Chapter XII

It was only a few minutes before the sun was to rise into the fading, pale sky the next morning. Kovu was the first one to rouse from his sleep, silently thankful that his horrifically perverted dreams had ended at last. His eyes began to weakly and tiredly flicker open. However, after he yawned tiredly and attempted to keep his eyes open, something unexpected happened. Kovu looked ahead of him at the front of the den, and he saw a truly saddening sight. Kiara had woken up before him, the laptop was opened again, and Kiara was sobbing to herself, with Timon looking upon her sympathetically. Kiara leaned herself against the stone wall of the cave, with one of her paws covering her eyes. She was crying sincerely, tears falling down her face and onto the ground.

The instant the awakening lion saw this, his eyes opened fully, and he was naturally concerned for his mate. Standing up abruptly, Kovu gave Kiara an extremely worried and fearful look, seeing that she was in some sort of anguish.

"Kiara?... Kiara, what's wrong?" He asked softly. The lioness gave no reply, as she continued to cry to herself for reasons he did not yet know. She sounded as though she had been crying for some time now.

Kovu had awoken fully now, and with a concerned look on his face he quickly paced himself over to his anguished mate. He stopped in front of her, seeing her quietly sob to herself.

"What is it?" He asked her again, gently rubbing his head and mane against her neck lovingly.

Finally getting a response, Kiara lifted her paw away from her eyes, which were now bloodshot and aching, tears streaming down from them. Trying to collect herself, Kiara looked down to Timon, who was staring up upon her sadly. She said in between sobs, "Show him, Timon..."

Kovu looked down to the meerkat, glancing at the laptop's screen. "Show me what? What's going on here?"

Timon reluctantly and uncomfortably replied, "Ahh, Kiara woke up before the rest of you did. She said she wanted to get a head start on the fanfiction about herself, and well..."

He trailed off, not wanting to say anything more on the matter. Kovu insistently asked, "What is it? Come on, tell me Timon!"

Very clearly worrysome for his mate, Timon decided there was no use in holding anything off. He sighed before replying in a more serious tone than usual, "Well... we did some searching around about her, and... apparently the fans really seem to hate her."

Kovu was caught completely off guard by this. He raised an eyebrow, saying to him, "What?"

Timon shook his head, turning his attention back to the laptop screen. He clicked around on a few things, which annoyed Kovu greatly. He said more defensively, "What the hell do you mean everyone hates her?"

Timon clicked to what looked like a message board of some sort. Knowing that lions were unable to read it, he said to him, "Here, listen to this."

And from there, Timon began to read back some of the most cruel, hurtful, hatred-filled and upsetting things Kovu ever heard in his life, all of them regarding the one he loved. Just a handful of the comments that Timon read back were as follows;

"Kiara? Grown up? I think not! She was spoiled and stupid as a young cub and she remained so throughout her teen years."

Next he read a post out loud that said, "Yeah I always hate Kiara because she wasn't smart not brave or strong, she sucks anyway. I love Toothless, at least he was smarter than that dumbass Kiara."

"The result of Simba and Nala's offspring; a whiney, Mary-Sue, goody-two-shoe's, excuse of a princess who develops a love interest for an epic character. Kovu doesn't deserve Kiara as Kiara doesn't deserve Kovu. In my opinion, Kiara deserves a whiney love interest like herself, someone who she can relate to. If Kiara doesn't get what she wants, she'll cry about it until she gets her way as any princess would probably do."

This was followed by "She's just so whiney and annoying. I always wished Simba had had a son in the movies."

"While I think TLK2 was a pretty decent film, The bland, uninteresting and vacant personality of Kiara sort of destroyed it for me."

"The only thing that I didn't like was Kiara. Her character was just so bland, mediocre and forgettable for my tastes and had zero personality whatsoever."

"Kiara isn't like Simba was in TLK. Her only real problem is that she's a disobedient sh*t who disregards what her father tells her about Kovu."

"A lot of people HATE Kiara including myself because she's... "special", derpy, she's a ditz. AKA STUPID. Therefore I drew her being stupid. lol"

"A friggin' log has more intelligence than her! OF COURSE she was expecting an adult, big muscled lion like Kovu to appear out of that miserable clump of grass!"

And following this, he read another post that said "Always knew she was a whore."

As Timon read more of these off, Kovu's heart absolutely sank, and his mouth fell open in horror. Kiara's sobs began to intensify loudly, being reminded of how hated she seemed to be. Giving up on any more posts, Timon turned back around with a solemn look on his face, looking up to Kovu's mortified expression.

He reluctantly said, "This stuff's everywhere, Kovu. Almost every site and every page we could find has this about her. Everybody just seems to hate her."

Kovu's left eye began to twitch. He felt almost as sick as he did when he saw the smut off of himself the day before. He was about to say something, but Timon turned back around to the screen. "And look at these." He said sadly.

He clicked around a few places again, typed something in, and then moved out of the way so that Kovu could get a good look at it. And what followed was a series of art pieces Timon had pulled up, every one of them depcting Kiara in humiliating, demeaning and degrading situations, most of them making her look like an absolute ditz. Every one of them mercilessly ridiculed her in just about every way that a person could be ridiculed. As Timon scrolled through the results, he said to Kovu,

"Looks like these people aren't just perverts or pedophiles after all."

Then, Timon zoomed in on a Kiara hate image that was especially cruel and hard to look at. It depicted Kiara as a cub dead and bleeding violently in the mouth of a dragon, her blood dripping onto the grass below. And from what could be seen, it looked as though the comments for it shared the hatred for her.

Kovu winced at the sight of this, taking a step back. Not knowing what to do at this point, Kovu's mortified look turned back to Kiara, who was sobbing uncontrollably now. She managed to say, "T-they all hate me, Kovu. Nobody... even likes me. They called me... they called me stupid, annoying, selfish... an irresponsible bratty whore."

Kiara's voice completely broke down at that last part, where she shut her eyes tightly to hold back her sorrowful tears. Right to the very center of her heart and soul, the poor lioness felt crushed to have the weight of so much of the entire world's distaste towards herself now weighing down her entire body, both physically and mentally. Few were anything close to forgiving towards her, and tragically the majority of what she had seen showed her no mercy. Timon unwisely added, "Some of them said that you should leave this dumb ditz for a lioness who actually knows what she's doing."

Kovu growled at him fiercely, which quickly prompted him to add, "Hey, their words, not mine."

Turning his attention back to his mate, Kovu's expression lightened. Nuzzling her comfortingly, he said, "Kiara... those people are wrong. They're absolutely wrong. You are not stupid, in fact you're one of the smartest lionesses I've ever met."

Kovu glanced back to Timon, asking him, "Did any of them say why they thought she was stupid?"

Timon shrugged. "To be honest, I don't know. They think that she's bratty, annoying and spoiled and other things like that, it's terrible. Plus I heard something about a lot of people hating how she wasn't a good hunter or how she just overall looks ugly."

Kovu turned back to his mate, resting his paw on her shoulder as she wept. Kovu said softly, "They're wrong, Kiara. You've gotten to become a great hunter since we got together."

In between sobs, Kiara managed to say, "T-thank you, Kovu."

He continued. "You aren't dumb, you never were. It was thanks to you that my family and yours were able to become one again... you knew that they were the same on the inside... no ditz would be able to tell that."

There was a pause as Kiara attempted to calm down, taking a few deep breaths. Kovu went on, "It's alright, Kiara. I love you, and that's all that matters. So what if a few people don't like you? All of us probably have haters like that."

Timon commented from behind, "Uhh, yeah about that, Kovu... she kind of has more haters than she does fans. She... might actually be the most hated one out of all of us."

Kovu shot him another malicious glare, prompting him to cower backwards a bit. Kovu resisted the urge to roar at him or swat him away with his claws. Timon said, "Okay, so maybe that didn't help."

Kovu paid no mind to the meerkat after this, continuing to comfort Kiara as best as he could.

"S-some of them said they wanted to kill me, Kovu... they want to find me and slaughter me because I am the way I am. They wish I could've... could've died with the alligators or gotten killed because they think... that I'm so annoying."

Kovu's eyes shot wide open. Resisting the urge to scream or cry himself, Kovu said softly yet firmly, "No, they won't do that, Kiara. If they try to, I'll show them who they're really messing with!"

Weakly, his mate replied, "T-thank you, Kovu."

As saddening and depressing as it was to hear about such a reaction towards her, Kovu felt more anger inside of him than sadness. And as much as Kovu had the urge to find out just who those people were and rip their throats out for showing such disrespect and ridicule, not to mention the apparent death threats for the one he loved, he ultimately decided it was best not to think that way. Just then, they heard something. From the very back of the den, they heard Kopa begin to stir in his sleep, and then him yawning. Lifting his head up and looking upon the scene in front of him, the prince tiredly asked, "Hey... what's going on over there?"

Kovu replied to his brother-in-law, "Hey Kopa, come look at this!"

Deciding to oblige, Kopa calmly stood on all fours. When he did, his ears perked up, and he noticed that Kiara was crying into Kovu's mane harder than he had ever seen her cry before, which was a rather rare thing for her to do in general. Now becoming concerned and surprised at this, the lion carefully stepped past the sleeping lionesses and came up to Kiara and Kovu.

"What's the matter here? What's wrong with Kiara?"

Uncomfortably, Kovu replied, "Timon just showed us some things. Apparently, out of all all the fans we have, Kiara's the most hated one of us all."

Kopa's eyes widened. "What?"

"Everyone's saying that she's an annoying moron or a spoiled brat. It's horrible, Kopa."

Kopa's mouth fell open. He felt as though he had been stabbed in the very heart by Kovu's words. At first, Kopa wanted to take his feelings out on Timon, as did Kovu, but ultimately decided against it. Seeing his sister cry so sadly, he took a few steps up to her and said in the best way he could, "Kiara... I don't hate you. I don't think you're a moron."

She replied to him in between sobs, "The fans do!... It-it's everywhere, Kopa. Thousands of people are making fun of me, saying that they hate me or that I'm too whiny and annoying... saying that I'm the worst thing to happen to the Pride Lands since Scar, and that I should just die to make everyone happy."

"What?!" Kopa exclaimed, abandoning his quiet tone for a moment. With a shocked look on his face, Kopa dove in for the laptop, pushed Timon aside and stared down at what was on it. Timon had left it on the page showing all of the hate art about her, showing her either as a ditz too dumb to live, getting injured in humiliating ways, and in some cases, dying or getting killed because of their hate for her.

One in particular that stuck out to him was a terribly depressing comic of Simba looking down upon cub Kiara darkly, and flat out abandoning her in the middle of nowhere with Nala just standing there, letting it happen. The last panel of the comic, which showed Kiara horribly and tragically lost and terrified at her abandonment, was one that made Kopa feel like he had just ingested the worst toxins known to Africa.

And if that weren't cringe worthy enough, there was another heinously hateful comic next to that one which was labeled 'Kiara's Suicide'. Essentially, it depicted what it would be like if everyone in her real family hated her the way the fans did, and showed everyone in the pride despising and abandoning her to the point where she was mentally tortured and couldn't take it anymore. And to top it off, the comic also showed Kovu deliberately leaving Kiara for another lioness that Kopa couldn't identify. Kopa wasn't able to read any of the unfairly hateful comments or dialogue boxes to this or any of the others, but no words were needed to see the unspeakable horrors of the hate art in front of him. When he saw this comic, Kopa gagged as though he were about to throw up. He turned to Timon.

"This is horrible! What the hell makes them think she's like that?! Just... how? Why?"

Timon shook his head. "I don't know, kid. To be honest, I didn't even know about this stuff before. I just found out about it this morning, actually. They rip apart everything she ever said, go through everything she did, and somehow come up with this."

Kopa glared at the meerkat for a moment, before turning his attention back to Kiara. Standing up again, he walked over to her and rested his head upon her neck comfortingly. And now there they were, Kopa and Kovu trying to comfort Kiara as best as they could. The poor lioness sat down between them, finally lifting her head off of Kovu's mane. Her eyes were bloodshot and blinded with sorrowful tears. Although she was no longer troubled by the death threats since she knew Kovu could protect her, the rest of the ridicule is what got her. She felt anguished and depressed right to the very core of her heart. And seeing her like this, Kopa and Kovu felt about the same.

"It's just not fair." She said in between sobs. "What did I ever do to get so much of this? How did I ever get to be called a whore or a retard? It's just... it's just..."

"It's wrong is what it is." Kopa said firmly. "Every single one of those people are wrong, Kiara. No matter what they say, you'll always be the smartest lioness around here."

"You were never spoiled or bratty." Kovu added in a comforting voice. "You just wanted to have more freedom from Simba. Even though he had his reasons... you didn't know about Kopa at the time."

"Yeah." Kopa added. "None of those people were ever in your situation. None of them know you like we do."

Kiara looked up to her brother and her mate, greatly appreciating the comfort they were giving her. Lord knows she needed it right then.

"T-thanks g-guys." She said. "That... that means a lot to me. But... I just can't believe that so many people would think this... how there's so many... so many."

Perking up, unable to bear the painfully hurtful sight if her like this, Kovu looked outside for a moment. The sun had not yet risen. Turning back to her, Kovu said, "Kiara, I'll be right back."

And with that, Kovu sprang off out of the cave, moving down the slope of Pride Rock with the pale skies above him leaving Kopa and Kiara alone at the scene for a few minutes. Kopa faced his sister directly at eye level, and he nuzzled her comfortingly. Kiara returned the nuzzle.

"You weren't so carefree, Kiara. Kovu told me once that when he was exiled, and you found him at the fire site, he wanted to run away and start a new pride with you. But you knew what was right, and you convinced him to try and go back to make peace with Simba. If that isn't wise, then I don't know what is."

Kiara's sobs of anguish began to cease, as she gave her brother a hopeful look. Kopa continued, "You weren't annoying or bratty at all from what father told me. You had every right to be angry when Timon and Pumbaa followed you on your hunt. After all he did promise to leave you alone there. He also told me that you didn't know what happened to me... or what almost happened to me."

That last part he said with a sigh, remembering briefly what he had gone through up until his return not long before. Getting back on track, the lion said to Kiara, "That doesn't sound like a ditz to me."

Kiara, upon hearing her brother's warm words managed to give a weak smile, realizing that Kopa was indeed helping her. To comfort her more, Kopa leaned in closer to Kiara and hugged her warmly, resting his head on her shoulder and putting his paws around her back in a friendly, brotherly way. Kiara returned the hug In the moment of silence that followed. She had never been so glad to have been his sibling. A comforting brother-sister moment passed between them, with Kopa releasing her gently, and giving her a warm smile.

Just then, Kovu ran back into the den, which got their attention quickly. They saw that within his closed mouth, Kovu had an absolutely gorgeous, vibrant, pink and yellow colored flower that he had gently picked with his teeth out in the Pride Lands. And with a smile, Kovu walked up to his mate and placed it behind her ear, releasing it from his mouth. It stuck there exactly as he had hoped for it to. Kovu looked down to her romantically, placing a paw on her shoulder. Kiara's smile increased ten fold.

"Oh Kovu..." She said. "This... this is the same kind of flower you gave me on our wedding day."

Kovu nodded. "I figured you needed it now."

Kovu brought his face in closer to hers, which signaled Kopa to take a step back to give the two lovers some space. A brief moment of silence passed before Kovu lovongly licked Kiara's muzzle, making her chuckle quietly. Then she gazed deeply into his emerald green eyes, where he in turn gazed into her rose colored red ones. Kovu began softly, "Listen to me, Kiara... every single one of those people are wrong. You don't deserve even the smallest amount of that hate. Whatever their reasons for hating you are, none of them are truly right... you're not irresponsible, nor were you a moron. You managed to see past Simba's prejudices against me and see my pride and I for what we really were- brainwashed and mislead by Zira."

He paused a moment before continuing his heartfelt speech. "Remember when I was exiled, and we found each other at the fire site?"

Kiara nodded, knowing where he was going with this, similar to what Kopa had said earlier. Kovu continued, "Well, when we did, I wanted to just run away from everything... start my own pride with you to take you away from Simba's overprotective ways. But you knew what was right. You knew it would've been wrong to run away from everything. You convinced me to go back and make peace with him, even before we knew about the battle. We even managed to break up the fighting to save their lives, and show Simba I wasn't the killer he thought I was, remember? And it's because of that my family is able to live alongside yours, and forget and forgive what happened in the past. That doesn't sound so selfish to me."

Kiara smiled, and she nuzzled her mate comfortingly. She softly added, "Yeah... I didn't want things to change just for myself, Kovu... I wanted things to change for everyone... change for the better. I knew they needed to move on from their hatred and do what was right."

"Exactly." The lion said with a sincere, heartfelt smile. Kovu went on, "Then you were willing to take the fight for Simba when you and Zira went over that cliff... willing to sacrifice yourself for his safety. Hell, you even tried to save Zira from falling over that same cliff. It would've been so easy to just let her die, but you were willing to put the past behind you, and help her to become one of us by heart... Does all of that sound like something a bratty idiot or an irresponsible, selfish whore would do?"

Kiara replied, "No... I guess not."

Kovu nodded, and he said in a very serious yet loving tone, "I love you, Kiara. I love you more than anyone or anything else in the world, and I say that you're smart, friendly, and incredibly brave. And nothing... nothing that any of those people say is ever going to make me think otherwise."

The lion's words were truthfully sincere, coming from the bottom of his heart and the very center of his soul, all commited to the love he had for Kiara. Pressing her head up against his chin, Kiara softly replied, "Thank you, Kovu... thank you so much. I... I love you too. I always will."

Kovu and Kiara nuzzled each other now with Kovu beginning to hug her closely, putting his paws softly on her back and bringing her closer to him. He moved his right paw off of her back and gently though lovingly pressed it upon her own right paw, making her smile romantically at him for the comfort. Kovu returned the smile. Kopa watched this go down, smiling warmer than he had in years. The sight of his sister comforted by the one she loved when she needed it was moving, to say the least. Kopa walked up to her, and he said calmly, "Are you feeling better now?"

Kiara replied to him, "Yes... yes Kopa, I am."

And with that, tears began to fall down the lioness's face once more. But they were no longer tears of sadness or sorrow, for they were tears of happiness and joy. Never before had she ever felt so happy to have both Kovu and Kopa in her life.

Kopa then added, "The ones who hate you... to hell with them, it's their loss for not seeing you for who you really are... They're the real morons here. If you ask me they're more wrong about you than they'll ever be about anything. They don't know what the hell they're talking about. Kiara, If they knew you half as good as we did, they'd take it all back in a second."

Kiara replied, "Thanks. I love you, Kopa."

The brown maned lion smiled. "I love you too, Kiara... my little sister."

Kiara chuckled when he called her that. Kopa had once told her that if he were around to witness her birth, that was what he would've called her for their childhood. Kiara looked up to Kovu. "I love you, Kovu... thank you so much."

The lion passionately replied, "You're welcome. I love you too, Kiara... I always will."

There was a moment of calm silence as the two lions comforted Kiara, for now she felt so much better about the situation. Her love for Kovu at that moment had never been stronger. The one that she loved so dearly was there for her when she needed him, and that was all that mattered. The sight became even more beautiful as the sun had began to rise ahead outside, casting a warm, golden dawn color across all of the lands. The day's first rays of sunlight graced upon Kiara and Kovu, giving them the most passionately heartfelt moment that they had ever had since their wedding day.

Suddenly, they heard something come from the laptop. It sounded like loud, obnoxious music of some sort, which caught all three of them by surprise, shattering the comforting mood they had. Looking at the laptop suddenly, they saw that Timon, with a rather bored expression on his face, had switched over to an Internet video of a what looked like a pixelated cat with a pop tart for a body, flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail behind it, accompanied by an annoying as hell song in the background. The sight of that was strange enough, but Kopa gave the meerkat a nasty glare.

"Timon! Come on, were you watching that this whole time?!" He said with an annoyed tone apparent in his voice. Kiara and Kovu looked upon Timon with confused looks. It was clear that Timon had lost interest in the scene quite some time ago, for he had been browsing these types of videos for the entire time. Returning his attention to Kopa, Timon asked in a bored tone,

"Sorry, what were we talking about here?"

Author's Note: I know that this chapter was far more serious toned than the previous ones, but seriously- someone needs to give this poor girl a hug. I feel that all of the hate Kiara gets is entirely unwarranted and unfair, and it just pains me to see such hatred as a widespread opinion when she doesn't deserve it at all. All of the comments Timon read off here are sadly real, though they were all from different places instead of one message board. And even worse, what they saw/read here is nowhere NEAR the worst of it that I've seen.

Let me know in the reviews what you think on the matter.

Anyway, just remember how I said in the last one that this chapter would be the transition into the fanfiction. Well with all of this off my chest, the next chapter will have them look at their first written fanfic, which Timon will read out loud to them. And after going through some of the requests I've gotten, I think I know exactly where they can start...