"What happened?" Laita asked with a sideways look at Kavie. Kavie had walked up beside where Laita was looking for her food

"What happened when?" Kavie said.

"Well, you were late again this morning, so I went on to get food without you. I hope you don't mind."

Laita was always apologetic when she didn't need to be. Kavie never really understood why her best friend was like this, and she never really thought she should ask. She did try to help her be a little more open to others. She didn't want Laita to be something she wasn't, Kavie just felt that Laita had things she wanted to say and do, but kept herself from them.

"Oh, I don't mind. But you don't always have to wait for me...not that I don't appreciate it." Kavie said. This made Laita smile.

"And I am sorry I was so late again, I haven't been sleeping much these past few days."

"Something wrong?" said Laita.

"No, no. I've just been staying up a little later. That's all." Kavie couldn't help but smile a little to herself as she said this. She didn't know why she didn't want to tell Laita about seeing Leo the other night, or the past few ones. It felt kind of special, keeping it to herself. She would tell Laita later, though. It didn't need to be a secret, especially from her friend.

They searched and ate their meal with small conversations, Kavie still in thought. The sun was almost at its highest point in the sky before Kavie noticed something. Laita's facial expression was different from normal. Since Laita still wasn't comfortable talking a whole lot, Kavie had become very good at reading her best friend's face. It was one of the reasons the two had bonded so well.

No, Laita didn't look simply content like she did when it was just her and Kavie. She seemed a bit far off and her smile looked...well...a little like Kavie's did at this time. It was possible that Kavie wasn't the only one with a secret.

"Laita? Are you ok?"

At Kavie's words Laita seemed to come back from somewhere. "What? No, I'm fine." Laita said rather quickly. "Oh, I forgot. I think we're supposed to see your grandmother again today, right?"

Odd response. Kavie thought that Laita might be hiding something from her, but Kavie had not yet told Laita about why she was late this morning, so she supposed they were even for now. As for seeing her grandmother again, she didn't remember.

"I'm not quite sure. I don't remember her saying anything, but I haven't seen her since yesterday. Maybe we should go and check."


"Uh...Leo?"

Leo jerked awake suddenly, sending dirt flying everywhere. His brother brushed some off himself as he waited for him to get up and turn around.

"Yeah Max." Leo said quickly after he'd stood up and began attempting to get some of the dirt out of his eyes. "What were you saying?"

"I wasn't saying anything, you were sleeping." he said. "Come on Leo, get focused! Your work's been slipping way too much lately."

Leo could tell Max was trying to keep a brotherly tone, but his displeasure at Leo's behavior was showing through his concern.

"I'm sorry Max, I'm just..."

"Tired. Yeah I know." Max interrupted. He started helping his brother clear some of the excess dirt away. "Maybe if ya stopped staying up to go talk with your female you wouldn't be so tired."

"Max..." Leo was trying to get his attention.

"At least before this started you were doing ok. Not great, but compared to now..."

"Max. I am sorry, and I'll get better, and I have. I wasn't even late this morning, that's progress." Leo said with an unsure smile.

Max seemed to accept this. "I guess so,." Max admitted, his frustration diminishing. "But you're no help to me or any of us asleep. Work on that."

With that, Max dusted himself off again and prepared to leave Leo to his work when he heard Leo say quietly, "Also, she's not my female. I mean, I don't even know how much she likes me."

Max let out a sigh and turned around to face his brother again, he would not get to go back to work just yet. "Leo, can I be honest with you? I really don't know why you're even wasting your time with this, you're too young to be gettin' involved with females."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm probably closer to the age and I'm not even thinking about finding a mate."

"Uh, thanks Max. I'll think about that." Leo said after a reluctant pause. He watched Max leave and began working again. He understood that Max was trying to help, in his own way, but it was becoming even more clear to Leo that Max's views weren't exactly fitting him.

He was oddly short with his brother lately as well, he could only guess that it was partially due to his lack of sleep.

Whatever the reason, he didn't want to give up seeing Kavie. He felt more himself when he talked with her, somehow different than any other time. Max surely wouldn't want him to give something like that up, if he knew.

He could always work around or get used to his fewer hours of sleep.

Also, weren't their parents around his age when they met? This was the first time in his life that Leo thought Max did not know what he was talking about.


As Kavie and Laita came out of the brush, they looked out over the busseling horde of other meerkats searching for Ruth.

They saw her as she emerged from a hole in the company of Kavie's aunt Molly. Molly was doing an awful lot of talking, and Ruth looked like she was listening, even while straining to stay polite.

"..I'm just saying, that while I admire your thorough search, the perfect meerkat for the job just might be closer to home." They heard Molly saying as they came within earshot, "I mean, I just believe someone with the most experience, especilly observing your methods would be who would be needed."

As Molly was talking, Ruth noticed the two younger females and walked over to them. She then turned to Molly, who had stopped talking when Ruth stopped in front of Kavie and Laita.

"Thank you very much Molly. I do value your opinion, and will think about what you said." Molly looked offended, as if Ruth had cut her off mid-sentence.

Ruth did not seem to have noticed, though, because she then greeted Kavie and Laita with a smile.

"Well, hello girls."

"Hi Grandma, hi Aunt Molly." Kavie said. "I'm sorry, are we interrupting you?"

"No dear, I think I was done. Go ahead." said Molly, giving her own overly broad smile and glancing over at Ruth before looking back at Kavie.

Kavie flashed a quizzical look before speaking again. "Did you need to see us today, Grandma?"

"...No, I don't think so. Not today."

Kavie started to turn towards Laita but was brought back up to Ruth.

"I would like to speak to you, though, Kavie."

Kavie blinked. "What about?"

Ruth's voice dropped to a softer tone and closed in closer to her granddaughter. "Well, you have been sleeping in more as of late, and you've just seemed very tired overrall. I wanted to know if you're feeling well."

It took Kavie a second, but then she realized what Ruth was talking about. "Oh! No, no, I'm fine. I've just been staying up a little bit later, that's all."

"I don't understand. Why are you staying up late?" A parental tone was creeping into Ruth's voice.

"Kavie," Laita almost whispered right next to her. "Is it a male?"

"What?" said Ruth in suprise, she had been so close that she had heard what Laita had said.

"As a matter of fact, it is...he is. It's not really anything right now. We've just been talking at night because Leo works so much during the day."

Both Ruth and Laita brightened up when they heard Kavie. "Leo?" Ruth asked. "Mel and Ann's Leo?"

"Yes, that Leo." said Kavie. She had to hold in a suprised laugh, her grandmother's face made it seem like this was extremely big important news. Laita's smile was not unlike that too.

"It's not really a big thing, is it? I mean, I like talking to him...and I like him." Kavie said, realizing something. But then when she looked back up from the ground and only saw two faces it distracted her. "Wait Grandma, where did Aunt Molly go?"

"Ruth looked around impatiently, obviously wanting Kavie to share some more, but then that struck her as odd, too. "Hmm, I don't know, maybe to go see your uncle Lee."


Leo was very tired by the evening, he had worked twice as hard that day so that Max wouldn't say any more about his work habits the rest of the day, and thankfully he didn't. Max was even pretty normal towards him when they said goodnight to each other.

As tired as Leo was, he hid it well as he sat with Kavie in the mild night near the large sentry rock. Silence had fallen between the two. Whenever this happened between he and Kavie Leo thought back to something he had wanted to ask her on their first night's meeting. He wasn't sure what she would say, but he thought maybe it could help him.

"Kavie, why do you want to be Matriarch?"

The smile she wore when she looked up at him shrank. She looked up at the sky in the same way Leo had seen her do throughout the last few nights, then looked back at him. She seemed to be arranging her words, as if it were hard to explain with them.

"Hm, I guess just goes back to how I want to help other meerkats. I've watched my grandmother offer her help, and the others listen to her. I never had a clue as to what I wanted to do when I was younger, and when it came time to choose it was the only thing that made sense to me. It feels natural."

"So...you're not just doing it because Ruth did and your mother was going to?"

Kavie looked shocked and insulted at him. She even sat all the way up to look him straight in the eye. "Of course not, Leo. I mean, I'm sure it would make them happy to see me do what Mom wanted to do, but I'm not wanting to do it for anyone but myself. It really is my dream."

Then he watched her expression change again, and then he knew that she knew what he was really talking about.

"But I'm sure even if my dream was different, my grandmother would understand."

"Kavie, I'm pretty sure that Max and Ruth are different."

"Well, you support his dream so much, why shouldn't he return the favor?"

"I don't know. Maybe because my dream was never much. All I really ever wanted was to be like my grampa, Buzz. You know, with radical but smart ideas about not having to be afraid of predators anymore." Leo then quickly added, "I know that things didn't end well for Grampa, but maybe that was because he didn't have enough help or support or something."

Kavie stared at him for a moment. Then she gave him that odd look again. "I guess I could see why you'd think wanting to change the way the colony works isn't much of a dream."

Leo understood and smiled.

He didn't think he would ever change the colony or anything, he'd be happy if he only got the others to see what his grandfather had been trying to show them. If he could only think of a good way, one that didn't involve him meeting the same end.

Leo might have nodded off for a bit, because before he realized it Kavie had started a whole other topic.

"I told Grandma about seeing you lately today." she said.

"You hadn't yet?" Leo asked.

"No. I don't really know why. But she did notice that I've been more tired recently, and I just explained. Laita and my aunt Molly were there, too."

Leo felt uneasy. He wasn't sure what she thought about their friendship.

"Um, what did you explain?" Leo asked in a tone that sounded like he felt.

To his surprise, Kavie's tone actually seemed to match his when she answered, with a glance over to him. "Just..that I am really enjoying the time we're spending together, and that I like you."

"You really do?" Leo asked. He felt elated, but he wanted to make sure that she meant what he thought.

She nodded, and his smile widened. "Oh, wait! I really like you, too." he said.

What a lame way to say it. If he had waited, Leo thought he could have said something way better. She hugged him anyway, though. He didn't know why (like so many things in his life it seemed) that as she hugged him, he felt that this was an important moment.


At that same time, a figure slipped out from the opposite side of the rock. Leo and Kavie didn't hear as Molly climbed through the darkness and down the nearest tunnel hole.


Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, this chapter went through some major rennovations, although I think it's still a little slow. I'm really suprised and excited to be getting to the next chapter, when things really get interesting! (I think, anyway).

Thank you guys again for reading, and comments are still appreciated. :-) Hope everyone is enjoying the last part of summer, some of you are going back to school, but don't be sad, school isn't all that bad, right?