It was night and Lion-O was awake. Again. He couldn't help it, he had gotten so used to Pumyra waking him up in the middle of the night to sneak into his bunk that even with her there all the time he still woke up at least for a few minutes expecting to feel her slide in beside him. Most nights he would just cozy up closer to her and go back to sleep. But some nights, like tonight, it was harder. Sometimes he would walk slow laps around the room until he was ready for sleep again, others he sat on the edge of their makeshift double-bed and tried to figure out what he was going to do next in this war against Mumm-Ra, and still other nights (again, like tonight) he would simply stare at Pumyra and marveled in her beauty.
He hadn't always noticed it. Sure when they first met he thought she was pretty enough, if a little rough and neglected, but it wasn't until he started to scratch that hardened surface that he began to notice how truly beautiful she was. He brushed some of the hair out of her face and gently caressed her cheek.
"Lion-O..." she sighed in her sleep.
"Yes?" He whispered.
"Stay... Stay with me."
"Forever." He promised, planting a gentle kiss on her forehead before closing his eyes and drifting back to sleep. She was there in his dreams too, they were atop the head of the Great Sphinx that was the centerpiece of the royal palace. A blanket was spread out beneath them and the sun shining high above. He was no longer wearing the armor that had been his entire wardrobe since the fall of Thundera, but a fine silk doublet under a blue leather jerkin, much like the ones he used to wear around the palace back when he lived there dodging sword lessons and dissecting technology. Likewise Pumyra was no longer in her rough leather dress, but a breezy gown of purple so rich it almost appeared red. He rose up on his elbows and looked behind him, sitting on a little bundle that appeared to be a folded cape or mantle was the simple golden crown of the King of Thundera. Beside it was something he had seen many times, but always under glass, never worn: The far more ornate ivory and ruby crown of the Queen...
Lion-O's eyes snapped open. Before he even sat up he knew it was morning this time, Pumyra sat on the edge of their bed adjusting her belt.
"It's about time you got up. I was about to leave without you, just to teach you a lesson."
Lion-O swung he legs over the edge of the bed and started pulling on his spats and greaves. She was right, a look at the clock on the wall proved that it was late in the morning. He wondered why Tygra ever let him sleep in so late.
"Because he knows what I'd do to him if he did." Pumyra answered with a predatory smirk.
Lion-O's head felt... fuzzy, that was was the only way to describe it, he finished dressing and walked with Pumyra to the galley for breakfast and the day's meeting for their plan of action.
Something was wrong... It took him awhile before he could quite put his finger on it, but finally he realized...
"Where's WilyKit?" He asked.
"Still in bed," her brother answered, "I tried making her get up but she said she felt dizzy and hot."
"Oh no..." Pumyra hissed as she ran out of the room and down the hall.
"What's wrong?" Cheetara asked as the other cats followed her.
Pumyra rushed into the room the twins shared and knelt next to the bunk where WilyKit lay huddled in her blanket. Gently she put a hand on the child's brow and whispered, "What's wrong, sweetheart?"
"My head hurts and it's hot..." WilyKit moaned.
"I know, I know sweetie. When did it start?"
"I felt kind of yucky yesterday, but it wasn't this bad."
The other cats were astounded at her tenderness with the young girl. Aside from Lion-O they had never before speak so softly or reassuringly before, she continued to look over the girl and ask her questions before herding the other cats out of the room.
"It's Purple fever," She announced.
"That's fatal! You're sure?" Panthro asked.
Pumyra nodded, "I think we caught it early enough that she'll be fine with rest and proper care. We'll need tea made from the bark of the Khasha tree and lots of it."
"We?" Tygra asked.
"It's treatable if caught early enough, but it's still highly contagious," The younger woman explained, "Make no mistake, it will tear through this tank like a hurricane. It's probably already started."
Lion-O looked at the other cats before turning to Pumyra, "I think I might be coming down with it already. You saw the trouble I had getting up this morning, and since then I've felt dizzy and run-down."
"Then get to bed." She ordered him, slipping into that no-nonsense tone she had used with him in The Pit or the tunnels under Mount Plundarr. "We passed some Khasha trees early last evening. If you want to make yourself useful you can use your last few good hours watching WilyKit while we go gather what we need."
"You don't get to give him orders." Tygra snapped.
"Do as she says." Lion-O insisted. "She knows what she's talking about. WilyKat, you're gonna stay with Panthro until we get through this."
Pumyra nodded, "An epidemic tore through the slave population in the mountain. dozens died before the rats let us gather the materials we needed to fight it, and only then because work started to slow down."
"You gonna be okay here while we're gone?" Panthro asked.
"I don't have much of a choice," Lion-O explained, "just hurry and and get all the bark you can, more than you'd think we'll need. We're got going anywhere until this illness has run its course, and you can probably plan on getting sick yourselves before this is all over."
Lion-O bid farewell to Pumyra and the other cats, too afraid to even hold her hand because he might infect her, and went to sit with WilyKit until their return.
"Lion-O?" She called out to him.
"Hey kiddo," He smiled reassuringly, "I'm gonna stay with you while Pumyra and the others go get some stuff that'll fix you right up."
"You like her... Pumyra."
"Yes, I do."
"I didn't, at first." Wilykit confessed.
"But now you do?"
"Yeah..."
"Good. Try to sleep now, I'll be right here." He told her. He lay his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. Hurry up guys, he thought.
Sure enough, the next day the fever hit Lion-O hard and fast leaving him bedridden. Not even a day later WilyKat came down with it and was moved back into the room he shared with his sister. After that both Cheetara and Tygra were laid up, leaving only Pumyra and Panthro to deal with everything that needed done around the tank on a daily basis, plus five very sick cats.
"This takes me back..." He said as they were scrubbing up laundry outside the tank one day.
"You gonna elaborate on that or do I have to twist your arm?"
Panthro laughed, "Back when I first joined up it seemed like all we grunts did was scrub laundry and peel potatoes until some general got a wild hair up his tail and said 'Go attack that.'"
"Well now you're the general, does it make anymore sense?"
"Dunno, I misplaced my tail a long time ago."
Pumyra chuckled, she liked Panthro. He was a fighter, like her. Someone who had seen the horrors of The Pit from the inside and came out with their sanity and humanity intact. If she knew nothing else about him that would be enough
"Can you finish up here? It's about time I administer our patients their medicine."
"Sure thing, let me know if any of them gives you any grief."
Pumyra padded into the tank and walked over to the kettle to make her regular infusion of Khasha bark tea. The cats had followed Lion-O's order to the letter, dragging back enormous sacks of the stuff, but even so they were burning through their supply faster than she planned.
Cheetara was the first on her rounds. Pumyra sat on a small three-legged stool she carried with her tray and handed her a cup of the steaming brew. The older woman didn't even make a face as she slowly sipped the bitter steaming brew. She rarely talked during their visits, preferring to silently sip her tea in between bouts of laying back with her eyes closed, but she seemed particularly chatty today.
"So it's the two of you now?" She whispered through throat sore from coughing.
"Panthro and me, yeah. The last men standing."
"Not who I was talking about..."
Pumyra stared at her through wide eyes, but found nothing she could say. She assumed the other cats knew all about her a Lion-O even though they never made any official announcements. It was a small tank.
"I watched over him a long time, protected him. I even came to love him, though not the way he wanted."
"I know." Pumyra answered, Lion-O had told her all this already.
"But as much as I cared about him I couldn't help hurting him. I failed him, in the worst way possible. No matter how bad things got no one could ever break his spirit, no one except me."
"I know he doesn't blame you. He told me so." Pumyra said, trying to offer any comfort she could to a sick cat who most likely wouldn't even remember this conversation.
"I know, because that's the sort of king he is, but it doesn't matter." Cheetara lay back and stared at the ceiling. "Even after he came to accept things as they are I knew he was still hurting, still lonely. And then you came along and that all changed. You healed him, Pumyra, you healed his heart."
"I still think it's the other way around." The younger woman insisted.
"Okay then, you healed each other. Either way, I'm grateful." She finally closed her eyes and went to sleep. Silently, Pumyra crept from the room. She stood in the hallway for a little while and let Cheetara's words sink in. Fever or not, she felt like she owed it to her to remember them.
Tygra was the next one on her rounds. He (surprisingly) kept his own room rather than staying with Cheetara. Pumyra had always assumed he talked a big game when it came to the two of them, and it looked like she was right. She could only guess because he thought it annoyed Lion-O, but also because for all his boasting and bragging he really didn't know what to do with a girl once he got her. He just liked the chase and now that he got her he was forced to sit there and spin his wheels until she gave him the go-ahead.
Tygra, unlike Cheetara, wasn't quite as big on dignity and insisted he was dying. He even insisted on making his last confession to her, which she only agreed to listen to as long as he drank his tea. He finished it in one gulp but fell asleep still holding the cup as soon as he was finished, and when she tried to take it from him he cried out for his mother that someone was trying to take his doll. She tried to stifle her laughter when leaving the room but broke out into hopeless giggles once in the hallway.
She had no trouble with the Kittens who took their medicine with no more trouble than Wilykit asking her to sing for them. She tried her best to indulge them, even though she knew she was off-key a few times but they didn't complain and she moved on to the last cat on her rounds. The one she was worried most about: Lion-O.
In truth he wasn't any sicker than the others, but she hated seeing him laid up like that. Not only that but ever since Tygra and Cheetara took sick he constantly worried about her, that she was pushing herself too hard and insisted on trying to help her.
"You look tired..." He croaked as she came through the door.
"I'm fine." She insisted, sitting beside him and handing him his cup, "Although I'm not thrilled about sleeping in the bridge."
"Can't be helped," He said between sips, "You're exposed to us enough as it is already."
"I know, but still. I miss you."
Lion-O laughed weakly, "I love hearing you say that. Promise me though, you'll find the time to take it easy for a bit?"
"I promise." She said, gently stroking his hair, "In the meantime you just rest and get better, I plan on making up for all the time we've missed."
Lion-O grabbed her hand a kissed it gently before laying back and going to sleep. She sat there beside him for a little while before heading back to the galley to clean up.
"All the cubs are safe and sound in their beds." She joked, walking down the plank from the tank. What she saw stopped her cold, instead of Panthro hanging up linens and sheets instead he was lying on his side by the wash basin. She ran to his side and tried to turn him over, he was burning up!
"I'm sorry..." He said as she lifted his massive bulk and helped him into the tank, "I didn't want you to know."
"You should have told me." She grunted as she struggled to carry him, "You're not doing me any favors this way."
"I just didn't want you have to deal with this by yourself..."
"So that's how it is..." She told Lion-O that evening. "Looks like I'm in this alone now."
"No you're not," He said through chattering teeth, "You're not alone, I'm in this with you."
"You're staying right here in bed." She ordered, "You're just going to make things worse."
"I can't let you do this by yourself!" Lion-O insisted, fighting to get up.
"You're staying if I have to get in bed with you and hold you there myself!" She spat. "Actually, that's not a bad idea..." She mused.
"Don't you dare!"
"Look at you, you're shivering!"
"I'm sick, that's what happens." He rolled over and turned his back to her. "Good night." He listened for the door but was met only with silence. After what seemed like an eternity he heard the flop of something hitting the floor and the next thing he knew a warm body was sliding into bed with him. All the cold and chills seemed to melt away as she held him. Something was strange though, although she had held him like this often there was something different, she felt closer, warmer, more... real. It was then that he realized what that sound he heard earlier was.
"Are you-?" He began.
"Shh." She hissed in his ear. She buried her face in his neck and hugged him closer to her body, letting the heat of it flow into him. It was one of the finest pleasures he had ever known. A thousand years as king in the great palace of the Thundera couldn't begin to compare. Slowly he drifted into a blissful and dreamless sleep
Lion-O woke up feeling better than he had in days. "Hey, I think that tea of yours is starting to work." He sat up and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Something was wrong, She didn't respond to him and felt hot to the touch. Beads of sweat were on her brow and she moaned softly.
"Whiskers..."
"I'm fine," She lied, fighting to sit up.
"No you're not." He grabbed a spare blanket and wrapped it around her. "You held out as long as anyone could, I'll take over from here."
"But... you're still sick yourself."
"Can't be helped, I'll just have to take it easy."
"I'm so sorry..." She confessed.
"For what?" He smiled, "For trying to take care of everything and everyone? For going above and beyond what would be asked of any cat? Or for proving once again why I love you?"
"You... love me?"
"Oh Pumyra," He sighed, kissing her gently on the forehead, "How could I not?"
She closed her eyes and smiled dreamily "I love you too."
"Glad to hear it. Now you just rest here and I'll bring you some tea."
"Can I tell you a secret first?" She asked.
"Of course."
"I hate Khasha bark tea."