On Saturday, Emily and Ben slept in. In fact, they only got out of bed with about an hour left before their limbs were scheduled to reappear. Ben used his single right arm stump to push himself into a sitting position and shuffled closer to Emily.

“Good morning, beautiful!” He kissed her on her cheek and used his nub to stroke a strand of hair out of her face.

“Hey you!” Emily opened her eyes and smiled. She sat up and caressed his empty shoulder with her abbreviated hand. “Did you enjoy yourself last night?”

“Hell yes! That was incredibly fun. Do you think the others enjoyed it too?”

“I think so! Lisa definitely did, so did Lena. I think it’s fine!”

“Speaking of Lisa, do you think we should check in with Carl?”

“Eh, he’ll be fine. He was super into her by the looks of it, and we know she liked him. She’ll look out for him. His reductions were…intense, though!”

“True! But honestly, I was kinda jealous. He seemed to have fun that way!”

“He sure did. Who knows, maybe I’ll let you reduce my limbs the way we reduced his yesterday.”

“Would you?” Ben’s eyes were wide and Emily could see he really enjoyed the idea. “Maybe. It’s a big step, though. I have never lost all my limbs, and I don’t know if I’m ready to be helpless like that.”

“I get that, and since we have the equipment now, there’s no rush, I guess!”

“God, this hand is really annoying. I mean, at least I have one on this side, but geez, the only fingers are my thumb and my ring finger. I am so not used to relying on my ring finger that much.”

“It looks super odd too!” Ben giggled.

“Absolutely!” Emily laughed. “Hey, would you like breakfast? We still have 45 minutes left in these bodies. Might as well do some work like that.”

“I would love to, but I’m afraid I’m not much help like this.” Ben nodded towards his leg stumps and used his right nub to point at his empty left shoulder.

“No worries, I’ll manage.” Emily got up and began hopping towards the door.

“Em?”

“Yes?”

“Would…would you do it naked? I really want to look at you like this.”

“Oooh, getting horny already?” She snickered and began undressing. “Alright, enjoy the show.”

“Thanks, love you!” Ben grinned.

“Love you too, you perv”, said a now naked Emily, and hopped out of the room.

Their limbs reappeared right when they expected them to come back, and Emily and Ben tidied up the mess from the night before. Once they were done, they found themselves sitting on the couch. Emily leaned her head on Ben’s shoulder. After her limbs had reappeared, she had gotten dressed again.

“You know what we should do?”

“No, what?” He sat up and turned to face her.

“We should break out the handheld Atomizer now and have some fun with it.”

“That is a great idea.” Ben smiled.

“Let me go and fetch it.” Two minutes later she was back with the Atomizer in its box.

“Okay, let’s see…” Ben’s brows furrowed as he flicked through the manual.

“Right. I need you to strip down again, just like in the store.” Emily did as she was told.

“Stand here, arms at 45 degrees away from your body.” Emily got into position.

“Okay, what do you want to lose? And what time interval should I set the Atomizer for?”

“Hhm.. We do have the pen that can instantly restore any reduced limb, right?” She looked at him inquiringly.

Ben checked the box and pulled out the pen-like stick. It was the same model they had been shown at the store before Christmas. The pen would activate the cells in the stump and make them restore the limb instantly like they were programmed.

“Got it right here!”

“Cool! Let’s go without a time limit then.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I think it’s the smarter thing to do anyway.”

“Couldn’t we use the pen regardless of what we put into the ti…ah no, says it right here. If we set the timer for a limited time period and then go in with the pen earlier, we risk confusing the cells in the residual limb and do permanent damage. So it’s either the pen or the timer, but never both. I think you’re right, using the pen is smart. At least as long as we remember where it is.”

“Eh, that’s easy.” Emily grinned. “So, no set timer. Permanent change until the pen says otherwise.”

“Sounds good. Now, what do you want me to remove? I don’t suppose you’ll let me make you limbless…”

“Sorry, babe, I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

“Oh, okay!” Ben looked a bit disappointed, but quickly lightened up again. “No worries, it’s not like the Atomizer is going anywhere. But what will it be for today?”

“How about we start with no legs? I have yet to go completely legless. Do you think you could…?”

“Sure thing!” Ben smiled. “Maybe it’s actually best if you sit down for this…” He pulled up a chair and Emily sat down.

“Ready?”

“Ready!”

He flicked a switch and began moving the Atomizer upwards on her left leg. Progress was slow, but the leg slowly but surely disappeared under the Atomizer. Soon it didn’t reach her knee, then half her thigh was gone. After five minutes, Ben switched the Atomizer off.

“That’s as far as I dare to go for now. I don’t want to accidentally erase your privates.”

“Is that even possible?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to find out right now. You’ll still need your privates!” He smirked at her and she giggled. “You’ll have a little bit of stump left, but it’s almost nothing.”

“That sounds good. Can you wait before you do the second leg? I want to be like this for a while.”

“No problem!” He put the Atomizer aside and headed over to the couch. Emily got up from the chair and hopped over to him. “Damn, you are hot like this!”

She grinned and gave him a twirl, so he could get a good look. “I like it! It feels light and easy to be like this.” She hopped towards the door. “I want to go out like this. Can we go for a walk?”

“Do you think that’s a good idea? What if somebody we know sees you like this?”

“So what? It’s not like this tech is illegal or top secret. Come on, I want to try this out!”

Ben sighed. “Alright, go get dressed then!”

“Yay! I’ll be right back!”

Emily grinned, before she turned around and hopped out the door.

Ten minutes later she was back, fully dressed and with her empty pant leg tucked into her pants from behind, so that her pants tightly hugged her stump.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s go!” Ben got up from the couch and they both headed for the door.

When they got to the staircase in their house, Emily encountered her first bigger obstacle. Stairs. She stopped at the first step and thought for a second. Then she grabbed Ben’s arm for support and slowly hopped down the stairs, step by step.

Outside, they headed for the nearby park. They were accompanied by the ever-present tap-tap-tap of Emily’s single shoe on the asphalt. Once they arrived at the park, they also encountered more people. Emily noticed with a smirk that many eyes were immediately drawn towards her missing leg. Some children even pointed their fingers and were lectured about people with disabilities by their parents. She enjoyed the attention. Ben noticed and grinned at her. They soon found a bench and sat down. Emily was breathing heavily.

“Everything alright?” Ben seemed concerned.

“Yeah, I’m good! It’s just that I am not used to the workout and this is exhausting. If we’re going to do this more often, we need to either get hold of a wheelchair or crutches.”

“Why not both? I’ll see what I can do!”

She smiled at him and they huddled together so she could rest her single leg for a moment.

“Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Absolutely! This entire predicament is so odd, and to be completely honest, I like the attention I am getting. I can see how this is horrifying if I were an amputee or were born like this and had no choice, but for me…I wanted this. I like the situation I am currently in, and I like the effect it’s having on me and the people around me.” Emily beamed at Ben.

“Hm, I can see that. I still can’t really believe my luck that you actually enjoy doing this, but I love it, and I love the view myself! You know I think you’re incredibly sexy this way, right?”

“Pretty obviously, yeah”, Emily laughed.

“The attention is even more obvious from my perspective”, Ben continued. “I feel like I’m being accompanied by a celebrity here.”

“For once the world is giving me the attention I deserve”, Emily announced pompously, and grinned cheekily at Ben. Ben rolled his eyes, smiled and gave her a kiss.

“Are you ready to get moving again?”

“Hell yeah!” They got up and continued their stroll – or hop, in Emily’s case – through the park. Occasionally they paused at a bench, so Emily could catch her breath, but they made slow and steady progress through the park.

About three quarters along the way, Ben checked his watch and then steered Emily towards the next bench for their next break.

“It’s still early enough for lunch, are you hungry?”

“All this hopping is like doing sports. I could probably empty our fridge right now.”

“I thought so! There’s this Thai place we’ve been meaning to try out, do you know which one I mean?”

She nodded.

“It’s right over there. Should we head over there and grab some lunch?”

“Great idea! A curry seems perfect right now, to be honest!”

“Awesome, let’s do it!” He helped her up and they made their way to the restaurant.

The place was nearly empty, as it was still early in the day. Still, two tables had guests and Emily attracted her fair share of attention. They were greeted by a young waitress and guided to a nearby table with plenty of room, so Emily could navigate without bumping into other tables or walls.

They ordered their food and some Thai beers and enjoyed a quiet hour. Since her leg was under the table, the attention on her quickly died down and they could focus on simply enjoying their meals. Once they were done, they sat and talked some more, before they signalled the waitress that they were ready to pay.

“Was everything to your liking?”

“Yes, thank you, the food was wonderful, and this is such a nice place”, Emily replied.

“Thank you!” The waitress smiled at her. “I’ll be sure to pass that along. Now, would you like my split the bill, or pay together?”

“I’ll get that”, Ben said.

“Lovely! And would you like to pay with cash or credit card?”

“Cash, please!”

“That’ll be twenty-four euros and fifty, please.”

Ben handed her thirty euros. “That’s fine, we’re good.”

“Thanks a lot!” They waitress gave him a smile as they got up. “Um.. I’m sorry if this is inappropriate, but would you like to call us a cab for you?” Her eyes darted to Emily’s stump and back.

“That’s very kind”, said Emily, giving her a warm smile. “but we’re just down the street. I think I’ll be okay!”

“Alright..” The waitress looked a bit uncertain. “Have a lovely evening then.”

“Thank you, same to you!” They left the restaurant and headed homewards.

“Do you think we spooked her?” Emily stopped and turned towards Ben.

“Hm?” Ben seemed to be lost in thought, but snapped out of it when he realised that Emily was looking at him inquisitively. “Sorry, my head was somewhere else! What is it?”

Emily realised that he had probably been looking at her again as she was hopping down the street slightly ahead of him. She noticed a little bulge in his pants. She grinned and repeated herself: “The waitress, do you think we spooked her? She was really nice, I hope we didn’t scare her.”

“Eh, flustered her, maybe. How often do you meet a hot amputee just hopping around instead if using a prosthetic leg, a wheelchair, or crutches? She probable thought we were a bit odd. I think she’ll think about it for a while and then just move on.”

“You’re probably right. It’s a nice place though, and the food was fantastic, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, that was pretty damn delicious.”

“Oh…oh God! I just realised something!”

“What? Is everything okay?” Ben eyed her worriedly.

“Yeah, I’m good, but unless I come back missing the same leg at the same level, she’ll think she’s gone insane next time we come back. So, either I always lose my leg when we go to that Thai place, or we’ll have to let the poor thing know what’s up with my limbs.” Emily thought about that for a second and then giggled. “We might have just set ourselves up!”

Ben chuckled. “Probably! But it’ll be fine. We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

“True…”

They continued along their way and were back home ten minutes later.

Emily slowly hopped up the stairs, step by step, using Ben and the railing as support. Once they were inside their apartment, she quickly ditched the coat and her shoe, hopped to the living room and let herself fall on the couch with a sigh.

“Aaah, that feels good. Finally getting off my foot.”

“Would you like to sit and rest there for a while, while I make you some tea?”

“That’s very nice of you. Yes, please!” She nodded and smiled tiredly.

“I’ll be right back”. Ben left the living room towards the kitchen and a few moments later, she heard the boiler being switched on.

She pulled her leg up on the couch, leaned over to grab the remote control, and switched on the TV. She skipped through different channels, before she found a documentary about ocean reefs. Soon, Ben came back with her tea and they cuddled together on the couch, while they watched the documentary.

After a while, Emily put her now empty cup on the side table and turned towards Ben. She leaned in and whispered in his ear: “Wanna head to the bedroom? I’ll let you work on me!”

His eyes went wide and he nodded. She smirked, gave him a kiss, and got up.

“Go on ahead and get undressed. I’ll be right there!” He picked up Emily’s cup and switched off the TV. She turned around and hopped into the bedroom.

Ben brought the cup back to the kitchen, before he headed towards the bedroom. On his way, he stopped by the living room and picked up the box with the Atomizer before he slipped into the bedroom.