*This story takes place a few weeks after treachery returned*

On the surface of things, Paul was on a life renaissance. After 'dumping' Reiko (as he told his friends), Paul was seemingly doing well. He was excelling at work, hit the dating scene again and was going out a lot more. All the concerted effort was to mask how he was really feeling. Internally he was distraught, he had loved Reiko more than he knew and to find out what she had done had almost ruined him. Sure, taking time in her skin now and again was fun, but he wanted the real thing back. He wanted the sweet, innocent girl he first met all that time ago, now all he has is a costume left hanging at the back of the wardrobe. Half the time the suit got used, it was only to fool her older sister Hanako whenever she called.

After work one day, Paul was going through his phone and saw a message from one of his friends asking him to meet a group for dinner. Deciding it was a better idea than moping around home, he relented and replied in the affirmative. Paul got in his car and drove to the pub where his friends were, went in and had dinner with them (which I'll cut out as let's face it; you're not here for that are you?) After a couple hours spent eating, drinking and laughing with friends, he decided it was time to drive home (don't worry, he is very responsible and didn't have a drop of alcohol that night).

Paul decided he would give the suit another go tonight, he decided to leave it out on the bed to air out after the last session, so why not? As Paul got to his front door, he saw light peering out from under the door. Knowing full well he turned them all off before he left, this suddenly put him on high alert. Paul gingerly reached for the door, it was unlocked and he could hear footsteps inside...

Gently opening the door, Paul quietly slipped his shoes off and snuck inside on tip toes, gently closing the door behind him. He listened out, hearing soft footsteps and a sigh coming from his bedroom's ensuite. Shit, did someone see the suit? Paul gently tip toed his way through the living area to his bedroom door and peeked through the open door.

The suit was gone.

Fearing the worst that he would get labelled a sex offender, Paul moved on. Moving through the bedroom slowly before making his way to the attached bathroom. He crept to the door and was about to nudge it open, when suddenly the light went out. The door swung wide open and something pounced from the shadows and tackled Paul to the ground. Now luckily, Paul had trained for a potential career in amateur wrestling before a knee injury had permanently put that plan on the shelf. Using his technique and apparent size advantage that he could tell in the dark, he was able to get in a superior position and locked his assailant in a choke. As he started to bear down on the attacker's neck, a familiar cry for help was wheezed through strained breaths. Instantly recognising the voice, he slackened his hold...

"..."

"Reiko...?"

"..........y..e..s......p..l..e..a..s..e.......l..e...t.............g.......o......."

Paul suddenly released the hold, lept to his feet and made his way to the doorway, scrabbling for the light switch. Once he found it, he flipped the switch and was momentarily blinded as his eyes were used to the dark. After a few moments and some tenuous blinks, Paul looked down on the floor to see a familiar figure sprawled on the floor rubbing its neck. Reiko gingerly looked up at him and smiled as tears begun to well. Suddenly breaking down, Reiko collapsed into a heap and cried violently, her body wracking with every sob. Paul reached out, but stayed his hand when he remembered what had happened. he left her out as a skin, what was going on? A grim look passed over Paul's face and he crossed his arms.

"Who are you, really?" Paul asked the figure on the ground.

After a couple minutes of nothing but tears coming from the would-be assailant, Paul sighed and bent down. He placed an arm on her shoulder, before, she suddenly leapt up latched onto him, crying ever more into his shirt. He sighed again, and embraced her. After what seemed an eternity, the figure finally spoke.

"...I'm so sorry..."

"What?"

"I'm so sorry...for what was done, it was a horrible thing these hands did."

"Go back a bit, how are you here? You were sprawled on the bed this morning..."

The figure paused a moment, before replying, "I don't know, maybe because the skin was laid out perfectly I was able to fuse back together.."

"So why the tears? You never had any remorse when I went through your thoughts."

"Because when you put this skin on, I could feel the anger and sorrow I had caused. I never realised how deeply you actually felt, I thought I was just a playgirl for you..."

Paul then put his hand under her chin and lifted her head into a deep kiss. When he finally let her lips go, she recoiled for a couple seconds, Paul could see she was wrestling with something internally before she suddenly leapt on him and sunk her tongue in his mouth. She moved her hand down his chest to his pants before the sound of a zip could be heard...

***********************************

Paul woke up on the floor feeling strange. Ah, the tender few moments of blissful ignorance while your brain pieces together why you're laying on the floor. Suddenly remembering last night, he looked around and saw a familiar head of hair on the floor next to him, her shoulders gently bobbing with every breath Paul checked his watch, 6:22am. Damn, that was some real rough sex, but make up sex always was the best and he smiled while remembering what he could of the night before. He reached out a hand to wake her up to see if she wanted breakfast, before his hand froze and his eyes grew several times as he saw something.

A seam in her back...