Chapter VIII

Collecting themselves from Kovu's questionable (though accurate) comment, the three remaining lions and the three hyenas turned their attention back down to the laptop screen, where Timon had thankfully reset the search results so that the smut based off of Kiara was gone. Both him and Pumbaa looked up to the others.

"So, uh... what now?" Pumbaa asked curiously. Simba, who was still mentally recovering from what he had seen, took a deep breath. He replied reluctantly, "I was... kind of planning for Kopa to go next."

Nala turned to him and said, "Well Kovu did say he was going to go get him... I suppose that means we have some time before we have to go again."

Simba nodded, and Kiara sighed a deep breath of relief. There was a brief moment of peaceful silence that passed as Nala placed a paw on her forehead, and the three of them contemplated what they had seen before. They were baffled, horrified and angered that such sick material off of themselves could ever exist, and the fact that they still had even more to look through made things no better. But their thoughts were broken up when, suddenly, Shenzi spoke up. "Uh, guys? Can we go now?" she asked.

Nala shot her a nasty glare. "You mean to say that you're really not disturbed by any of this?!" She spat angrily. Banzai shrugged, while Ed shook his head around moronically. Banzai said to her, "Eh, not really."

Shenzi added, "To be honest, Nala, I've seen worse out where we live."

Simba, Nala and Kiara all gave her a nasty look simultaneously, but she thought little of it. Under his breath, Simba muttered in an annoyed tone, "Unbelievable."

Banzai cleared his throat while turning his attention over to Kiara. Briefly, they made eye contact. "So uh, what'd you say your name was again?" The hyena asked her.

Kiara groaned in annoyance as she faced the hyenas, narrowing her eyes slightly in irritation. The lioness replied, "My name is Kiara, guys. The lion who just ran off? His name is Kovu, and he's my mate."

Banzai rolled his eyes, while Ed softly laughed about something that only he would ever know. Shenzi said to Kiara in a sarcastic way, "Right, like we couldn't figure that out for ourselves?"

As this conversation went on, Kiara seemed to be thinking deeply about something. What it was, only she knew at that moment, but she looked as though she were trying to come up with an idea of some sort. Her ears raised up slightly as she did so, as though an idea of some sort were in fact coming together in her mind.

Simba, upon hearing her comment, suddenly blurted out, "Alright, what makes you think you can talk to my daughter like that?! You don't even know what she and Kovu went through to be together!"

Shenzi opened her mouth to say something, but Banzai said it before she could. "Pfft, Like it matters to us?"

Simba, now becoming enraged at the hyenas' attitude, was just about to say something and give them a piece of his mind, but he was stopped before he could. For at that instant, Kiara's eyes widened, and a bit of a devious smile grew on her face. Taking a brief glance at the hyenas, she turned around and faced Simba and Nala. She said to them both as quietly as she could, "Hey... I think I just realized what we can do with them!"

Simba, after taking this in for a second, whispered back to his daughter, "What is it Kiara?"

Immediately after, Simba and Nala both leaned in closer to hear what Kiara had to say, and she whispered into both of their ears. The hyenas looked back to the three of them as she did this, and they looked just as confused now as they ever did. Banzai was admittedly a bit worried about what Kiara could've been saying to them. His fears and suspicions grew significantly when he saw both Simba and Nala smile at her whispering, apparently hearing the idea she had from earlier. After a few seconds of them holding back laughter, the king and queen faced Shenzi, Banzai and Ed again.

"Hey you three..." said Nala. "You guys want to see what kinds of fan art you have of yourselves?"

Each of the three perked up. "What?" Shenzi asked. Simba answered in a bit of an unusual tone, "Don't you know? You have fans over the Internet... people who probably go crazy for you, and adore all three of you!"

Shenzi and Banzai seemed to smile at that thought. Ed looked indifferent, but beneath that look on his face, one could tell that he was in fact trying to emote some kind of joy. "We really have fans?" Banzai asked curiously.

Kiara nodded and finished for her parents. "Yeah, and these people spend all this time drawing the best pictures of you three. Don't you want to see what they came up with?"

At this point, the hyenas' tails were wagging with excitement, and they each smiled in sudden anticipation. "Oh hell yeah!" Shenzi suddenly replied excitedly. Banzai and Ed simultaneously nodded in approval, which earned them suspicious looking smiles from Simba, Nala, and Kiara.

Kiara leaned closely into her mother so she could whisper into her ear once more. "What do you think we should do, start them off with the good stuff, or go straight for the smut?"

Nala chuckled before whispering back to her daughter, "I say we should start with the good art. That'll lure them in for the kill." Kiara held back the urge to burst out laughing as she replied to her, "I was just thinking the same thing!"

Ignoring the whispers coming from the lionesses, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed scurried over to the laptop, with Timon giving a look that made it clear he was catching onto what Simba, Nala and Kiara were planning. Shenzi leaned into him, and impatiently said, "Well come on! You heard the fur ball, show us the fan...ayrt at... or whatever you call it!"

Banzai nodded. "Yeah, show us our loving and adoring fans already!" he said, which was followed by Ed's typical laughter. Timon nodded, and cracked his fingers together before reaching down for the keyboard.

"Alrighty then, if it's fan art you want, it's fan art you're definitely going to get." He said, desperately trying not to laugh.

Kiara said to him from behind, "Start them off with the good stuff, Timon!"

Nodding once more, the meerkat clicked around a few places and typed in what he had to. However, before he could click on 'search', something unexpected happened. Simba said to the meerkat, "Uh, Timon? Before you do that, could you, uh... g-go out and see how Kovu's doing? See if he needs any help bringing Kopa back here?"

He turned around and gave his friend a puzzled look. "What? Why? He'll probably be fine."

Nala glanced over to her mate and chuckled before she said to him, "Oh no, Timon. Kopa looked like he was in pretty bad shape on their way to the Water Hole, Vitani too. Just... go and see if they need anything."

The meerkat scurried away from the keyboard all of the sudden, and went past the hyenas so he stood now in front of Nala. He whispered anxiously to her, "Oh come on, Nala! I know what you're doing here, and I want to see them react to the smut too! I mean they did almost kill me twice, don't you think I'd want to see some payback?!"

Simba took a deep breath before replying in as quiet of a voice as he could, "They tried to kill Nala and I too, Timon. And don't worry about it, we're starting off with the clean art. You can get back in time to see them get to the smut."

Timon could detect a hint of a suspicious tone within Simba's voice, and his confused expression made no attempt to hide that. But, being oblivious as to what was really going on here, he shrugged and said, "Alright then, if that's what you guys want."

He looked over to Pumbaa. He said, "Guess I'll be back in a bit, Pumbaa. You'll have to take control of this for now."

The warthog looked no less perplexed than his friend did, but nevertheless he thought nothing of Simba's request. Still mystified by his and Nala's sudden orders, he stood up and stepped carefully over the laptop, adjusting himself before sitting down again just in front of the keyboard. From the side, Pumbaa watched as Timon walked outside and headed for the slope that led down to the ground. Then, Pumbaa gave a look behind him, and to his surprise, Nala winked to him. Dumbfounded didn't even begin to cover how he felt now.

"Hey, could we just cut the whispering and get to the good stuff already?" Shenzi asked impatiently. Nala nodded to her.

Simba chuckled at what he was thinking of at that moment. Leaning in close to Kiara, he whispered, "Tell me again, Kiara, what're we doing here?"

The lioness happily and quietly explained. "Alright, listen, father. First off, we're gonna get rid of the hyenas for intruding like you said we would. We'll show these guys the smut about themselves when they least expect it to scare them away from here. Now, I've heard that Timon somehow proposed to Shenzi right there before, so who knows how much dirt there could be from that? Once they're scared off, we'll look up something else right before he comes back. So not only are the hyenas going to be gone, but when the time's right, we can pull the 'Shenzi and Timon' stuff back up and give him the payback he deserve for putting us through all this!"

When she finished explaining this, she, Simba and Nala began to laugh ever louder at the thought of such a plan, which did perturb the anxious hyenas to a bit of an extent. But thinking nothing of it again, they eagerly turned their attention back to the screen, and impatiently waited for Pumbaa to click the 'search' button.

Eventually, he did.

Author's Note: I typed this chapter at around 1 in the morning, so if there's anything wrong or just off about this chapter that isn't right, let me know so that I may improve it. So if this feels rushed or flat, I apologize. Regardless, I hope you enjoy, and please reivew!