A/N: Now pay close attention, because this is where things get... ah complicated.
There was something wrong.
She could feel it. It fought through layers of cotton in her head, screaming at her.
Her first inkling was that she was burning up. Her body felt like her veins were on fire. She could feel the perspiration collecting on her forehead. She cracked open an aching eye, and a sloping wall of material swam into focus.
Her second was that she could feel a slow, cycling ache, deep in her hips. She knew what that ache meant, even through… no, because of the feeling of an internal fire that seemed like it wanted to consume her from the inside out.
No. No. Impossible. My cycle shouldn't have kicked in for weeks!
She'd lived with her 'monthly guest' since puberty, and it was regular as clockwork. Hell, even the few times she'd lost track of dates, that first creeping ache would send her to the medicine cabinet for that most wondrous invention of modern faunus pharmacology. A burst of synthetic hormone in pill form, and her body would calm its ass down and let her get on with life.
And she had ample supply. A lovely translucent orange plastic cylinder with blue lid. Perched happily on the sink.
Back at the cabin.
Because she was weeks! Weeks away from having to worry about that particular problem.
Except she wasn't.
What am I going to do? an inner voice cried.
That brought her to the third thing that her overloaded senses rammed through the fever and growing ache. And that was the feeling of another person, very closely entwined with her. For one, there was a rather large warm hand draped across her left breast, cupping it far too familiarly through her bra. A body so close that she could feel its pulse against her. And far, far worse, there was an unmistakable presence pressed firmly against her, very close to some extremely intimate areas. She could feel heat radiating from where their bodies touched through the thin undergarments she wore. Her brain struggled to understand who the person was, and how she could have ended up in such a condition and position.
The sensations continued to build, as memory pieced itself together through the haze. The dreams, the snow, popsicle-man freezing to death, deciding to share body heat to try and save his sorry ass, and now…
They had apparently shifted in their sleep, reversing positions.
And now…
Now, popsicle man was not cold at all, he was very very warm. And he was all up against her business, and she… she was in full-blown heat, completely out of cycle. And she fully suspected it was his fault. She groaned both in frustration and at the growing discomfort. This is not fair. Not fair at all. I saved your life, you asshole.
She lay still, trying to judge what his state was. His breathing was slow and regular with sleep, snoring almost imperceptibly. Is that even possible? To be sound asleep and have that… that thing, just doing whatever it wants down there?
A slow, squeezing cramp, stronger than the last one, brought out a small whimper from her lips, and she felt her body temperature kick up a notch, as panic drove speculation out of her head. Such things have a marvelous ability to focus the attention on the now. No she knew where this was going. She'd heard stories of what happened to faunus with mammalian traits and a defined cycle, who were caught without either an existing partner, or access to a hormonal prophylaxis.
She could feel another slow cramp starting, and she gritted her teeth. And involuntarily shifted her hips, which caused all sorts of feelings to shoot through her. She gasped slightly.
She knew where this train ended. It was a one-way ticket to gradually increasing body temperature, possibly dangerously. Debilitating cycling pain. Gradually overpowering drive to do something about it. To mate. Enough to drive out reason and leave her operating on pure instinct to make it all stop.
In rare instances the poor unfortunate faunus who found themselves in this situation got off lucky, and even in their temporary impairment found a discrete and willing partner. Other times they had to live with the social or physical fallout. Sometimes, they ended up very hurt, either physically or emotionally.
She took a deep breath, ears pinning back, and made the only decision she could through the haze of heat. A decision that she could still make voluntarily. Hopefully one that she wouldn't regret.
She placed her left hand over the male one covering her breast, giving it a squeeze. "H-Hey popsicle-man," her voice cracked. She felt a change in his breathing, fluttering past her left ear, making it twitch. Then stillness. She gave it another squeeze, and felt a surge of…electricity as he squeezed her soft flesh back.
"Hmmmm?" A soft and contented voice rumbled against the back of her head, shifting slightly. She felt his hips move gently and shuddered at the sensations.
His hand shifted, started to caress her.
And then froze. She heard a sharp intake of breath behind her.
"Oh fu-" he started to pull away.
"Wait!" She gasped.
He froze. She could feel his body tensed against her. She searched for words, "You aren't… I… Just wait. Please…."
"Where am I?" He asked, in a very very careful voice.
She shook her head, struggled to decide where to start. The need to explain warring with a rising since of urgency. "What do you remember?" She managed.
There was a quiet sound of swallowing behind her, and he murmured "I remember… being cold. And burning up at the same time."
"Hypothermia. You were dying."
"Is… is that why I'm…" There was a moment of consideration. "Did you take my clothes off? Did we…. have sex?"
"No! No. I found you that way." She felt another cramp building, and forced down a hiss against it. Trying desperately to keep her voice even. "And no we haven't mated." She continued in a quiet voice, gritting her teeth as the pain finally peaked. "Not yet."
Not quietly enough. He coughed slightly. "Excuse me, but did you just say 'not yet'?"
She closed her eyes. "I have… a problem. A serious problem. And at this point, I'm praying that you aren't a murderer or an asshole."
Another pause. Then she felt a chuckle against her back, felt him exhale through his nose against the back of her head. "Nooo… definitely not the first one, and I don't think I'm the second either."
"Good. Something about our… situation, has thrown me off cycle."
He didn't seem to respond to that. She tried more bluntly. "I'm in heat."
"Um… what do you mean? By that. I mean, I think I know what that means, but people don't…"
What the hell was he talking about? It wasn't exactly a secret that some faunus were subject to cycles. Hell, it was even used in slurs by some human-supremacists. It was why there was a thriving medical industry around freeing them from it. Maybe he hasn't noticed, hasn't realized yet that… "I'm a faunus."
"A what?" he sounded legitimately confused.
Frowning further, she pulled forward a little, enough to twist at the waist and neck, hissing quietly at the ache that went through her. Her amber eyes, growing more glazed with her physical state, met his golden-brown ones.
She saw his eyes look at her in confusion, then flick upward and widen. "Holy fuck…" She felt another slow cramp building and ground her teeth, her face betraying her. "Whoah, are you okay?" He moved his hand to her shoulder. "Holy crap you are burning up. Are you sick?"
She gasped a little as the pain started to spin down, granting her a very temporary reprieve, then looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Sick? No, I'm hours into heat, and it hurts."
She shook her head slightly, considered the conversation so far. He wasn't getting it, and she was running out of time.
"Can we start over?" She forced her voice to be even. "My name is Blake. I'm a cat faunus. I am currently in a bad way, and it's going to get worse. And I left my pills at the cabin. I'm about to proposition you, being the only male within Gods-know how many hours travel." She gave a bitter smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Or at least I hope it's going to be a relief…
Popsicle-man swallowed, eyes flicked up and locked onto her ears.
She felt a growl rising in her throat. Please tell me you paid attention to some of that. She frowned. "Hey, my eyes are down here."
His eyes widened and locked onto hers, then the words sunk in and he made a sound that might have been a swallowed laugh, then apologized. "Sorry. I'm… I'm sorry. I'm… Hegsih. I'm a… human? I'm very confused, completely naked…" he paused for a few seconds, "and I am about to be propositioned by sexy cat girl, who I apparently got handsy with in my sleep after she saved my life? Um… I'm sorry about that. The hands thing." He blinked at her a few times.
Ah. He's consent-conscious. Good sign. "It's nice to meet you Hegsih." Another slow cramp began to build, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut and making them water. Ninjas of Love never covered this scenario. "I know we don't know each other. Consider this a, returned kindness for saving your life? Will you consent to help out a… faunus in extreme distress?"
His jaw worked as his eyes flicked around the tent like they were trying to find some sort of sanity to latch onto while he absorbed all she had said. Then he looked thoughtful. "Well. Well… Appealing to my chivalry, that's… that's low," he said, but his mouth quirked and he brought his eyes back to hers. "Curse you, foul temptress. I am at your mercy," he added quietly, his eyes reflecting mischief and humor.
Good. Humor she could do… and other things too. Yeah, those too.
Suffice to say, it was intense. It wasn't the most passionate mating she'd ever experienced. She wasn't in love with her temporary partner. It wasn't awkward fumbling either. What it was, was driven. Driven by the intense need to convince a very old, very primitive part of her brain that, despite the fact that she was on a completely different pharmacological regimen to prevent another certain condition, her genes would be passed on to a new generation of faunus.
She was dimly aware, through that drive, that he was making efforts to be considerate, gentle.
It mattered.
For several minutes after, they lay together, nested, feeling each others heartbeats where their bodies touched, hands idly caressing each other. He whispered quiet endearments, and she snuggled back against him, feeling the afterglow, and its powerful wave of released chemicals, wash away the last of her heat-induced fever and pain.
And with that relief, came exhaustion as it combined with the prior evening's toil and insufficient sleep. As her eyelids weighed shut, she reached back to caress the curly hair of the stranger she had just mated with. "Thank you," she whispered.
"You're welcome, bossmang," she heard, as a warm hand caressed her faunus ear gently and sleep claimed her.
A/N: And there's where I cribbed a bit of faunus biology and pharmacology from OmegaInfinity's "Linked in Life and Love", though I put a bit of my own spin on it. The goal was to make it clear that most faunus who might be subject to such an involuntary drive are well aware of its risks and make sure they either don't care (happily mated or with a handy partner) or if their cycle is unpredictable they always have the magic pill handy. Unfortunately for our poor cat faunus, she had every reason, years worth, to believe that her cycle was so regular that she... became complacent in a problematic situation. And life... chose to give her lemons.
Don't worry, Blake Belladonna is an intelligent, strong, and independent, young adult faunus, and she won't make the same mistake twice.
Nope. She'll make all new ones.