[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme giggled at how nervous Muroki seemed to be about this particular aspect of him to be revealed. "So Muroki might not behave as old as he is sometimes either," she replied, trying not to laugh, "but at least he doesn't lie about all day, and then complain when someone wants to move him along." She grinned at Muroki and gave him a quick lick across the cheek. "I like you just the way you are."

Apparently, Delano was still awake, but not fully, because he could be heard dreamily trying to argue. "I don't only complain when I am awake..." He let out a loud yawn. "Just because I like my sleep doesn't make me an overgrown cub." As if to prove his point, he placed a paw over his muzzle so that he may continue his slumber in peace. "Besides," he added as an after thought, "I am awake when Lina needs me to be."

[TheWhistlerify]

Still feeling somewhat embarrassed that Kato revealed a rather childsh behavior he'd had back when Umeme was pregnant, he smiled sheepshly when his mate licked his cheek. "T-thanks, but I already knew that." he said with a chuckle, carefully moving his paw so to not wake up their cubs and placing it over her. "I love you just the way you are. But you probably knew that, too" He nuzzled her lovingly, eaning the two of them a playful groan from the prince.

"Can't you save that for later?" he asked, unable to not grin at the two of them.

Lina meanwhile gave Delano a quick lick as well before settling down more comfortably by his side. "You are." she said with a giggle. Personally she thought his sometimes childish complaining was cute, plus she was already used to how much he enjoyed napping. Deciding to give him his quiet, she said nothing else.

[DGFone]

Umeme really didn't want to stop nuzzling Muroki, but when Kato started to groan, she figured that they might as well give the prince a break. Pulling apart from her mate, she glared playfully at the prince. "Spoil sport." Still, she didn't want to send Kato away just so that she can continue to nuzzle Muroki. so she would have to wait for the prince to leave himself before she can resume nuzzling Muroki. Oh well.

Delano was only just able to sense Lina lick him. But he was so close to being asleep already, that he didn't react. Perhaps he should have, but as he was busy debating with himself whether or not he should rouse himself in order to do something, he had already fallen asleep.

[TheWhistlerify]

Kato couldn't help but grin as the two adults ceased their displays of affection. "You better get used to that." he said with a chuckle. "You won't hear the end of it from Marini and Ubawa once they start talking." He still remembered how he would get grossed out whenever his parents did as much as nuzzle each other. Then there was also Desta's ljttle brother who, as much as he liked having the prince around, couldn't stand it whenever he and his sister even looked into each other's eyes.

After realizing what the young lion was getting at, Muroki playfully rolled his eyes. "If anything, they're the ones who are going to have to get used to things around here." he said with a grin. "Our den - our rules." Chuckling, he looked at the two little hairballs and then at Umeme. "Isn't that right, sweetheart?" he asked, licking her across her muzzle.

[DGFone]

Umeme grinned back at Muroki, obviously getting what he was hinting at. "Of course, dear," she agreed, perhaps with a hint of... evil in her voice. "They will need to learn what lines they can cross and which ones that can't, and this will be one of those lines that they can't."

Turning her attention to Kato, she pretended to scold him. "You know, as the future king and all, I honestly expected better out of you. You really think we're going to allow ourselves to become entirely controlled by those two?" She stuck her tongue out at the prince. "We are the parents, and they will listen to us. Not the other way around."

[TheWhistlerify]

Kato grinned at Umeme and Muroki, who were obviously going to sometime get all clingy with each other just for the sake of annoying and teasing their cubs. "I never suggested such a thing." he said, not even bothering to try and sound defensive or anything. "All I'm saying is that they're going to give you a headache about this sort of thing. That's what cubs are like."

Muroki meanwhile had a happy smile spread across his muzzle. There they all were, after all the hardships, living normal and peaceful lives. He and Umeme were parents, Delano was finally rid of his nightmares and had his own cubs on the way and Kato was no longer worried sbout having to one day succeed his father as king. It was a little difficult to grasp, but things have finally settled down.

---

Muroki woke up one month later to hear... Nothing. That was odd. It was unusual to not only wake up on his own rather than to be woken up by his cubs, but to also find himself inside a quiet den? Something wasn't right. The lion looked at the area around him and Umeme and, sure enough, Ubawa and Marini were already awake. The two were rather occupied, which explained why they haven't woken him and his mate up. A warm smile found its way onto the lion's muzzle when he realized what they were doing. They were trying to walk.

Both of them were lying on their stomachs, looking quite focused. Then, after some perparations, they would straighten their hind legs in a way that their rears were wiggling about in the air. They stayed like that for a few moments before fully standing up, only to lose their balance shortly afterwards and end up where they'd originally started. Muroki chuckled at the sight, catching their attention. "Daddy!" exclaimed Marini with joy as she and her brother clumsily made their way over to their father, who helped them out by pulling both of them closer and giving them a loving nuzzle.

The two cubs were capable of very limited speech at this point. While still working on keeping their balance, they were obviously very determined to be able to walk more freely. "Good morning, you two." he said, chuckling as his children snuggled up against his mane while purring in content. Like their mother, they were quite fond of it. "How are my little bundles of joy doing today?"

"We're walking!"

"Are you now?" asked Muroki with a grin, deciding to make use of the opporunity to give the two a bath. True, their knowledge of speech could sometime be regarded as ridiculously limited, but being able to communicate with them, even if they often made very basic mistakes when talking, filled his heart with pride and joy. Soon enough they'd be able to run around, meaning it would be difficult to keep them restrained. But, at the same time, he couldn't be happier than he was seeing the two of them slowly growing up (even if they did have a very long way to go).

---

Meanwhile Lina was also at the process of waking up. Usually she slept until a much later hour of the morning, especially now that she was pregnant, but something had woken her up. "Delano?" she asked quietly, nudging her mate awake and licking his cheek. Their cubs could be born at any given moment now, which made her a little uneasy sometimes as well as rather clingy. "Delano, is there anything left to eat from last night? I'm hungry..."

[DGFone]

Umeme had already woken up, most likely from having felt the two cubs leave from where they slept between their two parents. Watching just to make sure that they didn't crawl away somewhere out of the den, she didn't bother to move hear head or do anything else that would betray her wakefulness.

When Ubawa and Marini tried to walk, it brought a smile to Umeme. They were still a long way away from when they would actually be able to get around on their own, but they were certainly improving and quite rapidly too. Even if she or Muroki didn't actively try to teach them how to walk, the two cubs were already very close.

From behind her, Muroki's voice announced that he too woke up. Immediately, the two cubs rushed towards him, just about running, well, crawling quickly past their mother. Umeme let them get to Muroki before deciding to turn as well, smiling warmly at the pair as their father bathed them. "So I see that the two of you are starting to walk. How's it feeling to be able to do so?"

---

Even though he normally woke much earlier than Lina, Delano found himself groaning at being nudged awake. It only took him a few moments to realize what was going on and his eyes opened in a snap. "Oh, I thought we finished it last night," he replied, getting up to get a look. "Yeah, there's nothing left..." Even though he really wanted to sleep in some more, he knew that he couldn't do so now. "I'm going to go and get you something," he told Lina and gave her a quick lick before rushing out the den. "I'll be right back!"

Shivering slightly from the cold morning air, he rushed off to find some meat for Lina.

[TheWhistlerify]

Still bathing Ubawa and Marini, Muroki looked up at Umeme as she turned around and spoke to their children, happy to see that she was awake. Before he could wish her a good morning or, more importantly, ask why she wasn't lying close to him, he was cut short by their daughter. "It's fun!" she exclaimed, causing her father to chuckle. What almost made him laugh was the way Ubawa took advantage of the opening the distraction caused by his mother provided him with in order to escape the bath Muroki was trying to give him, obviously hoping that his father would be too focused on cleaning his sister in order to be worried about him.

But what the cub didn't know was that, by rushing over to his mother in order to greet her, he was basically jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. While Marini enjoyed being bathed, her brother wasn't too fond of it already. "I'm sure that if you two keep working on it you'll be on all fours in no time." he said, doing his best not to laugh as his son realized the mistake he'd made. Instead he looked down at Marini, continuing to bathe her as she purred in content.

His heart felt like it was about to melt when the little cub looked up at him with her excited smile. "Really?" she asked, her blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm and innocence. She really was a smaller version of him, something his mate teased him about constantly.

"Of course."

---

Not feeling like staying inside the den, even though she knew it was rather cold outside at such an early hour, Lina slowly got to her paws and got out of the den. Delano was already gone, and it would be a lie to say that she was comfortable with being left completely on her own like that. Not that she could blame her mate or anybody else, really. After realizing that sitting out in the cold won't make Delano return any faster, she turned around and was about to make her way back inside...

Only to almost bump into another lion. Lina let out a small squeak of surprise, immediately backing away a few steps. From the looks of it this lion was in the process of simply walking past her and carrying on his way, but he came to a stop as the lioness became aware of his presence. It didn't look like he'd intended to strike up a conversation. "Excuse me for startling you, miss," he said calmly, smiling at Lina as she continued to stare at him with a rather dumbstruck look on her face.

She knew more than well that many other lions lived in the area, but it did startle her to have one of them just walk by through the small gap that was between her and her den. "Oh, um, it's okay. I should have paid more attention to where I was going..."

The lion looked like he was about to say something else, but Lina turned around as a familiar voice reached her ears. "Hey, Lina!" What was Kato doing there at such an early hour? "How's it going?"

"Kato? What are you doing here?" she asked, obviously curious.

"Oh, just an early morning patrol. I thought I'd take a quick look to make sure everything's alright." Lina smiled and was about to thank him for his concern, but that was when the prince noticed the lion standing behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"Why, if it isn't the young prince." said the lion with a jolly smile, walking over to Kato and ruffling up his mane with a paw. The prince let out an annoyed groan and took a step aside, causing the latter to chuckle as he looked at Lina. "Kids these days... Am I right?" the word 'kids' only seemed to annoy the younger lion further.

[DGFone]

Noticing Ubawa trying to escape a bath by crawling away from Muroki's paws, Umeme almost had to stop herself from laughing at the cub's poor misfortune as he instead stumbled into her own paws. "You might want to watch where you're going," she teased her son, "rather than where you're going from." As though in 'punishment', she leaned her head down and began to give him a bath, ignoring his protesting and complaining.

And of course, being the mother, it also meant that Umeme's standards of cleanliness where much higher than Muroki's. This of course meant that Ubawa's bath would be much longer than Marini's, and as she continued to bathe her son, Umeme had to smile at the irony of what he had gotten himself into. Cubs are so funny.

---

To his frustration, Delano was not finding anything that he might be able to catch for Lina. Knowing that he can't simply return without anything, he stomped off once more, looking for some prey. A sudden movement at the cornet of his eye caught his attention, and he just about missed a plump hare scamper off into a bush.

This gave him an idea. Sure, Lina might prefer to want something like gazelle or zebra, but non were around right now. Hares and other rodents were fairly abundant in the area, so why not? Choosing that he would rather get back sooner with several snacks for Lina, Delano lowered himself and began the hunt for a breakfast for one.

[TheWhistlerify]

The only occasions where Muroki did clean their cubs as well as Umeme liked to when she bathed them were whenever he bathed their daughter. Since she actually enjoyed her baths he would often continue even after deciding that Marini was clean enough, which sometimes ended up with the results living up to his mate's standards. The little cub giggled as she watched her brother squirm about. "Silly Ubawa!" she exclaimed, snuggling up closer against her father's paws as he continued to clean her.

Muroki smiled to himself as he continued. Perhaps one day his son would learn that getting his baths from him rather than Umeme was a better idea because of his mother's increased standards. His daughter seemed to frown once he decided that she was clean enough, so she went ahead and pounced into his mane, cuddling into it. Her father chuckled as he lay his head down on his paws, giving the cub more access to his mane as she decided to nibble on one of his ears and tug on them in order to entertain herself.

~ ~ ~

Lina couldn't help but notice how agitated Kato was about this lion being around, but she didn't want to seem rude. "Oh, um, I guess..." The prince seemed more annoyed rather than scared because of his presence, so she doubted there was any reason for her to worry about him. The two obviously knew each other from somewhere, although she couldn't guess from where because this other lion was definitely old enough to be Kato's father.

"I believe you deserve some congratulations." continued to lion after a short silence, obviously not thinking much of the way the king's son was staring at him with annoyance.

Lina was confused for a few moments before suddenly realizing what he was talking about. "Oh, thank you." she stammered, blushing a little. She didn't know when the cubs would be born, but one thing was for certain - she wanted them to come around not only for the sake of becoming a mother but also for the sake of having her freedom of movement back.

"It's not a good idea for a lioness in your condition to be on her own like this." he commented.

"That's fine, my mate should be back from hunting soon."

"Yeah." said Kato all of a sudden. "Her mate will be back soon." Lina raised an eyebrow.

"Which is why it's a good thing little Kato's here." continued the latter, once again ignoring the younger lion's frowning. "You two obviously know each other. I'm sure he wouldn't mind staying with you for a bit."