Burying the Past [PRIVATE: AC & The Whistlerify]

[AustralianChaos]

Kijamii had to stifle a laugh when Dakari explained his idea. It wasn't the idea itself that was funny, more the way he phrased it, causing her to remember Tanga as an infant, snuggling up to his mother's side, and sometimes her own, even though she had only been an early adolescent at the time. Pulling her laughter under control, she turned to Dakari. "Sorry, but the way you said that reminded me of my brother. When he was just a baby, I was about a year old, and he always used to snuggle with me when mum wasn't...around..."

Her face and voice fast grew sad at the mention of her recently deceased parents, but again, she was fast to recover, turning her shivering frame back to Dakari. "In any case, I can see what you're trying to say, and I don't mind," she said happily, patting the space right next to her, inviting him over. "Come on, don't be shy, I don't bite...well, not hard, at least, and even then, that's only when I'm wrestling," she added with a laugh, still smiling brilliantly at Dakari, although the effect was ruined slightly by her chattering fangs.

As she waited for Dakari to come over, she looked back at the river. "Geez...how does that water get so cold? I've been this bad before, and I got stuck out in the rain in the middle of the night at winter once." Shivering once more, she starting using her paws to bub her body, trying to warm herself up. She knew this would not hurt her curious nature in any way, but it was still an unpleasant experience.

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As Lina jumped up and shouted victory, Tanga was only able to manage a half-hearted smile at her, before grunting lightly as she leapt on his back, hopping around in obvious glee. "Yeah..." he sighed, any mood for playing with Lina long gone with the memories of his parents that kept popping every time pretty much anything was mentioned. That was why he wanted to forget...because they seemed to haunt his every waking moment, his every though, and it was slowly tearing him apart.

"Marini seems really nice," he commented vaguely, deciding he had to say something. "I usually don't lie to other lions like that...I didn't like it...but I guess I promised. And you never told me she was my age, I thought she was another cub like you!" he added, twisting his head back to get a vague look at Lina, although his mane did a good job of trying to block his view.

[TheWhistlerify]

Dakari knew not to ask Kijamii why she seemed sad for a moment back there. He didn't want to force her into telling him something that would obviously be hard to tell. He instead smiled slightly when she took his offer and walked over to her side. He wasn't sure on what exactly to do once he was next to her, so he just lay next to her, his shyness keeping him from even coming in contact with her. "Ah..." he stammered before moving slightly closer to her so that they were closely snuggled to eachtother. He tried to make her as warm as he could, though he found the contact very relaxing. "This is nice." he said with a slight smile. "Are you still cold?"

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Lina looked at Tanga with a confused look as he seemed slightly upset at the fact that Marini turned out to be an adolescent his age, rather than another cub. "So? What's wrong with..." she then stopped talking, remembering the way he was first acting wierd when Marini came in and turning her blank expression into a grin.

[AustralianChaos]

As Dakari settled close to her, Kijamii smiled encouragingly, before her smile turned into one of contentment as he snuggled close, his body doing a good of warming her up a bit, causing her to start purring lightly. "Yeah, it is nice...Tanga's at that age where he refuses to come this close to me any more, and with his moodiness lately...but I am a little warmer, thank you. I should be fine in a few minutes."

As she sat there, purring, she decided it was probably time to voice what was making her so sad. She had already accepted the deaths of her parents, but she figured that speaking to her first friend in a long time about the recent incident would help. It would also help pass the time. "Listen, Dakari...I've seen you looking at me, and I know you've noticed how I seem sad for moments at a time. The reason for that is the same thing that has caused my brother to become all moody lately. You see, a couple of weeks before we arrived here, our parents...they were killed, murdered, by another rogue." She sighed, her eyes watering with impending, which she made no move to brush away, although she did fight to stop them. "The rogue came after us, as well, and almost killed Tanga, but I managed to get him in time...he's not going to be hurting anyone else any more," she said softly, vaguely telling Dakari that, in the battle, she had actually killed the rogue to protect her little brother.

"The last couple of weeks have been hard, but I've been able to accept what happened, and while the fact that Kali and Busara are both gone still hurts, I've moved on, for the most part." Kijamii sighed again, before turning to Dakari, her eyes swimming even more as she spoke her next words. "But what really hurts about this whole thing right now is Tanga...he's not taking the loss well...at all. He used to be such a happy, fun-loving lion, a little like me, really, but with less energy...but now he's reclusive, moody...I'm just so scared. He's not accepting that they're gone, and he's falling into depression because of it."

At this point, Kijamii actually leaned into Dakari's mane, a few small tears sliding down her cheeks as the grief of losing her parents, and the fear that Tanga might follow them voluntarily, finally became too much. "I just hope someone will help him...he won't let me help any more, but he needs to open up to someone, like I am with you..."

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Tanga caught Lina's confused, and one of his own appeared on his muzzle as the cub started ask something, but trailed off, beginning to grin. "What? Nothing's wrong with Marini being my age...it just surprised me, that's all." Suddenly worried, fearing that Lina's grin could mean something bad for him, he decided that it was better to know what she was up to, rather than spend all day worrying about it. "And what's with the grin? What are you thinking about?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Dakari listened to Kijamii's story, as she moved on with it he began to realise why she was behaving like that. He couldn't know what to say exactly, but the fact that she lost her parents wasn't wierd for him. "I'm sorry." he said, ignoring the joy he was feeling by the fact that her head was literally burried in his mane. "I was about the same age as you were, and I was wondering around after I... ran away again, I do that alot... I ended up in a forest... and I found Marini. She was a cub back then, she's around your brother's age, I think. Her mother was fighting another lion... A rogue, or her mate, Marini never told anyone... I dunno. All she ever said was that her mother trusted him. From what I was seeing her mother was... losing the fight... So I quickly grabbed her without thinking twice and I brought her here. I don't think I would have managed to face an adult." he said and sighed.

It was just sad. The fact that not everyone out there had had a normal life like most beings... Marini took everything really hard, and it took her alot of time to recover. Even though she recovered, she didn't talk to anyone, or talked to anyone besides him, and a few cubs. "She barely trusts anyone... I don't blame her though. Whoever that lion was, he probably betrayed them both somehow." he added and looked at the wall. "She only talks to me or to some of the cubs in this pride. Luckily, she was the only cub in the pride at that time... so she didn't become an outcast like I am." He wondered how will Marini behave now that there was another lion of her age in the pride, he just hoped that she could be-friends with him and not reject him like she did with the rest of the pride.

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Lina continued to grin at Tanga for a few more moments just to get him mad before finally revealing her suspicion. "You like Rini." she said, hopping off the adolescents back and standing an inch away from his face. "You could barely speak when she was in here. Don't bother denying!" she said, before her expression turned into disgust. "You disgust me." she said and plopped down on her stomach. She often 'suffered' immediate changes of moods. "I should find Rini and tell her!" she added with a mischevous grin, but she didn't make any other move so that she could see Tanga's reaction

[TheWhistlerify]

Double post please erase, original is above

[AustralianChaos]

As Kijamii let a few tears out over the loss of her parents, she listened as Dakari told his own story, about this Marini, and how both she, and her mother, were betrayed by someone they trusted, before Dakari had brought the young lioness here, and how Marini was also struggling to come to terms with what had happened in her life. "It seems we've all been through a lot, huh?" she commented, although there was none of her usual humour.

She finally turned to Dakari. "You said this Marini was Tanga's age? I do hope they meet each other at some point. Tanga's so shy around strangers, always has been, so he's never had any friends, not that our family's lifestyle as rogues ever helped at all. He could use a friend right now..." She slowly trailed off, silently wondering if Marini could befriend Tanga, especially in his current state. Her brother was far too sensitive and easy to anger right now...but maybe a friend would help him.

Sighing, she wiped away her tears and gave Dakari a weak smile. "Sorry to throw all that on you all of a sudden, but you've been so nice to me so far, and I know from previous experience that when disasters like these happen, it always helps to just have someone to go to to talk. Sometimes all it takes to help is to have someone there to help you let it all out...I just hope Tanga learns that soon..."

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Tanga's eyes widened at Lina when she claimed that he liked her, her emphasis on the word more than enough for Tanga to figure out that the cub was referring to him possibly having a crush on her. But do I? he asked himself. Aside from his parents, and their relationship, he had never known much about romantic relationships, and as such, knew he was drifting into unknown territory. Marini was definitely very pretty in his eyes, and seemed very nice, but right now, he was happy getting to know her as a simple friend.

But his attempt to tell Lina that was cut off when she spoke up once more, her tone becoming disgusted and annoyed with startling speed, before she threatened to tell Marini, which did cause Tanga to panic slightly as he jumped to his paws and hopped in front of her. "No!" he cried. "Please, Lina...don't do that. I don't know if I like her that way or not, but if you tell her, I know she'll never want to talk to me again." He shuddered slightly, his head bowing. "I-I...I've already lost too much recently...I don't want to lose this chance to have a friend. I never...I never had any friends, before..."

His attempts to stop Lina had once again raised highly unpleasant memories from the depths of his mind, leaving him angry with himself, and on the verge of tears. Taking a few deep, shaky, breaths, leaving his head bowed, Tanga finally waved a paw dismissively at Lina, before wandering towards the deepest, darkest corner of his and Kijamii's den. "Oh, fine...go and tell her, then," he said, his tone suddenly irritated, inches away from angry. "I've lost everything else, so why should this be any different?" As he finished, he curled up in the corner, his back to Lina and the cave mouth, as he silently fought another wave of grief and uselessness.

[TheWhistlerify]

Dakari never really thought of what would happen and if Marini could be-friend with Tanga. There might have not been another one of Marini's age in the pride so far, but he knew how harsh she could be, especially around strangers. But he didn't want to spoil Kijamii's hope for that, maybe that was what Tanga could really use right now. And maybe this time Marini wouldn't turn out to be so bad, just maybe. "Either way, he'll move on... Eventually, I guess." He didn't remind her that Marini was a posibillity which could only make things worse, maybe if he talked to her first then she might understand what Tanga had been through and feel more sympathied with him.

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Lina's grin slowly faded as Tanga spoke. She didn't know what happend to the adolescent before he got here, and being all busy in her hide and seek game made her not notice his behaviour untill now. She completly let go of Tanga possibly having a crush on Marini, and walked slowly towards Tanga who was curled up in the corner. "What do you mean 'you've lost everything'?" she asked with a non-teasing tone, her cubbish mind not even knowing what a loss is.

[AustralianChaos]

Kijamii smiled, nodding at Dakari's assurance that Tanga would move on and recover...she just hoped it was sooner rather than later. The longer he put this off, the worse he would feel...if he did not do something soon, there was every chance his bright personality could vanish...forever.

Feeling the cold beginning to disappear at long last, Kijamii nevertheless remained in her place beside Dakari, her head leaning into his mane. She actually closed her eyes, purring contentedly in the rather comfortable position. Dakari was nice, and she felt there was a good chance for something between them, be it friendship, or something more.

After relaxing like that for a moments, she spoke up, although her eyes remained closed. "I really like your little place, Dakari...but why did you show me? I mean, you're really nice, and I like you, but we haven't known each other long, and yet you show me this, which you say is a close secret of yours...I just don't understand, I guess."

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As Lina spoke up, Tanga shuffled uncomfortably at her question. "Lina, I..." he paused, unsure what he could say to her...the truth of his past was out of the question, he could not put all that on a cub. "Trust me, Lina, there are some things you don't want to know...and this is one of them." The whole time, he refused to look at her, but his voice wavered, showing that he was dangerously close to tears. "I guess...just forget it, Lina," he finally said, hoping she would drop the subject. "I'm sure you want to continue your game."

[TheWhistlerify]

Dakari continued to relax with Kijamii by his side, a small purr beginning to form in his throat. He knew the answer to her question, but wasn't sure on what she would think of it. "Well... You're the only lioness who ever payed attention to me... I guess." It wasn't that much of a good answer, but it was true. And the fact that she said that she liked him felt him feel even better around her, it was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever told him in his entire life.

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Lina had absolutely no idea what was happening, but when Tanga mentioned the word game, she smiled. "I already won." she said in triumph, before walking over and standing in-front of Tanga, "Wanna play something else?" She asked, looking into one of his larger eyes and giving him a pleading smile. "What do you usually play?"

[AustralianChaos]

Kijamii frowned at Dakari's declaration that she was the only lioness who ever paid attention to him. "What? But...how is that possible? From what I've seen of you so far, I would have thought lionesses would be fighting each other over being your friend, or even going out with you." Despite her last words, and how close she was to Dakari at the moment, Kijamii did not falter or blush...she liked Dakari, but it was soon for her to worry about how far their relationship would go. "I mean, I never really knew anyone else personally because my family were all rogues, but you...I just don't get it."

Even as she said that, Kijamii realised that Dakari had mentioned that his cubhood had not been fun, and she slowly started putting pieces together. "You...I know I already told you about my parents and Tanga, and you mentioned Marini...but you've had some hard times, too, haven't you?" she asked, concerned. "If you don't want to talk, I understand...but I just hope you aren't still suffering because of it."

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Tanga smiled as Lina declared she had won. "You haven't won yet, Lina...not if Marini comes back," he said, even though he doubted that would happen...despite his small, private hope that Marini would come back, since she seemed nice.

When Lina offered to play with him, he paused. He was not really in the mood to play himself, but the pleading look on Lina's muzzle was too much...cubs were just too adorable sometimes. "Uhh...I don't know too many games. I only had my sister for company as I grew up, really, and we mostly wrestled, which I don't think is a good idea. If you've got some good ideas, I'll hear them," he offered, managing another weak smile at her.