paixaorpg | [Completed]

Entry tags:

[Completed]

Character(s): Kiara and Kovu
Content: Morning after the drama the night before.
Setting: Balcony.
Time: Morning.
Warnings: ...Yeah, there's fluff.

As soon as she was certain her father would be alright, Kiara, despite still feeling upset with him, went to Kovu's side. She needed his presence, even if he didn't seem to want to give it. And, well, she did realize what happened had to have had a big impact on him. He'd had to fight and knock out his own mother. No matter how horrible Zira was, she was still his mother.

Thus Kiara had quietly crept onto the balcony and curled up beside Kovu and promptly fell asleep.

But now it was morning, and warm light began to warm the cool morning.

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The morning sun made Kovu stir slowly. His dreams had made sleeping difficult at best, but his body had been so exhausted that it didn't matter. As he lifted his head toward the sun, a stinging feeling over his left eye reminded him why he was out here. He hadn't wanted them to worry about him, not when Simba was in such bad shape. Kiara's soft breathing against the back of his neck told him that she'd at least decided to get some sleep. That was good...especially after what had happened to her father. Kovu still couldn't imagine how worried she must have been.

He rolled over so that he was facing her. Even in her sleep, he could see lines of worry over her muzzle. "...Kiara..." he said quietly as he gently nuzzled her, her name barely more than a whisper.

The nuzzle seemed to melt away some of the stress that her expression had still been wearing, even in sleep. Slowly her eyes fluttered open, squinting at the morning light.

Kiara remained where she was, as she seemed to still be in a sleepy daze. A mumble of a soft 'Kovu', however, was certainly audible.

Well, at least she would say his name. That was a start, considering how worried he was that she was angry at him for not talking last night and then just disappearing on her. Now the question was if it was a good idea to wake her up the rest of the way. He cringed a little at the thought of her yelling at him, but if it was going to happen he might as well get it over with.

"...You awake?" he asked softly, trying to keep his voice soft enough so that if she wasn't he wouldn't accidentally wake her up.

He cringed again as a light breeze blew over them, reminding him about the injury from his mother. But he'd already spent the whole night worrying about it, and dreaming about it, and getting more and more distressed over it. The best thing he could do now was to just be there for Kiara, which he hadn't done last night at all. Her father had almost been killed, and Kovu had really only been thinking of himself. He...needed to apologize.

At that question she finally moved a little, stretching her paws out and a soft yawn coming from her muzzle. "Mmm, kind of..." was her sleepy reply. She was awake, more or less.

Kiara was, however, somehow not so sleepy that she didn't miss him cringing beside her. What was wrong?

"Are you alright...?" she asked.

"Nothing!" Kovu answered too quickly. "...Nothing," he repeated. That second time, he almost said it more for himself than for Kiara. He sighed. Maybe it would be harder not to worry than he thought.

"...How's Simba...?" he asked carefully, wanting to put that topic to rest so they could both try to breathe a little easier.

Something was wrong; Kiara could instantly tell. She also could tell he was, once more, hiding from her. Was she really that hard to open up to?

While, for a moment, it seemed like Kovu had her attention, she now looked almost ready to just go back to sleep. Not that she really wanted to, but, well, part of her wished she could. Her annoyance at him had eased with sleep, but the feeling had suddenly filled her once more. Pointedly, her gaze was now pointed anywhere but him.

"Daddy's going to be alright," she replied.

Brilliant, Kovu, brilliant. That...had almost completely backfired. "...Good," he answered hesitantly. Not because he didn't mean it, but more because he didn't know how he was going to approach the next subject. At all.

"Kiara...I..." Oh yeah, this was going to be hard. He took a deep breath. "I just..." He let out all his breath in one go the second time his voice trailed off.

After a pause, he steeled his nerves. "I'm sorry."

Kiara's gaze finally moved back to him for a moment, as she realized he was actually trying to tell her something.

An apology? For just now or...? ...Or probably about last night.

Slowly she rolled onto her stomach, sighing quietly, before finally facing him again. "It... really hurt," she finally said, after a moment's awkward silence.

Kovu pulled back a bit, the words stinging slightly. "...I didn't mean to. I just...didn't know what to say." That really was it. Well...that and where his mother had scratched him. "I didn't know it would hurt you so much."

Not for the first time, Kovu cursed his mother for the way she'd raised him. He didn't know anything about this kind of stuff. And last night he hadn't even thought about how she'd feel about his silence until they'd gotten into the apartment.

"You didn't even have to say anything, I just... I just needed you!" she attempted to explain, but it was really hard to put it to words. It would have been nice if he'd said something to her, but even just some kind of acknowledgement, even if it had been silent, would have gone a long way.

"I just wanted to feel like you were there," Kiara added, still trying to find the words.

Her gaze focused on him again, as she leaned her head towards him, trying to look more straight on at him. "Do you underst--Oh!"

She hadn't even realized till now. She thought Kovu had come away from the fight unharmed, but it seemed she'd been wrong. Was this what he'd been hiding from her? It certainly seemed that way.

"Kovu... your..."

"My eye. I know." At first, he was sardonic and cold, but after he took a second to calm down, he sounded more guilty again. "I...didn't want you to see that, either. You had enough to worry about with your father. You shouldn't have had to worry about me, too."

He hated lying to Kiara, but he really wanted her to think he was okay. Even...if he wasn't quite as okay as he wanted to be. "It's just a scratch." Saying that contradicted the way he'd answered her at first, though.

"...Kovu..." she said softly, letting out another sigh along with it. Kovu really wasn't fooling her. He wouldn't have hid it from her if it hadn't been bothering him. It clearly was, more than he'd probably ever admit to.

"I'm always going to worry about you," she said, gazing at him steadily, her feelings clear and unwavering, despite some of the unpleasant feelings she'd also been feeling.

"I love you."

There was no hesitation in her voice. It was fact, after all, and it felt like something that needed to be said. For her, those three words had more meaning than anything else she could say to explain her feelings to him.

The first time she'd said that to him, it had made him feel a million times better. Now, it made him feel kind of stupid. Somehow, in the wake of everything that had been happening lately, he'd forgotten what that really meant. And he'd messed up last night big time.

"You're just saying that to make me feel bad, aren't you?" he teased, making another pass at lightening the mood.

She blinked at first, taking a moment to catch on that he was teasing her. Shaking her head a little, she pushed herself forward, rubbing her head into Kovu's mane. "I'm saying it because it's the truth," she said, with a bit of amusement in her voice.

"And, because of it, I just can't seem to stay angry at you," she added.

Kovu breathed a sigh of relief. "And here I thought you were going to try to bite my head off," he joked awkwardly. Awkward because he really had been scared she'd yell at him...and he hadn't wanted to see her upset at all.

He nuzzled her back, looking at her with a cocky grin. "And how could you stay angry at such a handsome face?" A handsome face...marred with a shameful scar.

Kiara just let out a huff, as she returned his grin with a pout. "That's an unfair advantage!"

She turned away from Kovu, still playing along. "If you're going to be like that, then I'll just go back to being mad at you," she said, folding her fore paws in front of her, with a hmph.

"Wait, no! That's not fair either!" Kovu's mouth opened and closed, then he got an evil grin.

"Then I guess you wouldn't mind if I told Timon what we did that night."

Her head quickly snapped back to look back at him. "K-Kovu!" she exclaimed, reaching over with her paw to playfully swat at his shoulder.

"Don't you dare!" she said, suddenly somewhat embarrassed.

Kovu laughed, but tried to pull his shoulder back to keep from getting hit too hard anyway.

"I wonder what Timon would think if I told him." He paused. "...Probably not a good idea."

"I don't even want to imagine," Kiara replied, making a face. "W-why are you even wondering about even telling anyone?"

She didn't think Kovu would actually tell anyone about that evening, but still... She was more than ready for a change of subjects.

"I wasn't really going to. Not like anyone else needs to know," he answered, smirking devilishly.

"That...and I don't want you getting mad at me again," he said sheepishly.

Kiara just looked flustered now, looking away as Kovu smiled at her like that. She hadn't been really all that embarrassed before, but now, it suddenly felt like something to be embarrassed of. "Well, it won't be a problem if you don't tell anyone, right?"

"Of course not. You're not embarrassed, are you?" He smirked again, though it was more just teasing now.

"W-well... I..." she said, struggling to find words, as her paw nervously drew circles on the ground. "I wasn't... Not... till now..." she said, voice progressively getting quieter, and she still refused to look at him.

"What's there to be embarrassed about?" Kovu looked genuinely surprised. "Timon would find something wrong just with us being together for a night, no matter what it was we were doing. We could've just been hunting together for all he'd care."

He nuzzled her, and the smile was a little more genuine now. "Come on, lighten up a little." ...Big talk coming from someone who wouldn't say a word to her the night before.

Kiara did manage a chuckle. "Yeah, I guess that's true, although with everything going on, I don't think he'd say anything." At least, she was mostly sure he wouldn't.

It was definitely big talk, not just considering the silent treatment last night, but in general he'd been a lot more moody recently. She returned the nuzzle, snuggling her head under his chin. "Isn't that what I should be telling you?"

That hit home. Kovu recoiled a bit. "H-hey, let's not go into that." He really didn't want to talk about any of that stuff. Not right now...

She blinked at him, uncertain how he'd gotten the idea that she was going to get to that subject. Really, it was the last thing on her mind. "I wasn't trying to," Kiara said, tilting her head at him.

"We don't have to talk about anything at all," she then said, leaning in close again, towards his left cheek. Softly she licked it, having noticed the stain of dried blood there.

Kovu looked a little stunned when she licked him, then smiled. "Imagine if Timon could see us right now," he said, chuckling a little. "He'd freak."

"I'd rather not," she replied, slightly annoyed that Timon had come up again. Now, she loved him and Pumbaa, really, but when trying to have a quiet moment alone with her boyfriend, he was really the last thing she wanted to think about.

That was more than enough for Kovu to catch that he shouldn't bring up Timon anymore. He had a feeling that the meerkat had probably intruded on her privacy one (or probably more like a couple dozen) too many times. "Yeah...you're right. I'd rather he didn't see us either."

"I... should probably go check on my father," Kiara finally said, starting to push herself up onto her haunches, stretching slightly as she did so. While they hadn't really talked things through like they probably needed to, it seemed like things would be okay for now.

Did Kovu have to ruin every moment they got together that way? "Yeah...I'll go in with you. No point in trying to hide this anymore."

"Kovu..." she murmured quietly. If only she'd known about his eye... the healer might've been able to heal it for him. She lingered where she sat, not yet heading towards the door. She seemed to be waiting for him to get up too.

"What are you waiting for?" Kovu got up, and gave her a half smile. He didn't want to pretend that his eye wasn't going to bother him for a while, but he didn't want her to worry about him so much either.

"Not that there's any hurry. Knowing your dad he's probably still asleep." The smile grew a little broader. It was a pretty lame attempt at a joke, but he didn't like seeing that look on Kiara.

A smile did crack on her muzzle. Kovu was right. Her father was very likely even still completely asleep. "You're probably right," she said softly.

Now that he was up, she could do what she'd been lingering about for. Kiara closed the gap between them, cuddling up close, burying the side of her face in his mane. It's what she'd needed since last night and even now. She just needed a moment...

"Eventually everything will be okay," she whispered quietly.

Kovu's eyes went wide and his breath caught. As much as what she'd said had gotten him before...

"Come on," he said, before he could let his thoughts go any further. He nudged her toward the door, and smiled as he led the way inside.

...But apparently Kovu hadn't caught on. At all. Her wanted moment was once more ruined. Instead she found herself nudged and then abandoned, as he led the way to the door. She lingered in place for a moment, however, letting out a quiet sigh. Well, so much for that.

Kiara rolled her eyes, now feeling rather exasperated (boys...), she followed Kovu inside.

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[Completed]

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