As Landon slipped his head through the adjacent shirt collar, you were relieved to be fully dressed again. The little adventure of exploring your body, while intriguing, was also embarrassing in a way. Essentially sharing your entire body with Landon brought up questions that you, and obviously him as well, were not ready to answer. But, your brain, despite your attempts at ignoring it, still proposed questions anyway. Do you both have to concentrate when relieving yourselves? Do you take turns wiping up after defecating? Does you penis become fully erect if only one of you has an urge? Or do you both have to be in the same mood? If you got a girl pregnant, who would be the father?
"Bra...." Your brother quietly called your name. "Lan to Bra... Come in Bra..."
"Sorry Lan... What?" You stated, realizing that you must have completely been engulfed by your thoughts, ignoring what ever your brother had been trying to say.
"Before you became a space cadet, I was just asking what you thought we should do now?" Landon said as he looked at you through the reflection in the mirror. "Neither of us seems to want to fully experience everything that sharing a body has to offer. So... do you want to instead experience being typically, average identical twins?"
With you head out of the clouds, you smirked, "I do not think there is anything typical or average about you." Which Landon reacted by rolling his eyes. You continued, "Yeah, that sounds like a plan."
"Good." Landon mirrored your expression, smirking, "I'll finally get to do my own thing without my typical, average brother holding me back." He then grinned. "But seriously, I think having some real personal space would be good for both of us. I couldn't imagine how we'd settle in argument like this."
You imagined a fork in the road, with you and Landon pointing in opposite directions and screaming at each other. You then pushed the image from your mind and nodded toward your twin. "Yeah, we've both been pretty agreeable. Better to not find out."
You and Landon then walked back to where you had stashed the wand, and together, pulled the vent cover from the wall. You then reached inside. Blindly feeling for the wand, you grasped the familiar rod. "Okay, ready..." You waited for your twin to nod in agreement. You pointed the wand at the center of your torso and said, "Make us separate."
For a brief moment, you felt a tingling through your body, but the sensation disappeared. You and Landon stared at each other in shocked silence as you and he were still firmly joined together. "Separate us!" You half-yelled, trying not to panic. Just as before, you body tingled for a moment but you and Landon did not change. You stared at the wand. You did not understand why it was not working.
"Your saying it wrong." Landon wrapped his hand around it. For a few moments, you and he tugged it back and forth before you released your grip. You decided now was not the time to see how you and he would end an agreement. You watched in silence as your brother pointed the want at your abdomen. "Give us separate bodies." He commanded. You again felt the same tingling sensation, but you and he remained the same.
You felt your heart pounding, your palm became clammy. "I don't understand." You stared at your brother. "Why is it not working? It worked all of the other times..."
"What other times... we only used it twice." He stated, his face mirroring panic you felt. He held the wand limply, almost as if he was about to give up.
"Why isn't it working?" You repeated again. "I wish I understood why it didn't work." Immediately, the tingling sensation returned, but this your head seemed to be the epicenter. "Gaw!" You cried out as pain took hold of you.
"Brandon?! What's wrong?" You heard your brother yell out, clearly startled by your sudden scream.
You could not formulate words though. It was like thousands of drills were piercing your skull, from every direction. The pain took your breathe away, and your knee buckled. You hardly noticed when you fell backwards, as Landon was unable to support your combined weight with his one leg. Then in the next moment, the pain was gone.
"Brandon!" Your brother screamed in your ear. You felt a hand, probably his, shaking your shoulder.
You moaned and opened your eyes. You and he had landed on your back, away from the wall. You took note of the panic etched on his face. "I'm okay..." you said, "The pain is gone."
"What pain? What happened? Are you okay?" He asked, the fear not leaving his face.
You were touched by his worry for you, but decided to not speak on that. Instead, you mind was reeling, and you forced yourself to try and sort though the foreign... knowledge... memories. You were not sure what they were, but you suddenly knew things... things about the wand. You laughed lightly, "I don't think it matters which of us holds the wand and makes a command. Apparently, we're so interconnected that the wand sees us as a package deal. I could hold the wand, and you could make a wish from it too."
"What... What are you talking about?" Landon's panic did not leave. You figured by his looks, that your explanation was not easing his nerves.
"I hardly know myself... which is ironic since I know a lot about the wand now." You then sighed. "I'm fine... I got more than I bargained when I wished to know why it wasn't working. But, I am okay, really." You rubbed your forehead. "My head felt like it was being drilled into, which... in a way I guess it really was. It was like information about the wand was pushed into me. The process was just painful. I'm fine now."
Slowly, you and Landon sat up from the carpet. You noticed that the wand had fallen between your and your brother's legs. "So... your okay." He seemed a little relieved. "I thought your were having a stroke or something..." He sighed, "I'm glad you're okay."
"Thanks." You smiled, trying to ease his nerves more.
"Okay, well... why didn't the wand work?"
"Because it couldn't." You stated mater of factly. "Its low on... juice."
"Juice? You mean like electricity?"
"No... but its a similar concept. The wand does not have enough power to separate us, not right now anyways."
"What do you mean?" Landon's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Let me try and explain." You looked away for a moment to collect your buzzing thoughts. "Obviously, the wand is some of kind of magic, a really powerful kind of magic. It can transform things and shape reality to fit with the changes that are made."
"But..." Your twin asked when you paused for a moment.
"But... magic has a cost, and there are limits to what the wand can do. Little changes, like changing hair color, are cheap. Big things, like making one person into twins, are much more expensive. We taxed the wand of its power."
"So your saying we're stuck like this." Landon said. You could see panic begin to rise in him.
"No... thankfully not. The wand is like a rechargeable battery. Its low on power and needs time to recharge." Your comment seemed to calm your brother down again. "We just have to be careful. We could still over tax it, which would be really bad."
"Okay, I think I understand that." Landon closed his eyes as if he was organizing his thoughts. "We're stuck together, temporarily. We have to wait before using the wand to separate us again."
"Yeah and before you ask, I'm not sure how long." You sighed, "We could be stuck like this for a couple of days or at max... a couple of weeks."
"A couple of weeks!" Landon looked away from you, staring at your shared desk. "So much for getting some personal space."
"I'm not thrilled about it either, but its better than the alternative. Let's just hope that it will only be for a couple of days... then we can be normal, average twins."
"There has to be some other way?" Landon questioned aloud. "You know more about the wand now. There has to be a way." When you shook your head, your twin thumped his fist against his leg in frustration. Then his gaze shifted to the wand lying between you.
You knew that look on his face well. A moment before he reacted, you snatched the wand. Grasping it tightly, you then held the wand far out of your brother's reach. "Don't even think about it. Making a wish is a bad idea right now."
He reached across your torso, trying to grab at the wand, but you held it to the side, away from your body. "Give me the wand!" He exclaimed as he pressed his face into yours. Your disjointed movements caused your torso to fall back against the carpet. "Fine..." He stated, seemingly giving up. Lying flat on the carpet, you and he locked eyes for a few moments, before your brother's face lit up with some revelation. "Didn't you say we're a package deal?" He asked. Before you could react, he commanded, "Make me know how the wand works too." A second later, his face contorted with the same pain you had felt earlier.