Shenzi groaned, feeling another kick from within her womb. The cub had been pretty active for most of the day again. Maybe it knew its time spent inside Mom was nearing its end.
"You need to calm down in there." She spoke softly to her unborn baby, placing a paw against her swollen abdomen.
"Where are your Daddies with our lunch?" She grumbled then, turning her head back to the mouth of the cave to watch for her mates returning from their hunt.
They were late, as usual.
"I hope you ain't inherited their poor sense a' timin', honey." She said to the pup who answered with another kick. Shenzi grunted in discomfort, but forgot her pain quickly when she spotted the boys approaching with some sort of carcass.
"Finally." She grumbled, standing slowly from where she'd been lying in the cool dirt. "What took you fools so long?"
Banzai and Ed dropped their bounty, a young wildebeest, at Shenzi's feet then stepped back to allow her the first go at the meal. Females always ate first. Those were the rules among the clan.
"Sorry..." Banzai apologized. "Somebody let our first catch get away and we had to track down another one." He shot a glare at Ed, who submissively bowed to him.
"Eddie you know you don't gotta take that from him." Shenzi smirked at her mate, who giggled nervously in reply, nuzzling the underside of Banzai's jaw.
"He knows who's boss between us." Banzai grinned proudly. As if.
"Yeah right. More like he knows to stay on your good side so you'll let him mate you later. I ain't stupid."
Ed giggled and nodded to confirm it. He wasn't the least bit ashamed.
"Whatever..." Banzai growled, stepping up to tear off a chunk of wildebeest meat for himself. "How's the little guy?" He asked Shenzi after swallowing.
Ed came to stand next to Shenzi and nuzzled her belly affectionately. She smiled at him.
"She's sitting pretty low today. I guess that means we're getting close." She replied to Banzai, giving Eddie a lick on the cheek as he continued to nuzzle her.
"Jeez I still can't believe we're gonna be parents." He gulped slightly. "I mean it's exciting and all but..."
"Terrifying?" Shenzi finished for him. "I know. At least you don't have to push it out of you."
Banzai didn't have a good comeback for that one. He WAS lucky that he wasn't the one that had to give birth to their cub. Females got a lot of breaks in hyena society but childbirth definitely wasn't one of them. Just thinking about having to force a two pound cub through such a narrow and delicate organ made Banzai cringe.
Ed frowned, saying something to Shenzi to comfort her.
"Thanks, honey." She grinned at him. "I'll be fine, though. I hope, anyway."
"I hope I'm not interrupting." An much older feminine voice came from the den entrance.
It was Shenzi's grandmother, Uganda.
"No, Nana." Shenzi assured her. "We were just talking."
The old hyena approached her granddaughter, bypassing Banzai and Ed without so much as a glance.
"Your males are not bowing." She frowned.
Banzai almost growled but was stopped by Ed giving him a warning nudge to the shoulder. They didn't dare speak up to a female, especially not an elder.
Shenzi rolled her eyes and looked to her mates expectantly.
Eddie whimpered and quickly assumed the submissive position, his ears drooping as he sank below Uganda and presented her with his vulnerable neck.
Satisfied with his display, Uganda turned her attention to Banzai.
The slightly smaller male made no move to submit.
"You have a nasty little habit of acting out." Uganda growled.
"Banzai..." Shenzi pleaded.
"Let's go, bad boy." Uganda antagonized him. "It can be the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours."
Banzai held his ground for a moment longer but Ed's pleading eyes and Shenzi's obvious frustration broke him. Now wasn't the time for an injury. Shenzi was going to need him well and able when the cub arrived.
Reluctantly he sunk down, lowering his ears and turning his neck up in submission to Uganda.
She gave him a nip to the back as punishment.
"Pitiful. You think you're somethin' huh tough guy?" Uganda cackled before stepping towards Shenzi. "Leave us, males. I need to speak with my granddaughter."
Properly humiliated, the two males slunk out of their den to nurse their wounded pride.
"You've made certain that he IS a male, right honey? Maybe he's just confused." Uganda remarked after the boys had gone. She had always detested Banzai. He was rebellious and that wasn't something that was favored in a male hyena. Shenzi's mother had thought the same.
"Knock it off, Nana." Shenzi muttered, clearly upset. "Do you really want me to get all worked up now?"
Uganda sighed and laid next to her granddaughter in the cool dirt. "Oh I'm sorry sweet pea." She apologized affectionately, giving her a lick across the forehead.
Uganda was no longer the matriarch but she still acted like it sometimes. That burden was Shenzi's to bear now, since her mother, Hatari, had passed away last year.
"So did you come over just to belittle my boys or did you have something to tell me?" Shenzi asked.
"I just wanted to check on you. You are due any day now aren't you?" Uganda replied with a tired yawn.
"Don't remind me..." Shenzi muttered, resting her head down against her paws.
"Why? I thought you were excited." Uganda frowned.
"It ain't that." Shenzi huffed.
Uganda nodded. Shenzi was worried about the delivery. She understood that perfectly well. Her own first cub had been lost during the birthing process and it happened to many first time mothers. Sometimes they didn't make it out of the ordeal either.
"You'll do fine." Uganda assured her.
"Don't lie just to make me feel better, Nana." Shenzi whined. "You lost your first cub."
"Yes, I did." Uganda confirmed. "But your mother had twins her first time and both of them lived. She came out of it just fine too."
"I ain't Mama." Shenzi argued.
"Close enough. You're just as tough as she was if not stronger." Uganda argued back. "Now quit frettin' over it. You'll get yourself all worked up."
Shenzi blew her bangs out of her face and closed her eyes to try and relax.
After Uganda left for her own den Ed and Banzai came back inside, the latter still grumbling about how he hated being pushed around by the females.
Shenzi decided to just ignore him. When he got into one of his whining spells he was too much of a pain to deal with. She didn't need the extra stress right now. Ed could handle it this time.
She opted for closing her eyes for a quick nap instead.
When she opened her eyes up again, Ed was standing over her.
"Hi there, hun. Where's the grouch at? You put him down for a nap?" She yawned as she stood up.
Ed giggled and hurried toward the back of the den, urging Shenzi to follow.
"Eddie, I'm not in the mood for fooling around right now." She told him, following him to the back of their den anyway.
Banzai was working on pulling the last stray root from the dirt wall. "You missed a rock over there." He told Ed, who picked the relatively small rock up in his mouth and went to set it outside.
"What are you two doing back here?" Shenzi asked.
"Baby proofing." Banzai told her, still pulling at the root lodged in the wall.
Ed came back in and started tidying up the entrances to the little tunnels they'd dug out for the cub.
Shenzi sighed deeply. She'd been so caught up with her anxieties that she'd forgotten all about cleaning the nursery up.
"I forgot." She growled to herself.
"Don't beat yourself up about it. You're a busy woman. We got th-WHOA!" He fell back hard when the root snapped and knocked Ed over in the process.
Shenzi couldn't hold in the laugh that escaped her.
"Idiot. Why didn't you just dig the root out?" She cackled. "Less of a risk."
"I ain't no damn meerkat." Banzai muttered, getting up and dusting himself off. Ed jumped up too and shook the dirt from his coat.
Shenzi smiled at her boys and licked both of their faces lovingly. At least for a few minutes they managed to take her mind off of everything.
...
Labor set in later that night.
Shenzi was woken from a peaceful slumber by a very intense contraction.
"Oh! Ow!" She gasped, sitting up immediately and accidentally kicking Banzai in the gut.
"Ouch! Jeez, woman! What the hell?" He growled, holding his belly in pain.
Ed yawned and lifted his head.
"Go get my Nana." She told her mates.
"What? Why? It's the middle of the night." Banzai groaned.
"The cub is coming! GO!" She growled at him.
"WHAT!?" Banzai forgot about his sore abdomen and shot up from where he'd been laying between Ed and Shenzi. "Ed come on!" He rushed out of the den, not bothering to wait for the other male, who desperately tried to keep up.
They brought Uganda back, along with the clan healer, Nuru, who both went into the den with Shenzi.
"You two wait out here." Uganda told Banzai and Ed.
Banzai wasn't in the right mindset to argue at that moment so for once both males obeyed without resistance.
Hearts pounding and minds racing, the two paced around outside the mouth of their den.
A large crowd of other clan members had gathered after a few hours, having caught wind that the matriarch was in labor. They waited alongside Shenzi's mates, impatiently awaiting any news.
Ed whined as he paced.
"Shut up. She's fine." Banzai growled, trying to calm himself as well.
It was another two or three hours at least. The sun was starting to come up by the time Uganda emerged from the den, smiling brightly.
"You two can come in now." She told Banzai and Ed.
The two males immediately followed her into the very back of their den, stopping in pure awe when they saw Shenzi licking off a tiny little black cub.
"It's a girl." Nuru told the boys, who slowly inched closer to see.
Shenzi nuzzled her newborn as she began to nurse before looking up to her mates.
"Aww look who's crying." She grinned.
Ed made a face and turned to look at Banzai.
"I'm not crying." The other male denied, though the teardrops welling up in his eyes suggested otherwise.
Shenzi rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say. Now both of you come say hi to our little girl." She told them.
Banzai and Ed both inched closer, lowering their heads to inspect the little cub.
Ed licked her gently, and Banzai nuzzled her fur.
"She looks just like you, Shenz." Banzai sniffled, trying to desperately hide his tears.
Ed mumbled something, asking about a name.
"What did we agree on for a girl?" Shenzi asked, looking to Banzai.
"Asha." He reminded her, losing the war against the growing dam of tears when the cub turned her little head and licked his nose.
Uganda rolled her eyes at Banzai then leaned down to nuzzle her granddaughter. "Your mother would be so proud." She told her, an ache in her heart causing a slight choke in her voice.
Shenzi smiled, shutting her eyes to rest. Before she drifted off for some much needed sleep she felt her boys both nuzzling and licking her face.
"Love you too." She muttered tiredly before dozing off.