My first attempt at romance.

Characters in Disney's "The Lion King" and "The Lion King: Simba's pride" belong to Disney. Ahadi, Kopa, and Uru are not mine, they are mentioned in many places around the net if you do some poking around, just figured I'd use them to stay consistant with names people already know. Everyone else is mine (about eight characters with names).

Kopa's mane felt soft and warm on her face, his sent filled her nostrils and brought her back to her happier cubhood...before they had been banished. It had been so long since she had talked to her childhood friend. She had seen him every day and night in her dreams, and now her dreams would come true. She was safe at last from the world. All was well, except for one thing that had nagged at the back of her mind, eating away at her happiness. Bidi. Did Kopa love her? She could not tell, if she asked she was afraid that he might say that he did. He would be angry at her if he said no, but she could not stand not knowing...

Kopa felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Vitani's sweet smell brought him back to his cubhood. How long ago it seemed. His mind traced his life back. He, Nuka, and Vitani played all day. One day he would be king, but he really didn't care. That was a long way off. Nala was pregnant with his little sibling, and he was nervosa and excited whenever he felt the young cub move in his mother's stomach. They had all been happy until Nuka had heard that Zira was going to kill Kopa he had run off to find him and told Kopa of Zira's plot. Kopa had fled in blind fear, he had run until he could not run any farther, and then he has seen Bidi's face through the fog. He felt a tear agents his neck and that snapped him back to the here and now. "Vitani?"

"What?" Vitani asked trying to control the emotion in her voice. She tried to wipe away the tear before Kopa noticed that she was crying.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She said trying to hide the sob in her voice.

"No, something is wrong, what is it? You can tell me anything," he nuzzled her. Her soft fur felt soft, after so long they were together again. The moon reflected off of her tear soaked eyes, making them gleam like diamonds.

"Nothing, it's just that...Bidi, never mind."

"You think I love Bidi, don't you?"

"No...I..."

"Vitani, Bidi is a sister to me, but you are more important than anyone else." He put his leg around her and drew her close to him so that their bodies touched and their fur blended together.

"I'm so happy your back." She said as she laid her tired head down on his paws.

He laid his head down on hers. She felt safe under him. Nothing could go wrong, not for this moment. They slept together under the stars. When the sun broke the horizon, Vitani was the first to wake. She felt Kopa's head her and smiled. Maybe, finally, she would find happiness like Kovu had.

"Awww...Aren't they cute?" The sudden mocking voice came from behind her. She and Kopa sprang up to face the newcomers. She was surprised when she did not see one of the other lionesses from the pride. It was a lioness, but not one that she recognized. "Who are you? Leave these pride lands at once!" Kopa demanded as he and Vitani growled at her.

"You are hardly the one to be making the demands" She said this as a several other lionesses came out of the brush and surrounded the two.

"What do we have here?" The deep voice came from a male lion that had just come up from behind the first lioness. He was followed by a leopard with a cruel look on his face.

"I believe it is two of the members of the lion pride of this area," said the leopard.

The male chuckled, "If the leader of this pride is so weak that he cannot even cast out his own males when they come of age, then we should have no trouble in taking this land for ourselves."

Vitani growled at the newcomer. The night was over, so now they had to fight.

"Deliver this message to you pride 'king'," the male said, "hand over half of his pride lands to me, or I will take all of them by force."

"Fine, so let us go." Kopa's mind was racing trying to find a way out without fighting.

"Jini," The male addressed the leopard, "how many lions does it take to deliver a message?"

Jini laughed and leaped at Vitani with blinding speed. A dark streak came out of the grass and slammed into Jini almost knocking him off balance. He and Uvuli gained their footing and stared at each other.

"Jini!" Uvuli's voice was cold as ice and sent chills down the spine of all present.

"Uvuli." Jini's voice was calm and at the same time filled with a joyful malice.

They began to crouch, their eyes never moving from each other, one waiting for the other to make a move.

Simba, Kovu, Bidi, and the rest of the pride came out of the grass.

"Deliver your message to me yourself," Simba's voice was cool and calm.

"Give me half of your pride lands, and I will leave you and your pride to yourselves."

"Never"

The pride formed behind Simba. They were easily twice the number of the opposing pride.

"Very well then, come we leave," he turned and started to leave, "Jini, come."

Jini and Uvuli had not moved.

"Uvuli?" Bidi asked tentatively as she approached the two.

"I kill one, so you get another? Is it truly that simple, Uvuli?" Jini asked with a cold smile.

"You will die for what you have done Jini. You should have killed me when you had the chance. The next time you have one, you will die as well."

Jini continued to smile, "I look forward to it, but I fear that the time is not now." Uvuli and Jini went to where their respective alliances stood facing each other. Kopa and Vitani had joined the rest of the pride.

The other pride left, but the tense atmosphere remained. "How did you find us?" Kopa asked.

"I had noticed you two out here last night, so I came to check on you this morning, and I saw those lions coming here. Then I went to pride rock and got these slowpokes here as fast as I could. It looks like we arrived not a moment too soon."

"Yeah, thanks" said Vitani. The initial shock had not yet worn off.

"What did those brutes want, anyway?" Asked Kovu.

"They want the pride lands, and they are planning to take them by force!" Vitani said franticly.

Bidi looked at Uvuli, "Who was that, Uvuli?"

Uvuli looked into Bidi's eyes, he could not lie to her, not when she looked at him like that, it was so much like the look that she had given him when she wanted to know the truth. "It was Jini, he is an assassin, we've have had some...conflicts before. He will most likely try to kill you Simba, unless this leader wants to demonstrate his..." Uvuli snickered, "machoness. But you know more of your kind than I do, so decide for yourself what he will do."

Simba looked at Uvuli, he could not believe that any lion would claim rights to a land that they had not even killed for and did not inherit by right of birth. Even Scar had gone through a lot to kill Mufasa, and in the end had done it himself. "He will try to kill me himself, so that he will be the undisputed ruler of these pride lands."

"Very well, but keep an eye on those close to you Simba, Jini likes to target the ones closest to your heart to hurt you the most, to weaken you and make you easy prey."