“Turn around.”

“What? Why?”

“So you don’t see me naked?”

“You’re going to be naked in there anyway… you’re the one who wanted me to come with you!”

Evie bit her lip. “I guess that’s true… oh, hell.” She blushed. “But this doesn’t mean anything!”

“Of course not.” James rolled his eyes. “I’d like to think we’re better friends than that.”

Evie avoided his glance. “Still. Can you at least not watch me strip?”

“Oh, whatever.” James shut his eyes. Evie waved her hand in front of his face to make sure they were closed, and started peeling off her clothes. “They can’t do your clothes too? Not even like… just a bikini?”

“No, no other materials can be in the booth with you.” Evie said, peeling off the last of her underwear. “Besides, I don’t really want that either. It’d feel weird.”

“Oh sure, that would be weird. But melting into a puddle, no, that’s totally normal.” James said, sarcastically. “…you can’t tell, but I rolled my eyes. Are you in the booth yet?”

“Yeah, yeah. Are you sure want to… watch?”

“Again. You invited me.” James said, walking over to the glass booth, looking down at his friend inside.

Evie covered up her private bits with her hands as she saw James walk into view. “I forgot that I had to be naked, okay? I just wanted to change your mind about this.”

“About watching? Gladly, I’ll leave you to-“ James made to leave.

“No! About the melting!” Evie protested. “It’s not as weird as you think!”

“…it’s pretty weird.”

“Okay, fine, it’s weird. But it feels good, I swear!”

“How could it possibly feel good?”

“It just does! It’s like a full body massage, except all at once, and on your insides too.” Evie answered, fiddling with the inside console panel.

“And what if something goes wrong? What if they can’t put you back together?” James asked.

“James, I’ve done this a million times. I’ve been fine every time.” Evie rolled her eyes as she hit the big red START button. “I told you, you just melt, the machine mixes you up a bit, then you’re drained out the bottom of the booth into a mold.”

“…and that isn’t weird.”

“I already admitted it’s weird! But it feels so relaxing… the melting is like being in a sauna, and… ooh, it’s starting.” Evie closed her eyes and leaned her head back. James shifted uncomfortably as he watched, and felt heat radiate from the booth.

It wasn’t long before Evie began to melt. James watched on as droplets began to form on her skin. At first glance he thought she was just sweating from the heat, but on closer inspection the droplets were flesh colored. A small pool of flesh began to gather beneath her. “You’re really melting.” James said, rather dumbfoundedly.

“I’m melting, I’m melting! Oh, what a world!” Evie put on her best wicked witch impression as she raised a sagging arm to her forehead. “Oops, you can see my boobs.” She quickly brought her hand down again, rubbing her breasts briefly.

“What are you doing?” James asked, brow furrowed.

“Oh, it’s just so I won’t have to keep covering myself with my hands.” Evie laughed, as she moved her hand away again. To James’ confusion, her nipples were missing.

“…where’d your nipples go?” James asked, staring.

“I rubbed them out so they melted away.” Evie giggled, “Same with my crotch!” She moved her other hand, and James looked. Sure enough, her crotch was as smooth as a Barbie doll. Or at least, one that was melting.

“This is so weird.” James muttered once again, “And you’re used to this?”

“Well, I do this on a weekly basis. You can do all kinds of weird stuff while melting.” Evie laughed, “Look, look.” Evie reached up to her face and pinched her nose. As she pulled away, her nose was gone, leaving smooth melting skin in its’ place. “Got my nose!” she giggled madly as she dropped what remained of her melting nose into the ever growing puddle of her own flesh she was lying in.

James could only stare, speechless. “Actually, I usually rub my face smooth so that it melts first. It’s like sensory deprivation, but on another level.” Evie said, “But I figured I’d not do that this time so I could keep talking to you and keep you company.”

“So… how does it feel?”

“Amazing…” Evie’s voice drifted off lazily, “it’s like… every part of my body is touching every other part. Like… it’s sort of like I’m hugging myself, just… a lot better, obviously.” She wrapped her arms around herself to demonstrate. “Oops.”

“What?” James suddenly asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine! I told you it’s totally safe, don’t worry, jeez. I just can’t unwrap my arms, they sort of melted together on my chest.” Evie laughed, “It happens all the time, really. I can’t separate my legs either.”

James looked down at where Evie’s legs, or what remained of them, melded into a single long stump. He thought she looked like a mermaid, only in the vaguest sense. And her ‘tail’ was rapidly diminishing. “Are you… melting faster?”

“Yeah, it tends to speed up near the end.” James looked back up to Evie’s face, where her eyes seemed to have slipped farther apart as they drifted down the sides of her head.

“That… can’t be comfortable.” James said out loud.

“What?”

“Your eyes are moving farther apart.”

“Oh, the vision? Yeah it gets really weird sometimes, but I’ve gotten used to it. If you get dizzy you can always just rub your eyes and melt them away faster.” Evie’s voice was starting to get garbled as her lips began to stick together.

“Right…”

“I can’t really talk too much anymore, my mouth is starting to melt away too. Sorry, you’ll just have to wait and watch… mmf.” Her lips had fully melted together. As her lips began to melt away, Evie gave him a smile of reassurance.

James nodded as he watched Evie continue to melt into a puddle of flesh. Soon, even her head had melted away, leaving her upper torso, which quickly joined the rest of her. James couldn’t help but wonder what Evie was feeling at that moment. He was startled out of thought by a loud robotic voice that shouted “SESSION COMPLETE: COMMENCING DRAINING”.

James watched as a small drain pipe opened up at the base of the booth that Evie was slowly being sucked into. It wasn’t long before he was staring at just an empty booth, which opened back up awaiting its’ next user.

James looked around. He wasn’t sure what to do, now. Evie hadn’t told him what would happen next. He sat on the bench folding up Evie’s clothes for her for a minute before getting bored and pacing around. Eventually, curiosity got the better of him and he examined the booth, and the console panel on the inside. He noticed it was laminated and thus liquid-proof. “Don’t want customers shorting out the circuits themselves, I suppose.” He chuckled to himself. To his surprise it was more than just a big red START button, there were all manner of options for controlling the speed, duration, and timing of melting. The floor material was likewise slick and assumedly liquid-proof, and surprisingly soft, James found.

After a few more minutes had passed with no sign of Evie, James gave in to his curiosity, and started stripping himself. It wasn’t long before he climbed into the booth and shut the glass.

“Kinda feels like a spacious coffin…” he noted. “Hopefully I don’t end up dead in here…” he studied the console panel for awhile before punching in a few settings for the fastest melt he could program. “Now, let’s see what this is all about…” he shrugged, as he punched the START button.

“Mm… this IS relaxing.” James mumbled to himself as the heat kicked in. It wasn’t long before he felt like he was sweating. “I guess I’m melting now…” he muttered. He felt his muscles, his entire body start to go lax. It was relaxing, in the vaguest sense. He closed his eyes to focus on the sensations, and tried not to move about too much as he thought about how Evie was messing around with her melty self in the booth. He wasn’t feeling quite adventurous enough to try that yet, so he just lay there as he felt himself melt away.

As droplets of his flesh gathered beneath him, he had the sudden realization he could still feel the droplets that had separated themselves from him. “Of course it’s all still part of me…” he reasoned. James leaned his head forward so he could take survey of his situation, but he found his eyes wouldn’t open. Panicking, he bolted upright, only to smack his face against the glass case above him. He let out a muffled yell as he leaned back down into a reclining position.

He felt his face, some of it still sticking to the glass case above him. It didn’t take him long to realize his eyes had melted shut, and that half his face was now hanging above him, sticking to the glass and dripping back onto him. He silently hoped that it would all melt back down into the bottom of the booth, and resigned himself to just enjoy the strange sensations of melting.

Before he knew it, James had been reduced to a puddle of flesh in the glass booth. The bits of his face that were stuck on the glass had indeed melted off back into the larger puddle of him. As he basked in the feelings of his melting body ‘swimming’ in itself, he heard a familiar robotic voice. He began to wonder how he could still hear, but his thoughts were cut short by a sucking sensation as he was drained out of the booth into the draining pipe.

As he was swept away rapidly by the suction, he came to an abrupt halt as he was dumped into what felt like a round container. “Must be processing the mold.” He thought, when the robotic voice sounded again. “ERROR: MOLD NOT FOUND. USING PREVIOUS MOLD.”

“Wait, what?” James thought, panicking. “Oh, crap, they don’t have a mold of me! How did I forget?!” His thoughts were again cut short as he felt himself start to slowly pour out of the container he was in into a more well-defined container as he took human shape again. As the last of him drained into the mold, it began to grow cold. He felt his senses come alive again, as his body took shape. Suddenly, the mold swung open, and he practically fell out onto a cold tiled floor. He heard a familiar sounding yelp.

“Evie?” He groaned, getting to his feet, looking around. The room was empty. He swore he heard Evie yelp. “Evi-“ he realized the voice was coming from him. He looked down at himself, to find a lovely pair of breasts blocking his view. “Oh, no.” he shouted in dismay. James spotted a mirror nearby, and rushed to it. Before him stood the reflection of his best friend. “Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, oh, fuck.” Even his voice had been replaced by hers. He took a brief moment to admire Evie’s… his breasts, before he went back to panicking. He’d always been interested in her, but he didn’t want to see her quite this way.

He quickly picked up a conveniently-placed towel from the rack, and wrapped himself in it as he tiptoed out of the room. He recognized the hallway as the one Evie’s booth room was, and sprinted as fast as he could back to the room, slamming the door behind him. Looking around the room, he found a very confused Evie, in the middle of getting dressed, staring at him.

“…wha-“ Evie said, “…wait. James?!” she shouted, “Did you use the melting booth?”

“I… yes! You’re the one who’s been telling me to!” James protested, waving his hand about. The towel fell down.

“Not unauthorized!” Evie slapped her hand to her forehead. “They couldn’t find a mold of you, so they just used mine?”

“I dunno, it seems like they use the previous mold if they can’t find a mold… I heard the comput-“

“Not the point!” Evie yelled again. “And cover yourself back up!” she chucked the towel at him.

“Why? You’ve obviously seen yourself naked, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but you’re not supposed to!”

“Hey, it’s my body now, I can do whatever I want.” James laughed.

“Seriously? You’re going to joke now?” Evie screamed, throwing James’s clothes at him, “Get dressed! We need to see if they can fix this!”

“Right… sorry.” James said sheepishly, pulling on his clothes quickly. Evie marched him out to the front desk.

As they were walking, Evie suddenly came to a halt. “Wait, so, you used the melting booth?”

“…yes…” James admitted, “You looked like you were enjoying yourself, so I thought…” His thought was cut short as Evie grinned at him. “What!”

“Told. You.” She laughed, and continued down the hall. “So, would you do it again?”

“What, melt? ...Yeah, I guess.” James mumbled softly.

Evie chuckled. “Told you.” She said.

“Hi… can we get a little help?” Evie asked the receptionist, who was busy filing away paperwork.

“…Certainly, how… um.” The receptionist looked up from her desk. “Oh, my. Did the wrong mold get used?”

“Well, sort of… you see my friend here decided to use the melting booth after I did. Apparently he didn’t know we needed molds…” Evie explained, jerking her thumb at James.

“Oh, dear. Yes, our computer automatically re-uses the same mold should an incident occur. But we’ve never had a problem like that… well, ever.”

“So… can we make a mold of him and run him through again…?”

“I’m afraid not… you did our molding process yourself, right, we need to scan your entire body, and well… if we made a mold of him now, it’d just look like that.” The receptionist said, biting her lip. “There’s… not much we can do, really.”

“You’re kidding.” James said, flatly.

“I’m afraid not ma’am.”

“I’m not-!” James was about to object when he spotted his breasts again. “Yeah… okay.”

The receptionist sighed, “We can’t help you with that, but if you like we can compensate you with some coupons…”

“Gladly!” Evie said, smiling, snatching them out of the receptionist’s hands. “C’mon James, let’s go.”

“What, where? What are we doing? Do you know some way to fix this?” James asked, following Evie to her car.

“No, not at all. But I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it. I doubt you’re going to find someone else who’ll let you use their mold, so you’ll just have to live the rest of your life as my twin.” Evie rolled her eyes.

“You’re kidding.”

“I don’t see any way around it, do you?”

“But… my parents, friends… work…”

“You’ll just have to explain it to them?” Evie shrugged.

“And you’re okay with me just… being you.”

“Not really, no. But you’re not me, your body just happens to look exactly like mine.” Evie sighed, “And I imagine this’ll be a lot harder on you than me, so there’s your punishment.”

“Well, at least you have a really nice body.” James laughed, peering down her shirt to look at her new breasts.

“Stop that!” Evie smacked her hand away.

“Why? You can’t stop me from looking at my own body.” James winked.

“You…! You’re… you’re handling this really well.”

“It probably hasn’t really sunk in yet, y’know?” James shrugged, “I’ll freak out about it properly later.”

“…and you… you think I have a nice body?” Evie blushed.

“Um… yes? I don’t know, I guess I’m still into girls… my mind hasn’t changed at all. Does that make me a lesbian?” James wondered.

“Don’t change the subject! You like me?”

“Uh…” James stammered, “...are we really having this conversation now?”

“Sure, why not.”

“…for so many reasons, many of which involve my current physical condition. You’d be okay with me liking you?”

Evie paused to think for a moment. “Yeah. I’ve always kind of liked you too.” She smiled at James.

“But... and you’d be fine with liking me even if I was… a girl?”

“Any girl? No, not really. That’d make me kind of uncomfortable really.” Evie glanced off to the side, “But… honestly? If you had to be a girl, I’d rather you be me.” She laughed, “After all, I like you for who you are, not what you look like. Er. Looked like.”

“Ouch, thanks.” James said.

“Would it really help if I said I liked what you used to look like?” Evie sighed.

“Not really, no. So… wait. Aren’t you being kind of narcissistic now?” James noted.

“…maybe a little.” Evie laughed, “I do have a nice body after all.” She winked.

“Are you serious?” James asked, exasperated, “No more jokes. You like me? Even as is?”

“Yeah, I do.” Evie looked into James’s eyes earnestly. “And you?”

“Of course.” James replied. The pair kissed for a moment, before letting go.

“Man, I was so worried I was going to be stuck in the friend zone forever!” James suddenly laughed. Evie burst out laughing too.

“Never seen anyone get out of the friend zone like that.” Evie chuckled. “Come on, let’s go home.” She unlocked her car.

“So, what’re we going to do about your name?” Evie asked, as she started up the car.

“What?”

“Well, James is hardly an appropriate name for a girl…”