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But Ai isn't up for teasing just now. She is on pins and needles, so itchy inside she can barely lie still. Never has she felt like this. It is as though her skin is on too tight. She feels as if she's about to burst. Something has to give, but she doesn't know what.

Eventually she gets up and goes to the water closet, disappearing for quite some time, then just as Kero begins to get worried, she walks out and goes upstairs, without saying a word, leaving him wonder what she's up to.

Even as he hits the stairs, he catches a whiff of a heady, almost intoxicating musky scent. His curiosity mounting he follows it up to find Ai's room empty, but the window to the roof wide open. Through it, in a velvety blanket of night sky, he can see the perfect circle of a full moon, which casts a glowing carpet of soft light on the floor of the room.

To his surprise, Ai is not alone. Fortuny is there and her familiar voice reminds him that he owes Hopian and his family some sort of apology for his rotten behavior over the last week or so. His curiosity mounting, wondering why his sister-in-law would be out on the roof with Ai, he starts to creep forward, then what Fortuny is saying begins to sink in.

"As I see it, you don't have much of a choice, Ai. You either mate or you don't. I wish I could stay and help you out a bit, but I really can't. My estrus cycles are a bit less ummm... intrusive than yours seems to be. Hope can get away, if he really wants to, but right now... the lure you are giving off is affecting even me... And I'm not ready to go there just yet. The twins are far too young... if I stay here much longer..."

He hears a familiar musical voice reply, softened considerably, but Tam's voice all the same. "Forgive me... I didn't mean to have that happen... It's just... I've never..."

Embarrassed laughter, self directed and bitter, floats his way.

""This is a first for me, I"m afraid... and hell if I know what to do. Just tell me this... how long does it last?"

Peeking around the edge of the window Kero sees Fortuny stand, shrugging. "Four, five days... max... for me, anyway. That's fertility days mind you... the rest drags it out a bit... a full ten days all together. I have no idea how it will be with you. Listen, I've got to go. You handle it... that's all I can tell you. Kero's sterile... or so everyone keeps telling me..."

Ai shudders and nuzzles him back, albeit gingerly, then gently pushes him away with a sad smile.

"Your idea of helping me out and my idea of helping me out probably doesn't walk hand in hand, dulcha. You really shouldn't be out here with me right now." She runs a gentle hand along side his face and sighs. "Nope, you shouldn't be here at all. I'm kind of ripe, dear heart, and I can see it's getting to you, too."

She looKs at his glazed eyes and shakes her head, surprised he was actually able to resist the hormonal barrage she was putting forth. "Go pack your bags, dear heart. I... I think you should go stay with Hope for a few days. This is something you don't need in your life right now. You are far too young with commitments awaiting you in your future. Strings like this one would only tie you down before you've even had a chance to fly."

Ai laughs sourly as she wraps her long arms about her knees. "Kero, I love you, too. You know I do... but I'm scared half out of my wits here. I know me... my body and what it's feeling right now... it isn't me. Or rather, it isn't anything I've ever felt before... and I'm not so sure you are aware of what's happening.... Are you?" she demands with a lift of one graceful brow. But before he can answer she buries her face into her arms and tells him.

"You had your warp.... and I suppose in a way, this is mine... and although it's not at all the same, it is a maturation process.... In all honesty, your warp may have even triggered this in me. I've been going to hell in a handbasket ever since it took place. Hormones are like that you know. I'm maturing, dulcha... ripening in a way I've never done before. And if you pair with me now, there is a very good chance it will take. Are you ready for that? Honestly truly ready? Because I for one am not so sure I am. Heck... I haven't even finished raising you yet..."

Ai hears him moving about, but doesn't look at him, she doesn't need to. As she has always told Kero, she has a very good nose and a keen sense of hearing. And right now all her senses are running on overload. The sound of the blood pounding in his veins and the pheromone he's giving off in response to her lure are both so intoxicating inviting, it is all she can do to think straight. And whether he realized it or not, she knows there is no way she can run from him, not in the state she is in now. If he continued to push her, she wouldn't be able to control herself much longer. Her only hope was to make him see reason. If she can get him to understand and leave, the crisis would be averted. If not....

"Kero, dulcha, my body transforms things... germs, bacteria, you name it... the only illnesses I'm susceptible to are magic born or those inflicted by my kind, the unnatural. The only reason Bez's injury got infected is because I am the one who attacked him. Do you truly believe something non-living could enter this body and stay as such?" she forces through clenched teeth.

But she wants him to stay, something within her wants him to stay, and inside her head she finds herself fighting a losing battle, as her more rational self struggles to maintain hold the reins on her emotions. There are so many reasons for them not to go that route, so many good sound reasons, good sound morally ethical reasons... and only one to the contrary. Logic would say she should drive him away, get him angry, angry enough to bolt, then do much the same herself. She should run and hide, so that if he calmed down and went looking for her, he wouldn't find her until the danger had pass. But try as she may, she can't force the words out. She has hurt him so much over that past few weeks, she can't bear the thought of hurting him again.

Finally the stress of the situation becomes too much for her and she begins to weep, silently, into her arms. She loved him so much. Why? Why did this have to happen now? Why not before.... or later when they could have come together as friends, as equals... why now, when she had the responsibility of bringing him through this rejuvenation.

Ai crumbles against him, burying her face into his fur, clinging to him as though he was a life line.

"Why don't you run.... why don't you go away? You have your whole life ahead of you..." she whispers sadly drinking in the scent of him, wondering how he ever came to smell so good.

"I'm through with running." rumbles Kero with a bitter laugh. "All it does is make more trouble."

Ai sighs heavily and nuzzles him fondly. "The one time you should and look at ye... I... you.... you may not believe this, but I'm glad you stayed.... I love you, Kerobian vules Noctuslain. I love you so very very much...."