"That can't be..." Ethan protested. "It was just fixed, and we were assured that it could not break again." He struggled to reach for the zipper with his left hand, just glancing it with the tips of his fingers.
"Here, let me." Scott insisted as he reached with his right hand. He managed to grip the zipper and pull downward. Unlike what his wife had explained, the zipper appeared to move downward just fine. "Sharon! The zipper was not caught at all." His wife placed her hand just over his, keeping him from pulling the zipper all the way down and undoing the magic of the suite.
"Alright, you caught me. It was supposed to be a little fib." Sharon sighed and took her hand away from their back. Both men listened as she explained her brief fantasy of her husband and Ethan becoming joined akin to conjoined twins. "Obviously it was just a weird daydream, but... it was fascinating to think about. How would things be different if you two were permanently joined together? How would we raise the kids? Would the kids be any different?"
"Huh... That is an interesting thought." Scott spoke before turning to Ethan. "Could you imagine playing football in high school like this."
"Our appearance would definitely throw the other team off of their game... if anything." Ethan smiled. "We were co-captains way back then... I guess we would still be the co-captains even if we shared a body. Heck, we'd be co...everything." He laughed as he thought of their changed history. "We'd have a built-in lab partner, and heck, I could have really been an asset as your permanent wingman when you first dated Sharon."
Scott's face turned lightly red as he remembered his first date with Sharon, his then girlfriend. "Yeah... I could have used the help."
"We still married, didn't we..." Sharon pointed out.
"But wow, that would be a different life." Ethan commented. "You up for sticking together for a few days. We could bounce back and forth between houses, pretend like we have always been joined. It might be fun."
"Sure, why not. I'll do anything if it pleases the wife." Scott said as he smiled at Sharon. As he zipped up the suite back to the top, an energy pulse, of sorts, seemed to reverberate outward from their joint body. The zipper, which had been between his fingers, was gone. "What just happened... I can't feel the zipper anymore."
"Its not there..." Sharon spoke as she rubbed their bare back.
"This is not a time to joke, dear." Scott spoke, confusion in his voice. "The mirror..." He said aloud to Ethan, whom picked up on the cue. They shifted off of the bed with surprising ease, which Scott noticed immediately. Just a few minutes ago, they stumble nearly every step, but now, he seemed to be able to move with Ethan as if it were normal. When they turned in front of the mirror to see their back, there was no zipper to be found. But that was not the only strange sight. Before, they appeared as two disjoined half-bodies joined down the middle, but now, they appeared to share a single, composite body. There appeared to be no defining line between them. They were simple one body, with two heads. "How did..." He was at a loss for words.
"Well, we both did agree to share a body as if we've always had while wearing a magic suite..." Ethan pointed out as he gazed at their naked body. "Apparently the suite has more tricks."
"But could it... really change things like that." Scott asked in wonder.
"Honey, I think so." Sharon spoke. She appeared to be holding a picture frame in her hands, and Scott immediately recognized it as the frame containing their wedding photo. "I pretty sure I remember the two of you not wearing the same tux in our wedding." She said just before turning it around. The photo depicted the three of them with the addition of Ethan's wife, Alissa. The two women were dressed in brilliant gowns, on opposite sides of the image. Ethan and Scott were in the center, each kissing their bride. The two of them were also wearing a modified tux between them, with two neck ties.
"We only have one body..." Scott breathed.
"Everything did change..." Ethan paused for a moment. "What about the boys?"
"A lot of things seemed to have changed..." Sharon commented as she walked over to stand beside them, on Scott's side. She held another image in her hands, taken seemingly years ago. Mark and Max were joined together, just as Ethan and Scott were, and it was difficult to tell who was who. Zack was a toddler, but he appeared to be unchanged. Suzie was just a young infant, but she also appeared just as Ethan remembered her to be. Luke had the greatest change. Beside him was another boy of the same age with darker hair and a pointier nose, but just like Mark and Max, Luke and this other boy shared a single body.
"Oh my god!" Ethan exclaimed. "Luke... he was supposed to be a twin, but we lost the other baby during the pregnancy. We were planning on naming him... Logan." he finished as he stared at the image of his fraternal twin sons.