A/N:

For all the best wishes for this new year, 2020! May all your dreams come true! in the beginning, January always makes me feel like I'd just fallen into a giant black hole (only sounds good when Scar is there..) But here we are back again! I don't know if that's a good thing for Scar and Nala if you read where my keyboard has written them too.. ;)

A day later than originally planned, Scar and Nala went out somewhere, together. "Where are we going?" Nala asked after they had been walking quite some time now. As dark as the Pride Lands already was, the path below their feet, now was becoming darker and more foggier step after step. It made Nala question the fact that she agreed in going with him so easily, especially after her view finally revealed their final destination.

"What, the elephant graveyard?" Nala sounded anxious and then she continued on a whispering voice. "It dredges up a lot of bad memories, you know.."

Of course Scar exactly knew what memories Nala was referring to. "You're here with me now and besides, this place is hyena-free nowadays. There's nothing to worry about, trust me," he responded with slight an earnest tone.

Nala sighed. "I don't know Scar, can I?" Just when Nala thought to have gained a little adjustment towards the unpredictable lion that she had to name her partner now, he brought her to such a horrible place like this.

"You've got to get to know me better. Here lies my past," Scar spoke. He turned his head to Nala and then he cleared her path by sweeping away some lost bones. "Come, let's find ourselves a cosy spot in there," he said as he walked further. "I'm sure the big one doesn't mind me borrowing his old case one more time." Scar nodded towards the large mammoth-like skull a few metres away from them.

"Cosy, that?" Nala responded head-shaking while she followed Scar.

Inside the skull, Scar plonked himself down on the crude cold ground. "Don't be afraid, what do you want to know about me?" he asked Nala after she sat down too.

In her mind, Nala blocked the thoughts about her current location. She decided to cooperate with Scar because for her, that meant the fasted way out of this place. "Tell me about.." the lioness hesitated. ".. your childhood. Tell me about Taka.." she finally said.

"Taka.." Scar never witnessed Nala speak his name from the past. He cleared his throat. "It's a deep dig, but I can do this," Scar started.

Flashback little Taka/Uru:

In the royal cave the brown coloured queen Uru lied down, resting. But instead of keeping her eyes closed, they got drawn to her youngest son Taka, who was staring outside. His dark fur got lightened by the shining sun, that brightened up the spot where he sat. The cub looked sad as he watched how his father and his older brother were playfully chasing each other outside, having the time of their lives. "What's wrong, dear?"

Taka turned around, facing his mother. "Dad hates me!" he stated. The cub stared at his mother with a pair of teary eyes while outside, from afar the playful sounds of his brother were to be heard.

"Taka! That's not true!" Uru responded. "Are you still upset about what daddy told you boys the other day? About that Mufasa will inherit the Pride Lands after his ruling period? Taka, it has always been the firstborn who's destined to become the king one day," she explained.

Showing off his stubbornness, Taka shook his head. "No! Even if I were the oldest, he still had named Muffy the king!"

"Sweetheart.." Deep down Uru knew that Ahadi always had favoured Mufasa over his youngest son, and Taka was sharp enough to figure this out too. It broke Uru's heart that her youngest son felt like he was unwanted, while Uru loved the little boy more than anything else in this world, even slight a bit more than she loved her oldest son. Taka had always been her pupil.

"Look at them! He never does that with me!" Taka sighed. "Whenever I ask dad to come and play with me, he tells me he has no time!" Taka called out. He wiped away a tear and showed an angry muzzle instead.

"Why don't you go out there and join them? I'm sure they will welcome you in their game!" Uru suggested.

"No, I want to stay with you.." Taka moved closer to his mother and when she laid her paw onto his back, he buried himself deep into her soft fur.

Uru gave his son a little lick on his head, where a crest of black hair grew. "I love you, my little baby," she softly said.

Taka looked up. "Mama.. I'm not a baby anymore!" He showed her a little smile, one that Uru gladly looked at and wished to see much more often.

"Scar? Are you okay?" Carefully Nala nudged the lion next to her. After Scar had finished his story and after Nala gave him a response, the black maned lion's face froze.

Quickly Scar wiped away the upcoming tear that was about to blur his sight. It had been a while since he last thought of his mother. "Um.. yes, it was just.. weird," he stuttered. He felt confused. For a moment it was like, when he shared his childhood memories with Nala, something brought him back to the small cub he used to be. "Do you know the feeling of, um.. being at two places at once?" Scar continued. He had experienced the whole thing as if his soul, the lion currently known as Scar, had been taken back to his childhood. Taken back to his own Taka from the past.

"It sounds like you and Uru were thick as thieves," Nala said.

"Yes, we were," Scar answered. Within himself he realized that if he hadn't been so busy competing with Mufasa back in the days, perhaps he had seen that he truly meant the world to his mother. "You said something after.. I'm sorry.. I didn't catch it." There still was a bit of a vague tone in his voice.

"I said you must have been very cute as a cub," Nala answered, a bit embarrassed.

Scar smiled. "Nala, all cubs are cute," he responded, frowning. "Well, alright then.. Your fairness and my cuteness, our cubs definitely are going to be extra, extra irresistible!" he jokingly said, bringing himself sharply back down to earth again.

Nala looked away. The chaotic sounds that seemed to have this place surrounded, caused the silence between the lions to become less awkward. Then Nala focused her look on Scar again. On one particular eye, to be exact. Now she had the chance of asking that one question that hadn't lost its popularity among the Pride members for years. "How did you get.."

"Ah, the scar.." Scar finished Nala's sentence while he chuckled his scarred eye. "Well, I guess I can tell you," he paused. "But not here. It's a long story. It's getting dark, we shouldn't be here in the dark.." Scar confessed. His body language gave away his sudden nervous state.

"Why not? I remember the last time I was here danger only meant hyenas, but no need to fear them now.. You said.." Nala responded, slightly surprised by Scar's change in appearance.

"It's not that we need to fear something that is living here.. I'm talking about something far from the state of living.." Scar spoke with a bit of a shivering voice. Where Scar's every day's behaviour already was to be interpreted as mysterious or odd, currently he showed an even more extreme version of that.

"What do you mean?" Nala softly reacted. Scar's words had worried her. Nala looked around her nervously. Now she really couldn't get the images of all kinds of creepy little vermin crawling out of the skull holes out of her head.

"This is a grave yard, I'm not so comfortable with wandering around at grave yards nowadays.. At night.." Had someone told Scar years ago he would ever say something similar like this, the lion probably had laughed that someone in the face. When Scar and Mufasa were younger, Rafiki often told them stories about the dead kings of the past. Scar usually made fun of Rafiki, who according to him was nothing more than a silly baboon who must have been nuts for telling that kind of nonsense. Of course now, things were rather different since he accused the newer dead kings of the past for intruding his dreams and confronting him with his actions from years ago. "The last thing I need right now is being chased by a bunch of angry dead elephants!"

"Stay close.." Scar whispered before he took the lead. Nala followed his instructions and remained right behind him. It had become awfully foggy and the daylight had started to make way for dusk, therefore Scar hadn't been aware of the downhill they were closing in on. Until he walked right in it.. "ARGH!"

Nala screamed when, with lots of speed she and Scar both rolled off the hill. A few seconds later Scar ended up on his back, hitting the ground and absorbing the blast for Nala who ended up on top of him.

A few moments later:

"Nala, are you alright?" Scar asked the lioness when besides a rapid heartbeat, she hadn't made a single movement. His voice sounded hoarse as Nala had one front paw pressing into his neck and the other one on his chest.

Scar's voice alerted Nala and quickly she moved her paws toward the ground, sideways of the lion beneath her. "Oh my god!" Nala gasped, breathing for air. She attempted in getting up but froze when she caught a glimpse of what was around them. The place looked dark and green and much more geysers were present here. Her heart skipped a few beats when she discovered the source of the heat that burdened her body ever since they crashed down here. It seemed that their fall had brought them only a few metres away from a green lava puddle. "Where.. are we?" she stuttered.

Scar coughed. "This is where I.. Be Prepared.." He struggled with his words and he tried to ban certain happenings out of his mind. "Let's just say this is one of the places of my past.. Mind your step here," he pointed a paw to the lava puddle and the geysers around them.

"Those things kind of.. explode. It made me relax, helped me with letting go of.. certain things.." At least, on moments I wasn't immensely annoyed by the hyenas! Scar escaped a small sigh when he caught himself with chatting on and on to mainly, himself. "However, don't worry, I know every step.." He tried to calm down the lioness on top of him, what to be seen from the playful smile that appeared on Nala's muzzle, clearly had worked. It made Scar arch his eyebrow. "Wanna share your thought?"

"It's just a small inside thing.." Nala started, showing a blush and wondering if it was something she needed to share with an unpredictable lion as Scar was. This whole situation and her position reminded her of some fun she often had with Simba. "I totally got you pinned! No one has ever beat me in this game.. I know we weren't in a game, but still.." Nala pictured the moment when she last pinned Simba here, not far away from the place she and Scar now lied. Also Mheetu got the worst of it.

"My.. Are you challenging me?" Scar now showed the lioness a playful grimace himself. "If the risk of me tossing you into the lava or any geyser wasn't so high, I'd gladly accepted it!" Scar blinked and forced himself to let his focus wander off of Nala's eyes, that appeared to become widener every time she heard the sounds of the geysers in distance.

"Geez! It's really hard to believe you find that relaxing!" Nala spoke.

Scar felt Nala's body twitching every time it happened. A bit loud and extravagant he cleared his throat. He hated himself for having to spoil the moment, but he realized that continuing to lie down like this brought them nowhere. "Um, Nala.. It's not that I'm complaining.. But if we want to get out of here, you've got to get off of me.." he shared softly and so Nala did, carefully.

Scar took his time to get up by stretching himself. "We're good to go," he said after his back made a small cracking sound. However after the lions only had set a few cautious steps further, two geysers near them exploded once again. It caused Nala to almost jump into Scar's upstanding manes.

"I can barely see anything. I don't think I'll manage to walk through this now, it's like a minefield!" Nala's voice shivered and without realizing it, she leaned herself as close to Scar she possibly could. "I think we've.. got to spend the night here," she spoke and glimpsed to Scar, who had her in his sight from his eye corner.

Scar rubbed his head against hers, helping the lioness with burying herself into his manes deeper. "I suppose we have no choice. I know a solid spot," Scar turned his head. "There, in the back." He guided Nala towards the place he figured he still knew blindly.

"This will do," Scar stated after they both had settled on the small spot where Scar knew they were save from the geysers and the lava. "Stay close to me."

Back in his cave Nala choose to keep the distance between her and the king as long as possible, now not only had she accepted his presence, she also seemed to search for his protection. Of course, obviously there wasn't really an alternative for her here. Nala was laying curled up next to him. Scar had sensed her need for his protection so he wrapped his paw around her and rested his head on hers.

A/N:

So finally, a little of Uru in the story! I hope you liked it. Also I like to know what you think of flashbacks, since I got a few more in mind. Tips are always welcome!