Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or any of the canon characters. I do have my own characters (OC's) who may appear at any time in my series. They, any changes to characters (AC's), and any changes to plot are my own. I will not receive any monetary compensation for this work.

Author's Note: This takes place after Stars... the enemies that may be faced will be from one of my created enemies if they do appear. My OC Haruki and AC Shingo will definitely be part of the story at some point, and who knows, if people really like it I may continue with all of my rescued enemy-turned-hero characters! Let me know! There will be reader responses throughout this story!

Reader's Note: Here's what you have to know. Usagi and Mamoru are the only male-female couple with a Soul-Bond as of chapter one. Haruki and Shingo are still clueless about who they are, having had the block put on them until they reach a certain age. Our heroes are the first of a new generation and there are many Crystals that still need to be reborn, from all those who died in their past life but were not part of saving the world once they were reborn. Those Crystals all still have a purpose, but theirs is for the future. So Luna has to sit down and have a conversation with Usagi on her twenty-first birthday.

There will most definitely be lemons...

Acknowledgements: I just have to thank my friend and beta Astraearose-silvermoon for her help! She rocks. You should go read her stuff!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY 2020

HEAT
Chapter One
Usagi Learns Something New

Luna coughed. "Usagi, I need you to pay very close attention to what I'm about to say."

Usagi, who was fawning over a set of earrings she'd been given by her husband for her twenty-first birthday, waved her hand at the little black cat. "I'm listening," she lied. She thought they were kawaii. He'd handed them to her almost first thing that morning.

"Tsukino Usagi put those down right this minute and give me your full and undivided attention!" Luna yelled.

Usagi, startled, dropped the earrings back into their box and stared at her advisor with tear-filled cerulean eyes. "Hai. I'm listening to you Luna," she said softly.

The cat sighed. "I'm sorry that I yelled Usagi," she answered, shaking her head. "I need to talk to you about something very important and I really need you to listen carefully."

"Okay," Usagi said softly, hands in her lap.

Her blonde hair was down at the moment, since she hadn't even gotten dressed for the day. Or made the bed, Luna noted. Then again, Mamoru had only let her out of it ten minutes before. She shook her head. It all played a part in the conversation they were about to have.

"You are twenty-one now Usagi-chan. And because of that, there is something you must know."

"What?" Usagi asked, curious.

"When a person who protects a Crystal reaches the age of twenty-one, if one member of the couple is not already with child, the Crystal they carry will put them into a sort of Heat, for lack of a better word. Or for a male, Rut. It happens cyclically, which means it repeats for a significant event or series of events. For instance, the Silver Crystal, which you carry, will begin to send you into Heat every full moon. In your case it is a much stronger heat for things like a super moon or a red moon. Anything that has an effect on the distance between the moon and the earth with have an effect, so those months when the moon is closer in it's orbit you will have a libido that is unmatched at any other time."

"What are you trying to tell me Luna?" Usagi asked. "That I will want to have sex more?" She was a little uncomfortable with the conversation, but she had to get it over with. She needed to know.

"Yes. Right now you have a major issue. Your generation needs to bring back so many who had to wait for rebirth after the destruction of the Silver Millennium. The queen had so many to reset, but not all of them were involved with the prophecy. Do you understand?"

"Hai. That means that all the heroes we've gathered together have to have more kids than our kind normally would."

"Precisely. Of the eight queens who came before you, only two had more than four children. There was a need for the Silver Moon Crystal to have an heir, as well as the Blue Moon Crystal and the New Moon Crystal, which protected the Dark of the Moon. Sometimes however another Crystal needed to be reborn. Sometimes many. In those times the royals would find themselves in Heat more often and it lasted well beyond the normal time frame."

"So you're saying I will go into heat often."

Luna looked carefully around the room, making sure Mamoru wasn't hiding under the bed. "Usagi, I'm afraid to tell you, but Mamoru will win The Argument."

Usagi gasped and shook her head. "No."

"Thirteen Usagi."

"Not real. It's not real. Nope." Usagi put both hands over her crotch, trying to protect herself from delivering thirteen babies. It just sounded like far too many. She caught sight of Luna who was trying to look serious but failing miserably when she broke into cackles of laughter. She stuck her tongue out at her friend and advisor. "Alright, I know I'm being ridiculous. Yume said it was thirteen? Really?"

"He did," Luna confirmed. "And the others will all be nearly as prolific I fear."

"But some of them don't want children." Usagi knew there were several among those they'd saved from enemy clutches who definitely weren't interested in having kids. Ever.

"Their Crystals will take that into account," Luna said, "Many change their minds later in life, but there is also the chance of a Motherhood or Fatherhood bond."

"A what?"

"They could go to someone they are close with and ask that person to carry the child who would hold the next Crystal. It is how you were reborn to Ikuko and Kenji, who your former parents trusted with their children already in your last life. They accepted the motherhood and fatherhood bonds easily and with gratitude. It is how you now have a sister and brother as well. The Queen and king went to them and asked for help."

"But my sister..." Usagi's brow furrowed. "She has my aunt's crystal now. It wasn't originally hers, but she needed it's healing powers. So could that happen to other babies?"

"Sometimes. Your Aunt was a special case however. She and her husband did not go to be reborn."

"Why?"

"When a soul is reborn many times it learns new things. Eventually the soul becomes able to move on. The Crystal that carried it can then be given to another. Some choose to stay on until their soulmate is ready to move on, others stay for fear of what is out there, while still more stay because they have a duty they can't yet give up. Her soul was ready to move on several lives ago, but her soulmate was not. Now that he is, they both chose to move on to give your sister a chance at life."

"Where do we go when we move on?"

"I don't know," Luna said honestly. "No one understands all the mysteries of the universe. We can only understand certain aspects about our own creators. We can only grasp what we've seen and felt in our lives. There is so much out there we just don't know."

"Do we know how many times my soul has been reborn?" Usagi asked.

Luna smiled. "Three. You lived as Queen Serenity the First, as Princess Serenity, who would have been the Ninth, and now as Usagi who will be the Ninth."

Usagi was curious about something. She bit her lip and frowned, considering what she had not heard. "Luna?"

"What is it, Usagi?"

"If we start going into heat sometime after we turn twenty-one, and it keeps happening until a child is born to the soul-bonded couple or group, then why hasn't Mamoru been in heat?"

"He has been in Rut Usagi," Luna said softly.

"No he hasn't," Usagi argued. "I would have known."

Luna laughed. "Usagi, you've complained about it dozens and dozens of times."

Wrinkling her nose, Usagi sat back and thought through what Luna had just said. What did she complain about to do with Mamoru. Anything about sex? At all? She didn't think so, except that he was literally always in the mood, could go almost instantly after coming once, and had an extreme need to... oh. "You mean he's constantly in heat?" she asked, shocked.

"Rut. And yes. Almost the moment he turned twenty-one," Luna said, shaking her head. "If it wasn't for certain other factors, I'm afraid you would never leave the house."

"Other factors?" Usagi asked curiously.

Luna cleared her throat. "The former holder of his Crystal," Luna explained. "The former king has been helping him hold himself back. Teaching him. Unfortunately, soon your own Crystal will begin to send you into heat. When that happens you will both need to stay on the moon or in Elysion until it runs its course."

"So what triggers his... Rut?" Usagi asked, curious now.

"There are several triggers," Luna said. "Even in the middle of the harshest winter there is still growth somewhere in the world. Things on earth are always growing, which means part of him is always in Rut." She cleared her throat.

"The phases of the moon are one of the biggest triggers. His cycle is somewhat locked to yours in an odd way. Then there is the fact that certain male species of animals on earth go into their own form of rutting behavior, or something even greater called musth, like bull elephants during specific seasons or due to certain triggers. For instance some animals mate in the fall, some in spring, some at any time. Some animals can even trigger a female to ovulate. He is linked to all of that."

Usagi and Luna blushed at the last part. Usagi knew a male cat could put a female into heat. Luna and Artemis, though from Mau, were quite closely linked to human cats, having a related ancestor species. When Usagi realized Artemis was nearly always in trouble with Luna, and that the cat had been spurning his advances for the past several years, she put two and two together.

"Wait," she snorted. "You mean to tell me you two haven't..." she trailed off at Luna's fierce glare.

"If you must know, even if there was a birth control for my species, it wouldn't work. When the Crystals we carry go into Heat or Rut, unfortunately you will always get pregnant."

"This is so unfair!" Usagi groaned. "I'm the only one who is Soul-Bonded to a boy out of all the Senshi!"

Luna nodded. "Which is why, the very moment your first Heat ends and you are pregnant, you and Mamoru will be going on a journey."

"Where?" Usagi asked.

"I don't know." Luna shrugged. "You just have to find the mates of all the others. The queen said it was vastly important. She said when you made your Wish, after your fight with Metalia, the Shitennou were returned to their former lives. She also explained that Setsuna is under the belief that her mate is dead, though he is very much alive, and that not only hers, but Hotaru's mate also, is someone close to you. I thought about perhaps Umino, but that doesn't track because all the Senshi have met him and they would have sensed something."

"Wait, what about Michiru and Haruka?" Usagi asked, blushing. "How would they...?" she trailed off, unsure.

"Their case is special," Luna said. "When Haruka makes a visit to the Shrine of her former kingdom she will find the answer. That is all I was told. They both have to go together the next time Haruka goes into Heat, which happens to coincide with when Michiru does. They've already experienced Heat several times, which is why they've been away so often. We figured sending them to their old rooms on the Moon would make it easier."

"And the other girls?"

Luna only shook her head. "Their triggers are for them to know, and not to share with anyone under twenty-one, and then only whom they choose."

"Doesn't anyone ever go into heat early?" Usagi asked.

"Actually," Luna said, "It almost happened to yourself and Mamoru." She frowned. "According to Serenity there are dozens and dozens of possible timelines. In some you never become Sailor Moon. In others the Dark Kingdom or another enemy you have faced wins. In still others it is very similar to what you have here and now." She frowned. "In some you become a mother at sixteen, others not until after the Cataclysm. In some you only ever have one child, a girl. In others you have many children. You are supposed to have many. Crystals are still waiting in the cauldron to be reborn. Now we both know that the twins will be born on your twenty-second birthday, which means that in three months time I am rather sure, you will have your first Heat."

"So I have three months until Mamoru and I go nuts. Why can't I try and find the others in the meantime?"

"Because, of all the Crystals, only the Silver and Gold Crystals can be used to hold back someone in heat. If you found one of the men and he went into heat before his soulmate was ready, you would be unable to calm him as you and Mamoru would be unable to stop yourselves from being with one another. As would whatever man went into heat. He would probably harm himself quite drastically to prevent himself from hurting his Soul-Bonded, especially if he didn't know what was happening to him."

"Hurting her?" Usagi asked, worried now.

Luna nodded. "This is a very terrifying change for males. Calm, ordinary men can become aggressive, bossy, and territorial. They will start fights with other males who go into heat near their mates. They will herd their mates. Keep them close, overprotected." Luna sighed. "Mamoru came to us in a panic, days after his twenty-first birthday. He started shouting that he was going to become abusive and begged us to tie him up. We had forgotten, so we didn't prepare him."

"What do you mean?" Usagi was worried. She had known none of this.

"Do you remember, shortly after his birthday, you were wearing that pink sundress with the silver sparkling ribbon on it?"

Usagi nodded. That had been the day Mamoru had pulled her into the back room of the Crown, kissed her, torn her dress, and then he'd suddenly backed away from her and run out for the girls, sending them to her before disappearing for the rest of the night. It had been one of their only fights since they'd become a couple.

Later he'd told her he'd seen a return of an old nightmare and had panicked. Learning that was a lie made her heart clench. Usagi wanted to know the truth. "What really happened?" she asked.

"Motoki paid you a compliment."

"Huh?"

"Motoki said you looked pretty in your dress. Mamoru followed him into the kitchen and punched him. Then he grabbed you and took you into the back room. He could think only of two things. Proving to everyone that you were his, which in his mind meant very obvious bites and hickeys."

"And the second thing?"

"Getting you pregnant. His mind was screaming at him to get you pregnant so other males would stay away from you. He didn't have enough control over himself or his emotions and no one had told him what to expect. He was sure he'd been about to force you against your will. That's when he came to us. He couldn't have, of course. The Crystal he carries would have stopped him from doing anything to harm you, and your Soul-Bond would have made sure he knew you actually wanted it, but he was in such a state of panic he didn't remember any of that."

"So how does he control it now?" Usagi asked. "It can be a little annoying at times. I mean I was late to school almost every day of my senior year because once wasn't enough for him in the mornings. That can't be under control, can it?"

Luna laughed. "Usagi, think about that, and all the other things you've told me, or that I've just recently shared with you." She shook her head. "He is constantly in Rut, though usually nothing as bad as when the moon is at it's fullest or when certain other animals go into rut in the spring and fall. He can orgasm repeatedly, and his seed can make your body ovulate, basically sending you into a smaller heat. Do you understand what that means?"

Usagi gulped. "It means that he could keep going until..."

"Exactly. Now there are things that can be done if the two of you want time between children. The Silver Crystal can sort of hold back the Golden if you are not in Heat yourself." Usagi nodded. She would have to learn how to do that.

"Alternatively, if both of you come into it again at the same time and you choose not to reproduce you must not be on the same planet. In other words, either you will be in seclusion on the moon, or he will be in Elysion until such a time as your Heat subsides and his Rut is no longer at peak." That seemed perfectly possible, though Usagi was sure it was much more difficult than it sounded.

"The last option is to trick both Crystals into thinking you are already pregnant, very similar to how certain types of birth control work, which only the priest of Elysion can do."

"But Helios is asleep!" Usagi said. "He went into the Long Sleep so he and Chibi-Usa could finish growing up together."

"Quite true," Luna murmured. "But then we also know whatever this Cataclysm is, it will hit 'soon after Chibi-Usa and Chibi-Mamo are born.' That's what the Oracle told us. So you have three months before you go into Heat, another nine months after you get pregnant to find all the others, and then it could happen at any time."

"I knew about the Shitennou," Usagi admitted. "And I already know who the others are. Neo-Queen Serenity told me. Why did my future self ask me to keep the others a secret if I'm just going to wake them up now?" Usagi asked. "I've never understood why I couldn't tell them." She had been told by the queen that none of the girls could know the Shitennou still existed. She'd never even spoken of it.

"I can't be sure Usagi," Luna said. "I think it was because to accept their soulmates, after all they've been forced to do to them, the girls truly had to understand what an eternity of loneliness looked like. Or it could just be to protect the timeline. I don't know if we will ever figure it out."

Reader Response: By now, most of you who have read at least one of my stories, know my pairings. The list below are the pairings I have set in stone. They are OTP for me. True love for all stories. Won't be changed. Now that that's out of the way. Read through the list and tell me, after Usagi and Mamoru, who should I pair up next? I do sort of have to leave Shingo and Hotaru for last because they are the youngest by a couple years.

Usagi and Mamoru - FIRST/Hotaru and Shingo - LAST

Choose from the following and tell me who you want the most.

Setsuna and Haruki
Michiru and Haruka
Minako and Kunzite
Rei and Jadeite
Ami and Zoicite
Makoto and Nephrite

There will be at least two chapters for each couple. One on finding the Senshi's soulmate, and one on their first Heat. There may be more chapters for each, depending on how the story progresses. Sometimes battles sneak their way in, or some interesting side quest might come up. I really hope you all like where I go with the story. Please review!