Ruby and Sapphire (known as Fire) were not having a great week: following a less than stellar job interview, the conjoined twins signed up for a gum taste test. Unfortunately, Fire’s gum contained blueberry, which she was very allergic to. Within an hour, she had swelled into a six foot diameter blue sphere with her head, hands and feet barely sticking out. She had burst through her clothes, and now sat on her living room floor, unable to move. Her sister was thankfully not affected as they only shared some skin and fat on their bellies. Still, their doctor said the swelling and discoloration wouldn’t go away on its own and needed a house call procedure the women simply couldn’t afford even if they weren’t saving up for a separation surgery.

In other words, they were screwed.

“We don’t have a choice,” Ruby said, staring at the band of flesh that bound her to her immobile sister, “We have to get that procedure done. We can’t live like this!”
“Oh yeah? With what money, Einstein? In case you forgot, we’re broke! And with no insurance, we can’t pay for squat.”
“They have payment plans…or we could get a loan somehow!”
“Look, I think I know what the doctor would do anyway. Get me a knife and one of the big pots: I’m draining myself!” Fire said with a sneer
“Sis, no! That’s dangerous! There’s a reason we always chickened out when we tried cutting ourselves apart.”
“Just shut up and do it!” Fire snapped, causing Ruby to jump a bit in shock. She knew better than to argue with her sister when she was this angry, so she looked behind herself and started to walk backwards, heading towards the kitchen, dragging her sister along slowly.

Strangely, once she crossed the doorway, Ruby found it was incredibly easy to drag her water balloon of a sister; she only felt a bit of tension on her gut, but she wasn’t expecting to even be capable of movement, let alone having an easy time of it.
“Sis, look!” Fire gasped
It turned out, Ruby wasn’t dragging her sister after all; she had gotten wedged in the door and somehow, the skin between their bodies was stretching like taffy, allowing Ruby to walk away from her sister for the first time in her life!
“This is so surreal; you’re in the living room but I’m in the kitchen! What…what do I do!?”
“Run, you idiot! Get as far away as possible and maybe it’ll snap on its own without surgery! Go!”

And Ruby was out the door in a flash!

The feeling was amazing! She didn’t know how a blueberry allergy could cause all of this, but she didn’t care. She could run, she could see ahead of herself without having to look past her sister! She had never felt so free before! As she ran, she felt the tension on her stomach grow tighter and tighter, but she didn’t care; she could go wherever she liked, no compromises needed.

At first, she didn’t care where she went or how tight her stomach got, she just wanted to get away from her sister. Away from the arguments and compromises, away from Fire’s temper and overprotective nature driving everyone off. For the first time in her life, Ruby was alone, and she loved it. Of course, she had only gone to the end of their walkway at this point, but considering Fire was inside while Ruby was outside, it was still a world of difference to her.

Meanwhile, Fire was stewing in her own juices, so to speak. She was glad that Ruby could finally go outside on her own, but hated what it took to achieve that; namely her complete lack of mobility. She was also worried about her sister being outside by herself, without Fire there to protect her. She had always worried about that in the event the two ever separated, but now that the possibility of separation was a distinct possibility, her worry was renewed. And what would happen if neither the separation attempt nor the juicing attempt worked? Well, there wasn’t anything she could do about that now. All she could do was glance down at her strange new body… It looked weird, especially her chest. Due to her body being a perfect sphere, her nipples were just dark blue spots on her chest without any distance breasts… it looked like a boy chest.

By the time Ruby had gone a few blocks, the tension on her stomach was getting to be unbearable. She struggled to move forward and her feet constantly slipped on the pavement. But she knew she just had to keep going…just a little further…and she’d be free at last…

And then she lost her footing, flying back all the way to her immobile sister.

For the rest of the day, the girls settled into a sort of mundane “routine”, wherein Fire would sit there, unable to move and Ruby would take care of her every need. While Fire had suggested trying again to separate, or perhaps cutting their flesh strand when it was all stretched out, Ruby had decided she had enough “fun” for the day. At the very least, Ruby could appreciate the newfound freedom their new stretchy belly granted, and while feeding and bathing her sister was a pain, she welcomed the ability to go into another room.

Meanwhile, Fire was angry with Ruby. They were so close! They almost either separated or juiced her and now Ruby was just wandering off at random. Fire would do the procedure herself if she could do anything besides wiggle her fingers, but she was at her sister’s mercy; just a ball and chain. Maybe she could convince Ruby to try again tomorrow. In the meantime, she had to sit there, even after Ruby went to bed. Not Ruby’s brightest move, Fire realized, as she was left alone in the dark with no one to scratch her itches.