Merging two dataframes with hierarchical columns

this is my first time using the multi-indexing in pandas and I need some help to merge two dataframes with hierarchical columns. Here are my two dataframes:

col_index = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([['a', 'b', 'c'], ['w', 'x']])
df1 = pd.DataFrame(np.ones([4,6]),columns=col_index, index=range(4))

     a         b         c     
     w    x    w    x    w    x
0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0
1  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0
2  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0
3  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0

df2 = pd.DataFrame(np.zeros([2,6]),columns=col_index, index=range(2))

     a         b         c     
     w    x    w    x    w    x
0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
1  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0

When I use the merge method, I get the following result:

pd.merge(df1,df2, how='left', suffixes=('', '_2'), left_index = True, right_index= True ))

     a         b         c       a_2       b_2       c_2     
     w    x    w    x    w    x    w    x    w    x    w    x
0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
1  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
2  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  NaN  NaN  NaN  NaN  NaN  NaN
3  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  1.0  NaN  NaN  NaN  NaN  NaN  NaN

But I would like to merge the two dataframes on a lower level with the suffixes taking effect on ['w', 'x'] like in the following :

     a                   b                   c               
     w  w_2    x  x_2    w  w_2    x  x_2    w  w_2    x  x_2
0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0
1  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0  1.0  0.0
2  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN
3  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN  1.0  NaN

from Recent Questions - Stack Overflow https://ift.tt/3i1FkDQ
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J