Kiara and Kion grew to make friends with other cubs, and Kion, well, he made all sorts of different friends. He became friends with Bunga, the honey badger who Pumbaa had adopted after being unable to find out where the honey badger's real family could had been, but they were both a family now since they didn't have anybody else. Timon also offered to help Pumbaa and was proud of his best friend for finding himself someone to give him good company in a family and friend sense.
Timon even started to like Bunga after the honey badger had helped them get the most rare bugs of all. Mabu, Mishka, and Monty liked Bunga like a big brother, especially since their Uncle Timon and now Aunt Tesma had raised them and they were not forced to dig tunnels like Timon did when he was a misfit meerkat back in his colony before he had met Pumbaa. Kopa loved being a big brother, even if it did have its ups and downs.
The ups were that he got to teach somebody something and look out for them, but the downs were having to give up some attention, and with two babies around, that sometimes wasn't easy, but Vincent and Felicity helped him with that since they could relate a lot, especially Felicity. The Pokemon would at times help them with the cubs. One day was going to be one to remember, especially for one specific cub. Kiara came out of the cave first and looked out to the jungle, she was excited and was about to run off to explore it all for herself.
"Whoa!" Simba stopped his daughter with a smile. "Where do you think you're going in such a hurry?"
"Daddy!" Kiara wiggled in her father's grip, a little irritated and impatient, but she giggled as she tried to escape his grasp. "Let go!"
"Now, I just want you to be careful." Simbra told her.
Kiara nodded until she saw a passing butterfly, then tried to pounce after it and giggled in mild amusement and excitement.
"Kiara, are you listening?" Simba stepped on her tail to keep her from wandering off. "Accidents can happen. You could easily get hurt, or stepped-"
"...Hurt, or stepped on, or even get lost." Kiara finished for him, having heard this millions of times before with Kion and was sure that Kopa was given the same lesson when he was their age.
Kion came out ready for the day as well as Kopa as they both came out of the cave. Nala came out with them and smiled down to her boys as she then went over to Simba's side as they talked before Kiara could go around the Savanna.
'Dad's doing the lesson again.' Kion thought to himself with a groan.
"Oh, not this again...' Kopa also groaned to himself.
Nala walked over with a gentle laugh. "Mind your father, Kiara."
Kiara giggled to her mother. "Yes, Mom."
"And stay away from the Outlands." Simba then sharply warned.
"Nothing there but a bunch of backstabbing, murderous Outsiders!" Zazu added in as he flew by the lions' sides.
"Zazu's right, you can't turn your back on them." Atticus said as he came out of the cave and joined them.
"Really?" Kiara asked. "How come, Uncle Atticus?"
"Never mind that now, just run along." Atticus said.
"Your uncle is right." Simba said.
"But, guys, I-" Kiara spoke up.
"You'll understand someday," Simba promised. "Go on."
"Dad..." Kiara tilted her head.
Two young lionesses around Kiara's age came, one had grassy green eyes and another one had midnight blue eyes.
"Ah, good morning, Zuri and Tiifu." Simba greeted the lioness cubs.
"Good morning, Your Highness." Zuri and Tiifu bowed.
"Run along with your friends now." Atticus told the lioness cub.
Kiara giggled, then ran off Pride Rock to go with Zuri and Tiifu.
"And stay on the path I've marked for you!" Simba called as the cubs went off to play.
Nala chuckled to their daughter. Kion looked and saw his best friend Bunga and decided to go and play with him. There was a cheetah cub that was wandering around the grasslands and appeared to be lost.
"Simba, who does Kiara remind you of?" Mo smirked. "Hmm?"
"Huh? What? Who?" Simba looked clueless.
"She's just like you when you were young." Nala replied, knowing what Mo was referring to.
"Exactly," Simba replied and looked back out as Kiara left with her 'advisers'. "Do you realize what dangers we put ourselves in?"
Nala decided to pin her mate to the ground out of nowhere. "Don't you mean the dangers you put us in?" she then asked.
The two looked to each other before chuckling and nuzzled against each other.
"Simba, there's no need to worry, she'll be fine." Cherry told him as she walked by to see the two lions on the ground together, Nala still having pinned him down successfully.
"Cherry's right." Nala smiled before getting off him and walking back into the cave.
Simba didn't look so sure, once he was alone, he asked Timon and Pumbaa to keep an eye on Kiara today and he was sure that she was bound to run off.
"Kion, look over there." Bunga pointed to the lost cheetah cub.
Kion looked to where Bunga was pointing to find the cheetah. "She looks lost." he said.
The cheetah looked to them and zipped off.
"Huh, what's up with her?" Bunga wondered. "Whatever... Let's just play... Whatya wanna play today, Kion?"
"How's a round of 'Baobob Ball'?" Kion smirked to his best friend.
"Okay, but you'll never win." Bunga smirked back.
"Is that a challenge?" Kion smirked. "If I were you, I'd be worried about losing to a real lion like me!"
"You know what my uncles always say," Bunga replied.
"I know, I know, 'Hakuna Matata'." Kion replied.
"Go on and teach him what a lion can do, little bro." Kopa smiled.
"You got it." Kion grinned.
"Oh, it is on!" Bunga laughed.
The two best friends started to play their favorite game.
Kopa smiled to them.
"Hey, wait, come back, I just wanna play!" Kiara continued to chase the butterfly.
"Kiara, wait up for us!" Zuri called out.
Tiifu panted. "She runs... Way too fast!"
Kiara kept on chasing after the butterfly until she saw it land on a rock. "Ah..." the lioness smiled eagerly and darkly. "The mighty hunter has cornered her prey..." Kiara began to get ready to pounce on the butterfly.
Hopefully this time, she wouldn't get any interruptions. Unfortunately, she missed it as the butterfly flew away before she could catch it.
She then growled and tried to go after the butterfly a little more, but then got a view of the Outlands which distracted her from her previous motive. "Whoa... cool! The Outlands! I wonder what's out there..."
Zuri and Tiifu came to her side, looking out to the Outlands too, but only in fear, while they were looking out to the Outlands, there was something in the grass, moving towards them.
"I gotta check this out, guys..." Kiara said.
"But your dad said not to..." Zuri bit her lip.
"Even our parents won't let us go." Tiifu added in.
"Oh, come on, you guys, grow a backbone." Kiara said.
Zuri and Tiifu bit their lips nervously. Kiara decided to take a closer look. Kopa was wondering what to for himself, then gasped once he saw his sister and her friends were close to the Outlands. And where he began to get closer to them along with Timon and Pumbaa. The girls were about to look closer, but looked behind them and instantly screamed. Timon, Pumbaa, and Kopa then screamed back in fright and surprise. And where the three lioness cubs all fell off the rock into the water.
"Ooh, don't worry, Kiara, Uncle Pumbaa's comin'!" the warthog called before jumping after the lioness cubs, splashing into the water.
Kopa glanced at the meerkat. "And just how are you going to explain this one to Dad, huh?"
"Oh, no, uhh, let's see, uh..." Timon stammered before practicing an explanation for Simba. "'Gee, Simba, the good news is, we found your daughter and her friends. The bad news is, we dropped a warthog on them... That's not gonna be a problem, is it'?"
"Kiara? Tiifu? Zuri?" Pumbaa asked while not knowing was sitting on top of the three lioness cubs.
"Pumbaa!" Timon called.
"Uncle Pumbaa, let us define BABYSITTING!" Kopa exclaimed.
Pumbaa looked down and smiled nervously, getting up from the lioness cubs. "Sorry..."
The cubs coughed and sputtered from the water. Kopa got down to the four of them and got the girls out of the water.
"Now, Princess Kiara, as Simba's daughter, you know better than to go off all alone." Pumbaa scolded.
"But I wasn't alone!" Kiara said. "Zuri and Tiifu were with me!"
"She's got you there, Uncle Pumbaa." Kopa had to agree with his younger sister.
"Well... Still... You could've been hurt." Pumbaa then continued.
This instantly panicked Timon. "Hurt! Oh... Simba would kill us! You didn't slip a disc, did you?"
"Yeah, thanks for worrying about us..." Zuri deadpanned as she stood with Tiifu.
"You two okay?" Kopa asked, checking if they had any bruises.
"We're fine, thanks..." Tiifu smiled to Kopa.
"Aside from almost drowning..." Zuri slightly rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Pumbaa smiled sheepishly.
Tiifu and Zuri merely scoffed and rolled their eyes as the warthog and meerkat fussed over their royal friend.
"Guys, I think she's all right." Kopa said to Timon and Pumbaa.
"Catch a fever?" Timon continued anyway. "Get a hangnail?"
"Timon!" Kiara grunted in mild annoyance.
"I had one once." Timon said.
"Very painful!" Pumbaa empathized.
"Excruciating!" Timon added in before taking a branch like an umbrella and held it over the lion princess. "Darling, with your complexion, you should stay out of the sun."
Kiara was really annoyed and decided to swat the branch away.
"What?" Timon glared. "Do you wanna wrinkle?"
"Would someone please just listen to me?" Kiara groaned.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening," Timon replied. "Did you say something, Princess?"
"Were they always like this?" Kiara asked Kopa.
"Nope." Kopa shook his head.
Kiara sighed. "I'm not just a princess, you know," She then said to the meerkat and warthog. "That's only half of what I am!"
"Oh, uh, what's the other half?" Pumbaa asked, taking that a little too literally.
Kiara wasn't sure how to answer that.
"Well, while you're figuring that out, let's eat." Timon said as he went with Pumbaa to 'rustle up some grub'.
"Oh, no, I think I know what he means by that." Kopa said.
"Grubs!" Timon beamed.
"The other white meat." Pumbaa added in.
Tiifu and Zuri looked absolutely disgusted.
"And so high in protein." Timon smiled as he showed the bugs to Kiara.
"Ew, gross!" Kiara cringed, very disgusted, even more than Simba was when he tried bugs for the first time when he met Timon and Pumbaa.
"No?" Timon frowned before offering to Kopa and Kiara's friends. "Kids?"
"No, thank you." Kopa, Zuri, and Tiifu declined.
Timon hummed about their declines, then offered the grubs to his best friend. "How 'bout you, big boy?"
Pumbaa sniffed with a smile. "Ah... Love grubs!"
"Not like!" Timon smiled to him.
"Love!" Timon and Pumbaa then said together.
"Of course." Kopa rolled his eyes, not finding how they could love to eat bugs.
Tesma was walking with the pups she helped her boyfriend raise. "Timon?~"
Timon turned and smiled to the female meerkat. "Hey, Tesma!" he then looekd down to his niece and nephews. "Aw, no..."
"Aw, yes," Tesma replied. "You are babysitting."
"But me and Pumbaa and Kopa are supposed to watch over Kiara and her friends." Timon said.
"You can do both." Tesma said.
Timon's eyes widened. "But... But... But..."
"I have to gather food for us and your niece and nephews are a handful to do with," Tesma replied. "I'll make it up to you."
"Oh, fine." Timon pouted.
"Good boy..." Tesma patted her boyfriend's head. "I'll be with your mother then."
"All right, all right..." Timon groaned.
Mabu, Mishka, and Monty then tackled their uncle and laughed. But then Pumbaa spat out the bug he ate because he didn't like it.
"Eww..." the young meerkats recoiled in instant disgust.
Tesma sighed and went off to gather food with Timon's mother.
"Oh, you always do that!" Timon glared at his best friend. "You take a bite out of every one, and then put it back. It drives me crazy!"
"But you can't tell from the outside which are the real slimy ones!" Pumbaa retorted which resulted in an 'intelligent debate' between Timon and Pumbaa.
Kiara rolled her eyes, before she smiled and saw her human friends, then decided to go with them. "Come on, guys," She told Zuri and Tiifu. "We're outta here."
"No, thanks, we're staying right here and nothing you can say will change our minds." Zuri whispered to her.
"Would you rather listen to these two talk about bugs?" Kiara replied.
"I'm with her, let's go." Tiifu said, going the opposite direction of the Outlands.
"Yeah, good point." Zuri agreed, going with Tiifu.
Kiara ended up crossing the river.
"Kiara!" Kopa's eyes widened. He went after her while Timon and Pumbaa continued to argue.
Kiara crossed a log over the river, but then tumbled and got nervous as she started to fall over, rolling down a small hill.
"Aw, man!" Kopa rushed over to his sister.