The next morning, Katie woke up first. She could hear John sleeping behind him. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It was 9:35. "I'll slip out and go make some coffee," she thought. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and reached for the bottle of water she kept next to the clock. As she reached out, she noticed that her fingernails were still painted green. They hadn't reverted. Upon closer examination, she realized her hands and arms were still thinner than normal and unchanged since last night.
She sat on the side of the bed and took a sip of water. "Why has everything else changed back, but my arms didn't?" she wondered. Realizing her legs should be back to normal, she looked at her feet and then pulled her pajama pants up her leg. They seemed to be her original feet and legs, so those reverted. She put the bottle down and grabbed her phone and went to the bathroom.
Before sitting on the toilet, she pulled her pajama bottoms down and looked at herself. Looking in the mirror, she didn't see anything else that didn't originally belong to her. It seemed only her arms and hands stayed how they were before. "We should go back to the store today," she thought as she sat on the toilet. "Maybe someone there can explain what happened and how to get my arms and hands back."
Before heading downstairs, she peeked into her room. John was still sleeping. "He had a big day yesterday," she thought. "I'll let him sleep in." She quietly went downstairs and made herself a cup of coffee which she enjoyed while flipping through social media posts on her phone.
About half an hour later, John started stirring. He reached out feeling for Katie, but didn't see her. Opening one eye, he realized she wasn't in bed. He noticed sunlight peeking in between the blackout curtains. "She must have gone downstairs," he thought.
Katie heard John come downstairs and waited for him at the kitchen table. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" She smiled at him as he entered the kitchen. He looked tired and confused. "You sleep okay?"
John shook his head "no", but said, "Yeah, yeah. Uh..."
"So my legs reverted to my original legs last night, but my arms and hands never did. It's weird," Katie revealed. "I think we should go to the shop and see if the woman there can explain why."
John still looked confused as if he was trying to make sense of something. "Yeah, yeah. We should definitely do that. ...because your arms weren't the only thing that didn't revert."
Katie was confused what John was referring to. She looked at John who was still wearing her pajama pants and his T-shirt. Everything about him looked normal from his large hairy feet up to his messy bed head hair. "What do you mean? You look normal. Those are your feet. That's your face, your arms, your voice. I don't see breasts..." Katie looked down at John's waist suspiciously.
"I went to pee this morning and it wasn't there! I saw my feet were back to their regular size and my legs are covered in hair again," he pulled a leg of the pajama pants up to reveal a large hairy calf. "But below the belt and above my thighs? Still female."
Katie's mouth fell open. "Can I see?"
John glanced around and then pulled the pajamas down to his knees and pulled his T-shirt up above his navel. Just as he said, from his waist to just above his thighs there was no hair other than pubic hair, he still had the larger rear end and hips, and most notably his penis was still missing. He pulled the pajamas back up and let go of his T-shirt. "What happened?"
Katie shook her head. "I was going to ask you the same thing!"
"Is it because we fingered each other last night?" John wondered. "And why did I change back from here down?" He motioned to his thighs.
"I wonder if it's the same reason my arms and hands didn't change back." Katie thought for a moment and put her coffee down. "Let's go double-check the instructions and make sure we didn't miss anything."
John followed Katie upstairs to her room. She retrieved the instructions from the top of her dresser. She began reading. "'Congratulations on your purchase of enchanted clothing. Please be aware that the clothing you have purchased has been enchanted with powerful magic to present your best self for the item(s) you have selected.'"
John pointed to that line of the instructions. "What does it mean by 'present your best self'? Does it selectively not revert if it somehow determines that you're better off with its change?"
"I don't know. Maybe that's just referring to the first part how it adjusts you to fit the clothing you wear." Katie continued reading. "'You will discover the new you by wearing these items.' Maybe 'new you' refers to a permanent change? Although, no, it says 'by wearing these items' and not 'after wearing'."
John pointed at the next sentence. "Oh, wait, this part... 'After removing the items, effects of the magic will remain for as long as the item was worn at which time the wearer will revert to their original form.' So it says 'after removing the items', which we did, 'effects of the magic will remain'."
Katie added, "Which they have..."
John continued, "'For as long as the item was worn', which is how we knew when we'd revert."
"And then it says, 'at which time the wearer will revert to their original form.'," Katie finished.
"So why have parts of us not done what it says and reverted to their original form?" asked John.
Katie finished reading the instructions. "The bottom says, 'Caution! Damage to the item may cancel any or all magical effects. The magic which is removed by damage may vary based on the type and amount of damage to the clothing. Hand wash only in warm water with mild soap. Do not iron. Do not machine wash. Do not dry clean.' Did we damage the items somehow?"
Katie retrieved the gloves she wore and John took the pantyhose. They both held up the items and looked closely for any holes or damage. "No, I'm not seeing any damage. These look to be in perfect condition," John concluded. "I'm lucky I didn't get a run in them!"
"The gloves look fine too. We didn't wash these, so the washing instructions don't apply. We didn't even get them wet. I suppose it wasn't the best idea to wear this stuff while eating spaghetti," Katie confessed. "Hindsight is 20/20, I guess."
"What are we missing? Or maybe these items are defective somehow?" John looked at the instructions again. "'The wearer will revert to their original form.' 'Original form.'" John looked up. "Wait a second." He thought for a moment. "When I put on the pantyhose, you took off a glove and put your hand down into my vagina."
A look of shock overcame Katie's face. "And then when I helped you put on the choker..."
"...you took off both gloves. You put them back on when it was fastened around my neck."
"So by putting them on my changed arms..." Katie didn't finish the sentence. "Do you think they reverted to the changed form of when I put them on?"
"Maybe the original change takes additional time to revert after that?" John did some math in his head. "No, it's been too long. It's over 12 hours since you last wore the gloves. Maybe the reversion time becomes exponentially long or something?"
Katie cocked her head to the side. "This doesn't explain your crotch though. You had the pantyhose on all night. You never took them off. Neither did I and I changed back fine."
John sighed. "There is one difference though. I had to pee. I pulled the pantyhose down to about where my legs changed back to normal.
When I pulled the top back up over my already female parts, I must have changed the definition of 'original form'."
"Oh no. I guess that confirms that's why we haven't fully reverted. It can't be a coincidence that you only reverted up to where you had pulled the pantyhose down to." Katie walked close to John and put her arm on his chest. "Oh, John. It's my fault. I said to leave the pantyhose on. If you hadn't done that, you'd be back to normal. I can live with thinner arms and green nail polish is no big deal."
"No, it's not your fault."
"We'll find that woman and we'll find a way to change you back!" she promised.
"Hopefully soon," wished John. "I'd like to change before my body starts producing estrogen instead of testosterone and that starts changing the rest of my body."
Katie covered her mouth. "Oh, I hadn't even thought of that! Okay, let's get cleaned up and dressed and head out to that store."
Katie showered while John had some coffee. When she was finished, he hopped in the shower while she got dressed. When John got out of the shower, he discovered Katie had laid out some clothes for him on her bed.
"You still have a feminine butt, so I thought my panties might fit you better than your own underwear. Also, I've got a pair of jeans that might fit you. Although you're taller, our legs are about the same length. Try them on."
John had doubts. "I'll wear the panties, but I think I'll look odd wearing women's jeans. They'll emphasize my butt and don't have pockets big enough for my wallet."
Katie shrugged. "Okay, you do you."
John put on the panties which fit nicely around his butt and crotch. Then he pulled on his pants. The waist was quite loose and his butt barely fit. There seemed to be an excess of material in the front. "See? They fit!"
Katie inspected his jeans. "Barely. The fit's not great."
"If I wear yours, it's going to be really obvious that I don't have a dick and have a bubble butt," John concluded. "I'll stick with these."
After Katie grabbed her purse, John put his wallet in his pocket, and they each grabbed their phones, they quickly headed out the door to find that store again.