I'd like to give a BIG thanks to Shady-777 who fixed my stories up! She really went all out and I greatly appreciate it!
~*
The fireflies danced around the orange cub with such elegance it gave Simba a sense of peace despite today's earlier troubles. The tiny bugs flew to and fro gracefully, trying to avoid tiny grasping paws.
Shaking himself from his daze, he cleared his throat, causing his young daughter to cease her earnest attempts at capturing the 'star bugs' as she called them. Flashing her father a smile that many said was an exact replica of his own cheeky grin, the tiny cub snuggled against her father and purred. Earlier that day she had been furious at him for interrupting her play date with her new friend Kovu; now it seemed as if the memory was the farthest thing from the cub's mind.
"I didn't catch one." she said bashfully. Though she liked to play super-huntress by herself, she rarely lived up to the given title when she had a chance. "I think I caught a grasshopper once, but he slipped through my paws." She bit her lip in frustration as she flexed her claws, causing Simba to stifle a laugh.
Eying her father playfully, she prodded him with one paw. "What's so funny." She bared her tiny teeth and growled. "Let's fight!" she cheered as she bounced from place to place, ready for any swing he might take at her.
In a display of his royal status, Simba held his head high. With red eyes closed and nose to the sky, he said properly, "Kings such as myself do not degrade themselves with play fighting." He opened one eye slightly to watch Kiara frown and stop her playful bouncing. "Lucky for you..." he added "I'm just your dad." Sending a well-aimed paw to his unsuspecting daughter, the little lioness rolled backwards.
Immediately Simba sprung to his feet. Even when he tried to be gentle he ended up not measuring his strength properly. To him Kiara was a delicate little flower that could easily be injured from his waggish play.
"Kiara...are you okay?" He touched the cub with the tip of his tail, not trusting his massive paws to touch the tiny creature that laid sprawled out on her stomach with her tail strewn on her head.
Nothing.
"Kiara?" Panic started to set in to the big lion's voice as he nudged her with his nose. Barely a moment away from having a complete meltdown, he saw his daughter's body begin to shake violently.
Peering up at her father with glowing red eyes, she didn't bother to hide her amusement as she laughed heartily. "You're a scaredy cat daddy."
Shaking his head in relief for a moment, the King of the Pride Lands joined his daughter in laughter.
Then he saw it. With his comical daughter laying the way she was with her tail on her back and her tail-tip resting on her orange head she appeared to have a tuff of mane hair.
Simba sucked in his breath as he stared at the ghost of the past with wide eyes. His boy. "Kopa."
"Huh?" the tiny lioness queried, bringing Simba to painful reality as she sat on her haunches and the allusion disappeared. "Whose Toka?" She stared at her father curiously.
He didn't bother to correct her mispronunciation of her own brother's name. He'd tell her one day about him...but not tonight.
"I'll tell you some other time." The big cat commented somberly, something his daughter picked up on immediately. Before she was able to pester him about it Simba decided it was time to tell her the story his father had told him. The reason they were out here this late in the night. Walking over to a small hill the golden lion rested on his stomach in the cool night grass. "Over here Kiara."
Hesitantly, the Princess followed her suddenly serious father, before completely blowing suspicion to the wind and galloping towards her him with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
She always did make him smile.
Leaping onto her father's back, she began to gnaw on his ear playfully. "Kiara..." He shook his head slightly, silently, successfully telling his daughter to stop. "Look up at the stars..."
Kiara did as she was told and for the first time really admired the bejeweled sky. The real stars were much better than the star bugs, she thought to herself.
As she awed, Simba felt himself fall into a sense of déjà vu . How long had it been since he and his father had done this? How long had it been since Zira robbed him of the chance of sharing this with his own son.
Pushing the morbid thought from mind, he continued in a proud, voice trying to channel his father's wisdom, " Those are the Great Kings of the Past. They watch over us from the heavens."
Starring into his mane, she asked "Is grandfather there?"
"Yes." Simba answered confidently.
"His father?"
"Yes."
"His father's father's father?"
"Yes."
"His fath-"
"Yes Kiara." he interrupted, knowing his daughter too well. She could go on and on until sunrise. "All the Kings of the Past are up there."
"Oh." she chirped contently before asking, "What about the queens?"
"What?" His daughter's question had caught him off guard.
Leaping down from her perch onto her father's back, she walked in front of him and asked with a puzzled expression "What about the queens? Grandma Sarabi, is she up there?"
Simba didn't know exactly what to say. No one had ever told him if the queens retired to the stars, nor had he ever truly thought about it. He was unsure of what he should say to his little princess.
"Well...um...I think-"
"What about the others?" she continued. "What about the other lions who never got to rule. They are good too, like Tojo. He's always nice to me and likes to take care of birds, but he's never gonna be King, does that mean he just dies and doesn't join the Star Pride? What about Grandma Sarafina? When she dies will she go there?"
The questions swarmed around Simba, questions he himself had selfishly never thought of until this very moment, and of which he hadn't the slightest clue.
Rarely did he lie to his daughter, and tonight wouldn't be one of those rare occasions. "I don't know, I really don't." What had started out as a bonding session passed down from leader to leader suddenly turned into a whirlwind of consuming questions for the young King.
Accepting the fact that her father didn't have the answers to everything, Kiara had a rare moment of maturity as she placed her paw on her father's large one. "Wanna know what I think?"
He nodded. "I think it doesn't matter if you get to be King or Queen or whatever. I think as long as you are good, you go there. I mean..." She gazed up at the stars with innocent eyes. "Those are a lot of stars...they can't all be kings, can they?"
Simba pondered this and wondered if his daughter was right. If so, then surely everyone who ever left him would be up there waiting for him, not just his father. Not to mention his son's spot would be secured. Killed as a prince but not as a king, Simba often wondered — was his small son among those above him in the night sky? Maybe his bighearted daughter was right. The thought made him smile softly at his child, who every now and then seemed like a little wise Mufasa.
Bringing her father out his own thoughts she commented lowly, "Maybe when I go up there I can play with Kovu then? It won't matter if he's an Outlander..." She tore her gaze away from the stars and looked at Simba with pleading, but hopeful, eyes.
"Maybe Kiara, maybe." With that the massive cat rose to his paws. "Let's go home before your mother starts to worry." The Princess smiled lightly before following in her father's large pawsteps. As the two cats made their way home, Simba said "When we join the Star Pride, hopefully many, many moons from now, I can introduce you to a cub named Kopa. You'd like him. He's a lot like you."