"Are you or are you not like that?"
"No. Trust me!"
"...How can I when your always with him?"
"Have something against my son?"
"It's not like that, Malka."
Standing there with his father, mate, mother, sisters, Malka, and Tama was making him so nervous as his father spoke about everything that could be. He talked about not picking any lioness from the Pride they had wanted, and now one of them mentioned Sariel being into lions.
Of course only six lions knew the truth, two didn't.
They weren't just going tell Kovu the truth, the king was trying to make sure everything went to plan. Sariel needed a queen and he was going to give his son one. Even if that meant trying to make him to get one without his approval.
Amro was almost close to snapping at the king. How was he going to handle the news once they broke it to him?
They had agreed to tell Nala and Kovu during this. Malka, Tama, Akina, Kiara, Amro, and Sariel had agreed to this while walking towards the Cave. But the one problem was they didn't know how to explain this to Kovu. Nala was much more easier than her mate. That was for sure.
Taking a step towards her father, Akina slowly made her way over to stand in front of her brother. Her eyes shining with protectiveness over her older brother and shared littermate. She got down into a fighting stance with her claws out, and gave a growl before Sariel nduged her.
"It's okay," Sariel whispered, giving his little sister a nuzzle. "I got this."
"But I don't wanna see you hurt," Akina whispered back. "He's going to freak when he knows what's going on. As if he's already not."
Sariel chuckled. "That's my line."
Turning back to look at their father, the two royals took their stance before Kiara came and joined them. A little while later Amro padded up to stand beside his mate and took a bow to Kovu before gulping down a growing fear to speak in front of him.
Hearing his son's friend speak was something Kovu didn't really want to go through during this, but he listened on. Before long he found himself pancing around in a circle before he felt the wind blow softly into the den.
His mane moved with the wind circled around him in order to calm him down. Kovu's emerald eyes closed with a knowing smile. His father. Scar was trying to calm him down, telling him to calm down during this. Along with Mufasa, Sarabi, Zira, Sarafina, and Tor.
All of them who had lived during his early days of his region were trying to cool him down. He hated how his parents-in-law died a few days after coming up with an idea about getting Sariel a queen himself. How Mufasa and Sarabi went away because of natural causes. How his mother died from being too sad about his father's passing.
"Sariel, what is going on?" Kovu managed to ask through his growing angry, but he was pushing his anger down. He wasn't going to explode.
"Sir," Amro spoke up for his mate. "...We didn't want to tell you since we were afraid about how you might act to us. But there's no way out of this now."
Kovu blinked. "Amro, Sariel, what were you afraid of telling me?"
"We're... uh..." Sariel trailed off before Akina and Kiara looked at each other and nodded. They were going to save their brother the trouble from going through this.
"They're mates, dad," Kiara finished. "They didn't want to tell you because they knew how you wanted a queen on Pride Rock when really it should be up to Sariel on who he wants to rule beside him. You must understand this."
Malka watched the scene before he cleared his throat. "Kovu, understand, they can't help who they love. It just happens this way."
Kovu held his breath before nodding slowly. Taking it all in. Yes, he had some sort of thoughts about them being together, but he never thought they would be right. Then again, he couldn't bring himself to ask his son about that.
Now it all made sense.
Sariel spending time with Amro like he had done with Nala. Him always being happy around his friend, giving him looks of love that Kovu passed off as friendly looks. He was like his father in his own way with Amro.
But even so, there was one thing Kovu had to do.
"That's fine, but you aren't the future king anymore, Sariel." Kovu calmly said. Everyone went into shock.
"What!?" Sariel spat out.
"Daddy..." Mumbled Kiara.
"Kovu!" That was Nala, Tama, and Malka.
Amro stayed quiet along with Akina before he heard her growl and step towards her father. Claws out and he made a move to keep her from harming her father. This was not the time to be fighting family memebers simply because of something.
"Dad, you don't need to remove Sariel from his crown just because of his mate!" Akina growled to her father. Clearly angered at him. "He's still the rightful king, and you know that! You made sure he knew everything and what it takes to be a good king."
"Akina..." Kovu trailed off. "I get your mad but... Pride Rock needs a king and queen."
At this point, Sariel was done with everything he was hearing. If Tradition was important to his father, then why did he bother picking Sariel to be his heir?
"Forget tradition!" He growled and Kovu faced him. "Shouldn't you be more worried about our happiness? What we want to do with our lives?"
"Sariel, as much as tradition matters, I do worry about your happiness," Kovu explained. "But I feel our Pride would like it if they had a queen with a king. Not two kings."
It only took a few moments before Nala stepped in and took her mate outside to speak about the whole thing. Leaving the others in the cave, making Sariel sit down and give a sigh. Well, he had just lost the title as future king.
When he felt Amro nuzzle him, he didn't think twice before nuzzling his mate back. Feeling happy when he was around him, even if he was sad.
"He'll come around." Malka said.
"How do you know?" Asked Sariel. "How do you know if dad will come around and possibly give me back my title as future king."
Malka laughed and nudged his son's mate with a smile on his face. "Because he always comes around. Let me tell you a story about what happened before you were born..."
"Malka..." Tama muttered but her mate purred.
"Before you three were born, your parents were going to have another cub. This would've been your big brother or sister, but it had ended in a miscarriage." Malka explained. "We weren't supportive and only Tor was. They blamed us for weeks until they came around and moved on. They were scared about losing you three..."
Gazing at each other, the triplets found themselves missing their older sibling. Even if he or she didn't live on to meet the world, they wished he or she would've lived on. But everything had to happen for a reason.
"I'm saying he'll come around and change his mind," Malka ended. "Just like he did with the death of your sibling."
Sariel sighed. "Okay..."
