Raveled 14

Don woke to nightmare.  His body was moving on its own, and he had no idea where or why.  When he saw the door to the exam room, he began to worry.  When the papers were handed out for his big Sociology exam, and the date on the top said ‘Monday’, he got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, and knew he was in deep, deep trouble.

He hadn’t studied.  He couldn’t remember anything after chasing after Tess last night.  Last night?  That was Wednesday, and it seemed like today was Monday.  He tried everything he’d ever heard of to wake himself from this dream, but his body wasn’t cooperating.  He couldn’t even pinch himself.

The desk and paper felt too real, the room smelled too much of sweat and panic, ink and shoes.  He began to worry that this wasn’t actually a dream after all, but some kind of mental breakdown.

Whatever was controlling his body knew to print his name in big, neat block letters.  The handwriting was not far off his own, perhaps slightly neater.  It wasn’t distinctive in any way.  The strangest thing was that as the nightmare continued, his body wrote answers with more confidence than he felt, but as best his fuzzy memory could tell it was answering correctly.

Don started to feel a sense of relief.  He didn’t know what was happening, but it looked like whatever was controlling his body wasn’t going to let him fail.

And then it scrawled, ‘FUCK YOU’ across the rest of the test sheet.  His body got up, walked to the front desk, and tore the test in half in front of the proctor.  “I’m done,” it declared, and stormed out of the exam room.

The enormity of what had just happened clanged through him like an alarm.  He must have missed his earlier exam, and this one... this one he’d never be allowed to re-take.  He was doomed.

The walk back to his frat room was no less nightmarish.  He desperately wanted to turn around, to return to the exam room, tell the proctor it was all a joke and start over.  Writing the exam in two hours instead of three, and without studying for it was starting to look like the best case scenario.  His body kept walking, even turning his gaze away from the cute girls he passed.  That just made it worse.

Blacker thoughts formed in his mind.  What if whatever now steered his body decided to dive off a bridge?  Or worse, was he doomed to just watch his life go by?  Have no control at all?  What if he was never released?

Don’s body found its way to his frat room, then lay down on the bed.  For a long time, nothing else happened.

Then suddenly his body was his own again, and all he could do was quake in fear on his bed.

* * *

“Thanks for getting me out of that body,”  said Tess after her body had reassembled itself from ribbon.  She shuddered.  “What a cess-pit of a mind.  Walking back to the dorm I found myself staring at the breasts or ass of every girl I passed.  Worse, his imagination was stripping them naked, and thinking of what he’d do to them.  Ugh.  Still, I did feel a little sorry for him at the end, there.  His entire world is falling apart.”

“Have you forgotten the part where he raped your body while Jess was wearing it?” said Ed, harshly.  He was still limping from the dislocated hip Don had given him, and his bruised ribs still ached.

Tess’ eyes hardened.  “No.”

“Don’t cry for him, then.  He got less than he deserves.  Do you think campus security would have done anything to him?  Anything at all?”

“No.  They wouldn’t have.”  Tess picked up the ribbon, examining it idly.  “‘The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.’  Where’s Jess?”

“She’s got her head in a book again.”  Ed pointed to the book in question.  “Her body’s on the bed so it doesn’t fall over.”

“Good.”  Ed didn’t even notice the ribbon swinging at him until it was too late.  “This is for leaving me tied up all weekend.”

* * *

Jess blinked as her head was pulled from the book, and then gently placed on her neck.  “Oh, hi sweetie.  Give me a minute, all this math is making me dizzy.”

Ed smiled at her.  “Of course.  Ready for some lunch?  I was thinking we should go out and have a nice meal to celebrate.”

Jess grinned.  “That sounds nice.  Just let me get... dressed?”  Jess surveyed her body.  She was certain she would never have voluntarily put on a top cut that short.  “Did you dress me up?”

“Tess did,” Ed answered honestly.  “Come on, you look ravishing like this.”

Ed drove Jess to a nearby restaurant, only clashing the gears once on the way.  It was one of Jess’ favourite places to eat, but she couldn’t afford to as often as she would like.  She smiled at Ed as she got out of the car.  “Oooh, you do know the way to a girl’s heart.”

As they sat at the table, Ed forbade talk of their studies, so they talked of cheerful things instead.  Jess welcomed the change, and chattered with Ed as if he was an old friends.  Every time their gazes met, Jess smiled at the undisguised affection there.

As their salad plates were being cleared away, Ed took Jess’ hands, and said, “Do you have any idea how much I love you?  I love you, could never love anyone but you, and you so richly deserve it.”

Jess stared at Ed in wonder, and was entirely unable to speak for long moments.  She was saved by the arrival of the main course and the wine, then gathered her thoughts.  “Oh, Ed.  I love you too.  I just never thought the first time you’d say it would be so flowery.”  She frowned then, looking confused.

“He... I haven’t?  But it’s how I’ve felt all along...”  Ed pulled his hands back from Jess, and jostled his wineglass.  Red wine splashed his sleeve, and he cursed.  He scrubbed at the stain with his napkin.  “Out, out damned spot.”

Jess stared at Ed in shock.  “Tess?”

Her companion’s eyes went wide in terror, then he slumped and nodded.  “I... I could never tell you any other way.”

“That was all you?  Not... him?”

Tess laughed bitterly.  “Oh, he feels the same way.  He’d just never be able to say it like that.  I think he’s actually thankful... which makes this so much worse.”  He dug some bills out of Ed’s wallet, and put them on the table.  “I should go.”

“No.  Stay.  Eat.  The food here is too good to waste.”

They finished the meal in silence.  They would have anyway, the food was just that good.

Back at the apartment, Tess stripped out of Ed’s jacket and pants, then started scourging their body with the ribbon.  Before Jess could stop it, there was little left but an arm and part of a torso.  Jess sighed, and finished the job.  She separated the ribbons into piles, with no clear idea which was Tess, and which was Ed.

Then she waited.  She needed answers, and the only people that could give them to her were helpless piles of ribbon.  She wanted to hug Ed, and be told everything was alright, but discovered that hugging ribbon-piles wasn’t very comforting.  And as for what she wanted to do to Tess... if she’d known which ribbon was which, she’d have gotten started.

So she sat, and waited.  And leaked a few tears, but wiped them up so that neither would see when they came back.

Tess curled up in a ball on the couch, and didn’t say a word.  Ed stood up, walked uncertainly over to Jess on his dodgy leg, and hugged her softly, as his silken form could do no more.  “I love you.  I’m so sorry I never said it before.  I should have, and this wouldn’t be such a mess.”

“Say it again,” sniffed Jess.

“I love you.  I love you.  I love you.”

Jess buried her face in his neck, and cried.  Once she stopped, she whispered, “I love you too.”  She kissed his silken lips, and hugged him so hard she crushed his hollow body flat.  She didn’t let him go until his body filled out as flesh and blood once more, forcing her arms wide.

Jess sighed and sat up, rubbing dried tear-tracks from her face.  “What are we going to do?”

Ed nuzzled in for another kiss, but Jess pulled back.  He sighed.  “Do about what?”

“About Tess!  What she did was... was...”

“She got us to profess our love to each other.”

Jess buried her face in her hands.  “But she meant what she said, too.  I could tell.  Every word was from her heart.  What am I going to do?  I’m so mad with her I want to spit, and at the same time I love her so much and just want to make her hurt go away.”

Ed looked around.  “Speaking of going away... where is Tess?”

Jess scanned the apartment.  No Tess, but her purse was still on the kitchen counter.  “Probably in her room.”

Ed stood up, carrying Jess in his arms.  “Then we’ll deal with her later.”   The gesture was somewhat spoiled when his leg gave out, and they tumbled to the floor.  Jess wrapped an arm around his waist, and supported him to the bedroom.  Where he promptly slipped on the ribbon, and fell on top of its coils.

“Ed!” called Jess.  “Are you OK?”  She crouched beside him, careful to avoid the ribbon’s curls.

Ed chuckled softly.  “I’ve been worse.  The ribbon got my bad hip, so that’s a small blessing.”  He looked down at himself.  Both legs were gone, again, and a good chunk of his torso as well.

Jess lifted him up to the bed, and sighed.  “Well, there goes my plan.”

“I’m sure you can find something to do with half of me that’s almost as good.”

Jess hugged him tight, and Ed winced.  “Or maybe a quarter of me.”

So they ribboned off more, and had fun with what was left.  Jess found some creative uses for the leftover ribbon, as well.

* * *

“Crap!  My exam!” shouted Jess when she finally noticed the time.  “I have to get going.  Ed, are you going to be OK?”

Ed looked down at his body-parts strewn across the floor, some still lying precariously atop the pile of magic ribbon.  “Eh, I’ve had worse.  Give me a kiss for luck, then go.”

When Jess got back late that night, she was starving.  Ed had anticipated that, and had tried to put together a simple dinner.  He wasn’t a very good cook to start with.  Without legs to stand on he’d only managed to make a mess.

Jess lifted him out of the disaster on the kitchen counter, then sighed and started tidying up.  “Call for a pizza, will you?  I appreciate the thought, but...”

Ed chuckled wryly.  “I know.  I was better with these yesterday, I thought I could manage with just my arms.”

They had a very late dinner, and before long both were back in bed, with Jess snuggled up against her abbreviated boyfriend.  She giggled at how much more space she had to spread out.  

“What, you’d like to sleep like this every night?” asked Ed with a grin.

“Well, we could trade off.  As long as we kept my breasts, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind.”

Ed reached over the side of the bed, and pulled up the ribbon.  “Why don’t we try it now?  Both of us compact-sized.”

Jess giggled, and agreed.  Once she was reduced to little more than a bust with arms, she snuggled up against Ed once more.  “Mmm, this is better.  My legs were lonely.”

* * *

In the morning, they went through their usual routine each entirely oblivious of their missing half.  They kept exchanging amused glances as each still remembered that the other was supposed to have legs, and both found their partner’s new-found facility to get around with just their arms entertaining.

They sat together on the couch and studied the normal way, just reading books, for much of the morning.  When lunch came around, Jess and Ed worked together in the kitchen, and the result was far superior to Ed’s solo effort the night before.  They sat together on the table, and fed each other bites just for the silliness of it.

“You’ve gotten really good with your hands,” noted Ed.  “Considering you didn’t even want arms a few days ago.”

Jess shrugged.  “Can you imagine me without arms?  I’d... oh.  Wow.  I’m supposed to have legs too, aren’t I?”

Ed blinked.  “Too?  You’re the one who... oh, right.  We slept like this, didn’t we?  I wonder what it must have been like for Tess, waking up as a pair of breasts.”

Jess giggled.  “That can be arranged.  I could tuck your ribbon into my breasts, and leave you like that overnight.  At least I’d be spared your snoring.”

“I don’t snore.”

Jess snickered.  “You’re not as bad as my Dad is, but... you snore.”

“Hmf.  Maybe I will take you up on that, then.  After our exams are done.  I have my other one tomorrow afternoon.”

“So do I, just like last week.  But I saved the worst for last.  I have a math exam Thursday, and I’m just not getting anywhere with it.  Even putting my head in the book doesn’t help, it just fills my brain with pages of equations.  I guess the ribbon can’t fix everything.”

“Nonsense,” said Ed airily.  “You just need a different approach.”

“Oh?” asked Jess.  “I’m all ears.  If a book won’t work, what will?”

“If only there was something else you could become part of that was very good at solving math problems...”  Ed grinned at her.

“You?”

Ed nodded.  “It was weird starting to think like you.  Well, not at the time.  It felt natural.  But if you become me, then work through some practice exams... well, hopefully the modes of thought will stick.”

Jess nodded slowly.  “That... could work.  Let’s try it!  Right after we’re done with our exams tomorrow.”

“Right.  Back to the books.”

After that, there weren’t many words exchanged.  They stayed in half-bodies all day, and half of that time Ed was ‘alone’, as Jess’ head was in a book.  In the middle of the afternoon he got bored, and wandered around the apartment at hand level, marvelling at the new perspective.  He got a bit nauseated by how much dust and dirt they’d let accumulate in out of the way places.  Ed even poked his head into Tess’ room, and was a bit surprised that she wasn’t there.

That night, they almost forgot to restore their bodies before sleeping.  Ed had a difficult time finding a comfortable sleeping pose, and his tossing and turning almost drove Jess to the couch.  At least they could sleep in, as both had their exam in the afternoon.

“Ready to celebrate?” asked Jess when she saw Ed waiting outside her exam room.

He hugged her carefully, then they started walking home, arm in arm.  “Nah.  I can wait until you’re done.  Then we’ll play stupid ribbon tricks until we fall asleep, and wake to a world made strange.”

Jess laughed.  “But first... we need to see if you can teach me math.”

Jess’ first impression of Ed’s body was pain, she squealed in his voice and pulled her head back out of his so violently she nearly gave him whiplash.  

“How can you stand the pain?” Jess whimpered.

Ed shrugged, then winced slightly.  “It’s far better than it was that night.  I don’t really notice it any more, if I move slowly enough.”

“Really?  Wow.  If we ever have kids, I’m swapping bodies with you for the labour.”

Ed stammered out a reply that managed to be as cute as it was incoherent.

Jess grinned, and shushed him.  “Later.  For now, there’s an exam.  Let’s get rid of the painful bits, and try again.”

“Yes.  Studying.  Good idea.”

The next time, in Ed’s half-body, Jess’ first impression was that she was blind.  She tried cleaning his glasses, but it didn’t really improve things much.  And with the glasses off, she really did feel blind.  Even with them, everything was grey and dingy.  She sighed, and turned to the practice exam.

Oddly, the numbers seemed clearer to her, as familiar as old friends.  That didn’t make the practice exam any easier, but it felt comforting nonetheless.  As planned, they worked through two exams before stopping for dinner.  The second went much more easily.  By the end, it felt as if the equations were just falling into his mind as they were needed, aligning with the problem statement neatly.

Ed stretched his arms, worked out the crick in his neck, then hand-walked to the kitchen to get a snack.  He looked at the leftovers in the fridge, and figured he’d wait for Jess before heating them up.  He frowned in puzzlement.  Where was Jess, anyway?

It wasn’t until he was back on the couch and staring at the texts that he realized that these weren’t his practice exams.  On top of each was written Jessica Smith, though the second one was rather less neat than the first.  So that must mean... that he needed to use the ribbon to get her out.  Something about the logic seemed wrong, but Ed could feel that the conclusion was sound.

He very carefully ribboned the back of his head until he could peel it open, just like he usually did with Jess’ books.  Pulling her head out produced a moment of vertigo, then he was looking at his body from the outside, being held up by hands he no longer controlled.

“Wait!” cried Ed.  “That’s my body!”  His eyes widened in shock.  That wasn’t his voice.  That was Jess’ voice.  “What’s going on?”

Ed looked down at Jess’ head in his hands.  “You’re not Ed.  You just think you are.”

“This is very, very confusing.”

Ed chuckled. “I remember, from being you.  We really synched up there, during the second exam.  I felt like I was in control right up until you pulled your head out.”

“So...  If I’m actually Jess, that means I have an exam tomorrow.  This sucks.”

“C’mon, let’s get you reunited with your body.  Things will start to make more sense, then.”

Ed hand-walked into their bedroom, carefully picking up and putting down Jess’ head every few feet.  Finally he managed to get both of them up onto the bed, and Jess’ head where it belonged.

Jess stared down at her body in amazement.  “This... is me?  I have breasts.”

Ed grinned.  “And very fine ones at that.”  He gave one a loving caress.

Jess moaned happily.  “Oh!  I think I could get used to this body.”

“I should hope so,” said Ed, drily. “It is yours.”

Jess scooped him up in her arms and hugged him tight.  “If you say so.  It still feels like I’ve suddenly been turned into a girl, and I’m hugging my half-clone.”

Ed got a twinkle in his eye.  “Want to make love to your half-clone?”

Jess shuddered.  “That would be very very weird.  I’m... I mean you’re not gay.”  She frowned, and shook her head.  “But I think normal-me might be bi, at the very least.”

“Oh, so you’d be happier if I borrowed Tess’ body?”

“Yeah, that’d be...”  Jess giggled. “God, she’d blow a gasket if she got to watch.  Where is she, anyway?”

Ed shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I checked out her room yesterday, and she wasn’t there, either.”

“Maybe she left a note?”  Jess got up, and wobbled her way to the door.  “This is so not my body,” she muttered.

Jess stared at Tess’ bed, then back at Ed hand-walking up behind her.  “How could you have missed this?”

“Missed what?” asked Ed.

Jess brandished a small box at him, with an envelope taped to the top.  Something thumped inside it.  “This was on her bed.  Right in the middle of it, where nobody could possibly miss it.”

Ed shrugged.  “Can’t see it from down here.  Nor could you, yesterday.”

“Oh.”  Jess opened the note on top of the box, and read it out loud.  “Do not open until you forgive me.”  She shrugged, and tossed the box back on the bed.  Something thumped inside the box when it landed.  “Never mind.”

“Just like that?”

Jess shrugged.  “We need dinner, and I have a really tough exam tomorrow.  And I need to sleep so that I feel like me again.  Then maybe, maybe I’ll be able to deal with her.”

* * *

Jess finished her math exam before the time was up.  She didn’t think she’d aced it, but she knew she’d done pretty well.  Many of the insights she’d gained while studying as Ed had stayed with her, and it had gone much better than she could have hoped for a day ago.

Ed met her at the door, and she smiled at him tiredly.  As they walked back to the apartment, she noted that she could have aced the exam if she’d studied with him again, but she figured that the risk of forgetting who she was and missing the exam entirely was too high.

“So... only the risk of being late worried you?” asked Ed.  “Not spending a day or more thinking that you’re me?”

“You seem like a nice enough guy.  Not like Tess described Don... I’d never want to be him.”

Ed chuckled. “You seem like a nice enough girl.  I’d like to be you again sometime, too.  Maybe even sleep on it, so we really become one.  But it’d be so easy to forget... we’d need to leave ourselves a reminder.”

Jess sighed.  “Like Tess did.  I guess we should find out what she’s done to herself, shouldn’t we?”

When they opened the box that was with Tess’ note, all they found were her breasts, stuck together into a single orb like before.

Ed stared down at the sphere of flesh in wonderment.  “Well.  I guess she really knows what it’s like to be just a pair of boobs, now.”  When he picked her up, the nipples got pointy and hard.

“Should you really be playing with someone else’s boobs when you’ve got mine to look at?” asked Jess, but she was grinning.

Ed handed them over to Jess. “Fine.  You play with them.”

Jess stuck her tongue out at him, then to tease him she fondled the breasts until their nipples were hard as rocks.  “Actually, this is kind of fun.  I wonder if I could keep her like this.  Just a little boob-pet.”

Ed shrugged.  “If we can’t figure out where the rest of her is... there wasn’t another note in the box?”

Jess shook her head.  “I don’t get it.  Unless being my boob-pet is her apology.  Are you my apology?” she asked the boobs, then kissed them while making cutie-pie noises at them.  “You’re my little boobie-snookums.”

Ed shook his head, but was grinning along with Jess.  He left the room, then returned with the ribbon.  “There’s one way to find the rest of her.  Just like we did with these when she was in Don.  Four strokes of the ribbon until all the ribbon is here, and let her rebuild.”

“Aww,” Jess pouted as she handed Tess over.  “But I was having fun with my boob-pet.”

Ed grinned.  “Then turn me into your own boob-pet tonight.”  He scrubbed at the breasts with the magic ribbon, and soon there was a growing pile of ribbon where they had once been.  Once he was sure he’d gotten all of Tess, Ed stopped.

“Now what?”

“We should probably leave her be until she reforms.  Besides, it’s getting on toward dinner time.”

Tess didn’t make an appearance until dinner was on the table.  Jess and Ed were just sitting down to eat when she emerged from her room and softly asked if she could have some, too.

“Of course!  We made enough for three. Come, eat.  And tell us where you’ve been these past few days.”

Tess ate in silence, as did the others, watching her worriedly.  She seemed far too passive.

“Are you OK?” asked Jess, once dinner was cleared away.

Tess sighed.  “I wish...  I was happy.  Comfy.  Cozy.  No worries.  Now... I’ve made it worse.”

“Worse?” asked Jess, incredulously.  “How could it possibly be worse?”

Ed sighed.  “She was our duvet.”

The girls both stared at him, open-mouthed.  “How did you know?” asked Tess.

“The ribbon.  It ended up in our room while Jess and I were... involved.”

“When did you know?” asked Jess.

“Just now, really.”

“So you didn’t realize what we were snuggling under?  That Tess was... in our bed with us?”  Jess’ voice was rising.

“Nope.  Did you have fun, Tess?”

Tess nodded, mutely.

“She was in our bed, Ed!”

“She was a duvet.  It actually sounds kind of cozy.”

“It was.  I love you so much, Jess.  I knew how mad you were at me, but I still had to be close to you.  Please?  I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Jess sighed, and her anger deflated with her breath.  “I know.  I’m just...” She snorted. “It’s not like we did anything, anyway.”

“Aww,” said Tess, then giggled as Jess glared at her.  “Sorry.”

“You’re not really sorry, are you?  We should figure out some way to punish you.”

Tess tried to look contrite but her eyes shone with mischief.  “With the ribbon?”

“Well...”

Ed grinned, and summoned up an evil chuckle.  “For your sins, Tess, you are going to spend the next day as furniture.”  He fetched a couch cushion, ribboned open the back of it, then pushed it onto Tess’ feet.

Tess giggled.  “Silly, I can’t fit...”  She stared as the cushion made its way up to her hips.  “I’m  too... big?”

Ed chuckled evilly.  “You won’t be for long.”  With a grunt he got it past her hips, then tucked her unresisting hands into the ribboned opening.  The rest was easy going, until only Tess’ head remained.

“What are you going to do to me, you fiend?”

Ed grinned.  “Why, we’re going to sit on you, like the cushion you are.”  He shoved her head into the cushion, and smoothed the back of it closed.  Ed whistled happily to himself as he carried the cushion back to the couch, and set it in its place.

Jess finally found her voice.  “Hey!  That’s my spot.”

“And now you have a couch that loves you very much to sit on.  Once you forgive her, I’ll let her out.”

Jess carefully sat down on her cushion.  She wiggled her butt on it, and then giggled.  “Oooh.  She does feel nice.  Can we keep her?”

“As long as you like.”