Welcome to Gaia! ::

As Nani left the bathroom without a word, Zhane felt himself sigh again as he stepped into the running shower. In his time living with her, he had come to accept a few things -- one of which being that no amount of comforting or soothing words could convince her to stop worrying. Nani stopped worrying when she chose to stop worrying, and it was as simple as that.

The hot water on the raw areas of his flesh, while ordinarily fine for showers, was nothing short of horrible as he shied away from it and growled, reaching for the tap. Turning it as cold as he could stand it, he forced himself to stand beneath it, letting it saturate him. Little by little, the sting and ache in his body buzzed into numbness, erasing it for the moment.

How he was going to deal with another day of being climbed on and running around, which would begin in probably a few more hours, he had no idea.

When he stepped out of the shower ten minutes later, he felt a bit better. Shivering, numb, but better. Grabbing a towel off of the rack to wrap around his waist, he returned to the bedroom, unaware of the storm he was about to walk in on.

Zhane paused in the doorway, taken aback by the scene before him as he watched her dismantle her collection of vials and potions with the driven intensity of someone obsessed.

"Nani...?" he said carefully, sidestepping to avoid the vial that rolled toward him before moving toward her. "Nani, what's wrong?"

His mind raced furiously for an answer. He remembered coming in with his letters. He remembered finding her stretched out in a pink lacy thing that still sat in a rumple at the side of the bed. He remembered falling asleep entwined with her.

.....and then he remembered waking up on the floor.

"No." he said at last, shaking his head, and aware of where it was her hands were going. Whatever this was, it clearly concerned the baby somehow... "Why...? What's missing?"

As she'd explained what had been in the vial, he'd felt himself tense with dread. As far as why she was concerned about it, he didn't need to make a far mental leap. He knew why.

Her.

She'd been quiet lately. She hadn't surfaced in quite a long time to the point that he had allowed himself to wonder if maybe she'd gone away entirely. But no, apparantly she'd just been biding her time. Waiting for something like this to present itself.

He tried not to think of the last span of time having been for nothing.....all of the care they had taken to keep Nani comfortable, the tentative talks before sleeping of what they might name the child, his own private talks with himself in which he'd tried to come to grips with the idea that he would be a biological father soon....

All of that wiped away because some spiteful green-eyed b***h had decided to let herself out for a romp....??

....and then Nani was laughing, making him dart his head in her direction as she used the negligee to soak up something on the carpet.

Now he was just incredibly puzzled.

She was....safe?

He was able to swallow back enough of his rapidly-rising anger to let this sink in. She was safe. The baby was safe.

The coil of emotions evaporated themselves in a long sigh of relief as he sagged to his knees at her side, his arms wrapping around her upper body to hug her close. For the moment, at least, he didn't care about the sting of the scratches.

Though, for everything that had vanished, confusion clung fast as new questions rolled in. "Why?" he asked at last, his voice a little hoarse. "It seems...." he shook his head a bit, knowing he shouldn't question the good fortune but finding himself unable to stop. It was his nature. "From what you've told me about her she doesn't really strike me as someone to have second thoughts."

He eyed her with the same skeptical sort of look she'd given him when they had both still been in bed a bit ago. In his sleep? His mother had once told him that, when he'd been about ten years old, she had watched him sleepwalk down the stairs, put on his jacket, and walk to the front door and stare at it blankly for a few minutes, not being able to figure out the mechanics of the doorknob before he'd curled up and gone back to sleep right there on the floor.

So the idea of him being able to aggressively fend off an irate imp was not, especially, sitting well with him.

Unless....

His brow furrowed, making him aware of the burnt flesh there. ....maybe HE hadn't done anything.

"Farrkhod said..." he began, speaking slowly and carefully. "....that these runes were supposed to protect me and anyone I considered to be 'in my circle'. He said when it was most needed, they would awaken someone who could do what I couldn't by myself..."

"Well, I don't know if its another part of me, really...." he said, trying to explain, and yet realizing he didn't understand enough of it himself to even make the attempt. He didn't know what it was. Or WHO for that matter. For all he knew, the runes birthed out fluffy yellow ducklings and cuted things to death.

Somehow the mental image couldn't even drag a smirk out of him as he reached up to rub at his eyes carefully. "Yeah.....yeah maybe we should." he relented at last. Thinking about it was making his head throb worse than it already was.

His attention flicked back to her after a moment. "Are you sure you're all right, then...?"

She had a point there. He returned the smile as he took the offered hand, standing first and then helping her to do the same.

"You go get your shower..." he said, planting a kiss on her cheek. "I'll see if I can stand wearing a nightshirt, at least." He drew back to look at her fondly. "Love you."