[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Ubawa grumbled and squirmed about in his father's grip as he was forcefully cleaned. "Daadd!" He complained, "I'm clean!" Despite his protests Muroki continued to clean him, even somehow roughly, which Ubawa was certain that his father was doing on purpose. Finally, after what felt like forever, Muroki let him go and the cub made his way to escape, only to feel Umeme press down a paw on his tail.

"Time to go to bed," the lioness said with a grin, "tomorrow you'll be running around all day again, so get plenty of sleep before that."

Finally giving in, Ubawa moved in between his parents next to Marini and lay down. Now that they mentioned it, he did feel really tired, so he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

---

Umeme gently shook her son, trying to wake him up. She was almost laughing at the irony that Ubawa, who complained so much the previous night, was still asleep. "Ubawa? Wake up... " Her son groaned, muttering about wanting to sleep in longer. Umeme grinned, "Come on now, Akili is already here."

Ubawa lifted his head almost instantly. "Already?" As he ran out the den, he heard Umeme giggling behind him.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki gladly ignored Ubawa's protest and continued to bathe his son, enjoying every second of the way the cub was squirming about between his paws. His son and daughter's tiny size earned pretty much everything they did a spot in the adorable section. In fact, the young male cub wasn't wrong in feeling as if his bath was taking forever because, even after he was clean enough in his father's opinion, the lion continued his gestures solely for the purpose of displaying affection for the cub.

Sure enough, by the time his mother felt as if she had no choice but to wake him up, Akili and his parents really were already outside. When he ran out of the den, he saw that Marini and his cousin had already started to run about without him, though that did not stop him from joining in and increasing the proportions of the fluff ball that was the two of them.

However, before he really got the chance to do anything in their game, he heard his father call the three of them over. Letting out yet another annoyed groan, he followed his sister and Akili over to the adults. "We actually wanted to take you somewhere today." said Muroki, instantly causing cubbish curiosity and excitement to appear on the little ones' faces.

As was to be expected, his daughter beat the two boys in speaking up and expressing her interest."Where are we going?" It better not be someplace dumb...

"It's a surprise." said her father with a chuckle, causing her to pout. But, at the same time, it made her all the more enthusiastic about going.

[DGFone]

Ubawa was also now very interested at where they were going? "Aww, come on, dad! Can't you tell?" Muroki shook his head, obviously enjoying keeping the secret hidden. The cub glanced at his mother, who was already expecting him to ask her as well.

"You will find out when we will get there," Umeme replied with a chuckle, then grinning even wider, added, "and don't even bother asking me again. We're not going to tell you."

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Ubawa looked at who else who knew could tell him. He lit up when he saw someone. "So where are we going, Aunt Lina? Uncle Delano?"

Delano simply looked at the cub and shrugged. "Don't look at me, cubby. Your father would eat me alive if I told you. And that's nothing compared to what your mother will do to me. My mouth is shut tight." He couldn't help but grin slightly when the cub turned away, clearly disappointed at not finding out where they were going.

[TheWhistlerify]

As much as Marini could be far more enthusiastic and find it harder to withhold her excitement, she seemed to already be able to identify scenarios where her parents or any of the other adults weren't going to tell them what they wanted to know. As such, she never continued asking for answers after being denied them the first time. But it was always clear that she was dying to know.

Next to his cousins, Akili was also just as curious. "Can you tell me, dad?" he asked, as if forgetting that he had just denied Ubawa the answers they were looking for. But he was just a cub, and he couldn't help but feel as if he would get special treatment from his parents. "And there's no way Uncle Muroki can eat you! Nobody can take you on!"

"We already talked about this, silly!" said Marini with a giggle. "Daddy's the fastest and the strongest! He could totally eat Uncle Delano if he wanted to!" Ubawa and Akili... What was it that made boys so silly?

Realizing that the conversation was becoming too weird for his liking, Muroki cleared his throat. "Let's just get going, shall we?" he asked, chuckling as his daughter opened her mouth to say something. "No, Marini, your uncle and I aren't going to try to eat each. You can calm down."

[DGFone]

Delano's intentions were not to start an argument among the cubs when he joked that he would get into big trouble if he told the secret, so he winced when Akili immediately tried asking him again. "It's a figure of speech, Akili," he tried to explain, getting a blank face in return, "uh... a way of saying something but meaning another. Look, all I wanted to say is that I don't think Umeme and Muroki want me to ruin the surprise for you guys by telling, which I wasn't going to do anyways. Of course Muroki can't eat me, but uhh... never mind."

He was slightly troubled at not being able to explain the idiom to Akili, but it didn't look like it mattered, because it looked like as soon as his son saw that he wasn't going to get the answer he was looking for, he went right back to talking with his cousins about whatever they were talknig about before.

In many ways, Delano rather enjoyed this little conversation. He still had many reservations about going to see Hatari, and talking like this helped keep his mind off the fact that they were getting close to the lion's home. Any moment now, they should start getting to where they will see the trees surrounding the little waterhole.

[TheWhistlerify]

To say that the way Akili and Marini were talking about Muroki potentially having his own brother for lunch was quite amusing. Not because the idea itself appealed to any of the adults but because of the way the two cubs talked about it as if it was no big deal - obviously not comprehending the true meaning of what they were saying. But that was to be expected. The three little hairballs were still far too young in order to understand something like death - which was all the more reason why they couldn't be told about what had happened to their grandparents yet.

The rest of the walk was spent relatively quietly, with Ubawa, Akili and Marini talking to one another about who the fuzz knows what. But, when the trees surrounding Hatari's small home came into view, the three cubs seemed as if their surroundings were was ringing a bell, in a manner of speaking. It was only once the waterhole finally came into view that they finally recalled having been introduced to Hatari and realized where they were. Their enthusiasm at their little discovery was rather loud to say the least.

[DGFone]

Delano couldn't help but let out a low groan when the three cubs let out their excited yells when they finally realized where they were. "I was hoping that we could have arrived more... discreetly," he told Lina, "but I guess such ideas must always be abandoned when cubs are around."

Sure enough, walking along after the cubs, he found Hatari already waiting for them with a somewhat amused look. He also looked rather sleepy, which suggested to Delano that the cubs' excited screams had woken him up. The small trio immediately ran up to the lion and began to jump all over him, toppling him over because there was no way that Hatari could have prepared for the onslaught.

Umeme was grinning ear to ear as she followed with everyone else to the waterhole. "Hello Hatari! Hope we didn't umm, wake you up too rudely," she was rather delighted at seeing how well the cubs took to him, and as Hatari managed to get up from beneath all the fuzz, as well as how Hatari was reacting. He didn't look at all like the dangerous killer that Delano was always so afraid of.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina couldn't help but giggle at her mate's annoyance. It was rather amusing because he should have known better than to even think that they would just casually walk up to Hatari like they had the first time they'd brought the cubs to meet him. Not with how the little ones have already grown so fond of the lion, that is. "Was there ever any doubt?" Although, that did make her wonder how they would react to the truth when the time came. But that wouldn't happen for a very long time.

Before Hatari had a chance to greet either the the three fuzzballs that were rushing over to him or their parents, he found himself falling over and almost being mauled to death as the children used him as an object on which to take out their excitement. Well, they'd gotten along very well the first time, but he still hadn't expected them to be so happy to see him again.

It took him a while to sit back up not because the cubs were actually capable of keeping him down but because he was waiting for an opportunity to do so without accidentally causing one of them to fall over or something even worse. "I've been up for hours." he said, and was about to say something else when the sight of Ubawa standing on his head and suddenly slipping forward distracted him completely. But, before he even had a chance to realize that this had just happened, the little cub was back up and at it again.

While it might have sounded as if he was only joking in order to tell Umeme and the other adults not to worry about having woken him up, the truth was that he really has been awake for some time. The past few days haven't offered him that much sleep, though not on a level that could actually bother him too much. Not to mention that he was also used to this sort of thing. He was still bothered by the little visit that new Chief of Police had given him. He would have imagined the lion had come there to see whether Hatari was still a potential threat, but Hatari felt as if there was much more to that. Something was off about that lion.

But that wasn't important at the moment. If there was something that could distract him from what was on his mind, it just so happened to be his visitors. Having forgotten whatever else he'd wanted to say, he tried to greet the cubs. That was a little hard, since they were entirely distracted by doing as they pleased with him. "Daddy almost ate uncle Delano!" said Marini at some point, causing the lion to raise an eyebrow and scratch the back of his ear with a paw. Talk about something weird only a cub might say...

[DGFone]

Delano groaned and pawed his face. Did cubs have to take everything so literally? "Well, clearly as you can see, he didn't get even close to eating me," Delano told Marini, "as I explained to Akili, it's a figure of speech. A way to say one thing but mean another."

Next to them, Umeme was noticing how Hatari still looked rather confused (as well as very amused) at seeing Delano try to defend himself. "We didn't tell the little guys where we're going today," she quickly explained, "naturally, they tried to ask us, but we refused to answer..." Grinning, she quickly glanced over at Delano. "Then he tried to say what we might do to him should he give away the secret instead. I don't think any of the three actually got what he meant. Hence the whole eating thing."

While Hatari was still paying attention, Marini had already gotten bored and resumed her games with the other two, who were bus running around the older lion. Umeme rolled her eyes playfully. Cubs. What can you do about them? Of course, their lack of attention was one of the many things that made them so unique and wonderful.

[TheWhistlerify]

Hatari didn't really need Delano and Umeme's explanation in order to realize that Marini was most likely just saying things for no real reason. While he was definitely no cub expert, he'd realized pretty much almost instantly that she wasn't saying anything he should really take seriously. But, of course, that made things much more amusing, and he had to admit that the way she just said something like that as if it were nothing was kind of cute. Even if the idea of a lion eating another lion sounded, well... terrible.

The manner in which the little cub simply left in the middle of her mother and uncle's attempt to explain things to her was even more adorable. It wasn't like Marini really understood what it would mean if Muroki ate his brother. She didn't look petrified, so there didn't seem to be any reason to force her to listen. "Yeah, I figured as much..." he said with a chuckle, this time catching Ubawa with his paw as the tiny lion fell off his head. "So, uh... How's everything going?"

"Oh, not much, you know." said Muroki with a smile, waving a paw dismissively. Boy, was he glad that nothing was out of the ordinary. Because, in his family's case, out of the ordinary involved him and his brother (but mostly him) nearly getting killed. "Everything's normal." Hatari gave a short nod in response. Normal sounded nice. He wished he could experience this normal.