It had been over a month since Emily had discovered the shop with the device that could make limbs temporarily disappear. Since then, she and Ben had been experimenting with the gummy bears they had bought from the shop over the weekends. It was now early January and the shop’s inventory had officially gone into sale. With Ben’s birthday approaching, Emily was looking forward to finally checking out the wonder tools from the catalogue. She had ordered the handheld version of the Atomizer as well as the reduction version of “King’s Cup” and already taken delivery of them.

This year, Ben’s birthday happened to fall on a Friday, so there would be plenty of time to both party and spend some sexy time with him over the following weekend. They had both taken Friday off from work and she had invited some friends to come over on Friday night to properly celebrate.

“Good morning, Sexy”, Emily said on Friday morning. “Happy Birthday!”

She rolled over and gave her boyfriend a kiss. He grunted and smiled. “Thanks! Uh, Emily, could I have a hand here?” He grinned and nodded towards his completely armless shoulders. They had been playing with the gummy bears again as soon as they got home from work in the afternoon the day before. It was a habit by now, but one they never tired of. There was just too much fun to be had this way.

“Of course! Hang on…” Emily got up on her side and hopped around the bed on her single leg (her left one had joined Ben’s arms wherever they were right now). She sat down next to Ben and helped him up.

“That was…hot!” He grinned. “What a nice sight to start my day with.” She rolled her eyes and playfully punched him right where his right arm used to be. “Perv!” They both giggled.

“How about we quickly hop into the shower, before we have some cake?”

“Great idea”, Ben agreed.

They quickly got onto the shower and Emily helped Ben get soaped up and rinsed. Once they were dressed, Ben went to the living room, where Emily had already stacked up her presents for Ben the night before, while Emily hopped into the kitchen to fetch Ben’s cake.

“Haaappy birthday to youuu. Happy birthday to youuuu. Happy birthday, dear Beeeeeen. Happy birthday to youuu”, she sang while carefully hopping back into the living room with the cake. Ben blushed and smiled.

“Thank you so much, Em! You put so much effort into this, wow!”

“Of course, my dear. It’s your day today, whatever you want to do. Though I invited Lena, Maggie, Carl, Lisa and Sebastian for some drinks and fun tonight. I figured we’d have enough time to ourselves over the coming days and thought you’d enjoy having your friends around tonight.”

“Good thinking! God, I love you! You know that, right?”

“I do!” Emily blushed and gave him a kiss. “So, what do you want to do first? Cake or presents?”

“Let’s go with the presents first”, Ben said.

“Alright then, I think you should start with this one.” She placed a neatly wrapped present the size of a shoebox in his lap. Ben looked at the box, then back to her, waiting.

There was a brief moment of silence before she realized what was missing. “Oh my God, sorry, honey! I forgot about your arms for a second here.” They both erupted into laughter. “Should I open it for you?”

“Yes, please”, Ben giggled.

Emily removed the wrapping paper from the box. Ben’s eyes went wide. “You got me the reductive ‘King’s Cup’? Emily, that’s amazing!! Thank you so much!”

Emily laughed. “I’m glad you like it. I though it would be a fun game to play tonight. Do you think your friends would enjoy that too?”

“Oh absolutely! Tonight will be amazing, I’m sure.” Ben beamed at her and Emily couldn’t help but smirk.

‘Off to a good start’, she thought to herself. “Would you like me to open another one?”

“Yes, please!” Ben nodded eagerly.

Emily got up from the couch and hopped back to the table, where she hesitated for a second and picked another box as well as an envelope. She returned to the couch and Ben, who had spent the entire time marvelling at her, and sat back down next to him.

She put the envelope aside and unwrapped the present.

“Ah, awesome! We were running low on gummy bears. That should not be a problem anymore.” He smiled and looked at the three boxes of reductive gummy bears in his lap. “Thank you!”

“Oh, you’re so welcome! I enjoy using them too, so this was a no brainer, really.”

She took the envelope, pulled out the paper inside and unfolded it. She placed it in his lap so he could read.

“We’re going on holiday?”

“Yeah. Before you say anything about the cost, don’t worry. You know how I always play the lottery if the jackpot is over €5,000,000 and the EuroJackpot if the price money is over €20,000,000?” Well, I got lucky. And while I didn’t crack the jackpot, it was enough to finance this. Two weeks wherever the hell we want, doing whatever the hell we want. I decided not to tell you so I could surprise you. What do you think?”

“Emily, this is.. this is…amazing! Thank you so much! We will have such a great time! I’d hug you if I could.” He shrugged his armless shoulders.

“I think we will indeed! Let me help you with that hug.” Emily smirked again and gave him a hug. “I’m really looking forward to this as well.”

There was a pause, before Emily got up again and hopped to the table once more. “There is one more present I have for you! I kind of saved the best for last.”

“I’m super curious. Would you do the honours again?”

“Sure!” Emily hopped back to Ben and removed the wrapping paper.

Ben’s eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “Ben, are you okay?”

Ben nodded. “That…that…is the handheld device of the Atomizer. Wow! Thank you so so much! That is the best gift ever!”

Emily giggled. “Well, I’m glad you enjoy it. I’m looking forward to trying it out and being your guinea pig.” She gave her armless boyfriend another hug and a kiss. “Would you like some cake now?”

“Yes please, I’m starving!” She fetched to pieces of cake and fed her boyfriend. “This is delicious! When did you have time to make it?”

“I actually took half the day off yesterday as well and made it before you came home. I’m very happy you like it!”

“Absolutely, the cake is fantastic. Thank you!”

“Oh, you’re so welcome!” She continued to feed him and took bites of her own in between. They giggled a lot and enjoyed his depending on her. Once the last bites were gone from their plates and both felt stuffed with delicious cake, Emily looked Ben in the eyes. “We still have six hours before we get our limbs back. I don’t think you can operate a handheld device before that…” She nodded towards his shoulders and giggled. “How about we move this to the bedroom again and make the most of the armless you?” And that’s exactly what they did.