I.

Kovu watched, bored and unaccomplished, as the lioness stalked him through the grass. It wasn't his fault, Kiara had ambushed him as he had set the vulnerable king in sights. A few minutes had turned into three hours by now and the prince had resigned himself to giving a few pointers to the princess. Pointers turned into lessons, which then turned into critiques.

Kiara simply wasn't trainable.

"Hey, Kovu." The lioness named Aisha from the previous day accosted him.

He turned a few inches her way, sizing up the three females lounging on a large rock.

"Once you're done with the princess, could I have a turn?"

The lion rolled his eyes up in thought, pondered, and then turned back to her. "Yeah…"

Aisha perked up hopefully.

"No." He finished.

"Ah!"

"Ah," Kovu mimicked, grinning.

"Let's go girls." She said huffily, leading her friends away.

One of them, a far more attractive red-brown lioness, smiled his way.

Kovu shook his head. "Posers."

"Oh!"

The inevitable tackle was on him.

"Three, two…" Kovu sighed. "One."

"Got'cha!"

She tumbled head over paws to take the lion down. When he rose and saw her sprawled out on her back Kovu knew why he found the lioness so amusing; Kiara was so blissfully unaware of how inept she really was. Still, Kovu humored her by coming to look down at her. The contiuous mishaps weren't lost on the cat. "You could hear me, huh?" she stated.

"Only… a lot." He moved away, explaining considerately to the Pride Lander. "You're still breathing too hard. Relax. Feel the earth between your claws so it doesn't shift and make noise." Kovu caught sight of some birds in the distance. "Shh. Watch the master…

And. Learn." He got in her face, saying pointedly. Kiara sent him a withering expression.

It was with that being said that Kovu found himself in the realm of something new: fun.

"Ah! Please, don't eat me. I never really meant your tyrant. Oh, Scar! One heck of a guy."

Kovu gaped.

"A little moody, but…"

"Hey, hey. It's okay. I'm not gonna eat you." the lion reassured the merekat in his paws.

"You… aren't? Phew! I thought you'd remember me."

"Oh, I do."

"You… you what."

"The fuzzy maraca king." Kovu turned deadpan.

"You remember that?"

"I have a very good memory."

And the Outlander continued to get sidetracked, before he had a chance to ponder why he was doing what he was doing; Kovu and Kiara were chasing after the flock of birds once more before nearly colliding with a crash of rhinos. He experienced a spike of adrenaline that he hadn't had since he was younger when Kiara somehow ended up pressed against his nose. They mumbled in embarrassment as they pried themselves from a rock opening.

"OK, that was pretty crazy. But you've gotta admit it was fun."

The euphoric feeling fizzled off as Kovu rested his calmed green eyes on her.

"Yeah… fun."

"Hey," Timon called over to them. "You two comin' or what?"

Once they exited the shadows that cast down from the high rock face, Kovu caught sight of himself in a pool of water. The lion he saw was strangely content. This made him reel back in shock. How long had it been since Kovu had seen himself clearly? He tried baring his teeth like the night before, he tried to summon the anger and angst he normally felt or the numbness that usually befell him otherwise, but for some reason Kovu could not do it.

"Kovu?"

He looked over at Kiara who had paused to stare at him uncertainly.

"Are you coming?"

The lion glanced over sideways and saw Simba walking with the hornbill who had dubbed him a 'riff-raff'. Kovu then looked down at the dirt floor below him, thinking things out a moment before meeting her red-brown eyes again and smiling. "Yeah, I'm coming." he let his attention focus totally on her. When Kovu looked at his reflection again, he believed it.

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~