"You, uh, you look pretty rough," Jongeni said quietly as he approached. She also looked a bit annoyed, and yet somehow at peace.
"No thanks to any of you," she muttered, "I heard you guys at least found Sky."
"I looked for you!"
"You gave up!"
"Because I thought you were dead!" he insisted in his defense. Uncomfortable with the atmosphere, the king and queen took the other princess and returned to the den. On their way back, they assured the hyena that she would be welcome to stay.
"Yeah, you all did, without a shred of proof. Not one of you was going to keep up the search. It seems kind of hypocritical to me for you all to be acting so glad I'm back when you'd all given up on me. 'Oh, we found Sky and Notai, let's call off the search,'" she snapped bitterly.
"It's not like that!"
"Then what is it like, huh? I've seen the way most of the pride looks at me, the way they all see Zira in me. My whole life they've all hated me, they've acted nice, but their eyes tell all!" she roared, "And you know, I thought you and my parents actually liked me, but only Notai wanted to keep looking for me."
"No! I do like you, and so do your parents! I know what it's like feeling like they just see someone else in you, you know my father killed Simba! How can they look at me and not think of that? How can they not hate me? I've felt the same cold gaze as you so don't pull that card on me," Jongeni countered, his eyes burning now.
"Well you know what, I didn't even want to come back. I suspected you guys would have already given up on me, and I was going to run off with Aiden and Nafsi. None of you care, so I'll be leaving with them," she said drily.
"What? Kimi, I found a pool of dried blood. It covered more land space than you would. It smelled only of you and death. I was too shaken to keep looking, I thought I'd lost you... You don't know what that was like for me. You can't leave now," Jongeni informed her quietly. The princess huffed.
"Why the hell not?"
"Because I love you," he blurted. Her expression became shocked.
"You what?" she asked in disbelief.
"You heard me. I've always related to you and admired you. When I thought you were dead... I... couldn't bring myself to go on. Not because I didn't want to find you, not because I didn't think you could have possibly survived. It was because you were gone, and I didn't have the slightest clue how to get you back..." he admitted.
---
So basically, this is Kimitar and Jongeni arguing after she returns to Pride Rock. This part of the story (Chapter 15) is still being edited, but I thought I'd leave that here anyway to give some context.
So there's no shading or bg, and I don't know if there ever will be. Hope you like it anyway.
By the way, those are not scars on Kimitar, they are healing wounds, although a few of them will scar. I know they look like crap.
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