Hi guys! This is my first fic ever, so no flames, please! Sorry for a bit of grammar mistakes. This story is mainly about Diego and Shira set after the Continental Drift. I just luv that couple! I do not own Ice Age or Diego or Shira or any of the characters! I do own my OCs however, they will appear in the later chapters of the story! Happy Reading! Plz R&R!
Diego was racing through the forest, zig-zagging between trees, enjoying the cool breeze and the fresh air that took his mind off all his thoughts. The scent of fresh forest herbs were strong, which he guessed were plentiful, which was good, as if they had any injuries they could be treated with enough herbs.
He shook his head, trying to focus on the present. Shira was just a few tree-lengths ahead(Diego was letting her win during their whole race but keeping her in sight, just in case, though he would never tell her that.), just in front of Diego. Diego picked up his pace and when Shira was close enough in his reach, he lunged and bowled her over, with her lying with on her back, with him standing on top. Just like the way they'd been when Granny said "If they kiss I'm gonna puke".
"It was a tie." Shira's meow snatched his attention back to her.
"I'll beat you next time, Kitty!" Diego replied to this beautiful saberess, whose fur was silver-gray-and-white with few dark-gray-and-black stripes. Her sapphire blue eyes shone at him. Those eyes are so beautiful...No. Everything about her is beautiful. Everything she does is just so perfect...He had to admit he'd fallen for her, not that he would ever admit it out loud, Sid and Manny would never let him hear the end of it. Shira broke into his thoughts saying,"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" She snapped, though her tone was light with amusement.
Diego smirked, "Infinity," he replied.
Shira snorted, "I'll get you for that, Softie." She said trying to get up so that she was on top of Diego. Diego kept his grip on her, strong enough to keep her down, but not enough to hurt her. Shira couldn't get up, so she just remained underneath Diego.
Diego lightly punched her on the shoulder with his arm in a playful way. He growled, "How many times do I have to keep telling you that I am not soft and that I am a remorseless assassin?"
Shira chuckled, "Well you don't seem like an assassin to me, let along a remorseless one."
Diego growled, "Well, then you're the one not being honest. I told you, I. Am. Not. Soft."
Shira just rolled her eyes and stared into Diego's emerald hazel-green eyes, seemingly lost in them. She admit to herself that she had feelings for him, this saber who had made her realize the true meaning of a family, or a herd, that they'd always have each other's backs. Though she would never-or could never- bring herself to telling him that. Or telling anyone, for that matter.
She was brought back to reality when Diego climbed off her, letting her up. He started walking back towards where the herd had camped, taking another route than the one they'd taken before. Shira let him take the lead and followed close behind. They still need to find proper dens for everyone, and since it's still sun-high, they began to explore the island.
They'd landed on the island just the previous day, and they'd slept out in the open. She and Diego had kept watch, and they took a nap in the morning before they woke up and went on their walk through the forest, which had obviously turned into a run.
Diego suddenly stopped and Shira banged into him before she could stop herself, which knocked them both over and they fell down a small ravine, and landed her pinning him down. Diego grinned his oh-my-gosh-ever-so-handsome grin(in Shira's opinion) and Shira blushed furiously and quickly got off Diego.
"S-sorry. Why'd you stop, anyway?" Shira asked, still blushing a little.
"Oh, I just thought, you know, maybe we should hunt before we go on exploring? Since, you know, we haven't eaten since last night. I was just stopping to ask you when you crashed into me." Diego replied, then smirked.
"Oh, sure,"
"What do you feel like eating, Kitty?" Diego asked.
Shira snarled but played along, pretending to think hard before she said, "Antelope. I'll take that. You have to hunt it down for me, payback for calling me Kitty, Softie. But remember: I want the biggest, juiciest antelope on this whole island!"
Diego said, "My pleasure," before bounding away on full-speed. Shira had thought he was only mocking, and didn't expect he would actually do it. Well, since he's at it now, there's no going back. So she just followed him and watched him the whole time while he went hunting down the biggest, juiciest antelope on the island.
Surprisingly, Shira couldn't keep up with Diego, and found herself getting tired quickly. She soon lost sight of him and could only follow his paw prints in the mud in order to find him. This is strange. I always beat him when we raced. Before, when we first met. And yesterday, when we first landed, and just then! I'd beaten him if he hadn't pinned me down. Why can't I keep up now? Diego broke into her thoughts, dragging an enormous antelope with him, but careful to hold it above the ground. Shira gasped in surprise, and quickly went over to help him. She stared in amazement. This was the largest antelope she'd even seen in her whole entire life! And Diego had hunted it down in no time. He really is something, I can't deny it.
Once they got to a dry place in the woods they put down the deer, and Diego said, "Enjoy,". Shira was throughly amazed but decided to tease Diego about it. "Well done Softie. I can tell it's a delicious antelope. But how did you know it was the biggest one on the island? Did you see the others?"
Diego snarled at her jokingly, and pounced and pinned her down playfully.
"Well Kitty, if you're not going to enjoy this delicious antelope, I wouldn't mind taking a few bites to eat." He remarked.
"Oh, I'll take it. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to offer you a few mouthfuls. Come and share." Shira said and tore a piece of meat off of the deer, Diego doing the same. After they'd finished their meal, they cleaned themselves up, and started to look for places for their dens.
They came across Manny and Ellie, and found out that they'd all found good sleeping places. The mammoths would be sleeping in a large cave with trees for protection, and for Ellie, Peaches and the possums to hang upside-down. The sloths had found an abandoned den close to the mammoths' and the possums' cave, and made that their den.
And that leaves Diego and Shira. Shira thought that if they couldn't find anywhere for shelter, they would have to dig a den. She hated doing that. She was forced to do it when she was a cub living in a pack. It hurts her paws and once she even broke a claw.
Just as she was worrying Diego yowled, "Shira! Come look."
She scrambled over to him, and followed his gaze and saw a cave, inside a large tree. Anyone who didn't look carefully enough would've thought it's just an ordinary tree. But it's a tree cave. No one was using it, and it's pretty sheltered from the wind in case of bad weather, and it wouldn't be easy for and intruder to find. Besides, it was pretty close to the others' dens.
"It's perfect!" She said to Diego.
They stepped in, and it was surprisingly large, despite being inside a tree. There was a large rock at a corner of the cave, flat and smooth, big enough to even fit a mammoth!
Shira was a bit disappointed that this could not be her den; Diego had found it, and that means it would be his den. But Shira wouldn't challenge him for it, she would just have to find another one.
She meowed, "Great! This makes a perfect den for a saber. Now how about let's go look for my den?"
Diego looked surprised. "Oh, you mean this would be my den?"
Shira was confused. "Well, yeah. You found it. Why not? It's perfect!"
"Well, I just- Uh, if you like it, you can have it. It's just- I thought... Never mind."
Shira was curious about what he was going to say, so she asked, "What was that? You can tell me."
Diego shifted his paws, as if he was uncomfortable about saying this. "I just thought, er- well, I thought maybe we could share a den? If that's okay with you, of course. Well, if you don't want to you can have this one-"
Shira was stunned. He wanted to share a den with her? Why not? You know you'd like that. She thought to herself. "That's nice of you. Thanks. Of course it's fine with me. This cave is big enough to fit both of us!"
Diego brightened, and looked somewhat, relieved? "Cool! Why don't we clean out this cave first? Then we could rest. It's been quite a busy day."
They started pawing out leaves and twigs and by the time they were done, it was already sundown. They quickly hunted down a deer and finished it, and lay down and began to chat.
Shira: You know, this kinda reminded me of the tree you guys kept me prisoner.
Diego: Huh. Yeah, it does. It's just unfortunate that it's the place where you called me soft(growls softly).
Shira(chuckled): Also where you informed me that you're a remorseless assassin. Huh!
Diego: Yeah, for like the millionth time ever.
Shira: First time, actually.
Diego: Fine, whatever.
Shira(asks suddenly): What's your favorite food?
Diego: Why'd you ask that?
Shira: Just wondering, you know. Well, since we're gonna be in a herd, why not know each other better?
Diego: Hmm...I think it's gazelle. I remember when my dad always catch the biggest, fattest on Christmas. What's yours?
Shira: Fish. But I'm kinda sick of it for the moment, because I've had too much of it on that pirate ship! But it's still my fave.
Diego: I thought you only ate fruits and stuff.
Shira: The others did, yes. But I caught fish for myself.
Diego: Cool. Well, my turn to ask the question: what's your favorite color?
Shira: Blue.
Diego: Which shade?
Shira: Take a guess.
Diego: The color of your eyes?
Shira: Nope.
Diego: The color of your earring?
Shira: Nah.
Diego: The color of robin's eggs?
(Shira shakes her head)
Diego: Hmm...The color of the sea?
Shira: No. I'm sick of it.
Diego: What else is there? Color of might blue?
Shira: No. It's the blue of late-afternoon sky. Like after a sunset, before the sky turns pinky-orange.
Diego: Like the color of heather?
Shira: Exactly.
Diego: Speaking of sunsets, since you love the color, why don't we go see it tomorrow, down near the waterfall?
Shira: That would be great. Now, getting on with our question asking game, it's my turn: so I was wondering, what happened to you guys after you stole our ship?
Diego: Well, we just traveled on for a while, and I was starting to get restless(he made sure he didn't say miss you or something embarrassing like that), when we ran into a cove-
Shira(smirked): Don't you mean a siren cove?
Diego(panicked): How did you know about that?! Please please please don't let her know about who I saw! Or that Sid kissed me! Ugh! He thought to himself.
Shira: I overheard Sid talking about it-
Diego(overreacting a little): What?! Sid? I'm going to kill him!
Shira: What? Afraid he told me who you saw? Chill Softie. He didn't. Because you're going to tell me.
Diego froze. No way was he telling Shira! It would be so embarrassing! Besides, he didn't want her to know about his feelings for her. At least not yet.
He stammered, "Uh...Hey! Isn't it kinda late? Maybe we should go to sleep." He faked a yawn.
Shira smirked, "So you are afraid! You're such a softie. What's so bad about telling me?"
Diego pinned her down. "I. am. not. soft. I'm a remorseless assassin."
Shira swatted him off her. "Then prove it. Tell me who you saw."
Diego frantically thought of an excuse. When he couldn't he just told her, "Fine. I just saw a large gazelle. That's all. No big deal. Now you have to stop calling me Softie, Kitty."
Shira said, "Don't call me that. But a gazelle? Seriously?"
"Yeah!"
"Then why was it so difficult to tell?"
"It's just- Well, I wasn't afraid to tell! I just thought, you know- it's a little late." Diego replied.
A gazelle? Seriously? Shira thought. She'd assumed it was one of his family members or his lover or something, but a gazelle? Secretly, Shira had hoped that Diego had seen her, but then she thought it wouldn't be possible. They'd only met for a few days at the time when they saw the sirens. Her pelt reddened just thinking about this, but she quickly recovers. She assumed Diego wasn't telling the truth, but she wasn't going to press further. She decided she would ask him another day, when they get to know each other better.
Shira agreed with him. "Yeah. It's a little late. Well, good night."
Diego replied, "Night."
They both just lay there, trying to sleep, and thinking at the same time. It was getting colder, and the moonlight shone into the cave. Shira turned and looked over at Diego, who was sleeping at the other corner of the cave. The moonlight turned Diego's golden-orange pelt to blazing gold, and Shira couldn't help thinking he looked just like a handsome, strong leader.
Diego, on the other hand, thought Shira must be asleep by the sound of her breathing, and turns to look, then saw her gazing a him. Shira quickly looked away in embarrassment, and Diego blushed, but found himself unable to look away. Shira's black striped silver-and-white pelt was glowing silver in the moonlight, and made her even prettier.
He finally turned away, and tried to sleep. He was looking forward to tomorrow, another day on the island with Shira and his herd. But he couldn't sleep. Same for Shira. She just couldn't close her eyes and sleep for some unknown reason. Suddenly she shivered at the cold night wind. She curled up tighter, when instantly she felt a lot warmer.
Diego was pressed beside her, keeping her warm. Shira was pleased but very surprised. She backed away in surprise, but her eyes widened in dismay as Diego's eyes darkened and he began to walk back to his original spot, his tail drooping. He must've thought she didn't want him there, which was exactly the opposite. Shira was just shocked. She did want Diego beside her, it kept her warm and made her feel protected.
She took a deep breath and walked towards Diego. She wanted to apologized, and ask him to stay with her, but couldn't think of the right words. So instead she just took all her courage and laid beside Diego.
Shira could tell he was surprised, but didn't go away like she did. Instead, he pulled his arm over her side and pulled her closer. Shira felt very comfortable and she just cuddled up against Diego and began to drift into sleep.