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Ai cracks an eyelid and purrs back at him. She can pretty much tell he's the younger by the color of his eyes, also by the way he acts. The elder had always been a bit reserved around her.

"So did you have a good talk?" she asks with onlly a slight touch of peevishness in her voice.

Ai sighs as she sits up with a stretch. "I hope ye learned something from his behavior.... it's his one flaw ye know.... he doesn't so much as talk to people about things as he merely drops what he thinks is the proper solution square on their heads. Mind you it is his solution, no compromises no nothing.... kind of hard to get a word in edgewise when he's like that."

She grins down at the still sprawled lion and laughs. "I love him.... he's one of me best friends, but man... sometimes I used to wish he'd let me get my two cents in someday"

She rubs her face alongside his and sighs. "Two cents my foot, ye want the whole nine yards ye do..." but he can tell she is teasing him because she doesnt' pull away.

Suddenly Ai flops down with a contented grunt, closing her eyes. "Fine then... go as slow as ye want... just wake me up before ye get there though..." There is laughter in her voice and more than a hint of challenge.

Ai sighs mentally and complies, but a marathon session of let's get between the sheets just wasn't her cup of tea, at least not right then. Still he was being quite attentive and exceptionally gentle and she found herself reveling in the concern he was doling upon her.

After a bit, Kero merely curled up about her, snuggling close as he drifted off to sleep; but Ai wasn't at all tired. Her walk through the Dreamlands had energized her to some extent and her talk with Tes had freed her to face things in a better light. At least she prayed she had truly talked to Tes. That was the trouble with facing one's problems in a dream. Sometimes it was exactly what you experienced there, but at others it was little more than fabrication. Either way, it was something she really didn't want to contemplate just then. So she eased away from Kero and went off to see if any of her siblings were around.

As she slipped into the hall which comprised the family wing, she stumbled upon Ame and Ly sitting in an alcove. Sighing realizing they may have just been waiting for her to make an appearance, she padded her way down to them with a troubled twist of a smile.


Don't tell me..." she started to say.

Amestru looked at her with a wide challenging grin. "Ye really don't think we were done with ye now... did ye?"

Lyssan nodded her eyes twinkling. "Actually we were and we weren't... we were trying to figure out somethings and kind of hoping you would show your face... once Kero was done with ye that is..."

"Ma..." moaned the lion softly.

Amestru chuckled knowingly. "Face it, Tam, he's enamored. Blindsided by the existence of his first true love.... The world is his oyster and yer his pearl right now. I do hope you are keeping a more level head in this matter."

"I... I'm trying to..." sighed Ai curling up at their feet. Dropping her head to her paws she continues in a sad troubled voice. "I had him contact his inner self... ye know the one ye two are most familiar with."

"I bet that was an interesting conversation." laughs Lyssan sourly.

"Didn't have much of one... he sent me to the Dreamlands almost immediately. Made certain I came face to face with Tesability, he did."

Ame nodded sagely while Ly bit down a groan. "Well dreams are his playground... he shapes them... or at least he always did... much like a sculpture shapes clay. So what happened?" asked Ame giving his mate a gentle hug.

Ai sighed. "Not much in a way... she's not angry... not even disappointed... for now, anyway. I guess Kero did really talk to her about me the last time she was in Silver Falls."

"For now..." echoed Ly worriedly.

Ai sighed. "She does want him back... end of story, period. But she acknowledged he does love me very much and that she could see I loved him... and that we'd be foolish not to accept that love... but she also added she doesn't love me... yet. Whatever she meant by that..." Ai looked up at her mother and shook her head, "I have no idea."

Lyssan reached down and buried her fingers in the fur around Ai's ears. "I think I do... when someone loves someone deeply, they want so very much to accept those things into their life that the other holds dear. I suspect Tes wants to accept you, perhaps even to grow to love you, as do most people who know you do, but she just doesn't know you well enough or understand in her heart why she feels this way."

Amestru nodded slowly. "So have you two done any talking at all or did you just..."

"Da..." moaned Ai with a soft growl, meeting him eye to eye. "We did talk, trust me. But I fear I've done far more sleeping than talking. Still... we came up with a few ideas... or should I say Kero came up with a few ideas... he really hasn't changed much in that aspect. He is always attempting to manipulate things to his advantage. I suspect that will never be bred out of him."

"Such as..." prompted Lyssan softly.

Ai shrugged. "He thinks we should raise the child here... because of the time flow differences..."

Ame nodded again, his eyes dark and thoughtful. "He does have a point you know."

Ai nodded back with a heavy sigh. "I know, but to be truthfully honest... I'm not so sure that is a good idea myself. It feels like a cop out to me... like we are afraid to face the consequences."

"How so?" asked Lyssan slipping from the bench and hugging the lioness close.

"I... I have done something terribly foolish... this I know. It matters not that I can hide it away... matters even less that we can do so so easily and no one ever find out. What am I teaching him by agreeing to such an act?" Ai bowed her head in sorrow. "I may be his mate, for now at least; I may be his friend and lover for however long he allows me to be so... but I am also his guardian. I cannot get around one little fact which isn't at all little. I AM RESPONSIBLE." Snarled Ai angrily. "I am responsible for raising him... and I would be teaching him nothing good by allowing him to go that route."

Lyssan's responding smile was sad but tinged with pride. "Then don't let him hide. It will be painful, I know... and hard... for the both of you. But in the long run he will be stronger for it. So will you."

Ame's smile is proud as well. "You have grown stronger haven't you?" he remarks with a chuckle.

Ai snorts softly through her nose. "Hardly... I've been an emotional wreck these past two months. Honestly... hate to say this Da but I came to within a hair of doin myself in. This internal war of mine was eating me alive."

"What stopped you?" asked Ame looking unusually stern.

"Rather ask who..." sighed Ai softly. "Two people actually. Kero had a hand in it, but he wasn't alone. There was someone else who helped. His name is Bez... He's an old friend, well I guess you could call him a friend. I never actually know where I stand with him these days. He's always claimed to want to get close to me, but then just when we do start getting close he bolts... usually when I need him most. And trust me, this is no new thing... been happening for as long as I can remember. I won't say he's the only one at fault here, more often than not I drive him away as well." Looking up at her parents Ai smiles thinly.

"I've known him far longer than I even know you... we're soulmates... though we are more like polar opposites... like magnets we are attracted to one another, then just as we seem to get along once again, bam something shoves us apart. But he saw what was happening with Kero and me, saw I was heading in a bad direction and tried to intervene..."

"And yet, here you are, still with Kero, and I don't see any sign of this Bez person." says Lyssan in a soft troubled voice.

"And ye probably won't because he bolted once again... only this time I don't know why. He... he said he was going to stay, promised me his running days were over... only following a rather rough time during which I was out of it, he took off... and I woke up to find only Kero there, so loving and attentive... a solid rock in the storm... Up to then I was honestly torn, emotionally, between the two of them. But that... that kind of sealed things for me, you see. Kero stayed. He could have given up on me just like Bez. Left with Hope and said I'm a complete basket case... but he didn't. He may seem young, Ma, but he's exceptionally mature for his age. Kero stayed because he cared..."

Lyssan hugged him once again then stood up brushing off her knees. "So this Bez person took off on ye at a rather unstable point, some soulmate..."

"I... I don't know. I don't want to paint him in a bad light Ma. I really don't know for certain why he took off... and only what led up to it through hearsay. He... he was having a bad time of it as well. He... had told me it was up to me... that I had to choose... Kero or him... but that he was going to do his hardest to win me over. Maybe something I said or did made him feel I had and that he was on the losing side. I hadn't, not by a long shot... I... I still care for him a great deal... I care for both of them... if I could roll the two into one being all my problems would be solved... I love them both." Ai sighed heavily and looked down at the floor. "Go ahead... tell me how foolish I am for wanting my cake and eating it too."

Ame growled low in his throat. "Foolish, immature and bull headed... yep that pretty much sums it up. But we still love ye, Tam. Always will... ye brought us together... but that is besides the point... we would love ye anyway. Surely you know that. Nothing you have done is going to drive us away. As does this Bez wherever he is. Still that doesn't help with the matter before you... so what are you going to do about this?"

"Go home to Silver Falls..." sighed Ai softly shaking her head. Looking up at her father Ai gives him a tremblin smile. "I... I need to get my life back on track. I need to face the things I've done and I need to help Kero face them as well. I... I need to grow up and accept responsibility for my own actions, not rely on someone else to do it for me. I... I can't stay here, Da..." Looking at Lyssan she pleaded for understanding with her eyes. "You both know that don't you? I have to do this on my own. I... I can't let you clean up my messes anymore..."

Bezernia glanced sideways at him and frowned. "Kerobian, you knew what you were getting into when you agreed to come with me. Now hush... I need to scan ahead... I'm trying to locate where they have Ai... as well as determine if there is anyone ahead of us. You keep an ear to the ground, make sure we're not caught unawares..."

The dark haired angel sank down to the ground and leaned back against a tree, closing his eyes and resting his forehead on his drawn up knees, before sending his thoughts ranging out before them. His sword laid bare on the ground beside him, his hand resting lightly on the hilt, but both he and Kero were praying he didn't have to use it. Technically he was an invader here in the land of his birth and he had no wish to compound his previous indiscretions with new problems, but the lower regions were sparsely populated and if they were lucky they could be in and out with no one the wiser. He had been relieve to know from previous attempts to reach Ai, made before he had been shut away, that his swedh was imprisoned here, away from the inhabited regions, though that fact had confused him a great deal at first. Now though, he was fairly certain he knew why. Whoever had Ai did not want his brothers to know what he had done, for they had encountered no one, not one single solitary guard, on their way here. It was a troubling, confusing revelation, one that made little or no sense, but he wasn't about to argue. Paradisio was a far safer location for Ai. Had it been someone from the Plains of Pain, Bez doubted they would have had it so easy.