AN: This is a prompted story from Emolichic1. I am not leaving my other story, just gonna work on whatever comes to mind at the time so no idea currently on which will be updated more regularly. I am open to other prompts for shows/movies mentioned on my profile and others if I know of them. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Lion King.
Timon awoke to a faint roaring sound and lifted his head from Pumbaa's stomach. "Geez, buddy, what did you eat?" He asked. He heard the sound again and realized it wasn't Pumbaa after all, and if lions were regularly in the jungle he would think it was a lion. Maybe he was dreaming. He curled back up to sleep again and had almost back asleep when he heard the roar again, this time slightly louder.
"Pumbaa, wake up!" He said, as loudly as he dared with lions potentially roaming around.
"Huh? Wha?" Pumbaa rolled over, forcing Timon to scramble out of the way.
"Watch where you're going! And I thought I heard a lion roaring."
"It's probably just someone from Simba's pride, and they should know where to find us if they're looking for us."
"That's my point! They wouldn't come wandering through here roaring, and if they were hunting us then they're doing a horrible job of it." Timon exclaimed, pacing back and forth in front of Pumbaa.
"Alright, alright, if you wanted to go check why didn't you just say so?" Pumbaa sighed.
Timon climbed onto the warthog's back and directed him towards where he'd last heard the sound. Another roar sounded, this time weaker but clearly the roar of a lion in pain. Pumbaa sped up, moving more determinedly now that he'd heard the roar as well. The duo arrived in a small clearing to find a light tan lioness bleeding heavily with two cubs beside her.
"Please… Leave me, just save my cubs." She pleaded, stretching a paw towards the pair. "Please…" The lionesses's eyes glazed over and her paw fell, forming a small dust cloud around it.
The cubs has their noses pressed into the fur of her belly, searching for milk, blissfully unaware of their mothers death. One had the same coloring as his mother and a dark brown tuft of fur on his head and another at the end of his tail. The other had strikingly similar coloring to Kiara with light golden fur and a brown tail tuft a few shades lighter than her brothers. Timon and Pumbaa couldn't see their eyes since the cubs wouldn't open them for a few days yet.
"Well that was, uh, sudden." Timon said shakily, stunned by what they had just witnessed.
"We gotta help them Timon! We can't just leave them out here all alone, they'll die!" Pumbaa fretted, sitting down to think.
Timon jumped to the ground and started pacing. "What would we do with them? We certainly can't raise them, not our own at least."
"We raised Simba."
"Simba was different, he wasn't a newborn and didn't need to live off milk. Plus, he was older. They'd be so confused if they opened their eyes and saw us first."
"Well then what if take them to Simba?"
"That's a crazy idea, Pumbaa it would never work. Wait a minute! What if we take them to Simba?! Kiara and Kovu could raise them, and there'd be a whole pride of lions to help! Problem solved!"
"That's what I just said-"
"Why are you always trying to take credit for my ideas? If we travel fast we should be able to make it there before we lose them, and they look strong enough to make the journey. We'd better get going."
Pumbaa sighed and followed Timon over to the lion cubs, trying not to look at their mother's body. He laid down so Timon could get the cubs on his back and waited until the meerkat had climbed up after them before standing back up. "You keep them steady, I don't want to drop them." The warthog said worriedly before starting towards Pride Rock.
The journey itself was rather uneventful. Pumbaa had to stop a few times so the cubs could be situated again, and Timon occasionally told him to slow down, but otherwise nothing really happened. The pair arrived at Pride Rock around around noon, just as Kalani, Kiara's best friend, was walking down the slope. The lioness stopped when she was the pair and her eyes widened once she noticed the two lion cubs.
"How did? Nevermind." She started to ask before turning to find Kiara following her.
The princess had a similar reaction to the sight and then came back to her senses. "Kalani, go find my parents and then ask Tamu if she'll nurse the cubs with her own for now."
Kalani nodded and ran off to do as her friend said. Kiara bounded over to Pumbaa to investigate the cubs and gently nudged them to make sure they were still alive. When each one tried to lift a paw towards her she backed away. "C'mon, bring them up here."
Pumbaa followed Kiara up the slope to higher area of Pride Rock where the den and the ledge where the king stood to address the Pridelands was. Kiara led them to the entrance of the den where Simba, Nala, Kalani, and Tamu were waiting. Kalani and Tamu each picked up a cub and returned to the den so Tamu could feed them.
"How did you two come across two newborn cubs?" Simba asked after hugging his old friends, although knowing the duo far stranger things could have happened.
Timon and Pumbaa told Simba the story of how they heard the dying lioness and her request before she died. "We thought that maybe Kiara and Kovu could raise them." Timon finished.
"Me?" Kiara asked as Kovu padded up beside her, drawn by the sound of his name.
"Well yeah. You don't have cubs and why not?" Timon shrugged.
Nala smiled. "Well we'll certainly take the cubs in, and if Kiara and Kovu want to be their adoptive parents that's fine with me. It's up to them what they want to do."
"Nala are you sure they're ready?" Simba asked.
"No… But we're still here and they have the rest of the pride's support to raise the cubs. Plus I don't think anyone is truly ever ready for cubs."
Kiara and Kovu looked between each other uncertainly and whispered back and forth before nodding in agreement. "We'd love to raise the cubs! Tamu would still need to feed them for me, but if you'll let us then we'll be their adoptive parents. Please Daddy?" Kiara said, turning to Simba at the end.
"Well… Alright, you mother does have a point. I don't see why not. Pumbaa, Timon, did their mother give them names before she died?"
Timon shook his head. "Just asked to us to leave her and save the cubs."
"Then I guess you two will get to pick their names." Nala said to Kiara and Kovu who beamed in response.
"Thank you!" Kiara exclaimed before bounding into the den to find Tamu. Kovu echoed a thanks and then followed her.
Tamu looked up from admiring the newborn cubs that joined her own at her belly when Kiara and Kovu approached and smiled. "I overheard the conversation. Come to name the little ones?"
Kovu nodded. "Thank you Tamu." He said before turning to Kiara. "I think since there's two we each get to name one. I'll name the boy and you name the girl?"
"That works fine for me, I was thinking her name should be Ari." Kiara said sitting down to admire her adopted children.
"That's a beautiful name for her. I think we should name the boy Niku." Kovu said, sitting beside Kiara.
Tamu smiled up at them, "If you want my opinion, I think those are perfect names for them."
"Then Niku and Ari it is!" Kiara announced proudly.
AN: This would've been a lot less frustrating to write if my autocorrect would stop autocapitalizing cubs… Hope you enjoyed and any constructive criticism if much appreciated! Reviews make me smile and help motivate me to update!