I would have posted a lot sooner hadn't my phone decided to erase an almost complete post. It annoyed me so much that I just left it there. But I'm home now (and on a computer).
Lina felt her cheeks turn a little redder as Delano asked her to tell him what she had in mind. The look on his face indicated that he wasn't clueless, which was to be expected, so perhaps he just wanted to be sure that they were on the same page. It definitely sounded like him to ensure that he was getting her message so that he wouldn't end up putting them both in an embarrassing position in case he was wrong. Although, in her opinion, he shouldn't feel bad about bringing something like this up on his own, even if it happened to not be crossing her own mind at the moment. After all, it's not like they were new to this. The last time they'd gotten this close was back when she was still pregnant, when the two of them still had plenty of time on their paws. She sure did miss the intimacy... It seemed as if she (and perhaps Delano as well) had taken the fact that they could dedicate as much time and attention to each other as they wanted for granted.
Feeling her mate's grip loosen , even if he was still gently holding on to her, the lioness shifted slightly so that she was lying on her side instead of on her back, a position that made it much easier for her to reach over and whisper her answer (to make sure they were understanding each other, that is). She then softly licked his muzzle and, upon reclining back on the ground, noticed something a little different in the lion's expression. He appeared a little hesitant, which seemed very out of place considering how they've done this plenty of times in the past.
Nevertheless, it didn't take her too long to figure out what was going on in his head. The first time they'd mated obviously ended up leading to them having Akili, a pregnancy Delano wasn't really aiming for at the time given his reservations about parenthood. With Lina being pregnant afterwards, he obviously hadn't had the need to worry about that anymore. Now that Akili was born, though, he was probably thinking about what would happen if they ended up having another cub. Yes, she knew that he was feeling far more secured about being a father now, seeing how they'd spoken about the subject just the previous evening, which could only mean that her mate was worried about the difficulties of taking care of more than one cub at a time.
Lina wouldn't say that they were doing a bad job with Akili, but he did require a lot of dedication. Umeme and Muroki had immediately had to get used to raising two cubs simultaneously, but adding another cub (or even two) to an already existing family was probably entirely different. She and Delano were used to taking care of one little hairball, so suddenly having at least one more to look after would be a huge change of pace.
Becoming pregnant again was definitely an option Lina was aware of, even if it hasn't crossed her mind even once since Akili had come around. After all, she's wanted to be a mother for so long and the cub's birth granted her that wish, meaning that the subject of having cubs wasn't really in her center of attention anymore. The idea of conceiving again did appeal to her but, now that she was finally sharing the experience of parenthood with the love of her life, it didn't feel like such a rush. Therefore, while she was thinking of possibly having another cub one day, she believed it would be best to wait until Akili wouldn't be so dependent on her and Delano anymore.
In a way, this meant that Delano and Lina were on the same page in that regard, at least for the time being. But, regardless of that, she saw very little reason to worry about this. Akili had only very recently stopped nursing. It would be a while longer before she went into heat again. Besides, if she were in heat, she'd know better than to just throw herself at her mate like she had last time, even with the hormones messing with her head. True, she had no doubt as to how much Delano cared for their son, but she didn't want to become pregnant again unless it was something they both wanted. For now, it wasn't, not to mention that they couldn't do that in the near future even if they wanted to.
"I'm off season..." she assured him quietly, feeling her heart pounding inside her chest as she looked at the lion longingly.