"That was wonderful, sweetie." Ana leaned over and kissed her boyfriend Ryan, still lying in bed. Sweat glistened off his forehead. He just smiled. It had been wonderful. She reached down and gave him a playful tease, before putting on her shoes and heading for the door.

"Wait, are you just going to leave me like this?" He squirmed helplessly.

She looked over her shoulder, and winked.

"Have a nice day off," she said.

Then she shut the bedroom door and left.

"Wait!" called Ryan. He heard the front door lock.

He sighed. What had he done this time?

He inventoried all of the recent magic that had gone on. There was the time he'd switched her hands and feet. But no, she made up for that the day she turned his head around backwards. Maybe this was for the time he melted her in the bathtub. No, she'd actually asked him to do that, hadn't she?

So that was it then. She'd left him without arms and legs. Completely unprovoked.

Well, he could be angry. But angry wasn't going to get his limbs back. That was for sure. And to be honest, he was almost happy about it.

Not happy about being helpless, stuck in bed, naked. No. But this gave him free range for getting even. Things would escalate. They might get out of hand. It was exciting to think about.

It could be worse, couldn't it? He thought about the other girlfriends in his past. The ones who weren't into magic the way Ana was.

There was Claire — once in a while, she'd let him take off her head, but not for more than five minutes before she wanted it back on again. Or Melissa. She would let him take her apart, but only when she was three drinks deep. And Bobbie — well, she never liked it much at all, except she did like to watch her legs walk around by themselves.

Ana was a different story. Not only did she like undergoing magic, but she practiced her own as well. Hence his current predicament.

He squirmed a bit in the bed, moving a distance of maybe an inch. If he could make it out of bed and to the kitchen, he should have a restoration potion in the fridge. He squirmed a little more, wondering how he might open the fridge door when he got there.

Well, he did have all day.

Ana woke up. Or maybe she didn't. There was at least, the feeling of being awake, aware that it was morning. She could feel her feet moving in between the sheets of the bed. Her hands clutched a pillow. Yes, she was awake, she decided.

But several other sensations were missing, weren't they? Sensations like sound, sight, taste, smell. Well. She knew what that likely meant.

She reached up to confirm her suspicions. Yep. Her head was gone.

She really should have seen this coming after what she did yesterday. She hadn't planned on leaving Ryan limbless. Not in advance anyway. But the day before, seeing him laying blissfully on the bed while she dressed for work — well a part of her was jealous. He could just lay there all day, she thought. She'd always been a mischievous type. Couldn't help it.

And now it was her day off. So, naturally, her comeuppance had come. She had wondered about it, dimly, falling asleep the night before. Ryan hadn't even seemed mad. She'd found him in the middle of the kitchen floor. They had dinner and watched a movie together before she finally restored him.

The real question to be answered was, what had happened to her head? Was it somewhere around here? Or had he simply vanished it entirely?

From across the room, the two of them watched her body writhe in bed, feeling around the covers.

"Looks like you're awake," said Ryan.

"Over here! I'm over here!" said Ana's head.

"You don't have ears. You can't hear yourself."

"I can try! Maybe I'll pick myself up psychically."

"You know there's no such thing as psychics."

"Well fine. What are you going to do with me."

"Oh, nothing. Just set you down with a nice view, that's all. I've got to be going, I'm afraid."

He raised her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She glared at him with an expression suspended between contempt and love.

"I'll get you for this," she said.

"Oh, I expect you will. Have a nice day off!" He set her head on top of the bookcase, facing the rest of the room. Then the went and left for work.

"Damn," she thought. "I don't know if I can reach this high."

A couple days went by, without any real incidents. Okay, there were incidents, but small ones. She snuck up on him when he was cooking dinner and cut his head off. But she put it back on when he pointed out that she would have to cook if she didn't give it back.

And he had taken her legs away, but when she kept asking to be carried to the bathroom he eventually put them back.

But all that was routine stuff. In the back of his mind, he'd known it was her move. And there was no stopping that.  He could just wait for it to happen. In the meantime, he could think of his response. That would of course, depend on what she did, but it never hurt to plan ahead.

Ahead. Hm.. No, he just did that. He couldn't take off her head again. Maybe he could change it into something else though. Or he could turn her into a frog. She'd done that to him once.

Well, in any case, the game was on. He went and got a beer, settled into the couch, and decided not to worry about it just yet.

"I'm headed to the pool with Sara," said Ana.

"Okay," came his reply. The way he said it told her he wasn't really paying attention. She glanced at the TV and saw the score was tied. It was the 4th quarter. Perfect.

"Have you seen my flip flops?"

"Aren't they in the closet?"

"No, I think they might be in here," she said. She came into the living room where he lay sprawled across the couch.

"Uh-huh," was all he said. He stared fixedly at the game on the television.

She leaned over him and then made her move. Reached right for his belly button, her spell already pre-loaded.

There was a gently pop, followed by a hiss. Ryan looked up in surprise, then down at his body. He was rapidly deflating, already losing the shape of his legs. His face told a story of surprise and betrayal.

"What are you doing?" he said.

"Oh, just bringing along my favorite pool toy," said Ana. She held up his belly button in her hand to taunt him.

"I cant believe — I taught you that trick…"

And with that he ran out of air.

Ryan knew the response had to be something good. That was the unwritten rule of these battles. It wasn't about just getting back at Ana. It was about taking it to the next level.

He had spent the whole afternoon floating in the pool, while Ana lounged around on him. Not to say that wasn't unenjoyable — it actually felt quite nice to be inflated and floating. But the whole time he had to contend with two facts — one that the score was tied, the other team had the ball, and there were literally seconds to go in the game. The other was that she was currently winning.

But he was pretty sure he had the right answer. Breath mints.

She was addicted to them. Always carried them in her purse. Ate them all day long at work.

Enchanting them was the easy part. The tricky thing was swapping them out when she wasn't looking. That took at least a day of waiting for just the right moment — finally he took his opportunity when she was in the shower. Then it was just a matter of waiting for her to go to work.

Ana stumbled through the doorway, dropping her purse and jacket on the floor. Ryan grinned, looking up at her. Her head was floating like a balloon, attached by a string to her wrist.

"Do you know how many airhead jokes I had to listen to today?"

"I bet it's not as many as I'm going to make," he said, laughing.

She pulled on the string that attached to her head, reeling herself in until she was holding herself.

"It's so hard to walk indoors, my head keeps hitting the ceiling. And it's windy outside, so that wasn't any easier."

"Well honestly, after the pool toy thing, I had to do something."

"And you did a great job. Here take this —" she handed him the string to her head. "You know what's funny? A bunch of people assumed it must have been my birthday."

"All right, I am so doing this to you on your birthday!"

"If you do that, I will … you know what, I'm not even going to tell you."

"I bet you just can't think of anything."

"I will turn your head into bubble gum!"

Ryan paused. "Still worth it," he said.

Ana suppressed a giggle. Ryan pulled her string and caught her head on its way back up.

They kissed.