I'll try to simultaneously work on this story and The Story of Eiena(If anyone is even interested in that :P)

Why do my stories always start with a flashback? Somebody help me, I'm not right.


"So what are we getting this deal done or what?"

Simba's frown hardened, "Can you hold on? We don't know for sure if this is even the right choice to take, we are barely familiar with you. The only reason we're even discussing letting your pride stay here for a few weeks is because you've worked with my father in the past, so try to keep yourself levelheaded."

It was the middle of the night. The moon settled high over Simba, Nala, and the male lion with a scowl hung on his face. Negotiations on whether or not the unrecognizable lion and his pride could stay here were taking forever. It was infuriating how long this had extended, standing here talking about how the lion's pride would need to contribute to helping out with hunting as the elder lionesses in Simba's pride were exhausting. It was a deal that could help both of them, but he acting stubborn as ever, throwing in special requests.

"Listen, my lionesses need the rest and your father, before he passed away, promised me that he would return the favor by helping him. He can't do that now, because, he's-"

"Don't." Simba growled, however, the anger in his tone quickly evaporated, "Just... don't." he took a sigh, "you don't have to remind me. I know he's gone. However, I'm not my father. I'm my own king and this deal is now over and to never be spoken about again." He prepared to turn around and walk away, but he glanced down at the paw the grasp his arm, glaring up at the lion.

"You're making a huge mistake, King Simba."

He yanked his arm away from him, somehow retaining his urge to attack him. "Get. Out."

"You'll regret this." he hissed.

He prepared to spit out a bitter retort, but Nala beat him to it, "we don't want any trouble with you. Maybe consider thinking before you speak?"

He froze, and for a moment Simba thought he would attack in which he was prepared for, scanning his posture for any sort of threat. Though as seconds went on, the lion remained where he stood, his eyes peering into Simba's.

"Now are we done here?" Nala asked again,

"Some kingdom you run, won't even let my pride recover for only a little while."

Simba scowled at him, "Your attitude is the main reason we aren't letting you stay here in the first place, this is on you."

"Oh how I absolutely adore your generosity," he remarked with an utter sarcastic distaste implied in his tone, "I can't help that I'm acting like this, my pride were just beaten to a bloody pulp, ran off our own space, and now we have nowhere to survive. We were hoping that you would let us stay."

"I..." Simba remained speechless. The guilt lingering in his mind hammered down the words that he thought were right to say. Simba looked down at his paws, thinking over the results of letting another pride stay. Like he said in his mind earlier, it was a win-win for both of them. More lionesses would possibly increase the chances of Simba's pride having more food stored, but what about the risks? This would expand the number of individuals in the pride significantly, not only that but Simba had no clue how his pride would cope with these new, outsider, lionesses.

"I'll think about it." he knew the lie felt wrong when it came out of his mouth, he had already thought about it, and he didn't want to face those dangers.

"You'll think about it?" he scoffed, "You honestly expect me to believe that you'll think about it? You already have thought about it, but I understand. You're just too much of a coward."

"If I ever find you here again, the consequences you will face will be tremendous. The fact that you've disrespected me shows that you aren't fit to join our pride anyway."

"You're threatening me now?"

"Yeah." He took a step forward, leveling his gaze with the lion, "I am."

"I hadn't known Mufasa that much in the past but I did know, however, that he was a good king, so headstrong and brave, but you, however, you're the opposite." he turned and over his shoulder, he said, "I hope one day you get to see the truth, instead of being blinded by your own morals."

Was he really going to let him get away with that? Why had he not just attacked him instead of trying to scare him off with words and he couldn't help but feel some pain in the insult he received from the lion. Comparing the way he ran things around here to his father's longtime ruling this pride, he felt worthless and guilty. He needed to do better, the lionesses deserved peace.

"Simba?" Nala's voice pierced into his thoughts, looking beside him to meet her gaze, "Don't let him get to you alright? You made the right choice." she assured, but the comment failed to make him feel any better, and he made to move back to Priderock. "Simba," she called to him softly, and he knew she wanted him to stay, the tone she implemented in her words told him that, and for years, ever since he was a cub, he knew that Nala would try to make him feel better, no matter how long it took, and often it worked, but her words gave him no feeling at all. No matter the circumstances though, Simba would never let Nala hear him say that. His jaws clenched and his tail moved right and left fastly.

"You don't need to feel bad about anything Simba, the lionesses are doing fine under your leadership."

"But is it good enough?"

The question brought silence among them. As time went on, Simba figured that Nala wouldn't or couldn't provide an answer, and walked off by himself. Any late comments Nala said to him behind his back, was deaf to him, drowning in his own thoughts, his mind scrambled into an oblivion. What made his father the perfect king? What did father have that he didn't?

His gaze aimed up at the enlarged pride rock, the natural smell of the wildlife bringing some satisfaction into his heart, feeling the grass softly rub against his wrists, his red mane wildly ruffling to the strong wind. Soon, he stepped on the slope of Priderock, his body reacting to the cold surface he moved on, looking up at the interior of his home that awaited him.

"Dad!" He heard a small, excited voice yell, and there when he looked down in front of him. There stood his cub, Kopa. The cub could instantly recognize with a single glance and a smile grew on his face.

"Kopa, you're awake?" He asked with his brows raised. It was not often that Kopa would awake to see his father, but Simba knew it would happen sooner or later.

The cub nodded, "Yeah, I wanted you to give me some hunting tips!"

"I... uh..." Simba glanced over his shoulder, looking to where he had been arguing with the rogue that shown him up. He was hesitant to say yes because of the uncertainty he had within him. The rogue may perhaps be waiting for him, but he couldn't allow fear to deny the opportunity to spend time with his son. He looked back down at the grinning cub, "yeah, c'mon." he gestured with a jerk of his down to go down the slope.

When he stepped on the grassy ground again with his son this time beside him, he caught notice of Nala's figure walking towards them, the sole glimpse at her eye color making it easier to identify her. His jaws clenched together, they made eye contact, but it quickly broke apart as Simba looked at down at his son who had been focused on his mother entirely.

"Mom! Dad says he's going to take me out to practice my hunting!" Kopa exclaimed.

They caught each other stares again, "Did he now?"

"I... I thought-"

"It's fine." she cut off. Nala closed her eyes, hearing withdraw a sigh, "Just go." she muttered and moved past them both. Simba heard the disappointment, the frustration in her tone, which ignited more hatred for himself, inside of him, his body cringing.

"What's wrong with mom?" Kopa asked, watching her move up on the slope.

"Let's go, Kopa," Simba told the cub with a single tuft of brown hair growing on his head, and quickly walked ahead of him.

Simba struggled to carry the weight of disappointment in himself for the acting the way he did, on his shoulders. He could've done more. He allowed the rogue to insult him on his own turf, and then having no consequence for it. Maybe the rogue was right, maybe Simba was a coward- or worse than that- a weakling. "

"Dad?"

"Hmm?"

"What does it feel like to be a king?"

Simba thought he himself would feel some humor from the comment, Kopa was much too young to know about the responsibilities of a king that he would soon follow, but to his displeasure, the words made him tense. His shoulders tightening. Much after, he replied with, "well for starters, I'd say that you have to have this natural ability to be headstrong about anything."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you have to trust yourself to get the job done when it comes. Just like your grandfather."

"Whatever happened to grandfather? I know that grandmother passed of old age, but you never said the same about grandfather. Did he die a different way?"

"He..." Simba looked up towards the light blue sky, clouds moving slow and steady. "He was consumed by my uncle's hatred for him. A victim of his own brother's selfish desires. Scar killed my father, but in the end, he never got what he wanted. Scar, too, died. That just shows how much you need to lessen the anger you shed on someone because you might end up doing something you might regret."

Simba for once heard no immediate reply from Kopa, and to his surprise, this continued on for a long amount of time.

"So... is it likely for me to end up like Scar? I... I don't want to be like him, but can it happen?"

He smiled down at Kopa, his eyes full of curiosity and innocence. "That Kopa, will one day be up to you to decide."


"Omph!" Kovu grunted.

Vitani pressed her weight down on Kovu by using her paws to push down his shoulders, his legs held up in the air. "I won again, but was that really a surprise?"

Kovu's forehead produced hard lines in between his brows as they furrowed, shooting a hard frown at his smirking sister, "I let you win that one." Vitani then moved her paws towards Kovu's neck, pressing down against his windpipe that made Kovu start to push his paws against Vitani's chest.

"What was that?"

"I meant I give up!" he managed to squeeze out under Vitani's weight, afterward, feeling the warm body of his sisters lift off of him and quickly allowing him to regain breath. He then looked up her, his eyes narrowed angrily, "Don't you think you took it a little bit too far?"

"Got to do what you gotta do to win in this world Kovu. That's what mother told me."

"Even if it means killing your own brother?"

"I wasn't actually going to do it, dummy."

Kovu moved up on his paws, sitting down on his tail that moved to hug around the lower fraction of his body, "What does mother say to you when she says let's talk somewhere private?" he asked.

Vitani shrugged, "Not much. Just stuff about supporting you in your journey to becoming a king and me carrying the chaotic nature of Scar, or something like that, I don't really remember. Why?"

Kovu rolled his eyes, "Chaotic is right, you almost killed me, but I was asking because... I've never really had the talk with her yet."

A smirk developed across her features, shaking her head pitifully, "Ooh you're in for a wild one."

"What do you mean?"

"Mother tends to get a little out of a control when she speaks because she think's she thinks she is speaking the truth like she can see the future or something." Vitani went on.

"Will she be like that with me?"

"Since she always talks about you Kovu, it's definitely likely, but don't worry, if things get too out of control, I'll come in and muster up some lie to distract her from you. She'll move on."

"You'd do that?"

One of the corners of her lips showed a smirk, "Of course. I can't have her hurting the only sibling I can tolerate."

Vitani's eyes switched over towards a figure walking towards a pair. Pawsteps audible in Kovu's ears in which he followed her gaze, and soon, the figure was easily able to be identified as their often insane mother Zira. The tall lioness stood, not unsettling her gaze off Kovu, "Vitani, leave us."

Vitani gave her mother a quick nod, then looked over at Kovu, whispering, "Good luck, I'll be watching from a distance to make sure nothing happens to you." she said and hurried off out into the outside.

Her eyes squinted at him like she was searching for something remained on his face he hadn't noticed. He tried to wipe away the nervousness that was beginning to grow in his body, but he failed as the glare of his mother was too great. "Uhm... yes... mother?"

"What does it mean to become a ruler, Kovu?" Zira paced back and forth in front of him. Not only did his mother accomplish inducing Kovu's fear with her questions, but the overall environment made him uneasy tenfold.

The cub struggled to generate a reply, "I... don't-"

"I... I don't know."

She froze, her head turning to grab ahold of the green eyes- that often made her reminisce about Scar- which was now obtained by the brown pelted cub. Kovu shrunk back as Zira walked menacingly towards him, her taller, more grown body easily keeping up with the cub's pace.

"But you must! What did I tell you about your destiny- what you must do in this world in order to survive?"

"I don't remember!" Panic swelled up in Kovu's eyes, blocked by the wall that hid behind him. He rotated his body so his chest faced the wall and desperately tried to climb it, pushing his legs up in the air and clawing at it to get a grip, but he failed on multiple occasions.

"Agh!" He cried as Zira purposely stepped on his tail.

Kovu looked behind him, meeting Zira's wild, blue eyes wide with anger, "Do you realize how much this pride is depending on you? Do you!?"

He jerked his head back into the wall, covering his ears with his brown coated paws. He cried out in agony, "No, no! I don't! I don't wanna become a king. I'm not as ruthless as you!"

"Oh, but you must be! In order to become the king Scar was-"

"I don't want to be like Scar! I don't want to hurt others!"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER, WHAT YOU WANT, FOOL!" Zira roared. Kovu helplessly shivered up against the wall and closed his eyes. Waiting for the deserved scolding to pass. "It's about what Scar wanted! It's about our revenge! Look at this place Kovu! We don't deserve to live in a place like this! It's- It's... abnormal!" She glared back down at the cub, her blue eyes narrowing, "That means you, Kovu, will have a choice to make; will you live your life fueled by the hatred that had once given Scar abilities far beyond anyone I've ever mentioned? Or will you become a weak-minded, sorry excuse for a lion?"

As her voice lowered, he gathered up the nerve to look at her again. Her eyes now softer than before, but the ferocity still there. "I don't know," Kovu said.

"Of course you don't know Kovu. You're much too young to even comprehend the question. In time, you'll understand and the decision may change the course your life will take forever."

"And what if I don't want to make those choices?"

"Then you will experience great losses, or maybe even worse..." Zira finally turned around, heading towards the exterior of the den, "Death."


The Blood That Poisons.