Chapter Fifteen

A/N: This first part is happening during Zira and Nadugu's arguement.

Vitani's POV

Mom was out again with her boyfriend, Nadugu, so Nuka and I were pretty much on our own for the day. Unbeknownst to Mother, however, Nuka was planning on hanging out with one of Mom's younger friends, a lioness about his age named Rinaka, instead of teaching me how to hunt field mice like Mother had instructed him to do.

I made a mental note to tease him about that later, but today I was going on an adventure. Not sure what I was going to find, but I was tired of just sitting around and watching Nuka scratch at his termite-infested fur all day.

I crept past Zazu, the king's butler, and hid in the bushes outside Pride Rock without being noticed. Or so I thought.

"Hey, Vitani! Where ya goin'?" came a familiar voice from behind me. Tano jumped out from behind my hiding spot and pounced on me. We rolled around laughing and wrestled for a while, hiding behind the bushes so nobody, could see us. I'd told Tano to keep our friendship a secret because my mom didn't like for me to play and have fun, and he didn't seem to mind. In fact, we made it a fun game, hiding and making up secret adventures to embark upon together. We always had fun when we played together. He was my only true friend.

If my mother knew that Tano and I were secretly best friends, she'd chew me out when we were alone, so that Nala wouldn't find out. Mother kept secrets of her own, secrets about how mad she was at Tano's father for killing mine. But I didn't blame Tano for that. It wasn't his fault, and he was my friend.

Good thing Mother was otherwise… occupied today. I saw her and Nadugu together once. Disgusting how touchy they were. So uncharacteristic of Mother. Nuka had told me about her and our father, Scar, and how she'd been even more disgustingly lovey-dovey with him before he was killed. Nuka said that Mother had… loved our father. It was hard for me to imagine Mother being sweet or loving without an ulterior motive of some sort, so sometimes I thought Nuka was just making up stories. I'd never seen her that way, personally.

Tano's voice above me woke me from my daydream. "Tani, are you gonna let me pin you every time, or are you gonna start putting up some sort of fight someday?" he said with a playful smirk on his lips. I laughed. "Ha, we'll see about that!" and with that, we began to brawl again. After a long bout of wrestling, he still managed to pin me. "How do you always do that, Tano? It's like you can't be pinned!" I cried in mock desperation, trying not to giggle but failing anyway.

"I don't know. I guess I get that from my mom. She always pins whoever she fights. Even dad, and he's not just 'letting her win' either. I saw them wrestle once. She's unpinnable!" Tano said with a grin. I could tell he loved bragging about his mom. We started wrestling again, until we were interrupted by an all-too-familiar voice behind us.

"Well well well, what have we here? Tano and 'Tani, sittin' in a tree…!" My stomach lurched at the sound of my brother's voice. Nuka's evil smirk made Tano gulp too, though he tried to hide it. We both knew we were dead, because Nuka couldn't keep any secrets from Mother. And hell hath no fury…

Nuka's POV

I laughed as I saw the fear in the eyes of the two little cubs in front of me. "Mother's going to be sooooo pleased to see that you two are such good… friends. I'll be sure to let her know when she gets back!"

"Oh really?" Vitani's suddenly triumphant tone caught me off guard. Why wasn't she scared anymore? Mother would be furious when I told her. "Does Mother know you weren't watching me today? Does she know you were with Rinaka all afternoon instead of teaching me how to hunt field mice?" Her confident smirk infuriated me, because she was right. Mother would kill me when she found out I'd left Vitani alone all day to hang out with a lioness.

"You wouldn't." I said sternly, trying to intimidate her back into the corner I'd had her in only moments earlier.

"Watch me." She smiled mischievously.

I pounced on top of her before she knew what was happening, and I bit off a piece of her ear in my frustration with her. She cried out, and instantly I felt a small set of sharp claws dig into my back. Tano lept onto my back and knocked me off of my sister.

We grappled for what seemed like forever, and I realized that the prince was much stronger that I had assumed. I caught a piece of his ear in my teeth to try to make him give in; surprisingly, he ripped it away with barely a whimper, and in seconds he had me pinned to the ground. How embarrassing! Pinned by a 7 month old CUB! I knocked him off of me and ran off. Mother could never find out about this…

Tano's POV

Nuka had some nerve. If he hadn't run off, I would've beaten a lesson into him.

Not really caring about the blood that flowed down the side of my face, I went over to Vitani, who had suffered a similar injury in the brief struggle.

"Are you ok, 'Tani?" I asked, helping her to her feet.

She looked to my injury, "I should ask the same thing about you. He took off a pretty good piece of your ear, Tano... doesn't that hurt?" she asked, her concern easily detectable.

It did, but Dad had taught me to concentrate on other things when I hurt myself. It had turned out to be a pretty good trick for getting rid of pain.

Vitani groaned, "Grrah, Nuka's such an idiot! Mother's going to kill him when she figures out he did this to me." she said, not really talking to me.

Vitani's mom had always creeped me out. There was just something...not right about her. I figured Nuka had a pretty harsh punishment coming to him indeed, even more so if she told her all of that other stuff that made Nuka freak out on her.

"Are you sure he's not going to tell on you?" I asked, pondering the fate of our secret friendship.

She shook her head, "If he knows what's good for him, he won't."

I smiled at her. It must've looked weird with all of the blood running down my face, because she looked away from me.

"What?" I asked her, wondering why she'd given me that weird look.

She dismissed it immediately. "Nothing, it's just that we can't play now, we're both hurt." she answered, still not looking at me.

True, already I began to feel lightheaded from the blood loss.

"Hey, we'll be better in no time though. I'll see you tomorrow?" I asked her, hoping she'd say yes.

She turned slowly, and I could see a tiny smile creeping onto her lips. "You might." she replied, with a mischevious undertone to her voice.

'Tani then began to walk away, headed for the small cave that her family called home.

I turned and started for Pride Rock's den, wondering how in the world I was going to explain this to mom and dad. I hoped it wouldn't start another fight. They seemed to fight about me a lot lately...

Simba's POV

Tano approached me slowly, with his head cocked drastically to one side as though he were hiding something.

"Alright, I want to know what happened and how bad it is." I demanded, hiding my worry with mock irritation.

Tano let a sigh, "Ok dad, but it looks a lot worse than it feels." he said, starting to turn his head.

I was horrified to see that my son was missing a sizeable chunk of his right ear. Blood was flowing freely down the side of his head and dripping on the ground beneath him with a steady patter.

I was at a loss for words, "Tano, who did that to you?" I asked.

"I was playing around and I fell and caught the edge of this sharp rock. It doesn't hurt dad."

Tano was clearly lying to me, I could see it in his face. And I didn't appreciate being lied to.

"I'll ask you again, who did that to you Tano?" I insisted, not buying his story for a second.

He sighed, "It was Kufa, he said I was stupid." he admitted sheepishly. He wouldn't look me in the eye, so I figured it was pretty bad.

Tano and Kufa did NOT get along, and since they had gotten into countless fights before, I believed him.

"Tano, I taught you to be bigger than that. Come on, let's see if Rafiki can fix that." I said, picking him up so he wouldn't have to walk. I figured I'd let this one go. We'd been on his case about fighting with that cub all week, and obviously nothing was going to work with Tano. Now to keep it from Nala... I sighed, knowing I'd never be able to keep secrets from my love, even if it caused another argument.

Nala's POV

I came back from my hunt late that evening, so late in fact that the only one left awake was Simba.

"Hey Simba, what are you still doing up?" I asked him as he ran out to meet me.

Something seemed to be bothering him, "What happened?" I asked, not liking the worry I could see him trying to hide on his face. He'd never been successful at hiding his feelings from me.

He sighed, "It's Tano. He's not hurt badly, but he got into another fight."

I groaned. Not the kind of news you want to hear coming back from a hunt, "Well, how badly is he hurt?" I asked.

"Well...he's missing a good portion of his ear, but at least Rafiki managed to stop the bleeding." he replied after considering his words for a moment.

'So it was that bad?' I thought.

"Who did he fight with?" I asked Simba, worried about our son getting himself into too much trouble for his own good, once again.

Simba clicked his tongue, "Guess." he said, expecting me to know...

...Oh no, not Kufa AGAIN.

"Well, did you talk to Natashu about it?" I asked, hoping he'd done this most obvious thing and talked to Kufa's mother.

But Simba shook his head 'No' which bothered me, "What did you do then?" I asked, more than a little frustrated at this situation.

"Nala, I took care of what mattered. I got Tano the help he needed, and I grounded him to the den for the rest of the day." Simba said defensively. I suddenly didn't like his tone.

No, that was just something you didn't do, "You punished him! Simba, he's the victim in all of this. You should've went and talked to Natashu and got that little brat Kufa punished!"

Simba then became frustrated. Great. Another fight. This had become the norm these days, and I was getting sick of always fighting over how to take care of our son.

"Nala, Tano said he started the fight. The way I see it he's just as guilty as Kufa in all this."

"Simba, you didn't do your job."

"What's that supposed to mean? I did everything I was supposed to! Our son was getting ready to bleed out!"

"Exactly my point, you should've seen to Kufa being punished. Instead of punishing our son."

"Nala, this is the third time this week those two have fought!"

"But. Kufa. Hurt. Our. Son."

"Are you even listening to me?" he yelled indignantly.

"Are you?" I retorted.

"Don't try to make it seem like I'm the bad guy in all of this, Tano needs to learn restraint."

"And how do you think he's going to learn that Simba? You have to teach him!"

"I have been teaching him things, Nala. He never listens!"

"Are you even listening to yourself? You sound like you don't want to be a father anymore!"

"I do! How could you say such a thing?" Simba seemed genuinely hurt by my words, and I almost regretted them for a moment. Then I remembered how angry he was making me. Serves him right.

"...Just working with what I got."

"What did you say?"

"You heard me."

"Nala, I love Tano as much as I love you, With all of my being, and I would gladly die for either of you."

"Hmm...a shame you're so hardheaded."

"One of my few flaws."

"So, do you want to go talk to Natashu and Kufa tomorrow?"

"Why don't you just let me do my job as the father of our son and take care of it without your input?

NOW I was pissed. He was trying to kick me out of the decision-making process for OUR son. Oh HELL no. I raised my eyebrow and replied, "Oh really? Well, maybe if you would DO your job without me having to tell you how to raise a cub, then perhaps I wouldn't be on your case all the time! Ever thought about that?"

And with that, I gave him a look that said where he'd be sleeping tonight, and I stormed into the den alone. For a split second, I thought I caught a glimpse of a cub who'd been listening to our fight, but I was too far away from the cub to tell who it was before it ran off, obviously embarrassed about being found. But since my mind was heavily burdened with the fight I'd just had with my Simba, I forgot about it almost as soon as I noticed it. I tried to get some sleep, but sleep would not come that night.

Zira's POV

What had I done?

My body shook involutarily from end to end, although I had talked about doing it all of the time, I had never actually killed another lion.

I looked down at where Nadugu's blood stained my fur, "What have I done?" I asked aloud, vocalizing the thought that repeated itself over and over in my head.

My mind went into a frenzy of thought, What was I going to do? Why had I done what I did? How was I going to explain this to anyone if they found out? The punishment for murder was death. Always.

I took several deep breaths

"Calm down Zira, you're losing it. Bring it on back." I told myself, repeating what my mother used to tell me whenever I was a cub and I cried.

I looked to the lifeless form that was sprawled in front of me, what was I going to do?

I had no idea, but if I wanted my plan to continue without being completely torn apart, I needed to think of something.

Fast.

A/N: Hola mi amigos, sorry about the wait on this one, but both me and my co-writer's schedule got packed with important stuff to do.

So, wha'd you guys think? look out for my next update coming soon!