Wherever it was, that's not where they're going now

Leo walked next to his brother on the sidewalk, curious as to what exactly Ray had in mind for these rings. He momentarily considered the possibility that Ray had already made some kind of major change to the world, but realized that even if he did there would be no way for Leo to know. Besides, Ray was showing a surprising lack of megalomania when it came to the rings, willingly sharing the power with him rather than keeping it all to himself. Leo wondered whether he would have done the same if he was the one who first found the rings.

"Hey Leo, check it out," Ray said, elbowing his twin in the side, "Hottie coming by at 12 o'clock."

Leo gazed in the direction his brother was gesturing, and couldn't help but agree with his assessment. The girl currently walking in their direction was beautiful. She had long dirty blonde hair going down to the small of her back, tight jeans hugging hips that swayed with every step of her three-inch heels, and breasts just large enough to show a hint of cleavage through the top of her pink blouse. All in all, she was hot enough that Leo's heart leaped in his chest when Ray picked up his pace and said, "Yo babe! Got a second to talk?"

The girl stopped in her tracks, giving Ray a look of mild annoyance as she asked, "Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to say, you look gorgeous," Ray said with an eager grin.

"Uh, thanks," the girl said, looking kind of creeped out, "Look, I really need to get going..."

"What?" Ray asked, "But you said you had a second to talk!"

"And I did," the girl said, trying to be polite while disengaging from the conversation, "But now I need to get going. Bye."

It was at this point that Leo built up the nerve to step in and try to smooth things over. He walked up to the girl and said, "I'm sorry about my brother. He's just overly excited that a girl like you actually stopped to talk with him. He's not bothering you, is he?"

Instantly, the girl's expression relaxed, and she said, "No, not at all! In fact, I find his eagerness kind of cute."

It took a second for Ray to realize what his brother did, but after that he wasted no time jumping on it, "In that case, how about joining us for lunch? We were just going to grab some ourselves."

"Sure, I've got nothing better to do," the girl said almost immediately.

"Great!" Ray said, "So what's your name?"

"Paula," she said.

"Lovely name," Ray said, "I'm Ray, and this is my younger brother Leo."

"Even if that were true, it'd only be by a couple of seconds," Leo said, "We're twins, as you can plainly see."

"Yeah," Paula said with a nod, "Honestly, that's why I decided to do this. I've never met twins before."

"Really?" Ray asked, and Leo could see that he was already planning something on the spot.

"Yes, really," Paula said, "Sorry if me tagging along weirds you out."

"No, that's not it," Ray said, "I'm just a little confused. Weren't you just telling us how cool it is to meet another pair of twins just as you were planning to meet your identical twin sister here?"

"Well, yeah," Paula says with a slight blush, "Obviously I meant another pair of twins."

"Ray, what are you doing?" Leo hissed under his breath.

"Trust me," Ray said cryptically, before turning back to Paula and asking, "Lucky thing she'll be here any second then, huh?"

"Oh definitely," Paula said, before standing on her toes and looking behind the pair, "In fact, I think I see her now. Polly! Over here!"

Leo and Ray turned around at the same time and saw a girl that looked identical to Paula, down to her clothing.

"Hey Paula!" Polly said, her green eyes looking over the two men, "Wow, another pair of twins? What are the odds?"

"That's just what I was saying!" Paula squealed, "We're going to go grab lunch! Want to join us?"

"That's moving a bit fast, don't you think?" Polly asked her sister.

"Oh come on," Leo said, "It's not like something like this happens every day. You aren't going to let this chance meeting slip by so quickly, are you?"

"No, I suppose I shouldn't," Polly admits, before saying, "Eh, what the hell. Sure, let's do it!"

"Awesome!" Ray said happily, "Isn't there an Italian place just around the corner that'd be perfect to go to?"

"Yeah, Maroni's," Polly answered, "It's got good quality for the price, and just casual enough for us to get to know each other."

"Like a double date?" Ray asked.

"Yeah, I guess you can call it that," Polly replied.

"You don't mind leading the way, do you?" Leo asked, "My brother and I aren't entirely sure which way to go from here."

"Not at all," Polly said, "Follow me!"

Polly turned around and started walking down the sidewalk towards a building that Leo was almost certain wasn't there when they walked by earlier. He let Paula walk past him to catch up with her sister, then grabbed his own twin by the arm and pulled him back a little, "Ray, what the hell are you planning? You just conjured another person into existence for what, a double date? Who knows what kind of ripple effect that might have."

"Hey, I thought you'd appreciate not having to share a girl," Ray responded in a low voice, "Besides, a double date with identical twins is the perfect practice."

"How so?" Leo asked, curious as to where his brother was going with this.

"Think about it: they're identical now, but we're going to have at least an entire meal to talk to them, and ask them questions about themselves. You ask whatever questions you want to Polly, and I'll ask whatever ones I want to Paula. As long as we make sure the questions only pertain to our girl to avoid overlap, we should be able to mold them however we want. It's a good way to practice careful wording and avoiding collateral damage. Plus I think it'll be fun to compare them after."

Leo blinked in astonishment, "That's... actually pretty clever. Was this your plan the whole time?"

"Nah man, I was just gonna go to Starbucks and mess with people," Ray admitted, "But this is way better, don't you think?"

"Yeah it is," Leo said with a grin of his own, "Come on, let's not keep them waiting."

It wasn't much longer before the four of them were seated at an outdoor table, menus in hand. Just as they planned, Leo was seated across from Polly and Ray was across from Paula. The two girls were looking through the options when Ray suddenly piped up and asked what Leo assumed was a test question, "So Paula, gotta ask, are you a vegetarian?"

"Yeah, I am," Paula replied, "It's definitely the healthier option."

"What about you, Polly?" Leo asked, "Are you looking at the vegetarian options too?"

"No," the other girl admitted somewhat shamefully, "I'm not really the vegetarian type."

"So despite looks, you aren't exactly identical twins, are you?" Leo continued.

"No, but even twins can have their differences," Polly said, "I mean, sure we look the same now, but Paula's got a mole on her ass that I don't."

"Polly!" Paula hissed, her face going beet red.

"Seriously?" Ray asked, "Can we see?"

At the question, Polly's face goes as red as her sister's, "Okay, but it has to be real quick."

Both girls stood up at the same time, and stood next to the table where both boys could see them. They double-checked to make sure no one else was watching, then quickly unfastened their pants and pulled them down in sync, exposing their pale round asses to them. Sure enough, Polly's was completely blemish-free, whereas Paula's had a noticeable brown mole near the top of her left cheek.

"Wow..." Ray said, awed by the sight.

As the girls pulled their pants back up, Leo leaned over and whispered to him, "As amazing as that was, what happened to 'avoiding collateral damage'?"

"Sorry, it slipped out," Ray admitted, "I'll try not to do it again."

"What are you boys whispering about?" Paula asked as she sat back down.

"Do either of you really care what we whisper to each other?" Leo asked them, "Or that we do it in front of you?"

The two girls glance at each other for a moment, then Paula shrugs and picks up her menu, "No, I guess not."

"Yeah, I guess it's fine if you want to do that," Polly said, "Just don't ignore us the whole time, unless you want this to be your only double-date with us."

"Got it," Ray said, before whispering to his brother, "Nice save. Now, how about we stop pussy-footing around and start really having fun?"

"You call having them mooning us 'pussy-footing around'?" Leo asked, "I'd rather not do something else that insane right off the bat, if that's okay with you."

"Well hey, I thought that was the point, but if you don't want to ask Polly anything I'll be more than happy to just use her as a 'before' image for Paula when I'm done."

Leo looked over and saw Polly whisper something to Paula, who giggled in response. Ray did have a point: this was supposed to be a chance to play around with the power of the rings. And Leo planned to do so. He just wasn't sure he would have the nerve to be the one that got the ball rolling.

Polly turned back to the twins and looked between them, "So, you guys done gossiping with each other yet? Because I'd really like to get to actually talk to you."

"Yeah, is there anything about us you two are curious about?" Paula asked.