Synopsis: Massive thank you to fictionlover94 for her prompt for this chapter: 'Zac/lyla with a lot of plot and a bit of kink (in merform!). Evie doesn't have to know.' She also devised the theory behind how mermaids have been breeding during the absence of mermen, and has helped with a great deal of the details. I hope that this chapter is to her satisfaction and that it has done her spectacular theory justice, and I hope that everyone else enjoys this too :)

Pairing: Zyla

Warnings: Contains a mer-form sex scene. The mechanics for this were based on the intercourse of whales and dolphins, so thanks to mother nature for providing the guidelines.

Recommended Listening: A Little Death - The Neighbourhood

Tails

"So, Lyla," Nixie said coyly, swirling her straw around in circles in her milkshake, "how are you feeling this fine morning?"

"Fine," Lyla said slowly, eying the brunette with suspicion. There was something about her crooked smirk that Lyla just could not trust.

"Really?" Sirena said, not wearing Nixie's deviant smile but there was definitely something mischievous about her tone.

They were seated together at their usual table in the Ocean Café, all three girls nursing drinks before classes started. "Yeah, I am absolutely, completely, one-hundred percent fine, thanks," Lyla said, stressing her words in a patronising, over-the-top fashion as she looked between the two of them. "What's going on with you two?"

"Oh, we just care about you that's all," Nixie said innocently, picking her straw up and running her tongue along the froth-coated end. "Sure you're alright, Lyla?" She said, grinning openly now. "Not feeling at all… oh, I don't know, horny?"

"Horny?" Lyla questioned, wondering what on earth horns had to do with it, titling her head to the side like a confused puppy dog. "What's-"

"It means hormonal," Sirena explained quickly, her cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment. "Like… you know… hormonal."

"You know Lyla, are you in, 'da mood'?" Nixie echoed, impersonating Sebastian the Jamaican crab from The Little Mermaid surprisingly well.

Feeling herself slowly turning crimson, Lyla could only open and close her mouth like a guppy fish for a moment, unable to formulate tangible words. "Am I- what?" She demanded incredulously, unable to understand why the hell they were asking her that.

"Come on Lyla, we're all mature individuals. You ought to be more open-minded about this topic. After all, you're the eldest," Nixie said with a casual shrug.

"Listen, Lyla, Aunt Rita wanted us to talk to you about something," Sirena said more seriously, leaning forwards as she rested her arms on the table. "She thought that we should talk to you about it instead of her, since it's kind of a sensitive topic."

"Which is funny, because she could talk to us about it," Nixie said, curling a lock of hair around her fingers theatrically. "Clearly she's scared of you Lyla. Sensibly too."

"Lyla," Sirena said, sternly cutting across Nixie, "tonight there's going to be a blue moon."

"Yeah," Lyla said slowly, "I knew that. So what? Zac's got his control over the moon spell sorted, so it's no longer an issue. What's that got anything to do with me being… hormonal?" She said, forcing the last word out just to prove to Nixie that she could indeed say it.

"Well, it's the first blue moon since you turned seventeen," Sirena said, her cheeks gradually flushing darker. She dropped her eyes to her hands and started fiddling with her nails, cleaning them despite their being spotless. "You know what happens then, once mermaids have turned seventeen and reached maturity."

Frowning in confusion at Sirena, unsure as to what she was getting at, Lyla hesitated before answering. "Yeah, we were all taught those basics in school Sirena. On the night of the blue moon, mature mermaids can lay their eggs in their moon pool to be fertilised." She glanced again between Nixie's devilish grin and Sirena's crimson cheeks and began to wonder if they'd gone mad. "Guys, I'm not intending on swimming out to Mako tonight and laying some newly matured mermaid eggs. Motherhood isn't really my thing."

"Oh but Lyla, you're forgetting the newest variable," Nixie said, clearly delighting in whatever the hell was going on. "Don't tell me you've forgotten about the charming Zac already?"

"Zac?" Lyla repeated in a whispered hiss, glancing around anxiously to see if he was close by. Thankfully he appeared to be absent from the café, but that didn't mean that others were incapable of overhearing. Lyla would never be able to live it down if Zac was informed that Lyla had been overheard discussing him fertilising her eggs. Even humans weren't that weird.

"Yeah, Zac, you know, tan, dark-haired, about this high?" Nixie said, raising her hand in the air as a bad indication of his height. "The one you get all flustered and doe-eyed around?"

"I know who Zac is, Nixie," Lyla said through her teeth, glowering over at the brunette. "But what has he got to do with me and maturity? Mermaid eggs aren't fertilised by mermen or we'd all have died out by now."

"Oh Lyla, how wrong you are," Nixie said, leaning closer and lowering her voice, the wicked grin omnipresent upon her face. "You are forgetting your roots. Back when mermen and mermaids co-existed, we used to reproduce a little more traditionally."

"Nixie," Lyla said tightly, cautiously eyeing everyone else in the room to check none of them were listening, "why are you telling me this? Are you forgetting that Zac is currently dating Evie, and that I have no desire to… reproduce with him?"

"You're forgetting about the full moon Lyla," Sirena said awkwardly, trying to be gentle with her breaking of the news. "Aunt Rita said that back when mermen were around… reproduction and," she paused to summon the courage to say the word, "sex were much more primal."

"Basically, whilst you might say you don't want Zac and his hot merman booty, under the influence of the full moon you may well be singing a different tune," Nixie said.

Putting her face in her hands, Lyla couldn't believe she was hearing this. "That's impossible," she said, staring at them through the gaps in her fingers. "Tell me you're kidding."

"Sorry Lyla," Sirena apologised. "Rita said that since this is your first blue moon in maturity, resisting its pull is going to be far more difficult than usual. That goes for you and Zac."

"Zac's going to get affected too?" Lyla half-shrieked, her voice cranking up a notch so that she was speaking just a little too loudly. This situation just kept getting worse and worse.

"Rita said that if a merman senses the presence of a mermaid he's attracted to in the moon pool, he'll been drawn there too," Sirena explained quickly, her words hurried as she rushed to get them all out. She was nearly as embarrassed by the subject matter as Lyla was, and it wasn't even her mermaid eggs or love interests that were up for discussion.

"Hey, look on the bright side sunshine," Nixie said, leaning over and nudging Lyla in the ribs. "At least this provides a good chance to see whether or not Zac is into you. Hell, you might even get laid."

"Nixie," Lyla said, speaking calmly, "after this is all over, I'm going to throttle you."

Groaning in total exasperation, trying to bury her head in her hands and just disappear, Lyla didn't know what to say. It sounded like either way, tonight was going to be a total embarrassment. What if Zac ran into her whilst she was in the trance? What if she did something stupid? "Hey Lyla, don't worry," Sirena said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder, giving it a quick reassuring squeeze. "We'll be here for you. We've fought against the moon's pull before, and we've learnt from Zac's experience. I'm sure everything will be fine."

Somehow, Lyla doubted that. The idea of reproduction had never really appealed to her before. There was nothing particularly romantic about it under normal circumstances. Mermaids simply swam into the moon pool, laid their eggs there, and then swam off. After that, only certain breeds of tropical fish were able to enter the pool, and they'd fertilise the eggs, providing the fish part of merfolk. The mermaids and the magic of the moon pool combined created the human half, and then six months after, hey presto! You got a merchild. Easy peasy, but not very appealing if you had absolutely no desire for a child.

What the other two were suggesting about Zac, however, sounded like quite the opposite. Since it had never occurred in the past few centuries, Lyla had no idea how mermaids and mermen… did it. The very idea of it sounded awkward and confusing and complicated, and Lyla would never have imagined-

Stopping herself from wandering down that train of thought, feeling a deep heat rising through her, Lyla cleared her throat and straightened, trying to focus. Naturally, it was right at that moment, when her thoughts were anything but sensible, that Zac chose to enter the café. "Oh, look who it is!" Nixie said loudly, earning herself a kick in the leg from Lyla under the table.

Zac thankfully remained oblivious to Nixie and her jesting, going over to the clothes department and slinking an arm around Evie's waist. Lyla didn't mean to watch them but her eyes seemed to be drawn to them like a magnet. She knew that she was pathetic for it, and a bad person, but that didn't mean she could help it. Maybe she was a masochist; maybe she secretly enjoyed the uncomfortable twisting sensation that stabbed through her chest whenever she looked at them together.

She wasn't going to admit it to Nixie or Sirena, even if they clearly already suspected it, but Lyla did harbour certain feelings towards Zac. It just so happened that they were the sorts of feelings that caused complications for her return to the pod. Since she still believed that one day she and her friends would be able to return home, she'd tried her best not to listen to those feelings. Tonight, however, was apparently one of no inhibitions. Primal, Sirena had called it. Lyla didn't quite know how she felt about the idea of that, but a certain unsettling chill ran up her spine whenever she let her mind stray to it.

By the time evening came and night had settled in, the sky fading to black, framing the white circle of the rising full moon, Lyla knew that there was no chance of resistance. The trance took as strong a hold on her as it had on Zac when he'd first been turned, and despite Nixie and Sirena's best efforts she ended up diving off into the pool, disappearing into the sea. Their only remaining hope was that Zac wouldn't show.

Once she arrived in the moon pool the trance completely vanished and she felt perfectly normal again, fully conscious and in control. Or at least mostly in control, she couldn't quite bring herself to leave.

On the plus side the moon's spell seemed to have its benefits, and Lyla was left feeling unusually tranquil, the water warm and the night air pleasantly cool in contrast. Providing Zac didn't show up, the night might actually go pretty well, no Nixie around to bother her, no Sirena to wake her up early with her morning singing. She could finally spend an evening relaxing in the moon pool like she used to, back in the days of the pod. Back when she, Sirena and Nixie were just the three youngest mermaids lumped together rather than friends. Back in the days when she'd spent most of her time alone, and had thought she preferred it that way.

Just as her thoughts drifted back to that time of isolation, stirring a cold sense of nausea in her stomach, the sound of disturbance rippled through the water. She knew who it was even before she turned, despite her prayers that it was simply Nixie or Sirena coming to comfort her.

"Zac," Lyla said, a little breathlessly, not knowing what else to say. What were you supposed to say to someone who had arrived because of 'primal urges', especially when those primal urges were to get down to business with yours truly?

Clearly the moon trance had played its magic with Zac as well, for to begin with his eyes were clouded, his expression blank. Consciousness slowly slipped back into him, and upon blinking rapidly several times he seemed to realise where he was, looking around and frowning. "Lyla?" Zac said, his brow furrowing further. "What are you doing here? Or more for that matter, why I am I here?"

"Full moon," Lyla said stiltedly, having trouble with her words. Whilst Zac was innocent of the knowledge as to why they were both there, she was not. She was having a bit of a hard time trying to work out how to break the news to him. 'Oh, hey Zac. Yeah, we're here to have wild animal mer-sex. Crazy, huh?'

Somehow she didn't think that would cut it.

"I thought I had that under control by now…" Zac mumbled to himself, looking up through the opening in the ceiling at the cloudless sky. The moon still had yet to rise above them, out of view thanks to the shaft of the volcano. "What about you? How come the others aren't here with you? I thought you guys normally came here to hang out during the full moon."

"We do, it's just…" Lyla stuttered, sounding hopelessly guilty as her cheeks simmered crimson and she sank further into the water, trying to conceal herself. "It's a blue moon."

"Oh. Is that different?" Zac asked, tilting his head to the side.

"No, it's just, I-" Cutting off, Lyla pressed her hands to her face and exhaled slowly, trying to compose herself. "Look, this might be kind of difficult to explain, so you might want to be sitting down for this."

Whilst he was still frowning in confusion at Lyla's cryptic speech, Zac willingly went and settled himself against the shelf of the moon pool, resting his arms on land and leaning his chin against them. Lyla joined him, although she was careful to keep a safe distance between them, fearing what might happen if they got too close. The last thing she needed right now was to lose control.

"So," Zac said once they were both settled, "mind telling me what's bothering you, since I'm guessing that's also the reason why we're both here."

Damn Zac and his perceptiveness, Lyla cursed mentally, burying her head behind her arms so that he couldn't see her flush. Why couldn't someone who was nice and thick have been transformed, someone she could manipulate and hide secrets from with ease? Zac's ability to see straight through her was a real hindrance- very inconsiderate of him.

Inhaling and exhaling three times slowly and deeply, Lyla made a silent prayer for her to somehow survive this, and then related to Zac the very information she had been told about the effects of the blue moon upon newly matured mermaids.

At first, Zac didn't say anything, leaving Lyla hanging as the silence steadily tortured her. "That doesn't mean we have to do anything," Lyla said quickly. "It's just an instinct thing. It's not like we don't have a choice."

"Yeah," Zac said quickly, grasping onto the opportunity with an eagerness that was almost offensive, "good." He noticed her pursed lips and quickly explained himself, "I don't want you to have to do anything you don't want to, same with me. I mean… Evie."

"I agree," Lyla said weakly, trying to smile. Where she'd expected to feel relief, she was experiencing a heavy sinking sensation in the base of her stomach. She wasn't disappointed, that would be ridiculous, and yet she didn't want him to leave.

"You know, we've never been here together during a full moon before. Have you ever spent the night here?" Lyla asked, not sure if she was attempting to change topic or trying to keep him there.

"I haven't actually," Zac realised aloud. "I thought it was supposed to transform me back into a fully-fledged human."

"I don't think the moon would have drawn you here if that was going to happen," Lyla assured him, glancing up at the sky. Peaking out over the edge of the cavern, the tiniest sliver of silver was just visible.

Despite the strangeness of what was supposed to happen, Lyla couldn't help grinning. If there was one thing that helped her relax around Zac, it was her chance to teach him more about his new identity as a merman. When he was learning about the ocean and the magical world dwelling within it, the defensive aggression of his human self vanished and he became open-minded and surprisingly gentle. Lyla had never been all that comfortable around others, and yet Zac she found was someone she could just be around without having to worry.

"Even though we're not giving into our merfolk destinies, you should stay," Lyla said, smiling softly as she looked over at him. "The moon pool under the light of the full moon is genuinely magical."

"I'd like that," Zac said, turning around so that he lay leant back on the land, looking up at the rising moon. "After all, you three always get so excited about it, I want to find out what all the fuss is about."

Watching him as he gazed up at the moon, Lyla couldn't regret his being made a merman. The loss of her family and friends had been subdued with the passing of time, and where she had lost many people with whom she'd never been close, now she had gained so much more. Having people like Sirena and even Nixie around, upon whom she could depend was something she'd never expected to have. Finding someone like Zac was a dream that had never been hers, yet now that she'd met him she couldn't imagine life without him.

"You know, you'd make a great pod mate Zac," Lyla said, averting her eyes from his body, not wanting to humiliate the both of them. "You have a real connection to the ocean, regardless of what Nixie might say when she's in a mood. Not only that, but you care about those sorts of things." She risked glancing over at him, and smiled sheepishly when she caught him looking back. "I'm glad that out of all the land-boys, you were the only one idiotic enough to fall into the pool."

"Thanks, I think," Zac said, laughing at her backhanded compliment and shaking his head. "I'm glad that out of all the mermaids that could have chased me, you were the only one psychotic enough to want to actually trust the land-boy that lost you your home."

"Well, don't we make quite the pair," Lyla said with a smile, a warmth spreading through her chest. It wasn't something that she could control, just one of the many feelings that Zac induced in her.

"How are you and Evie by the way?" Lyla asked, the question coming out of her mouth before she had the chance to stop it. Hopefully he wouldn't interpret it as her thinking about that sort of thing.

"Fine," Zac said, slightly too quickly. "She's still processing the merman thing though. She's dealing with it as well as anyone could, but it's not really something she can just forget. Sometimes it makes things difficult to her, to think of me like that. She wants me totally in the human world. I think she just wants to try and ignore it all to be honest, but it's not something that will go away. Some day she might understand that, I hope."

"It can't be easy for her," Lyla said, trying to be sympathetic towards the girl she envied most in the world. "Or for you. After all, it's you that has to actually live it. Your entire life has been turned upside down."

"So has yours," Zac pointed out, "if not more so. I mean, you'd never even set foot on land before. Not only that, but I can still live my life on the land. Yours in the sea has kind of been put on pause."

"It's not so bad," Lyla said, more honestly than she ought to. She was supposed to be fighting with her everything to get the pod back, to get rid of Zac and to return to being the pod's loner. The problem was that some part of her had to acknowledge that, in many respects, now was the happiest time of her life. "I have a new pod now. You, Nixie and Sirena, and Rita. I've never really been very good at being close to people but with you guys it just… works."

"Yeah," Zac said, mirroring her pleasantly surprised smile, "I get what you mean. Don't get me wrong, it's been one hell of a ride getting to this point, but it's been worth it. You guys have shown me so much." And by 'guys', Lyla could hear in his voice that he meant her.

With her grinning goofily back at him, feeling all warm and fuzzy thanks to the compliments and the odd atmosphere, Lyla barely noticed the moon pool bubbling up to begin with. Above them, the moon now covered a quarter of the circular opening above, casting a thin stream of light down into the water. It was enough to trigger the ritual, thousands of tiny bubbles erupting to the surface, a mysterious, gentle glow forming beneath the water.

Lyla's favourite part was how it affected her. She could feel the power of the moon flowing through her, bubbling up in the water, passing through her body. There was no way to describe it other than as magical, inspiring a sense of something totally transcendental happening, her body glowing not with light, but with something spiritual.

Beside her, Zac was experiencing it all for the first time. He looked like a little kid, his eyes huge with wonder, his lips parted as he stared at the shining waters. He laughed quietly, dazzled and in awe at all of it, and Lyla watched on fondly. To be the one to accompany him in that first-time moment felt almost like an honour, a special privilege that she was lucky to have. Or maybe that was just the bubbles talking.

Remembering her, Zac looked over, grinning widely from ear to ear, his brows raised as if to say, 'can you believe this?' With no malice Lyla smirked back, shaking her head at him. Then, with a wickedness worthy of Nixie, she splashed him, her hand cutting through the water skilfully. All mermaids were experts at water fights.

Spluttering, water droplets dripping from his hair, lashes, and lips, Zac sat there in stunned outrage for a moment before splashing her right back. He used both hands, sending a small tidal wave over her, soaking her hair all over again. Not one to be outdone, Lyla turned and used her tail to completely annihilate him, spraying him and half the walls with an almighty flick.

Forgetting the magic of the pool and the moon for a minute, they continued splashing one another back and forth, saying nothing but communicating rather in a series of dignified gasps and vengeful snickers.

Naturally, at some point their innocent messing around had to evolve into much more, as these things always did, triggered by an inevitable accidental something. That something came in the form of Zac jesting about the threat of dunking her. Grinning impishly, he came closer and gripped onto her shoulders, gently pushing her down so that her body became submerged underwater up to her collarbone. All they were both really aware of was the fact that he was touching her.

The real deal-breaker, however, was the moment when he kissed her.

Lyla didn't know if it was because of the blue moon or their primal instincts or some other mermaid-lore bullshit, but there was no getting away from the fact that the kiss was magical. She felt as if her entire self was changed through that one kiss, a chain reaction set off throughout her body in which every cell woke up with a little jolt, responding to his touch. There was no confusion, no violation, no outrage, it was just right, her body feeling as if it were melting with a silent sigh of 'finally'.

"I'm sorry I-" Zac started to apologise, drawing back. He was cut off, however, by Lyla gripping onto his neck and pulling him closer, kissing him without question. No way did he get to end a kiss that good.

Given an open invitation now, Zac didn't just kiss her. Again, maybe it was blue moon magic, but he moved with an energy that would have left her breathless had his kissing not beaten him to it. He pushed her back against the edge of the pool, pressing her up against the cool, textural surface of the rock, forcing their bodies closer. He touched her, his hands trailing up the bare skin of her back, and all the while he kissed her; rough, wanting gestures that seemed to end too quickly and couldn't start again soon enough.

"Zac," Lyla said, panting into his lips. She didn't know why the hell she was talking when there were so many better things to be doing, but she needed to know, needed to make sure that this wasn't a one-night finale. "Zac, this- this isn't just the blue moon making you do this, is it? I don't want you getting sucked into anything you don't-"

"Lyla," Zac half growled, his voice husky from the kissing, "I think you know as well as I do that I've wanted to do this since forever."

And that was all she needed to know. Reclaiming his lips, Lyla pressed her hands to his jaw and brought their faces close, aligning their bodies together in tessellation. All around them the water was surging with energy, the moon drawing steadily closer into alignment, and yet it felt like nothing compared to this. His lips on hers were indeed primal, kissing, tugging and intoxicating, building and rising into the unknown.

Whilst they explored one another's lips, Zac's hand drew round to her front, two fingertips tracing the line of her abdomen. Illogically, those feather-light touches affected her far more than anything else, sending electric shivers dancing across her skin, flexing through her muscles. With little hesitation she touched him back, feeling the smooth strength of his chest muscles as she ran a hand down his torso, her fingers brushing across skin, down onto scales.

She wondered if he found her scales odd to touch, unpleasant even. To her, they were as natural as the ocean itself, all a part of her, and there was something intensely sensual about slowly running her fingers down across his scales, feeling each bump press into her skin. The regular pattern of the curved edges was oddly satisfying, hypnotic even. Whilst one of her hands gripped his neck, the other ran down the side of his tail, transcribing its vast strength and intricate design through the sight of touch.

Unexpectedly, he returned the gesture, a hand ghosting down her back and caressing the rear of her tail, curving over the swell below her hips. It was a new experience to say the least; mermaids were not prone to touching one another's tails, such as humans did not often caress the skin of one another's intimate areas. To feel his hands on her tail was somewhat unnerving in its novelty, yet it was not disagreeable, sparking off a tenuously building need in the pit of her stomach.

As each kiss descended further, his lips tending to her neck, collarbone and even the base of her breast, another drive kicked in. It was not something Lyla had ever been taught, but something that rather came by instinct. They pressed themselves up against one another, lined stomach-to-stomach, tail-to-tail, and Lyla slunk her arms around his neck. Tilting her head backwards, she saw the moon nearly in full circle overhead, and understood without being told what would happen next.

She kissed him slowly, and felt something new press against her tail. What had previously been concealed internally had now come loose on Zac's behalf, and was pressing firmly into her front. Noticing this, Zac gave a shaky, uncertain laugh and paused his kissing to meet her eyes. "You know, this is kind of weird for me, having been human and all."

"You're doing great," Lyla said gently, since they seemed the appropriate words to say. In all honesty, she was just as nervous as he appeared, and yet at the same time she felt strangely certain in herself. Call it blue moon magic but she felt surprisingly confident that everything would work out well in the end.

They laughed shakily together for another moment before Zac stole her voice with another soft kiss, this one tender in the place of fire. "Are you sure?" He asked her, pressing his lips to the shell of her ear, kissing the sweet spot beneath it.

"Yes," she answered, planting a small, affectionate kiss to the base of his neck. "I am."

Returning to her lips, Zac leant in and closed the distance, kissing her tenderly at first, and then with more force and desperation. The sweetness gave way to heat and motion, and after a few brief awkward first attempts and experiments, Zac slipped himself into her, penetrating her with his newly exposed penis. It was nothing she had ever imagined doing, and yet it felt like a coded part of her, something she'd known before she'd even been born.

As the moon climbed towards its peak in the sky the water around them danced, stirring in rolling swirls around them, licking against their bare skin and tails. With it Zac kissed her faster, more strongly, and gave motion to his hips, rocking against her. He pushed deeper and she felt it like a tidal wave within her, a resonating signal sweeping through her body. She didn't know whether to kiss him harder or to gasp, but what she did know was that it felt fantastic.

She thought it a miracle that their scales never collided or jarred awkwardly, and yet as evolution dictated their bodies seemed made for each other, fitting together without fault. Even as Zac's thrusting rhythm grew in tempo, Lyla felt no pain, only a mild natural discomfort mixed in with the rolling waves of never before experienced pleasure. She'd never been connected to another person like this, never felt this close to someone. Screw the pod; losing them was worth this. This, under the moonlight in Zac's arms, was intimacy.

Gripping onto the ledge of the land, keeping them upright amongst the crescendo of the bubbling waters, Zac gained pace and bowed his head into her neck, alternating between gasping into her skin and kissing it feverishly. "Lyla," he said, his words ragged, barely coherent and yet she understood them perfectly, "I love you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry but I love you."

Holding onto him tighter, pushing her hips back against his rising ones, Lyla smiled in between the uncontrollable gasps he was eliciting. "Don't you ever be sorry for that Zac," she panted, cut off for a moment as he went deeper and her body trembled, incapable of speech. "I love you too. More than anything."

As they grasped onto one another, their syllables dissolving into groans and their breathing losing all structure, the peak of climax drew close. It did not surprise Lyla that, as the moon fell into place directly above the moon pool, so did Zac hit that strange, enigmatic sweet spot inside of her and she felt herself tip over the edge. The orgasm was twice as powerful as any moon spell, thrumming down through her core and sending her body into a dizzying bliss. She inhaled; her entire being changed, and then exhaled, and was left a different person for it.

Zac had come with her almost exactly, staggered ever so slightly behind, set off by the contraction of her entrance in response to the climax. Breathlessly, he lay in her arms for a moment, gently kissing the groove of her shoulder over and over. They lingered in silence for a good while, their breathing falling back into its regular lull along with their heartbeats, enveloped in a soothing tenderness.

When he was able he withdrew from her and his penis retracted, vanishing out of sight within a few seconds. He looked at where it had once been and gave his charming unsure laugh again, biting down on his bottom lip. "That is so weird for me."

"I would hope that it was more than just weird for you," Lyla said quietly, smiling although she spoke genuinely. "It certainly was for me. I was going more for life-changing, world-altering-"

"Awe-inspiring," Zac finished for her, and he matched her smile, kissing her fondly to punctuate the summary. "Lyla I… I have no words for it."

"Perfect," she decided for him, and felt that yes, perfect would do nicely.

Keeping her close, seeming unwilling for them to part, Zac glanced around as the simmering of the moon pool died down in the afterglow. "What now?" He asked quietly, pausing before looking back at her. "For you, for me. For us."

"I don't know Zac," Lyla answered truthfully. "There's Evie for you to think about. And moreover, I don't know what that will have caused. I don't know if I'm…"

"Pregnant," Zac finished for her once again, speaking the word with all the seriousness that it deserved.

"Whatever happens, we'll get through it together. I can't stay with Evie now, it wouldn't be fair on any of us. Not only that but I don't want to." Zac brought his hand to caress Lyla's cheek and ran his thumb gently across her skin, searching her eyes with his. "I want to stay with you."

"I'd like that," Lyla answered, and like an innocent schoolgirl she felt herself blushing. She certainly wasn't an innocent schoolgirl now.

They smiled together for a moment, and then the thought of pregnancy returned to the silence. "You don't feel the sudden urge to start popping out eggs, do you?" Zac asked, and Lyla could hear the apprehension concealed behind the joke. In all truth, she was glad for it. She had no desire for early parenthood either.

"I think that part is a choice Zac," she told him, and her own theory gained purchase in her mind as she spoke it. Nodding, she met his concerned gaze and smiled back reassuringly.

"All of this, it's up to us. The moon can't take away our free will Zac, it's just a guiding force. And I'm grateful for it; after all, it brought you here," Lyla confessed, running a hand down his arm, feeling the heat of his skin beneath her palm.

"I'm grateful too," Zac said. "Clearly it knows us better than we do."

"Zac, I think that I and half the town know that I loved you since the day I met you," Lyla said dryly. She could just imagine the ribbing she'd get from Sirena and Nixie now. How she'd resist throttling Nixie, she didn't know.

"Hey Lyla, just in case you didn't know," Zac said, dragging her out of her mental dilemma, "I love you."

"I love you too Zac," Lyla replied, gazing back. "Always."

"Always."