Im sorry about the long wait, but the first days of school are a bit hetic! Enjoy!
SIMBA'S POV
I had to ask her now! She asked about earlier and I couldn't come up with anything! "I was just g-gona ask you t-t-to go...go...go...stargazing?" I managed to ask her without panicking! I waited for her answer. She pursed her lips and had an expression as if thinking it over. After several agonizing seconds she burst into a smile and laughed. "Of course! Just look for me in the Mapola clearing a little before sunset today." I laughed in relief and gasped slightly when she gave me a quick peck on the lips, making heat spread throughout my whole body,
just from the breif contact. She walked away, most likely to tell Kiki and Tal the news. I would have followed if a single petrifiying thought had not glued me to the very spot. She said today. TODAY! As in the same day.
I kinda started to panick again but managed to make it back to the stream relatively calm. When I got there, Nala, Tal, and Miko were playing hide and seek. It was childish but we had alot of cub time to catch up on. I joined in and snuck by a counting Tal. We spent the next hour evading whoever was the seeker and laughing when ever someone was startled by another persons sneaking abilities. We never saw Kuju or Kiki until they tumbled into the clearing, Kuju pinning Kiki with a triumphant "GOTCHA!" We all laughed at Kiki's annoyed expression. They looked up and joined us, although I could have sworn that Kuju was blushing. The rest of the day was spent reminiscing and laughing at old memories. All, in all it was a good day. A little after noon, the girls announced that they promised to help Halette and Falo with something at their house and left us guys alone. Miko was the first to speak. "What is making you blush so much Kuju? Was it Kiki? Hmm?" I kinda laughed when Kuju blushed a deeper red. "Well..." I joined Miko in a spirited cheer. "TELL US! TELL US! TELL US!" we made our voices lower than usual and Miko even trough in a stray whistle! "Fine! Fine! Just calm down!" We settled down on the ground, showing that we were ready to listen. "Well... um, she offered to play tag and I offered to be it, so I counted to 5 and chased after her. She was too fast and I couldn't catch her. I finally managed to tackle her to the ground and..." The next part made me and Miko laugh.
ZAZU'S POV
I sat in my little rib cage. LITERALLY. It was a cage made of the ribs of an animal. I was forced to sing for Scar's amusement, day after day! I was NOT a singing puppet! I was the royal advisor! I gave credible and SANE advise to the king! Not to mention that I helped the king deal with the many issues of the Pridelands! But when King Mufasa, young master Simba, and dear Nala passed away, Sarabi decided that she could not rule in her husbands place and Scar took over. It was a disaster. The skies were always dark but it never rained, from what hyenas and lionesses told Scar, the Pridelands were grey, brittle, devoid of any life, dead. Dead. Scar killed the Pridelands. I watched as the lionesses who came in to try to reason with the deranged lion became skinnier and skinnier, until their ribs and other bones became clearly visible. I heard from one of them that the cubs were dying because their mother's could not eat, could not produce milk. Scar was a murderer. A murderer of the land, of the people. Of innocent little cubs! All because he let in those ever-hungry and destructive hyenas. My stomach was always rumbling and I fell sick often. I needed to find help or Scar would eventually kill EVERYTHING! One night, when everyone was asleep, I managed to slip out, thanks to the pound I probably lost from starvation. I silently flew out of the den and flew out towards the outlands. I stared in horror. Everything was true. The land was grey and barren. The only thing alive was Rafiki's tree. I swooped down. Mabye he knew of someone who could help.
"Rafiki! Please. I managed to escape, do you know of anything that I can do? Anywhere I can go?" He turned around and I noticed that he had a drawing of a full grown lion on his wall. It looked like Mufasa. He grunted and pointed. "He's alive, we must go to him, and get him to save da Pridelands! But he must be trained first." I was confused. "Mufasa's Alive?" He laughed. "No, not Mufasa. Simba. He will be all grown in several months. We have to convince him to take his place. He is in de haven. You go first. I will go shortly after. I must prepare first." I knew better than to question how he knew this. He had his ways. I nodded and wished him luck then turned towards the outlands once more. The king Mufasa knew that there might be a drought or any other danger so at the very beggining of his reign, he sent scouts out to find a safe haven. The scouts returned several days later with word of a great jungle a days journey south from here. If anyone could help us, if Simba really was alive and Rafiki wasn't just crazy, then I could find our salvation in the jungle.
NALA'S POV
After I asked him what he was going to ask me, he started to stutter again. I was afraid that he was going to run away again but he stayed. "I was just g-gona ask you t-t-to go...go...go...
stargazing?" That's what caused him to run away? Asking me out stargazing? I decided to play with him a little bit and pretended to be indisicive. I saw his face go to one of comeplete fear with a little horror mixed in. I couldn't do it anymore! I finally laughed. "Of course! Just look for me in the Mapola clearing a little before sunset today." He relaxed and laughed a little. I then gave him a quick peck, for no real reason and left for the river again. He didn't follow for some reason, but a little after me, Tal, and Miko starting a child's game of hide-
and-seek, he came in and played with us. It was like old times. Of course when I was about to find Simba, Kuju and Kiki had to tumble out into the clearing. Kuju pinned Kiki. He always managed to, no matter how many lessons I gave her. We abandoned the game of Hide-and-seek and spent the rest of the day talking about our cub days. Nobody brought up our old home's current condition because we all knew that we could never look back. Hakuna Matatah. Simba taught me that.
Finally, I noticed that Kiki wanted to tell us something private, so we told the guys we had to help Halette and Falo and left. When we were out of earshot, she burst. "He kissed me!" We all stopped in our tracks. "He did WHAT? Really!" We couldn't believe it, Kuju was always shy when it came to Kiki! We demanded the details. Apparently, they were playing tag and after a while, he finally managed to catch her, by tackling her. He kept staring at her and wouldn't get off, until she managed to free her arm and poke his chest, he merely said a soft 'wow' she poked him again and called his name. Then he reacted and gave her a lightning fast kiss. They both stayed there for a while, not doing anything, (except blush probably) until Kiki finally reached up and gave him another one, longer, of course. Then he simply turned red and whispered 'tag' and they kept going with the game. She tagged him and he tagged her when they tumbled into the clearing where we were. We all gave and undignified squeal and talked about it all night.
I realized too late that It was past sunset. SIMBA! I comepletly forgot! I ran out to the Mapola clearing to find that he was there, sleeping against the roots of a tree, orange mapolas (my favorite) next to his head. Would he forgive me for being late? I padded over silently and sat down next to him. He mumbled something and turned to lay on his back. I wasn't more than mabye a little over 30 minutes late right? I reached down and licked his cheek. He groaned and mumbled something before opening his eyes.
"Hmm? Nala? Well look who decided to show up." I winced.
"Hey, Simba!" I kinda whispered. "Look, I'm sorry, Kiki talked for a while, I made it here as fast as I could!" He just regarded me with an annoyed expression.
"Seriously?" He sat up. "I've waited forever!" I looked at the sky. There were still hues of pink and orange in the sky. I could just start to see the blue-black curtain of night. I pointed at the sky.
"I'm not that late...You must have fell asleep."
"I...oh." He looked at the sky and laughed sheepishly. Then he reached down and held out a flower. "is is or you." he said through a full mouth. He put it behind my ear and stuck it in my fur. "Where are we going?" he laughed.
"Just grab my tail and close your eyes." I raised an eyebrow but grabbed his tail with my mouth and closed my eyes. He kept saying things like 'watch out! theres a root' or 'now turn to your left a little' finally he let me open my eyes. We were at the top of a grassy hill overlooking plains and some lone tangles of trees and bushes. Spread out before me were peaches,
mangos, pears, and my favorite, strawberries.
"Wow." I couldn't believe it. Simba smiled and laid down on his stomach next to the fruit. "It's not much but it's ok...right?" I laughed and laid down next to him, when I was at about the same level, I reached over and gave him a sof kiss on the cheek. "It's perfect."
SIMBA'S POV
I looked at Nala in slight astonishment. Kuju and Miko had laughed when I had showed them the arrangement, and here she was, saying it was perfect! I finally reached next to me and offered her a strawberry. She ate it right out of my paw and turned to the stars. "Look! That looks like a tree!" Sure enough it did. We kept pointing out shapes in the stars and eating fruits, often from each other. After a while, I looked at Nala, like REALLY looked at her. The moonlight created an almost unearthly glow on her, her eyes reflecting the tiny pinpoints of light, making the saphirre orbs glitter amazingly. Her lips were curled into a smile of amusement and amazement, but when I looked at her eyes again, I saw that certain deepness that signaled that she was thinking hard. "Is something wrong?" We were on our backs now, so I turned and proped myself up with my elbow to look down at her.
"All of those things you said before, They were extremely sweet, but they were all physical traits. Simba, do you like me just because I'm pretty?" I fell silent. She had a slight frown on her face and faced me.
"Nala, you are pretty, no Beautiful! Gorgeous! Stunning! But..." She smiled a little. It was getting harder and harder to talk to her. To actually say something that made sense, more sense than what I was feeling. "But, your extremely smart, and funny, and and understanding! Your one of the nicest people I know, your not afraid to speak your mind, you seem so sure of what's wrong and whats right, and a million more things that would take an eternity to list! Nala your beautiful, but your sooo much more." I finally stopped talking and she was crying.
As in actual tears flwing down her face! "Nala? Nala? What's wrong? Did I say something wro-mmm!" I didn't get to finish my sentence because the shot up and wrapped her arms around my neck and smashed her lips against mine in the most breath-taking, heart pounding, AMAZING kiss that she had ever given me. I am ashamed to say that I could not contain myself and snaked my arms around her back. We fell over, my elbow no longer holding us up, she was on bottom, me semi-on top of her. Finally, we had to breath and broke apart, savoring every last moment.
"You said nothing wrong, you said everything perfect." we were breathing hard, not breathing for a whole minute does that to you, and she said that between breaths. "Really?" I had to ask that? I sounded like an idiot. She just giggled and nodded her head. "because I...Nala I...WHAT?" the whole moment was comepletly and bizzarely ruined by a feathery blue bundle dropping from the sky. It moaned. "Zazu?"