Simba's eyes snapped open, and he sighed. It wasn't even a surprise to him any more. It had happened so often that it just lost its shock value. It was no longer a surprise – it was just terrifying. Too terrifying for Simba to even describe. The nightmares seemed to dig deep into his mind, searching for his darkest fears and ripping them right out for him to see. When Simba had nightmares, he saw the most horrific things his imagination could come up with. Sometimes it made him afraid of himself, and that just sounded ridiculous. But it was true. Sad, yes. Outrageous, yes.

But true.

Simba turned his head to the side, and smiled at the sight of Nala. She wasn't afraid of him. Not one bit. She would trust him with her life, and had nothing but the deepest of faith in him. If Nala could pick one person to die for, then it would be Simba. She loved him that much. "You got off lucky," he said to Nala, who was snuggled up next to him, sleeping peacefully. She rarely had nightmares. Whenever she slept, she was always happy. Simba wished he could say the same for himself. But then he would just be lying. "You never have to worry about sleeping. You never have to be afraid of closing your eyes." He sighed, a miserable frown on his face. "I have issues."

"Having another depressing moment?" said Nala, opening one eye and smiling up at her future King. "You speak so sadly that I just can't help but wake up and comfort you," she told him. "What's the problem this time? Is your tuft shrinking?"

Simba chuckled and shook his head. "Nothing on that kind of level, Nala. This is far less serious," he joked, before suddenly looking very glum again. "It's the nightmares," he admitted to her. "They're getting worse."

Nala knew all too well about Simba and how he suffered with his subconscious mind. Every time he drifted off to sleep – no matter for how long or how short a time – he always experienced the most horrific, painful, and frightening nightmares imaginable. Every time, without fail. And it just only seemed to get worse as time passed on. It never seemed to trouble Simba during the day, but sometimes, Nala could see the pain, deep in his eyes. Like the pain was buried deep down in the darkest recesses of his soul. And the mere thought of that... just broke Nala's heart. It really did.

"I'm sorry," was all she could manage to say. This was a serious issue for Simba, and she just didn't know how to handle it properly. There wasn't really anything she could say or do that would fix Simba's problems, or make them all float away. She was powerless in all of this. The only thing she really could offer him was a hug or a kiss – if that's what he wanted. Other than that, she was nothing. "That sounded stupid," she told Simba. "I just feel so helpless when it comes to things like this. I can really be an idiot sometimes, can't I?"

Simba stared into her eyes. "No way," he scoffed. "You? An idiot? Yeah, right. You're the one thing that keeps me going, Nala," he said, putting a paw on her shoulder. "I need someone beautiful to wake up to, don't I?" He smiled at her. "Trust me. You're not helpless at all. You're the biggest help I've got. Don't tell yourself anything different. Okay?"

Nala felt her heart melt. Even though he appeared to be suffering intense psychological trauma, Simba could still be the most sweetest cub in the entire world. So kind. So caring. So willing to go out of his way to make other people happy, even when he was far from happy himself. He really was amazing. She didn't know anyone else like that.

"Why do you do it, Simba?" Nala asked, wanting to know. How could a cub like Simba – usually cocky, overconfident and mischievous – be so kind and honest and true? It was a strange personality, Nala had to admit, but it was a personality that just... worked. It was very odd. So odd that Nala just had to ask him about it. "Why are you like this? I mean, here you are... all sad and frowning, but... you go out of your way to be nice to me. Why are you like that?"

Simba shrugged in response, not really knowing the answer. He never really took the time to properly examine his own personality. There were other things on his mind. He didn't know why he did these things, he just... did them. There wasn't really a reason. "I guess I just... don't want to make you worry about me," he finally answered. "You don't want to hear about what horrific nightmares I've been having."

"I care about you, Simba," she told him honestly. "And that means I want to know about your problems. Just like you'd want to hear about my problems. Right?" They trusted each other, which meant they should tell each other everything. It was all between the two of them. No one else came into it.

Simba stared into her teal eyes, and nodded. "Yeah. But..." He flinched, looking away from Nala. "It was just so bad," he told her, finding it painful to remember the nightmare he'd had. The nightmare he'd suffered. "So bad that... even talking about it hurts. It's wrong."

"You can tell me, Simba," Nala assured him. "It's okay. I'm not going to tell anyone else. What was your nightmare about?"

Simba sighed, closing his eyes. He could see the brutal, unforgiving images appear in front of him. It lingered like a bad taste in the back of his mouth. "It was you," he finally said. "All of you. You, Mom, Dad... You were all burning. You were trapped in... some kid of fire. You were calling to me, begging, pleading for me to help you. But no matter how hard I tried... I just couldn't get to you. I couldn't save you. And you..." Simba could feel tears dripping down his cheeks. "You melted. Right in front of me. First all your skin... and then all your insides, and then... just bones," he finished, quivering with fear. "Then nothing. You were gone. Dead. But you still wouldn't stop screaming."

Nala stared at him sympathetically. "It wasn't real," she reminded him. "Always remember that, Simba. This is real life. I'm really here. I'm not burning, and neither is anyone else. It's just your mind messing with you."

"It's not my mind," Simba stated. "It's Hago."

Nala gasped, and Simba couldn't really blame her. Hago was by far the lion who had caused the two of them the most trouble. He despised them with a passion. They had wrecked every single one of his plans. His evil hopes and dreams had gone up in smoke – along with his body.

But the one thing Nala couldn't understand was how Hago was doing this. "But, Simba," she said softly, "how can Hago make you have these nightmares?"

Simba shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted, looking the saddest Nala had ever seen him before. "I just don't know."