Pulling up in front of Grayson's house made Erin's nerves become even more frazzled. After speaking with Tayn he wasn't really sure what he wanted to do. Or, well, he was... but was that the correct decision and safest for Grayson? Definitely not. Children were the one thing he had always wanted, but with Gray, he couldn't risk that.

Erin's head fell forward as he groaned, only to smack the horn and make him jump. That, in turn, made his head smack against the low ceiling of his car.

Just my luck.

He rubbed the sore spot and slowly got out, figuring that they had heard him anyway. However, when no one came to the door he remembered that his mother had left earlier and her car was still gone.

Okay, so it's just Gray. That's good, at least.

When he didn't see the kid's little mouse peaking out from behind a curtain after a few moments Erin headed toward the backyard. The tree was fairly easy to climb and thankfully he'd left the window unlocked.

Time to be that awkward elephant in the room.

Just not literally, because he definitely didn't have the money to fix their house.

Once inside, Erin quietly shut the window, then turned toward the bathroom. It wasn't hard for his insanely good hearing to pick up what Gray was in the shower doing. His tongue slowly ran across his drying lips as he took a few deep breaths. If he screwed up now, he was going to lose any chance of having him. A little voice in the back of his head was continuously repeating that it would be better since Grayson couldn't have elephant calves, but he just couldn't leave him.

Once in front of the bathroom, Erin bit his bottom lip and yanked the door open, then shut it before he could stop himself. He was at least facing away from the shower since his nerves were already pretty much used up.

"Erin? What the heck are you doing here?"

Grayson's voice squeaked at the end of his sentence, making Erin's body tense in more ways than one.

My mouse.

After taking a very deep breath and letting it out through his nose, Erin slowly turned around and looked at the see-through shower curtain. Granted, he couldn't see much since the steam and water running down it blocked his vision, but he didn't need to. He had seen him naked before, and had quite enjoyed the view.

"I can help," he said quietly after a few silent moments.

"Get out!"

If he hadn't sounded like he was in pain, Erin would have obeyed immediately. But instead, he took a step forward and squared his shoulders.

"No, I know you're in heat."

"I know that. looked it up. You just want me because of the pheromones."

It was true that he did smell amazing, even with the collar blocking most of it, but perhaps that was just his amazing sense of smell since he didn't see many other students eyeing him in the halls.

"I can smell them even with that collar on."

"Of course you can. You're an elephant. Now go away."

"No."

Grayson let out a frustrated squeak and Erin saw his blurry figure behind the curtain slowly slide down the wall to the floor of the bathtub.

"Please, I can take care of myself."

Okay, time to say the right thing, Erin.

"I want to take care of you."

He took a step forward, then another when he didn't hear Gray protest. That left him standing right in front of the frosted curtain, his heart nearly beating right out of his chest.

"Gray?"

Erin's voice was a whisper, but he knew that Grayson's adorable little ears would be able to pick it up, even with the shower thrumming water overhead. When he didn't answer Erin slowly began to strip off his clothing, but left his boxers on before he climbed into the back of the shower.

Awwwww.

He was crouching beneath the warm water, eyes wide and nose almost as pink as his shift forms'. If Erin didn't have some serious self control and he wasn't still wearing his cross-shifter necklace he probably would have done something seriously stupid, but instead, he crouched, careful to keep his balance but not get too close.

"Hey there, Gray."

He had his knees squeezed together to hide his obvious arousal but Erin didn't focus on that. Instead, he carefully sat down and tilted his head back,relaxing as the warm spray hit his bare lower chest and legs.

"I don't want to have kids."

Grayson's wide eyes blinked up at Erin once, then he hid his face in his arms, which were wrapped around his knees.

"Hey sweetie... want to know what I heard today?"

Grayson's breathing was beginning to get heavy again but he ignored it to sneak a peek at Erin, then nod.

"I heard from a new friend of mine that I could never do that with you... that it would be dangerous for you."

He looked confused at that.

Okay, I guess showing an example would be easier.

With that thought Erin reached behind himself to the waistband of his boxers and produced a very obvious item that made Gray's face burn bright red.

"I d-don't want to."

Erin held out the tiny package of plastic to him and smiled.

"I know you don't feel well and my friend said that it would take a seriously long time to break your heat without help..."

He fidgeted, eyeing the package but not taking it yet.

"E-Erin..."

"What if I said that this can just be because of your heat? I won't hold this against you at any time. In fact, we can forget it happened if you'd like... though I'm sure that you know I do like you this way. I'm willing to wait until you're ready to return or reject those feelings. But, seeing you hurting like this is just something I can't handle."

Erin's heart jumped into his throat when Grayson shakily reached forward and took the condom from his fingers. He stayed completely still as the guy slowly unwrapped the plastic. When he looked back up at him, biting his lower lip, Erin quickly pulled off his boxers and took the condom from him.

"You won't hurt me, right? I heard that it hurts."

Erin looked up at him with a devilish smirk as he finished covering himself.

"I'll be extremely careful. If it hurts, just tell me to stop. Anything you want, I'll do it."

Grayson took a few deep breaths before hesitantly crawling toward him. Erin lowered himself back down so that he was sitting comfortably, then took Gray into his arms when he got close enough. He was completely ready to do it, but he wasn't going to rush him at all.

"Do what you feel you can, I'm here to help you so don't try to meet any kind of expectation, because I just want you to feel better. Okay, Gray?"

He moved a bit in Erin's arms, obviously trying to avoid what he had that was poking him, but Erin had a feeling that he was getting more and more uncomfortable.

"Here, maybe this will help you calm down a bit..."

Erin reached around the back of his neck and took a deep breath, then undid the clasp on his cross-shifter collar. He really had no idea what they did and didn't do besides the pheromone thing, but the second that thing was unclasped and set aside he was on him like, well, an adorably horny animal. Even though he was now much more interested in their intended activity, just like Erin was, he still did his best to keep everything as painless as possible. The water definitely helped as a slight distraction as they got further and further into it and if Erin hadn't put the condom on before he'd took the collar off, he might have done something terrible to him, so at least that was done.

When they finally managed to calm themselves down Erin was on his back, panting on the floor of the shower with a very tired Gray partially curled up on his chest. The shower had gone cold awhile ago and since sitting beneath chilled water was never a good thing for long periods of time, Erin quickly turned off the water after taking off the condom and rinsing himself.

Erin moving had Grayson stirring with a tiny squeak, but Erin just grinned in response and mussed his hair, making him give him a sleepy leer that he couldn't help but chuckle at.

"Feeling better?"

He got himself up into a partial sitting position and winced.

"You need size reduction surgery."

Erin's inner elephant snorted in his head and he swore that if it was a cat, it would totally be preening at that comment.

"I'll just take that as a compliment. Come on, I'll get you dried off and into bed."

He pouted when Erin grabbed a towel and gave him a quick dry off, then scooped him up in it.

"I'm not a kid," Grayson grumbled.

"I'm not treating you like a kid, Gray. I just know that you're probably sore from your first time."

He blushed furiously as Erin set him down on his little bed, then scrambled beneath his blankets.

"That wasn't my first t-time."

Okay, eye roll.

"Oh?"

Erin leaned down and tapped Grayson's naked bum where it stuck out from the blankets, startling Gray enough for him to shift.

"Oops."

His fuzzy little head popped out from under the blankets a moment later, giving a loud squeak of annoyance.

"Sorry sorry, you were asking for it, though."

He flattened his ears and disappeared back beneath the blankets. When he didn't come out again, Erin carefully lowered himself into his bed, being sure that there were no mouse-sized bumps beneath him as he did so.

"So... can I sleep here? I'm really tired after all that exercise."

Erin noticed the clock on his bedside table flashing seven and nearly laughed out loud.

Darn, little mouse, you had some stamina!

When Erin didn't get a response, he glanced under the blankets, smirking when he found out why he was getting no replies. After getting comfortable, Erin grabbed his little matchstick-box bed and set it beside him, then carefully put him inside, then tucked him in with a tiny piece of comforter that had been cut specifically for the box. Once he was sure that he was nice and comfortable, he turned onto his belly and sighed out a content breath.

He would have loved to cuddle with Gray's human form, but he supposed tucking in an adorable mouse was just as good. His elephant gave a tired snort in his mind as he chuckled and leaned over, pressing a soft kiss to Grayson's whisker'd cheek, then flopped his head down onto the pillow for some much needed sleep.