Tissues, tissues, if you read the previous chapter, get your tissues here:Tosses a few to readers.: No charge. I was very pleased with how the previous chapter turned out. Anyway, read on and try not to cry too much. Limited supply of tissues here. :Eats cookies from Tash, starts writing.: UPDATE: Removed Endless Night lyric.
Chapter 7:
Night had finally come. Timon aimlessly walked through the desert with his head bowed down. He couldn't face the colony after his unexpected fight with Uncle Max, or his even more unexpected confession. His grief was perfectly clear by the look on his face, and yet he paid no attention to the burning sting his tears brought when they seeped into the three claw scratches on his left cheek. The first meerkat battle he's ever won, and he was not proud of it. He finally stopped when he reached a watering hole. He looked down at his reflection, and then he sighed. He sat down by it, brought his knees to his chest, laid his folded arms on top, and then he laid his forehead on top of them. His shoulders shook as he softly sobbed.
Simba followed Timon's tracks in the sand and stopped when he finally found him. "Timon?" Simba softly said. The meerkat seemed like he didn't hear him. Simba shook his head and turned to walk away.
"... That's why I wanted to come alone," he heard a voice say. Simba turned back around to see Timon had lifted his face up from his arms, but he was still looking away from him. "I was afraid if the colony knew where I was going, they'd come with me. They'd remembered how that day went, and they'd start to hate me again." Timon's expression weakened and he laid his forehead back down onto his arms. "And I was right." Simba cocked his head, and then he walked over by Timon and laid down.
"I don't think I've ever seen you like this," he said. Timon lifted his face up, and then wiped his eyes with the back of his paw.
"You don't know what it's like, Simba. You don't know what it's like to be hated by your family because of you, a life was taken."
"It might surprise you how much I know. I did have a life before I met you, you know," Simba replied.
"Oh yeah. Prince of the Pride Lands," Timon half-chuckled.
"There's more to it than that." Simba rested his chin on his paw. "Did I ever tell you how my father died?"
Timon looked at Simba, a bit surprised. "Your father died, too?" Simba arched an eyebrow. "Oh, right. That's why you're king. Go 'head."
"Scar tricked me into waiting for my father in a gorge. I was practicing my roaring and scared a chameleon... and I thought that roar was the one that caused the wildebeest stampede." Timon blinked. Wildebeest stampede... gorge... nah, couldn't be! "Father plucked me out of danger, but then he ended up being knocked over by a wildebeest. He managed to jump up onto the stonewall and started to climb up... then Scar 'helped' him up and then released him down to a nasty fall. I was so young and innocent, I believed what Scar said, that I was the cause of his death. So I ran away. Not long after that, you and Pumbaa found me."
Timon slightly smiled, "Ah, the good old days." Timon then frowned again. "So you do know what it feels like... but your family didn't hate you like mine does."
"How do you know they hate you for it?"
"Uncle Max said so himself."
"You heard that?" Simba asked, surprised.
Timon rested his chin on his arms. "I hear a lot of things pretty well." Timon sighed and then looked over at his reflection in the water. "Uncle Max was right. If I had just paid attention to what I was doing, Dad would still be here." He stared at his reflection weakly as the tears welled up in his eyes again. He put his paw over his heart, then clenched onto the fur. "Maybe then I wouldn't feel this twist in my chest."
"It's called a heartache. It goes away over time."
"But how long? He's been gone four years now. Sure, there was a time I forgot about him after I found Hakuna Matata, but..." He shook his head. "Ah, forget it. I'm just confusing myself, and probably you."
Simba sighed, staring at Timon's reflection. "You just haven't come to terms with his loss." Timon didn't answer. Simba grimaced, then looked up at the stars. "Maybe you can start by telling everyone what happened that day, if you weren't in the tunnel when your father went outside." Timon scooped some water out and rubbed it on his wounded cheek. He winced, and then shook the water off his paw. He stared at the wound, and then he looked away from his reflection.
"I... I can't. Not after the fight with Uncle Max. Not after the way I confessed it."
"Timon, how can your colony forgive you if you can't even forgive yourself? If you--"
"It's none of your business, sire!" Simba slightly jumped when Timon yelled at him. Timon noticed Simba's shocked expression in the water's reflection, instantly regretting it, then he folded his arms and rested his forehead on them again. "Just... leave me alone." Simba stared at Timon's reflection in the water.
"Timon..."
"Please. Just leave me alone." Simba sighed, then stood up. He turned around and started heading back, then he stopped and looked at Timon again.
"From one son who's lost his father to another, there's one thing to remember that might help ease the heartache." Timon acted like he wasn't listening, but Simba continued anyway. "Look at your reflection real hard, and you'll see... Buzz isn't really gone... because he lives in you." Timon slowly lifted his head up and then he turned to look at Simba, who was running back in the direction he came. Timon stared after him, and then he looked at his reflection again, looking deep in thought.
Later, Simba padded over to Pumbaa, who was sleeping under the sentry tree.
"Hey, Pumbaa. Wake up," Simba poked the warthog. Pumbaa yawned, then looked at Simba.
"Did you find him?"
"Yeah, but I couldn't talk him into coming back."
"Aww. Well, thanks for trying, Simba."
"Sorry, but I can't stay any longer. I don't want Nala to start worrying," Simba said as he started to walk away.
"I'll drop by on the way back with Timon hopefully!" Pumbaa waved. As Simba disappeared into the distance, Pumbaa settled back down to go back to sleep when he noticed Ma climb out of the tunnel. She walked over to him.
"Was that Simba?" she asked.
"Yup."
"Did he find Timon?"
"Yup."
"Well, where is he?" Ma impatiently asked.
"Dunno."
"You mean he didn't come back?"
"Nope. Sorry, Mrs. Ma." Ma sat next to Pumbaa.
"I don't understand something. After the fight with Max, Timon said he wasn't in the tunnel when Buzz went up to look for him. That can only mean he was up here until the pack of hyenas appeared, then he came down into the tunnel. Why would he lie?"
"Maybe he didn't wanna worry you."
"Maybe he didn't want me to worry? Maybe he just didn't want me to worry? ... Yeah, maybe he didn't want me to worry." Pumbaa blinked. She was Timon's mother all right.
"So, uh... how's Uncle Max doing?" Pumbaa tried changing the subject.
"Sore."
"Sore as in his muscles ache, or sore as in he's angry he was beaten by Timon?"
"Both. I thought I'd let him be since Timon basically did what I would've done. That man, slapping my boy again... and he made him bleed this time!" She rested her chin in her paw. "Oh, Pumbaa. I haven't noticed how much Timon looks like Buzz until now. He's grown into such a handsome meerkat."
Pumbaa cocked his head slightly. "He's pretty much all you have now, isn't he?"
"He is, since I lost Buzz. If I lost Timon, I don't know what I'd do." Pumbaa got up and looked off in the direction Timon walked off in.
"Think I should go look for him?"
"Oh, would you, Pumbaa?" Pumbaa smiled and nodded, then he trotted off in the direction Timon went. Ma watched after him, then she walked around the tree to view the carvings of Fearless Buzz on the rock. She looked from the carvings to the stone, and she knelt down to it. "Oh, Buzz, you should see how Timon has grown. He's really come a long way since he left the colony two years ago. You'd be so proud of him. He brought us to a beautiful oasis where it's low on predators and high on bugs. That place has everything..." She paused and put a paw on the stone. "Except you." She turned her face away from the stone and softly sobbed. "Oh, Buzz, why did you have to be so brave?" She suddenly felt someone put a paw on her shoulder. She looked back and saw Timon, with a sorry look on his face.
"He was already on his way back when I found him," Pumbaa said as he padded over to Ma and sat down. Ma looked at Timon for a few moments, then back at the gravestone. Timon knelt down next to her. Ma turned to face him, then he wrapped his arms around her.
Timon heaved a sigh and softly whispered, "I'll tell you everything."
To be continued...