Chapter I

"Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars."

"Really?"

"Yes. So whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you... and so will I."

These words from the very last time he ever spoke with his father were the only thought that echoed through Simba's mind as he just sat there in silence, looking out to the sunset at the heart of the magenta colored horizon. In his time since being rescued from the desolation of the hot African wilderness by Timon and Pumbaa, the lion had grown significantly from the young cub he once was. He was well into his teenaged years now, his claws were developing, he was getting bigger, and his vibrant red mane was beginning to grow in around his head and neck too.

But in spite of this, Simba could feel no pride or satisfaction from the sensation of nearing his young adult years if no one from his blood-family could be there to see it. Even though Timon and Pumbaa had been like brothers to him, he had never forgotten the memory of his father; the very one who had died so he could live. The guilt of such a thing had stayed with him all his life, constantly wearing him emotionally down as he thought of every word Mufasa had ever said to him. And although Simba had never said a thing about his father or what happened to him to Timon and Pumbaa, his personal anguish was not escaping their attention right then.

As he sat there in the grass expressionless, watching the sun set behind the mountaintops in absolute silence to the point where even his breathing was almost inaudible, Timon and Pumbaa both emerged from the thick bushes and trees that surrounded Simba on all sides except where he stared. Pumbaa still had a mouth filled with slimy insects while Timon had just finished up on some crunchy ones. He took a loud gulp of them before he looked at Simba for a moment, watching his shadow grow upon the ground from the setting sun. Eventually he spoke, breaking the delicate silence Simba was amongst.

"Uh... Simba? Aren't you gonna eat with us?" He asked. "We're having love grubs, I thought you couldn't resist those."

Simba was motionless for a moment before he turned around to face his friend, and the expression on his face said it all. The lion looked absolutely depressed right to the heart of his soul, and while Timon and Pumbaa had both seen him upset before, never had they seen him look as bad as he was right then.

"Just not hungry right now." Simba softly replied with an unsure tone clear in his voice.

Pumbaa finished gulping down his slimy insects before he too broke the silence of dusk, seeing how bad Simba looked.

"Is there something you want to talk about, buddy?" He asked with a clear tone of concern within his voice. "You don't look so good."

"Yeah, you look like someone just died around here." Timon added. As soon as he did, though, Simba's eyes widened for a moment before he turned back around to face the sunset again. He sighed heavily, which made Timon give Pumbaa an odd look and a raised eyebrow.

"Did we do something wrong, Simba?" Timon asked him now. "Was it something we did? Something we said, maybe?"

"No." Simba abruptly answered, which caught them off guard. "It wasn't anything you guys did. I just wish I could say the same for myself."

That last part he mumbled to himself just low enough so that neither the warthog nor the meerkat could hear. With concern clear in their looks, Timon and Pumbaa both walked over to Simba and sat down on either side of him.

"Simba, what's been going on? You've never been like this before." Timon asked.

"You've been pretty upset like this for the last few days, actually." Pumbaa added. "You've barely been eating, you've been sleeping in later than we do-"

"Which is one heck of an accomplishment if I do say so myself." Timon unwisely interrupted. "Come on Simba, don't you remember Hakuna Matata? Whatever's gettin' at you, just don't worry about it."

The lion softly mumbled to him, "I don't think Hakuna Matata's going to work this time, guys. I'd probably tell you why, but you'd never want to listen anyway... Timon."

He put a bit of an emphasis on Timon's name. Pumbaa gave the meerkat a glare, which prompted him to rub the back of his head with his hand as he cleared his throat.

"All right then... if there's... anything you want to talk about, I guess we'll at least listen to you then, buddy."

Simba glanced down to the meerkat before he muttered in a depressed tone, "Yeah? Whatever happened to 'good, we don't want to hear about it', Timon?"

The meerkat opened his mouth to say something in some sort of defense, but ultimately came up with nothing to answer. Instantly, regret began to overcome him from ever having said that to Simba.

With another hefty sigh, Simba stood up and began to walk forth away from that spot in the jungle, pain filling his heart.

"Hey, where are you going?" Pumbaa asked him. Simba simply stopped walking for a moment and looked back to him, replying, "I'll talk to you later. I've just got a lot on my mind right now."

And with that, he unexpectedly sprang forth through the lush jungle ahead of him in the direction of the sunset. It was now almost fully behind the rim of the mountain range in the distance. Timon and Pumbaa just watched in despair and concern, seeing as though Simba had a lot on his mind, most likely having to do with something personal. They figured it best not to ask again. The meerkat turned to Pumbaa.

"Do ya think this is about that time we first tried to swing on those tree vines?"

Pumbaa replied, "I don't know, Timon. I think he would be more mad about that than sad. I mean you did force him into it."

Timon raised an eyebrow. Defensively he said, "Hey, it wasn't my fault! I didn't know those vines would break, and I sure didn't know that was poison ivy he would fall in to!"

Pumbaa just sighed and returned his attention to Simba off in the distance as he ran ever deeper into the jungle with his form being silhouetted against the horizon. He had never feared for his friend more than he did right then.

Running through the lush plant life and over the low lying jungle shrubs, Simba could feel hot tears beginning to break through his eyes and stream down his face. He forcefully shut his eyes and continued to run, not caring where he ended up since he had the place memorized anyway. With every step his paws took against the ground, memories of Mufasa's sincere kindness and wise guidance flooded into his mind in the same way tears flooded his eyes. His heart was filled with absolute sadness, his muscles felt weak, and his mind was in a state of total anguish. For although he didn't tell his friends, that particular day was the one year anniversary of his father's death, and he was chased away from his beloved home and forced to run towards the sunset, exactly as he was doing right then. Whether he was doing it out of commemoration or not, he himself would never know.

Soon, Simba approached a small cliffside that abruptly cut into the ground and dropped by about three feet. Here he finally stopped running as his paws now stood at the very edge of it. Beyond that spot, the mountains almost appeared to be slightly larger than he was used to seeing them, and by then the sunset was little more than a dim red glow that bordered the rims of the distant mountain ridge. Now breaking down in depressed sobs to himself, Simba laid down on his stomach letting his front paws dangle over the edge of the small cliffside, and he stared unblinkingly at the clearing where he could clearly see what was left of the sunrise. And he stayed like that for what felt like hours; days, even. He made absolutely no attempt to hold back his cries of sadness and simply let all of his emotions loose like he hadn't done since the very day of his father's death one year before. The teenaged lion buried his head in his arms so his face couldn't be seen.

"Father..." He started to himself. "It's my fault. I'm the reason the sun had to set on your time so early. I... it should've been me."

He shut his eyes as tight as he could while he repeated this several times to himself. "It should've been me! I'm the one who should be dead right now, not you! Why? Why wasn't it me?!"

Unbeknownst to Simba at that time, he was most certainly not the only lion in all of Africa to be feeling such anguish. At his original home of the Pride Lands, the inhabitants there too remembered the one year anniversary of Mufasa's death. Only with them, they believed it to be the anniversary of Simba's as well. At sunset, a very sad ceremony of mourning had been held by all of the lionesses of Mufasa's pride at the gorge where it happened, and none of them were so deeply scarred or miserable as Sarabi was. She had cried the hardest of them all since Mufasa had shown her nothing but kindness and warmth all her life while he was alive, and to lose such a king and mate as him was enough to plunge her into the deepest despair she'd ever experienced.

After the sun had set completely, the lionesses of the pride had returned to Pride Rock for another night of fearful and anxious sleep thanks to their tyrannical king, Scar, the very one who had secretly caused Mufasa's death in the first place. For the others, it was a loss. For him, it was a celebration.

The lionesses all treaded up the slope leading to the den, each of them tired and woeful. Several of them had crowded around Sarabi since she needed the most comfort, having lost both her mate and her son on the same day a year before. But as Sarabi staggered up to the den with tears still streaming down her face, Nala stayed especially close to her as she walked to her left. Like with Simba, Nala too had grown into her teenaged years and was more than half the size of the other lionesses now, and in addition, her teeth and claws were strengthening too. But still, Nala was not quite yet an adult lioness, not even old enough to partake in her first hunt just yet. She sighed sadly.

As much as Nala mourned the death of Mufasa for the good king he was, there was someone else whom she missed even more- Simba. Almost every day, she thought of him and how many memories she had with him before the stampede happened. Even though she never got to tell him this, Nala had recently faced the fact that she was in love with Simba while he was alive, and now it seemed as though she would never have the chance to ever tell him how she felt.

When the other lionesses reached the top of the slope and tiredly walked into the den for another night, Nala just stared at her pride for a moment before she sighed, turned around, and walked the other way up to the ledge of Pride Rock, the very same spot where Simba was presented on the day of his birth. Walking up to the edge, she stood there for a moment and looked intently up to the stars like she had done almost every night since the stampede. Nala's mother, Sarafina, soon noticed that her daughter had not yet come into the den while she was inside after a while. Raising an eyebrow, she immediately looked outside and saw Nala sitting down on the edge of Pride Rock with the end of her tail dangling over the stony rim. She saw her head bow in sadness. With a clearly concerned look on her face, Sarafina walked back out of the den and too a few steps forth outside.

"Nala?" She called out to her. The teenaged lioness was silent and motionless as she sat there, clearly upset over something. Sarafina then sighed as she walked up to her across Pride Rock's ledge, where she stopped right behind where her daughter sat. She stood there for a moment before Nala took a deep breath.

"I know you're there, mom." Nala said in an evidently depressed way.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" She asked her. "Is something the matter?"

"Why mom... why did they both have to die? Why did Simba have to die?" Was the only thing she managed to come up with upon hearing her mother's concerned words. Sarafina then asked,

"You still miss Simba... you're still in love with him, aren't you?"

Nala replied, "I never even got to let him know that. It's... it's just not fair."

"I know. I miss him too, Nala." Sarafina said as she walked up next to her daughter and sat down to her left, where they both silently looked out to what remained of their vast kingdom. Since Scar took over, it had been just as desolate as the desert of the Outlands, if not even worse. Hyenas scattered the place as they slept all around the dry plains, arid riverbeds and next to dead savannah trees. It was a truly miserable sight to see.

"So then... Mheetu's already asleep." Sarafina started in an attempt to change the subject so Nala wouldn't have to think about Simba right then. Nala perked up at the mention of her younger half-brother.

"He is?" She asked, giving her mother a confused look. "That's weird. Doesn't he usually stay awake later than this?"

"I think it's because he hasn't been getting enough to eat lately." Sarafina answered worriedly. "He's been so tired over the last few days, he has trouble even walking because of how little he's eaten."

"No one's been getting enough to eat lately." Nala replied. "The hyenas just take everything you and the others catch for themselves, and now the herds are even starting to move on."

"I know." Sarafina said reluctantly. "I'm getting worried for Mheetu as well as everyone else here, Nala. He's only a cub, he needs to eat more than we do. I'm afraid of what'll happen if he doesn't get what he needs soon. Nala... he could starve."

Nala nodded sadly. "Mom... I already lost my best friend, I don't want to lose my brother too."

"Neither do I, Nala." Sarafina replied, placing a paw on her teenage daughter's back for comfort. "It's a miracle that Scar even let him live."

Following this, a moment of silence came to pass between the two lionesses as they sat there, looking out to the Pride Lands as night cast its darkness upon them for another night. Unlike how it once was one year before, no insects were there to make the gentle chirping sounds they were so used to falling asleep to, and any rivers that remained were too small to make the sound of flowing river that had always soothed them at night. It was just absolutely miserable silence now.

Nala looked up to the sky. "Hey mom, you want to know something Simba once told me?"

Sarafina looked down to her daughter. "What?"

"Right before he died, he told me that the great kings of the past look down on us from the stars."

"Really?" Her mother asked with a bit of an astonished tone in her voice. Nala nodded. "He said that if I ever feel alone, to just look up to the stars for guidance."

Sarafina then asked Nala, "Are you thinking Simba might be up there?"

Nala bowed her head in sadness. "He was never king, but... he deserves to be up there with Mufasa. Simba would've ruled this place a hundred times better than Scar. Mheetu wouldn't be starving, hyenas wouldn't be all over the place, the Pride Lands wouldn't be in ruins, and..."

She hesitated before she finally managed to finish. "And I'd have a king who could call me his queen."

Her voice nearly broke down when she said this as it was clear she was near tears, and she shut her eyes tightly so that she wouldn't start sobbing right there in front of her mother. She tried to appear strong, but her emotions of Simba's absence were getting the best of her. And seeing Nala in such pain as this was just as excruciating for her mother to have to see as well. So Sarafina leaned in to her and put both of her paws on her back and brought her in closer to her, where she embraced Nala comfortingly as she warmly hugged her. Nala rested her head on Sarafina's shoulder as this happened, and they stayed like that for some time. Nala felt tears run down her face, and her mother gently wiped them away for her as best as she could with her paw. Right then, both of them needed comfort.

Sarafina was about to say something to further ease her daughter's depression, but suddenly their soft moment together was interrupted when they heard a voice call for them from the entrance to the den of Pride Rock right then.

"Hey! What's the big idea, you two were supposed to end this stupid sob-fest an hour ago!"

Both of the lionesses abruptly looked behind them, separating their hug to find Shenzi, the leader of the hyena's main scouting pack, standing there with an impatient look on her face. "You guys better get back in here before Scar gets furious... again!"

She put an unusual emphasis on 'again', forcing the two lionesses to recall all of the times Scar threatened to kill them over the pettiest of things like this. Sarafina sighed and faced her daughter in the eye.

"It'll be all right, Nala." She said as best as she could. "We'll get through this. You'll see."

As Sarafina began to walk back to the den, Nala stayed behind for a moment more as she mumbled, "Simba would want us to."

As the lost prince thought to himself about the life he once had and all of those whom he had loved, his mindset slowly began to drift away from his father and move more towards some of the other loved ones he still held so dear to his heart. His sobs of sorrow only intensified as he laid there on the ground with his arms still covering his face.

"I miss you all." Simba said between whimpers. "I miss you father, I miss mom, and I miss... Nala..."

Almost immediately upon thinking of his childhood friend for the first time in what felt like a thousand years to him, Simba felt within him at least some of his immense sadness begin to recede in the same way that a land covered in destructive flood waters eventually subside. Simba moved his arms away from his head and gently perked up.

"Nala..." He said with intent on his own word, this time with his sobs beginning to suddenly cease. He rubbed his eyes with his paw to try and wipe away the tears from his now bloodshot eyes. All at once, a tremendous deluge of memories struck his mind once more, only this time they were not of his father; But of his childhood best friend.

He vividly remembered her playful attitude, her friendly and adventurous psyche, her heartwarming smile, her beautiful blue eyes that shared the color of the most clear and vibrant of the world's oceans, and finally how she would always stick with him as his best friend no matter what kinds of trouble he'd get her in. He wondered how much pain he was indirectly putting her through right at that very moment because of his absence.

At that same instant as Nala stood on the edge of Pride Rock, preparing to go back into the den with the others to avoid another outburst from Shenzi or Scar, she too remembered her childhood friend. Nala vividly recalled Simba's daring tone and how he loved to break the rules for fun (so long as it didn't go too far), his loving smile, his red eyes that were the color of the sky at dawn, and most of all, she remembered how Simba always cared for her and would never abandon her when she got into trouble. He always stuck up for her whenever she needed it. Nala sighed.

At that same time, Simba finally stood up from his spot in the heart of the jungle, where he moved his paws away from the small cliff's edge and stared up to the stars. Nala did the very same at Pride Rock, taking one last look at the cloudless and clear night sky before going to sleep amongst her pride. And likewise, Simba was just about to leave from his spot and return to the grassy bed at the base of the tree where he, Timon and Pumbaa normally slept. And as they at the same time looked at the very same star amongst the millions there, the brightest one in all of the sky in fact, they both said it precisely at the same moment:

"I miss you."

Author's Note: I would like to thank the author wolfartist117 for allowing me to have the rights to this story of theirs and to write this new, redone version for them. I hope they enjoy the things I've added to their original story, it is a privilege to be able to take such a great idea to its full potential. In addition, I would like to thank the author Autobot0001 for their support and ideas for how this can go, he's been incredibly helpful in the making of this. Finally, I would like to thank and give credit to the DeviantArt user Katanary for giving me permission to use their artwork titiled "I Miss You" as the cover to this story.

Also, just for the disclaimer, I do not own The Lion King or any of its characters. They belong to Walt Disney Studios, and I claim no ownership of anything. This is strictly for fun.

And before anyone asks, yes, I believe Nala's eyes were blue and not green. So sue me.