Things Are Exactly As They Should Be

[FlipMode]

A/N: I wrote this as a warm up. Among starting a RolePlay, I wanted to write some sort of fic. This experiment serves as a warm up for the writing contest and to get back into writing more often, because I have missed it (its been a good year or two). I ended up with this, written from the perspective of a certain character and based loosely but not entirely on the events of TLK 2. Enjoy it, beautiful people!

Oh and also I've re opened my fanfiction.net account and will be posting some OT stuff there as well if anyone was interested in that, my name on there is FlipMode

Things Are Exactly As They Should Be

Rarely was I ever fully alive and in the present moment as a young cub. Sure my body may have been there and to anyone else looking at me from the outside, I would appear attentive, but I was not there, wherever there happened to be at the time.
My mind was always focused on other things, honed in mostly on what awaited me in the future. I had a fate chosen for me by my mother, Zira. Hate the Pridelanders with all your being and stay focused on one thing; becoming king, not matter the cost. Every goal in life has a cost, and I was forced to pay the cost of her dream, loneliness, isolation from friends and a cold bitterness.

As well as the future, I often questioned many other things in life from a young age. For example, those Pridelanders and their monarchy system. You are promised a fantastic life of luxury if you comply with the one task that they ask of you; accept the king as your leader and abide by their words. If a king is supposed to care about his loyal subjects so much, what sense does it make to have them bow down at your presence, expect them to be at the revelation of your son or even to do anything you ask of them. If you really loved and cared for someone, surely you would want them to live freely and peacefully, exactly as they want and with nobody else's words to hold them back.

Then there are the kings of the past, whose spirits remained in a paradise after death so they can communicate with their loved ones. If I become a king, I would surely meet my father, Scar in my afterlife, who was a king for a while until Simba stole the title from him, killing him in the process.
Scar wasn't my real father but he was the closest to a father I would ever know.
Now he is gone, all I have left is my hatred for Simba and the strangely comfortable emptiness from my mother, emptiness after all is something that a lion like me becomes accustomed to when spending enough time with it.

I was once told by somebody that there was a darkness in Scar that he couldn't escape, perhaps that is why everything changed when I met... Her. The darkness from Scar may have shifted to my being when he died, but when I was with her, the darkness was vanquished, like a bright sun, a flame, painting the darkness with me a hot and cheerful yellow. The day I met her, was the first time I felt truly alive, for my mind was in the present moment, gone were the thoughts of what awaited me or the flawed logic that existed around me. The only thing that mattered to me then was me, her and being at that place, at that time.
Things were exactly as they should be.

I've never been addicted to anything but I suppose you could say I was addicted to her love. When you are addicted to something and you quit that thing, you need to find something to fill the void. That chasm of emptiness left where your addiction once was. My mother stole my feeling of love from me and replaced it with a different addiction, an addiction to hatred. Hatred for the king, Simba. Your day is coming Simba, I WILL kill you! I WILL avenge my father, I will steal everything from you as you have me!

As the days turned to months, to years, summers to falls, falls to springs, my feelings for her dwindled, not because I forgot about her, but because I will never forget about her. Kiara, even her name radiated beauty matched only be her amazing personality. How could we not be allowed to communicate with the Pridelanders. Every time this thought entered my mind, my mother would beat it out of me.

The time had come to finally hatch the plan to kill Simba, whatever the cost, I was to pay it." Nothing fancy Kovu," Zira had told me (by this point I could no longer call her “mother”) "just kill him". Push him from Pride Rock just as he did Scar, corner him somewhere and tear him apart limb by limb. Such choices. The darkness within me was at its highest point.
Until I met her again.

Every time I met her, the flame reignited within me, painting that same golden colour it always had done. At first we didn't recognise one another but we surely remembered each other and more often than not, that's all it takes. I will always remember the few short days we spent together. When I'm king, that'll be the first thing I change, longer days, give everyone more time to savour and enjoy the present moment and the raw emotions it brings.

Despite this we knew we had to return. I would have stayed there with her for an eternity. But as much as we were in love, she was in love with peace and I could never hope to compete against peace.
But now the fire in me is firmly lit. No more hiding and holding back from anyone. I will stop this war for her. The promise of living the rest of my life with her is a far more greater one to me than being king.
Soon. Soon we will return. Soon I will finally set things right. Then things will once again, be exactly as they should be.

[FlipMode]

Hi? Testing. 1, 2. Testing.