destroying the eagles.
"Yeah, and..." Josh impatiently said, turning to look into Kyle's face. Their shoulders were just large enough that they could mostly look at each other, face to face.
"We might as well get a better view of what we look like." Kyle stated simply.
Josh stared at his brother for a few moments, needing that time to process what Kyle meant. "You mean we should undress; see what we look like naked."
"Yeah..." Kyle's face turned a shade of pink. "You can't tell me your not curious. Our clothes blended together, maybe our bodies did to."
"Fine." Josh agreed, which surprised Kyle. He had expected his brother to put up more of a fight.
“Good. Well… I guess we should go to the bathroom.” With both of them in agreement, they attempted to stand, with much difficulty and yelling. Coordinating their joint body was an incredibly difficult task. As each only controlled his half of the body, moving them in tandem, as any typical person could, was painfully slow.
After a few failed attempts at trying to stand without communicating, Kyle and Josh begrudgingly realized that they needed to rely and trust one another. They alternated explaining how they were going to move their portion of the body. Once positioned onto their stomach, Josh said, “I’m going to shift our weight to my side so you can lean on my hands and knees.”
Kyle chose not to correct his brother on the amount of limbs he actually had. “Right. I’ll lift my half up and then shift our weight back to my side. That way you can lift your side.” Slowly but surely, the brothers maneuvered their body into a standing position. With the small success, Kyle and Josh found themselves arguing and blaming each other less. The two paused and stared at each other for a few moments before they burst out laughing.
Josh was the first to recover from the fit of laughter. “This is insanely hard. Not only do we each only have one arm and leg, but I can’t feel anything your side is doing.”
Kyle nodded, a smile was still on his face. “Yeah, its like I’m leaning against an invisible wall.” After a few more moments, Kyle’s smile faded, as he realized just how dependent they were on each other now. “We’ll have to be in almost perfect sync all the time.” He placed his right palm over his face. “Look Josh, I’m sorry we’re stuck in this situation. If I had known…”
“If you had known, you would never have bought those dumb necklaces, but that doesn’t matter. Heck, this IS partly my fault since I stole half of them anyways.” Josh sighed heavily. “Lets just get to the bathroom. I kind of have to take a leak anyways.” It was his turn to turn a slight shade of red.
Kyle stifled a laugh, because he realized that he felt the same sensation as his brother. “I think you mean we need to take a leak.”
“Funny.” Josh rolled his eyes in response.
A thought suddenly occurred to Kyle. He was surprised at how much they were getting along. It had been a good five minutes and they had hardly gotten into an argument, despite being stuck in each other’s presence. At the least the chains were helping them find common ground. “After you.” Kyle said aloud.
Josh restarted their back-and-forth explanation of how they were going to move. “I’ll take a step with my leg, but you need to…”
“Plant my foot and shift my weight with you.” Kyle finished Josh’s statement. The two then spent the next few minutes making the slow trek to the nearest bathroom. Surprising both brothers, they managed to make it to the doorway without falling, though there were a few close calls.
The door to the bathroom was open, and Josh blindly switched the light on. You both gasped at seeing your reflection for the first time. “This is surreal.” Josh commented as you slowly stepped fully into the bathroom.
Kyle nodded, “Yeah…” He noted that their shoulders were broader than either’s were before; he figured that was so both of their heads could fit proportionally. “Were the same height!” Kyle exclaimed, just realizing that they matched. Together, they both leaned down to look at their feet.
“I had a good two inches on you. Maybe you are right, and our bodies are blended together.” Josh stated and both brothers peered back into the mirror. “I guess that is one good thing, as we’d be walking with a weird limp otherwise.”
“Lets get a better look.” Kyle finally stated after awhile. He and Josh then worked off their t-shirt. After letting it fall to the floor, Kyle could not help but smile at their torso. “I have abs!” Kyle said excitedly. He was never a good athlete, but seeing more muscle on his body was an incredible feeling.
“Those are half mine, remember.” Josh said as he traced his fingers down the lift half of their abdomen. “Though, I do have to admit that there is more here than what I had.”
Kyle and Josh then worked together to undo their pants, letting it fall to the ground around their ankles. “Our legs are both hairy.” Kyle noted, before gripping the single pair of boxers around their waist.
Josh gripped his side of the boxers, and he slowly lowered them with Kyle. Hanging between their legs was a single penis, some combination of their individuals ones. “So we literally have to share everything, even a dick.”
“We only have the one body. It would be weird if there were two.” Kyle stated as he stared at their single crotch. “Umm… I guess we need to do what we also came in here to do.”
“Right…” Josh said as they waddled over to the toilet. “Who controls it?”
They both then reached for their penis, and shuddered at the touch. “Both of us, I think.” Kyle stated. The brothers pointed their member towards the bowl. It too a few long moments for them both to realize that they had split control of the muscles controlling their bladder. Wordlessly, they urinated into the toilet.
Together, they then began to redress themselves, a more difficult task then removing the articles of clothing. Even washing their hands proved to be a challenge, but they managed. Kyle and Josh then agreed to leave the bathroom. Once in the hallway, both brothers paused. A car had pulled into the driveway.