Chapter XXIII

Over the next ten minutes, Simba tried to explain as best as he could to Minara what their situation was and just what it was they had been doing for the past few days. Timon had to explain the concept of the Internet again, which annoyed him somewhat. He had to try and describe what they had seen and heard without mentioning the smut at all, and Minara herself was shocked right to her heart to hear of such things.

"So you mean to tell me that... all of us have fans, and they write stories about us on this Internet place?" She asked curiously. Simba nodded. "And they draw art off of us too."

"Wow... t-that's amazing!" She contemplated. "But... about what you said, why do they think Vitani was Scar's daughter? She really wasn't."

Vitani shrugged before she scooted in closer to Kopa. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"And what was it you said before about everybody hating Kiara and calling her an idiot?" Minara asked, turning to the princess as she did. She gave her a sympathetic look. "You weren't a selfish brat at all."

Kiara sighed. She said in a rather serious tone, "Ah, it's not that big of a big deal, Minara. True, I still think it's terrible that so many people think that about me and hate me for it. But the way I see it... it could be worse. Not everybody hates me. Especially the ones that matter to me most."

That last part she said while looking up to Kovu, who smiled at her as he licked her muzzle lovingly. Minara smirked earnestly at the sight of this, recalling very briefly how the two of them were the very reason she was able to even live there now in the Pride Lands.

Minara then gave Vitani and Kopa a glance before she cleared her throat and asked the king, "So... how was the fan art then? Was it any good?"

Simba suddenly shuddered when she asked this, reluctantly recalling the horrors that the Internet was capable of depicting him and his family doing. He opened his mouth to say something before Timon interrupted. "The less you know about that, Minara, the better." The lioness gave him an odd look. "Why? I kind of want to see it now."

The meerkat laughed softly and awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand, trying to think of something to say to that. "Well uh... let's just say that the art isn't quite what you would expect it to be. And not in the good way... at all."

She was about to say something else in protest, but Nala quickly said in a quivering tone, "Just trust us, Minara. You'll live a lot longer if you don't see what we saw."

Immediately Nala shivered at the thought of the smut art that was still haunting her dreams every night. Simba felt the same. Minara tried to think of a way to respond to this, but came up with little else other than awkwardly to awkwardly say, "Okay then... what about those stories you talked about? I want to hear those, then."

Moving his train of thought away from the dirty art once more, Simba grinned at her. "Well... Some are definitely better than others, I can say that. We were about to start another one right now, actually."

Kiara then asked Minara in a friendly tone, "Do you want to hear it with us?"

The former Outsider perked up when she said this, resisting the urge to smile. "R-really? You'd want me to join you with... whatever you said this was?"

Timon sighed. "I'll say this again... it's called listening to stories that our insane fans wrote about us."

Kovu shot him a glare. "Oh come on, Timon. Not every fan we have is insane."

The meerkat murmured to himself, "Yeah, tell that to the idiots that call your wife one."

Deciding to ignore that comment from Timon, Minara turned back to Simba and asked him, "Would you really let me stay here for a while, Simba?"

The king glanced outside for a moment past her. He noticed now that the sky was beginning to grow pale, the shadows of distant trees were growing longer and darker against the ground, and the colorful shades of dusk began to cast themselves upon the kingdom from the horizon. Seeing this, he responded calmly, "I don't see why not. The day's almost over anyway, I suppose I could let you leave the hunt early for now."

The lioness smiled at him. "Thank you, Simba. I could use some time off the hunting anyway." She replied earnestly. In total honesty, she felt inspirited and appreciated to be willingly included on something such as this. And the lioness did in fact look forward to what she would hear now that she knew that they all had fans, which she was still trying to comprehend. She stood there in front of the computer for a moment before Timon suddenly cut in, "Well go ahead! Make yourself at home, Minara. We've got a long fanfic coming up now."

Looking now to Kopa and Vitani's side of the den, she treaded over to them and sat herself down to Vitani's right. The lioness moved around until she got herself in a comfortable position with the wall against her back and looked over to Vitani. She gave her an awkward smile.

"So... you're not still pissed about that whole Water Hole thing, right?" Vitani asked her. Minara simply laughed. "I still don't know what the hell it is you guys saw that made you want to do that."

The couple simply blushed. Kopa now said to her, "Minara... you will never know how much we envy you for that."

Away from that scene, Pumbaa turned around and looked down to Timon. He said, "Timon, it's your turn to read this out now."

The meerkat stood up and walked over to the laptop now, stretching himself out a bit as he did so. He asked his friend, "Alright, which one is it this time?"

Pumbaa smiled somewhat deviously as he replied, "Actually Timon, it's funny you might ask that. It was the one that was called Someone Like You. You know the one?"

Timon's eyes widened when he said this, abruptly looking over to the laptop screen. He noticed right then that Pumbaa had pulled up the story for him already. He sighed. "Let's just get this one over with, then."

"What? What is it, Timon?" Nala asked curiously. The meerkat faced her. "The story we're going for now is called Someone Like You. It's about... me finding this female meerkat in another colony, and then... me falling in love with her."

That last part made Nala perk up considerably, making Timon sigh in annoyance. He braced himself for her reaction. "Really?" She cooed. "Someone wrote about you falling in love? Aww, that's sweet, Timon."

He smacked his hand on his face. "Cut me a break here, Nala."

Kopa decided to add here, "Well I think that's refreshing. We're finally hearing something about you instead of us, Timon."

Vitani nodded. "Yeah, I'd say it's time we took a break from the stuff about us and hear what they can do with you."

Timon murmured to himself, "If I wanted to show you what the Internet really did with me, I would just go right back to the pictures of me screwing Pumbaa."

And with that, the meerkat cracked his fingers and stepped over to the laptop, bending his knees slightly as he reached down for the mousepad and keyboard. Staring at the screen for a moment, he began the story.

The sun rose over the horizon at Pride Rock.

"Have you guys noticed that almost every story we've read so far starts with the sun rising?" Kovu interrupted. "That just seems kind of weird to me."

Kiara said playfully to her mate, "I wouldn't worry about that, Kovu. The one story that didn't start out like that had my brother almost rip off his own paw because of Timon getting drunk."

The meerkat grunted. "You're really never gonna let that one go, are you guys?"

Minara gave Kiara an odd look for a moment, not having a clue in hell as to what that meant. She turned to Kopa. "D-did I miss something? Was that from an earlier story or something?"

Kopa shook his head. "You ought to consider yourself lucky you weren't hear for it, Minara."

Timon walked out of the lion's cave, stretched out, and yawned. He watched the sun and smiled to himself, inhaling the fresh air deeply. The wind brushed up against his fur and through his hair, ruffling it in such a familiar manner it brought another smile to his face. He continued to watch the sun, and tilted his head slightly.

"Today's the day, Dad. Simba doesn't need us here to babysit Kiara anymore, and the Outsiders are now on our side. I can't wait to get home and see everyone again."

"Who's dad?" Timon said, stopping the reading for a moment. "My dad's not here in this!"

"Join the club." Kovu muttered to himself.

"There you are, Timon." Timon turned to see Pumbaa had padded out of the cave and over to him. He sat down next to Timon and looked at the sun. "Were you talking to yourself, or to Buzz?"

"To Dad."

Pumbaa looked where Timon was looking, and then he waved at the sun. "Good morning, Mr. Buzz!"

"Did you say your good-byes?" Timon asked.

"Yup."

"And I suppose you had a cry?"

Pumbaa sniffled, "Yup." Pumbaa let out a few whimpers and tears. Timon grinned and shook his head.

"Well, I gotta admit, I had a cry, too."

"I'm gonna miss seeing them on a daily basis."

"So am I. But I miss seeing Ma and the rest of the colony on a daily basis... even Uncle Max. Simba asked us to stay here to make sure Kiara stays safe and away from the Outlands. Now that the Outsiders are Pride Landers, they don't need us here anymore... at least until Kiara and Kovu decide they need babysitters, and they won't be grown up enough for two more years. So, we can finally go home. Ready?"

"Hey" Minara cut in while facing Kovu and Kiara. "Is that why you two haven't had any cubs yet? Because you just aren't old enough yet?"

Kiara shook her head. "No, it isn't because of that. We just... well..."

"It's complicated." Kovu finished for her. In truth, the couple did in fact have a reason for not having any cubs yet, but neither one of them felt like discussing it at the moment.

Minara leaned into Vitani and whispered into her ear, "You know, I'm surprised they haven't had any kids yet. I'm just a huntress and even I know how horny they are for one another."

Vitani whispered back to her, "Trust me Minara, we're just as shocked as you are."

Pumbaa nodded, and then lowered his head for Timon to climb up. Timon climbed on and tugged on Pumbaa's ears. They descended Pride Rock and started to trot away. They stopped a moment to look back at it. Timon sighed as Pumbaa looked ahead again and started walking again.

"Kovu and Kiara look so cute together, don't they, Timon?" Pumbaa asked.

"Yeah... cute. Ahh, young love. Lucky lions," Timon said, resting his chin in his paw.

"They do look cute, don't they Simba?" Nala said softly and sincerely to her mate. Simba looked down to her.

"Yeah, they do." He replied.

Simba resisted the urge to laugh earnestly as he briefly recalled the warm summer morning that Kovu and Kiara had been united in marriage. He then commented, "Apparently cute enough for old perverts to draw them getting busy on the Internet."

Nala sighed. "You know Simba, I was thinking about something... Kovu did have a point when we saw those pictures with him and Kiara. They really were harder to look at since they were doing it before the wedding in all of them."

Simba chuckled. "Not that we have any right to talk, though."

Pumbaa turned his eyes back at Timon, sensing his pal was in another mood. "Uh-oh... Timon, you're not getting depressed again, are ya?"

"What makes you think that, Pumbaa?" Timon asked as he boredly twirled a piece of Pumbaa's hair with his finger. "Just because Simba may be a grandfather before I'm even a father, does that mean I'm getting depressed again?"

"Uh..."

"Such a poet." Timon smiled and sat up straight.

"Wow." Kopa said earnestly while laughing. "Whoever wrote this sure knows how to write you guys in."

Kiara added for her brother, "Yeah, it's so close to how you both really act!"

Pumbaa nodded approvingly. "Yep. That's how it's always been all right."

"Hey, let's get back to the oasis and then we can get back to river rafting. How does that sound?"

"River rafting? Yay!" Pumbaa's trot sped up to a run, but then he skid to a halt after about 30 seconds of running.

"Hey, why'd you stop?" Timon suddenly heard a grumbling noise. He grimaced. "Pumbaa...?"

"It's not that, Timon. I just haven't had breakfast yet. You were just so ready to leave, I didn't have time," Pumbaa said as Timon slid down Pumbaa's snout and to the ground.

"Well, yeah. I suppose when you've been away from your dream home and family for more than a year that happens. I'm ready to go home..." Timon stopped when he heard another grumble, this time coming from his own stomach. He blushed slightly as Pumbaa arched a brow at him. "... But that doesn't mean we can't make a stop at the International House of Grubs!"

"IHOG! Yay!"

They separated to look for a log, where their breakfast typically hangs out. Timon pushed through some blades of grass and found some rocks. He pushed one over and quickly recovered a few plump worms. He slurped them up like strands of spaghetti.

"Ugh, not this again." Simba muttered while bowing his head. Upon seeing the odd looks he was getting, he added, "Sorry, it's just that I'm not used to eating bugs like that anymore."

Nala could easily tell that Simba was growing disgusted at having to hear about Timon and Pumbaa consuming insects like this. Not since the birth of Kopa had he ever done so himself, much to Nala's relief of course.

"Wait, sluped them like strands of what?" Minara asked curiously. "What did that say? What is that?"

Timon turned to his side and faced the lioness. He replied, "It's something that the humans eat, Minara. Lions wouldn't be able to digest it."

"Oh, is that a challenge I'm hearing here you little prick?!" Vitani suddenly shouted out of nowhere while standing up. Timon's eyes bulged in shock, turning to her. "I'll have you know I'd eat that stuff even if it kills me! I'll do it! Come on!"

Minara gave her an indifferent look. She was about to say something about the sudden mood swing, but Kopa stopped her. "Just let it go, Minara. She won't be like this forever... I hope."

He wiped his face off, then moved to the next one. As he was about to lift it, he heard some voices. He cocked his head and started heading towards the source. He pushed a few more blades of grass aside to behold a whole new meerkat colony. They were gathered together, taking instructions from the leader.

"Are they still in the Pride Lands here?" Simba asked. "I don't think we have any meerkat colonies around this place."

Timon playfully added, "If there were, I would know... I think."

"This looks like the perfect location for our new tunnels. Shall we get to work?" he asked, putting his paws together. The colony, a group of about 25, cheered and got into formations. Timon watched them, curious. He never actually saw meerkats start new tunnels from scratch before.

"You haven't?" Kiara questioned. "You lived in a colony all your life and yet you never saw them start tunnels from scratch?"

The meerkat shrugged. "Actually Kiara, I did. That was just what this story said. But uh, to be fair, actually I did only see it one time when I was little."

"Why is that?" Minara then asked before Kiara could. Timon hesitated before he answered, "Well... you know how I said I had that reputation of being the worst digger on the team?"

The lioness nodded.

"Well let's just say that it kind of started the one day I did it from scratch."

His colony never really moved to new locations, not until Timon lead them to the oasis, and they never had to dig tunnels there. So, he decided to forgot about his empty stomach for the moment and watch.

"Can ya dig it?" a female meerkat asked.

"We can dig it!" The meerkats began digging as the female began to sing. The others sang back-up. The song had a good beat to it, one that you could dance to. The female singing had a very nice voice as well. Timon watched, now wanting to hear the whole song.

"Well look at that." Pumbaa commented. "I guess you guys aren't the only ones who can break out into song in the span of three seconds."

Simba shot him a smug look. "Hey come on, Pumbaa. You and Timon did that literally the first time I even met you! Hell, I've been wondering if you're where I learned that from."

The warthog paused. "You win this round, Simba."

"Here we go!" A female meerkat reared her head back, drawing Timon's attention. Her fur was about the same color as his, but a shade lighter. She had 6 brown stripes on her back. From where Timon was standing, she appeared to have blonde hair and possibly blue eyes. Her voice was that of an alto, and she sang.

The corner of Timon's mouth twisted into a half-smile as he watched the female meerkat do a small dance as she coached the digging beat to her colony. She suddenly stopped when she caught a glimpse of Timon. When she stopped singing, the diggers came up to see what was wrong.

"Zuri, you stopped the rhythm. What's the matter?" a female asked.

"Hey wait a second here!" Nala interrupted suddenly. "Zuri? Wasn't that the same name of the mate Timon had in that Lion of the Rings story?"

"Yeah it was, actually." Simba answered her, confirming her suspicion. "Well that was pretty shameless."

Nala nodded. "What's next, they're going to say that Timon finds a Ring of Power too?"

"Even though he probably could've used one when he proposed to Shenzi." Kovu jokingly added, still unable to seriously believe that the meerkat would ever do such a thing.

Timon sighed. Not feeling like putting up with being made fun of like that, he said, "I swear to God, if I had that thing now, I'd put it on and get the hell away from all of you if that's how you're gonna handle it."

The singing female, Zuri, didn't reply as she continued looking at Timon. They looked in the direction where she was looking, and noticed Timon. Timon realized he was being watched, so he began to back away. He stopped when he felt he had backed into someone. He looked back and noticed he had backed into another meerkat, the leader, who was more muscular and a little taller than Timon. Timon turned around to face him and gave him a nervous smile.

"Sorry... was I suppose to buy tickets to watch meerkats dig tunnels?" he asked.

Everyone laughed when this was read off to them, enjoying how accurate this truly was to Timon's real-life counterpart.

"This is so you, Timon!" Simba commented. "That's exactly what you would've said!"

The female meerkat who was singing, Zuri, came to see what was going on.

"Who is it, Papa? Anyone you know?" she asked.

"No... just a rogue meerkat," the father growled at Timon, then bent down to meet Timon's face. "Are you trying to muscle into our colony?"

"Oh Come on!" The real meerkat called out. "I ain't no rogue you old bastard! Hell, Kovu's more of a rogue than I am!"

"Hey!" Kovu called out suddenly, sounding as though he resented that comment from the meerkat. Timon shrugged. "You know it's true." he said.

Kovu leaned into Kiara closely when he said this, and he whispered into her ear, "After this, we're showing him the Timon and Shenzi crap, right?"

Kiara nodded as she giggled excitedly. "Absolutely. We've waited long enough now."

"I've had it with his attitude, Kiara. How the hell were you able to put up with him all your life?" He asked her. Kiara shrugged.

"Well for starters, he didn't exactly have a laptop with him the whole time."

"What? Oh, no, sir! No, I, uh, was just watching that little song and dance number. My colony has a similar whistle-while-you-work thing going, but it's not as hip-hop as yours. It's a real toe-tapper, sir," Timon said, keeping his nervous smile and backed away from the father, then accidentally backing into Zuri. "Ay!" He jumped and got in a defensive position. Zuri gasped when he had his paws up. Timon put his paws down quickly when he realized who it was.

"Alright, that's it. I give it three days before someone draws these two having sex on the Internet. Three days at the most." Vitani sneered.

"Oh, geez! I-I-I'm sorry! I-I'm really sorry, miss." Zuri blinked at Timon a bit, looking him over. Timon also looked at her, since she was closer to him, he could see how much prettier she was. And she was. Very.

"Make it two." Vitani added.

The father stepped up between the two. "Don't waste your time. My daughter does not associate with rogues."

"Papa, don't you think you're being-?"

"No, I don't."

"But I'm not a-" Timon began, but he stopped when the father gave him a warning stare.

The father then turned around and put his paw on his daughter's back. "Come, Zuri. We have nests to build." Zuri looked back at Timon briefly, a hint of curiosity in her eyes, then allowed her father to guide her away from Timon.

Timon felt the corner of his mouth twist into a half-smile again as he watched her disappear into the newly formed tunnels. "Zuri, huh?"

"Yeah, too bad that the bastard who wrote Lion of the Rings had to steal the name!" Kopa joked humorously, clearly resenting how the two characters from the two stories shared the same name. However, within seconds after he did so, he quieted down abruptly and bowed his head, placing a paw over his eyes as he did so. Appearing troubled all of a sudden, Vitani noticed it rather easily. "What's wrong, Kopa?"

He looked over to her and replied, "Well... I don't know, Vitani. I just get this weird feeling every time I say something about whoever it is that wrote that story with the Ring. Like... whenvever I insult them I just get this weird feeling in my stomach. I don't know, something just feels wrong when I say it."

Vitani cocked her eyebrow. "I wonder why..." She contemplated, not knowing exactly what it was she was even thinking about.

"Timon!" Pumbaa calling his name brought Timon back to reality. Timon shook his head to clear his mind and turned to see Pumbaa trot over to him. "I found a great log! What are you doing?"

"Uh... nothing. C'mon, let's go eat!" Timon followed Pumbaa, then he took one last look at the colony tunnels. He shook his head with a sigh and followed Pumbaa.

Timon took a moment to catch his breath before turning around. "Well, that's the first chapter for ya'. What do you say so far?"

A brief moment of silence passed before it was broken by Simba first. "I like it so far." He said. "It's nice to hear about someone besides us be written about, and I... I really like the idea of Timon falling in love. He should've done that by now, if you ask me."

Nala spoke next. "I say the same, Simba. This sounds like it could be really nicely done, I can't wait to hear where it goes."

Upon being asked like so many times before, Kopa and Vitani both said that they were liking the story so far, and so did Kiara and Kovu. They said similar things that Simba and Nala did, and then Minara spoke.

"For my first story here, I'm... really starting to love it. I mean I don't know much about Timon here, but this sounds like it could be good. I want Timon to find love here."

Kopa snickered right before he unexpectedly added this: "Yeah, he deserves better than to die a virgin."

Timon gave the prince a disgusted look for a moment before replying awkwardly, "Uh... I'm going to take that as a compliment...?"

"You're welcome." Kopa said with a hint of sarcasm.

Minara looked over to Vitani. She asked her, "So is this what you guys have been doing all this time? Just sitting here and listening to stories about yourselves?"

Vitani nodded. "Well we talk about them and uh... comment on them whenever they get insane. Some of them have been really good, actually. You ought to hear more of them."

"I look forward to it, then." Minara said.

Then Vitani thought to herself, That's if you don't go insane like the rest of us probably will from all this Internet stuff.

Author's Note: The story credit goes to the Author Kari Gilmore, and it is titled "Someone Like You". I wish to sincerely thank them for giving me permission to use their story here, and all credit for the fanfic they're reading goes to them. In total honesty, it is a very well written story that has a great premise and satisfying execution. I highly recommend reading it all the way through.